Elyse M. Fitzpatrick - Comforts from Romans: Celebrating the Gospel One Day at a Time

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There is nothing soft or sentimental about the comfort offered in this book. Instead, it opens our eyes to see the miseries of our self-absorption and self-effort salvation and then applies the substantive, solid comfort of abundant grace, imputed righteousness, purchased peace, blessed wretchedness, no condemnation, no separation.

Nancy Guthrie, author of Hearing Jesus Speak into Your Sorrow and the Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament Bible study series

Elyses gratitude for Gods grace spills out onto every page of this book as she opens the pages of her life and comforts us with the comfort she has received from Gods Word. Her theological precision and her joy in Gods extravagant love instructed my mind and thrilled my heart.

Susan Hunt, Womens Ministry Consultant, Christian Education and Publications, Presbyterian Church in America; author, Spiritual Mothering

Martin Luther called Pauls letter to the Romans the most important piece in the New Testament.... It is purest Gospel. My dear friend Elyse captures the purity and power of Romans here. In bite-size, digestible chunks she devotionally and practically unpacks the now-power of the gospel, showing that the gospel doesnt simply free us from the past and free us for the future. It also frees us in the present from being enslaved to things like fear, insecurity, anger, self-reliance, bitterness, entitlement, and insignificance. Being both a seasoned counselor and a top-notch theologian, I cant think of anyone better to comfort sinners through Romans than Elyse!

Tullian Tchividjian, Pastor, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church; author, Glorious Ruin

C OMFORTS FROM R OMANS

Other Crossway Books by Elyse Fitzpatrick:

Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus , coauthor (2011)

Counsel from the Cross: Connecting Broken People to the Love of Christ , coauthor (2009)

Comforts from the Cross: Celebrating the Gospel One Day at a Time (2009)

Because He Loves Me: How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life (2008)

Comforts from Romans: Celebrating the Gospel One Day at a Time

Copyright 2013 by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick

Published by Crossway 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Connie Gabbert

First printing 2013

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible ( The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ), copyright 2001 by Crossway. 2011 Text Edition. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked HCSB have been taken from The Holman Christian Standard Bible . Copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-3319-8
PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-3320-4
Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-3321-1
ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-3322-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fitzpatrick, Elyse, 1950

Comforts from Romans : celebrating the Gospel one day at a time / Elyse M. Fitzpatrick.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-4335-3319-8

1. Bible N.T. RomansTextbooks. I. Title.

BS2665.55.F58 2013

227'.106dc23

2012027061

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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To

John Sale and David Wojnicki

Thank you for loving Phil and me

And for loving our church

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus... Romans 1:1

The great apostle Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, established churches, and ultimately suffered martyrdom, didnt deserve Gods blessing. He didnt deserve to call himself a servant, a bondservant, or even a love slave of Jesus Christ. No, he deserved to be called an enemy because, after all, thats the identity he had chosen for himself. You remember that before he became Christs servant, he was a man who breathed out threats and murder against Christs church (Acts 9:1). A servant of Christ Jesus? Hardly.

Paul gloried in his role as persecutor of the church, because he hated the gospel. Yes, I know: hated seems like a strong word, but that is exactly how Paul felt. He hated the gospel so much that he determined to root it out and ruin the lives of those who loved it (Gal. 1:13). But then God ruined him, not by giving him the judgment he deserved but by giving him grace instead.

Dont be mistaken. Aside from his hatred of Christians, Paul would have been just the sort of person you would have wanted for a neighbor. He came from a good home; he always obeyed all the rules. He would have mowed his lawn and voted, and never would have hung around with shady characters. Yes, we would assume that Paul was a great candidate to receive the love of God. After all, who was more zealous for righteousness than he? But our assumption would have been wrong. Of course, God loved Paul but not because Paul was good. No, God loved Paul in spite of his religious goodness, which was the very thing that made Paul repulsive in Gods eyes (Isa. 64:6). You see, Pauls problem was not that he was outwardly bad, but rather that he trusted in his own goodness and ability to satisfy the laws demands. It was his self-trust that made him the enemy of Jesus. And so one day, on the road to Damascus, God ruined his self-righteousness with grace .

Heres the shocking news: God loves to display his mercy by wrecking good people. That seems counterintuitive, doesnt it? We think that God loves to wreck bad people, to strip them of their badness, and, of course, he does. But God also delights in wrecking those who seem good, at least outwardly. Pauls primary impediment to relationship with God was not his irreligion. It was his religion. Dont forget: Paul truthfully boasted that he had been advancing beyond all his contemporaries and was extremely zealous for the law (Gal. 1:14). Paul saw himself as a champion of the one true faith, and it was this very identity that barred him from serving the God he would have said he was living for. Paul needed wrecking, and Jesus was just the one to do it. So one day, just when we would assume that Paul had gone too far and really blown his chances with Jesus, Jesus knocked him off his feet, blinded him, and introduced him to grace. What a Savior!

Pauls story is good news for those of us who are tempted to put our trust in ourselves, in our own ability to work hard enough to merit Gods favor. Grace is so surprising! Its surprising because while it may seem likely that a prostitute would recognize her need for rescue, the homeschooling, bread-baking, devotion-reading mom who attends her local church faithfully (while trusting in her own goodness) will choke on the humiliating message of gospel rescue. Rescue? Why would she need rescuing?