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
With the martyrdom of Paul, the book of the Acts of the Apostles ends, though not all the Apostles have yet to die. Paul and Peter were killed for their faith within a short time of each other. Peter was crucified in Rome. Both were slain during the reign of Nero. Having seen the beginning of the church in the mid first century, only a few decades after Jesus’ crucifixion, and watched as the church “crawled” in infancy, walked as a child and, grew to be a young adult, we will now take a look at the writings of the Apostles and other Holy Spirit inspired writers of the New Testament as we know it today. As we go through these writings, there will be great theology to be learned but we will only touch upon most of the theology found in these great letters. Books have been written about most of the theology we will look at and, we are not able to devote the ink or time to go into depth in this medium of the devotional. A synopsis here should pique the readers’ interest to delve more into the Scriptures and other resources that help Christians to grow in their faith. Today, we begin with Paul’s letter to the Romans, Christians in the capital of the empire controlling the known world during the first 500+ years after the earthly ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. Paul wrote this “letter” before he ever met the Romans. Paul’s writings are considered to be Paul’s major work of theology on Christianity. As Paul opens his letter with cordial greetings and an introduction of his calling and his position in Christ, he outlines how the righteous live, by faith. Paul will further detail “of faith” and how the Christian receives faith and from Whom the Christian faith comes. Paul, then, deals with the unrighteous, the ones who are not Christian in faith. Paul minces no words about the wrath of God being upon them as long as they are not in faith in Christ. Paul tells us the unsaved suppress the truth, that there is a God who has created all things, leaving His mark in creation, such that no one can deny that a Being greater than humanity made all that can be seen or known. Even with this knowledge, humans have not given thanks to God for all that He has done, even going after the world, the lust of their eyes, the pride of life and, the lies of the prince of the power of the air, Satan, who is the evil one who brought sin into the world. Paul makes it clear that each human is responsible for his/her own sin and, unless they turn to God for forgiveness, they will be “turned over” to their sins and die without being forgiven, spending eternity trying to “pay” for the sins committed against Holy God. Christian, it is important that you place your faith in the one true God and His Only Begotten Son that you may be saved by God Himself. Source: S C Ball August 22, 2023
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