Romans 9:3 – “for the sake of my brothers”

I want to share a devotional from my daily reading. It comes from Closer Walk New Testament, a publication of Walk Thru the Bible Ministries. I was impressed that this devotional accompanied a very challenging and hard-to-understand Bible passage, Romans 9:1-29. It is a reminder of what our attitude should be as we consider important truths like God’s sovereignty, election, calling and freedom to show or not to show mercy to whomever He chooses.

No Price Too High for Salvation

“For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers” (Romans 9:3).

“If you heard that a friend was critically ill in the hospital, would you go out of your way to visit and help?

“Of course you would. Compassion often causes detours around previously arranged plans.

“Paul carried just such a burden of compassion for his ‘brothers’–but it was not unique to him. J. Hudson Taylor shares his own burden for Christless men and women.

Walk With J. Hudson Taylor

“We are not exempt from trials, and some of them are very painful and difficult to bear.

“But I shall feel amply repaid if one soul only is, by my witness, rescued from the powers of darkness and brought into the fold of Christ.

“And I trust that not one only, but many, will be turned to righteousness by the Word of God ministered by me.

“Were it at the expense of every source of earthly enjoyment; were health and peace, and comfort and happiness, and even life itself to be sacrificed that we might communicate the blessings of Christianity to others, we ought gladly to make it.

“But there is no surer way of finding happiness than by heartily engaging in the work of the Lord, no more certain way of increasing our own blessings than by endeavoring to communicate them to others.”

Walk Closer to God

“A fellow worker. A family member. A neighbor.

“What would you be willing to endure for the privilege of seeing one of these respond to the Good News of sins forgiven?

“J. Hudson Taylor gladly faced a foreign culture–and the misunderstandings of many of his fellow Britishers–to share the Good News with China.

“Paul was willing to be ‘cursed’ if by that his ‘brothers’ would accept the gospel of Christ.

“What price are you willing to pay that a lost soul might hear God’s message of life?”