Romans 1, part 1 "Living and Breathing Faith"

I love, love, love Romans; it is my personal favorite book of the bible. I could read Paul's letter to the Romans over and over again. Hopefully, as you read along you will also come to love Romans as much as I do.

So, go get your coffee, your bible, a warm fuzzy blanket, curl up in your favorite reading spot and open your bible to Romans chapter 1....

Before, we dig into the scripture let's take a look at the author. Sometimes we need to step back and understand the bigger picture going on before we get sucked into details. The author of Romans is the apostle Paul.

Paul was one of the most determined of apostles to spread the Good News to the Gentiles. That is good news for us considering most of us are Gentiles, non-Jews. But Paul's life did not always beat to the heart beat of Christ. In fact... quiet the opposite was true, Paul before his conversion persecuted Christians.

Paul, who was Saul before his conversion to Christianity, was born a Jew. He was raised as a Jew. He was trained under the most famous of Jewish teachers. He was probably a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. He was zealous for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah and he persecuted all those who did.

Saul's heart beat was for the living God; and then He had an encounter with the living God that changed his life forever. On the road to Damascus, Saul and Jesus had a divine appointment. You can read about his conversion in Acts chapter 9. Saul would be forever now known as Paul. It was no longer Paul who lived but Christ in him. Here is a beautiful piece of music that sings of Paul's conversion. The first part is a representation of his persecution and the lighter part is his conversion.



Now that we understand all that Paul was and who he had become it will really help us understand the heart of which this letter was written. A letter written by a man who had been saved from so much....

This letter is written to the Christians in Rome (vs. 7). I think Paul had a special place in his heart for them because he was a Roman citizen as well. Once a hater of all Christians now we see a man who longs to be in their presence...to encourage and be encouraged (vs. 8-15). We see a man who loves his brothers and sisters in Christ. They are now his family and he is proud of them.

In verse 16-17 we find Paul's main purpose for the letter....

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

¹⁷ For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

I love, love, love this verse. I am afraid you will hear the word "love" a lot from me during this study. I guess everyone will just have to understand. LOL

I want to be like Paul. I do not want to ever be ashamed of Jesus. I want to spread his love to everyone. I want to" live and breathe faith".

As we read Romans we will learn how to "live and breathe faith"!

GET JOY!

Don't forget to grab the button for your blog, check out Jenilee's thoughts on Romans 1 here and leave a comment so we know who is joining us through out this study...blessings & enjoy!