Good News audio (6MB)
Rom 1:1-7
Today we start a new series following the letter of Paul to the Romans, written, we think, during that 3 months he was waiting in Corinth for the weather to improve.
So let’s start with the opening few verses.
He begins with the standard opening formula of most Greek letters of the time. But unlike those this introduction isn’t independent of the main points of the letter. In fact as we’ll see in a moment the introduction is a bit like the overture to an opera or the opening movement of a symphony – introducing the main themes of what’s to come.
Remember that he’s writing here to a church that’s never met him, to people who don’t know him. So he provides an extended introduction where he describes himself and his message in a good amount of detail.
In fact it’s important to think about the terms he uses as he begins his letter. Let’s look at them.
Servant
He begins by describing himself as a servant or a slave. Now no self-respecting Greek or Roman would ever have allowed the term slave to be used in association with themselves. Yet that’s how Paul begins. Of course as a Jew the idea of being a servant of God had no negative connotations. Even so it’s significant that before calling himself an apostle he uses that term of submission.
Apostle
Next he describes himself as an apostle – by God’s calling. You’ll remember that Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus and gave him the commission to take the gospel to the Gentiles, so despite being. In his open words, the least of the apostles, he is truly one of them. And notice how he describes it. It’s:
The Gospel of God
That is, it’s the gospel that belongs to God or comes from God. In other places he describes it as the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, meaning the gospel about Jesus Christ, but here it’s a gospel from God, promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures. Later in the letter he’ll explain how the Old Testament scriptures point to Jesus Christ and particularly to faith as the means of salvation.
But in what sense is it a gospel? We often translate gospel as Good News, as it is in your version, but the word doesn’t always mean good news. Certainly it is for those who believe as he says in v16: “16For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith.” But what about for those who don’t have faith? Two verses later we read: “18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth.” Doesn’t sound much like good news does it? These people need to hear the gospel, God’s message of salvation before it’s too late. It’s the bad news part of the message that’s our great incentive for evangelism. Our non-Christian friends need to hear this message before it’s too late; before God’s wrath is poured out on them. We don’t want to hear that part but we can’t escape it by ignoring it.
So what’s in this message that will help people? First the message is
Concerning his Son
The gospel is all about Jesus: Jesus the man who lived on earth 2000 years ago, who descended from David so in the rightful line of a king of Israel, but who was so much more than a man. He was, in fact, God’s only Son. And that makes him:
Jesus Christ our Lord
As he’ll explain later, in ch.6 we’re no longer slaves of sin but we now serve Jesus Christ the Lord, who brings us righteousness by faith in him. You see the gospel in its original sense was used of an announcement of a new king being born. So the central message of the preaching in Acts is that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and is now Lord of all, or to a Jewish audience is proclaimed Messiah by his rising from the dead.
Grace and Apostleship
So he says he’s received grace and apostleship through this Lord, Jesus. It would be very easy to gloss over that word grace there. It’s one of those words that appear so often that we tend to overlook it. We say grace before a meal, we close our meetings with the grace, but here it has much more power than a mere word. What was the grace that Paul received from God, from Jesus? Think about what he was doing on the road to Damascus. He was on his way to Damascus to continue his work of rounding up Christian converts. What was it that Jesus said to him? “Paul why are you persecuting me?” Imagine how Paul felt when he heard those words. “Persecuting you, Lord? I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought you were just a man who’d led people astray. And now I see that you are truly risen from the dead. How could I have been so blind?” Ananias was very reluctant to go and lay hands on Paul because he’s heard how much evil he’d done to the saints in Jerusalem. Yet Jesus didn’t punish him for his evil. He didn’t cast him out. No, he showed him incredible grace. He gave him the position of an apostle. He gave him a special mission of telling the Gentiles about him.
It’s an incredible turn around isn’t it? No wonder he says he’d received grace and apostleship. This isn’t a throwaway line. It’s central to his message of the gospel. If he, the greatest of sinners, could be forgiven so could anyone.
The Obedience of Faith
Notice that this message of the gospel, good news as it is, isn’t without conditions. He says he received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name. Faith grants us the status of being considered obedient. This is a similar idea to receiving righteousness by faith. Yet having received that status there’s still a requirement that we begin to serve God in obedience to him. The freedom of the gospel as we saw a couple of weeks ago doesn’t mean licence. It doesn’t mean that we can do anything we like. No it means remaining obedient, though that remaining also comes about through faith in Christ.
Among all the Gentiles
Notice too, that his task was to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name.
Jesus great commission in Acts 1 was to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) And so it is with Paul’s mission. He was to preach the gospel among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name. Well he’s done that pretty well so far but there were more places to reach. Hence his desire to go to Rome and from there on to Spain. Have you noticed that despite all his success, Paul never stops to rest on his laurels. He seems to have a strong conviction that God’s call never ends.
People keep asking me what I’m going to do now I’m retired. Well the answer is that for me that’s really just a convenient term to describe no longer having full time responsibility for a Parish. It doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped ministry – otherwise I wouldn’t be here would I? No, God’s call to us to serve him continues throughout our life. I hope that all of you are looking for ways to serve God wherever you are and will do until your dying breath.
To all God's Beloved in Rome
Finally notice how he addresses them in the final section of his greeting: “7To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints.” He’s saying that every one of them is called by God to be his special people, set apart from the world to serve him in holiness and godliness. Can I say that this description applies equally to each one of you. If you’re a follower of Jesus, God has set you apart to serve him. That means you need to think of yourself as connected with God and not tied to the secular world around you. If you meditate on that it may free you from some of the bonds and temptations you feel interacting with the world around you.
Grace to You and Peace
Paul finishes with a word of blessing: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s that word grace again: God’s undeserved love revealed in Jesus Christ. It’s almost a summary of the gospel isn’t it? Peace is the common greeting of the Middle Eastern world, but here it has the added idea of peace with God and the blessings that come from living under God’s rule. This is the peace that passes understanding and it comes as he says here from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul is an amazing example to us isn’t he? Despite his exalted position in the church he considers himself first and foremost a servant of God. He’s totally committed to his mission of preaching the gospel to the whole world, a gospel of grace, of faith in the risen Lord Jesus and he isn’t going to stop until someone stops him.
Let me encourage you to likewise commit yourselves to serving God through the proclamation of the gospel in whatever way works for you. There are many people in the world, still, who have never heard the message of grace and forgiveness through Jesus Christ and you may be the one person who could tell that to someone you know. Remember that as God’s saints, as his holy ones, we’ve been set apart to demonstrate to those around us how blessed it is to live under God’s rule. May that be your mission this week!
