Alright, I hope everyone’s strapped in; today we start walking through Romans. Here is a quote by Martin Luther, the founder of the protestant reformation, given in preface to his writings on the book of Romans: “This letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is well worth a Christian’s while not only to memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul. It is impossible to read or to meditate on this letter too much or too well. The more one deals with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes.”
I am not Martin Luther, but here is what I would say; Romans is a difficult book. There is so much Truth in the revelation of Christ here that we could easily be profited in staying in this book alone for the rest of our days. That said, the greatest difficulty in Romans by God’s grace will not be see new Truth, but the difficulty will lie in each of your hearts to accept that Truth. Someone once told me that the greatest difficulty with Romans 9 isn’t in explaining the text; it’s in accepting that it means exactly what it says. I understand that now, and honestly I could say that about every chapter in Romans. When I began to follow after Christ, my God looked much different than the Jesus I know today. A diamond does not come out of the ground beautiful; it must be hammered out, refined, polished, and shaped. Likewise, we all bring our own flawed view of God into Romans that needs to be hammered out, refined, polished, and shaped. So my prayer has been, and will continue to be that God would grant His Spirit, to guide us into all truth; giving us clarity to see not a God of our own making, but the One True God, in Jesus Christ. May God grant His blessing to this Word, may the name of Jesus be lifted higher, and may our hearts burn for Him alone.
Romans 1
Romans 1:1-7 – “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 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, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Let’s slow down and take a look at the salutation. It is often overlooked, but actually holds immensely important information for us, the reader. Let’s start with Paul’s servanthood. Unfortunately in modern translations, the word for slave has been translated “servant”. This is a travesty. We are not servants of God, we are His slaves. We do not “work” for God so as to earn our keep and approval, but we have been bought for a price, we are approved by Him first and then are used by Him for His purposes. For many people the word slave this will illicit negative thoughts, but Jesus Christ is not like any other slave owner – He is perfectly good, righteous, and just; even laying down His own life for His slaves. We, as slaves of Christ, were purchased with His blood. Where once we were slaves to sin, under its power and bondage, we are now free from sin and slaves of righteousness through Christ. Romans 6:17-18 – “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”
Next Paul identifies himself has having been called as an apostle. An apostle was someone who was in the presence of Jesus and given a message to take out. How was Paul called as an apostle? We are told in Acts 9. Paul had been present at the murder of Stephen, a man of God. Now Paul was seeking to imprison and murder more Christians from the City of Damascus.
Acts 9:1-6 – “But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
Why is this important to us? First to know that Paul was given a specific message to deliver – specifically he was to bring the gospel to the gentiles (non-Jews). That message is primarily the focus of the book of Romans and Paul is delivering the gospel to Rome (a gentile city). Second is to note that this calling was divinely appointed. Did Paul “choose” to have Christ reveal Himself to him on the Damascus road? No, of course not, it was the will of God. The Greek word for this calling is kletos, which means divinely appointed for a purpose. Now that may not seem too earth shattering at first, except that the exact same word, kletos, is used twice to describe the calling of the saints in Rome in verses 6 and 7: “you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ” and “all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints”. Same word, kletos. The calling of persons to belong to Christ and calling as saints was no more a personal decision than was Paul’s calling as an apostle a personal decision. Some may wrestle with this truth, that God’s calling is not universal and indicative of His appointing an individual to salvation through faith rather than an individual’s “decision” to believe. My encouragement for today is to ask, if God meant something different, why did He use the same word to describe Paul’s calling as an apostle and individual’s calling to salvation as saints. I realize this raises questions about the love of God, and his justice, but those issues will be addressed later on in Romans.
It was previously understood that God’s chosen, loved, people were the Jews. Now Paul is making proclamation that the gospel of God in Christ Jesus, is to make a name for himself not through the physical Jewish nation of Israel, but through individuals from every nation. This is the third way Paul describes himself, that he has been set apart for this purpose, the proclamation of the gospel of God to the gentile nations.
Well, that’s enough to chew on today. What we’ve seen so far is that God has a purpose for Paul and us as saints. God is not working haphazardly through His creation, but He has a specific plan, and will use us to accomplish it. His plans are far greater than any we could choose on our own. You may have also noticed that we really only made it through verse 1 today… and that given there are 433 verses in Romans we wouldn’t finish until roughly 2-3 years from now… That’s definitely not my plan, but we’ll see what God has for us. Please continue to pray for God’s blessing to us through His Word.
Grace and Peace,
Adam
Following the Way 