Day 223.
For 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. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16, 17 ESV)
As Paul begins his letter to the Romans, he introduces what he intends to write about with these verse, which is the power of the gospel which brings the righteousness of God through faith alone.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. (Romans 1:18-28 ESV)
It was hard not to put the whole chapter in here as Paul begins to explain the true state of where we begin as people. As we look at society today we can see exactly what Paul describes, which is a result from both the forsaking of God and God’s giving people over to the natural direction of their forsaking. If we want to understand the true power of the gospel, we must begin he so that we can see the hopeless state of the those upon whom the gospel falls.
McCheyne’s Bible Reading Plan: 1 Sa 1, Ro 1, Jer 39, Lk 8
