Introduction to Romans 1:1-7
I think letter writing in our world today has sadly diminished with technology. This has caused postal service revenues around the world to drop a lot. In Singapore, Singpost has to diversify its services in order to keep itself afloat. Most correspondence has gone digital with emails as a common way to correspond.
However, with instant messaging like Whatsapp and Telegram, even the number of emails sent has dropped.
Yet, I believe letter-writing is still being taught in schools in both English and Mother Tongue, which probably points to the enduring practice of writing letters. Students are taught the correct format used in letter writing, where to put the recipient’s address, sender’s address, salutation, heading, closing salutation.
Letters written almost two thousand years ago also follow a general format, consisting of the sender of the letter, the recipient, the opening greeting. That is what we will see in the opening seven verses of the letter. However, there are a few distinctions in the salutation of this letter. One, is how long it is. In fact, this salutation is the longest of all the 13 letters written by Paul in the NT. Second, is how gospel-centered and Christ-centered it is. Right from the very first verse, we get a sense of what Paul is going to be talking about in this letter. Let’s get into it.
I. The Author: Paul (1:1)
We know that the Holy Spirit inspired this book of the Bible. Therefore it is remarkable that the Spirit employs human agency to write this book which specifically is in the form of a letter. Now, the Spirit did not just dictate what Paul was supposed to write, and Paul was not simply a secretary. But the Spirit inspired Paul to write God’s Word through Paul’s unique writing style, vocabulary, and thought process. Paul wrote 13 letters in the NT and the letter to the Romans is his longest. We know that Paul was a well-educated man, the most zealous of all Pharisees who persecuted the church. That is why his three-fold description of himself is remarkable.
A. Paul’s Master: Christ Jesus (1:1a)
This is the first thing Paul says about himself. The Greek word for “servant” is doulos, which can also be translated as, “slave.” That means that Paul is completely owned by God, and is totally at his Master’s disposal. This term also denotes humility since a slave is one of a lowly status. But it also speaks of complete devotion and obedience to the Master.
Paul’s Master is none other than Christ Jesus.
Christ or Christos is the Greek translation of the Hebrew title Messiah, meaning “the Anointed One.” “Christ” is not the surname of Jesus, but rather is His title. By putting the title “Christ” first, Paul is highlighting the fact that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of what has been prophesied in the OT. We shall see this shortly.
The name Jesus is derived from the Hebrew name Joshua, which means “Yahweh saves.” That is why the angel told Joseph in Matt 1:21, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Are you a slave of Christ Jesus? If you are a Christian this morning, this particular description also describes you. Are you completely owned by God? Are you totally at the Master’s disposal? Is your life marked by complete devotion and obedience to your Master? Are there things in your life that you are clinging onto that you are not willing to surrender to the Master?
To be a slave of Christ Jesus is not some advanced level of Christian living. It is what it takes to simply be a follower of Jesus.
Jesus says in Matt 16:24 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” He says in Luke 9:62 “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
B. His Calling: To be an Apostle (1:1b)
While all Christians are slaves of Christ Jesus, not all are called to what Paul was called to--an Apostle. The term “call” will be used repeatedly by Paul in this letter, especially in chs 8 and 9 and it refers to “the effective work of God by which he calls people to salvation and office” (Schreiner).
This word literally means “sent-out ones.” This is an exclusive office that Christ specifically calls someone to. Paul says in Gal 1:1 “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.”
An apostle is also someone who has personally seen and interacted with the Lord. Paul says in 1 Cor 15:8 “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” And Paul’s specific mission is to be an apostle to the Gentiles (Rom 11:13).
The office of apostle is one of 4 gifts that Christ gives to the church: “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers” (Eph 4:11) and they are called to lay the foundation of the church (Eph 2:20).
This office is one of great authority and Paul in introducing himself as an apostle is laying down his credentials.
“Paul writes not as a private individual, nor even as a gifted teacher, but as a “called apostle” whose words bear the authority of God Himself” (Moo).
The question is:
Are there still apostles today, given that an apostle has to have seen the resurrected Christ and personally commissioned by Him to be His apostle?
There are no more apostles today apart from the ones we read about in the Gospels and Acts.
C. His Purpose: Set Apart for the Gospel of God
Paul has been set apart (KJV: separated) from doing other things to this one thing: the proclamation of the gospel. In Gal 1:15 he says that God “had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace” to do this.
What is the gospel?
The word simply means “good news.” And whatever this good news is, Paul has dedicated his life to proclaiming it.
II. The Message: The Gospel (1:2-4)
A. The Gospel is from God (1:2)
This good news was promised by God beforehand in the OT. That promise goes all the way back to Gen 3:15 where God told the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Here God reveals His plan to redeem sinful man and reconcile them to himself. That is indeed good news.
By using the term “prophet,” Paul is referring to God’s spokesmen who declared God’s words and wrote them down in the holy Scriptures. They have the responsibility to foretell (tell the future) and to forthtell (declare God’s message). So God’s spokesman Moses wrote Genesis.
God also used other prophets who proclaim this good news, for example, Jeremiah (23:5-6), David, who is king is also a prophet who wrote God’s word (Ps 103), then there is Isaiah, who wrote Isa 11:1-5; 53; Eze 34:23-24.
Paul is going to give nearly 60 direct quotations from the OT in Romans. This is compared to 40 in all other Pauline epistles combined.
B. The Gospel is About God’s Son (1:3-4)
The focus of the Good News is Jesus Christ. The Good News is centered on only one person: The Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one promised beforehand by God through His prophets in the holy Scriptures. He is the fulfillment of what God promised. Who is He? Note the repeated words “according to the flesh” (v. 3), “according to the Spirit” (v. 4). So who is Jesus?
1. Jesus is Man (1:3)
There are two things we must note about this Son.
First, he was a descendant of King David. This is clearly referring to the covenant God made with David back in 2 Sam 7:12-16 “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”
The one to fulfill this is Jesus.
Second, this coming of the Son is according to the flesh, referring to taking on human, bodily form. Jesus came to this earth, born as a human baby, and grew up experiencing all the weakness and frailty that is common to all mankind. And as a man, there is a genealogy that is traced all the way back to King David.
(Trans: But Jesus is not only man, He is also God…)
2. Jesus is God (1:4)
Jesus has always been God the Son from eternity past. While Jesus was born of Mary, he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Matt 1:18 says “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”
To Joseph, the angel says, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
The angel also told Mary in Luke 1:35 “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.”
The fact that Jesus has been, is, and always will be the Son of God was powerfully demonstrated by His resurrection from the dead.
His resurrection did not make him the Son of God, the resurrection declared Him to be the Son of God.
But additionally, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead elevated Him to a position of power (“in power”) and authority that He previously did not occupy. It is through His resurrection that Jesus ascended to the right hand of God and reigns supremely as the messianic King.
We see how vv. 3 and 4 come together when Paul writes in Phil 2:8-11 “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
C. What the Gospel is
Now we are ready to define what the gospel is. As I said before, the gospel is literally the good news. And the good news is good because of the corresponding bad news.
The bad news we saw last week, with which Paul will begin his next major section of Romans, is that God is perfectly righteous and all men are totally unrighteous and stand condemned.
The gospel is the good news of how Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection saves us from our sins if we turn and put our trust in Him alone.
(Trans: With such good news, what do we do with it?)
III. The Task: The Proclamation of the Gospel (1:5-6)
A. Jesus Gives Grace and Apostleship unto Salvation
We have talked about what an apostle is, but what is “grace”? This is God’s supernatural enabling, His unmerited favor to man, giving to us what we do not deserve and is therefore a gift.
And it comes from Jesus. Paul is likely not saying that Jesus gives two separate things: 1. Grace 2. Apostleship. Paul is mostly likely saying that Jesus granted Paul the special gift to be an apostle. And we have seen already what Paul does with this gift of the office of an apostle.
He proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ, To Enable Our Obedience of Faith
Why did Jesus grant grace for Paul to be an apostle? For the purpose of bringing about obedience of faith.
We need to note this phrase because it is a unique phrase that Paul uses only in Romans and it occurs here at the beginning of the book but also at the end of the book in 16:26. Whatever this phrase means, it is first on Paul’s mind when he starts writing this letter and the last thing on his mind as he ends.
Is he referring to a faith that then brings about obedience? That seems to be a likely understanding of this phrase. You can’t obey Christ unless you put your faith in Him first.
But there is also a second possibility, which is to take faith as equating to obedience, “the obedience which is faith.” This is because there are many places in Romans where faith is synonymous with obedience.
For example in Rom 10:16-17, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” The word “faith” appears 40x in Romans.
So this is an obedience to the revelation and claims of the gospel that expresses itself in faith. When you put your faith (trust) in the Lord Jesus, that is obedience. As one commentator observes, “obedience always involves faith, and faith always involves obedience.”
That is why when you put your faith in Jesus, you turn from your sins because sin is disobedience.
B. For His Glory Among All the Nations (1:5b-6)
Paul proclaims the gospel for the sake of Christ’s name. He is afterall a slave of Christ Jesus and does His bidding.
Therefore, Paul gladly goes to where his Master sends him to do this work and he gladly serves his Master Jesus Christ for the Master’s glory and not his own.
Therefore, when Paul proclaims the gospel, and people come to faith in obedience to Him, Jesus is glorified. When we think, and feel, and act in ways that are in obedience to the Lord Jesus, He is glorified.
And the gospel is spread among all the nations, among which Rome is one (v. 6). This verse functions as a transition to addressing the recipients of the letter.
Notice that the Romans (and all believers) are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
Just as Christ called Paul to be an apostle, he also calls individuals to belong to Him. As mentioned earlier, this is the effectual calling of God. In other words, those whom He calls, will 100% come. There is 0% failure rate, 100% success rate.
IV. The Recipients: The Romans (1:7a)
We know that Paul is clearly writing to believers because …
A. They are Loved by God
Let’s pause here for a while. As a Christian, you are loved by God. There is no question about it, even when you encounter afflictions.
This book will tell you to consider that all things work together for good to those who are called.The good is that we might be conformed to the image of the Firstborn who is Christ.
You may be tempted to question the love of God in difficult times, but you need to ask how He is seeking to conform you to His image through times of trials.
B. They are Called to be Saints
This is the third time we have encountered the verb “call,” and the word “saints” literally means, “holy ones.”
This word is not referring to some super saint who is conferred that title, but to all believers.
Paul likes to use this word to refer to believers and he uses it 38x in his letters because saints are those who have been sanctified by the Lord Jesus Christ.
V. The Greeting: Grace and Peace (1:7b)
This is the greeting Paul uses in almost all of his letters. What is he conveying when he greets his readers with “grace and peace”?
Note that the order is important. Paul never ever says, “peace and grace,” but always “grace and peace.”
Why?
Because you have to receive God’s grace first before you can have peace. In v. 5, it is through Christ we receive grace to believe in Him in obedience. Only then can we have peace with God. In other words, we must receive the supernatural enablement to believe before we can be reconciled to God.
Conclusion
So we see that Paul’s life and content of his letter to the Romans is all about the gospel of Jesus Christ. His letter’s opening is very clear that this is the message that Paul is going to be giving in his life and also in this letter.
For Personal Reflection
Is there any area of your life that you have not fully surrendered to your Master?
How does Paul’s calling remind us of our role in the Great Commission?
Have you been tempted to doubt the love of God during times of affliction? How does Rom 8:28-29 help to correct your understanding?
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