Why Romans
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
No other book in the bible has been more influential to the modern protestant american than the book of Romans. It is a book that so influenced a man named Martin Luther that he started, what now after all is said and done is called, the protestant Reformation.
Accomplice to murder, persecutor, ridiculer, Saul pre-apostle had had a face-to-face with the Lord on the road to Damascus. This man who was “the worst of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:16). How can he be saved is a question that seems to be on his mind as he wrote the book of Romans.
Romans A. Introduction
The year is A.D. 57, and the apostle Paul is nearing the end of his third missionary journey. He spends three months in Corinth where he writes the letter to the church in Rome. He has established churches in Asia Minor, Galatia, and Macedonia that are thriving and reaching others. But the church in Rome he did not plant, and has never visited. He has wanted to visit the church in Rome on numerous occasions, but has never gone there. Upon leaving Corinth, he plans to return to Jerusalem to deliver a financial gift from the churches in Macedonia to the struggling and persecuted believers in Jerusalem. He gives evidence at the end of his letter to the Roman church that perilous times may lie ahead for him, but he reassures the believers in Rome that he still intends to visit them. In fact, he tells them that he wants them to aid him as he takes the gospel to Spain. The letter he writes to the believers in Rome is his longest, his most systematic, and contains the longest introduction of himself found in any of his letters.
The church at Rome was large and consisted of both Jews and Gentiles, Tension between the Jewish population and the non-Jewish population is evident in history. On a couple of occasions Jews had been kicked out of Rome. This will come to play in this book.
Tradition holds that Peter stared the church there there is no evidence to support this tradition, other than tradition. It’s very likely that it was started by Jews who returned to Rome after being converted and baptized under Peter preaching in Jerusalem at the feast of Pentecost, See act 2.
Romans A. Introduction
Paul’s purpose in writing is to introduce himself to the church at Rome and to lay a foundation for a partnership with them to spread the gospel to the far reaches of the known world—Spain and beyond. After his trip to Jerusalem, he plans to visit them and spend time in ministry with them in Rome before leaving for Spain. This letter, which they will have had time to read and digest before his arrival, will be a theological education for them. If the church is going to partner with him in spreading the gospel to Spain, they must know the heart of the gospel and the heart of the apostle to the Gentiles. The first seventeen verses of Romans 1 is our introduction to both.
Paul Called By God
Paul Called By God
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures—3 concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh 4 and was appointed to be the powerful Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. 5 Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the Gentiles, 6 including you who are also called by Jesus Christ.
7 To all who are in Rome, loved by God, called as saints.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is nothing so debilitating as life without purpose. Also there is nothing so energizing as life filled with purpose.
A life purpose will bring focus and drive to anyone, be they Christian or non-Christian. And it does not even have to be a particularly spiritual purpose. But if a mundane purpose can empower an ordinary person, think what a divine purpose could do in the life of one who is linked to the eternal purposes of God!
Paul Begins with the introduction of himself because he wants to enter into a partnership with the Church at In Rome. When I say church in Rome I don’t want you to think of the Basilica. When I say Church in Rome it isn’t about a building. It is about the Assembly. It is about the people. We are the church, not a building. Thus you can’t go to church. you are the church. you can’t attend church, you can only be the church.
Because he wants to partner with the Roman believers he wants them to know about his divine mission to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world, Jew and Gentile alike.
Paul was the enemy of Christ when he was saved, he himself was only a potential partner in teh gospel. He became a parter, a co-laborer with Christ, through obedience. Obedience that comes through faith (Romans 1:5). This is the same obedince he was calling the Romans and all who may read this letter into. That includes us.
We are called just as Paul was calling the assembly in Rome to commit to the calling the nations of the earth to faith in Christ. A call we have inherited throught he disciples from Jesus Christ himeslf. The Great Commission.
The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted. Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Three things characterized Paul
Three things characterized Paul
He was a servant
He willingly subjected himself to the plans and purpose of the Lord who was his master. Servant here is the word Doulos, the word in the vernacular for “slave”. The idea is found in the OT where a servant could voluntarily choose to remain with a master after a required period of servitude was completed (exod 21:5-6; Deut 15:12-17) The owner pierced the ear of his voluntary servant with an awl, identifying him as belonging to the master forever.
Paul used a term (servant) that would have shocked the Gentiles in the church at Rome while appealing to his Jewish brethren. Rome was filled with slaves; some have estimated that the majority of the population was in forced servitude of one sort or the other. To be a slave in the Gentile mind was to be at the bottom of the social order. Servanthood was something to escape; freedom was a goal to attain. How arresting it must have been to the Gentile believers to learn that Paul had “given up” his freedom and willingly submitted himself to Christ Jesus, the Jewish Messiah.
Paul delivers a book-in-a-word on freedom when he calls himself a doulos of Christ. As Francis Schaeffer beautifully puts it, “Paul had [a slave’s] iron band around his neck, not because it had to be there but because he held it there by the fingers of his own will” (Schaeffer, Finished Work of Christ, p. 14).
To the Jewish believers, however, being a servant of God called to mind a roll call of those used by God in the Jewish nation. Abraham (Gen. 26:24), Moses (Num. 12:7–8), David (2 Sam. 7:5, 8), Isaiah (Isa. 20:3), and the prophets (Amos 3:7) were all called the servants of the Lord in the Old Testament. His Jewish readers would have noted immediately the formulary “servant of the Lord” being replaced by “servant of Jesus Christ” in Paul’s salutation. The seamless transition from Yahweh in the Old Testament to Jesus Christ in the New Testament would not have been lost on the careful Jewish reader.
2. Paul was an apostle
Paul got to be an apostle the same way the twelve did, Jesus called him, come follow me. In a way all believers are called in the same way. Though I could not call myself an apostle because I have not physically seen Jesus. I am a disciple of his though a long line of people tracing back to those who have.
3. Paul was set apart for the gospel of God
This may be the most important of all the characteristics. God has shown him his divine purpose that he has has been commissioned to the Spread the Gospel.
We might sum it up in Saying:
Romans II. Commentary: Paul and the Romans: Potential Partners in the Gospel
Paul is identified by commitment to his calling, commitment to people, and commitment to the gospel.
As we think about this we must Remember that we to have been called by the father, by the Holy Spirit, By the Blood of Jesus Christ. We have been called to him as servants, salves if you will. Slaves to the Good news that Jesus Christ has come as king.
We have to have been called to a radical obedience that comes through faith.
And we too have been giving a divine purpose. I hear it now many of you are saying what is my purpose. We in our individualistic culture have forgotten that it isn’t about me it is about the assembly and we have been giving a purpose.
A Purpose to share the Love of Christ, To take the Gospel, and to spread His Kingdom. If you want to find your part in all of that. the real question you need to ask is what part of the Body am I. What are the gifts that God has Given me. Gifts Paul will talk about in Romans chapter 12.
As we live in faith, our purpose is found in the small little things that we don’t think about that make up the whole of our lives. As we strive to live by faith in Obedience to Him.
Next Steps
Next Steps
Do I need to recapture the Idea of we instead of Me?
Two identities of the apostle Paul can be traced to what he believed at two different periods of his life. His preconversion identity—an admirer of God, a champion of the letter of the law, a purveyor of bad news, a persecutor of the church—stands in contrast to his postconversion identity—a worshiper of God, a champion of the Spirit, a herald of good news, a builder of the church. The difference is in what he believed before and after encountering the grace of God in Christ.
Kenneth Boa and William Kruidenier, Romans, vol. 6, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 35–36.
Are you a champion of the Spirit and a Harold of the Good new and builder of the Church? Or do you tear down the church with negative talk, and used to, and this is the way it supposed to be?