[NOTE: Today is Maundy Thursday. Which is the day during Holy Week that commemorates the Washing of the Feet and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles, as described in the canonical gospels. It is the fifth day of Holy Week, preceded by Holy Wednesday and followed by Good Friday. Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum, or mandate, command, law, order to do something, commandment quotation; reflecting Jesus’ words “I give you a new commandment.”]

• What are the details in these verses?
  • This scripture is a continuation of Paul’s letter that I wrote about in part 8 of this series.
  • The main thing in this scripture is that Paul is praying and thanking God. Paul mentions that he’s thankful that people everywhere are talking about the faith of the Roman Christians. Paul longs to visit them and feels he’s obligated to them.
  • The Gospel (The Good News) is the power of God for the salvation of all believers. Salvation removes destructive powers and negative conditions (God’s wrath; condemnation, power of sin, and grants positive blessings (righteousness, reconciliation, sanctification, justification, and glorification). Since the gospel is powerful and effective, Paul is not ashamed of it and, so, he is obligated to share it with all.
  • In the Gospel (The Good News), a righteousness from God is made known (v.17 The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself—that it begins and ends with faith. As the Scripture says, “But those who are right with God will live by faith.”) This Gospel had been promised in the Old Testament (v.2 God had already promised this Good News through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.) The Law and the Prophets testify to this righteousness from God (3:21 Now, the way to receive God’s approval has been made plain in a way other than the laws in the Scriptures. Moses’ Teachings and the Prophets tell us this.) So the righteousness studied in Romans is the same as that in the Old Testament.
    • Which means, a right relationship and the acts promoting it.
    • God’s righteousness brings salvation and blessing to those who trust in and obey Him.
    • Faithfulness promotes a good relationship, and God’s righteousness includes his faithfulness.
    • God hates sin and is morally pure. So then, those who are in a good relationship with Him should be morally pure.
    • The righteousness of God also refers to God’s character, which is mentioned in Romans Ch. 3.

• What is God’s word saying in these verses?”
  • Well, let’s see here. The info above is pretty in-depth. I could’ve kept going on and on… However, I feel what I shared above is pretty informative about what the scripture is conveying. The major thing is that I need to be in a right relationship with God and be ready at all times to share The Good News of the Gospel with whoever God puts in my path that He moves the Holy Spirit to speak on my behalf. I need to be a good example of a faithful God-fearing Christian for those to wonder and question why they still live in wickedness and want God’s grace imparted to them as well.
  • I must say, I’m very thankful that the Holy Spirit moves in God’s children so that people everywhere talk about our faith and seek after it also. And for Christians to persevere through the persecution and continue in the faith.
  • We, as God’s children, just need to step out of the way and stop trying to control how The Good News of the Gospel is shared, etc. For those who are blocking God, I mean. Not all of God’s children are a hindrance to the Good News.

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