I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another.
Romans 15:14
As the HMPC men’s Bible-study prepares to wrap up our journey through Romans this next week, I am once again (and in many ways) inspired by how rich and encouraging and grace-filled Paul’s letter is.
I sometimes hear Romans described as heavy, judgy, forbidding, overly complicated, dogmatic or overbearing. But this has not been our experience at all. Instead, this study has been a refreshing review of what is essential and liberating about the Good News.
Chapter 15 hits us with a series of grace notes:
Take Tuesday morning’s discussion of Chapter 15. Paul hits us again and again with what are essentially grace-notes:
- Bear with the failings of the weak (v. 1)
- Build up our neighbors (v. 2)
- May the encouragement we find in the scriptures give us hope (v. 4)
- Have the same attitude to each other that Christ has (v. 5)
- Welcome each other (v. 7)
- Accept each other just as Christ has accepted you (v. 7)
- May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace as we trust in him, so that we may overflow with hope (v. 13)
- I am convinced that you (that we) are filled with goodness and competence (v. 14)
- The God of peace be with us all (v. 33)
And these bullet points are only a sampling of Paul’s words.
All the way through, Romans has presented as a consistent affirmation and an invitation, an encouragement to follow Jesus and to be filled up with the kind of grace and peace that overflows and gets all over the broken world we inhabit.
Paul’s concern is for encouragement and grace and acceptance and hope and peace. That’s the message, and I would say that it has landed quite nicely.
Feeling validated, accepted and secure in God’s love – DEREK