First of all, I am not a Biblical scholar. I vaguely remember taking a few religion classes in college, but the only one I really remember is the one I cheated my way through - Psalms...and I know I didn't get an A!
Over the past several weeks, I read through the book of Acts. There are a lot of good stories in there - lots of persecution and lots of reasons to rejoice. I'm so thankful for Paul - what a wonderful missionary he was in reaching out to the Gentiles.
Since I finished with Acts, I am now moving on with Romans. My friend, Laurie, is a huge help in keeping me accountable with staying on track to get through all of this reading - we'll see how I do when I try to write about what I'm learning though!
Verse 6 is amazing. In the Message version it reads: "You are who you are through this gift [salvation] and call of Jesus Christ!" How true - I am who I am because Jesus died for me, but even more, He was raised from the dead to show His awesome power and might. He has called me to be His daughter and I can wear His name to show I am His.
I don't know a lot about the people of Rome that Paul is writing to - but it is obvious that they were people that Paul liked to hang out with. As he was out and about, he was missing these people. He was moved on and they stayed behind. Life doesn't stop just because we get moved on. So, the Romans were growing in Christ and faith - but all Paul gets are second or third hand stories about what's going on. He wants to be there in the midst of it - to feel the excitement over what's happening there and to continue to plant the seed of Truth to others in Rome. Every time he tries to head back to Rome, God sends him elsewhere and he becomes involved in a new place preaching and teaching to them so that they can know God.
Can you imagine being Paul? You are seeing thousands upon thousands of people being saved, reaching out to others, and sharing all they have with others - how wonderful he had to feel seeing the POSITIVE difference he was having on the Kingdom. Yet, he just wanted to go home to his "comfort zone" and see what differences were happening in the lives of his friends.
In the second half of the chapter, Paul just lays it all out there. There's no escaping the Truth that is there. Basically, mankind knows who God is and what He stands for - we've known since the beginning of time. We just choose to think we don't have to love or serve Him. And since we "know" the Truth, we don't have any excuse for not following Him. So, in following and worshipping other things in life, we reject Christ. He lets us have our way - in all forms of sin - and we will pay the consequences. In verse 32, Paul talks about those that follow in the sinful way deserving death. In the Message version it says: "And it's not as if they don't know better. They know perfectly well they're spitting in God's face. And they don't care - worse, they hand out prizes to those that do the worst things best." How very true this is in our culture today. What am I doing to reach out to those that are spitting in God's face? My flesh wants me to think "well, they know what they're doing is wrong, it's up to them to change if they want to"...but that is not what God expects of me.
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