Romans has been such a valuable study! We’ve spent time pouring over these chapters, learning what it means to be a child of God, to live our life according to His will, His ways, shedding off the old, putting on the new, understanding the foundation of our faith, all the way through to the high calling of knowing Christ. Even though we’ve spent so much time reading and re-reading the text, each time I’ve learned something new and deeper than the time before. 

I have often thought that if there was only one book I could have of the Bible, I would want the Book of Romans. While it is difficult to summarize 16 chapters of a book within the Bible, doing so allows the Word of God to sink in and become part of the fiber of our being. This is crucial in our walk with Christ. Romans is about the journey of our salvation—from beginning to end. The four main topics within these 16 brilliant chapters are: the need for salvation, the life of salvation, the path of salvation, and the scope of salvation. 

This last section we are in is about the service of salvation. Consider the book’s theme: “The Righteous Shall Live by Faith.” When a person comes to know the Lord as their Savior, the Word teaches them to walk out their salvation, or in other words, to demonstrate the practical application of their faith. Throughout the first part of Romans, we learned about the importance of our relationship and true intimacy with God. Here, we have a new element—the service of our salvation—which involves the relationship with our brethren. 

So how does a person who has entered into intimacy with God behave with their brethren? Paul spent five chapters writing to the believers in Rome, in depth, about the service of our salvation and loving one another. This is crucial for the believer to embrace. Showing ourselves approved, laying everything down for the King and walking in love are also among the topics Paul discusses. But as I reviewed chapter 14, I noticed that “In the Service of our Faith,” or “Walking Out our Salvation,” however you want to phrase it, became the clear theme. 

Note: It is very important that we look up each word, because we get an in-depth meaning of the text that we cannot see without a deeper examination of the words. There are things we can assume, but using our Greek or Hebrew study tools gains us access to the true meaning of the Word of God. 

Paul says, “Receive those who are weak in the faith.” (Romans 14:1) This word “receive,” has a deeper meaning than, for example, to receive packages. I am not going to open myself up to a lot of personal attachments or pour out much personal investment into those packages when UPS shows up at my door. I’ll likely take the package and place it on my desk until I’ve completed whatever else I’m doing first.

However, when the Word says to, “receive those who are weak in the faith,” through word study tools we can understand more clearly that the Greek word for “receive” is proslambanó, which means, “To aggressively receive with strong personal interest.” Understanding this gives new meaning to the passage. For example, God and Christ are said to receive those who were formerly estranged from them, having reunited themselves to Him by the blessing of the Gospel. So when a package comes to my door, I am not going to have that same reaction to that package or the UPS driver. However, if someone is weak in the faith, new in the faith, or struggling in the faith, Paul instructs us to reach into their lives aggressively and receive them. This means to walk with them, counsel them, and bring them to a place where they can be strong in the faith. 

We were all weak in the faith at one time or another in our walk and having experienced that weakness in the faith, even since we got saved, provides us each with a unique opportunity to reach into the lives of our brothers and sisters in the Lord and be a strength to them. Again, God and Christ are said to have received those who, formerly estranged from them, were reunited with them through the blessing of the Gospel. How did they do this? God sent Jesus down here to walk this earth, live a sinless life, die on the cross, experience death with our sin upon Him, and having overcome death for us, rose again on the third day. That is a pretty aggressive step, isn’t it? In fact, to send His Son to die to reach into our lives is an intensely aggressive step with an incredibly strong personal interest in our lives by the Lord God Almighty. While the Lord may not ask us to die for our brother, He does ask us to reach out into their lives aggressively and begin to impart life to them. 

When I consider what is taking place in the false Unity Movement today, I think about those people who are falling away from the truth—and it is happening by the thousands. That is a lot of weak brothers and sisters! It’s rather scary when you see one pastor after another, one pretty well-known name after another, entering into covenant with this false Unity Movement. How do we reach into their lives? We are praying against this; we are praying for truth to come. When people come our way, we give them the truth, and when given the opportunity, we step out and declare the truth. How far do we go? Honestly, I am praying about how aggressive the Lord expects us to be on this issue. 2018 was the year of refining and as I reflected on what was going on in the world—not just our nation, but the world—I can really see how God was striving to refine the Church. Today, God is preparing to bring judgment to the house of God, but in 2018, He sought to refine the Church. Deception entered in because of the compromise they had allowed to enter their doors. 

You know, I accepted the Lord when I was a kid, but I turned away from God as a teenager and sought after the world. When I came back to God, I came back to Him hungering, craving Him, knowing without a shred of doubt that He was my God and I would serve Him all the days of my life. Does it mean I did not have struggles? Absolutely not! I faced far more struggles than if I had walked with Him my entire life. However, I do not walk in the guilt and shame of my past because the Lord has forgiven me, and He uses everything that I went through to touch people’s lives. 

The enemy would love to remind me of my past and shame me for it, but the Lord says, “I paid the price, now walk in it! I did not pay the price so that you would live a life condemned by your mistakes or your sins! You have repented! Walk in the freedom I have given you!” Why is this so important? If we do not walk in the freedom that God gives us, with the strength and forgiveness He has offered, we are not walking in the fullness of our salvation. 

The enemy’s greatest tactic is to remind us of our past. He guilts us into losing faith in our salvation. I don’t have the cleanest past, however, the Lord freed me of that past and the guilt and shame have no place here any longer. So when others call me, weeping over their past, fearing they are unforgiveable, I understand their struggles, their pain and the difficulty they have trying to release their past. I aggressively reach into their lives in an effort to help them overcome and begin to walk in the fullness of what God has for them.  

God does not want us living in the sin, and once we’ve repented, He doesn’t want us being reminded of the sin or shamed for our past. He wants us walking in the freedom of our salvation. 

To be continued next week…

Blessings & Love,

Ricci Wilson