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:
Romans is a book of application; Paul’s intent was to help the Roman church live out the gospel in their day to day lives. What Paul laid out in Romans was a doctrine that was implicit in the logic of his own conversion.
Before his conversion, he thought that his devotion to the law was his guarantee for the basis of acceptance with God. Here’s how he described his pre-conversion self, “If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless (Phil. 3:4-6).”
All of this self-confidence and realization of the inadequacy of the law to which he was so devoted came crashing down around him in his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. Yet in that same instance, he was also assured of his acceptance with God on the basis of God’s pardoning grace and the blotting out of his sin, even though he continued to consider himself the least of the apostles because he had persecuted the church.
After twenty years of preaching the gospel of Christ, Paul was now proclaiming that same gospel to the Romans. Paul clearly understood the universal need of all humanity for the gospel. This was why, at this point in his letter, he affirmed mankind to be morally bankrupt in God’s sight. He clearly stated that all stand on one level, the Jew is no better than the Gentile; all fall short in their sinfulness before God.
Apply:
Take some time and think about your own life right now. Think back to the ways you tried to earn God’s favor. Maybe you were consumed with yourself? Maybe God was the furthest thing from your mind? If so, what was that like?
Now think to the day you had an encounter with Christ…the day you knew Him as your Savior. How was the inadequacy of your own pursuits revealed? What had the gospel set you free from? What emotions did you experience at that time?
Think about your life right here, right now…what would God have you do today?
*From what you have just read and considered: What is a personal implication/application for your life today?
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.