To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 1:7
Paul makes the statement in his opening remarks that the church in Rome was indeed a church community who was loved by God and called to be saints. This, in essence, really is the first experience that happens to all of us when we first unite ourselves with Jesus; we experience this new reality where the Spirit indwells us and we have this newly created spiritual understanding, “I am loved by God.”
In Christ, God also calls us saints because the truth is that anyone who is in Christ is a saint. God not only calls us saints, but he also encourages us that we will outlive the life of a saint. A saint in Christ is not defined in the same manner as the world defines a saint. A saint in the world is someone who excludes themselves from anything they deem to be unholy or indulgent. God’s definition of a saint has nothing to do with what one excludes themselves from and everything to do with whom they have been included in!
A saint to God is simply someone who is in Christ Jesus and allows Christ to live his life through them. You are a saint because you have accepted God’s invitation into the good news and now allow Christ to live his life through you. Not only that, but you also receive the blessedness to actively partake in that life with Christ, for you are one with Jesus! It’s not that Christ now lives in us and we have no active part; not at all, we are very much an active part, it’s just that we realise that the power is coming out of the Christ in us!
The truth is that we united ourselves with Jesus and we became one with him in his death, and we remained united with him in his resurrection. We are now walking and living this life united with Christ. We walk with a revelation that we are one with Jesus and that is why God calls us saints; we are saints of grace! The true mark of saint is one who has an overflow of grace for others, because that is the very heart and nature of God himself.
We benefit from a grace empowered life that shines God’s love and nature, and we can rest knowing that it’s not our power that outworks this life, rather it is Christ’s power; it is Christ in us who lives and that is why we are assured that as we walk, we are walking in a way that is pleasing to God.
Jesus came to give us rest. Jesus gives us the blessedness to rest in God’s presence without fear that we will be judged or condemned for our weaknesses or failings. In Christ, his perfect sacrifice upon the cross was enough to completely cleanse us and make us holy and acceptable to God; it is this wonderful rest that we receive through the grace of Jesus that empowers us to truly live in the obedience and the good news of God.
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16
It’s also interesting to note that the first statement Paul makes to the Roman church after his brief introduction is the same statement he makes to all the churches he wrote to: that God’s grace and peace is for the church. It seems Paul lived out of a revelation that, as a preacher and a leader in God’s community, he needed to establish the church in their inheritance. That inheritance is that God’s grace and God’s peace is for them.
It does not matter how far wrong you might have gone; God’s grace is for your life. If you are in Christ the old has gone and the new has come and all of this is to the glory of God. When we rest in this reality it gives us the empowerment to actually lives in a way that is pleasing to God, for the way that is pleasing to God is to live with a revelation of the Christ who is in you, and let that grace and that goodness flow out of you.
Living with the revelation of the Christ in us allows us to not be judgemental to others because of their weakness, but rather we can be full of grace for people; we can have grace for them in their weaknesses, just as God has had grace for us. We know that just as grace transformed our lives, when we let that grace flow out of us it can transform the lives of other too!
…more to come…
