Weekly Devotional: Christ is all (7 in Romans series)

For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10.1–17 (NIV)

I wonder how Paul felt when he came against his people’s unbelief of Jesus as the Messiah. He could understand their reluctance – after all, he had been united with them in disbelief previously – and yet now that he knows the riches of Jesus as the Savior he must yearn for them to understand and believe. He writes to the predominately Gentile church, which had Jewish believers too, to remind them that all are one in Christ. There is no dividing wall; no division between them any longer (see Ephesians 2:14). As he says in the letter to the church at Colossae, “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Colossians 3:11).

Today in the body of Christ we don’t have the divisions of Jew or Gentile, but we face different issues that divide. For instance, as an American living in Britain, I often am flummoxed when I come across statements of class divisions in society or even in the church. They stand out to me as foreign, and I find them difficult and sad. Whereas in America, many people point out the problems of racial disunity as a sort of besetting sin. Whether we are influenced by class or race or another issue in the country in which we live, we can work together for unity as we cling to Paul’s words that the “same Lord is Lord of all” (v. 12).

How could Christ working through you help you to dismantle any dividing walls in your church or community?

For reflection: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience… And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Colossians 3:12, 14).