Sermon Tone Analysis

:1

Romans is ultimately a book about God: how he acted to bring salvation, how his justice is preserved, how his purposes are worked out in history, how he can be served by his people.

1 Paul introduces himself to the Roman church with three parallel designations that, respectively, identify his master, his office, and his purpose.

All three lack articles, a style typical of the introductions of letters.6 “Slave of Christ Jesus” is patterned on the familiar OT phrase “slave,” or “servant,” of Yahweh.

But here the title carries a stronger sense, marking Paul as one among that unique group appointed by Christ himself to have the salvation-historical role as the “foundation” of the church ().

For the risen Christ appeared to him () and chose him for his special mission to the Gentiles (; cf. ; ).

This divine initiative in Paul’s apostleship is made evident here by the verbal adjective “called.”

Paul’s final description of himself in v. 1, “set apart for the gospel of God,” may allude to his being set aside for his great apostolic task even from “the womb of his mother” (cf.

Gal.

1:15).

But the word order here makes it more likely that the “set apart” clause is simply a further definition of “called.”13

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

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

his purpose is general and principial, to allay possible suspicion about “his” gospel as new and innovative by asserting its organic relationship to the OT.

In a relative clause dependent on “gospel” (euangelion), Paul further defines the gospel as something promised in the OT.

In a manner typical of Paul’s emphasis throughout Romans, he draws a line of continuity between the new work of God in his Son, the content of the gospel (vv.

3–4), and the OT.

He therefore touches on what will become two key themes in Romans: the promise (cf.

Rom.

4), and the grounding of God’s salvific revelation in his previous purposes and work.

In this case the work of Moses

Whether the prepositional phrase that introduces v. 3, “concerning his Son,” depends on “promise ahead of time” in v. 2 or on “gospel” in v. 1, the meaning is much the same: the focus of the gospel is a person, God’s Son.

the meaning is much the same: the focus of the gospel is a person, God’s Son.

3regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David,

Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 44.

Romans1.

The importance of Jesus’ lordship emerges in a number of creedal statements.

To be saved one must acknowledge Jesus as Lord (Rom 10:9).

The believer’s initial submission to Jesus as Lord is reflected in Paul’s exhortation in which he reminds the Colossians that they “received Christ Jesus as Lord” (Col 2:6).

It is the Son who is “appointed” Son.

The tautologous nature of this statement reveals that being appointed Son has to do not with a change in essence—as if a person or human messiah becomes Son of God for the first time—but with a change in status or function.

The universal scope of the gospel is expressed in Paul’s definition of his task as “call[ing] people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith” (v.

5).

The promised Messiah did not come for the benefit of the Jewish nation alone.

The gospel is good news for all who will respond in faith.

But faith inevitably issues in obedience.

Faith is not intellectual assent to a series of propositions but surrender to the one who asks us to trust him.

To surrender is to obey

But at the beginning of the NT period, the promises of salvation given to Israel had not yet been fulfilled.

The gospels emphasize, however, that Jesus of Nazareth is the man whom God has chosen as his Messiah.

He is the true son of Abraham and the true son of David (Matt.

1:1), the fulfilment of the promises made to Abraham and David.

Israel in the OT is the son of God’s favour (Exod.

4:22) and God’s servant (*e.g.

Is. 41:8–9; 42:1, 19; 43:10; 44:1–2, 21; 45:4).

The gospels teach that Jesus is God’s servant and son (Mark 1:9–11 par.; cf.

Matt.

12:18–21).

Jesus is the true Israel, succeeding where Israel failed.

Jesus is the son liberated from Egypt (Matt.

2:15).

He is the one who resists the temptations of Satan in the wilderness (Matt.

4:1–11 par.).

When Jesus chooses the Twelve, therefore, he reconstitutes Israel (Mark 3:13–19 par.).

The description of the readers as “called” (Jude 1) is a designation also used by Paul; it can stand as a name for Christians by virtue of an essential characteristic: they have been summoned by God to be his people and have responded to the summons (Rom 1:6–7

The frequency with which Paul uses such expressions indicate that the lordship of Jesus was a central part of his theology.

The constant collocation with the term Christ indicates that the lordship of Jesus was closely associated with his messianic status.

In the tradition.

It is also likely that the lordship of Jesus was no Pauline innovation.

Paul’s use of the title in his greetings and farewells indicates that it was part of the common confession of early Christians.

The lordship of Jesus is also expressed in a number of confessional or hymnic statements in Paul, some of which may have been handed down to Paul via the tradition (Rom 1:3–4; 10:9; 1 Cor 8:5–6; 12:3; Phil 2:11).

Romans

One of the primary distinguishing features of the New Testament over against other Jewish and Hellenistic literature is the fundamental and comprehensive role which it ascribes to faith.

According to the Synoptic Gospels, the forgiveness of sins and the healing which are marks of the presence of the kingdom of God are given to faith alone.2

In John’s Gospel believing secures eternal life and makes one a child of God (1:12; 3:15–16; 36, 5:24; 6:35; etc.).

According to the letter to the Hebrews, faith brings the age to come into the present, and the believer into the presence of God (4:3; 10:22; 11:1).

James presupposes that faith effects salvation, even as he underscores that such faith is never without its works (2:14–26).

In all the New Testament writings, faith in Christ and in God’s work in him is determinative for the human relationship to God.

God—the Father.

God the Father is the initiator of the action in the story.

He is the sovereign ruler, carrying out his purpose through the mission of his people and specifically of those called to be witnesses and apostles.

The gospel is the gospel of God (Rom 1:1).

God the Father is the one God and Creator of the universe (1 Cor 8:6; cf.

Eph 4:6), and human beings are made in his image (1 Cor 11:7).

He expects their worship and their willing obedience to his way of life for them (cf.

Rom 1:21)

Collectively believers in Christ are a chosen nation (2:6), because of their relationship to Him, the chosen cornerstone (2:4).

In addition, these epistles often speak of Christians as called by God (kaleō, klētos).

This divine “summons” is God’s working to bring people into a relationship with Himself.

It involves a call to live holy lives, since He who called them is holy (1:15).

It is a call out of darkness into His amazing light (2:9).

It calls them to innocent suffering like Christ’s (2:21), but also to inherit blessing in following His example (3:9).

Ultimately, it is a call to God’s eternal glory in Christ (5:9).

By living out the Christian character that God has put within them, believers make their calling and election sure and receive a rich welcome into Christ’s eternal kingdom (2 Peter 1:10–11; cf.

1:3–4).

Their calling is assured because they are beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ (Jude 1) by God the Savior who is able to guard them from falling and to present them blameless before His glorious presence with great joy (Jude 24–25).

For Paul, the point was that the new creation launched with Jesus’ resurrection was the renewal of creation, not its abolition and replacement; so that the new-creation mode of knowing was a deeper, truer, richer mode of knowing about the old creation as well.

And with that deeper knowing came all sorts of consequences, which we have tried to plot in the preceding chapters.

In particular, the communities which came into being through the gospel were to embody that new world in the ways which our disjointed categories have separated out.

They were indeed to be a kind of philosophical school, teaching and modelling a new worldview, inculcating a new understanding, a new way of thinking.

They were to train people not only to practise the virtues everyone already acknowledged but also to develop some new ones, and with all that to find a new way to virtue itself, the transformed mind and heart through which the creator’s intention would at last be realized.

They were indeed, despite their lack of priests, sacrifices and temples, to be a new kind of ‘religion’: to read and study their sacred texts and to weave them into the beginnings of a liturgical praxis.

In that worship, they believed, heaven and earth came together, God’s time and human time were fused and matter itself was transfigured to become heavy with meaning and possibility

(NET)

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

tn Or “willing, ready”; Grk “so my eagerness [is] to preach …” The word πρόθυμος (prothumos, “eager, willing”) is used only elsewhere in the NT in Matt 26:41 = Mark 14:38: “the spirit indeed is willing (πρόθυμος), but the flesh is weak.”

tn Or “willing, ready”; Grk “so my eagerness [is] to preach …” The word πρόθυμος (prothumos, “eager, willing”) is used only elsewhere in the NT in Matt 26:41 = Mark 14:38: “the spirit indeed is willing (πρόθυμος), but the flesh is weak.”

Both to the wise, and to the unwise.

It appears that the wise and unwise refer to the same people as Greeks and Barbarians.

“Wise” referred to the educated.

“Unwise” referred to the uneducated

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

Those who are interested in figures of speech will find it interesting that Bruce and Lenski consider the words “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ” to be a figure of speech called “litotes.”

This figure of speech is an understatement, used for effect in this case.

In some cases it is used to avoid censure.