The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Romans 2:5-16 (day five) Works matter. This is one of the main truths that Paul is declaring. Does that make us cringe or nervous? Didn’t he just announce a few verses earlier that we are saved apart from the law and apart from anything we can do?  How do these go together?  Faith and works?  One proves there is salvation and new life, while the other provides salvation and new life. Works serve only to prove salvation and new life, while faith in God alone, serves to provide salvation and new life. Both are good and meaningful when in the right priority and perspective. And back in verse four, it is the kindness of God that reveals the exact place and priority of faith and works that we might repent and grow closer to God and deeper in saving faith. Read Psalm 62 for reference. Paul quotes it in our Re:verse text this week.

Re:Verse passage – Romans 2:5-16 (day four)

Paul’s writing really flies in the face of today’s preferred way of thinking. In a world that prefers relativism and pluralism (saying things like “I follow my truth and you follow your truth,” or “there are many ways to the same endpoint”), Paul makes it clear: there is good, and there is bad, there is righteousness, and there is unrighteousness, there is one way to the Father, not many. Paul writes this to an audience in Rome that desperately needs to hear this, and we equally need this message today.

Paul makes it clear that there are only two paths in life – you can live God’s way, which includes putting your faith in Christ and allowing your heart and actions to be shaped by his character, or you can stubbornly deny God, and live according to your flesh. This is true of everyone, whether they were born into a Jewish family and felt a sense of spiritual superiority (like Paul used to), or if they had never heard God‘s law before. Paul makes it clear that there is no other criteria for eternal life apart from hearing the gospel and responding to it in faith. A family name does not qualify you, and a lack of knowledge of the law doesn’t disqualify you – the fork in the road comes with how we respond to the gospel of Christ.

How might we as believers preach this message in love to the world in which we live?

Re:Verse passage – Romans 2:5-16 (day three)

⁶He will render to each one according to his works:

Is Paul contradicting himself here? Just a few verses ago in chapter one, Paul lays out that one is saved by faith alone, apart from the law and from works. Yet, here, he states that God will judge (render to) us based on our “works.” Romans 2:6 is almost a word-for-word quote from Psalm 62:12. What David was talking about in Psalm 62 is a judgment of people based on the choices they make between (essentially) following God or not following God by rejecting His chosen king. In his letter to the Romans, Paul is using that same idea to back up his statement that we are saved through faith alone. We are faced with a choice of following God or not following Him. The way we choose to not follow Him is to reject Jesus as King in our lives.

Now, are our actions (works) a good thing? Yes! Our works are the fruit of following the Lord and accepting Jesus as King. In following Him, our striving should be to be more like Him, producing the kind of fruit and actions that please Him and line up with the Gospel. So, ponder this today: Is Jesus the King of your life? Do your words and actions (works) reveal to others that He is, in fact, the King?

Re:Verse passage – Romans 2:5-16
(day two) 

to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; ⁸ but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. v. 7-8

This isn’t a passage about your works and earning your salvation; rather it is about your focus. Those who have allowed the gospel to penetrate their hearts have evidence of Christ in everything they do. It doesn’t make them perfect, but the work of the gospel begins to re-focus how we live. To those who refuse to allow this message to change them, it is also evident. Our focus determines our path. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, our lives should calibrate towards his. Those things which cause turmoil, struggle, or hurt should be laid at his feet and viewed in the light of the cross. Even if they are not removed from your path, how you deal with them is changed.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.

Re:Verse passage – Romans 1:14–17  (day seven)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Romans 1:16

The reason that Paul is able to be unashamed is because of the inherent power of the gospel. We often talk about the gospel being good news (literally, it translates to this), but in using that terminology do we dilute the efficacy of the gospel to just being information or advice? The gospel is so much more than just words to live by. Paul doesn’t say the gospel gives us power, but He says “it is the power of God.” The gospel is power!

When we recognize this power, we can’t help but be unashamed. The gospel will no longer just be what we believe, but it will become a part of who we are. The power lives in us, works through us, and awakens attributes in us that wouldn’t come naturally. One of which is confidence. We will realize that it isn’t about us becoming more bold in our faith, but as our faith becomes more internalized, the gospel will make us more bold. It is the power of God!

Re:Verse passage – Romans 1:14–17  (day six)

Romans has a history of finding people and changing them. After hearing “Take up and read,” Augustine opened Paul’s writings and encountered Romans 13:13–14. He wrote in his Confessions, “No sooner had I reached the end of the verse than the light of certainty flooded my heart and all dark shades of doubt fled away.” Luther wrestled with Romans 1:17 and felt as though he had walked through the gates of paradise when he finally came to understand “the righteousness of God.” Wesley heard Luther’s explanation of Romans and felt his heart “strangely warmed.” Centuries later, Karl Barth’s reencounter with Romans would redirect his theology.

Different people, different centuries, different circumstances—but the same powerful gospel expounded in Romans.

Paul does not merely say that the gospel explains God’s power. He says the gospel is God’s power for salvation. Romans is therefore more than a theological puzzle to solve or a collection of doctrines to organize. Through this letter, God confronts us with what he has accomplished in the crucified and risen Jesus.

As we begin Romans together, let us read slowly, listen carefully, and remain open. There is no telling what God might change when we hear the good news again.

Re:Verse passage – Romans 1:14–17  (day five)

“I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.” Verse 14 uses an interesting word to describe Paul’s relationship to the people in the Roman church and to all Roman citizens—“obligated.” It literally means a debtor, or someone who owes a financial debt to another person. How can he be in debt or obligated to these people he has never met (the people in the church much less the people who live in Rome)?  Think about two hypothetical circumstances in which I might be in debt to you. First, you lend me money. I am in debt to you until I pay you back. Second, someone gives me money to give to you. I am in debt to you until I give it to you. This second example is the context to which Paul is referring. He has been given the gospel to give/share with all others. He now lives indebted to everyone/everywhere to give them the gospel. Fact is, we as believers have been given the same gift and same instruction to share it with everyone/everywhere. Most of us (me too) don’t often if ever, have this perspective. We don’t live with that burden and passion to give away and share the gospel as we’ve been commanded. Instead of living as if obligated, the temptation is to live as entitled. How might this perspective shape the way we see, talk to, and serve all of those around us?

The Savior hath given us freely,
Salvation and grace through His name,
He bids us to publish His gospel,
Its words to all creatures proclaim;
We’re debtors to those who are dying,
And never its power have known;
Can we who so richly are favored
Still leave them to perish alone?

They perish, they perish,
Yet Jesus to save them has died;
Go pay them the debt that we owe them,
Those souls who in darkness abide.
Clara M. Brooks

Re:Verse passage – Romans 1:14–17  (day four)

We tend to want to overcomplicate the gospel. I wonder if we do that because the gospel itself seems too simple, so simple it’s illogical. We devise ways of over complicating the gospel because surely, salvation can’t be that easy. It can’t simply come down to faith – a secret password, birthright, or a resumé of good works has to fit in somewhere. It’s almost offensively simple. The only thing required for salvation and eternal life is faith in Christ.

The fact that it’s that simple tells us a lot about who God is and who we are. We can do nothing to earn salvation because nothing we have to offer can satisfy God’s holiness and righteousness. We are so sinful, so fallen from God’s glorious standard that we could spend our lives scraping up all we can find to offer to God, and it would not be enough to earn a place in his Kingdom. That is the effect of sin. But it says even more about who God is. God is so loving that he offers his people – all of his people – a way to enter his kingdom and live with him for eternity. Knowing we cannot offer anything of our own, he offers himself as the perfect sacrifice. All we must do is trust in him and accept the gift of his sacrifice on the cross. It’s as simple as receiving a gift that has already been bought. The simplicity of the gospel shows us the depth of our sin, and even more so the depth of God’s love for us.