#DailyDevotion The Father Uses The Means Of Grace To Make You Strong In Faith
Romans 1625Now, to Him – Who can make you strong by the good news I bring and the preaching of Jesus Christ,
Now the Him here is God the Father. The Father is the source of everything. It is his will that you come to faith in Jesus Christ and believe in Jesus and through this faith be saved. These last verse of Romans truly are a culmination of the whole letter of Paul to the Romans. I highly recommend you read it sometime.
But please note who is ultimately responsible for making you strong spiritually. It is God the Father. But he doesn’t just zap you to make you strong in the faith. The one true God is a God of means. Ever since he made creation, he uses creation to accomplish what he wants. He uses his creation to bring you to faith, to strengthen you in the faith and to deliver the outcome of your faith—the salvation of you. He does this by the good news and the preaching of Jesus Christ.
So God the Father uses people, men even to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ. Faith comes by hearing this Good News. The Good News of course is the Father sacrificed his only begotten Son Jesus Christ of Nazareth for your sins. By this sacrifice, your sins are atoned for. They are forgiven and forgotten by God because of the blood shed by Jesus.
God applies the atoning sacrifice to us when we are baptized with water. Through the water and the name of God (the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit), the Spirit joins himself to that water and creates faith in us. He washes us with the blood of Christ and makes us whole and clean. With the faith he gives us in baptism he declares us justified, innocent, and righteous. He makes us heir of God and co-heirs with Christ.
He gives us men we can confess our sins to when we fall who have been given the power and authority of Jesus to forgive sins. Jesus has said, “Whosoever sins you forgive are forgiven and whosoever sins you retain they are retained.” We can forgiven those who sin against us and the Church as a body can also forgive those who have be recalcitrant in their sins.
To further strengthen us in our faith he has given us the LORD’s Supper. It is the new covenant promised by the LORD in the Old Testament, in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. In this supper as we participate in Christ Jesus’ body and blood shed upon the cross for us, we are made participants in this covenant where the LORD our Father forgives us our sins and remembers them no more. In this forgiveness, we come to know the Father. Here he places his instruction on our hearts so we may believe and do his will.
Finally, he has given us one another, who are given to encourage and strengthen one another with the good news of Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven, the Father loves us, we are accepted by God for the sake of Jesus Christ and his work.
Heavenly Father, all praise, honor and glory go to you for sending us your Son Jesus Christ for our salvation. Always make available to us these means of grace so we may come to faith, be saved and be preserved in this faith unto life everlasting. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.