Romans 1:3-6 (ESV) concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

Don’t panic, I am not going to do Romans line upon line and precept upon precept. That would take 432 days. Our on-line study group is a couple of days ahead of my devotionals on Romans but I would be remiss if I were to skip ahead and catch up with the class and not address these really important opening verses.

Here in these three lines of text is contained the essence of discipleship. Right there in verse 5 is the key to everything Christian, obedience of faith. Without taking the faith which God has entrusted to us and placing that faith in Christ for obedience of His will in our lives, we flounder as a fish out of water.

Romans 1:17d The just shall live by faith.

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Romans 1:2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

Gamaliel, a highly respected instructor of the law, was Paul’s teacher. His instructions would have been thorough, extensive, and traditional. So why didn’t Gamaliel see Christ in the Old Testament?

Cultural experience focused on national identity and left personal salvation as matter for the conscience of the individual. God brought Israel out of bondage as a nation. God prepared a place in the Promised Land for Israel as a nation. Prophets were seen as a voice to the nation and Israel was rewarded and punished as a nation.

All throughout the OT are the words that promise the gospel of peace for the individual but if you look at it from a nationalist framework, you miss it. It wasn’t until Paul was saved that he saw that the scriptures contained the message of personal salvation. It took Paul some fourteen years to come to grips with the depth of understanding required to renew his mind and reconcile what he was taught with the truth.

Are we any different? How much religion have we received prior to coming to know Christ on a personal level? How much of our religion has to be reconciled with the truth? Do we take responsibility to seek truth for ourselves or do we allow others to tell us what to think and believe? Personal salvation comes at a cost of personal responsibility. While we are all flawed and capable of error that does not relieve us of the responsibility in seeking the truth for ourselves.

The second and necessary part is in testing your understanding of those truths with others. The truth will stand up in the light while error will be seen.