A friend of mine will be spending the fall in Rome. I wrote to wish him well:
Dear Peter-
Congratulations on your opportunity to spend this semester abroad, in particular, in Rome! How exciting. I have no doubt that you will have a remarkable time with plenty of experiences that will change your life.
Enjoy every one of them!
I wanted to send you off with some thoughts that you may find a bit different from what others are saying. Because you have given your life to Jesus Christ, and depend on him for your identity and purpose, I wanted to reflect a minute on perhaps the most important letter recorded in the Bible. It is the letter of Saint Paul to the church in Rome. It was written by Paul from the city of Corinth, in Greece. The date of writing was approximately 56 AD, when Paul was about 60 years old. Since you will be living in Rome, I thought this was a good time to review why Paul's letter to the Romans is so amazing and important. Bear with me. If you are bored on your flight to Italy, maybe it would be a good time to read the whole letter. For now, just a few comments on some of the most amazing parts.
Paul was born in about 4 BC in Tarsus, a city in southern Turkey. We don't know too much about him, but it touches me to realize that he was about the same age as Jesus Christ, though they never met before Jesus was crucified in the early 30's AD. Paul's original name was Saul, and he was an orthodox Jew, a man of extreme integrity and determination to keep Judaism pure. As you will recall from the Book of Acts, Saul was miraculously converted from a persecutor of early Christians to the greatest missionary of the early church. His passion was to explain about Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, that is, to non-Jews. Without the life and ministry of Paul, the spread of Christianity might have largely been limited to Jewish communities. Paul changed the world. His ministry is why you and I heard a clear explanation of how God has pursued us, paying our own debts of evil through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us.
So what is so important about Paul's letter to the early church at Rome? It is a letter that clarified the central truths of Christianity in ways that have been helping change lives ever since. The letter is rich with Paul's theological teaching (after all, he was an expert in the Jewish scriptures so he could explain in detail how the life and death of Jesus fulfilled the Jewish story, while changing everything). Though the entire letter is worth detailed study, there is a selection of very famous verses (statements) from this letter that have been used for centuries to help explain Christianity to those seeking to understand it. These verses helped convince me to give my life to Jesus Christ in 1978. As you reflect on them, keep in mind that as you live and study in Rome, you carry the legacy of Saint Paul, whose love for the people of the early church in Rome led him to write this letter. Recall that he was writing to early Gentile believers who were confused and still trying to understand his message. This was hundreds of years before Emperor Constantine made Christianity into an imperial religion. Recall that Paul was writing about 20 years after his conversion experience in 36 AD. Reflect also on the fact that Paul probably was killed about 10 years after writing this letter. We don't know, but he may also have died in Rome under Emperor Nero.
Here are some of the amazing verses in this letter, and what they mean to me. Remember that it is always risky to select individual Bible verses and read them out of context. That is why I encourage you to read the entire letter.
Rom 3:10 There is no one righteous, not even one.
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
These two verses remind me that all humans are in the same boat – we fall short of God's standard. We stumble when it comes to the ten commandments, and even if we manage to avoid doing bad things, we leave good things undone. Worse, Jesus taught that our thought lives count against us as much as our actions. We all stand before God in need of restoration and redemption, and we don't have the tools to restore or redeem ourselves.
Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This amazing statement suggests that our rescue isn't about our goodness, but about his goodness. It also tells us that there is nothing we can do to merit God's love. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more than he already does. We don't have to improve ourselves or get clean in order to be forgiven. Jesus died to pay for us just as we are. Sure, there are plenty of things that we can do to love God more, and to imitate his great unconditional love for us. Those things show our appreciation and thanks, but they won't make God love us more. He can't love us more.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This verse reminds me how wonderful is God's free gift. I had separated myself from him through my selfishness and pride. He has not given me what I deserved, but offers a gift of forgiveness, and a chance to be redefined forever. If I accept this gift, I am forever new, not seen by God in terms of my sin, but seen by him as his own son, Jesus Christ. I need not constantly worry about this new status – I have been adopted forever. Even as I continue to struggle to imitate him, he has defined me as saved permanently.
Rom 10:9 If you declare with your mouth "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Here I learn that accepting God's gift of new life doesn't involve achieving anything or maintaining anything on my part. It is a single decision and statement of faith and surrender to a new Lord. God pays my penalty once and for all, not because I am good, but because he is good.
As you have a wonderful fall in Rome, I pray that you remember and are always prepared to share Paul's ancient message to the Romans.
8.29.16
