Eyes Wide Open

"Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes." (Ro 10:1-4)




I opened my bible to Romans 10 this morning.  I looked at the chapter heading and said to myself, "There's nothing here for me to comment on about the Daniel Fast."  Boy, was I wrong.  Something inside prompted me to read anyway and test my intuition about this passage.  Paul is discussing why the Jews have not accepted Jesus as Messiah.  Their unbelief in Jesus is the topic.  Why is it that God's chosen people, His elect, have not believed in God's only son who He sent to save them?  By rejecting Jesus they reject the salvation offered through Him.  


But as I read I began to read it way differently than ever before.  I can only say that because of my fasting God is blessing me with a keener sense of His Word this morning.  I was filled with delight.  I got the God bumps all up and down my torso.  How pleasing it is when the Lord speaks!


A fast is a ritual.  A fast is a restriction for religious reasons.  A fast is a holy action of the faithful to set themselves aside in holiness for the holy God.  In some sense it is law.  It is an act of obedience.  I read this passage as if I were a Jew.  I am keeping a ritual fast.  I am following a religious tradition.  


Paul awakens in me a realization that no amount of fasting will accomplish any holiness, righteousness or goodness in me.  Let me qualify that statement.  Following a strict fast does not give me God's holy nature, God's righteousness or God's goodness.  I may indeed improve my god consciousness, goodness and right living through a practice like a fast, but it will be on my effort and my limited resources.  In the end I will not even come close to God.  As the scripture says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Is 55:9)


No amount of law or ritual or tradition keeping will yield what God offers in Jesus Christ.  Belief in Christ Jesus is an acceptance of God's grace, His merciful act to give us all salvation through the cross and resurrection of His Son.  Grace is pure gift.  It cannot be worked for. It cannot be purchased.  Grace can only be received with gratitude from the generous and loving hands of our God.  What the law intended to produce, a people who would reflect the holy nature of God and bless the world, Jesus accomplished in His own life. Therefore Jesus is the completion of the work of the law of Moses.  The law did in Jesus what it was meant to do.  


Now that the work of the law is complete and the goal of the law is met in Jesus, God shared the holiness of Jesus, the holiness of God, with all who accept Him as their Lord.  The gift of Jesus is free for all. What can be attained through the gift is eternal life.  Breaking the law of Moses brings death.  But since Jesus never once broke the law of Moses, He becomes the means by which we all enjoy His freedom from death, for there is no condemnation for all who are in Christ. (Ro 8:1)


My prayer time, bible reading, worship attendance, service or mission hasn't increased in intensity.  I am attending to these disciplines with the usual pace, a little here and a little there.  I still break fast occasionally.  My efforts are not herculean.   If my sharing in God's nature were based on my efforts, I would be truly lost in sin and dying.  My failures during this fast, though small and insignificant to some human eyes, negate me from entering the most holy place.  But thanks be to God! My sharing in His holy nature is not based on my effort.  I share in His nature because He has chosen to generously give to me His holiness by Christ Jesus living in me through faith.  I trust and know Jesus because “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart...” (Ro 10:8a)


My eyes are wide open this morning knowing that God is speaking anew through passages I thought had nothing to offer me today. God surprises are the best!


Lord, thank You for Your grace, Your choice to save me.  Thank You for Jesus.  Thank You for sharing His achievement, His victory with the whole world.  Make us all worthy of the gift.  Amen.