Danny Panter

One Boast

Re:Verse passage – Romans 3:21-31 (day six)

“Can we boast…that we have done anything to be accepted by God?” Romans 3:27

We are remarkably skilled at finding reasons to place ourselves above one another. We boast in accomplishments, education, morality, politics, religious knowledge, and even our suffering. Whatever distinguishes us can become evidence that we are wiser, stronger, or more deserving than someone else.

Paul dismantles every claim to superiority: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Jew and Gentile, religious insider and outsider, we have all failed to reflect God’s goodness, and all depend upon his mercy.

But grace does not leave us with nothing to celebrate. It redirects our boasting. Paul writes in Galatians 6:14, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We did not rescue ourselves. God acted through Jesus to redeem us from sin and death and welcome us into his family.

Boasting in ourselves divides us because it requires comparison. Boasting in Jesus unites us around the same Redeemer.

We have nothing to boast about over one another, but everything to boast about together in Jesus.

Kindness

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

⁴Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? Romans 2:4

Clearly, God’s kindness does not mean sin is unimportant or that God overlooks what destroys life. It means God has not given up on us. His patience creates room for us to turn around and come home.

The trouble is that religious people can receive God’s patience while withholding it from others. We magnify their failures, minimize our own, and use judgment to reassure ourselves of our goodness. Paul removes that illusion. Gentile and Jew, outsider and insider, none of us possesses moral or religious immunity. All of us depend upon God’s mercy.

Unity—what they really needed in the churches in Rome— begins when our shared need dismantles our superiority and turns us together toward God’s mercy. It grows when the kindness we have received becomes the kindness we extend.

Fresh Encounter

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.

Abiding as Sons and Daughters

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 4:18-19; 1 Corinthians 3:6-9; Galatians 4:4–7 (day six)

We abide as sons and daughters. What a stunning work of God’s grace! There is rest and security in belonging to God’s family. Our identity is certain; our provision and future are secure.

Paul writes that when the right time came, God sent his Son to redeem us so that we might receive adoption as his children. Then God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, teaching us to cry, “Abba, Father.” The Father sends the Son to rescue us and the Spirit to assure us that we belong.

We do not obey to persuade God to accept us. We obey because, through Jesus, we have already been welcomed home. We are no longer slaves anxiously attempting to earn a place in the household. We are beloved children learning to live in the freedom, intimacy, and confidence of our Father’s house.

And if we are God’s children, Paul says, then we are also his heirs. Our future rests not upon our grip on God, but upon his gracious grip on us.

The King Has Come

Re:Verse passage –Mark 1:1-4; Luke 4:42-44; Acts 5:42; 11:19-21 (day six)

Today we rarely speak of Jesus as King, yet this stood at the heart of the earliest Christian announcement: Jesus is the risen King. The words good news and Messiah belong together. Messiah means God’s anointed King. In the Roman world, εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion), or good news, could describe a public announcement about an emperor—his birth, accession to the throne, or victory in battle. When Augustus rose to power, good news was proclaimed across the empire.

When Jesus’ disciples announced the good news, they made a greater declaration: the crucified Jesus had been raised from the dead and enthroned by God as Israel’s true king (Messiah) and the world’s true Lord. Through his death and resurrection, this King broke the enslaving powers of sin and death and opened the way to forgiveness, freedom, and new life. This message brought hope to those longing for deliverance and threatened others.

Good news about a King is never mere information. It asks every hearer: Who rules? Will I trust this King, receive his redemption, and live under his gracious reign?

Sent Ahead of the King

Re:Verse passage – Luke 6:12–16; 8:1; 9:1–6; 10:1–17 (day six)

The Lord now chose seventy-two[a] other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. Luke 10:1

Christian faith is personal, but it was never meant to be private. Jesus called disciples to himself, formed them into a community, and then sent them ahead into towns he intended to visit. They were emissaries of the King: announcing that God’s kingdom had drawn near (Luke 10:9) and making that kingdom visible through healing, peace, and hospitality.

The same movement continues. Jesus gathers us, not as an end in ourselves, but as emissaries sent into the world. Karl Barth wrote, “Christians are messengers in Christ’s stead.” We go because the crucified King is risen, present through his Spirit, and coming again.

Our acts of mercy and healing signal to the world the renewal Jesus brings. But signs need interpretation. Our lives display the writing on the wall; our words (the good news) explain what it means: Jesus is the risen Lord, his kingdom has come near, and everyone is invited to receive his gracious reign.

Skills

Re:Verse passage – 2 Thessalonians 2:13–17; Hebrews 5:11–13; Romans 16:17–18 (day six)

Most of us can recognize physical skills: balance, coordination, endurance. Deepening disciples also develop skills. Paul names several: holding fast to the gospel when pressure comes, discerning truth amid persuasive error, and passing on what we have received.

These skills matter in a world where Christian-sounding ideas arrive through polished reels, memorable memes, and confident voices. Not everything that quotes Scripture faithfully reflects Jesus. Discernment, however, is not cynicism. It is wisdom trained through Scripture, prayer, practice, and life within the church.

Nor must we become experts before helping others. A deepening disciple can say, “This is who Jesus is. This is what he has done. This is how I am learning to follow him.”

This Sunday, we will consider how disciples develop strong roots, wise judgment, and the ability to help someone else take their next step toward Jesus. These are skills worth practicing together.

Holy War

Re:Verse passage – John 15:6–10; Hebrews 12:10; Acts 13:2–3; Colossians 4:2–4 (day six)

Abiding is not passive. According to E. Earle Ellis, abiding in Jesus is how his disciples stand defiantly against spiritual darkness and the enemies of God’s kingdom. In that sense, the disciplines are tools of holy war, practices through which we resist sin, deception, distraction, and despair.

Every quiet prayer is an act of resistance. Every fast declares the rule and reign of Christ. Every celebration or contemplation sets our minds on the beauty and goodness of Jesus.

The disciplines do not create the life or win the battle. They keep bringing us to Jesus, and the life of Jesus makes us fruitful, faithful, and victorious.

Before Anything Else

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 5:21–6:4; Matthew 12:46–50; 19:27–30 (day six)

We often think of discipleship in terms of programs, classes, studies, and practices. All of those can be useful, but these passages remind us that discipleship is relational before it is anything else. It begins with a relationship with Jesus, and then Jesus turns us toward one another.

Paul describes how Jesus redeems our closest relationships. Love for Christ and a commitment to Christ take visible form in mutual submission, sacrificial love, honor, patience, and care. Then, in Matthew, Jesus expands the boundaries of family to include all those who do the will of his Father. Those who have left homes and family to follow him receive a new and abundant family among his people.

Discipleship, then, is not simply information transferred or a process completed. It is the life of Jesus embodied in our nearness to others. Programs can organize discipleship and practices can direct it, but relationships are the arena where it takes shape.

Who has Jesus placed near you, and how might he be using that relationship to make both of you more like him?

Being Made Whole

Re:Verse passage – Colossians 1:9–11, 28B–29; 4:2–4; Ephesians 4:11–16; James 1:2–4(day six)

One of the greatest struggles of the Christian life is not simply that we sin—it is that we often feel divided. We want to follow Christ, yet we find ourselves full of competing desires. Paul knew that struggle well (Romans 7), and yet his hope rested in Jesus. God is not merely interested in making us better behaved; He is making us whole.

We can feel like deepening discipleship means trying harder and doing more, but throughout this week’s passages, Paul points us towards wholeness as its end goal. He prays that believers would become complete in Christ through a life devoted to prayer, and reminds them that growth happens within the body of Christ. James adds that even our trials become instruments in God’s hands, producing perseverance and completeness.

God patiently restores fragmented lives through prayer, Christian community, and faithful perseverance. Doesn’t that sound peaceful?

Where in your life do you most long for Christ to make you whole?