Romans 1:9-12 – “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.  For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.”

As you probably have noticed it’s been a while since our last WFTD.  I’ve wrestled with this text, and I didn’t want to send anything out that I did not have a peace about.  As with most scripture, there are three ways it can be interpreted – the right way, the wrong way, and God’s way.  As much as possible I ask the Holy Spirit to reveal His truth, the True revelation of God from His Word.  There are a great many ways that one could interpret the above scripture; a call to prayer for our brothers and sisters in Christ, a call to fellowship amongst believers, a doctrinal truth about the centrality of the person and work of Christ, a call to be wholehearted in service, etc.  All of these things are good things, Biblical, and could be argued from the text above.  If you are a teacher, and you do not feel the weight of the burden of knowing and preaching God in Truth from His Word, you should not teach.  I have a great, healthy fear of my desire to be “clever” or seen as “insightful” getting in the way of being faithful to simply seek the Lord in humble prayer and preach the Truth.  So please forgive my tardiness in delivering this WFTD, and I hope that God will bring life to you through this Word, guarding and strengthening your faith.

What does it mean to “serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son”?  Some translations (NET, NIV, NASB, and some others) insert the word “preaching” here in verse 9, most likely because down in verse 15, Paul says he is eager to “preach the gospel to those in Rome”.  The difference being above in verse 9, the word used is “euaggelion” a noun, describing the good news of Jesus Christ.  In verse 15, the word “euaggelizo” is used which is the verb meaning to bring the good news, which is translated as “preaching the gospel”.  It would make sense to me, that if Paul wanted to say “preaching the gospel”, he would have written in that way.  Also, everything leading up to this point has talked about Paul’s calling, and the calling of those in Rome, which centers on who they are primarily, and only secondarily on what they should do.  That’s some background on why I don’t believe Paul is talking about his work primarily here, but rather who He is because of the gospel of Jesus, which manifests in his work.  A great question to ask right now, is “so what?”.

There are two very important things to take away from this scripture; that as a believer, the gospel of Jesus is your identity and all the “work” you do flow from your identity.  Meaning what you do doesn’t make you who you are, who are you defines what you will do.  If that doesn’t make sense, then let’s look how many people treat Christianity.  They look at a verse like Romans 10:9, and make a confession about the truthfulness of who Jesus is and what He has done.  After that, they go to church, and make some attempt at reforming their life outwardly for appearances sake; but this is exhausting because they remain unchanged inwardly.  The problem with people saying they they “believe in God”, or even that they “believe in Jesus” is that even the demons believe that Jesus is God, and they know what He has done.  Let me press that even more.  Satan has more correct thoughts about God than any of us.  He knows exactly who He is, and what He has done.  So whether you have correct thoughts about God or not, whether you obey God outwardly, or disobey God outwardly, it doesn’t matter, unless you are a new creation in Christ inwardly. Galatians 6:15 – “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”

The gospel is not merely a fact to be believed; the gospel of Jesus is the power of God to bring life from death, to make all things new, to bring light from darkness, to completely transform an individual from the heart.  This is what we are told in 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  Does that mean that outwardly someone who has been given the gift of faith is going to instantly change?  No, of course not.  The Bible is clear that faith is the beginning of sanctification, being made into the likeness of Christ.  What it does mean is that you are not defined by your sin, you are defined by the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It means that when you think of how you answer the question each day, “who am I?”, you begin by with the gospel; you are set apart by God according to His will, and you are righteous through the blood of Christ.  God is your unconditionally faithful, loving father.  You sin, but you are not a sinner under the judgment and wrath of God; and who you are inwardly in Christ is progressively pushing back darkness, bringing to light the glory of God in Jesus Christ outwardly in your life.  Your identity is in Christ.  Everything that God calls you to in obedience, is rooted in who you are.  This is the only way you can read a passage like 1 John 5:3 – “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” and it make sense to you.  The only way that the commandments of God would not be burdensome is if they flow from who we are as a new creation.  There are new affections for God and His glory that guide us into obedience.  The fight for faith begins each day with what you believe about the Gospel – are you righteous in Christ or are you pursuing life apart from Him?  If you have trusted in Christ alone as your salvation, then let me encourage you today as a voice that reminds you; whatever your sins of yesterday, whatever your failings today, wherever tomorrow might lead you, you are righteous in Christ – you are His.

Now, as new creations in Christ, who we are in Christ will be progressively manifested outwardly.   God has uniquely gifted all believers to encourage and edify one another’s faith.  Some are gifted in hospitality, some in teaching, some in preaching, some in encouragement, and others in different ways.  Those gifts are not separate from the gospel of Jesus, the are the outward manifestation of Jesus Christ, for the encouragement of our faith.  Matthew 5:14-16 – “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”  How will the world see your works and glorify your God in Heaven?  If every good work that is done is rooted in who you are through the gospel of Jesus Christ, through His blood; if you lift up His name in every situation to say, that if there is any good in me or any good work that I do, it is not me, but Christ in me, and He is great!

This is what Paul greatly longed for with the Church at Rome.  He wanted to see Christ manifested amongst the saints at Rome; that both he and they would be mutually encouraged by the outward manifestations of their common faith in the gospel of Jesus.    He served God wholeheartedly in the Gospel of Jesus – his entire identity was made new, and all that he did, flowed from the gospel of Jesus.  Likewise, for those who are struggling with sin (all of us), know that your first battle with that sin is not to try to mange your behavior, but to renew your mind in the gospel.  Instead of allowing satan to convince you that you are not good enough for God, remember that Jesus went to the cross knowing all your sin, past, present, and future; bore the wrath for it all, and fully reconciled you to God.  If you believe Him, if you trust in Him alone, then you are a new creation in Christ, alive to righteousness, free to live in joy for the glory of God, looking forward to our eternal treasure, Jesus Christ.  With all that in mind, be encouraged with Colossians 3:1-17:

Grace be with you,

Adam