Today’s devotion comes from James 2:1-7.
“My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?” James 2:1-7.
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Today’s Scripture reminds us that there was nothing attractive about us that motivated God to choose us for salvation. We were “the poor of this world”. Yet, God chose us to be “rich in faith and heir of the kingdom”.
When we consider “Total Depravity”, the “T” of “TULIP”, the Five Points of Calvinism, the Reformed Doctrine of Salvation, we can better understand that not only were we unattractive, we were “dead in sin” (Ephesians 2:1) and “hostile” to God (Colossians 1:21).
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10 as it is written,
“There is none righteous, not even one;
11 There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.” Romans 3:10-12.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:4-9.
And so, according to the absolute grace given to us by God, we should show no partiality nor preference in welcoming strangers into our churches.
And so, according to the absolute grace given to us by God, let us be thankful today and every day for His astonishing gift of salvation.
Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions 