Through whom (Jesus Christ our Lord) we have received grace and apostleship
We have all received His grace, and Paul has also received the apostleship to lay the foundation of the church, which is Jesus Christ.
to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His Name's sake,
Paul's "job" was to share the Good News to all the non-Jews, that all who would listen and receive faith would become part of God's church; all those who would obey God's calling to believe.
among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;
Paul is writing to the Christians who have already been called to have faith in Jesus as Savior.
to all who are the beloved of God in Rome, called as saints:
This letter is to the church in Rome, where Paul has yet to travel, but he is planning to go there, and this letter is preceding him.
Those who have become Christians there are greatly loved of God, and He calls them "saints," "holy ones."
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This concludes Paul's introductory greeting, which we are discussing yesterday and today.
Paul was to lay the church's foundation among the Gentiles, as Peter was to lay it among Jewish, Israelite people (Galatians 2:7). God had made them both Apostles, foundation-layers, so that all people everywhere could hear the wonderful Good News and come to faith, all over the World, both Jews and Gentiles.
God is not willing for any to perish, any people anywhere, because He made Mankind to be His family. Even in ancient Israel, God blessed the Nation when they followed His Law, and peoples in other Nations could see how good God was, and want to worship Him, too.
But whenever God prospered Israel, instead of being thankful, they just got proud and figured that they'd got it for themselves, and forgot God. So He had to take it away from them, so that they would turn to Him again. We see this repeated over and over again in the book of Judges.
Now, today, the task is ours, the members of God's Universal Church, His children, to build on the foundation the Apostles laid, sharing with everyone how good our God is to Love us so much as to send His own Son to take our death, so we can live forever with Him.
It's up to us, Christians, brothers and sisters in the Lord!
Jesus said that,
This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the World for a witness unto all Nations; and then the end shall come (Matthew 24: 14).That means we need to get off our duffs and get moving, to preach this wonderful Good News to everyone! Let everybody know, so they can each make their own decision whether to let God Love them or not.
Then when everyone who is alive has considered and made their choice, then the Last Trumpet will sound and the Lord will descend, and this Era of Mankind will be over! (See I Corinthians 15: 51-53 and I Thessalonians 4: 13-18.)
Tomorrow we will begin to peruse all that Paul had to say to these Roman Christians.
Until then, my dears, Grow in the Grace and Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (II Peter 3: 18), and look for God's blessings every day!
Even so, come soon, Lord Jesus!
