TO GOD BE THE GLORY

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now to Him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith—to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Romans 16:25-27

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today, we wrap our look at Paul’s letter to the Romans, a journey we embarked on more than four months ago. Tomorrow, we move onto Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth.

So how does Paul end his letter to Rome?

Perhaps the only way he should, by giving glory to the God who made his ministry possible, the God who provided him the gifts to use in spreading the Gospel and then the opportunities to use those gifts.

This is the way we should respond to as we end things we do in life.

Get up in the morning and give glory to God for the new day and the purposes He has within.

Drive to work or elsewhere and arrive safely? Give glory to God for how He protected you along the way to your destination.

Accomplish something special at work or at home? Give God the glory for helping bring you to that success.

And when you get set to lay down your head and sleep, give glory to God for getting you through another day.

Then get up and do it all over again.

You get the point. There is no shortage of times when we can stop and give our God the glory He so very much deserves.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul spent a lot of time providing guidance so his readers could become more the people that God wanted them to be, a people who strived to live as His Son Jesus did. After all, this is what it means to exist as a Christian, right? We need to seek to be Christ-like in everything we do.

But Paul knew that he couldn’t have provided one word of wisdom and guidance to the Roman Christians if he didn’t first have God with him, providing the words for Paul to share. Like the prophets of the Old Testament, Paul was a messenger for God, sharing the good news of the salvation offered to all people, Jew or Gentile, through His Son Jesus.  And so Paul fittingly closed his letter by not glorifying himself but rather God. Look at his words again here:

Now to Him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith—to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.  Romans 16:25-27

Here we see Paul proclaim all glory to God, the wise and eternal God who longed to abide forever with those who believed in Jesus, all people whether they were Jew or Gentile. Throughout the scriptures, God tasked men like the Apostle Paul to share the Gospel, the message proclaimed about salvation through Jesus, a revelation and affirmation of what was written by the prophets.

It was God who lovingly initiated a plan to save sinners from His wrath and judgment.

It was God who willingly surrendered His only Son Jesus as an atoning sacrifice to cover the sin penalty that was upon all people.

It was God who selectively appointed people to proclaim His redemption plan for all creation.

And it is God who will one day send Jesus back from heaven to earth to make good on His salvation promise and draw all Christians to live with Him forever.

Yes, Paul couldn’t have selected a better way to finish his letter to the Romans and I can’t think of a better way to close out this last devotion in this series from the Epistle to the Romans except by saying:

To God be the glory, now and forever more.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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