Watered Down Faith

Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed —a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

As we become more and more self-centred – and look around, that’s exactly what’s going on in society today – the concept of right versus wrong is being watered down gradually, being replaced by the idea that if it feels good, do it. We live increasingly in a world of “anything goes”.

Look at what’s being dished up to us on television and in movies these days in the name of entertainment – the images, the normalisation of explicit lyrics in music, the singers who prance around the stage half-dressed in order to attract an audience. Anything goes.

And in that context, the notion of a good God, a holy God, a God who calls us into right rather than wrong, has for many become completely repugnant. That’s the truth.

But in a very real sense, there’s nothing new in any of that. 1^st Century Christianity faced largely the same problem. It’s into that context that the Apostle Paul writes this:

Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed —a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”  NIV

Yes, the Gospel is good news, but it also demands accountability on our behalf – faith and a righteousness that comes from God, which we’re called to live out in obedience.

A.W. Tozer once said that “Christianity has been watered down until the solution is so weak that if it were a poison, it wouldn’t hurt anyone and if it were a medicine, it wouldn’t cure anyone.”

Don’t water it down! The righteous will live by faith

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.