https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20261030dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Romans 3:27-28 No Boasting Allowed We live in a world that continually encourages boasting. From polished resumes to carefully curated social media feeds, we are conditioned to present our best selves, tally our achievements, and prove our worth. Tragically, we often bring this same self-justifying mindset into our relationship with God. Our fallen nature desperately wants to point to our good deeds, our faithful worship, or our moral track record and say, “Look at what I have done, Lord.” But the apostle Paul firmly shuts the door on our pride: “It is excluded.” If our standing before God were based on “the law that requires works”—our personal ability to keep God’s commandments perfectly—we might have a reason to brag. But the harsh, condemning reality is that we all fall completely short. Our spiritual resumes are filled with failure. We have absolutely nothing of our own to offer a holy God. But thanks be to God, our salvation doesn’t depend on our performance. Paul declares the central, beautiful truth of the Christian faith: “a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” We are declared innocent, not guilty, entirely because of Jesus Christ. As both true God and true man, Jesus lived the flawless life the law demanded, and he suffered the bitter penalty our sins deserved on the cross. He accomplished that work as our perfect substitute. Faith is simply the empty hand that receives this incredible gift of God’s undeserved mercy. Since our salvation is entirely the work of God, we can never boast about our own abilities. We can’t contribute anything to the work Jesus has done for us, because it’s already finished. But that’s not bad news; it’s the ultimate comfort. When our conscience accuses us, we don’t have to look to our own broken selves. We look to Christ alone. We can’t boast in ourselves, but we will boast eternally in the cross of our Savior. Prayer: Lord Jesus, strip away my pride and my attempts to earn your favor, and lead me to trust in your freely given grace alone. Let my only boast be in you forever. Amen. Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
