Why I love Romans

My apologies, I forgot to publish. Welcome friends to another week. We are holding steady while waiting for our Lord to return to take us home. I am always so excited when thinking about the prospect of going home. I hope you are well. Therefore, as we see the day approaching, it is easy to get discouraged. Keep looking up. Romans is one of my favorite books of the Bible. Paul wrote about righteousness, salvation, grace, and faith in our Lord. I'd love to hear what you gleaned from it. Keep in mind and I am not a Bible scholar, so I may miss some points. That said, it is a powerful book.

Paul's letter breaks down into 16 chapters. He pinned his letter between 55 and 56 AD. I dare say these Christians struggled in a culture of paganism where worship of gods and goddesses were the norm. In addition, to pagan worship, I believe the church fought daily battles of persecution, safety, and survival (avoiding detection or death), for their faith. On the great side, many became Christians. Let’s get started.

Righteousness: No one on the earth is right before God. All of us do things against God and the Bible, which is why Romans is so important. Paul addresses the church (Jews and Gentiles) about righteousness. In Chapter one, verse 16, he zones in on redemption, as the gospel unto salvation. (1:16), because without it, no one gets into Heaven. Then Paul discusses faith and God's righteousness. In verse 18, he warns about God's wrath, which will be against all ungodliness and unrighteous (ouch!). He follows this with excuses: in verse 20, like a parent, he lets us know no one has a reason not to believe as we can see the world's creation. Of course, the end of the 1st chapter, verses 29-31 lists sins and in verse 32 consequences. There again, a good parent tells us our crime, then punishment. (I used to hate that.)

Salvation: Paul picks up salvation in chapter 3; Paul lets us know that no one is righteous (Romans 3:10), which is why we need a savior. Then he drives the point home in Romans 3:23, which says all of us fall short due to our sins. We fall short all the time. God's standards are not our standards. We may think we are doing good, however God sees it differently. We earn death for our actions (Romans 6:23). However, Christ took our punishment and nailed those sins to the cross (Romans 5:8). The part about him nailing my sin to the cross always makes me cry. Why? I am a Mary Magdalene.

Grace: He tells us we are not under the law once we accept his gift; now we are under grace. Paul clears up this misconception in Romans 6:1. Some people think they can deliberately continue willfully sinning because we have grace, which is further from the truth. Grace is not a license to do what we want to do. Since this is a long one, please visit https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/are-we-to-continue-in-sin-that-grace-might-increase

Faith: In Romans chapter 4, Paul talks about Abraham's faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1) In other words, it is hope. When it comes down to it, it is about accepting what Christ did on the cross through faith without seeing it. No one can make a person have faith; it comes from within. However, once we believe, we are justified by our faith in Christ's death, burial and resurrection.

Paul lets us know God's judgment is righteous, and he will judge us by Paul's gospel. Jesus paid with his life for our sins. Like any good parent, we protect our children and give our very lives for them if need be. For example, I used to tell my boys I would give my life for them as they were growing up. I explained it this way, if a crook broke into our home, you hide and be very quiet. I am your first line of defense. I will take the bullet for you so you can live. Through their growing-up years, they knew I would give my life for them. It is the same with Jesus. We are his creation; he gave his life to save us, which is why I consider Romans BIG as Paul explains salvation, righteousness and grace.

These are my a few of my favorite verses. When thinking about sin and sacrifice, I can't leave out 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, 9. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath through him." Wow! How many people would give their lives for someone else? (Not many although military may be the exception to the rule.)

Several verses stand out to me in Chapter 2. There are more; however, these are very big for me.

2:11- For there is no respect of persons with God. He does not care if we are rich or poor, Jew or gentile; we are all the same in his eyes.

2:16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

2:24 Being justified freely by his grace through his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

2:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.

That said, I genuinely love the book of Romans. There is so much more I could talk about. However, I’ll stop here. Paul is real. He does not pretend he is something he is not. The Church at Rome was not any different than our churches today. We have the same challenges and issues they had-mainly salvation. The only difference is the period in which Paul writes. I hope you have a very blessed week. Please let me know what you think about Romans. My address is Dorothy@Savedheartfaith.com.

God bless,

Dorothy

A Roman colosseum