"To Him who is able to Strengthen You!”

“Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.” (Romans 16:25-27 ESV)

Paul uses Chapter 16 to bring to mind many faithful saints who were working diligently for the Lord. You see, none of us can have a successful ministry without co-workers. So many saints work behind the scenes in any ministry to make it successful.

We should all be willing to participate in some ministry where the gospel of God’s grace is proclaimed. Some of us may have the gift of encouragement and are able to pray for and encourage others in their service. Some of us may have the gift of giving, and God has put it on our hearts to support multiple ministries, including our local church financially. Some may have the gift of administration, and believe me when I tell you that many of our pastors do not have this gift and could use some support in this area.

We have all been given gifts to build up the body of Christ; we need each other, and we need each other’s gifts. For the body of Christ to be effective in sharing the Gospel of Grace with an unsaved community or the world, we need to use the gifts God has given each of us.  1 Peter 4:10 states, “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” Paul’s success in presenting the gospel was in part due to the faithfulness of other believers who accepted the privilege of participating in God’s blessings.

Take some time and ask God how He would have you use the gift He has given you. We have all been given at least one gift by God.  One sign of our growth in our relationship with Christ is discovering how God has gifted us and using those gifts to support our local church and to fulfill His command to get the gospel out to the whole world. (Take a look at 1 Cor. 12:7-11, 27-31 for some of the gifts that God has bestowed upon his followers.)

Paul sums up his exhortations to these believers in the Church of Rome in verses 17-27, where he tells them to remain faithful to the true teachings of the Gospel of Christ and to always be on the watch for those who distort these teachings. He reassures them that Satan will not be victorious and will be crushed.

I don’t know about you, but every once in a while, I need this reminder. I need to remember that Satan, who seems to have control of so much of our country and this world, will NOT be victorious. Satan is on a leash, he is NOT in control, our God is still on His throne with our Savior the Lord Jesus sitting at His right hand, just waiting for the predetermined time that God will see to it that Satan is crushed, and “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (Phil. 2:10-11).

As Paul dictates this concluding Chapter to his secretary Tertius (16:22), Paul leaves one of the most glorious statements we could wish for each other: “The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” Whenever we contemplating our relationship with God, from the moment we were saved out of death into His glorious light, our growing and walking with Him, our ability to serve Him and our brothers and sisters in the Lord, to our receiving the love of the brethren, every aspect of our relationship with God, is all because of His grace bestowed upon us through our Savior the Lord Jesus. The moment we start thinking that we have or can do anything on our own, the moment we forget His GRACE, is the moment we are out of His will. But as long as we remember that everything we have, are, or will be, is because of God’s grace, we will be serving the one who died for us so that we could live forever with Him in glory.

 It is our Lord Jesus who is able to strengthen us.

 "Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"