Paul says, in Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
This passage has really impacted the students of the school of discipleship as they seek to live a life justified by faith. The Lord has been speaking about the power of the shed blood of Christ for forgiveness (Col.1:14), the power of the cross for deliverance from our sin nature (Rom.6:6) and the power of the resurrection for the new life we have been given (Rom.4:25). So many of our students have never heard the full Gospel one that includes understanding that the blood of Christ, the Cross of Christ and the Resurrection of Christ. During our recent Resurrection Sunday I made this statement, “should we not celebrate the Lord’s resurrection only once a year or every day?”
When new Christians are taught these powerful foundation truths of the Christian faith it allows Spiritual growth to occur. We are seeing amazing change in our students. You can’t build a house with no foundation. These truths are the foundation of the Gospel of Christ and it has the power to impact lives and cause spiritual growth. I can tell you as a missionary for 25 years and now a leader at the School of Discipleship that many Christians have never heard these truths and as a result their life was never built upon a solid foundation.
We are correcting this now with our students and seeing the amazing power of the Gospel to change lives. One lady whose name I will not mention had a rough life, husband abused her both physically and emotional, she was an alcoholic, and a drug addict. After coming to our services she has gotten saved, filled with the Holy Spirit and is being discipled by one of our ladies. She is now on fire for God and growing as fast as anyone I have ever seen. She is at every meeting as she is hungering for God’s word. Recently we were in a meeting and she asked why can’t I understand my righteousness? My answer was, “because your trying to reason this in your mind instead of asking God to reveal it to you.” So many times in past efforts to disciple others, I have seen man try to have all the answers. But when we point people to God to find the answers they receive life-changing revelation. This woman has recently received tremendous freedom and intimacy with God and can’t stop witnessing to people about her new freedom. It is amazing how the whole Christian life is about growing spiritually by allowing God to change us, then we naturally become a witness for Christ.
We rejoice that we celebrate these truths of the Death, Burial and Resurrection of our Lord everyday not once a year. We thank God for your prayers and support.
Dr. Stephen L Gray