Genesis 25:31-34 English Standard Version

31 Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Genesis 27:5-17 English Standard Version

5 Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, 6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, 7 ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die.’ 8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. 9 Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. 10 And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” 11 But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. 12 Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” 13 His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.”

14 So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved. 15 Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. 16 And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17 And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

Genesis 27:41 Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

Esau threw his birthright away but hated Jacob for stealing his blessing. It would appear that the Father’s blessing is more important than a birthright. Esau did not know that his mother orchestrated this deception that led to Jacob fleeing to Laban and the marriages that led to the twelve tribes of Israel. So which is more important?

Genesis 25:23And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”

Romans 9:11-13 English Standard Version

11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Philippians 3:9-10 English Standard Version

9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 

This is the answer to Romans 3:10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;”

God considers us righteous because we have placed our faith in the atoning work of His Son.

What God thinks of us should be the only thing that matters.

I said yesterday that both sides judge each other. The immoral judge the moral as being self-righteous  that is a lie they tell themselves. We know we have no righteousness of our own and if there is any good thing in us, it is His indwelling Spirit.

While we have the Spirit of Truth to show us what is right we still have to make right choices. Love is a free will choice. Trying as hard as we can, we don’t always make the right choices.

We are sinners saved by grace but sinners none the less.

1 John 1:5-10 English Standard Version

Walking in the Light

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

His Word is Truth whether we want to admit it or not. The most important part of these verses is “he is faithful and just”. If we rely on our own efforts we are returning back to keeping law as a justification for salvation. That did not work in our former life, so what makes us think that it works that way now?

Hebrews 12:6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.

Accept the chastening as a sign of His love towards us when we mess up and we will.