Refuge Audio Podcast

If the life of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John were like any normal biography, everything would end in John 19 with the death and burial of Jesus. But the Gospel of John is not any normal biography. It is a record of the greatest true story every told.

On Good Friday, we consider Jesus. We consider Him, who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself so that we won’t grow weary and give up. For the joy that lay before Him, He endured the cross so that we could enjoy unhindered fellowship with Him forever!

One week before His resurrection and a few days before His crucifixion, Jesus knew what was going to come. And yet, He deliberately put Himself on the path that would lead to trouble. He was not concerned about Himself or with His own well-being, but rather about us, our eternal well-being, and the things that make for our peace.

God’s righteousness, redemption, and salvation is received by trusting, not by trying. In fact, all of God’s gifts are received by simply and merely trusting and believing, not by trying harder. The futility of trying harder versus trusting God was something the Apostle Paul understood. Before Paul met Jesus, he endeavored to earn right standing with God through his own good works, religious rites, and religious rules. But once he encountered Christ, Paul realized that salvation comes by simply and merely believing God and receiving from God by faith.

John Phillips said, “Under a system of works, everything depends on the sinner. Under grace everything depends on the Savior. Under the first, God gives a fair trial. But under the second God gives a free pardon.” Either everything depends on you & your works, or everything depends on God & His grace.

As the Apostle Paul continues his ordered and logical argument for God’s grace in his letter to the Romans, he looks back in history for an example of righteousness to which he can point. In his search, he looks beyond the prophets, beyond the kings of Israel and Judah, and beyond Moses. He finds the example he’s looking for in Abraham—the father of the faith.

What does it mean to be reconciled with God? Why is it important? And how does reconciliation happen between God and mankind? Those were some of the questions we considered 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 with Guest Speaker Pastor Nate Van Vooren.

The Roman Road is a selection of Scriptures from the book of Romans that clearly communicates the core components of the gospel—the free gift of God’s righteousness by faith. These scriptures act as mile markers—key verses that leads us through this good news. In this study, we’ll take a closer look at the second verse on the Roman Road—Romans 3:23.

The central theme of the book of Romans is Grace—God’s Righteousness At Christ’s Expense. This grace is given as a gift freely to anyone and everyone who believes. It’s a gift—we can’t take credit for it. We can’t earn it by being good enough because no one is good enough. We have all sinned. Our religious efforts to earn God’s favor will never be enough to make us right with Him.

In our study of Romans 1 last week, we considered the overtly immoral—those who have turned away & are walking away from God. This week, we turned our attention to the intentionally moral and the really religious—those who think they they are righteous—and therefore, do not see their need for repentance. We reflected again on the parable of the prodigal and considered the Father’s other son, whose self-righteous judgmental attitude needed to be addressed by his Father.