Romans 1:11

For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you that you may be established.

This week we are going to go a bit deeper into the Greek words that Paul used. That way we can get an even better understanding of his message in this great book. Interestingly enough, in his original epistle (letter) the only words that Paul uses are: long--so--see--impart some spiritual gift--established. This makes reading the passage a little difficult if we do not understand the meaning of the Greek words used. I will try to list the Greek words and their meanings so that we can better understand it.

Epipotheo (ep--ee-poth-eh'-o): means generally longing or a great desire

Horao (hor-ah'-o): to see, to become acquainted with

Metadidomi (met-ad-id'-o-mee): to impart

Tis: some

Pneumatikos (pnyoo-mat-ik-os'): belonging to the Divine Spirit (filled with/governed by the Spirit of God

Charisma: grace or gifts denoting extraordinary powers, distinguishing certain Christians and enabling them to serve the church of Christ, the reception of which is due to the power of divine grace operating on their souls by the Holy Spirit.

Sterizo (stay-rid'-zo): to strengthen, make firm.

Now because Paul wrote using Koine (from the Hellenistic period which is to say after Alexander the Great left his mark on the world) Greek which was the lingua franca  (common second language) in the Roman Empire, the syntax of that tongue frequently does not make sense to the common reader. Sometimes Bible translators will put words that do not directly appear in the text in italics. These inserted words are used in order to make the reading less difficult. Additionally, while I defined those Greek words, some of them have more meanings than the single one I used; this is because context matters.Whenever you want to get the proper meaning out of a passage, you use the definition that makes the most sense in that passage. Now with the word exposition done lets look at what Paul was saying in this short sentence.

Firstly, Paul expresses his great desire to meet with them. Heretofore he had been prevented by God's sovereign will. Paul's great affection even for people he had never actually seen. This is sine qua non (Latin: an essential condition; a thing that is absolutely necessary) for effective preaching as even the wonders of Christ's gospel (good news) will not be properly received if delivered in a tone of criticism, indifference, or cold admiration. Of course the gospel cannot be adequately delivered without the law being there as well. If you were to say, "you must be saved!" without a knowledge of sin a person may respond, "saved from what?" People must understand their dire condition before they will cling to the life-raft of the gospel. However, we must remember to share the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).

Secondly, Paul wishes to impart a spiritual gift to this congregation in Rome. It appears unclear the exact nature of this gift; it could be miraculous (e.g. prophecy, healing, tongues [ability to speak languages], interpretation of tongues [understanding languages]), or just sharing his understanding/ of God's word, teaching in fact. These gifts uniquely equip the various members of the church to fill different roles and all of the roles are important. Of course you need a pastor/overseer to lead and teach each congregation but you also need other jobs as well. The pastor may have a gift for preaching and teaching, but he may have no sympathy. Some members are gifted in knowing how to just lend mundane aid to those in need (e.g. cook meals) or are good at building things and maintaining property. In this light we should consider the preeminent teacher and evangelist that was the Apostle Paul.

When you consider Paul (formerly Saul of Tarsus), he is very different compared to the other apostles: some were fishermen (Simon/Peter, Andrew, James, and John), one was a tax collector (Matthew or Levi according to Luke), and one was a terrorist (Simon the zealot); the others were generally blue-collar workers and non of them had any formal theological training. Heck, Jesus' profession was a carpenter (based on Joseph's profession). And they all ended up with the career of itinerant rabbis (so to speak). Saul of Tarsus, on the other hand, was highly educated. Born and raised in the cosmopolitan city of Tarsus, he undoubtedly received a superior there. Afterward, he obtained rabbinical instruction from the celebrated instructor Gamaliel in Jerusalem and became a Pharisee. Although these men were normally cast as the villains in the gospel accounts (and there were), their education was so rigorous they typically memorized the Law, the Prophets, and the writings (the Old Testament) by rote. That means that they memorized it all. So when Jesus called Saul to work for Him, that was certainly going in a new direction.

Lastly in this passage, Paul is trying to help strengthen and establish the new congregation. The beauty of this remarkable book may stem from the fact that he had never met them before. Every other letter that Paul wrote was to churches that he founded and the letters were always addressing specific issues that needed to be addressed. Once again, as Paul could not know what issues the Roman church was struggling with or confused about, he just addressed them all. The book or Romans is practically a Christianity 101.  I will see you next verse and I will try to get it up with more regularity.

Not to us, O LORD, not to us,
But to your name give glory,
Because of your faithfulness,
Because of your truth.

Romans 1:10

always  in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.

In this part of his introductory address to the church at Rome, Paul expresses is great desire to come to meet them; however, he recognizes the limitation of his own desire to God's will. Previously he had wanted to preach and evangelize Asia. I am fairly certain that is referring to Asia-Minor (modern day Turkey). However according to Acts 16:6-7, "Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to." However Jesus prevented Paul from going to Asia-Minor is entirely a matter of speculation but it also serves to suggest an example of God saying no to an earnest prayer request. When Paul had a rather bothersome "thorn in his side because he may have gotten a sneak-peak at heaven, "Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me -to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that might leave me. And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'" (2nd Corinthians 16:7-9a emphasis mine). You can just imagine how hard Paul's life mush have been: stoned, beaten, shipwrecked, always afraid of danger in the city and in the wilderness; and he has to contend with a tormenting messenger from Satan? I think you or I would have begged God more than three times to get rid of that mess. Yet Paul went on to say, "Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." (2nd Corinthians 9b). Once again, even though Paul may have greatly desired to visit the church at Rome, God had thoroughly trained him to wait on His timing; like James 4:14a,15 says "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow...Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'" In the present day, we should carefully look for God's timing before we set out in any task if we want to be successful.
 
Now I would always try to avoid as much eisegesis (the practice of putting your own meaning on the text) as possible the main reason being conformation bias. With too much eisegesis, you can make the Bible say anything you want it to. That is one of the chief aims of this blog: to use as much exegesis (drawing out meaning from the text as opposed to putting meaning on the text) in the hermeneutics (interpretation of the Bible) as possible. I hope we all learned something this week and I will see everyone next week.

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

Romans 1:9

For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you.

In this part of the letter, Paul alludes to how frequently he prays for them. Even though this assembly of believers were famous for how well they were expressing Jesus Christ to their community and consequently the Roman world they still need the support of prayer; as it is written, "therefore let him who thinks that he stands take heed that he does not fall," (1st Corinthians 10:12). The more effective that anyone is in their Christian walk and witness the more careful they need to be without blame. Any sinful behavior in Christians damages their reputation and taints the message that we preach as is written, "As dead files give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly out weights wisdom and honor." (Ecclesiastes 10:1 NIV). Additionally there has always been many who would resort to ad hominem (Latin for to the man or person) assaults. So as to discount the message or to justify themselves, some naysayers will just revile the person. The Gospels are full of examples of Jesus' opponents berating Him (e.g. calling him a Samaritan [a hated group of half-Jews], has a demon, was the result of fornication, performed miracles through Beelzebub, etc.) because they could not contend with His preaching. In a similar fashion, adversaries will malign Christians by saying that they are just hypocrites. Of course no one is perfect, "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us," (1st John 1:8) but prayerful support of fellow believers can be of great assistance as it written "Therefore, confess your sings to one another, and pray for one another...The effective prayer [lit. supplication] of a righteous man can accomplish much." (James 5:16).

In his adjuration on prayer, Paul frequently makes mention of the importance of prayer: "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people." (Ephesians 6:18 emphasis mine) and again "pray continually," (Thessalonians 5:17).  He consistently set aside specific times every day to prayer not just for all Christians but from them specifically; this leads to Paul's next maxim of prayer. Prayer must not only be constant but also specific. That is not to say that we need to keep an omniscient [all-knowing] God informed. Even as Jesus said  "...your Father knows what you need before you ask him." (Mathew 6:8b). One of the ways I like to think about is that our heavenly Father is like a parent to us; He knows what we need and what is best for us; so He wants to give us what we ask for. However, He is not a genie who is obliged to grant our every whim. Imagine if God were to give you everything you want. In our finite minds we literally cannot always know what is best for us.

As an example of of the wrong use of prayer The movie Bruce Almighty presents a hypothetical scenario where a mortal man is imbued with the power and authority of God Himself. In the story Bruce first answers as many petitions as he can by typing yes until he is overwhelmed with the sheer enormity of the requests. After that he utilizes the select all function of his email/prayer program to broadly say yes to everything. Chaos ensues; because Bruce acting as God granted every one's wishes practically everyone suffers. As on example: apparently multiple people prayed to win the lottery, because the all won they each received approximately $17 dollars. Notwithstanding the various other problems with that movie (like what happens when Bruce stops answering prayers after the yes to everything debacle) it does give us an example of why God (who always answers prayer) will sometimes say no or not yet to our requests.

I apologize that it took so long to develop this posting. I will try to get a new input every week to week-and a half.

Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us,
But to Your name give glory,
Because of your mercy,
Because of your truth. (Psalm 115 NKJV)

Intermission

Here are a few books that I think you may find useful:

Romans 1:8 (the bridge)

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. 

After addressing the people he was writing to, Paul expresses his gratitude to God because of the work that He had accomplished among this body of believers. We must remember that all believers are God's workmanship (Ephesians 2:10). Further in the text, Paul personalizes his faith in saying my God. To him, God is not a ephemeral impersonal force that has no affection for mankind, but rather a father with whom every Christian has a personal relationship with. God is so invested in establishing a relationship with His children that He calls us, pursues us, and regenerates us. In Ephesians 2:1-5 Paul informs us of our pathetic state, "and you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air [Satan], of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly live in the lusts of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath, end ans the rest. But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with He loved us, even when were were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you have been saved)." We were naturally dead, spiritually speaking, because of our sinful nature and we were His enemies (Romans 5:10) but because He loved us He sent Jesus Christ to die in our place; to receive our punishment and be a propitiation for our sins. Propitiation is a fancy theological term that comes from a Greek word hilasterion (hil-as-tay'-ree-on) which means an appeasement or a covering for sin. This same word even goes so far back to the the original Ark of the Covenant. The lid of the Ark was referred to as the Mercy Seat because on Yom Kippur  (or day of atonement) the high-priest would sprinkle blood from the sacrificial animal on it. Under the lid was the law represented by the two tables of the Ten Commandments. The spirit of God would hover over (or rest on) the Mercy Seat and when God looked at the lid, the law would be atoned or covered by the blood of the sacrificial animal. In the same way, when Christ shed his blood by dying His blood atoned the requirement of the law.

your faith

The church in Rome had a genuine expression of faith that was so strong that in A.D. 49 the emperor Claudius Caesar expelled all of the Jews due to the apparent influence of "Chrestus" which clearly alluded to Jesus Christ. While the Romans may have been familiar with the Jewish religion, they did not know what to make of these "Followers of the Way (Acts 9:2) or Sect of the Nazarenes  (Acts 24:5). They were not called Christians until Antioch (Acts 11:26). Generally speaking members of the strange new religious sect were either poor or slaves. These Christians could get in trouble by refusing to worship the Emperor or any other of the gods of the Roman empire. Because of the danger, they would often meet in secret; yet their influence was beginning to be noticed.

is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.

Because Rome was the center of the Roman Empire as well as known world, whatever happened there was known everywhere. Therefore it was an ideal place from which to spring-board off for an Evangelism journey. Paul had planned to use Rome as a stepping-stone on a trip to preach the Gospel in modern-day Spain.  

Well here ends another chunk of our examination of this amazing book. I apologize that it took me so long to post new messages but I will try to make contributions more regularly.

Not to us, O LORD, not to us,
But to Your name give glory,
Because of your lovingkindness
Because of your  faithfulness

Romans 1:7 (the introduction) Part 2

"to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

"who are beloved of God" this speaks of the special privileged relationship that the Christian has with the Heavenly Father; of course, God has love for all His creation and Jesus died to not only save all those who would believe in Him, but also that creation itself would be fixed in the fullness of time when He makes all things new.  However, God has set aside a special affection for those whom He has elected after His own name for His name's sake; as it is written, "but as many as received Him, who believe in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, born not of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12,13).  Therefore as children also heirs, for we are co-heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ "and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him"(Romans 8:17)  Paul uses the Greek word agapetos (ag-ap-ay-tos) and also the Hebrew word Hephzibah (hef-zuh-buh) which literally means "my delight is in her".  God shows His love to us by giving Himself for us: "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) and again,  "nor height, nor depth, nor any otheer created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:39) and last example (there are many more) is the verse that everyone knows, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16).  God's law sets the bar so high that the only way to be just while justifying sinners (to express His love) is to pay the penalty Himself.  Jesus set aside His heavenly glory to be born into this world; He lived a perfect life; He died as the perfect sin sacrifice at the perfect time; and was raised to life on the third day to show that the debt had been paid perfectly.

Well that is all the time we have for this week kiddies.  Tune in next week for the continuing adventures of the Romans.

Not to us, O Lord not to us,
But to Your name give glory,
Because of Your lovingkindness,
Because of Your truth.

Romans 1:7 (the introduction) part 1

"to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

This verse wraps up the introduction to his letter.  He explained who he was and what his authority in the first verse because the church in Rome possibly only knew by reputation and as far as they knew he was still one of the most fervent persecutors; in the same way, after Saul (who was latter called Paul) became a Christian and started preaching the Lord Jesus Christ in the synagogues, "All those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, 'Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name [Jesus Christ] and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?'...When he came to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple." (Acts 9:21, 26).  This is a mighty testimony to the transformative power of God to so thoroughly change a person and to use someone who was, in earlier times, the worst enemies of Christians.  Paul also points out that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not so dramatically new and different than what was written in the Law, the Prophets, and the writings (what we call the Old Testament) but rather that it was all leading up to, is, and will be fulfilled in Jesus Christ.  He briefly touches on the the basics of the gospel in the next few verses in the person of Jesus (verses 3, 4) and the nature of his ministry (verses 5, 6), and now we come to the "to whom" of the introduction.

"To all," Paul is referring to all confessing Christians in Rome.  Whether Jew or Gentile (non-Jew), rich or poor, slave or free, educated or uneducated, they all met and fellowshipped together in their mutual Lord and savior, Jesus Christ; for we are all parts of the same of the same body, in which Christ is the head and all are just as much in need of God's grace.

Well that is all the time we have this week.  I apologize for the brief posting as I did not budget my time properly this past week.  Tune in next week for the continuing adventure into this amazing letter.

Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
But to Your Name give glory
Because of Your lovingkindness,
Because of Your truth.

Romans 1:5c-6 (the introduction)

"among all the Gentiles for His names sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;"

The first part of this posting, "among all the Gentiles" touches upon the command that the Lord Jesus gives frequently both before and after his resurrection to wit Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:15f, Acts 1:8, Luke 24:47 and the sum of all of those verses (and elsewhere I am sure) is that we are to proclaim the gospel (which comes from the Greek work euaggelion) which is to say "the good news" everywhere and to every one; as Paul writes, "For I delivered to you as of fist importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to thee Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).  That is the best news anyone could ever have.  Whether a person believes unto salvation is not really our business for we are not commanded anywhere to save people from their sins; only Jesus Christ can do that through His Holy Spirit.  That is not to say that we should not pray fervently for the salvation of those to whom we witness.

Paul was commissioned especially to reach the Gentiles.  In Acts 9:15, the Lord Jesus is explaining to His slave Ananias, "But the Lord said to him, 'Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel;'".  All these first six verses of this chapter have been Paul presenting his credentials because, if you remember from earlier posts, he did not found the fellowship of believes by planting a church in Rome.  Also he was not only looking to visit the brethren there to share blessings but also he was looking to spring-board from there to Spain so that he might preach the gospel and establish churches in heretofore unreached territory.  It was always Paul's custom to never go to a place where the gospel had already been preached, "And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another mans foundation; but as it is written, [in Isaiah 52:15]"They who had no news of Him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand." 

The last part of verse 5, "for His name's sake," which in its most basic form is to say that it is for the magnification of God's glory and greatly expressive of His joy; for it is written, "In the same way there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."(Luke 15:10)  This verse comes right after the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin in which the common element is "Rejoice with me, for I have found that which I had lost!"  Anyone who thinks it is dull in Heaven is dead wrong: there is a constant party going with God almighty cheering the loudest each and every time one sinner repents and it saved.  Can you imagine?  There is one party after another and no one every gets bored with partying.  It is just like being around someone who is so happy, it cannot help but spread; even more than that this is God we are talking about.  His rejoicing is infinitely greater than we can imagine and it is always new and fresh.  However, everything God does is to bring Himself glory for His own sake.  God glorifies Himself in everything He does for it is right an proper that He should do so.  To God along belongs all of the glory.

Verse six is a short little thought, "among whom you are the called of Jesus Christ;"  The first part that bears notice is, "the called", the word called comes from the Greek kletos (klay-tos) which you may remember is exactly the same word that Paul uses to describe his office "Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus called as an apostle set  apart for the gospel of God,".  In that context the word is used to indicate a divine selection and appointment.   Just like when Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesian church, "For it is by grace you have been save through faith; so that it is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works , so that no one may boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)  "Wait," you might say, "but I prayed to accept the salvation of Jesus Christ.  Is that not worth anything?"  Consider Jesus words in John 3:3, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again [or from above] he cannot see the kingdom of God."  That is to say no one is able to be saved until he or she is born again (I prefer born from above as I think it is clearer).  Also Ephesians 2:1 (c.f. 2:5, Col 2:13), "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,"(emphasis mine) I think that speaks to the spiritual deadness that we inherited from Adam as it is written, "but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die."  After Adam ate the forbidden fruit he did not physically die (although he deserved to), instead shame and terror of God was brought into the world.  So Adam and Eve tried to hide form God (smart I know).  Of course, because of sin Adam died later but the immediate effect was that he died spiritually.  Whereas Adam once walked with God in close fellowship, now he is at enmity with God.  With that in mind, can you imagine a corpse willing himself to live?  How then can someone who is spiritually dead chose to become spiritually alive through salvation?

Finally to wrap it all up Jesus Christ is the first and the last the beginning and the end and the only hope for our justification before a holy and righteous God.  What Jesus did makes it so God can be both just and the justifier of him who has faith in Christ Jesus.  That is what separates Christianity from every other religion.  God can have mercy upon sinners without sacrificing His justice, grace without setting aside righteousness. 

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

Romans 1:5 (the introduction) Part 3

"through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake,"

Now I think we need to cover the most unpopular word in the verse: obedience.  It is one thing to stay in the hypothetical but obedience is where the rubber meets the road.  James tells us, "What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works?  Can that faith save him?" (James 2:14)  That does seem to contradict Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; no as a result of works, so that no one may boast."  That is until you look closer.  Many say that they believe in God; many say that the believe in Jesus; many say that Jesus is their savior.  However, even if you confess Jesus Christ as your lord and savior by faith and continue in sinful behavior there is a good chance that your faith is worthless.  Just to be clear, faith + obedience does not equal salvation; rather the equation should be grace + faith = salvation and obedience.  What that means is if you have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, it should manifest in obedience to His commands and good works.  After all, "If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,' and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?"  We as Christians  are guilty of that very frequently.  We say, "I will be praying for you," and don't lift a finger to help; we often even forget to pray (I know that I frequently do).  Now prayer is a wonderful thing and we should absolutely pray for our brothers and sisters in need but we shouldn't stop there; God has given us all spiritual gifts to glorify Him and to serve others.  If you find someone in need even the smallest actions can be a dramatic blessing.  Even talking to them can help immensely.  It is a matter of living sacrificially for your neighbor.

This is also a question of the Lordship of Jesus.  Romans 10:9 tells us, "that (or because) if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;"   The Greek word for lord is kurios (koo-ree-os) and it means chiefly he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord.  Since that is a central part of salvation we should do what He says and wants don't you think?  Jesus has more than earned that right (not as though He needed to do so but He did anyway).  He suffered and died to pay for our sins; something no one else could ever do.  Any mortal man could conceivably go through the physical torments that Jesus experienced: pray so hard that you weep tears of blood; get betrayed by one of your closest friends; get beaten; spend the night in a cold jail cell; get questioned in a kangaroo-court; then questioned by a political weenie; then scourged until the skin on you back is hanging of in ribbons; then have a crown of thorns pressed on your head; then be forced to carry a 300 lb. block of wood across town with guards wiping you every time you stumble with exhaustion (which Jesus did a few times); and then have someone nail your to the cross in your wrists and feet so you hang there.  Of course that was just a warm-up for Jesus, the worst was yet to come.  When Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  Some Theologians believe that is when Jesus was experiencing the full wrath of God for the sins of those who would believe in Him.  There is no way any of us could survive the full wrath of an almighty, infinitely holy, and infinitely just God.  Without Jesus, a person will spend eternity paying for their own sins and will never come anywhere close to satisfying the whole debt of their own sin.  Now imagine paying for the sins of untold trillions of people.  All that was accomplished by Jesus.  God the Father greatly exalted Jesus Christ as it is written, "Being found in appearance as a man, He [Jesus] humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  For this reason also, God  highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:8-11).  There is one last sobering consideration in Jesus' own words, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.  Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'  And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'" (Matthew 7:21-23).  Note that these people were claiming all the showy flashy works to try to earn their entrance into Christ's Kingdom; all those things that are crowd drawing and self-glorifying and yet their lives were measured demonstrations of sinful behavior.  Any person who claims Jesus as Lord and yet carries on in a sinful lifestyle is like someone who is building his house on sand which will eventually wash away and leave him with out God and without hope.

That is all the time we have; tune in next week for the eventual conclusion of this loaded verse.


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

Romans 1:5 (the introduction) part 2

"through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake,"

What does Paul mean  by "...to bring about the obedience of faith"?  There are two ways of looking at this passage.  The first covers the response to the gift of faith the Holy Spirit grants upon regeneration.  Refer to the classic passage of John 3 starting in verse 3, "Jesus answered and said to him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again (or from above) he cannot see the kingdom of God.'"   A lot of people contend that this happens upon salvation however it is my belief that regeneration by the Spirit of holiness precedes salvation.  Consider Ephesians 2:1, "And you were (or being) dead in your trespasses and sins," preaching salvation through Jesus Christ to people who are dead in their spirit would be just as useful as going to a grave yard and telling the corpses to rise.  Fortunately Ephesians goes on to say in verses 4 and 5, "But God being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in (or by reason of) our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)," and again in Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."  Or as the great Puritan Preacher John Owen tells us:

Outward darkness is when men do not have that light by which they are enabled to see. So outward spiritual darkness is upon men when there is nothing to enlighten them about God and spiritual things (Matt 4:16; Psa 119:105; Psa. 19:1-4,8; 2 Pet 1:19; Rom 10:15, 18). It is the work of the Holy Spirit to remove this darkness by sending the light of the gospel (Acts 13:2, 4; 16:6-10; Psa. 147:19,20). 

Inward darkness, on the other hand, arises from the natural depravity and corruption of the minds of men concerning spiritual things. Man’s mind is depraved and corrupted in things which are natural, civil, political, and moral, as well as in things which are spiritual, heavenly and evangelical. This depravity is often held back from having its full effects by the common grace of the Holy Spirit. So, man’s mind being darkened, he is unable to see, receive, understand or believe to the saving of his soul. Spiritual things, or the mysteries of the gospel, without the Holy Spirit first creating within the soul a new light by which they can see and receive those things, cannot bring salvation.

However brilliant the mind may be, and however brilliant the preaching and presentation of the gospel might be, yet without the Holy Spirit first creating this light in them, they cannot receive, understand and agree with the truths preached, and so will not be led to salvation (Eph 4:17, 18). 

So the unregenerate ‘walk in the futility of their mind’ (Eph 4:17). The natural inclination of the unregenerate mind is to seek those things that cannot satisfy (Gen 6:5). It is an unstable mind (Prov. 7:11-12). The unregenerate understanding is darkened and cannot judge things properly (Jhn 1:5). The unregenerate heart is blind. In Scripture the heart includes the will also. Light is received by the mind, applied by the understanding and used by the heart. ‘But if the light within is darkness,’ said Jesus, ‘how great is that darkness.’

...Even though the unconverted mind is highly educated and talented, yet it is utterly unable to receive and understand spiritually those things needful for its eternal salvation. It will not respond to the preaching of the gospel until renewed, enlightened and enabled to do so by the Holy Spirit: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned’ (1 Cor 2:14). The subject of this verse is the natural man. The natural man is quite opposite of the spiritual man (1 Cor 15:44; Jude 19).

I apologize for making the quote so long but it is hard to anything out.  I would highly recommend reading the whole article http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/owenoverthrow.html  So, in regenerating us the Holy  Spirit grants unto us faith by which we are able so see the glories of Christ; we can perceive our sinful nature and desperate need of salvation.  Thus in accepting Jesus' death and resurrection as a personal atonement you are showing the obedience of faith.

Unfortunately that is all the time we have.  Tune in next week for more exciting adventures in Romans!

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

Romans 1:5 (the introduction) Part 1

"through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake,"

This verse shows the fruit of the gospel: that trough the manifestation of Christ (His life, death, and resurrection) we who are in Him are justified which is to say found not guilty before a just and holy God.  That is what God's grace is: His unmerited favor to those who absolutely do not deserve it.  The emphasis on God's grace in our salvation should remind us that we can never be good enough to be justified (be found not guilty) before a righteous and holy God.  Unfortunately, the common thought is that if I do enough good deeds that will outweigh my bad deeds.  I am pretty sure that is the view of every other religion and anti-Christian cult.  The problem they and we run into is that God demands perfection and as it is written, "There is none righteous (without guilt), not even one;" (Psalm 14:1;53:1; Romans 3:10) and again, "for all have sinned and fall short of the gory of God," (Romans 3:23).  The closest I can think to being good enough is like going to the world's greatest long-jumper and asking him to jump from San Diego to Beijing.  It is impossible!  The good news is that God mercifully put the guilt of the sins of those who would believe upon His Son, Jesus Christ; so that in Him we are completely forgiven.

The next part it a bit more tricky.  There could be two ways of looking at it if we allow that the office of apostle ended with the twelve and Paul (which I personally believe)"...we have received grace and apostleship": the first carries the idea that the "we" that Paul is using refers to just the Apostles and him (and one commentator posits that God did them a favor by giving them their office); the second could use the word apostle more loosely insomuch that all Christian are commanded to preach the gospel to everyone, "Go therefore and make disciples of of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-19).  That, of course, is the great commission in which you could say that in a sense we are all sent ones (apostles) to share the good news (gospel) to all the world.  Of course the original apostles were granted sign-gifts which is to say that they could heal miraculously, cast out demons, and on on occasion raise someone from the dead.  This functioned in the same way God worked in the prophets of the Old Testament.  As an example of what people expected of a prophet in Jesus day consider, "Jesus answered and said to them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent'.  So they said to Him, 'What then do you do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You?  What work do You perform?"(John 6:30)  It is interesting that they would say that after Jesus had just finished feeding the five-thousand with five barley loaves and two fish (although the total amount of people could have been closer to seventy-five hundred to ten-thousand to account for women and children) a little while ago but I digress. 

Romans 1:4 (the introduction) Part 2

 who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,

I apologize for finishing the posting last week.  I will do my best to get caught-up.

The term "Son of God" in this instance refers to the willful subjugation of God the Son to the Father's will in all things.  One of the Messianic titles that Jesus has is one that I will bet you have not heard of: the Slave of YHWH.  Isaiah 52:13-14 and 53:11 both use the Hebrew word `ebed (eh bed) to refer to this slave who was both suffering and exalted.  One of the problems that arises is that nearly all Bible translators wimped out and put servant instead; in like manner the Greek word doulos (doo los).  We all know how much baggage the word slave carries in American culture, however in the days of the Bible it was possibly even more so.  Unfortunately, I can only speculate as my attempts thus far to garner clarification on the world-wide-web have been mostly unsuccessful.  It is too bad that I got rid of a book called Slave by John MacArthur that could have shed some light on the issue.  Philippians 2:6-8 further expands on the submission of the Son to the Father's will, "who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped (or asserted), but emptied (i.e. laid aside His privileges) Himself, taking the form of a slave, and being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."  It is interesting that Paul make the distinction of pointed death on a cross specifically.  At that time prominent orators like Cicero described crucifixion as, "a most cruel and disgusting punishment," and suggested that "the very mention of the cross should be far removed not only from a Roman citizen’s body, but from his mind, his eyes, his ears."  It was not even allowed in polite conversation among Roman citizens.  It is also possible that Deuteronomy 21:23 (quoted by Paul in Galatians 3:13, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us-- for is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree [or cross]--') could be referring to the infamy of that form of execution in the Jewish mind.  If Paul were not a Roman citizen, you can bet that is the how Nero would have killed him.

 The next part, "...with power by the resurrection from the dead," is an engaging thing to consider.  The Greek word for power is dunamis (doo-nam-is) which is where we get our word dynamite.  The resurrection is quite possibly one of the most important things that we as Christians often overlook.  We often like to say that Jesus died for our sins (and He did) but we commonly do not include He was raised again on the third day.  The thing is that if Jesus did not rise again then our sins are not forgiven.  Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians 15:12-17, "Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of  the dead?  But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain.  Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins." (emphasis mine).

"according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord."  Now to wrap up this amazing verse.  The Holy Spirit may be one of the most important parts of Christianity that we almost never mention.  Without Him we would have no Bible, we would have no spiritual gifts, no indwelling spirit to convict us, and finally no salvation without the regeneration of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit did mighty works in Jesus during His incarnation when He walked among us and rose Him from the dead.  Here is what it is all about: Jesus Christ our Lord.  When you take apart the last bit of the verse: Jesus means Jehovah is salvation; Christ means anointed and is the Greek word of the Jewish Messiah; and Lord comes from the Greek word kurios (koo-ree-os) which speaks to His supremacy over all things even as it is written in Philippians 2:9-11, "For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

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

Romans 1:4 (the introduction) Part 1

"who was declared the Son of God with power by (or as a result of) the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,"

Have you noticed that a lot of people have good things to say about Jesus?  The Muslims believe that He was the greatest prophet of allah (yes I chose to not capitalize on purpose because he is not God) next to Muhammad (who they consider the greatest of their prophets).  Of course they do not believe that He is coequal with God the Father (or is even God the Son); they also do not even believe that He died on the cross.  It is written in Quran 4:157, "...They said, 'We killed the Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of God.'  They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but the likeness of him was put on another man (and they killed that man)..."  Apparently, the Hindus believe in Jesus too.  They believe that a Southeast Asia, learning yogic traditions and returning home to be a guru to the Jews. To Hindus, Jesus' proclamation "The Father and I are one" confirmed the Hindu idea that everyone, through rigorous spiritual practice, can realize his own universal "god-consciousness."  Buddhists believe that Jesus was a "great man" and some consider Him to be a "great master and follower of God" (how that fits into Buddhism as there is no "god" in their religion).  Many other people consider Jesus to be a "great moral teacher (leader, prophet, revolutionary, etc., etc.,).  The best way I know to respond to that line of thought is to quote C.S. Lewis.

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” –Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

Now let us unpack the verse.  Jesus was, is, and always will be the second Person of the Holy Trinity so it is not like He just showed up for the first time when He was born in Bethlehem some two-thousand years ago.  The pre-incarnate Christ made appearances all through the Old Testament; one interesting thing to consider all the time the Angel of the Lord is written, some theologians (and I personally) believe those are and example of Jesus poking in.  One thing we must keep in mind is that God exists outside the space-time continuum.  I know that sounds like a sci-fi thing to say, but it makes sense.  God is infinite and omnipresent.  That means that even thought God existed an infinite amount of time before He created the Universe, the beginning of creation and the final fulfillment of it is the exact same moment for Him; also He is simultaneously present with us and at the farthest reaches of the Universe at the same time.  However that is enough Ontology (the philosophy [love of wisdom] of being or existence) because this is a blog about the Bible.  The important thing to take away is that God does not get surprised by our actions.

The first part of the verse, "who was declared the Son of God..." lets try and take it apart bit by bit.  The Greek word for declared is horizo (pronounced hor-id-zo) means to ordain, determine, appoint, or proved.  It is also important to stress the fact that Jesus is the unique Son of God.  In other parts of the Old Testament the word son was used to refer to angels (Genesis 6:1-2; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Psalms 29:1; 89:6) of to the Nation of Israel (by relationship of Covenant) (Exodus 4:22; Deuteronomy 14:1; Hosea 1:10; 11:1) and God's anointed king (Psalm 2:7; 89:27; 2 Samuel 7:14)  In the New Testament, the second Person of the Godhead took on flesh as I alluded to in Psalm 2:7, "You are My Son today I have begotten You." (granted there is more in the verse but I will leave that for you to look up).  It is written in the Gospel according to John, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God...And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:1-2, 14 emphasis mine).  The Greek word for only begotten is monogenes means single of its kind, only. 

Romans 1:3 (The Introduction)

"concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant (or seed) of David according to the flesh,"

I all comes down to Jesus, who is the Son of God and God the Son.  There is something interesting about the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  Two were written by Apostles: Matthew and John; two were written by close disciples of an Apostle: Luke the doctor was a fellow traveler with the Apostle Paul, (John) Mark traveled briefly with Paul and latter was a fellow traveler with the Apostle (Simon) Peter.  Each of the Gospels presents an unique perspective of Jesus.  With Matthew it was behold the king, with Mark it was behold the suffering servant, with Luke it was behold the man, and with John it was behold your God.  There is also a corollary with the four living creatures in the book of Revelation 4:7, "The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle."  Quoting Matthew Henry, "...the lion indication majesty and omnipotence; the ox, typical of faithful labor and patience; man, indicating intelligence; and the eagle representing supreme sovereignty."

There are two truths that simultaneously apply to the Lord Jesus while He walked on Earth with us: He was fully God and fully man at the same moment.  This is referred to as (technical term alert) the Hypostatic Union.  In Colossians 2:9 it is written, "For in Him [Jesus] all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form," and again in Philippians 2:6-8, "who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped (or utilized or asserted), but emptied (or laid aside His privileges) Himself, taking the form of a slave, and being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."  In this posting we will focus on the human aspect of the Lord Jesus.

The earliest account of Jesus earthly life comes in Luke 2:42-52.  Jesus had was now twelve and was preparing for His bar mitzvah (the traditional point when a boy is officially recognized as an adult by the Law).  Traditionally boys would go with their parents to the Passover Feast when they were that age so that they could learn what they needed to know about what would be expected of them as adults. 

They must begin to fast from time to time especially on the festival of Yom Kippur (or the Day of Atonement) the one day a year when the High Priest would enter the Most Holy Place (a.k.a. the Holy of Holies) to make a (technical term alert) propitiatory (which means the same thing as a substitutionary or in place of) sacrifice for the sins of the nation; the high priest would first have to offer a sacrifice for himself and preform elaborate cleansing rituals to purify himself.  On a side note, this is where we get the phrase "scapegoat."  In Leviticus 16:5, 8-10 we learn about the propitiatory sacrifice the high priest would make, "He shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering...Aaron [the first high priest] shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat (literally the goat of removal).  Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the LORD fell, and make it a sin offering.  But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat."  Even after the sacrifice was made it was temporary, it would have to be repeated every year,  and each person would be required to present new sin offering to atone each time they sinned.  The whole idea of a atoning (or covering) sacrifice is as old as the Book of Genesis 3:21, "The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them."  The penalty for sin was always death (and it still is) it is written in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."; that is why God gave us the sacrificial system.  This is to emphasize that we cannot do enough good works (giving money to charity, volunteering at the local soup kitchen, etc.) to pay for our sin.   However, it was not until Jesus Christ judged in our stead, died for our sins, and rose again to show that the price had been paid once for all; also when Jesus died He cleared the way to God because He was the ultimate atoning sacrifice.  It is written, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin  on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2nd Corinthians 5:21).

Now to touch on, "born of a descendant of David according to the flesh," both Jesus' mother and foster father were of the tribe of Judah and descended from King David.  This was to fulfill what was promised David in 2nd Samuel 7:12, "When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendent after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom.  He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever."  Jesus was descended from David through His mother Mary through David's son Nathan, "the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David," (Luke 3:31) and through Joesph (you could say His foster father), "Jesse was the father of David the king.  David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah." (Matthew 1:6).  One thing I love about the Bible is that it hold nothing back.  It displays the heroes of the faith as fallen, sinful human beings that overcame through the grace of God.  No other religion's holy text shows the failings of their principle characters, but I digress.  Jesus was born a man and a royal man; He was the rightful king of Israel from a human perspective; and He had to be born a mortal man so that He could be tempted just as we are to be sympathetic to fallen mankind, as it is written in Hebrews 2:17-18, "Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.  For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted."  Once again I am sorry that I cannot put more in, there is so much good stuff in the book of Hebrews.

Jesus had to be born a man so that He could die.  He was born without sin so He could be the perfect sacrifice for our sins.  He was raised to life on the third day to show that the price was paid in full.


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

Romans 1:2 (the introduction)

which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,

Here is a good example of a Greek mouthful: proepangellmai (it does not even come up on Google) what it means is promised beforehand (weird I know), the reason that Paul felt that he needed to emphasize that for the Gospel of God that he was preaching is that many of the Jews were claiming that this was a new teaching and contrary to what the law and the prophets.  The Old Testament (as we call it) is full of references to what Paul was preaching; even so far back as Genesis 3:15, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel."  Interestingly enough the word that is translated "bruise" comes from the Hebrew word shuwph (pronounced shoof) and in this context means to crush.  This looks way forward to Jesus' crucifixion.  The devil certainly made quite a strike in killing God the Son but in doing so Jesus crushed Satan's power and paid the debt for our sins.  Also there is Isaiah 1:18; 53; and 55.  In chapter 1:18 it is written, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool."  There is so much in chapter 53 you might even call it the first Gospel; "Surely our griefs (or sickness) He Himself bore, and our sorrows (or pains) He carried...But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed...but the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief...as a result of the anguish (or toilsome labor) of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities." (verses 4a, 5, 10a, 11).  I feel bad about cutting any of it out and strongly recommend that you read the whole chapter.  Also chapter 55:7, "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."  That is just a small amount of what the Old Testament has to offer concerning Jesus Christ; there are approximately 325 prophecies concerning Jesus alone (most but not all were fulfilled in the life of Jesus).  His virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14), where He would be born (Micah 5:2), His family's flight to Egypt (Hosea 11:1), the fact that He would live most of His life in Nazareth (Isaiah 9:1,2), the manner of His triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Isaiah 62:11, Zechariah 9:9), even what Jesus cried out from the cross, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani that is My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1); and that is just cherry-picking a few of them.  The list goes on.  The point that Paul was making is that the Gospel that he was neither new nor contrary to the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes).

The next part of the verse,"...in the holy Scriptures" reaffirms the authority of scripture.  Interestingly enough when Paul talks about holy Scriptures, he means the Old Testament.  Specifically in his last letter 2nd Timothy 3:14-17, "You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writing which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in  Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is inspired (or God-breathed) by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."  One of the earliest heretics of the church: Marcion of Sinope (85-160 A.D.) believed in a Dualistic view of Theology (spiritual=good, material=evil) and was one of the earliest believes in what we now call Gnosticism (the belief that salvation comes to special and secret Gnosis or knowledge).  Specifically, Marcion believed that the God of the Old Testament (that he called the demiurge) was the evil creator of matter and was characterized by righteousness and wrath; whereas, the God of the New Testament (specifically Jesus Christ) who is only love and mercy.  He believed that the "teachings of Christ" were inconsistent with the actions of the God of the Old Testament; that does seem to be true if you only skim over both.  In the Old, God pours out wrath, wipes out cities, and allows righteous men like Lot and Joseph to undergo great loss, hardship, and persecution; whereas in the New, God heals, provides, forgives, and shows compassion.  That is, however, until you look deeper.  This is a technical term alert: Immutability.  This attribute of God speaks of His unchanging nature.  The Westminster Shorter Catechism says, ’God is a spirit, whose being, wisdom power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth are infinite, eternal, and unchangeable.” Those things do not change. A number of Scriptures attest to this idea (e.g. Num. 23:19; 1 Sam. 15:29; Ps. 102:26; Mal. 3:6; 2 Tim. 2:13; Heb. 6:17–18; Jam. 1:17).  So basically God is the same yesterday, today, and forever; God was just as gracious in the Old Testament as He is now and His righteous standard abides forever.  The best example that springs to mind is the account of the Nation of Israel while they were wandering in the desert for 40 years.  You can read about it from Exodus to Deuteronomy; you can barely get a chapter or two before you read of yet another complaint, "What are we going to drink...what are we going to eat...we are sick of this manna, we want meat...why should you be the boss...(and the ever popular) Oh, that we had died in Egypt when [fill in the blank things were better]," and on and on.  Yet God patiently put up with them and graciously provided and protected them.  If you want some good examples of judgement and wrath in the New Testament consider Matthew 23 when Jesus lays into the Pharisees and the Religious Elite; or all the horrible wrath being poured out in the book of Revelation.

Our main problem has always been that we try to judge God based on an external man-made standard; this is both stupid and entirely wrong.  God doesn't do good, He is good; God doesn't love, He is love.  God is in Himself the perfect standard that we should judge by.  In our sinfulness we are still deceived by Satan in the same way he tempted Eve, "Has God indeed said...?).  In the same way as Psalms 14 and 53, "The fool says in his heart 'there is no God.'" we try to reason and justify our thoughts and actions thinking that we (somehow) know better than God.  Fortunately for us, God has given us His Word the Bible so that we can know who He is, where we came from, how to live our lives, and where it is all going.  So too did Paul wright this letter to the Romans to encourage and instruct the faithful.

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

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