What Next?

Welcome back to all my readers.  I hope that you enjoyed my series of devotionals from the book of Revelation.

I am aware, and part of the reason I picked that book is because of this, that Revelation is a path less trodden. Certainly not my go-to choice for devotional reading, or at least it wasn't before I did this series and came to love some of the stunning views of Christ that it contained.

In the last few weeks of the previous series God started to lead me to the next book to blog through, and unlike Revelation, it could not be a more worn path.

But whereas Revelation was something I was wholly (well largely) unfamiliar with, this book is something I am, if anything, over familiar with.

And I think that, a little like how you may start to take a partner for granted to just do what they do, sometimes you have to stop and appreciate that they (speaking from personal experience here) pretty much hold everything together so as to enable you to do what you do.

This book is that. It is like a marriage partner that is virtually carrying you.

There are many fascinating and passionate books in the new testament that explain Christian doctrine, but without this book much of our understanding would simply fall to pieces.

Can you imagine, or would you even want to, a New Testament without Paul's Epistle to the Romans?

If Romans were to vanish I think you might suddenly understand  just how much you depend on it, in the same way as if one of your legs were to vanish.

God has given us all scripture, and it is all God breathed and inspired, but Romans is undoubtedly one of the most important books. For here the apostle Paul lays out his great theological exposition of Christian Doctrine, bringing to it all the weight of his intellect and broad cultural and linguistic understanding, along with the power of the Spirit and the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And it has, almost beyond any other book been instrumental in the Christian Church.

It was The book that was responsible for the conversion of great Christian thinker, theologian and apologist, Augustine, and pertly the basis for his robust defence of the faith against the heresy of the Pelagians. it could be said that in this Romans itself saved the faith, because without it, it would have surely succumbed.

It was also vital and essential in Martin Luther's rediscovery of the tenants of the doctrine of Justification by faith alone, which in turn sparked the reformation.

It was Martin Luther's commentary on the Epistle that was being read that amazing night when John Wesley felt his heart 'Strangely warmed'. And the result of Wesley's ensuing spiritual awakening was to have a profound affect on many, many lives. Not least mine, because it was Wesley's preaching that lead to the conversion of my great, great, great (I forget exactly how many 'greats' but you get the picture) Grandad. My Father was the first in our line to leave Methodism, but the line of faith from father to son has been unbroken since, by the grace of God.

Yes. Because of the Book of Romans and because of it's depiction of what our wonderful lord Jesus has done for us.

These are just three of the biggest examples but there are many more people who have been profoundly impacted by the book of Romans.


So I want to encourage us , this morning and going forward, to be grateful for this wonderful book and to be inspired afresh by some very familiar truths and see them in a new light. And perhaps see some things that we have never seen before.

To look at it in wonder because it shows us Jesus, and Jesus is at it's centre and is it's divine inspiration and spiritual author, through a man called...

 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God,

By The grace of God,

The same grace that calls us,
and saves us,

This day,
And all days,

Amen