Anyone who has a bank account has... - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2024

But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
Romans 4:5

Anyone who has a bank account has the opportunity to read their bank statements. Records in debit usually do not please us so much, because then our balance has become smaller. Entries in credit, on the other hand, cause our cash balance to grow. And on this side of the bank statement, unexpected amounts are always very welcome.

The Bible reports in the Letter to the Romans about a kind of ‘account’, which is, so to speak, kept with God. Misdeeds, transgressions or even sins of omission burden our account in the truest sense, and thus also ourselves. If the necessary credit is missing, a negative balance remains, for which a final reckoning must take place. As everyone knows, this kind of thing is extremely problematic in natural life – but even more so in the final balance of our lives. There it is a question of blessing or curse, and that for eternity.

What many do not believe is this, that nobody can provide for the balance of his ‘life account’ himself! In other words, in this matter, good works do not fix anything. In this the Bible is perfectly clear. That is why our verse speaks of the one who does not “work”, who does not base his hope for eternity on his own good deeds.

But how is the calculation supposed to work out? That is just the good news of God! He counts this faith as righteousness to every person who believes in Him as the Bible says. Everything that has burdened us before God up to this point is thereby erased – we must add that this is only through the blood of Jesus (Romans 3:24–26). This is what I call a ‘higher accounting’!

Today’s reading: 1 Kings 22:19-40 · John 15:1-8