The Romance of Romans-Part 118

Romans Chapter 15 cont'd

I am not making an empty or presumptuous boast concerning my service for God. I would not dare to talk about things the Lord has not done through me to help the Gentiles passionately obey God in word and deed. But I will testify concerning what he has done through me. I have fully preached the good news of Jesus from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum in the power of the Holy Spirit with signs and wonders confirming its reality. I have sought to be a pioneer and preach the good news in areas where Christ has never been proclaimed so that I wouldn't build the churches on another divine ambassador’s foundation. I have taken this scripture personally, "Those shall see to whom he was not spoken of, and those who have not heard will understand." This very mission is what has thus far kept me from coming to you in Rome. But now the season has changed for me and since I have wanted to come and see you for many years, I will visit when I am on my way to Spain. I hope the Lord will permit me to do this and enjoy your company for a while.

Comments:

Paul was a wonderful and rare combination of a theorist and a practitioner when it came to the worship of and service to God. His life experiences and his sacrificial lifestyle gave him the kind of intrinsic authority needed to speak/write to others a challenging and life-altering theological message with such vigor. Additionally, Paul had witnessed many miracles as a divine endorsement that confirmed the graceful and penetrating truths he was commissioned to proclaim. Of course, the greatest miracle he witnessed was how the simple news of Jesus combined with a childlike response of trust in the human heart radically overturned ingrained sin patterns and unleashed the love of God and neighbor like a torrent into the souls of the once-unbelieving "outsiders" of his day. The power of God is embedded in the gospel of Christ and when it is delivered with spiritual authority, it transforms people's lives for good.

I too have seen some miracles of healing, guidance, answered prayers and permanently transformed lives throughout my years of ministry beginning in 1973. I have been blessed to know many others who can say the same and more. God still endorses the simple gospel of Jesus with signs and wonders...especially on the front lines of sharing Christ's love with those who have no clue who he is or what he's done. I am always thrilled with the accounts of God's miraculous activity in our day.

Sadly, as in Jesus' day, people can become preoccupied with a desire to see the spectacular and miss the heart of why divine miracles happen. This eccentricity has led many people into fanaticism and being deceived by the false and counterfeit works of religious charlatans. In all of our longing prayers for God's genuine power to be displayed, it is so vital to remember that "signs" point to something beyond themselves and "wonders" occur to inspire us to wonder "Who is like God?" Miracles (unusual acts of God's power) happen to remind us that Providence (the usual acts of God's power) sustains all things. I see this truth reflected in Paul's words to the Greek philosophers in Athens in Acts 17:24-31 :

24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

29"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."

May we be in that number who have repented (a changing of the mind) and are prepared for a day of justice (that will not be deterred or escaped) because we have personally agreed with and truly accepted God's message of great grace to the entire world through Jesus Christ the Lord.