Today We Begin Romans
Today we begin our reading plan of Paul’s Letter to the Romans. We’ll finish the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (God willing), and our readings will be assigned to weekdays only. If you are on my Bible mailing list, you’ll receive each Romans blog post I write in your inbox every morning at 4:00 AM Central. (Subscribe and unsubscribe at any time.)
I’ll be leading morning prayer Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings this week at 7:00 AM. (Evening prayer on Monday at 7:00 PM, too.) Would love to have you join me—I’ll give a very brief thought about each day’s Romans reading. Access via Facebook or mungerplace.live.
I’m teaching a churchwide Bible study at Munger this Wednesday from 6-7 PM. More info here.
Finally. get your own Romans scripture journal here and download the reading plan at www.mungerplace.org.
Today’s Scripture Reading: Romans 1:1-15
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 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, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul begins his letter with a long “From” section. He has never been to Rome and didn’t found the Roman church, so he lays out his credentials and summarizes the gospel while he’s at it. He is an apostle of Messiah Jesus, this same Jesus to whom the entire Old Testament was pointing, born to a Jewish family, and then raised from the dead. Paul’s whole mission is to tell people about this Jesus.
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
Paul tells the Roman church (whom he has never met) how much he prays and praises God for them. He has wanted for a long time to come visit them but was unable to do so, and he feels that he has something to offer them, though of course he knows that he would also be blessed just by spending time with them. He reminds them that he has a special mission to non-Jews—both the civilized “Greeks” and the uncivilized “barbarians”—to tell them about Jesus and invite them into the church.
I think what strikes me on reading this is the immediacy of the words; it’s as if Paul is writing the letter to us, today, and not to ancient Romans 2,000 years ago.
But this is the power of scripture—it is evergreen for God’s people.
What might 7 weeks of reading Paul’s great letter do in and for you?