The Roman Road to Righteousness

This recent series of postings began by looking at Mary of Bethany, sitting at the feet of Jesus, feasting on each of the Words of Life spoken by Him. From there the postings went on to look at the community of believers of Jesus Christ, aka the church or "the called out" ones. But I think we need to know more about the faith that bound together in such great unity the community of believers, of which Mary of Bethany was one, along with her sister Martha, her brother Lazarus, and all of the New Testament believers who became the community of Christ.

The Book of Romans, actually titled "The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans" (epistle meaning letter), is one of the most important books in the New Testament. In this letter to the Romans, Paul, the apostle "called out" by Jesus Christ to take the Good News of the Gospel to the Gentiles, very thoroughly lays out for us all that we will experience on the walk of faith that we have been "called out" to walk. It is one of the most encouraging books of the New Testament to me and I turn to it often. On this road laid out in the letter to the Romans, we find the sinful condition of man in the eyes of a holy God (condemnation), the gift of God to the sinful world in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ (justification), the blessing of the Holy Spirit who transforms our lives and causes us to walk obediently before God (sanctification), and the hope of life everlasting in the presence of God (glorification). All that the Christian life is about is encapsulated in this one letter.

So, for the next several postings, we will hear again some of what Mary of Bethany heard at the feet of Jesus. For those of us that are confessing Christians (not confessing as in "going to confession"; but confessing as in proclaiming by both our words and actions that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord) this will just be an overview of what it is we believe and why. If there are any non-confessors reading this blog, it will help you to understand what true Christians are all about (as opposed to those "pretenders of the faith"), but my hope would be of course, that after seeing what it is all about, you would want to receive for yourself this amazing grace of God's gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, into your own life. He has transformed my life; I am not at all the person I once was because of His grace and mercy and love towards me. That transformation is still taking place day by day. And He will do the same for you, if you will trust in Him.

Because this is a long holiday weekend, it will be Tuesday, Lord willing, that we will begin walking down this "Roman Road to Righteousness."

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 15:4-6)