Not our will, but yours, O God. Transform our heats that we might reveal your light and help make the world a little more kind, a little more just, and a little more loving.
Romans 4:22-25
22Therefore his faith* ‘was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ 23Now the words, ‘it was reckoned to him’, were written not for his sake alone, 24but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.
1) "...reckoned;" "...his faith 'was reckoned to him as righteousness;'" "...it will be reckoned to us;"
2) I've looked up the word "reckoned" in the Concise Oxford Dictionary because it is a bit of a stumbling stone to me: "counted," "considered," "concluded," "taken into account." When I use my parallel Bible for other translations the REB says "counted," the NAB says, "credited," and the NJB actually puts quotes around 'reckoned.' "Credited" seems to be the clearest in meaning. "It" signifies "his faith." Our faith will be credited to us who believe in him? or Abraham's faith will be credited to us who believe? I expect either reading could be correct. But the gist is that we believe/trust God who raise Jesus from the dead... We too must trust that even though following Jesus may lead to our death, God will justify us as well. It is God who justifies, not our actions, not our following of the rules. But God's infinite love that justifies. Can I trust that God will justify these unrepentant sinners? Clearly, I need to trust more. I struggle to trust that President #45, Trudeau, White European Settlers, Multinational corporations, that miserable neighbour/family/church member, to name a few, will ever be justified.
3) What is the invitation in all this? To trust that God will justify the living and the dead.
"Holy One, teach us to trust."
Breathprayer: "faith... for our justification."
No comments:
Post a Comment