ROMANS 1:1-6 – Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

THEME OF THE DAY. THE PURPOSE OF THE GOSPEL. In today’s scripture, the Apostle Paul reveals the purpose of why God chose him and used him in the work of the Gospel – through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. Not only was this the mission statement of Paul’s life work, it also describes the chief end of the Gospel of Jesus Christ – to create a people zealous to obey God’s Word. The Gospel is not a “fire insurance policy” keeping people out of hell. Praise God, it does remove His wrath from us, but that isn’t its chief purpose. It is a radical work of God in the heart of a believing sinner that removes love for sin and the controlling power of sin. When promptly understood and lived, the Gospel produces a people who love to obey the Word of God because they have met and love the God of the Word. Their lives become passionate about God-honoring obedience. It becomes the chief pursuit in their lives. Conversely, where this passion and pursuit are absent so is the understanding of the Gospel. But let’s provide three specific applications of what the Gospel does in the heart of the believing sinner.

First, the Gospel breaks the bondage of sin. In the great theological masterpiece of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, he wrote, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:12-14). Friends, the Gospel not only saves us from sin but empowers us to defeat sin on a daily, even moment-by-moment basis. We simply don’t have to continue being in bondage to any besetting sin. The Gospel has broken those chains. Live under its liberating power.

Next, the Gospel radically changes our hearts from loving sin to hating and fighting against it. Here is one acid test of true conversion; our attitude and actions toward sin. The Apostle John said, “No one who abides in Him (Christ) keeps on sinning (willfully); no one who keeps on sinning (willfully) has either seen Him or known Him” (1 John 3:6). The Gospel gives us a new heart with new desires and the chief two are a love for Christ and a hatred for what crucified Christ – sin.

Finally, the Gospel shifts our thinking from earthly and of the flesh to the eternal and spiritual – “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5). A person changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ learns to “set their affections on things above, not on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:2,3). And when it comes to these applications of the Gospel, all focus on the empowering purpose of the Gospel; to produce a people zealous for obedience to the faith as it is in Jesus, revealed in His Word.

PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for the power of the Gospel that changes not only my conduct but my heart.”

QUOTE: “The gospel is designed to produce a people who love to obey God and that with zeal and affection.”