#DailyDevotion The Spirit Gives Through The Gospel Of Jesus

Romans 1:8-14 ⁸First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is spreading all over the world. ⁹God, Whom I serve in my spirit by telling the good news of His Son, knows how I never fail to mention you ¹⁰whenever I pray and to ask that somehow by God’s will I will now at last succeed in coming to you. ¹¹I long to see you, to share a spiritual gift with you to strengthen you. ¹²I mean when I’m with you I’ll be encouraged by your faith and you by mine. ¹³I want you to know, fellow Christians, so far I have been kept from coming to you, but I often planned to come in order to enjoy some results of working among you as I do among the other non-Jewish people. ¹⁴I must help Greeks and non-Greeks, the wise and the foolish. ¹⁵So I’m eager to bring the good news also to you in Rome.

There is not a lot o f doctrinal stuff going on in these verses of Romans to talk about. What we do see is the faith of an apostle in action. So what does faith in action look like. Where might we want to imitate Paul with the faith that has been given us?

First, we may want to imitate Paul in giving thanks to God through Jesus Christ for our fellow Christians when we hear news of their faith. I guess there is a doctrinal point there. We come to God our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us in the Gospels, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” There is not Christless or Jesusless Christianity. All humanity can only approach the Father, the Living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through faith in Jesus of Nazareth and his name. But I digress. When we hear or see fellow Christians succeeding in spreading the faith or remaining faithful under persecution, we should give thanks to God, as their faithfulness helps us in our own.

Secondly, serving God “in the spirit” and “sharing a spiritual gift” is “telling the good news” of Jesus Christ and encouraging and being encouraged by each others faith. The Spirit of God always accompanies the Gospel of Jesus, the Word of God. He is never by himself. The Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is never by itself. So when we hear or we share the good news of Jesus the Spirit imparts to us Himself, gives and strengthens faith in Jesus. We are serving in the spirit sharing the good news, i.e. the free gift of salvation through faith in Jesus.

Now the rest of this is what Paul wants to do when in Rome. It was a very cosmopolitan city. It had people there from all over the empire. When Paul says Greeks and non-Greeks, wise and foolish, he is speaking of educated and non-educated. The Greeks were the educated of the Roman world. While Rome ruled, the Greeks influenced all of culture. The non-Greeks, i.e. barbarians, were everyone else who had not been educated. He we can see the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not only not just limited to Jews, not just limited to educated, but it is for all people everywhere. We can never limit it to a certain group of people. Jesus is the promised seed of Abraham who would be a blessing to all nations. Jesus brings all nations into a unity in himself, children of God, citizens of heaven, the Church. May we imitate Paul in our desire to bring Christ to all people even if it is only by supporting those who do it with our prayers and with our wealth.

Merciful God and Father, give us thankful hearts whenever we hear people are coming to faith in your Son Jesus Christ and help us to help others in this mission that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be praised among the nations of the world. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.