MASTER NOTES - ROMANS

FIRST SECTION:

‘All Have Sinned’.

Some want to be ignorant of God (Romans 1:18-20)

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Romans 1:1 “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—”

Paul here for ‘Servant’ uses the word Doulos - this also means ‘slave’. Paul doesn’t mean the bad parts of slavery - involuntary service, forced subjugation - but it lines up with his concept of being Christ’s slave by choice.

3 ‘attitudes’ here:

A servant (slave) of Messiah

Paul knew who he was, and his place

Called to be an Apostle

Paul knew his assignment, and he knew what he was supposed to do.

Set Apart for the Gospel

Paul knew the plan, he knew the reason, he knew the vision

Paul was saying - i know who I am, I know what i’m supposed to do, and I know where I’m going’.

Romans 1:2 “the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures”

This was not an abrupt, about-face. God set out the circumstances for this specific understanding and application of the Messiah.

This is also a comment on the connection between OT and NT. They are interrelated, and one lends understanding to the other.

The OT contains the promises - the NT contains the fulfillments

Phrase. “The old is by the new explained, the new is in the old contained”.

Romans 1:3-4 “regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Jesus was a descendent of David - so he was the fulfillment of several promises. But he was God’s Son, as show by both the miracles he performed, and by the resurrection.

Jesus was BOTH God and man. Fully in both, and not setting aside either.

This ‘both divine-and-human’ saviour received on Himself our sins when He died, but then rose in power, and gave his church this same power to go forth.

This phrase, appointed, it means exalted, lifted up. Jesus WAS God, and it’s not that he wasn’t the son prior to the resurrection - but the power of the Spirit through Him, and the resurrection, lifted him up in front of all humanity and voally and explicitly recognized Him as Lord.

Acts 10:42 “He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.” is this same word. God is telling us - this is the one.

Jesus is our lord - and the resurrection is our hope. We know that Jesus was son of God because of that overwhelming power of life from the dead - and ethe existence of eternity.