Today we’re moving beyond Paul’s salutation into the body of his letter to the Church at Rome.  If you’ve been walking along with us so far, I hope you’re as excited about what God has for us as I am.  Sometimes people will ask me a question about whether I know what I’m going to write on any given day.  The answer is honestly no.  There are sometimes when I bring my previous understanding of a text with me, and so I have an idea of what I am going to write, but more often than not God reveals something new that changes my plans.  That is what is amazing about God’s Word to us; as God Himself is without end, so too is the knowledge of Him found in His Word inexhaustible.  Moreover, God can and does use the exact same Word, the exact same message to pierce and sharpen each person individually – differently.  His work through His Spirit in us as our guide is amazing.  This is off topic, but I’m throwing this scripture about God’s Word in for free:

Hebrews 4:12 – “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

2 Timothy 3:16 – “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

See?  I didn’t plan on going there, but God has better plans than me.  🙂  On to Romans…

Romans 1:8 – “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.”

There are two things I want us to see today:  God’s Plan for a Community of Faith – the local church and to see “faith” as inseparable from how you live.

I remember hearing growing up and hear it even more today, that our faith is a “personal” thing.  Now, I’ve entitled this series through Romans “Reconnecting with the Gospel”.  While there is definitely a personal aspect of the gospel, the gospel is not primarily about individuals.  This is hard to take in, coming from a culture that idolizes the individual.  Likewise, our faith in Jesus, although it has personal aspects, should not primarily terminate on ourselves.  You see this throughout the Bible.  In the Old Testament, God delivered a people out of slavery in Egypt.  That was a picture of what Christ was to do.  Jesus, nailed to a tree, ransomed His bride, the Church, the true Israel, out of bondage to sin and death by His blood.  This is why it is a mystery to me that people can say that they are believers, but they don’t belong to a local church.  I understand no church is perfect.  I understand even church leadership can say and do hurtful things – I’ve experienced it personally multiple times.  There are times perhaps where one should move on from a local church body if they are unrepentant in blatant sin or preaching a different gospel, but if you move away from the church altogether, you have misunderstood the gospel.  The gospel is about a people together, ransomed for Christ.

Paul moves on to describe His thankfulness for all of those in the Church at Rome (plural), because your faith (singular) is proclaimed in all the world.  Many persons, singular faith.  Do you not stop to think that your faith is influenced by those around you?  What would your faith be without those around you at church?  Who would be your teacher?  Who would model mercy to you?  Who would demonstrate the generosity of Christ to you?  Who would show hospitality to the orphans and widows to you?  God has given us each other as gifts, that through each of us as the Church, we would see more clearly Jesus and the gospel, and our faith would be great among the nations.  Look at what God tells us:

1 Corinthians 12:14-27 – “For the body does not consist of one member but of many.  If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.  And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?  But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.  If all were a single member, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.  The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.  Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”

Ephesians 4:11-16 – “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faithand of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

So my exhortation in all of this is to love your brothers and sisters in Christ.  Extend extra grace to them, just has you have been extended infinite grace through Christ.  They need you and you need them.

Now, since I’ve already gone long in presenting my argument for a community of faith, I will appeal quickly to the inseparability of faith and how you live.

James 2:18-22- “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!  Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?  You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;” 

Paul rejoiced because the faith of the Church at Rome was proclaimed throughout the world.  How could that be?  Well let me tell you what it isn’t.  The world wasn’t rejoicing over the doctrine espoused by the Church at Rome.  Much like there isn’t going to be a tidal wave of new believers because I preach the sovereignty of God more fully than most.  It was the fruit of faith that was seen, and Christ being the foundation of that faith, He was glorified.

Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” 

Matthew 5:16 – “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

True belief will always be accompanied by works.  If you disagree with that, then next time you see a red light, just keep going.  Of course you don’t do that.  Why?  Because you believe that if you do you will get a ticket, likely wreck, and/or die.  So what you do follows what you believe.  Likewise if you believe that your sin was infinitely horrible, Christ bore the infinite wrath of God for that sin in your place, Christ rose triumphant over sin and death in righteousness, and now lives in you as the Holy Spirit sealing for you an eternal reward…. you’re going to live differently.  You don’t live differently to earn Christ’s approval, you believe that you were approved apart from your works and now you are a co-laborer with your Savior for His glory because of the great love you have for Him.  You can’t separate belief and action.  The Greek word used here for faith is pistis.  What we translate as “believe” or “faith” is usually that word in the Greek.  Unfortunately most people understand belief or faith to be merely head knowledge of a fact, but pistis carried with it an implicit understanding that actions would manifest the conviction you held.   This is how we are to understand the book of James, and the correlation of works with authentic faith.

My question then, is how would other characterize your life?  Do they see your good works and understand that they are born out of a conviction about Jesus and the gospel?  If you find that your life does not manifest actions corresponding to what you profess to believe, do you really believe?  These are hard questions worth asking.  Be encouraged, by grace as you draw near to God he will draw near to you.  Your glorification has already begun, and God is already working in you as believers to transform your understanding of and affections for Jesus.  Pray that God would continue to extend grace to us all who are in this good work together, that we as a community would build each other up in our faith, and that as a whole, the nations might lift up and praise the name of Jesus Christ.

Your Fellow Laborer in Christ,

Adam

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.”

Ok, so last time we covered a lot of ground.  We saw how Jesus Christ is Lord, and as Lord chooses to dispense grace according to His Will.  We saw that Jesus is completely just in however He chooses to dispense or not dispense grace because it was purchased by His blood.  We saw that Jesus does in fact dispense grace to believe to some.  To those who are given grace to believe, grace is extended as well to bring about an “obedience of the faith”.  That obedience we saw was an inward obedience of mind’s understanding of God from His Word and the heart’s affections toward Him that no one can muster or “work up” on their own, it is a gift of God by His grace.  Lastly we saw that all of the grace of God to bring about obedience of the faith is for a purpose, the lifting up the name of Jesus Christ among the nations.

Today, we are going to continue and conclude our time in Paul’s salutation.  In the last part of His salutation Paul turns his attention to his audience, the readers.  He makes a point that he is not speaking to everyone in Rome, this letter was written to the Church of Rome.  Paul is going to be careful to be specific on who that means, saying those who are “called to belong to Jesus Christ”.  Now if you remember back a few messages ago, the word here for “called” is kletos, meaning divinely appointed.  As fellow readers of this letter who have been appointed to belong to Jesus, it’s important to understand that this is not of our own choice apart from God’s purpose and grace extended to us.  Our belonging to Jesus by appointment of God is confirmed in Jesus’ own words:

John 10:27 – “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

John 17:8-10 – “For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.”

We have been given to Jesus by the will of God the Father, not according to our own will.  We all know that we made a decision to believe on Christ, but what the Word is saying is that your “free” decision only happened because God willed it to happen, and extended you grace to believe.  Now, I realize this might ruffle the feathers of some, because you might be asking the question, well if God desires everyone to be saved, why doesn’t he give EVERYONE to Jesus.  The answer is two-fold.  First we must remember that no one is owed salvation.  That’s usually where most people trip up, they believe that in order for God to be “good” in their eyes He owes them something.  They do not realize that the most just and right thing for God to do would be to send us all to hell.  When we are with Christ in Heaven, and begin to have an ounce of understanding of the weight and gravity of one sin before an infinite holy God whose air we breathe and in who has given us all things, I think instead of questioning God, we would stand in awe that He chooses to save any.  (Look at Isaiah, the prophet of God’s response in Isaiah 6 – He calls “woe” on himself that God should curse him as a sinner)  The irony of course is that you cannot make a spiritually dead person feel the weight of their sin, they’re dead.  Sufficed to say, we’re all sinners deserving of hell.  Secondly, Jesus didn’t die to help sinful people escape from hell, He died to lift up His name.  Therefore, God hates sin, sees the depravity of man, and desires that everyone would be saved to know Him, however, there was a greater purpose in salvation; the lifting up the name of Jesus Christ.  Therefore, we must leave room that God has a purpose in lifting up His name in the just punishment of unrepentant sinners, just as he has a purpose in saving some to display the riches of His grace.  I’ll leave the rest of Romans to dig into and expand on that more.

So Paul’s message to bring obedience of faith was directed towards those who had been appointed by God to belong to Jesus Christ.  What else does Paul say about this group of people He is writing to?  He says that they are loved by God and called to be saints.  That’s a funny way to say things.  Why didn’t Paul say who are called to be saints and loved by God?  Some might say, well because everyone is loved by God.  In context though, it doesn’t make sense this is a universal “love” for all people, because not everyone is called, “kletos”, divinely appointed to be saints.  We’re surrounded by people who don’t know Jesus as their savior.  No, this is a special love that God that God has for those who have been called to be reconciled and conformed into the image of His son, to be saints.  This love is not contingent upon an action from us to believe, God’s love is unconditional – preexisting even creation itself.  Ephesians 1:3-5 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will”

When God sees Christ in us as believers, He loves us with the same love that He has for His Son.  The father’s love for His Son, Jesus Christ is unimaginably great.  So God loves you… REALLY loves you, infinitely, eternally, and ever faithfully.  God’s love for us as those who are called to belong to His Son manifests itself that that we would be saints.  The greek word for saint here used is “hagios” meaning holy, separate, set apart.  A saint is one who is set apart for God to be glorified in holiness for the sake of the name of Christ.  This is the work of God from beginning to end, and He is faithful to complete it.  Put another way:

Romans 8:30 – “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” 

The ending of Paul’s message is actually telling us how our becoming obedient of faith, set apart as saints, is going to occur – through the Word of God.  When Paul is saying “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”, he is making the claim that as an apostle, God is speaking through Him to give grace and peace to the readers.  How does hearing/reading the Word of God help us become obedient of faith?  Because seeing God in His Word is the means by which we are to be transformed into the image of Christ, and that occurs not as a result of our own working, but of God in us.

2 Corinthians 3:15-18 – “Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.  But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” 

Whenever Moses is read we behold the glory of the Lord.  Now Moses is credited with writing the first 5 books of the Old Testament, but the context here is simply God’s revelation of Himself to us in His Holy scripture.  In beholding, we are to be transformed into the image of God from one degree of glory to another, by God who is the Holy Spirit dwelling in us as believers.  That is the prescribed means by which we are to be transformed.  This is why careful study of God’s Word is essential, that is why we should devote a great amount of our energy to pursue knowing God in Truth from His Word.  I hope that you will stay with us, however long this journey through Romans lasts.  Know that through the blood of Christ, we are bold in asking God to come, reveal Himself in Truth and glory, that in seeing we might become.  That in becoming we might love.  That in loving, His name would be lifted high among the nations, and many more would come to know our risen savior, Jesus Christ.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

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.”

If you’ve been with us the past few times, we’ve been working through Paul’s salutation to the Church at Rome.  Having a firm foundation in understanding the salutation is important because Paul is really laying out in these 7 verses what he plans to unpack throughout the rest of His letter.   I went back and forth over how much ground to cover at once.  There’s a lot of topics here; the Lordship of Christ, Jesus as the source of grace, the purpose of grace in God’s appointing us as believers, and the means by which God’s purpose in calling is achieved.  I ultimately decided to put them all together in one message because they are all linked.  An easy task for a Monday email, right?  Well that explains why this became a Tuesday email…

If you remember, last time we dug into the resurrection of Christ, to understand that the lynchpin of our Christian faith is that Christ’s holiness was triumphant over sin and death; thus as He was risen by the Spirit of holiness, so too will we who are credited with His righteousness by faith be raised.  Now, I want to move forward to understand what is meant what Paul says “Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of the faith for the sake of his name among 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.”   What I hope for us to see at the end of today is that we have a calling by God.  The calling of God was our divine appointment by Him to believe on Him for a purpose.  That purpose is the glorification of His name.  The means of His glorification is our obedience, which springs forth from faith.  That faith, a gift of God, is sustained and growing through grace.  That grace was not free, but purchased for us in the blood of Christ.  Christ administers grace to us, His redeemed children, to help us in our calling.  Whew!  I hope you are still with me.  Clearly we have a lot to get through, but it will be worth it.

Many people do not believe that you can believe in Christ as your savior without believing Jesus Christ is your Lord.  Those people are probably not saved.  They come up with all names like “carnal Christian” to classify people who have at one point “believed” and then now are unrepentant in their sin and/or rejected God and the church.  If your understanding of the gospel is merely that Jesus died to save you from hell, you do not understand the gospel.  While the motivations of the people peddling this watered down gospel (heresy) would seemingly be good – to give assurance of salvation to all who “believe”, they’re not being helpful or loving in reality.  It is not loving to tell someone who is unrepentant in their disobedience to Christ, that they are saved.  All they are doing is smoothing a person’s pathway to hell.  The irony of those who deny the necessity of Christ’s lordship in salvation of course is that the claim to acknowledge Jesus as God.  Who do you think has more authority over your life, a lord and king, or the God who gives you air to breathe?   They implicitly make the claim that Jesus’s authority as God is somehow less than His authority as Lord…Ridiculous.  Jesus IS God and IS Lord.  We are His bondslaves, purchased with His blood.  I could go on, but that’s probably as much as I need to say about that.

Paul is saying that he has “received grace and apostleship” through Jesus.  Many people understand the grace of God apart from Jesus, but Paul is making it clear that the source of grace is the Jesus Himself.  His blood has satisfied the holiness of God.  Isaiah 53:5 – “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”  1 Peter 1:18-19 – “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”   The blood of Christ purchased grace for you.  The blood of Christ purchased the grace for you to have faith, purchased grace for your sanctification, and purchased grace for your glorification on the Last Day.  Put another way, many people define “grace” as “the unmerited favor of God”.  That is fair, but let me take that a step further; Grace is the unmerited favor of God to man, merited by the blood of Jesus.  God does not give grace without cause; the cause is Christ and God’s purpose for His glory.    1 Timothy 1:14 – “the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”  Likewise Eph 2:8-9 – “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  The grace is not contingent upon your first having faith, this scripture is God telling us that even your faith to believe comes from grace.  Therefore, there is nothing to boast in before God.  You are not “saved” because you made a “good decision” for Christ, you are saved because God had mercy on you, and extended you grace to believe on Him.  Christians should be the most humble persons in the world because there isnothing for them to boast in, save Christ alone.  Boast in Him!

So Jesus is Lord and is extending grace to believe and grace to strengthen faith, but to what end?  Paul tells us that this is for the “obedience of the faith for the sake of his name among all the nations”  What does God mean by the “obedience of the faith”?  When we think obedience, we’re thinking outward behavior usually, right?  Someone tells you to do something and you do it.  How can faith, which Hebrews 11:1 defines as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” be obedient?  Well there are two ways that faith can be obedient, and they are linked together.

First and most importantly, is what do you believe?  Unfortunately, people bring their sin with them when they read God’s Word.  Here’s what I want people to understand… The Bible is going to say things about yourself and God that are hard to take in, because you’re a sinner.  There is truth that your flesh is not going to want to accept, and this in part is why we have all these crazy heretical beliefs that God isn’t sovereign over evil/calamity, God isn’t sovereign over salvation, homosexuality isn’t a sin, man isn’t completely sinful, women and men were made exactly the same, etc.  Therefore, part of the obedience of the faith is pushing back our own understanding, and trusting in the Word of God as Truth, a blessing to us, regardless of whether or not we can comprehend it fully.  As an example, I cannot give you an exhaustive explanation of an eternal, triune God, but that is the God of the Bible, so I believe it.  The Bible says God chooses whom to extend grace to believe, and He is good for that, just as He is also good to allow others to continue in their unbelief.  I cannot understand God’s purpose in election fully, and how He is working all things for good, but the Bible says it is true, and through obedience, I believe.  The second way, there is an obedience of the faith, is developing right affections for God.  Many people love a God who saves them from Hell, but do not love God simply for who He is.  My question to my own heart is this – Do I look at Jesus and love His justice, holiness, righteous anger against sin; all the characteristics of His glory?  If I do not, then wherever else my affections may lie (usually in things in the world like security, approval of man, etc.)  I want them to be obedient to seeing and savoring Christ.

So we have two ways to be “obedient of the faith” both in trusting the Word of God, and with the heart bringing our affections in line with the gospel of Jesus, to love Him above all else.  Those are linked.  The more we see of God, the more we will love Him.  Most importantly, every single one of us is helpless in this task.  No one can make themselves see and trust the True God of the Bible, nor can someone muster True affections for Him.  We need grace.  We need the unmerited favor of God to push back the darkness, to lift our eyes, to burn in our hearts affections for Him rooted in Truth.  We are helpless before Him, but as a loving Father, He is EAGER to help those who call upon His name.  This is what it means in Luke 11:9-13 – “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.  What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”   So the grace of Jesus is working through men like Paul to bring about the obedience of faith of those who have been called by God to believe, to be saints.

Why?  Why has God chosen to work in this way?  I do not fully understand the mind of God or have the perspective of time and all creation that He does to see how everything works together, but thankfully I do not need to; He tells me.  God is saying that we have been given grace through Jesus to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of His name, for His glorification.  What a gift!  How amazing is our God that He would take us, helpless and hopeless in our sinful state, and not only give us grace to believe on Him to be saved, but even use us to carry that message of reconciliation forward and to bring about the obedience of faith!  What good news, that we are the means by which God has chosen to lift up His name!    Such things are too wonderful to fully take in, but we should strive hard towards the end God has called us to, under the power which is provided through His Spirit, by grace, purchased from the blood of Christ.

Everything comes back to our Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the glorious center of all things.  We cannot believe, but the blood of Christ purchases for us grace to believe.  We cannot bring about obedience of faith, but blood of Christ purchases for us the Holy Spirit to make us inwardly obedient from the heart and mind.  We cannot fulfill our calling, but the blood of Christ purchases for us grace to work joyfully in the service of Him, for His glory.  We cannot delight in the things of God, but the blood of Jesus has purchased for us grace to see the Risen Lord as ultimate, a treasure above all things.  Only through the blood of Christ can our hearts delight to say “to live is Christ and to die is gain!”  Let us pray for an outpouring of God’s grace, that we all might be obedient of faith for the glory of His name.  For now, this means fruitful labor for us, to know more of Christ as the Spirit sanctifies us inwardly, and let us look with eager expectation to the Day when we will see clearly, the Risen Lamb of God, pierced for our transgressions, the author and perfector of our faith.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

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.”

Today we’re going to continue to work our way through Paul’s salutation to the Church at Rome.  Everything about our faith hinges on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  1 Corinthians 15:17 – “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”   So today, I want to focus in on the importance of the resurrection, and what Paul means when he says  that Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead”

Usually when we think about our death, we think about growing older, and the cause of death being age, disease, or some health related issues.  God says something different, however.  God says that death is a result of sin.  When Adam sinned against the Lord, we are told in Romans 8 that the creation of God was subjected to futility.  Disease, pestilence, aging, natural disasters, etc. all came into the world as a result of sin.  Death is the ultimate end of sin.  We are told later in Romans 3:23 that “the wages of sin is death“.  So sin came into the world through Adam, and brought with it corruption and death.  Do you know what every single person that has ever been born of man has in common?  They’re going to die.  They’re going to die because they are born stained with the sin of Adam, and they continue in that sin.  Death is the result.

Now we come to Jesus.  Jesus was not born of man, but of the Holy Spirit.  We are told of Jesus by Peter, one of His disciples – 1 Peter 2:22 – “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.”  So Jesus bore our sin on the cross, endured the wrath of God for the sin for those who were appointed to believe, but what was to happen to Him?  If there was one ounce of sin in Jesus, He would be in the grave today, along with everyone else – but Holiness of Jesus Christ overwhelmed the grave, death couldn’t hold Him!  God the Father, confirmed the deity of the Son, through the resurrection of Jesus by the Holy Spirit.  The righteousness and holiness of Jesus, is what defines Him as God.  What a God we serve!  Jesus, who carried with Him a perfect righteousness, without any blemish in mind, heart, or deed, has conquered sin and death.  We are joined with Him by faith, whereby our deserved death for sin was fulfilled in His death and His righteousness is credited to us.  Therefore, as Jesus was declared by God as holy, triumphant over death, so too shall we be.  In Christ alone is there eternal life.  There is no God apart from Jesus; there is no hope apart from Him and His righteousness.

John 6:35-40 – “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.  But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.  All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.  For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

What a salvation we have in Jesus!  Draw near to Him today, and rejoice that it is finished!  What God the Father has given Him by granting you faith to believe as a gift, Jesus will never lose.  You are His forever, a holy bride for Christ.  There is an empty grave as assurance that our hope in Him will never fail.  May God grant us greater faith, to walk as those who are righteous in Jesus, and live our lives for the glory of His name.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

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.”

Today is a big day… we’re moving out of verse 1 of chapter 1!  We’ve looked at so far how Paul described himself and His audience, the Church of Rome as being divinely appointed by God.  We discussed yesterday why the gospel is good news; the deliverance from God’s just wrath, His righteousness credited to us, and fellowship with God all through the blood of Jesus and the power of His resurrection by the Spirit.  Today we’re going to move forward into verses 2, 3, and maybe 4 if I it isn’t rushed.  Paul is making the point that the gospel of Jesus is true.  In making that claim he is pointing to the fulfilled prophecies of the Old Testament by Jesus.  So today I want you to be encouraged; we are going to take a look at some of the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning Jesus.

Biblical scholars disagree on the exact number or prophecies fulfilled, but most fall somewhere in the range of 300-400.  I’ve read some interesting articles about the probability of one man fulfilling even 10 of the prophecies as being something crazy like 1 in a hundred trillion.  What is most interesting is the great number of prophecies that were outside the control of Jesus.  For example, Jesus could not have chosen who His parents would be, where he was to be born, how he would be betrayed, and the means of his death.  Not to mention there are even details surrounding all of those things that were prophesized, and proven true.

The Lineage of Jesus

The Messiah was promised through the Davidic line:

1 Kings 2:45 – “But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the LORD forever.” 

We are given the lineage of Jesus both through Matthew 1 (through Joseph) and in Luke 3(through Mary), both tracing their lineage through David.  What is amazing are the subtle details within Jesus’ lineage, establishing His Kingship.  The Davidic throne could only be passed down through the father.  In this way, the genealogy of Joseph in Matthew 1 establishes Jesus’ right to rule as King.  There is a major problem with the genealogy of Joseph, however.  Joseph was a descendant of Jechoniah, who had been cursed by God.  It was told by the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 22:30) – “Thus says the LORD:”Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.” 

Jesus was not the offspring of Joseph though, He was born of the Holy Spirit and Mary.  Therefore, his right to reign as a descendant of the male line through David was established through Joseph, and the fulfillment of God’s curse against Jeconiah was fulfilled in Jesus because if you look in Luke 3, Mary’s genealogy does not go through Jeconiah.  

The Virgin Birth in Bethlehem

Isaiah 7:14 – “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Micah 5:2 – “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”

The Betrayal of Christ

Psalm 41:9 – “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.”

Zechariah 11:12-13 – “Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver.  Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”— the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.”

Judas had been one of Christ’s twelve disciples who followed Jesus during His earthly ministry, breaking bread in fellowship with Him.  Matthew 26:20-25 – “When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?”  He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me.  The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”  Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.” 

The betrayal of Jesus by a friend occurs exactly as was prophesied.  From the amount of silver, to his attempts to return the money, to what that money was ultimately used for – everything about Jesus’ betrayal was fulfilled. We see this in Matthew 27:3-7 – “Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.”  So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers.”

The Death and Resurrection of Jesus

Isaiah 52:13-15 – “Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.  As many were astonished at you—his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.”

Isaiah 53:2-9 – “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.  By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?  And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.”

Psalm 22:16-17 – “For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

Jesus, was marred beyond human appearance from flogging with whips with bone fragments and then His crucifixion.  He was high and lifted up on a tree – crucified.  His hands and feet were nailed.  Those around Him casted lots for his tunic.  I could go on, but everything prophesized of His Death and Resurrection can be found in the gospels.  There were many prophesies that were time specific, that were met with Jesus Christ, that would be impossible for someone else to meet now, because the time is past.  Such were the prophesies in the Old Testament, that no other could fulfill them.  Jesus was the fulfillment of all prophecy for the Messiah; the Savior; our Salvation.

In conclusion, what does this all mean?  What does Paul mean when He says that he is “set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son”  It means the gospel is not merely a message of historical facts to be believed, the gospel is the message of our Sovereign God in the person of Jesus Christ.  Jesus, the fulfillment of prophecy; our Savior; the Son of God.  Our hope doesn’t rest in the story of a man, but in God in the flesh, Jesus Christ.  Our God is completely sovereign over His creation, working all things to accomplish His will for His glory.  He worked all things together create situations in which to make those prophesies, He worked all things together to bring about the fulfillment of those prophecies, and He worked all things such that those prophecies would center on and be fulfilled in His Son, Jesus.

There are many who want to strip God of some measure of His sovereignty, to suggest that He is not loving if He restricts human will.  They want to say that God looked into the future to “find” someone who would betray Jesus of their own free will, and decided on Judas, but the reality is this – God wouldn’t have to look far.  We would all have betrayed Jesus.  Save the grace of God (God infringing on our “free will”), our sinfulness would overwhelm us.  If Judas was not restrained by God from doing so, he would have crucified Him himself immediately for a single piece of silver, let alone thirty.    The grace of God extends to all men through Jesus that they are not immediately brought into judgment, and extends to those divinely appointed by God to be saints such that they would know the Lord Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of prophecy, risen Savior, King of Kings; to delight in His name being lifted up in manifesting justice and righteousness in obedience of faith.  No, although God is just to condemn us all, the gospel of Jesus is that He has come to save many for His namesake.  He is sovereign, and He is at work, even now.  If you can accept it, even now in reading His Word, God is intervening in your life, by His grace, your will would be more conformed into the image of His Son Jesus.  He does not act out of want or need, but out of fullness, according to His plan for His glory.

I’m touching on this now because Paul is later going to build a mounting argument that there is no good in man that would ever seek for God.  (Rom 3:10-18)  If man were left to his own will, none would be saved.  This is essential to understanding the gospel, because unless man is completely helpless before God, they will not look to Him fully for a Savior.  Let me say again, my confidence is not in my church, a confession, or any work, but in Jesus.  Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, that we have hope in Him.  The multitude of prophecy fulfilled in the Bible gives credence to three things:  1) The authenticity of the Bible as the Word of God 2) The authenticity of Jesus as the Son of God and 3) The sovereignty of God, and His intervention to work all things to accomplish His plan for His glory.  This is good news for those who fear God, know their own sinfulness, and hope in Jesus alone.  He is good.  I need a greater word to describe His goodness, but language is a barrier.  He is the very essence of a goodness we cannot imagine.  He is faithful, trustworthy, and all-powerful to work things together for good for those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28)

Proverbs 3:4-6 – “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.  Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.”

Grace and Peace,

Adam

^“Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.  Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.  Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” 

We have arrived.  This is the good news of Jesus, the best news for us who are by nature children of wrath.  The euaggelion of Jesus – God’s just wrath removed and our reconciliation to Him.  My encouragement is to not treat this good news lightly, for the wrath of God abides today on many, even some who profess His name (Matt 7:21-22).  The wrath of God is satisfied in the blood of Jesus; it is removed from all those who believe in Him.  Those who abide in Jesus through the gift of faith are accounted righteous for His namesake.  He bore the wrath of many, but not all.  He bore the wrath of those who had been kletos – divinely appointed to be saints for His name.  Many will discount that this means man does not have a choice, which I say is foolishness.  God is sovereign, and He has brought His Word to you today – you have a choice.  Pray the Lord’s mercy; believe on the Lord Jesus and be saved, or remain in your sin where the wrath of God remains.  For those who understand the fear of the Lord, the gospel of Jesus is the greatest news ever told.  We are hopeless, hope in Jesus.  We are sinners, hope in the righteousness of Christ.  We deserve wrath, trust God’s wrath was satisfied in the crushing of Jesus. We by nature were dead in our trespasses, but we have eternal life in Christ.  This gospel message is unbelievable, God, grant us the faith to believe!

Grace and Peace,
Adam

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

Much of what will be revealed through Romans will be deep truths of God.  These are truths that would never be accepted by sinful (natural) man, but is the Truth of God.  Pray with me then, that God would prepare our hearts to receive His Truth, to guide us into His Truth by His Spirit that dwells in us as believers.

John 16:13 – “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”

1 Corinthians 2:12-14 – “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.  And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.  The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

As I take this day to prepare my own heart and wait for the LORD, I encourage you to rest your hope likewise in Him.

Psalm 130:5 – “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;”

Grace and Peace,
Adam