Who has held the oceans in his hand – behold our God seated on his throne – come let us adore him.
”Yes I hold the oceans in my hand and count every grain of sand. Not only am I beyond and bigger than my creation, I am also able to be involved with the smallest nano-particle in the universe. Hard to conceive of? But that should be the starting point for every child of mine – because I have chosen to be your God and be involved in a relationship with you, demonstrating my great love by sending my Son to die for each one of you to rescue you from eternal separation and misery. So I invite you into a relationship with me where all you have to do is come and adore me and follow me. I want that.”
As we come to the end of this magnificent letter, Paul allows us to see some of his personal involvement in the lives of many people. This has not been a cold static directive, rather more like a kind of warm love letter from Paul. Please read Chapter 16 of Romans.
Most of the chapter is taken up with the personal greetings and a repeated warning against factionism. It comes to an end in the doxology from vs 25 which we will focus on. These 3 v summarise much of the main thread of Paul’s teaching.
We are reminded that the focus of Paul’s letter was the gospel. We see that in the first few verses of the letter but especially his statement in 1:16-17 where he categorically states that “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because……” We are reminded here that the gospel is all about Jesus Christ, in fact he is the gospel in person. But he did not just appear out of nowhere, the fact and the purpose of His come ing are revealed from way back at the beginning of God’s story, yet hidden and kept as a mystery until Jesus Himself reveals it in his ministry and mission. In fact the whole of the Old Testament is really about Jesus, hidden in so many ways, but there as a certain pointer to the course of God’s unfolding plan.
The gospel originates from God Himself and demonstrates His personal involvement and interest in all the nations of the world. This is a stark reminder that the Jews were just a stepping stone to the ultimate outreach to the world. Notice how Paul summarises the gospel in vs 26 – “to believe and obey.”. That rounds off the strange way he describes the gospel in 1:5b “the obedience that comes from faith”. James would have liked that. We call those who have responded to the faith ”believers”. But there is a great danger in describing Jesus’ followers simply as believers, because, as James says in his epistle,”even the demons believe that and shudder”. The only true proof of one being a real follower is that our belief is followed by action. That is following Christ actively in our whole lives.
That brings the whole epistle to a close. I hope it has been helpful in your understanding of the gospel and courage to share it with others. We will tackle a new book next week, probably the book of James, as I am going to be preaching through that for the next year or so. Thanks for faithfully sharing together as we follow this blog. Thanks for your prayers and may God bless you till next week.