Introduction - Jesus, God and Man1From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, who called me to be an apostle, setting my life apart for the cause of God's gospel,2the good news He promised long ago through His prophets, as recorded in the holy scriptures.3-4This gospel is about His Son, who was both God and Man. As far as His human nature is concerned, He was a descendant of the royal line of David. As for His divinity, His God nature, God's own Spirit of holiness declared with power that He was the long-expected Christ or Messiah, God's own Son, and this was demonstrated by His resurrection from the dead. So Jesus Christ is our Lord!God's grace on those who believe5It was through Him and for the outworking of His purposes that I received the grace, the spiritual enabling, to be an apostle, calling people from the nations to be obedient to God, an obedience only made possible through faith in Jesus Christ.6And you also are included among those who have been called by God to belong to Jesus Christ.7I am writing this to all of you in Rome and to all who are loved by God and are called to be saints, those whom He has set apart for Himself and His purposes. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ impart grace and peace to you, everything you could ever need to be at one with Him and to serve Him faithfully.8First of all, I thank my God through my Lord Jesus Christ for all of you and for all you mean to me. I am so thankful because the quality of your faith and trust in Jesus is now known everywhere; yes, all over the world!9-10God knows how faithful I am in praying for you. I serve Him with all my heart and strength by preaching the good news about Jesus and I pray that it may be God's will that I should come and visit you.11I am eager to see you in order to impart to you some gift from God's Spirit to enable you to be strong in your faith and witness.12But I am sure that I will also receive from you as well, that we will be able to encourage one another as we share our faith together.13I want you to know that on many occasions I have planned to come to you but until now it has not proved possible. I want to see a harvest of souls for God's Kingdom being reaped among you in the same way that I have been privileged to witness in other nations.14I feel an obligation towards every nation, to both those who are wise in accepting the gospel and the foolish who live in a way that is deeply offensive to God.15This is why I am so keen to preach in Rome, to encourage you and to challenge those who do not believe in Jesus!The power of the gospel16I could never be ashamed of believing and proclaiming the gospel. I know that it is God's powerful way of making salvation available to everyone who believes in Jesus, first the Jews to whom He came as Man, then also for people of other nations.17All who believe the good news of Jesus are saved because they are placed in a right relationship with God, regardless of who they are or of what they have done in the past. This relationship with God can only be received as a gift from Him, and is given to those who place their faith in who Jesus is and what He has done for them. It is a matter of faith from beginning to end. Nothing we could ever do by our own efforts could ever make us pleasing to God or place us in a relationship of righteousness with Him; of being made fully acceptable to Him. This is borne out by the fact that the scriptures declare that those who are acceptable to God will live by faith.
Scripture quoted by permission. The passage above is taken from THE TRUTH VERSION. Copyright © 2009 by Colin Urquhart. All rights reserved worldwide. (The Truth New Testament)