Romans 1:1-7
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So, we are starting a new study tonight, and we are going to be walking through the book of Romans. We are going to get into the first 7 verses, but we’re also gonna explore the background of the book as well.
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
OK, so this is a typical Pauline opening, and we’ll deal with that in a bit.
Right off the top, I want to let you know where I am sourcing material. Obviously, I’m using the text, but I am also using Thomas Schreiner’s Romans Commentary, John Calvin’s commentary, the Layman’s commentary, F. F. Bruce’s commentary, and the ESV Study Bible as commentary. I am sure I will use others along the way, but these are the main ones.
I like for you to know my sources, because we all know that I am not that smart.
So let’s look at the background of Romans first.
One thing we have pretty much unanimous critical agreement on is the authorship. While there are other epistles that have been questioned, no one has really questioned that Paul wrote Romans.
It is an epistle. We sometimes forget that, and treat it as a systematic theology. But to do that seriously lays aside the love that Paul had for the church and people in Rome. Rome was a place he desired to go, as we see in Acts as well as the closing chapters of Romans. We also know that he desired to not only go to Rome, but also Spain.
Basically, he had finished his work in the eastern part of the Roman empire, and now wanted to concentrate to the west.
Most scholars believe that Romans was written around 57AD, from Corinth. Phoebe, who is mentioned in Rom 16:1-2 may have been the one who carried the letter ahead of Paul.
1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, 2 that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.
Cenchreae was one of the port cities near Corinth. We also see that Paul is staying with Gaius, and that is most likely the Gaius who lives in Corinth.
23 Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you.
14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,
So it would seem from textual evidence that Paul wrote this while in Corinth.
“Paul was probably writing from Corinth on his third missionary journey, preparing to return to Jerusalem with a financial gift he had collected from the churches in Greece (15:25–29). But he was already making plans for a fourth missionary journey and hoped to include Rome. So while in Corinth (or near there), he wrote his Epistle to inform the church of his plans. As it turned out, he would arrive in Rome as a prisoner (Acts 28:16), but was given a lot of freedom to minister and eventually was released.
Peter Barnes and Robert Deffinbaugh, eds., Acts Thru Corinthians, vol. 10, Layman’s Bible Commentary (Barbour Publishing, 2008), 111.”
Historically, scholars have held that somewhere between 64-67 AD, Paul was martyred in Rome by Nero, so this would have been 7-10 years before his death.
So, I said earlier that we sometimes treat Romans like a systematic theology. Why is that?
Well, it is because Paul does a very good job laying out his theology, in particular regarding justification, the law, grace, and things like that. But we do have to understand that this is not a complete Pauline theology, nor was that Paul’s intent. His intent, just like every other letter, was to address issues that were of direct concern to the church in Rome, knowing that the principles would be applicable to others as well.
“Romans provides the fullest expression of Paul’s theology, though it is doubtful that he intended it to be a complete summary statement. For example, Romans lacks any detailed treatments of Paul’s doctrine of Christ (see Phil. 2:6–11; Col. 1:15–20), of the church (see Ephesians), or of last things (see 1 Thess. 4:13–5:11; 2 Thess. 2:1–12).” (ESV Study Bible, Intro to Romans)
What are the themes of Romans?
The introduction to Romans from Logos says this:
English Standard Version Introduction
Romans is the longest and most systematically reasoned of Paul’s letters. Paul announces its theme in 1:16–17: the gospel is God’s power for salvation, because it shows us that the righteousness of God is through faith for all who believe. Paul explains the need for justification through faith because of sin (1:16–4:25). He then spells out the results of justification by faith in terms of both present experience and future hope (5:1–8:39). In the next three chapters, he expresses his sorrow that many of his fellow Israelites have not embraced the gospel, and he wrestles with the theological implications of this (chs. 9–11). He concludes by describing how the gospel should affect one’s everyday life (chs. 12–16). Paul wrote his letter to Rome in about A.D. 57.
Meanwhile, the Layman’s Bible Commentary has this to say:
Acts thru Corinthians Themes
Themes
The themes that permeate the Epistle to the Romans are righteousness from God and justification by faith. Through faith in Jesus Christ, God’s righteousness is imparted to human beings. It was how Abraham was justified before God prior to the giving of the Mosaic Law. And it was how Gentiles were able to come to God without being required to be circumcised or observe all the Jewish dietary restrictions and feast days.
Historical Context
We know little about the origins of the church in Rome. It is likely that Jewish pilgrims in Jerusalem had become believers on the Day of Pentecost, returned home, and started the church. When Paul finally got to visit (during the early portion of Nero’s reign), a group of believers traveled many miles to meet him along the way and escort him back to Rome (Acts 28:14–16).
Contribution to the Bible
The book of Romans has been called the Constitution of the Bible. The privileges and freedoms it describes are good news not only for the Gentiles, who came to God with little knowledge and no traditions, but also for the Jews, who had drifted away from the genuine worship of God and had rejected Jesus. God’s love, mercy, and grace are abundant enough for everyone to experience His forgiveness. The realization that people are justified by faith alone has been an eye-opening and life-changing reality for Martin Luther, John Wesley, and other church leaders.
In fact, the story goes that John Wesley, a prolific preacher, hymn writer with his brother Charles, and founder of Methodism was ultimately converted because of the book of Romans. Wesley was already serving as a missionary in Georgia, and was serving the Anglican church when he had his conversion on May 24, 1738. According to his journal:
"In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."
Just to help you understand why it is so moving, I’ll read you just the introductory couple of paragraphs:
This letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is well worth a Christian's while not only to memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul. It is impossible to read or to meditate on this letter too much or too well. The more one deals with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes. Therefore I want to carry out my service and, with this preface, provide an introduction to the letter, insofar as God gives me the ability, so that every one can gain the fullest possible understanding of it. Up to now it has been darkened by glosses [explanatory notes and comments which accompany a text] and by many a useless comment, but it is in itself a bright light, almost bright enough to illumine the entire Scripture.
To begin with, we have to become familiar with the vocabulary of the letter and know what St. Paul means by the words law, sin, grace, faith, justice, flesh, spirit, etc. Otherwise there is no use in reading it.
You must not understand the word law here in human fashion, i.e., a regulation about what sort of works must be done or must not be done. That's the way it is with human laws: you satisfy the demands of the law with works, whether your heart is in it or not. God judges what is in the depths of the heart. Therefore his law also makes demands on the depths of the heart and doesn't let the heart rest content in works; rather it punishes as hypocrisy and lies all works done apart from the depths of the heart. All human beings are called liars (Psalm 116), since none of them keeps or can keep God's law from the depths of the heart. Everyone finds inside himself an aversion to good and a craving for evil. Where there is no free desire for good, there the heart has not set itself on God's law. There also sin is surely to be found and the deserved wrath of God, whether a lot of good works and an honorable life appear outwardly or not.
Now, Luther’s Preface goes on a bit, and I won’t read anymore at the moment, but it is worth the read, when you get the chance.
This gives us a good sort of overview to the book of Romans, so let’s dive into the specific verses we have tonight.
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
The Greek word for servant, doulos, carries the notion that this servant “belong(s) to another and so have no legal rights
Frank J. Matera, “Servant,” ed. Mark Allan Powell, The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated) (New York: HarperCollins, 2011), 939.”
Paul has surrendered all of his own personal rights to Christ.
We have talked at length in here about the difference between slavery in biblical times verses chattel slavery in the 18th and 19th century in America. While there are similarities, there are many differences. We don’t have time to look at all of those, but American slavery was unabashedly wrong. Scripture does not look on slavery kindly, but the metaphor of enslaving ourselves or giving up our freedoms to Christ is a helpful word-picture to get us where we understand what it means to be surrendered to Christ.
So Paul calls himself a slave to Christ first, and then an apostle. That in itself should tell us something. Paul could have used his apostolic credentials as a trump card, but he humbled himself underneath Christ first.
And we have to understand that Paul was in no way shy about using his status as an apostle, he just wanted to be classified as a slave to Christ first.
Then we see that he was set apart for the Gospel.
2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
The gospel was promised beforehand by the prophets. When Paul says “holy scriptures” here, he is referring to the Old Testament, as the New Testament was currently being written (literally, in this case).
Acts thru Corinthians Salutation to the Church in Rome (1:1–7)
The prophets had foretold the ministry and death of Jesus. Yet many people had missed the significance of His life and death. Among the prophecies was the prediction that the Messiah would not only be the Son of God (1:4), but also a descendant of David (1:3). He was fully human and fully divine, begotten by God, but born of a woman as well. Jesus was not just a great teacher, leader, and healer; He was declared to be the Son of God through the power of His resurrection from the dead (1:4).
It is important to the themes in Romans for the heritage of Jesus to be pointed out. Jesus was descended from David. When Paul looks at the law, and Christ’s fulfillment of it, he is intimating that Christ, as a descendent of David, understood the full weight of the Mosaic law. He was a man. He was truly man. But He was also truly God. (v 4) His resurrection pointed to the power of God.
5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
Continuing his greeting, Paul again comes back to the calling on him as an apostle.
Acts thru Corinthians Salutation to the Church in Rome (1:1–7)
Apostleship is not something available to all believers, but rather a unique calling. What is available to all believers is the calling to belong to Christ (1:6)
While Paul had apostolic authority, it did not prevent others from sharing in the joys of Christ. While being an apostle was limited, being a member of the family of Christ, of the body of Christ is available to all.
Acts thru Corinthians Salutation to the Church in Rome (1:1–7)
Believers form a family of brothers and sisters who are provided for by a heavenly Father. The call to be saints (1:7) means to be set apart from the secular world. It is something not only desirable, but also achievable for all Christians.
We see this in verse 7:
7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
All those that are called to be saints. That is anyone who accepts the gift of God through Christ. Paul ends this introductory thought with that warm welcome: Grace and peace to you.
Again, as I stated previously, this is a pretty typical Pauline introduction, and pretty common for first century letter writing. He gives an introduction, and as we will see next week, then drops right into some of the major implications of the letter.
I will close tonight with the closing paragraph from Luther’s Preface to Romans:
We find in this letter, then, the richest possible teaching about what a Christian should know: the meaning of law, Gospel, sin, punishment, grace, faith, justice, Christ, God, good works, love, hope and the cross. We learn how we are to act toward everyone, toward the virtuous and sinful, toward the strong and the weak, friend and foe, and toward ourselves. Paul bases everything firmly on Scripture and proves his points with examples from his own experience and from the Prophets, so that nothing more could be desired. Therefore it seems that St. Paul, in writing this letter, wanted to compose a summary of the whole of Christian and evangelical teaching which would also be an introduction to the whole Old Testament. Without doubt, whoever takes this letter to heart possesses the light and power of the Old Testament. Therefore each and every Christian should make this letter the habitual and constant object of his study. God grant us his grace to do so. Amen.
