Sermon Tone Analysis

Romans 1:8-15 The Gospel in the Church for the Obedience of Faith through Spiritual Gifts

Faith Temple Baptist 6~/27~/2004

Have you ever or are you in debt, Well this morning I want to share with you some news, you don’t the half of it…

*Romans 1:8-15 (ESV) * 

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

9For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 

10always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

11For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.

13I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

14I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.

15So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

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*(How Do You Get into Debt?)*

Focus with me for a few moments on verse 14: /"I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish ."/

Literally, /"I am debtor . .

." (KJV)./

What is his debt?

The next verse gives the answer (verse 15): "So, /I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome."/

So the debt is preaching the gospel.

That's his obligation or his debt.

Now the reason I think it's important to focus on the word "debtor" in verse 14 ("I am debtor to Greeks and to barbarians") is that it makes *us today* wonder how one gets into such a debt and how one pays it off.

It may be that you would say, Well, verse 1 shows that Paul was "/called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,"/ and verse 5 says that Paul "/received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Nations;"/ so what could be clearer?

He is obligated as a called apostle to preach the gospel to the nations to bring about the obedience of faith.

It's an obligation created by the command of the risen Christ.

That he is obligated to do what he was told to do by your Lord.

That's true.

But what Paul stresses about his calling is not that it is a command, but that it is grace.

Verse 5: "we received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith."

So I think it is helpful to ask if there is something deeper to see here than just: Christ said it, so do it: that's it’s our obligation, or our debt.

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*(By Borrowing or Stealing)*

See notice: verse 14 says Paul is a debtor to other people, not God.

"I am debtor to the Greeks and to the barbarians."

Usually we get into debt because someone has loaned us something.

But the Greeks and Barbarians have not loaned Paul anything.

The situation is not that the nations have loaned Paul anything to be paid back.

The situation is that God has freely given Paul something, specifically, grace (verse 5: "we received grace") - both the grace of salvation and the grace of apostleship.

But when you receive grace from God, you don't become a debtor to God.

Grace cannot and must not be paid back as a debt.

Otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

If I give you a free gift and you try to pay me for it, you turn it into a merited purchase, not a free gift.

So grace does not create debt in this sense.

In fact, the best thing about grace is that it pays debts.

We are debtors to God ("Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors," Matthew 6:12).

God's grace forgives debts.

We are debtors to God not because he has given us grace, but because we have stolen his glory.

Stealing also makes you a debtor.

Instead of seeing the glory of God as a treasure to enjoy, we exchanged it for other things that we really like better (Romans 1:23; 3:23).

And so we stole it.

That is the essence of sin.

And that is the kind of debt we have toward God.

So when grace comes to us from God in the gospel, it comes to pay our debts that we have to him.

Grace does not make you a debtor to God; but it does make you a debtor to others who need grace just as you did.

That is what Paul focuses on here in verse 14. "I received grace and apostleship" (verse 5).

So now I am a debtor to Greeks and barbarians.

And what I owe them is the gospel of grace.

That's my debt.

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*(The Debt we owe is the Gospel of Grace)*

Why is that?

Because, when you hear good news about how to escape from a common misery, you become a debtor to tell the good news to others so they can escape the misery too.

You owe it to them.

Why?

Because if, *hear me,if* you withhold the good news of grace from others, as if you were qualified for it, and they were not, then you show that you have never known grace.

The grace of God which calls us (verse 6) out of our darkness and bestows eternal covenant-love on us (verse 7) creates what it commands.

We don't qualify for it beforehand.

So if you hold this grace back from others as if you are qualified and they are not, you default on your debt to the world and prove that you have not really known grace.

Grace is precious beyond words.

It is our only hope as sinners.

We don't deserve it from God.

And no one can deserve it from us.

When it comes to us freely, we are debtors to give freely.

That's one reason why Paul stresses his debt, in verse 14, "both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish."

Culture and intelligence and education do not qualify anyone for the gospel of grace.

And being unrefined and uneducated and illiterate does not disqualify anyone for the gospel of grace.

There are no qualifications for this grace.

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*(Nobody Qualifies for Grace)*

  Paul is not a debtor to anybody because they qualify.

Nobody qualifies for grace.

For then grace would not be grace.

Paul is a debtor to Greek and barbarian precisely because he didn't qualify either, yet grace came to him -and it keeps on coming to him day after day in endless waves of future grace breaking over his life (1 Corinthians 15:10).

So there is no one who is any less or more deserving than he.

And that makes him a debtor to all.

/  (Prayerfully!!!!)/

/ OH, for us to be gripped by the reality of radically free grace in our lives -past and future!

What a difference it would make!

Dwell on this today, would you?

Consider what it means about racism, ethnic slurs, and all kinds of self-righteousness, our demandingness and selfishness in marriage and in all relationships.

Consider what it means about how freely we share the gospel of grace.

O Lord, open our hearts more and more to feel the wonder of being the called of Christ and the loved of God (forever!)-

not because he found something special in us, but because this grace is completely and absolutely free./

Now stop and think here for a moment what I just did.

*(Preaching the Gospel of Grace to Believers)*

I just took the gospel of grace - the good news that because of Jesus' death on the cross for sinners and his resurrection from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), free grace breaks on us with wave after wave -and I applied it to you with the conviction that if you get it -really get it - that is, if you believe it, if you have faith in it, if you cherish this grace and live on this grace, it will make an ever-greater difference in your life in areas like racism and pride and self-righteousness and your marriage in fact in all our relationships.

To put it in a word, I just preached to you the gospel of grace.

And my aim in this was the "obedience of faith" - the humility and kindness and courage and patience and love that come from faith in God's grace.

Now why is that important to notice?

Consider verse 15 and see if this is not what Paul wants to do in Rome.

He says in verse 14 that he is debtor to every layer of gentile society, and then he says, /"So, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome."

He is eager to preach the gospel to believers in Rome./

We don't usually think about preaching the gospel to believers.

We preach the gospel to unbelievers.

But I just preached the gospel to believers.