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THE KING’S BUSINESS
in lowly positions (1 Cor. 1:26). Only four verses back, Paul had prayed that the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you,” and now he repeats the prayer. Cer tainly, it is a prayer that needs to be fre quently offered for ourselves and for others. It should be said, however, that these words are not found in some of the best manuscripts. Thursday, Sept. 13 . Rom. 16 : 35 - 27 . A doxology closes this letter of Paul to the believers- in Rome. This doxology is peculiar to this epistle and if full of mean ing. Paul ascribes glory to the One Who is able to establish them. How off;en Paul and other New Testament writers speak of God’s ability to establish and make us stand (ch. 14:4; Jude 24; Hebrews 7:25). Our establishment is not a question of our ability but of God’s. It is well that this is so. Paul speaks of this power of God to establish them, as being “according to my gospel.” The establishing power of God is one of the essential elements in the gos pel that Paul preached. He also speaks of it as being according to “the preaching of Jesus Christ.” The gospel that thus pro claimed a God who is able to establish us Gentiles (as well as Jews) had “been kept in silence through times eternal” but now was “manifested." I am glad that it is now manifested, that is, made open and clear, so that we may all know it and understand it. Not only is it manifested but it is also “made known unto all n.atioits.” It is our fault that it is not more widely known. It is the “commandment of the eternal God” that it should be made known unto all the nations, and some of us therefore are breaking the command ment of God, as important as any one of the ten, when we are not doing what lies in our power to make it known to all the nations. The purpose for which it should be made known is, “unto obedience of faith.” It is ours to tell others the gospel ; it is theirs to believe and obey; but if we do not do our part and tell them, they can not believe and obey, and the responsibil
ity for them to obey, in that case, rests upon us. The subject of the letter that Paul has been writing has been the justi fying, sanctifying, satisfying and glorify ing grace of God in Christ Jesus. No wonder then, that Paul closes his discus sion of this justifying, sanctifying, satisfy ing and glorifying of the grace of God in Christ Jesus with an ascription of glory “to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory unto the ages of the ages.” Well may we take up the last word of the epistle and say “Amen.” Friday, Sept. 14 . 1 Cor. 1 : 1 , 2 . Paul uses a. great variety of designations for himself in his different epistles (See Rom. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1:; Titus 1:1; Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 1:1). Here he speaks of him self as Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God.” In the. opening of his epistles he speaks of himself as an apostle more frequently than in any other way. He would have his readers realize the authority by which he spoke. He would have them clearly under stand that it was not his own message that he was giving^ but the message of Jesus Christ. Let us, therefore, realize in every thing we read in this book that it is not Paul, as merely Paul, who is speaking, but Paul as an apostle of Jesus Christ. And, furthermore,- it was “through the will of God” that Paul was an apostle. When one knows that it is through the will of God that he holds his position, he can have great joy and boldness in it. We have three deeply significant designations of believers in the second verse: ( 1 ) Them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus.” All believers are “sanctified,” i.e., they are set apart by the blood of Christ from the world unto God (Hebrews 10:10, 14, 29; 13:12). We may be very imperfect Chris tians, but, nevertheless if we are in “Christ Jesus,” we “are sanctified.” ( 2 ) “called to be saints.” Many a professed Chris tian says, “I am no saint.” Yes, you are a I saint,” in the Bible sense of saint, if you are in Christ Jesus. That is what
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