Romans 1:1-15 (Wednesday Evening Bible Study)

Wednesday Evening Bible Study

Romans 1:1-15

• Romans 1:1-7
• 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.
  • This is Paul’s introduction to the church in Rome, because remember, he had not been there and did not know most of the recipients of this letter personally yet
    • If you’re meeting someone for the first time, what is the thing you want them to know about you up front?
    • What are the things Paul wants to make sure the Romans know about him before he gets into the meat of this letter?
  • Paul starts with his credentials
    • Why he feels he is authorized to write this letter to a church that he has no personal connection with yet.
    • doulos=slave
      • Paul uses the Greek term kurios to describe Jesus. Jesus is LORD. The opposite of a kurios is doulos. Describes someone who has undisputed possession of a person or a thing. It literally means master. Paul thought of himself as the slave of Jesus Christ, his Master and Lord. Jesus had loved him and given himself for him, and therefore Paul was sure that he belonged no longer to himself but entirely to Jesus
    • An apostle
      • He says he was called to be an apostle. He recognized that he did not choose this, Christ called him to it.
      • Paul thought of life not in terms of what he wanted to do but in terms of what God meant him to do
    • Set apart for the gospel
      • He was set apart by God
        • He thought of God as separating him for the task he was to do even before he was born. 
        • What has God set you apart for?
      • He was set apart by the Church, when the Holy Spirit told the leaders of the church at Antioch to separate him and Barnabas for the special mission to the Gentiles
        • Paul was conscious of having a task to do for God and for the Church
  • In this setting apart, Pauls was aware of having received two things. We see them in verse 5
    • Grace
      • Grace always describes some gift which is absolutely free and absolutely unearned. In his pre-Christian days, Paul had sought to earn glory in the eyes of others and merit in the sight of god by meticulous observance of the works of the law, and he had found no peace that way
      • Now he knew that what mattered was not what he could do but what God had done. 
      • The law lays down what we must do, but the gospel lays down what God has done for us. 
      • Paul now saw that salvation depended not on what human effort could do but on what God’s love had done. 
    • A task
      • He was set apart to be the apostle to the Gentiles. Paul knew himself to be chosen not for a special honor, but for a special responsibility
      • He may have been using a play on words here. Pharisee meant the separated one
      • What was Paul before he was a Christian? A Pharisee, who would have thought in incomprehensible that God would allow Gentiles into the kingdom. 
      • He had felt himself separated in such a was as to have nothing  but contempt for all ordinary men and women. Now, he knew himself to be separated in such a way that he must spend his life brining the news of God’s love to every individual of every race
      • Christianity always separates us, but it separates us not for privilege and self-glory, but for service, humility, and love for all people
  • Besides giving his own credentials, he sets out in its most essential outline the gospel that he preached
    • It was a gospel that obviously centered on Jesus
      • It was a gospel of the incarnation
        • He told of a Jesus who was really and truly a man
        • The second-century Bishop of Lyons, Irenaeus, summed it up when he said of Jesus: “He became what we are, to make us what He is.”
        • Paul preached of someone who was not a legendary figure in an imaginary story. He preached about one who was really and truly one with those He came to save.
      • It was a gospel of the resurrection
        • If Jesus had lived a lovely life and died a heroic death, and if that had been the end of him, he might have been numbered with the great and heroic; but he would simply have been one among many
          • His uniqueness guaranteed forever by the fact of the resurrection. The others are dead and gone, and have left a memory. Jesus lives on and gives us a presence, still mighty, with power
• Romans 1:8-15
• 8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world. 9 God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in telling the good news about his Son—that I constantly mention you, 10 always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I want very much to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, 12 that is, to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 Now I don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as I have had among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
  • We talked about the affection Paul shows in this passage Sunday.
    • He begins with a compliment. He told them that he thanked God for the Christian faith they showed which all the world knew.
      • There are some people who are tuned to praise, and others who criticize. It was said of the novelist and poet Thomas Hardy, that, if he went into a country field, he would always see not the wild flowers but the dunghill in the corner
      • But the fact remains that we will always get far more out of people by praising them than by criticizing them. The people who get the  best  out of others are this who insist on seeing them at their best
      • No one can ever begin to save men and women without first believing in them. 
      • Aidan was the apostle to the Saxons. In 630 AD, the Saxon king had sent a message to Iona and requested that a missionary be sent to them to preach the gospel. The missionary came back talking of the “stubborn and barbarous disposition of the English”. He said, “The English have no manners; they behave like savages.” He reported that the task was hopeless. Aidan then spoke. “I think, brother, that you may have been too severe for such ignorant hearers, and that you should have led them on gently, giving them first the milk of religion before the meat.” So Aidan was sent to Northumbria, and his gentleness won for christ that very people whom the critical severity of his brother monk had repelled.
    • Although Paul did not know the people at Rome personally, he nevertheless constantly prayed for them.
      • In one of his sermons on the Lord’s Prayer, Gregory of Nyssa has a lyrical passage on prayer
        • The effect of prayer is union with God, and, if someone is with God, he is separated from the enemy. Through prayer we guard our chastity, control our temper, and rid ourselves of vanity. It makes us forget injuries, overcomes envy, defeats injustice, and makes amends for sin. Through prayer we obtain physical wellbeing, and happy home, and a strong, well-ordered society…Prayer is the seal of virginity and a pledge of faithfulness in marriage. It shields the wayfarer, protects the sleeper, and gives courage to those who keep vigil…it will refresh you when you are weary and comfort you when you are sorrowful. Prayer is the delight of the joyful as well as the solace of the afflicted…prayer is intimacy with God and contemplation of the invisible…Prayer is the enjoyment of things present and the substance of the things to come
      • Even if we are separated form people, and even if there is not other gift which we can give to them, we can surround them with the strength and the defense of our prayers
    • Paul was always ready to receive as well as to give
      • He began by saying that he wanted to come to Rome that he might impart to the Roman church some gift which would confirm them in the faith
      • And then he said he wanted to come to Rome so that he and the Romans church might comfort and strengthen each other, and that each might find precious things in the faith of the other
      • Paul was the greatest thinker the early Church ever produced; and yet, when he thought of the people to whom he longed to preach, he thought of himself not only as giving to them but also as receiving from them. 
    • Paul’s message, his friendship, and his obligation were to wise and simple, cultured and uncultured, educated and uneducated people. He had a message for the world, and it was his ambition some day to deliver that message to Roma too