For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17, NKJV
Paul’s letter to the churches in Rome is packed with deep insights into the nature of God, the power of Jesus’ work on the cross, and how that shapes how we live our lives. In the beginning of the letter, Paul gives his readers a few summary statements before diving in.
In Romans 1:16-17, Paul begins to discuss one of the main central ideas in the letter to the Romans.
He begins with the gospel. The gospel message is that while humanity was enslaved to sin, Jesus came and lived a perfect human life, and died on the cross in our place. He took on the punishment that we deserved, and paid the price in full.
Now, true life and salvation is available to everyone who believes in that gospel message. It is only through the message of the gospel that we can be truly saved.
Additionally, everyone has the same access to salvation. Nobody has special privilege or status before God to attain salvation first. Every single person on earth can receive salvation from God by believing in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Paul says that this message originally came to the Jews first, as Jesus’ mission on earth began with the people of God. However, this message spread through Jesus and the apostles to the Gentiles as well. Thus, everybody has access to the saving power of God through Jesus.
If this message is new to you, spend some time each day in God’s Word learning about the message and hope of the gospel. Thank God that He sent Jesus to make salvation available to all people, including yourself. Now, live in the assurance that you are saved and redeemed by God.
Note after sharing the devotional and the prayer prompts:
1. God wants you redeemed. He wants to save you from sin and from an eternity in hell separated from Him. He wants a relationship with you. It's why He sent Jesus Christ to die in our place, shedding His blood on the cross for our sins. I bear witness to this as well, as He outright told me that when He was convicting me of backsliding a couple years back.
2. God has told me of a few people over the years to pray for / preach the Gospel to. There's one person on my list right now, and I have no clue how to preach to this person. But I must do it.
3. Jesus is the brightness of God's glory, and has all power. This is not a verse I'm familiar with, so it's taking time to digest. But I know this: He has all power and all authority and all radiance. I think of God shielding Moses from seeing His glory because simply seeing Him in all His glory would kill Moses. Although we can see Jesus (and that His brightness won't kill us), it begins to illustrate how brilliant and glorious He is. And I'm still taking this in. Probably will for a good long while.
4. Jesus promised to give me the Holy Spirit to indwell inside of me. Also, the Holy Spirit will teach me, like Jesus promised. This is a heavy one for me (but in a good way). I'm unfortunately a slow learner. I do learn, but it takes time. One of my longest-standing gripes is that I cannot learn unless someone teaches me. (Typically my expectation is that another human being steps up and teaches me.) This was not particularly a pain point in my life until the last 4 years, when I was spending most of my time around people who expect and demand that a person "just grow up" and "suck it up" and "deal with it," etc. [If I'm not careful, this can turn into a very long rabbit trail, so I'll just cut it off here.] Bottom line, Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit will teach us everything we need to know about living a Godly life.
5. God has always been a faithful protector in my life.
Prayer: God, thank You for the great gift of salvation. Thank You for the grace and mercy that You've given to me. Thank You for sending Jesus to make it possible to have a relationship with You. Help me live in gratitude of my salvation each and every day. Show me ways that I can share this good news with others in my life. In Jesus's name, Amen.
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