Romans 1:16-17
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
As we enter into this book the reality is there is no way I will be able to go through this in any great depth. We have 8 weeks between now and when we will be starting 1 Kings once again. to rush through this is not worth it so so will look at specific sections over the next few weeks. I encourage you to read the book, 2 chapters a week so you understand the full context.
Author
Author
This is a beautiful book that gives us deep theological principles. Today I want to give us a quick background of this book and we are then going to be focusing on Romans 1:16-17
This book is really undisputed in it author, who is Paul. I always find it funny when so many people want to spend endless hours and teachings explaining why they believe who wrote the book or why they believe the prevailing thought is wrong.
Now I appreciate that because I love to study those things and it gives me a deeper understanding and a longing for more. So Paul is who we believe is the author of this book.
Location and timing
Location and timing
We believe Paul wrote this around 57Ad to be safe a it was written better of 53 and 58 ad. We get this date because of where Paul was when he wrote this letter. He was in Corinth at this time on his third missionary journey.
1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae,
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,
As well as which give us the background for when it was written
2 When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece. 3 There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.
These verses give us a good indication of the timing of when he would have written the book.
Context
Context
What makes this book so unique is that Paul is not writing it to a church he knew personally or founded. He only knows of their reputation. He may also have known a few of those in the churches but he primarily knew them because of their reputation.
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.
All of the world at that time was Roman and it was a place that saw Christians as cannibals, gross love feasts, because of the communion supper and agape feats. The Christian population was know to destroy families and not be good for Roman family structure. This was because only one of the spouses was getting saved and it would cause separation.
The church was just getting over being persecuted heavenly so much so they were kicked out of Rome. They are not allowed back under Nero, but still in the middle of heavy persecution, and bad press about the church; yet through all this they were thriving. The message of the work they were doing was going around the world. This in a time where news spread very slowly too, so you can imagine the impact they were making.
Who is it written to
Who is it written to
Paul is not writing a corrective letter, he is not writing a letter to answer any questions he is just letting them know he is praying for them and he cannot wait to meet them. He wants to teach them as well as learn from them.
11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
He has longed to come to them but has been stopped by God/Holy Spirit. I love Paul’s heart and I hope we all have this same heart too. To teach what God has give us but also to learn what God has given others.
I do not care who you are or how many degrees one may have, the moment you stop learning is the moment you begin to be useless and die. We must keep learning, we must keep longing for the truth. We must be humble enough to look to each other for strengthening.
Paul at this point has been teaching for 20 years, and here he comes to this church/churches in Rome and says he want to learn from them. Let this be our heart, let us always have a passion to learn. (Let me always have a passion to learn.
The churches in Rome, from what we know, were not started by any apostle but from those Christians traveling in and out of Rome. God did the world not any leader.
Bond Servant
Bond Servant
This brings us into the book of Romans. I want to start by introducing Paul as we read this:
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
Paul introduces himself and this letter to the Romans as a humble servant. The Romans would have been shocked by this because a slave was not who would have impressed the Roman people. If Paul was trying to show off he would have said: Paul, a Roman citizen and follow of God. Yet He says I am a humble servant.
The slave in Rome was seen as nothing more than property. The slaves in Rome were different in many ways from our understanding of slaves in our country. They could own property, they could buy their freedom and even work towards becoming a Roman Citizen. But while they were slaves were still seen as slaves and the lowest of all in Rome. They were the working class. Romans did not work, they wore the white robes that we have in our minds. They were the nobles, the rich and to work was seen as a low class of society.
The slave that Paul is describing is even different then your typical Roman slave. Paul is saying I am a bond servant of Jesus Christ. This servant would willing give their life to their master. They would decide that their life working for their master was better then being free. They were taken care of, their family was provided for, they had jobs, they had all they needed. For those who became bond slaves willing said I give my life and servitude to you so long as I live. They would go to their master and have them put an awl through their ear and then a ring in it to signify they were a bond servant.
5 But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ 6 then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.
6 In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,
but you have given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering
you have not required.
So Paul humbles himself to the lowest form in the worlds perspective; but the highest form in the Lord’s world:
35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
Not Ashamed
Not Ashamed
Paul is reaching out to a church in a community/city of over 1 million people. They mindset is to be the elite the thinker, the best before the world. Paul is not worried one bit about this world but about the world to come. This is how he introduces himself. Then we come to verses 16 & 17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
This is the theme of the book - For I am not ashamed of the gospel. Paul is saying I do not care what others say. I do not care what others think I know who God is, I know His power I know that it is through Him alone that we find Salvation.
Let me be clear Paul is not saying - I do what I want, I am who I am, you are who you are. Paul is not pridefully coming to them saying we do not care about Roman, we are free in Christ so we do as we wish. There is a great confusion in our world today combining the Gospel message with the personal agenda. We need to be very careful and remember Jesus has one message Salvation.
Paul is saying I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is what has brought me to salvation. He is saying Jesus and the gospel message is what has changed my life. I am not ashamed of Jesus, I am not ashamed of the Gospel, I am not ashamed of the word of God. I stand by it, I am confident in Him, and I will not stray from it.
This is what makes his statement of a bondservant so real as we read on. He is saying there are so many things that can master over us, but the only master I want is the Lord Jesus. (yes Paul did give divinity to Jesus):
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,
This power that is talked about here is dunamis, or the power we talk about that the Spirit of God does in and through us. It is also a mighty working power. In other words this mighty working power has changed our nature. He has brought us from death to life. This is a mighty works indeed.
By Faith
By Faith
The power of all this is based on faith in Jesus Christ:
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
It is through faith that we are save by not through works. The Old Covent was based on the works they were required to do. Sacrifices, feasts, dietary law and so on. The reality is that they were never really saved through that process only covered. It is by faith that we are saved.
We do not have to work to come to salvation nor do we have to work to get God’s approval. There is no amount of work we can do to fix our sin nature.
Jesus completed all that work on the cross and when He was resurrected he defeated death for us.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
We will also look at this:
1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
Faith can be a hard concept for a lot of us. We believe on what we cannot see, we do that with so manny things but when it come to God we struggle in the flesh. Jesus died and rose from the dead and is now in heaven. How do you know he has saved you...
I know…I just know in the change, in the heart, in the mind. How do you explain that to others. You just know. It is by the power of the Spirit that we are able to know.