D A IL Y D E V O T I O N A L IN THE NEW T E S TAMEN T
S T U D I E S
FOR INDIVIDUAL MEDITATION
AND FAMILY WORSHIP
By R A. TORREY
Saturday, Sept. i. Rom. 15 : 13 , 14 .
Sunday, Sept. 2 .
Rom. 15 : 15 - 19 . . While Paul wrote so humbly and so tact fully, nevertheless, he wrote with all bold ness, that he might bring to mind what they knew as well as he, but what they had in a measure forgotten in their prac tice. He did this because God had bestowed upon him grace, “to be a minister of Christ Jesus unto the Gentiles.” It was grace and only grace, it was wondrous grace, that God had bestowed upon Paul in making him a minister of Jesus: Christ unto (the Gentiles, and Paul realized that it was so. God has bestowed similar wondrous grace today upon many whom he calls to the mission field. The purpose for which God had made him a minister of Christ Jesus unto the Gentiles was “that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” This ministry of Paul had been accompanied by many signs of God’s favor, “signs and wonders” had been wrought through him “in the power of the Holy Spirit.” The result was that beginning from Jerusalem around about even unto Illyricum, he had fully preached the gospel of Christ. It is a wonderful thing when a man can say, “I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.” Monday, Sept.. 3 . Rom. 15 : 20 , 21 . Paul’s aim in preaching the gospel had been a lofty one; unlike many today who seek to profit by what men who have gone before them have done, it was Paul’s ambi tion (this is the force of the word trans lated “stfive” in the A. V., and make it “my aim” in the R. V.) to preach the gos pel where Christ was not already named. He did not desire to build upon a founda tion that others had already laid but' to
We have here a deeply significant name for God, “the God of hope.” In the fifth verse of the chapter, he is spoken of as “the God of patience and of comfort.” Paul knew a God who was at the same time, “the God of patience and of comfort,” and also the “God of hope.” The religion of the Bible is a religion of hope and the God of the Bible is the “God of hope.” Through the power of this God whom the Bible presents to us, the believer in his Son Jesus Christ, finds “patience,” “com fort” and “hope.” Furthermore, he finds “all joy and peace in believing.” Not only has he joy and peace, he is filled with joy and peace. It is the “God of hope,” who fills us with joy and peace. He does it “through the power of the Holy Spirit,” that is to say, the God of hope sends the Holy Spirit into our hearts, and as he takes possession of our hearts, he fills us with “all joy and peace in believing” (cf. Gal. 5:22). We should note Paul’s humility and persuasiveness in writing to the saints in Rome. He does not assume that they are full of badness and ignorance; on the contrary, he expresses the confidence that they are “full of goodness,” and “filled with all knowledge;” and not only that, but that they are so fully acquainted with the truth that they are “able also to admon ish one another” and so do not need the admonishing of an outsider. This was sanctified tact on Paul’s part, and not the tact which is born of calculating policy, but of a humble, loving heart. Nothing will more effectually close the hearts of hearers against a teacher and especially against a teacher from«- abroad, as Paul was, than for him to assume that they know nothing and he knows it all. :
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