The Book of Romans

Romans has always been one of my favorite books in the New Testament. In fact I chose to take the second half of the New Testament because I always really thought Paul was kind of an amazing apostle. While I am very grateful for the accounts of the life of Christ put before us in the Gospels, Paul gives a powerful testimony of the mission of Christ here on earth. He reminds us of how there is no possible way for us to make it to the Celestial Kingdom in our state. No matter how close to perfect we may feel that we are today, we have, in fact, sinned and this simple statement leaves us unclean and unfit for the Kingdom of God. So how can we receive glory? Christ has laid down His life for us. He has sacrifices everything for us so that we may feel the eternal bliss that none of us are even close to deserving. How to we take advantage of this blessing? We keep the commandments and when we didn’t we repent. That’s it. Paul addresses that there is hardly a righteous man out there who would lay down his life for a righteous man and Christ has done it for every despicable person that ever lived, and all he asks is that we take advantage of the Atonement. What an example of a perfect sacrifice. Every time that I am reminded of this incredible love that He had for us I yearn for some way to repay Him. I love the book of Romans because on days when I feel despicable and unworthy for any blessing I am reminded that there is absolutely nothing that I could have done that would make Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ not love me anymore. Whether we feel unfit for love because we do not take advantage of the scriptures like we should or because we’ve committed some unspeakable crime, Christ still loves us and will still enable us to repent of our sins. The main response I have to Romans is just a strong desire to echo the words of Paul. To acknowledge the intense love and healing power that can be felt by the atonement. When we take advantage of the atonement we can truly “carpe diem” seize the day and realize that this day, this hour, this moment is the time to start being better than the last moment, the last hour or the last day because when we have repented, those things don’t matter anymore. There will, of course, be consequences, but they cannot stop us from our renewed path that will bring us to the Kingdom of God. While this may be something we don’t understand we can remember that this is a gift. A very special gift given to us by a real man. A man who most of us have not seen in this life, but is just as real and just as living as any man sitting next to you. I wish I could be more but eternally grateful for the opportunity to live again with my Heavenly Father.