God's power is best experienced as you hear His Word preached.
Read / Listen
Read Romans 10:1-15
Listen to passage & devotional:
Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 84
Q. How does preaching the gospel
open and close the kingdom of heaven?
A. According to the command of Christ:
The kingdom of heaven is opened
by proclaiming and publicly declaring
to all believers, each and every one, that,
as often as they accept
the gospel promise in true faith,
God, because of what Christ has done,
truly forgives all their sins.
The kingdom of heaven is closed, however,
by proclaiming and publicly declaring
to unbelievers and hypocrites that,
as long as they do not repent,
the anger of God
and eternal condemnation
rest on them.
God’s judgment,
both in this life and in the life to come,
is based on this gospel testimony.
Summary
Verses 9-10 are a great example of how simply the gospel can be presented, and they're well worth memorizing:
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
But your heart and mouth do not operate independently... well, they often do, but that usually doesn't turn out well because your brain is supposed to be in control.
Salvation requires that mental connection as well. The Israelites were lost in sin because they first got lost intellectually. Paul writes that "Since they did not know the righteousness of God, they sought to establish their own (v3)."
It makes sense that before a person can accept the gospel (good news), he must have some understanding of what the gospel entails: that Jesus is Lord, and that God raised him from the dead. In the entire course of human history, nobody has ever come to this conclusion on their own. Everyone who has received salvation received it after they were informed about it.
Sometimes (but not very often) a person comes to understand the gospel as a result of her own independent study of scripture. The ordinary way that God brings salvation to people is through the preached proclamation of His Word. This is why Paul finishes this passage as he does in v14-15:
BELIEF IN CHRIST requires HEARING ABOUT CHRIST which requires PREACHING which requires PREACHERS BE SENT OUT.
Dig Deeper
It's really good that you're taking the time to read God's Word for yourself. You need this in a big way, and it's such a shame that most people - most Christians, even - do not take the time to benefit from this simply daily discipline.
God's Word is certainly powerful and transforming as you read it, but there's something different that adds even more power as you hear it proclaimed on the Lord's Day.
The great reformer, John Calvin, mentions three big reasons you must regularly be present to hear the preached Word, even (especially) after you've believed in the gospel message:
The preached Word is the very voice of God. When the preacher reads and explains the Bible, it's as if God is speaking directly to you;
God is present in the preached Word. You may feel God's presence fishing on a peaceful lake or in some other happy place, but to truly experience the fullness of God's presence, come and listen to His Word being proclaimed.
Preaching is the sceptre with which Christ rules all things. "Preaching is not only the sceptre by which Christ rules within His Church but also the sword in the hand of the Church by which, secretly and unknown even to itself, the Church rules or brings judgment amongst the nations."
Calvin goes on to list five more benefits of preaching, so be assured that if you truly desire to experience the peace of Christ in your life, you need to faithfully hear the Word preached every Lord's Day.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who reveals Himself to us through His Word, which is to be publicly proclaimed;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that your zeal for God would be based on the true knowledge of the gospel;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1 Corinthians 1
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