Interviewer: Hello, Paul. We know you are part of the great cloud of witnesses cheering us on from Heaven. Do you have anything you would want to share with Christians today?
Paul: The letters I wrote to encourage and instruct believers were also meant for you. You have read them, haven’t you?
Interviewer: Yes… well, what do you think was your most important writing?
Paul: My letter to the Romans reveals the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. Just like you, I was saved by grace, not by any works of my own. Jesus accomplished everything and when we receive him by faith, we receive his righteousness… a gift we do not deserve. I was the chief of sinners… religious and zealous, yet lost… until Jesus rescued me. Once we experience such mercy, what can we do but humbly follow our Master? He gives us life and peace through the Holy Spirit so we can love and serve our fellow man.
Interviewer: What warnings would you give today?
Paul: You’ll find many warnings in my writings, but I’ll remind you of two. The first is explained in my letter to the Galations as I fiercely declared there is only one true gospel. Many false gospels sprang up in my days on earth and there are no less in yours. You must recognize the true from the false and daily choose to live in truth. Some wonder what I meant when I said, ‘It is for freedom that Christ set you free.’ God wants you to experience true freedom in the Son, a freedom that leads to this testimony: ‘I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’ Beware of any philosophy that does not teach you to live by faith in the Son of God.
My second warning should remind you of some of our Master’s parables. Understand the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because your salvation is nearer now than when you first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. ‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Be very careful how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Interviewer: Is there prayer in Heaven? Are you praying for us?
Paul: Of course there is prayer in Heaven! Jesus intercedes for you! If you could hear him you would know how much he cares for you. I pray for my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. I pray that they may be saved. I also pray for you. I keep asking our glorious Father to give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for all who believe. I pray that out of these glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.