Remnant: A Daily Verse-by-Verse Devotional

Paul writes that those who have rejected the Gospel are "enemies." We explore what enemies are in a Biblical sense and how we are called to respond to our enemies.

Paul continues a quote that starts in Isaiah 59 to support the fact that "all Israel will be saved."

Paul quotes Isaiah 59:20 in support of his promise that there will come a time when all Israel will be saved.

Paul sets up a new section by acknowledging that there is a mystery behind Israel's rejection of Jesus, and that God may be at work in the mystery by hardening the heart of Israel.

Paul gives us a second verse about how all branches can be grafted into God's tree, so the Porter boys talk about a tree that we just planted.

Paul talks about tree grafting doesn't just apply to wild olive shoots--it also works with past branches. We explore how God celebrates when the lost come home.

Paul spoonfeeds us his point: that God is both kind and severe with us. We explore that truth.

Paul carries on his tree-grafting analogy in verse 21 by pointing out how easy it would be for God to not spare the little sapling that's been grafted to his trunk.

Paul acknowledges that branches were broken off so that we wild olive shoots might be grafted in, but makes clear that our response to that shouldn't be pride in ourselves, but fear of the powerful God who grafted us in.

Paul addresses Gentile ego and boasting in verse 19. We talk about the danger of ego.

Paul makes two critical points in verse 18: that two branches fighting each out other is a ridiculous image, and that the branches don't support the roots, but instead the roots support the branches.

Paul now digs in deep on his olive tree grafting illustration. We get started in this illustration by talking about olive trees.

Paul offers two illustrations that both sum up his prior points and set up his coming analogy.

Paul concludes the point he started in verse 12: that God uses the bad times to teach us things, and that God's plan has amazing things coming; life-from-death things!

Paul explains that he's focused his ministry on the Gentiles in order to make his fellow Jewish people jealous of the Gentiles' relationship with God. We dig into what Paul means by this jealousy.

Paul switches the targeted audience of his letter from the Jewish members of the church in Rome to the Gentiles, and tells the Gentiles that he was called to bring the Good News to them. We explore some of Paul's backstory to explain his calling.

In this verse, Paul talks about how great, or rich, our world will be when all of Israel and all the world follows Jesus.

Paul kicks off his next section by making clear that God works through our stumbles, and that his works lead to salvation.

Paul continues quoting Psalm 69 to show two more ways that humans insist on keeping hardened hearts: through blind eyes and burdened backs. We talk about why humans insist on these things and the alternative offered by Jesus.

Paul quotes Psalm 69:22 to give an example of what happens when our hearts are hardened. We talk about Psalm 69 and what David means when he writes about consequence.

Paul quotes Deuteronomy chapter 29 and Isaiah chapter 29 to support his point that humans have been choosing to ignore the God right before their eyes for centuries.

After interweaving in verse six the topic of grace, Paul interweaves another past topic into his teaching on the remnant: that many of us are hardened.

Paul gives us a brief interlude in his point in this section to tie his point back to a big theme: that those of us who are chosen for the remnant aren't chosen by works, but by grace. We go through some examples of people who didn't deserve to be used by God through works, but that were chosen by grace.

Paul says that just like in Elijah's time, there was a remnant of people who God had chosen to work through to remind people of what God offers. We talk about how we can be part of a remnant in the here and now.

Paul provides God's answer to Elijah in verse four: that even though Elijah couldn't see them, God had his people who He would work through along with Elijah. We talk about how Elijah wasn't alone even though he felt alone, and how we're not alone when we feel alone.