Brian and Cathy Gray Bible study

Do You Have All You Need?

In Romans 15, Paul backs his presupposition and demonstrates his primary apologetic method. 

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect

1 Peter 3:15

He demonstrates via cross-referenced fulfillment of Biblical prophecy written in former days regarding exactly why he, and we have reason to hope.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Romans 15:4

Isaiah 11 is perhaps the most powerful in the list of fulfilled prophetic declarations because it contains past and future fulfillment. Past fulfillment gives us reason to expect future fulfillment.

In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

Isaiah 11:10

People often dismiss Apologetics as a futile attempt at arguing unbelievers into accepting the Gospel as truth. While it is true that Apologetics can help to undermine false faith and truth claims, it is most effective in building faith and hope in believers for the sake of endurance. Simply put, the more reason we have to believe, the easier it is to persevere when times get tough. The more reasons we have to believe the harder it is for the enemy to masquerade as an angel of light and whisper believable lies when things don’t go as we expect. We may passionately sing, “Where you go, I’ll go. Where you stay, I’ll stay.” as we encounter the manifest presence of the Lord during corporate worship. However, true faith is often forged during the dark nights of the soul when we cannot see, feel, or hear the Lord and the temptation to question our previous existential encounters with the Lord becomes strong.

Perhaps Paul is exhorting himself to endure what will come as he proceeds to Jerusalem in Acts 21 before finally visiting Rome in person in Acts 28. Those who followed our study of Ephesians will remember Paul addressing the Ephesian elders in Miletus in Acts 20. They wept for him because they would never see him again. Paul foreknew his ultimate destiny in Rome which was imprisonment and beheading. His defense of the hope that was in him brings to mind the 365 verses countering fear, one for each day of the year memorized by Richard Wurmbrand before the Soviet Union invaded Romania in 1944. Little did he know at the time, he would need all of them fourteen times over in prison where he was repeatedly tortured for his faith.

Romans 15 begs the question, what would I need to sustain my faith if I knew I faced execution two months from today? What about you? What if all you would need to do to live your best life now in the flesh would be to renounce your faith?

Would you have all you need to believe?

Maranatha