Continual Burnt Offering: Daily Meditations, September 12 (1:16-17)
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” —Romans 1:16,17.
THE epistle to the Romans gives us the fullest unfolding of the gospel that we have in the Word of God. Of this glad message none need be ashamed. It answers every objection of the most astute reasoner. It satisfies the need of every exercised conscience. In it we see how God can be just and yet justify the guilty sinner who comes to Him in repentance, owning his need and trusting His grace. Socrates exclaimed, “It may be that the Deity can forgive sins, but I don’t see how!” The Holy Spirit here shows that God can forgive in righteousness because of the expiatory work of His Son. This is the message which is revealed on the principle of faith to those who believe, whether Jews or Gentiles by nature, according to the oracle given to Habakkuk so long ago, “The just shall live by faith.”
—Bernard of Clairvaux.
Trans by Jas. W. Alexander.