Category: Romans

Take a moment to read Romans 8:18-39 before reading the devotional below.

Whatever you are going through right now, God has something that will outdo all the pain you’ve had to endure. God does not delight in our suffering, and he in the process of saving not only us, but the whole planet. The earth did not sign up for being put under a curse — it was the sin of Adam and Eve that began the slow decay and destruction of our world. God is restoring us and his world, and he is doing it through the followers of Jesus (known as the church or the body of Christ).

The Holy Spirit helps us, tells us how to pray, leads and guides our lives. We have a part in restoring things back to God’s design because he dwells inside us. God desires for everyone to be a follower of Jesus, and those who receive him are chosen for a special task. We are called to advance the kingdom of God through the spread of the Gospel (all this good news Paul keeps talking about) and through the restoration of the world. We are so intertwined with the love of God and the Spirit of God, we are able to carry out this work supernaturally.

Here’s your freedom for today: God’s not going to let go of you. The power of hell has nothing on the power of God’s love, and it isn’t changing. He has literally moved heaven and earth for you, and he has invited you to join his work by moving mountains for others to find God. This is an all-hands-on-deck kind of mission, but it rests squarely on God’s shoulders. Imagine if there were a flood coming, and the governor called for everyone to help place sandbags along key points. Anyone who shows up can be given a job and they can help with the work, but the governor remains in charge of the operation. God’s love ties you to him and invites you into a supernatural movement to bring his kingdom back in full. He’s got you — will you come with him on the mission?

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Romans 9 before reading the devotional below.

We are reading all of Romans 9 today instead of splitting it into two pieces because this chapter is really one whole part of Paul’s theological framework. Recall that Paul is writing to a mixed church of Jews and Gentiles, and this idea of allowing Gentiles into relationship with God feels very new to the Jewish people. In reality, there are several examples throughout the Old Testament of God accepting Gentiles into his family (like Rahab and Ruth). But overall the Jewish people had God all to themselves and they had to protect that from outside influence for generations.

Here Paul is trying to prove his commitment to the Jewish people. His focus on the salvation of the Gentiles does not mean he has left the Jews behind. Paul affirms the special place of the Jewish people, but he also points out that God chose specific people along the way. He uses Jewish history to trace this journey and makes the argument that God can save whoever he wants to save.

Here’s your freedom for today: you have been invited into God’s grace. You can’t get to God by yourself no matter who you are. Even God’s special people who had his law and his promises could not keep up their end of relationship with God. The Gentiles didn’t have this spiritual awareness, and they too proved to be sinners. We are all in the same boat, whether you were raised in church or know the right prayers to pray or have never heard of Jesus before. We are sinners saved exclusively by the grace of God. Not grace plus a good job on our part. Grace. Period. Not one ounce of your relationship with God depends on you.

Take a moment to read Romans 10:1-13 before reading the devotional below.

Christians have a high regard for Paul today since he wrote much of the New Testament, but during his lifetime Paul was not always embraced warmly. First of all, he started off so against the early Christians that he actively murdered them. God had to knock him off his horse and set him straight to shift his zeal to the right direction. Secondly, Paul, Peter, and other leaders of the early church were tortured, imprisoned, and rejected everywhere they went. The religious leaders who hated Jesus had the same problem with his followers: they did not want everyone to have free access to God.

Paul wants the Jewish followers to know that he is preaching the same message that God has been sending for all of Jewish history. God has not changed his mind, but rather he has made good on his promises. Paul demystifies the salvation process, having already proven that the law cannot save you. All it takes is faith. Just a simple acceptance of the power of Jesus’ resurrection. If God sent Jesus as the Messiah and he had the power to overcome death, then belief in this miraculous salvation is what your heart needs.

Here’s your freedom for today: God is available to you. Although we sometimes think that the path to God is complicated or difficult, he’s actually made it very easy. Through the Jewish people, he demonstrated the requirements of his kingdom. They proved to the world that they could not maintain these requirements. God promised a Messiah who would come and rescue the Jewish people and the world. Jesus came and was able to demonstrate the power of God through healings, miracles, and his resurrection. Jesus is now holding the doors to the kingdom wide open for all to come in. A simple “yes” is all you need. Come on in!

Take a moment to read Romans 10:14-21 before reading the devotional below.

You can’t pray to a God you don’t believe in. And you can’t believe what you don’t know about. Jesus gave his disciples some instructions before he returned to Heaven: go tell the world about me. Paul is fulfilling that mission and he is stressing the importance of all believers taking part in spreading the good news. Some, like Paul, need to be sent out to far-away places so that everyone gets the chance to hear about Jesus and have faith in him.

However, just because people hear about Jesus doesn’t mean they welcome him with open arms. The doors to the kingdom of God may be wide open, but not everyone wants to walk in. God has allowed people to reject him for all of human history, from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to the Jewish people to Pharaoh to pagan cultures. God wants willingness to be a part of the rescue plan. He will not drag you onto the lifeboat. He simply saves a place for you.

Here’s your freedom for today: God’s arms will always be open for you. He is ready to embrace you every single day, whether you have accepted Jesus or not. Sometimes when we are followers of Jesus, we forget that God’s arms are always open. We get caught up in religious thinking (the very way of thinking Paul is trying to help us reject) and we start believing that our salvation is partly our job. Nope, it’s still all Jesus. For those who have rejected Jesus or simply not yet heard, God’s arms are open as well. The invitation does not expire or change. Today, right now, no matter what anything has looked like in your life until this exact minute, God is ready to embrace you. Will you let him hug you and comfort you today?

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Romans 11 before reading the devotional below.

Once again we will tackle an entire chapter at once because Paul is making one point that is best read all at once. He is continuing on this theme of the importance of the Jewish people even in the midst of God offering salvation to the Gentiles too. He is using language that would be familiar to them from the Old Testament scriptures, including his reference to a “remnant.” This word was used by the prophet Isaiah to describe the end of the world. If you were following our Advent series (or if you go back and check it out now), you will see that Isaiah prophesied a lot about the coming Messiah as well as the end of the world. He spoke of a Jewish remnant, meaning a group of Jews who would remain faithful to God even as others turned away.

Paul uses an agricultural illustration that most of us will be confused by — grafting in branches of an olive tree. When a tree branch breaks off, you can reconnect it through a process called grafting. You can watch a whole bunch of YouTube videos on how it works, but all you really need to know is that this process makes the tree whole again. God, in his abundant mercy, has chosen to use a small group, or remnant, of Jewish people who will be the core of God’s people. Into this core (much like a tree trunk with thick branches), the Gentiles will be grafted in, creating a whole and vibrant people of God.

Here’s your freedom for today: God’s glory is worth everything. God shows mercy to anyone he wants, and he has proven that he can save the world if he so chooses. He has planned all of this saving for his own glory. Some may believe that makes God arrogant, or a “show off.” But that does not account for God’s ultimate love and goodness. His glory is a gift to us, and it is not centered in pride. God’s glory is fully deserved — there is nothing prideful about it because he is owed worship from all of creation. We as Christians can pursue the glory of God and step out of the center of the story to properly give God his place at the center. Stepping out of the limelight is a place of freedom as we re-align our lives with how the world is supposed to be.