WEDNESDAY November 29th
Romans 1:4
‘. . . and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord . . ‘
I have returned to verse 4 of Romans 1 as we continue to look into what this wonderful gospel is that Paul was called to be an ambassador of and of which he said that he was not ashamed.
Why is this the true gospel, the only gospel, and how is it effective or the power of God unto salvation?
Well, first I want to say that I am so glad that Jesus met with and saved Saul who we know as Paul the apostle, for it is from the epistles or letters that Paul has written that we can understand so much of what the gospel is all about. Yes, of course we learn from the gospels, as I have been sharing recently on Sunday evenings, John has recorded the signs that Jesus did ‘so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name’, John 20:31. If you are not a Christian believer and you happen to be reading this devotion wondering what the gospel is all about, I suggest that John’s gospel in the New Testament is a good place to start, read it through and discover the wonderful truths concerning God’s plan of redemption though Jesus his eternal son.
In our text Paul helps us to see that the death and the resurrection of Jesus were essential for men and women to become born again, saved or new creations, therefore the gospel is effective and powerful because of what happened just a little over two-thousand years ago, when Jesus was taken, crucified, buried and rose again on the third day.
Paul re-echoes the importance of these events in 1 Corinthians 15 ‘For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve’, (verses 3-6). He says to the Corinthian Church that these are the things that I preached to you which are of first importance, Jesus died, was buried, rose again and appeared to many.
It is only the Christian faith that has the means to bring forgiveness of sin and give any hope of eternal life, because the one who founded it, the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself to be the sacrifice for our sin and not only that but after dying and being buried he rose again to be able to grant eternal life.
I will continue on this important theme in the next devotion as we consider further what Paul has written to enable us to be able to come to a knowledge and understanding of the truth.