Pray:
Ask God to orient or reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.
Read:
Rom. 2:12-16, “12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) 16 This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.”
Understand:
Paul began this section of scripture with “All who sin.” Here he was putting Jews and Gentiles into the same category of sin and death. The Gentiles would be those who do not have the law and the Jews would be those under the law.
Paul was driving home the point that all—both Jew and Gentile—were guilty because they all had fallen short of God’s righteousness. God had no favorites; both Jews and Gentiles alike had knowledge of God’s law and willfully rebelled against it.
The Jews knew God’s law because they had a special revelation from God; they had His written word in the Torah. The Gentiles knew God’s law because He had written it on their hearts, but they had suppressed the truth about God.
Paul’s point was that “We have all—Jews and Gentiles—sinned against a moral law we have known. Whether we came to know it by special or general revelation, by grace or nature, outwardly or inwardly, in the Scripture or in the heart, is largely irrelevant.” They were all guilty and deserved judgment because they sinned…just like us.
Apply:
Paul’s point was pretty bleak, but one that needed to be made. It’s only by fully understanding just how bleak our situation is that we begin to understand the power of the Gospel.
The good news for us is that we—both Jews and Gentiles—are not left without hope. Instead, we can be filled with the same hope that filled Paul when he said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the gentile.” The Gospel is our way out! This is great news for you and me.
The righteousness that God demands has been revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ! We access it through faith; a faith that is from first to last. The righteousness that God requires is freely given to you and me as a gift from God, and we access it by our faith in Christ!
Sadly, even though the gospel is available to all, some will choose not to believe it. For them, there is a final day of judgment when they will stand before God’s judgment. They are in a hopeless situation.
So what about you? More than likely if you’re reading this, you’ve already accepted the gospel of Jesus as truth. So here’s a challenge for you…spend some time today thinking about the power of the gospel in your own life. Think about where you could be right now had God not intervened. What would your life look like?
Now thank Him for the work of the gospel in your life.
*From what you have just read and considered: What is a personal implication/application for your life today?
Take a moment now and think about the gospel and the implication on your life. If you need to, preach the gospel to yourself! Also, ask God to show you someone who doesn’t know Him yet and share the gospel with them.
Live:
(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today. KEEP PRAYING THROUGHOUT YOUR DAY.