Week Two

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

-Romans 3:21-24 (New International Version)

As human beings, we are created in the image of God, yet we often fail to live as God’s holy people. In the book of Romans, the apostle Paul tells us that in every time and place, the people of God have fallen short of the glory of God. We live in the reality of brokenness where we sin as individuals and we participate in the collective sins of systemic injustice. One of history’s most brutal sins can be seen in the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana. This stands as a witness to the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade which tore Africans from their homes and families for the profit of slave owners in Europe, North America and the Caribbean. The Christian church was an integral part of the slave trade, often providing religious justification for its brutality. As the GCF Great Global Gathering meets in Ghana, participants will travel to the Cape Coast Castle to remember the brokenness of our shared past and acknowledge the ways we continue to live in a world of injustice and inequity.

In large and small ways, we do not love God with our whole hearts, and we do not love our neighbours as ourselves. But God promises that His mercies are new every morning. Every morning we can wake up as forgiven people and live again into the newness of God’s love.

Even as we acknowledge our brokenness, God does not leave us forsaken, for though we fall short, we are freely forgiven through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has paid the price for our sins, so we might live as the free, beloved children of God!