A wise God or being perfect

DEVOTION

ROMANS

A WISE GOD

or

BEING PERFECT

Rom 16:20-27

The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. 21 Timothy, my fellow worker, sends his greetings to you, as do Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my relatives. 22 I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord. 23 Gaius, whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy, sends you his greetings. Erastus, who is the city's director of public works, and our brother Quartus send you their greetings.  

25 Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him— 27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

NIV

Now the rest of the story, page two. We got stuck in the first phrase on page one, but now let us finish up this concluding statement or salutation. Again Paul mentions a few people who are with him that send their greetings to the saints in Rome. The scribe, Tertius, who was actually writing down the words Paul was dictating sends his greeting as does the man, Gaius, who was hosting these men. Paul makes his last plea to the Saints in Rome and to us, for we have this letter as well. The Lord states through Paul that he is the one who is able to establish us by the gospel and the proclamation of Jesus, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past. Let’s stop here for a moment. It has been about four thousand years since Adam walked with God in the Garden of Eden. That is what all the genealogies listing how old each was when they had a son and how many total years they lived, would tell us. There are believers on both sides of the issue as to the actually age of the earth. Some like the young earth concept based on Scriptures containing the genealogies. Some like the old earth concept incorporating the concept of God creating through the method evolution. Either way, God created and it has been a while from that time to the time Paul wrote this letter. All during that past age, those past years Jesus was not revealed. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samson, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Saul, David, Solomon, or any of the others who lived before the time of Paul saw the revelation of Jesus. They all know of Yahweh, the living God who did miracles and spoke to them either through a prophet, an angel of the Lord, or by himself using different methods, like a burning bush, or a cloud. But none of them had been revealed the fact of God's plan to send Jesus for the redemption of mankind. But now Jesus has been revealed, but look how Paul says he was revealed, through the prophetic writings. These would have to be men like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and the rest of the prophets who lived in the ages long past. Jesus was in all their writings but no one saw Jesus until he was revealed by God sending Jesus into the world. The whole point of everything is Jesus. He is the salvation of humankind. There is no other God then Yahweh and there is no other salvation then though Jesus. Consider how all the people of the past, especially Israel, who saw and experienced the personal hand of Yahweh in their lives, wander off, disobeyed him so often, and worshiped other gods. Then we would have to believe that even though God revealed Jesus to the world there are those who still do not believe, and worship other gods. There are also many of us believers who have trusted in Jesus Christ for our salvation and still we do not fully obey everything God has instructed. Maybe that is not the point, maybe the obeying has to do with accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. None of us can fully obey everything for if we did or could then we would be perfect and have no need of Jesus. Does God expect us to be perfect, well he says:

Matt 5:47-48

 48 Be perfect , therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

NIV

The Greek word there for perfect means to be brought to its end, finished, lacking nothing necessary to completeness; perfect. If that is the case, then the one thing we would lack to be complete would be Jesus. Once we are in Christ then we are complete, we have been made perfect. God declares because we are in Christ we have been made holy and blameless in his sight, therefor we are complete, perfect, as he is perfect,  because he lives in us, we are his temple. So we can enjoy perfection, fully obeying God by accepting Jesus. How wise is God!