Romans 1

4 who was declared (H)the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,

What really identified Jesus as the Son of God? The fact that he not only told people he could rise from death, like so many other Messiah-wanna-bes during those time, he actually rose to live on Earth for 40 days & then never died again (unlike say, Lazarus) as He went to Heaven with God. The miracles were nice but you have to know that each of those 12 Apostles along with other disciples were waiting to authenticate Jesus as Savior & Messiah with his conquering over death. He was the real deal.


6among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;

Want a purpose driven life? You are called to be “of Jesus Christ”. If you are a Christian, you should not be ever depressed about your life because you have a Way about your life, Jesus. We are not the last kid picked for kickball. We are the captains picked to make the teams. God does not choose talented people. God gives talent to those He chooses.

8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.

This should tell us a lot about the Christians in Rome. They didn’t even yet have the presence of direct teaching from the Apostles but yet they were growing strong off of the evangelism that undoubtedly spread to Rome. This tells me that the Christians that evangelized in Rome were passionate themselves and that it rubbed off on those new Christians. So much so, that regions from far away knew of how great their “working” faith was.


11For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established;
11Porque anhelo veros para impartiros algún don espiritual, a fin de que seáis confirmados;

Spanish does a good job of using the word “confirmed” instead of “established”
How did spiritual gifts confirm them? I think in the same way that the Apostles words were confirmed to be from Christ (Mark 16:14-20). As I mentioned before, they had not received direct teaching from Apostles so in order for them to be able to know that they were following sound teaching, a gift of some sort would be given to them. We have no clue what it would be.


16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

THIS ATTITUDE SHOULD BE OUR ATTITUDE!
Guys, why did Paul get to accomplish so much with so many & we’re still struggling to keep ourselves in line? Why did Paul face such strict punishment and rebuke and yet never stop teaching? Why did he stand up to the elite in government (Felix & Agrippa) & the society (idol makers in Ephesus)? How could someone reject a promising career in Judaism to be trashed by his own people?

Paul was not ashamed of the gospel! He knew what it was like to “know whole-heartedly” that you are right with God (locking up Christians & holding the coats of those who stoned Stephen) and be oh so wrong. When Jesus appeared to him on that road to Damascus, Saul’s mind must have gone mad. Everything Jesus told him was the opposite of what Saul thought & lived. Then Jesus, explaining all about his life, death, resurrection, and ascension (the four parts of the Gospel), gave this low life a chance at the elite life of a Christian. The life that had God’s approval. The life that really meant you could live forever. The life that proved that what is here on Earth ain’t nothing compared to what is with God. The life that could make you lose everything here on Earth and know that the best is yet to come. After those 3 days of blindness, there was no doubt in Saul’s mind that he wanted to be immersed to start his life with Christ.

Do you want to see God working? Use his saving power. What’s his saving power? It is the Gospel. Paul witnessed countless times how people’s lives changed just from him teaching them & them accepting the Gospel. You have to understand that seeing this over and over fed on itself to the extent that there was no doubt that the Gospel was life changing. That first step to teaching someone the Gospel is not a big one but is gigantic if you never lift your foot. I’m there with y’all.

Do you see God’s power in Saul’s transformation to Paul? Paul “sold all out” to Christ. Have you? In so many ways, I have. In some important ways, I have not. My wife pushes me to “sell out” in different ways than I am accustomed. I have to put down myself and quit pushing back to give room for her exhortation to grow.

What does the creation of this blog stem from? Our desire to have this attitude. Our desire to be the sweet smelling aroma that God richly loves. Our desire to honestly and undoubtedly be able to swear to Jesus that we love him more than our spouse, family, friends, job, school, & wealth.

Oh, and why first to the Jew? Because God kept his word in that salvation would come to his people before all others. He so wished they had accepted Jesus. They had their shot and they blew it. Now, God’s chosen people are no longer Israel but the Christian people (Galatians Ch 4 Hagar/Sarah). We are the children of promise who have been adopted but given full rights of sonship along with Jesus.


24Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.

“God gave them over”. God didn’t force them. God let the world do as they wanted in their own heart to do. The evil did not come from God. The evil was man’s own desires. Desires that brought no exaltation to themselves…only dishonor.

17Porque en el evangelio la justicia de Dios se revela por fe y para fe; como está escrito: MAS EL JUSTO POR LA FE VIVIRA.

Spanish probably does a better job of translating. “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is BY FAITH & FOR (purpose of creating) FAITH, just as it is written:…”

I was just waiting on my invitation to get all this out.

Let's keep it up.