How do you address God? Do you pray as my Father, Appa or Master? or do you Say God help me? There is a big difference between my God (My Father / Appa or Master) and God. When you call my God it means you have accepted Jesus as your saviour and the faith is imminent with this statement. It shows the deep love you have for God and your dependence on him in these statements.
'First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. ' Romans 1:8
The writings for this blog came when I started meditating the words in Romans 1:8, where Paul tells “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you”, you cannot call someone “My God” without a relationship. We call our family people as my wife, my daughter, my Son, my uncle, my aunt etc.. but we don’t call that way when we don’t have that type of relation with others. That’s because we feel very possessed with the we love we have for them
So what drove Paul to have this level of possessive relationship with God for him that we can emulate in our lives to change our relationship with God to make this more personal and possessive.
There are four things that we learn in Romans 1 which made Paul to make this personal relationship
A Slave of Christ Jesus
Jesus is the source of Gospel
Jesus has the exclusivity of the Gospel
Jesus is the source of Grace
Once you feel this from your heart and soul then the love for Jesus blooms to mature the relationship of God to “My God”. God is not some distant person, he is within you, he is there next to you no matter where you are what situation you go thru.
Lets deep dive these four areas to understand better
A Slave of Christ Jesus
Paul wrote Romans from Corinth when he was in prison, he introduces himself to the people of Rome
NIV Version of Bible writes as
'Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— Romans 1:1
Amplified Bible translates this
'Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle (special messenger, personally chosen representative), set apart for [preaching] the gospel of God [the good news of salvation], 'Romans 1:1
NIV Version of Bible - Paul introduces himself as “a servant of Christ Jesus” when you read Amplified Bible “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus” a “Bond-Servant” can be called Slave
There is a noticeable difference between the two designations (Servant and Slave)
A servant is hired by a master, who paid him wages for the services rendered.
But a slave is owned by his master, who has paid a price to purchase him.
While a servant still retained some degree of personal rights and freedom, a slave was much like an acquired piece of property by his master.
All the needs of the slave were met by the master. In return the Slave gives his unwavering obedience to his master. He does not take his desires and pleasures as first, he takes his master’s desires and pleasures first before he does any thing for him.
This is precisely how Paul saw himself, as a slave in the employment of his master, Jesus Christ. Paul recognised that his life was no longer his own. He now belonged to Jesus Christ, who had bought him at the cross with the high price of his shed blood.
Paul was fierce in prosecuting follower of Jesus as we read in Acts, after the touch of God, he acquired the slave attitude to Jesus he gave himself entirely to the cause of Christ, there is no other person in Bible who has go thru great struggles like him in taking the word of God across the globe.
Because of this attitude, he was a seed in God’s plan and to do God’s will so that our generation and future generations can call Jesus as our Saviour.
Do a Self-Check to see : Check yourself to see
If you have the attitude of Slave towards God, do all things that you have comes from God or are you dependent on yourself for all the things of this world and spiritual matters ?
What is your attitude on all the blessings you have? your blessings can be - Worldly Blessings - Job / Wealth etc, Personal blessings - Good health, Good family etc.. , Spiritual Blessings - Love for God, his Holy spirit on you etc.., How do you see these ? do you see all of this you got from God or you see you acquired most of them from your strengths ?. Do you see these blessings given by the master to you as a care taker of God’s work while you live in the world. Do you see the Job you have as God’s Job given to you and work in the way God wants you to work or just a Job for pay, Do you see the house you have is God’s house and use that house for God’s glory or it’s just a house for you to live.
Many of us go to the extend and think that these Blessings are given to me so I am the owner and forget the master (Jesus Christ) who gave to us freely. We forget that all we have is God’s property. We are just a guardian / care taker. Remember God created us from dust. All we have will pass away, the relationship we have with him will be for eternity.
Whom do you take directions daily ? Do you check with your master what you should do today and as a slave obeys master command, do you really obey God’s calling in your life daily ?
Jesus is the source of Gospel
'Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— Romans 1:1
Paul calls himself as the apostle and in the end of the verse Paul says “for the gospel of God”
What does “for the gospel of God” mean? it means His holiness, His love, His wrath, and His righteousness – but also that this gospel is God’s gospel. All these have come down from the throne of God above. It means that God is the source of the gospel. He is the author of the gospel. He is the architect of the gospel.
So what is this Gospel and what is the definition of Gospel ?
The gospel is the good news of salvation through the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, to rescue us from the wrath of God.
'The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ' Romans 1:18
God is angry with the wicked every day. It is through the gospel that sinners like you and me are delivered and rescued from the wrath of God. You will never hear anything better than the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not just good news, it is the greatest news that we can ever hear.
Do a Self-Check to see : Check yourself to see
Paul firmly believed that only thru Jesus we have the Good news and preached with zeal and compassion that lead to his possessiveness to Jesus, are we looking our self-characters that are so bad (wicked / angry / selfish etc..) and seeing we can be consumed by God’s wrath for the way how we are and were in the past, but God with his grace saved us from this wrath to make us a Christian.
You did not choose God, God choose you to give his Gospel / Holy spirit and all the other eternal blessings to you. Only you and God knows many of the blessings he has given to you, how many times have you been thankful for the Gospel you received from God.
The Gospel of God was given to us freely, how are we giving this gift back to others so that it helps us align to the will of God.
Jesus has the Exclusivity of Gospel
'Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— Romans 1:1
As we read the verse “the gospel of God” we note the exclusivity of the gospel. You see the definite article, “the” in “the gospel.” This speaks to the exclusivity of the gospel, meaning there is no other gospel. The gospel is never told as “a” gospel, as if it is one of many paths that lead up the proverbial mountain that leads to God.
There is only one gospel, and it is Jesus’s gospel, which he has revealed to us. Every time the gospel is mentioned, it is mentioned as “the gospel,” implying the one and only gospel.
1 Corinthians 15:1 refers to that which is of first importance, “the gospel.” Galatians 1:7 speaks of “the gospel.” The only time “a gospel” is ever mentioned in the Bible, it refers to “a gospel contrary to what you received” (Galatians 1:9)
'Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. ' 1 Corinthians 15:1
'which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! ' Galatians 1:7,9
There are many references that runs throughout the entire New Testament. The gospel is always presented as the one and only gospel.
We need to understand that there are many roads to hell, but only one road to heaven. 'There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. ' Proverbs 14:12 Every self-conceived way to God, whether by human religion, wisdom, or morality, leads to eternal death.
'Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ' John 14:6 Jesus claimed an exclusive monopoly on how to come to God. Peter, as he stood before the Sanhedrin, said 'Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
'For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, ' 1 Timothy 2:5, There are as many mediators as there are gods. There is one God and, therefore, one mediator between God and man, that is Christ Jesus.
Self Check for each of us : Check yourself to see
We live in a world that strives for political correctness, that is tolerant of every religion as having some part of the truth. It is claimed that every religion makes some contribution to the overall body of knowledge about God. The fundamental core value today is tolerance. There is only one way to God – not two or three ways – and that one way is through Jesus Christ the Lord.
Re-examine your belief of how you see Christianity is for you, if you are one of those to strive political correctness, change your views to Jesus as there is no other way outside Jesus to God.
Jesus is the source of Grace
'Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. ' Romans 1:5
We receive grace thru him, even though the gospel is told to sinners, we are still sinful in our nature. Jesus thru his grace gives us the mercy not to condemn us for our sins.
'For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.'Romans 6:23, “Gift of God” refers to the grace he has give to us thru which we are saved to have an eternal life in Christ.
This grace is not only for Jews or Gentile, Black or White or Brown skinned people. he is God for all and he has given his grace freely without any limitations.
This grace comes only thru faith we have in him, the moment we believe Jesus is the Lord and saviour who can only save me ,the grace comes to us freely.
Self Check for each of us : Check yourself to see
Paul’s strong possessiveness came from the fact that he looked to Jesus as his source for everything, he had the zeal to have faith in Jesus irrespective of the struggles he had in his preaching. are we having that kind of faith in him.
Thank God for the grace he has shown to you, in spite of you having so much of imperfectness, he choose you and has given this grace daily so that we are not getting the wrath of God as we deserve.
Use this Grace and ask God to reveal the areas which make God feel embarrassed in you and ask God to change the Sin of your life. The Grace that he has shown to you and me is not to continue in Sin, but to look to that and repent and make ourselves more holy.