Today I step away from my study of Mark to venture back to Romans for a discipleship study I am beginning with a dear brother in Christ at church. The first time I went through this book in a deep study I marked up my Thompson Chain NIV study bible pretty good. This time I will be working out of the John MacArthur (JMac) ESV Study Bible I received as a gift. As you can see from the image below, MacArthur had quite a bit to say in Romans.
I started this morning by reading through JMac’s introduction to Romans which was really good. It didn’t reveal anything I didn’t already understand about the circumstances of this book by Paul but it was nice to refresh my memory of all of the particulars.
These first 6 verses have got to be in the running for the longest ‘English’ translated sentence in the whole bible. Goodness! Given the time I have spent on the intro here today, I am only covering verse one in this post today.
"Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God," Romans 1:1
In my JMac study bible today I circled “a servant”, “called”, and “set apart”. In this life that God has ‘called’ me to here on earth, is there enough evidence in the way I conduct myself, that someone could accuse me of being ‘a servant’ of Christ Jesus? Finally, if I have been called and I embrace and strive to be a servant of Jesus, have I been conveying the gospel of God? Am I just standing stagnate in my ‘set apart’ state?
APPLICATION:
I definitely feel ‘called’ by the Lord to a life in servanthood to Him…however, I need to be more conscious of the opportunities the King Jesus is putting before me to share the good news of His sacrifice and life at the Father’s right hand through the resurrection. A presence He has in advocacy for those who have accepted Him. Praying today that the Lord would give me the boldness and courage to be more forward and take advantage of every opportunity He lays before me to share the good news of His Son.