Day 37 "The Gospel of Grace" (Romans: Chapter One)

Through the book of Romans, Paul takes us on a journey away from the law of the Old Testament to embrace a new way to live: by grace as made possible through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross. It is a life that as a Christian is to be lived by faith, not upon works performed by man in order to sway God one way or another. It is God's gift to us, to show and to prove his love for each one of us. For the next sixteen days, I will highlight what the Holy Spirit emphasized to my spirit about each of the sixteen chapters in Romans. I hope you, too, will read each chapter and see what the Holy Spirit reveals to you. For each chapter, I have come up with my own title which has helped me to familiarize myself with the subject material of that particular chapter. Make up your own title to help yourself.

Romans, as revealed to us through the Apostle Paul.

Chapter One:

Verse 5: Through Christ we received grace.

Verse 7: We are loved by God and called to be saints. Grace and peace are ours from God.

Verse 12: There is a benefit in the mutual encouragement of one another by each other's faith.

Verse 21: For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Verses 28-31: Since some people decided to have nothing to do with God, God gave them over to a depraved mind. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed,depravity, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossipers, slanders, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, boastful, evil doers, disobedient, and more.

In other words, left to man's own devices, he can really run afoul.

Key Verses for me:

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." Romans 1:16-17

It was in verses sixteen and seventeen that a couple of things hit home for me:

1. Salvation comes to those who believe.

2. It is God's power at work through the Gospel.

3. The Gospel is about faith providing our righteousness- not our works or our attempt at reaching God through our efforts. It begins with faith and ends with faith. It is faith, and only faith, that is the guiding factor throughout the whole process of walking with God.

The translation of "Gospel" means "Good News." In a world that is driven by performance, it is refreshing and encouraging to know that our relationship with God is not dependent on performance but predicated on love and God's desire to have a personal relationship with man. For the most part, the world can probably do most things better than the church can do it. But the one thing that the church can offer, which the world cannot, is God's mercy and grace. Those who believe and follow Jesus Christ walk to a different heartbeat than the world. The world mostly walks to the beat of "self." One who truly follows and believes in Christ, walks to his heartbeat.

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:34-35

"And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son does not have life. I write these to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5:11-13

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It is by faith that we live the Christian life, not by works! And that is great news! What a relief!

Look forward to meeting with you, again, tomorrow...