Isn't it odd that when we first hear the good news, our flesh wants to resist the message. It doesn't seem fair. It goes against our natural feeling that we should at least do something for our salvation. Grace just seems to good to be true. We can't get our minds around it. Which is why faith is our only response to what Jesus did for us, not our trying to figure it out.

When I first heard someone explain the gospel to me back in the early 70's, it bugged me...and frightened me. I began to cling to my religious background and church teaching. I didn't want to let go of my heritage. My rational thinking, pride, and fear of letting go were standing in the way of accepting the gift of Jesus Christ.

These memories flowed back into my thoughts this morning as I read Romans 10. Over and over the message is so clear from holy writ -- coming into a saving relationship with God is all about having simple faith in Jesus Christ and His work on the cross.

For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Instead, they are clinging to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. They won’t go along with God’s way.

For Christ has accomplished the whole purpose of the law. All who believe in him are made right with God

For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.

Of course, Paul was making his argument to the Jewish believers why Gentile believers stand on the same ground -- at the foot of the cross. However, what Paul says applies to all of us. No matter how good we try to be or how religious we are, none of that can make us right with the Lord. Instead, as the reformers use to say, salvation is by grace alone...by faith alone...through Christ alone.

Hearing the gospel once more gives me so much comfort. Because I am so aware of how I keep falling short. Old sins keep cropping up. Thoughts come in my mind that I don't want to have. Worries and fears at times seem to overtake me and send me into a downward spiral. And yet when I hear the good news that my salvation does not depend on how good I am but instead on the perfection of Jesus Christ to fulfill the law, I am once more given hope. Because now, instead of running away from this good news, I keep running to Jesus when I see my imperfection. And He promises all of us who have faith in Him that "He generously gives his riches to all who ask for them. " (Rom. 10:12)

Jim