The earliest Christians followed a Jewish tradition of pausing to pray, preferably together, first thing in the morning, about mid morning, at noon, about mid afternoon, and in the evening. “Just a Note” posts are brief observations made from Scripture readings not related to a lectionary. If I have one to post, it normally appears about 9:00 in the morning, at “the hour of prayer.”
There’s a lot of hype in American Christianity lately about finding God’s power. We seem a power hungry lot, really. People will try to tap into the power of the Holy Spirit so they can do amazing things for God, or, more often, so they can get God to do amazing things for them. Where do we find the power of God? It isn’t deep within. Romans 1:16-17 points us to the Gospel, by which Paul means the message of the perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus for everyone who believes. This is the power of God for salvation.
Again, we may want to ask what Paul means by salvation. The concept of salvation is that of complete safety as we reach our eventual end. By the Gospel, God will bring all who believe him safely through this life and into eternity.
The safety God gives us in this life doesn’t always look like safety. We may suffer illness, loss, even persecution and death. Yet in God’s mercy, all who believe on Jesus are perfectly safe. Our eternity is secure. The transition to that eternity may be sooner or later and it may be more or less painful. But there’s a certainty in Christ which we find nowhere else.
The Gospel is indeed the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. It is the way God gives us the righteousness of Christ. That’s security.
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