The church father, Saint Augustine began his seminal work, Confessions, by saying, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you". More than 600 years later, these words could not be more true. We live in a time of restlessness, a time where so many people are trying to find the thing that will finally allow them to exhale, to be at peace, to rest. We try money, fame, relationships, work, education, sex, and country club memberships hoping that something will finally give us the satisfaction and meaning that we've been looking for. But it hasn't worked, and it never will. Until we come to Jesus, we will never find a home for our restless hearts.
This week we kick off our Romans series with a bang. Paul comes out hot in his introduction, laying out the gospel, and with it his agenda for the entire book. He wrote Romans so that we would know Jesus Christ, “through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations”. That's the goal—and the only way our hearts will find the peace we long for.
