By David ReayWednesday 23 Mar 2022LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 3 minutes
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,[b] just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (NIV)
Many of us have lives which lack focus. We flit from one thing to another, embracing one passion and then another, or perhaps lacking passion altogether. Paul was single mindedly focused on the spreading of the good news about Jesus. He reckons it is so good, so life changing, that everyone needs to have the chance of hearing it and responding to it. Paul himself was changed by it and he wants others to have the same experience. Quite a contrast to our rather cool and passive adherence to the Christian faith which has become for some of us a desirable moral code or a set of comforting beliefs. Christianity embraces this, but is much more. It is life and death.
Paul tells us that it is all about God putting us right with himself (that is what “righteousness” means here). Jesus’ dying for us removes the guilt of our wrongdoing. If we accept this by faith, we are right with God. Not because of our goodness, but the goodness of Jesus.
No wonder Paul can say he is not ashamed of this message. It is powerful not because of the human messenger but because it comes from God who ensures it is effective. We can be ashamed of the hypocrisy of the church, our own sub-Christian behaviour, simplistic or insensitive expressions of the faith. But we have no need to shrink from the basic message. Are we convinced of its power in our own life? Are we concerned about the everlasting destinies of others we meet? Lack of personal experience of the grace of God, and lack of love for others, will mean we keep our faith cocooned.
Christian faith can never be privatized. It is to overflow from our own experience of the love of God and so overcome any preoccupation with self or any self-conscious timidity. Do we really believe Jesus can transform present life and future destiny? If so, then no reason to be ashamed and every reason to have Jesus as the focus of our life.
Blessings,
David