A Prayer About a BIG Gospel
I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world… That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome. I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” Romans 1:8; 15-17
Holy and Loving Father, how I praise you today for the ongoing teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit, for he continues to throw on new light switches in the dark caverns of my understanding. Bring more and more luminary liberty to my heart, is my prayer! Open the eyes of my heart so I can see more of the beauty of Jesus, the bigness of his cross and the bounty of the gospel EVERYWHERE in the Bible… just like in this seemingly ordinary introduction to Paul’s letter to the churches of Rome.
I’m intrigued, Father, with the story I read in Paul’s opening words. He affirms that the gospel already had such a great effect among the Roman Christians that their faith in Jesus is being reported all over the world. But then he immediately says that’s precisely why he’s so eager to come to Rome to preach the gospel to them. They who have welcomed the gospel simply need more of the gospel. Waa-la! Bingo! Ding, ding, ding! That’s me too, Father, I simply need more of the gospel!
When you first revealed your saving grace to my heart, Father, I thought the gospel was just the door into a relationship with you. After going through the door I was supposed to move on to a whole bunch of other spiritual stuff-leaving the milk for the meat. But now I’m seeing, more than ever, that the gospel is not merely the door into a life of knowing you, it’s the whole domain of knowing you. There’s never more than the gospel, there’s just more OF the gospel!
Indeed, Father, the gospel is your way, your only way, of putting all things right-in my heart and throughout your universe. For only in the gospel do I find the big righteousness needed for the big mess that I am. And only in the gospel do I discover that this righteousness, your righteousness, is received by the faith of an empty hand, not by the labors of my guilty hands, the number of my penitent tears, nor by the promises of my sinful heart.
Bring the power of the gospel, the BIG gospel, to bear on every aspect of my life. So very Amen I pray, in Jesus’ name.