Romans 3: 9 -10; 22a - 23

9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.

10 As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 2 springs a trap on any religious person who read Paul's lists of sins at the end of Romans 1 and thinks it was not about them. Paul calls them out for making themselves judges when they are also guilty. He shows that God will judge everyone, including those under the law, based on their works. This prefaces this letter's theme of salvation by grace, through faith, rather than by works. Many benefits come with having the law, but only if those under the law keep it. Jewishness—circumcision—must be an inner state, not just an outer one.

Romans 1:18-19; 28-32

New International Version

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,

19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind so that they do what ought not to be done.

29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,

30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;

31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.

32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Romans 1: 8 - 16

New International Version

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.

9 God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you

10 in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.

11 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—

12 that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.

13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,[d] that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

14 I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish.

15 That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

An Introduction to the Book of Romans

Romans 1:1-7 in its short seven verses is a succinct Soteriology (doctrine of salvation) reminding the Jews and Gentiles in Rome of God’s saving plan accomplished in Jesus Christ. This saving plan of God is for Jew and Gentile followers of Christ as ‘gospel’ or good news (1:1-3). Paul grounds his narrative summary of God’s salvation in the Jewish biblical tradition connecting it with King David and the Jewish prophetic tradition (1:4-5). Salvation, Paul reminds the Christian community in Rome, is incarnated, or given human reality, in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. For followers of Christ, the meaning and the power of what it means to be saved through Jesus Christ is shown in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth who is proclaimed by His followers as Christ (the one who saves) Lord and Son of God (1:4). Members of the Christian community in Rome (and Christians today) are to manifest the grace of the salvation they have received living as faithful followers of Christ (1:5 ‘obedience of faith’, ‘belonging’ and ‘apostleship’ - i.e. missionary outreach to others.

Psalm 46: 8 - 10

New American Standard Bible

8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,

Who has inflicted horrific events on the earth.

9 He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;

He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;

He burns the chariots with fire.

10 “Stop striving and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted on the earth.”

John 4: 7 - 14

New International Version

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 12:12-15

New International Version

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King

12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.

13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the King of Israel!”

14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:

15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;

see, your King is coming,

seated on a donkey’s colt"

Jesus was born to serve. He showed us how to serve those in His ‘inner circle,’ His twelve disciples. What did He do to show His love? He humbly served His men, by washing the disciples’ feet – this was taking the place of a servant in its lowest form.

As He prepared Himself for the cross in the upper room at the last supper, surrounded by those He loved, He readied them for his death. John 13:1 says, “Having loved his own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of his love.”

Jesus was more than just a great teacher and a strong moral influence on the people who crowded around Him long ago. His power to heal demonstrated His divine identity and intended mission. With compassion and dignity, Jesus brought health and wholeness to the sick and suffering. People who encountered Jesus were never the same again.

May you encounter Jesus, the Healer today.