Saturday, January 18, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Romans 1-2
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 8
Key Verse
Romans 1:31 — “Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:”
Devotional Thought
Paul had never been to Rome when he wrote this letter, yet he opens it like a man writing to family. He calls himself “a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God” — a man with a single occupation. His readers were “beloved of God, called to be saints,” a small band of believers scattered through the empire’s capital, their faith already “spoken of throughout the whole world.” He tells them he prays for them “without ceasing,” that he longs to see them, that he is “debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians.” There is warmth here, and there is urgency: “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation.”
But the warmth turns quickly to sober clarity. Paul will not let anyone — Jew or Gentile, religious or irreligious — stand outside the reach of this diagnosis. The Gentiles, he says, had the witness of creation itself: “the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen.” Yet they “glorified him not as God, neither were thankful,” and so “God gave them up” — three times over, the dreadful refrain of Romans 1. And the religious? Paul turns to them in chapter 2: “Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest.” The one who teaches another must teach himself. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles, he says, “through you.”
It is mid-January, and the year still feels new. Perhaps you have begun a reading plan, resolved to pray more, determined to be better. Romans 1 and 2 are a bracing word for such a season, because they tell us plainly that our resolutions cannot save us. The law written on the heart, the conscience that “accusing or else excusing,” the outward badge of religion — none of it justifies. “Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” And who has done it? Not one.
And yet, over these same days, the church reads Psalm 8: “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him?” The psalmist looks at the same creation Paul describes and does not conclude that man is abandoned, but that he is visited — “crowned with glory and honour,” given dominion over the works of God’s hands. Here is the mercy Paul is driving toward: the God whose wrath is revealed against unrighteousness is the same God whose “goodness and forbearance and longsuffering” lead us to repentance. The gospel is not ashamed of itself, and it is not ashamed of us.
Reflection
- Paul says the goodness of God leads to repentance (2:4). Where in your life have you been treating God’s patience as permission rather than kindness, and what would genuine repentance look like this week?
- Psalm 8 asks, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?” Romans 1 says men “did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” Which of those two postures describes your heart today — grateful wonder, or quiet avoidance?
Prayer
O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. We confess that we have not glorified thee as God, nor been thankful; we have judged others for sins we ourselves commit, and we have rested in outward religion while our hearts wandered. Forgive us, and let thy goodness lead us to repentance rather than to presumption. We thank thee that the gospel is thy power unto salvation, and that thou art mindful of man. Crown us again with thy glory and honour, write thy law upon our hearts by thy Spirit, and make us doers of thy word and not hearers only, to the praise of thy name. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 8:1 — “O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.”