Chapter 1 cont'd:
I want to first thank God through Jesus for all of you because your faith in Christ has become known throughout the whole world. Before God whom I serve with all my heart in spreading this good news, I'm not exaggerating when I say that I pray for you constantly. My hope and prayer are that God may finally allow me the joy of coming to visit you. I long to meet you and impart to you the spiritual gift that God has given me to firmly establish believers in Christ. Beyond this, I want us to experience the encouragement that comes through a mutual exchange of faith- we both have something to give each other.
I want you to know that I have many times planned to visit you that I might have the privilege of winning some Romans to Jesus, as I have had in other places. However, it wasn't God's time. I have a sense of obligation to win all kinds of people to Christ; both the educated and the uneducated. So, I am very excited to preach the good news in the "melting pot" of Rome, if God wills.
Comments:
What stands out to me in this section of Romans 1 is Paul's reference to the mutual exchange of God's grace that he anticipated would take place when he would have the opportunity to meet the believers in Rome. I have had the honor of meeting believers from many nations and cultures through the years. An amazing phenomenon has always accompanied these opportunities--you immediately feel the "family connection" with these people that you've never met before. It is a powerful experience that lends a lot of credibility to the reality of the gospel of Jesus. You see the love of God in their eyes; in their smiles and feel it through their hugs and prayers of thanksgiving. You immediately feel "at home" when the music plays and eyes become wet with tears as you worship together the very same Father and Son in the power of the same Spirit even though you may be in very unfamiliar cultural settings. Even when you don't understand the language in which the songs are being sung, you are able to immediately worship in spirit and truth. When you then "break bread" together (even though the "bread" can taste very different!) the love of Jesus is present in undeniable ways.
I think that this experience really helped my 5 children (now all young adults who follow Jesus from their own hearts) to be confirmed in the reality of God's love in Christ as they were sorting through the deep question of whether the gospel they were taught as kids was an invention of their parents and their local church or really true. When they met these "strangers" who had been reading the same Book and, often and amazingly, even singing the sames tunes, it helped them to realize that this Jesus is relevant to people and cultures of all kinds and it stabilized them as their faith was challenged along the way by people and institutions in our local community.
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