Archives: 2006

Romans 3 is a heavy chapter. But what really caught my attention this morning is a side note stuck in parentheses: “as we be slanderously reported” (8).

A report about Paul claimed he taught “Let us do evil, that good may come.”

Paul dismissed it as slander and moved on.

I am challenged by that. I suppose that stood out to me because of some reports about me. One of them claims . . . . Oh, never mind. If you hear (or read) an evil report about me, please ask me about it.

By the way, I think it is “neat” that God allowed him to include in the Scriptures a personal defense like this. That says something positive about God and His thoughtful grace to His children.

How do I make sure that I spend eternity in the place of life rather than in the place of death?

Nothing I could ever do would get me a Present-This-At-The-Gate-For Guaranteed-Admission ticket into heaven. Nothing.

But getting there is not a lost cause. I need to get in line to receive an admission ticket as a gift.

And those who receive the ticket end up living a certain way.

“Who will render to every man according to his deeds” (Romans 2:6).

“To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life” (Romans 2:7).

If I live for the Ticket Giver and persistently engage in “well doing,” He will receive me into His kingdom of glory, honor, and immortality.

As He studies my life, I wonder if He sees one that seeks after that which yields eternal life.