Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 1-3.

On Sunday I wrote about how Paul had those to whom he considered himself accountable.  In today’s passage we see another example of Paul not considering himself above others.  Here he writes that he wants to visit the Roman Believers in order to impart some spiritual gift which will build them up.  Then he immediately clarifies that he wants them (he and the Roman Believers) to be mutually encouraged in their faith.  We should take this lesson to heart.  If Paul felt that he was not “above” the Believers in Rome with regards to faith in Christ and following Christ, who today can consider themselves above other Believers, and who may we consider as being above ourselves?  We all have something to teach our fellow Believers, and we all have something to learn from them.

Paul finishes his introduction to this letter by saying that the righteous live by faith.  He then explains in depth what that means.  Paul begins by pointing out that all people of all time have no excuse for not acknowledging God and following His laws because God has made both Himself and His laws clear in the nature of Creation.  Nevertheless most people have foolishly chosen to attempt to appear wise by denying that God and His rules for human behavior exist.  Rejecting the truth about God results in us instead embracing lies that our lust, greed, and other wickedness are good and beneficial.  Paul points out that even those of us who have embraced the knowledge of God and sought to obey His laws have failed to truly live according to them.  We have nothing to hold over those others which would allow us to claim ourselves superior to them.    Paul points out that our only hope of righteousness is to put our faith in Christ.  We will not, cannot, be righteous by our own efforts.  However, if we trust God, if we have faith in Jesus Christ, God will transform us so that we can indeed follow His commands.  This means that we do not do good because we think it will benefit us to do good, but because we are inspired by the example Christ gave us, and by the power of the Holy Spirit within us, to emulate that righteousness which Christ exhibited.  Whatever righteous behavior we have belongs not to us, is not reflective of our goodness, but rather reflects the gift which God has given to us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.