behold: i am of small account.
behold: the Man.
behold: the Man.
a thursday morning thunderstorm + bon iver + black coffee + romans. i am grateful for rainy thursday mornings and for these past few precious hours.
“no distrust made him [abraham] waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. that is why his faith was ‘counted to him as righteousness.’ but the words ‘it was counted to him’ were not for his sake alone, but for ours also. it will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our own justification.
THEREFORE,
since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. through him we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
i am in love with the overflow of passive verbs in romans. we are called. we are justified. we are predestined. we were foreknown. passive passive passive. we aren’t doing the action; the action is happening to us. we aren’t righteous; our faith is counted to us as righteousness. even the suffering -> endurance -> character -> hope progression does not spring from us. on the contrary, it happens to us as a result of God’s love and Spirit, freely given because of Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary.
what love! what grace! how beautiful.
