Just one more reason...

Much thanks to Milton Vincent for writing "A Gospel Primer." The Primer has impacted my walk with Christ more than any other book outside of the Bible. This came after reading the section "A Heart for the Lost" again a week or so ago:

A Heart for the Lost
The more I meditate on the truths of the Gospel, the more a burden for seeing others saved develops in me. The more I think about what Christ has done for me, the more I want to see others on the receiving end of the grace and mercy of God.
This is what seems to have happened to Paul when he wrote Romans.

Romans 5 - Paul is talking about his standing before God. He talks of how he has been declared righteous. How he was justified.

Romans 6 - speaks of freedom from sin and the effect of the Gospel on a person.

Romans 7 - Paul speaks of the dilemma he faces as a saved person when he still struggles with sin. Sin still plagues him even in his justified state.

Romans 8 - There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! Our lives become a work of the Holy Spirit. We must walk in the Spirit. We will walk in the Spirit.

Romans 1-8 is essentially an extensive and beautiful unfolding of the Gospel.

Romans 8:35-39 is a fantastic triumphant climax speaking of the endless love of God which enables believers to be victorious in all things. It says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Meditating on the Gospel had a profound effect on Paul. He obviously felt joy in writing about the Gospel and what it means in not only the lives of all believers, but also in what it meant to him personally.

Romans 9 - Paul really shows us the passion that the Gospel created in him.

“After meditating on a beautiful explanation of the Gospel, Paul’s heart is devastated by a burden for his fellow Jews to experience the saving power of the Gospel.” (M. Vincent)

He undoubtedly had this burden before writing Romans, but this burden only grew as he meditated on the Gospel truths in Romans 5-8 specifically. When we meditate on the Gospel, it should lead our thoughts toward the tragedy of those who are not saved.

If we want to have a ‘Romans 9’ kind of burden for those who are not saved, we must learn to meditate on the Gospel is Paul did in Romans 5-8. Milton Vincent says it well: “Over time, my joy in the Gospel will become increasingly tinged with grief, and this grief-stained joy will lend a God-inspired passion to my ministry of evangelizing the lost.”

Do you have a deep desire to see others repent and believe in the Gospel?
Have you recently shared the Gospel with someone? If the answer to both of these questions is not “YES!!!” then may I suggest that you need to return to the Gospel and truly meditate on it and what Christ has done for you, a totally depraved sinner?

Start with Titus 3:3-7, then click here.

Soli Deo Gloria!
Rob
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