In View of God's Mercies: The Gift of the Gospel in RomansSample

Day 3: Grace to You Read Romans 1:1-7. Thanks to Twitter®, Instagram® stories, and texting, we’re growing more and more accustomed to brief blurbs and snappy phrases. The short, pithy sentence captivates us. If we’re not careful, we can “like,” “heart,” or retweet based more on the entertainment value of the sentence than on the validity of its contents. Conversely, the first seven verses of Romans are one long sentence! (I guess Paul’s middle school English teacher forgot to teach him about run-on sentences.) Because we’re not used to reading such a long string of ideas, we will need to slow down and pay attention to understand what Paul was saying. What Does It Say? We’ve already seen that Paul described himself as “set apart for the gospel” (v. 1). He wanted to make sure his readers began to understand what the gospel is—one of the main themes in his letter to the Romans. What Does It Mean? The relationship between obedience and faith is an important one. Faith comes first. We don’t receive salvation through obedience, we receive it only through faith. God first gives us the faith we need to believe, and then He calls us to respond to this great gift by living a life of joyful obedience. Obedience flows from faith. What Do I Do? God’s eyes have always been set on the whole world. He told Adam and Eve to “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth . . .” (Gen. 1:28, NIV). The plan of God has always been to make a people for Himself and for that one people to be from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Or as the disciple John wrote, “For God so loved the world , that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, emphasis mine). In line with the heart of God, Paul longed to see the gospel go to all nations. Paul hoped the Roman Christians would help send him to Spain to preach the good news there (Rom. 15:22-24). One reason he was so “eager to preach the gospel” to the Christians in Rome was that he wanted them to be eager to proclaim it with him to the ends of the earth (Rom. 1:15). In what ways do you participate in the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth?