Romans 1: 1-7

"(1)Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God - (2) the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures (3) regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David (4) and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. (5) Through him and for his name's sake, we recieved grace and apostleship to call people from among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. (6) And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. (7) To all in Rome who are loved by Gad and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ."

First, I want you to know that I'm starting with Paul's letters because I'm a wimp. Even though I think God called me to do this blog, I'm starting with something easy. Why are Paul's letters easy - I don't know, but my brain is telling me it's easier so this is where I'm starting. Second, Paul wrote lots of letter's to the early Christians to both encourage them and teach them more about the word of Christ. This first letter is to the Romans, hence the title Romans.

Okay so the first thing I find interesting is that Paul calls himself and apostle, which means "one who is sent" (presumably by God to spread the Word), and then later in verse 5 he says that "we" have recieved apostleship too. I find that interesting and profound because in my mind Paul is one of the greatest supporters of Christianity and to be lumped in with Paul is an awesome honor and a great responsibility. In verses 2-4 he clarifies who he's serving - Jesus Christ who's coming was prophisied (sp?) about, who was the Son of God, died, was resurrected and is now recongnized as Jesus Christ our Lord. I think this is important because we need to know what/who Paul stood for and it doesn't really get any clearer than that.

Paul goes on to say that through Christ we recieve grace and apostleship. The dictionary in my Bible says that grace is "God's free and unmerited favor for sinful humanity." Now, this might be upsetting to some people, but I need you to know, that we humans aren't perfect and will never be perfect. We will always sin which is why my grace definition calls us sinful humanity. Now that seems negative, but that puts us all in the same boat. Even if you dress to the nines on Sunday, never miss church, preach in front of a congregation, sing the most beautiful hymns or stand in the pew with your arms upraised, you still sin. Okay, so God shows everyone favor (which I think of as love and forgiveness) even though we're sinful, but it's more than that - it's free and unmerited/undeserved. God has the power to do anything - he spoke the world into existance - but even though we don't deserve it he choses to give us favor/love/forgiveness freely...how amazing! But there is one tiny stipulation. You have to go through Christ to get this grace. That means you have to accept him into your life to be your Lord and savior to recieve His grace. And when you do or if you have already Paul says we will "belong to Jesus Christ" in an awesome family of believers!