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Romans 1:16-17, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

These verses are the theme of the Book of Romans, but I’m not going off into that long discussion right now. Just some comment on verse 16 for the moment.

The Gospel is the power of God for salvation, the most important thing in the existence of humanity.

[Note: If you are an astute exegete you will be wondering what the antecedent to the adjective “most important” is. Is it the Gospel, the power of God or salvation?]

God does not throw His hat in the ring with the Gospel. The Gospel neither requires men to engage in the conflict of philosophies nor does it require them to hold themselves aloof from these controversies. The gospel is not a truth among other truths.

Anxiety concerning the victory of the Gospel is meaningless because the Gospel is the power of God to overcome sin and condemnation in the lives of men.

There would be a reason for apprehension and shame about the Gospel if there were a chance that it was faulty or could fail. The gospel is impenetrable, as Paul shows in this letter, therefore there is no need of fear or shame when it is proclaimed. Paul knew this.

This is why it does not need to be sold. It is not a truth competing with other truths in the marketplace.

The Gospel has what men’s vain ideas do not have – the power of God.

No divinity that dwells in idols or temples made with hands, or is served by the hand of man – no divinity that needs anything like human propaganda – could ever have the power of God in it.

Men have become the masters of their souls, this sin is their guilt. By appealing to their false authority we confirm their sin as supposed judges of the Gospel.

At any rate, men must set aside their self idolatry and submit to the Gospel which judges them and their world from the outside. The gospel is an onlooker in this world, condemning and offering blessings on those whom it judges from the outside. It does not negotiate nor discuss its position, power or promises.

The Gospel demands, it does not ask, to be taken on faith.

The believer is the man who puts his trust in God, in God Himself, and in God alone. The believer abandons self. No gospel that appeals to the self could demand this kind of abandonment or allegiance.

And all are to abandon their worldly identity, Jew or Greek, and are to let the Gospel become their identity.

Romans 1:1 ESV, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle

Here is no genius rejoicing in his own creative ability. The man who is now speaking is an emissary, bound to perform his duty, a servant, not a master.

In distinction from all others he is called by God and sent forth. Fashioned from the same stuff as all other men, a stone differing in no way from other stones, yet in relation to God – and in this only – he is unique.

Paul’s position can be justified only as resting in God, and so only can his words be regarded as credible. For this reason he dares to approach others and to demand a hearing without fear. He appeals only to the authority of God. This is the ground of his authority. There is no other.

Paul is set apart for the gospel of God. From the outset Paul disclaims the honor due to an innovator. He is commissioned to hand over to men what God has given him, the truth of God.

The gospel is not a religious message from men to inform mankind of their divinity or to tell them how to become divine. The gospel proclaims a God utterly distinct from men. These are God’s thoughts. Salvation is God’s idea and it comes to men from Him because they have no right to claim anything from Him.

More facts are coming to light about the lack of water here in Polokwane (see the previous post about the water situation here).

It is now known that the reason the main reservoir was running low is because its manin feeder pipe was shut off two weeks ago.

After it was shut off the reservoir slowly emptied and people started running out of water a little over a week ago.

Why did the main feeder pipe get turned off? Because it was too small to keep up with demand so the water utility decided to replace the pipe with a larger one. They began tearing up the old pipe and putting in the new one two weeks ago.

OK. But, didn’t they make a plan to provide water some other way?

Sort of. They were going to pump water from a few wells and a back-up reservoir. But when they tried to turn on the pumps to supply more water nothing happened. Those back-up pumps had not been used in five years and no one had checked them and they discovered the power lines to the pumps had been stolen some time ago.

Then some genius at the water company decided to replace the pumps just when they were needed most, but then the new pumps were stolen, etc., etc. See the previous post about how we got in this mess.

The only problem is, the wells and back-up reservoir are for short term emergency use only, like one week at the most.

Their plan for providing water while the pipe is replaced could only make up a small percentage of the ammount of water required. We lost 50 percent of our water supply and the utility company only made plans to replace about 10 percent. Now, even that 10 percent isn’t being supplied because of the stolen pumps.

The kicker is, the pipe they are replacing is 63 kilometers long. It takes a while to replace 63 kilometers of pipe. It is suposed to be done by – Christmas! This is February.

What all this means is – the main reservoir is empty, the main feeder pipe for that reservoir is off and won’t be turned back on until Christmas, the plan to replace the main line is worthless and won’t even come close to keeping up with demand.

So, everyone is wondering where the water for this year is going to come from.

Sad to say, but stuff like this is not unusual here in Africa.