Romans 1:1 (The Introduction)

Here is an interesting bit of Bible Trivia: what is the best way to tell if a book of the Bible was written by Paul?  He always begins it with the same word: Paul.  But enough with the small stuff, lets dig into the meat.  By the way, I am writing as though you have an open Bible in front of you; so if you do not have one, get one, I'll wait...are you ready now?  Good lets get started then.  In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

The letter begins, "Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus," what a way to introduce yourself.  I mean this is Paul we are talking about and by this time he already has some serious accomplishments under his belt (for a review of his presalvation list see Php 3:5,6).  By this time, he is even on his second missionary journey and he was a major influence in the gospel explosion in Antioch (Ac 11:25,26) but Paul does not load himself up with titles as many of us likely would: Rev. Apostle Paul co-pastor of Antioch missionary to the Gentiles etc.  He just calls himself a bond-servant of Christ Jesus.  The word that is translated bond-servant is doulos.  Doulos in the Greek culture of the day is often used to refer to the involuntary permanent service of a slave; in this context Paul was likely using it to describe a servant who had voluntarily committed himself to a master he loved and respected (see Ex 21:5,6; Ge 26:24; Nu 12:7; Gal 1:10; 2Sa 7:5; Is 53:11).

Next, "called as an Apostle," the word for called comes from the Greek kletos (pronounced klay-tos) which sometimes refers to the calling of God of all to believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ for salvation (which is apart from God's election of people for salvation, but I digress) but is here used to refer to a call or divine appointment to a specific job; in this case to the office of Apostle.

The word Apostle comes from the Greek apostolos and means means one who is sent and is sometimes translated as messenger.  The Apostles were something like official ambassadors of Jesus Christ; appointed by Him to speak on His behalf and like the prophets of the Old Testament they were given the power to perform miracles to establish their authority (Mt 10:1; 2Co 12:12).  Every book in the New Testament was written by an Apostle or by someone who was a direct disciple of him.  Paul was an Apostle selected by Christ while Paul was on his way to Damascus (Ac 9:4,15,16; 22:14; 26:16) and trained him to fulfill this ministry (Gal 1:12, 16), God had purposed him for this task even before he was born (Gal 1:15).  Also he was specifically called for the mission field along with Barnabas (Ac 13:2).  Even still, Paul never though himself worth of his calling and called himself the least among the Apostles (1Co 15:9).

The Next part is, "set apart for the gospel of God" the word for set apart is the Greek word aphorizo which is fairly strait forward (also aphorizo can refer to either set or apart) .  Interestingly enough this is distinct from from the Greek word hagiazo which means to sanctify or dedicate something to holy use (which is also closely related to the Greek word for saint: hagios which could be roughly "one who is sanctified or set apart of holiness, but I digress, again).   Aphorizo may mean a more general separation as opposed to hagiazo which always means to make holy, pure, and consecrated.

Euaggelion is the Greek word for Gospel --which means good news-- and was actually a frequently used word in the Roman world at the time.  Commonly used as part of the Emperor worship of the day.  Town heralds would use this word to proclaim important favorable news about the Emperor like the birth of a son or the successful conquest of a new land.  In this instance Paul is announcing the good news of the work of God in Jesus Christ: the forgiveness from sin, the deliverance from sin's power, and promise of eternal life.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is both a gracious gift completely apart from anything we can do (see Eph 2:8,9) and a command to believe (Rom 10:9, John 3:14-21,36; etc.).  God commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sin and believe the Gospel unto eternal life but also makes it quite clear that salvation is of the Lord and only those elect before the beginning of time will be saved.  So is it God's responsibility or man's?  I think the answer is yes.  Of course we go into that more, but that is for another day.

I apologize, I know I said bite-sized chunks.  I think however, if today's entry was any indication, we are going to need to learn to take bigger bites.  Next time verse 2.

Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,

But to Your name give glory

Because of your lovingkindness,

Because of your truth. 
Amen

Backround

Here we go with the who, what, where, why, and when of Romans.  I have heard that it is a good idea when you are reading a book in the Bible to consider some basic background questions: who was writing the letter; to whom was the letter was the letter written; why was the letter sent; what was the main purpose; what was going on with the people to whom the letter was sent.  If we can find these things out the book will be that much more real to us; not just the record of what happened to people in a vastly different culture some two-thosand years ago.

The Author: the Apostle Paul was originally born of the tribe of Benjamin (Php 3:5) by the name of Saul after Israel's first King.  He was raised in an important trade city called Tarsus which was located in Asia Minor (what we now know as Turkey) (Ac 9:11).  Saul got his main education in Jerusalem from a celebrated rabbi named Gamaliel (Ac 22:3) and just like his father before him Saul was a Pharisee(Ac 23:6) which was the strictest Jewish sect (Php 3:5).  Saul was one of the most zealous persecutors of the church (Ac 8:3; 9:1,2) until the Lord Jesus called while he was traveling to Damascus (Ac 9:4-9).  The Lord had sovereignly chosen Saul from before the beginning of time (Eph 1:4) to be His wittness primarily to the Gentiles (that is to say non-jews) (Ac 9:15).  After Saul became converted he began to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the same passion that he had previously to destroy it (Ac 26:9).  People also began to call him Paul which was his Greek name.  He went on three missionary journeys all over the Roman world (on foot mostly).  He was imprisoned, beaten, lashed, stoned, shipwrecked, in constant danger, hungry, and exposed to the elements to name a few (2Co 11:23-27).  Altough he was physically unimpressive (2Co 10:10; Gal 4:14) Paul had an inner strength given to him by the Holy Spirit's power (Php 4:13) and the grace of God proved sufficient for his every need (2Co 12:9,10).  Paul preached tirelessly until he was eventually martyred by Rome in ca. A.D. 65-67 (2Ti 4:6)

The receiver: The church in Rome could have been founded by some of the original Christians converted on the day of Pentecost (Ac 2:14-41).  This church was not founded by Paul and he had never been there although he longed to visit them on a planned missionary journey to Spain.  Paul had been prevented from visiting because of God's timing and his pastoral obligations.  They had a strong testimony for the Gospel ---for which Paul was thankful to God--(Rom 1:8-10) and were doctrinally sound.

 You could make the case that, like the church of Smyrna (Rev 2:8-11), the church there was in the center of the Roman political/religious world.  Often times the Roman government and sometimes the Roman people greatly hated Christians and persecuted them bitterly --meaning horrible executions, being fed to the lions, having all of their possessions taken, etc.--and a church under persecution is a pure church.  It stands to reason that no one would join and fellowship with a church if they had a reasonable fear of death, torture, loss of property, etc. unless they were truly a born-again believer.  If a person truly has Jesus Christ as the hymn writer says, "let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also.  The body they may kill, God's truth abideth still.  His kingdom is forever!"

The what and the why (purpose and content): Since Paul had been kept from traveling to Rome so as to share Apostolic instruction, encourage, and be encouraged by them as he reached out in a missionary journey to Spain (Rom 15:28), he wrote this letter to them.  Unlike every other letter that Paul wrote --as above stated-- he had not founded the church there and had never visited it.  Thus he had nothing to correct or rebuke.  Instead he laid out a summary of the doctrines of the sinfulness of all mankind (1:18-3:20) --both Jew and Gentile (which is to say a non-Jew)--, the provision of God's righteousness in the justification of sinful men (3:21-5:21), the sanctification of the redeemed (6:1-8:39), Israel's reception of God's righteousness (9:1-11:36), and the application section (12:1-15:13).  Add a greeting and a theme (1:1-17) and finally a conclusion and a benediction (15:14-16:27) and that makes up the content of this theological masterwork.

I apologize that the last two posts have been so long.  I know I promised that this would be in bite-sized chunks; however, it is important to have some idea of where Paul was coming from to breach the gap of the millennia between us and Paul. 

May God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit bless and enrich this work not for my sake or even for your sake but for His own glory's sake, for His name's sake, for His truth's sake, for His lovingkindness sake.  Amen.

Here we go.

Hello everyone.  I am very excited to be starting this journey with you.  The Epistle (or letter) to the Roman church by Paul is such a tremendous work that you could even call it Christianity 101!  It is all there: the general revelaiton of God to all mankind, the conviction of sin of all, the nature of sin, the nature of salvation and santification, and practical application.  As we go through this marvelous book we will find treasures along the way but the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow will be a deeper richer understanding of the glory of the Triune God in all His attributes.

This blog will be using the New American Standard Bible and will be from a Reformed or otherwise known as Calvinist prespective.  I welcome all comments and discussion if there are any questions or disagreements as debate is one of the surest ways to coming to the absolute truth.

Also, while Romans will be the primary focus of the blog, I will also be branching off to other parts of the Bible that are referenced to so that we will be able to get the most complete picture of what the Holy Spirit was and is communicating through the Apostle Paul.

Next post I will go into the who, what, where, why, and when of the book and after that we will go into the meat of it.  I hope and pray that we are all blessed by this work.

Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us,
But to Your name give glory,
Because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth.
Amen