Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 280

October 7;      Romans 9:32;       126/260(III);        ‘Faith vs Works’

Romans 9:32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.

This verse is referring to the Jews.  They did not have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, so their spirit was ‘hardened,’ and their basic nature was pride.  Religion and pride go hand in hand.  Religion gives an endless list of dos and don’ts to keep a person busy trying to do what they can never do, that is earn heaven.  This truth is ironic and cruel.  In their own way, the Jews loved the Lord and surely wanted to be in heaven with Him forever.  The devil deceived them, playing on their pride so that they felt by their adhering to the Law, the Lord was obligated to welcome them to heaven.  The Lord used Paul to teach us the only way to go to heaven, being saved, is by faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The purpose of the Law was to clearly teach us that we were sinners and had no means of earning heaven by our own efforts.  The Lord uses the Law to very clearly show us that we had a problem, an eternal problem.  Our efforts to do everything the Law commanded was futile and the Lord wanted this to wake us up to the knowledge that we needed someone to do what we could not do.  The gentiles, taught by Paul, understood this and were born again, accepting what the Lord Jesus Christ did on their behalf.  Religion enslaves people.  Because religion talks about God and our behavior, people can be deceived thinking this is what the Bible teaches. The lie of religion turns them away from the Lord.  We are saved only by faith in Jesus.