Archive for category: Verse By Verse Romans

Now, this statement that he makes, ‘I am ready,’ in verse 15, is followed by versess16, 17, 18, and verse 20. And we see that those verses begin with the word ‘for’—f-o-r—which means ‘because’ or ‘for this reason’.

So, he says, ‘As much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed.’

He’s giving a reason why he’s ready. He’s not ashamed.

And then in verse 17, again,

“For in it (that’s the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”

 

He says it again in verse 18 – 19,

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 

 

Then in verse 20,

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 

 

So, there’re these “for” f-o-r statements, which are reasons he gives to describe why he’s ready to preach the gospel.

You and I can also. We might not be able to preach the huge depths of scripture or explain every doctrine, though you’ll be constantly growing if we’re studying.

 

Do we actually know the gospel that saves us? It’s not confessing with our mouth that saves us.

We have to hear the word of God and believe it, to trust it, in order to be saved. And if we don’t know what we’re trusting, it’s just a blind leap of hope or blind faith, and that’s not what saves us.

 

Ephesians 1:13-14 we see,

In Him (in whom? Jesus Christ). In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. 

 

See, we heard we believed, we trusted the gospel of salvation. Then we were you’re sealed by the Holy Spirit after we heard and believed the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation.

We had nothing to do with that sealing, that’s all God’s doing.

Hearing any word of God’s not a magical, mystical thing.

We hear the information that we now believe and trust to pay for our sins.

The reason we claim to have life or to know truth, is in the words we heard. When we believe and trust in that word, it says in verse 13, we’re sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

 

So that’s how salvation works. Nowhere in that verse are we told to ‘come down front,’ or ‘say a secret prayer,’ or ‘ get dunked in the tank of water.’ None of that is in Ephesians 1, verse 13. It’s ‘hear the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believe and trust in it.’

 

Romans 1:16 says the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel of salvation is the gospel of Christ. It’s very important we know what that is. If we’ve never heard it, don’t know what it is, we can’t believe it, and thus we can’t be saved. That’s how it works. Faith comes by hearing the word of God.

 

In Ephesians 3:6 Paul writes,

that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, 

 

He makes this gospel of salvation part of what he’s communicating concerning Christ and the revelation of the mystery of Christ that he states in Ephesians 3:1-5,

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:

 

He describes this mystery, which is revealed to him by the Spirit and given to him by God, dispensed to him by God. That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs. Now if your bible says fellow heirs with Israel or with the Jews, as some bibles do, you’ve got the wrong Bible.

This is ‘fellow heirs with Christ’.

The Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body—that body is of Christ—and partakers of his (God’s) promise in Christ by the gospel.

So, we see here part of this mystery: the Gentiles are fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ by the gospel.

 

In Ephesians 3:7, talking about this gospel he writes,

of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power. 

He was made a minister of this gospel just as he says in Romans.

 

And then it says in verse 8 we have,

To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 

 

Then he goes on to say in Ephesians 3:9,

and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 

 

He’s preaching among the Gentiles to make all men, Jew and Gentile—see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which he just said. Which is to say, if we’re not a fellow, where you don’t know the mystery, we’re not in it. But if we are in the fellowship of the mystery with Christ, then we’re a fellow heir, and we’re the same body of Christ. We’re partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. All of that is a result of us first hearing, and then trusting in, the gospel of salvation.

 

Paul’s already written First Corinthians by the time he wrote the epistle to the Romans. In I Corinthians 15, Paul gives a clear, compact description of the gospel that saves.

 

1 Corinthians 15:1-4, he says,

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 

This is not talking about our power to continually remember but about if you actually heard what was said. Is it in our minds or did it simply slide off like a Teflon frypan. Paul’s saying, “Did you actually “get it”?”

He’s saying that if we didn’t we’re not saved by the gospel he declared to you. We have to hear it and believe it. That’s what he’s saying there.

 

Let’s continue with verse 3,

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 

 

That’s the gospel in a nutshell.

 

He goes on to explain in verse 5 and 6 that Jesus was seen by Cephas (the apostle Peter), and then of the whole twelve apostles. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of which most were still alive at the time of Pauls writing this even though some had died.

 

This is the testimony and the evidence of the resurrection of Christ. His raising from the dead is a crucial part of the gospel that saves us. If Christ didn’t raise from the dead, then his death for your sins is meaningless, and Paul goes on to describe that in detail in the rest of 1 Corinthians 15.

 

We should remember that this gospel testimony here in First Corinthians 15 was written before any of the Matthew, Mark, Luke, John gospel explanations. So, if we’re looking for a written record of the earliest gospel of the church, the body of Christ, it’s right here in Paul’s epistles. This is agreed on by Christians of every denomination. The ones that believe the Bible anyway.

 

In 1 Corinthians 15:8 Paul writes,

Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. 

For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 

 

Why did Paul say he born out of due time?

Because he was not part of the believing remnant of Israel or following Jesus in his early ministry. He was persecuting and violently opposing those people.”

 

The kingdom was not coming, and he was saved purely by the grace of God, not because of anything he did. That was evident by the way in which he was saved, on his way to persecute more people who believed in Jesus.

And so, he was born out of due time. He wasn’t born in the kingdom come when all of Israel will be saved. He wasn’t born in Jesus’ earthly ministry as one saved by hearing and believing and following Jesus and trusting Him when no one knew who he was.

Saul wasn’t saved when the apostles witnessed the resurrection and were filled with the Holy Spirit either. He was born out of due time.

 

1 Corinthians 15:9-10,

For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

 

Notice in this passage about the gospel, we have Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection—his death for our sins, his burial, and resurrection for our life. Also, Paul talks about his apostleship, and how it was given to him by grace alone.

Notice that this salvation by grace in that presentation of Christ’s death and resurrection has no additional ‘and do this and do that’ attached to it

That’s because Paul was saved by purely by grace. That’s how Paul’s salvation was explained to him by the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

In Ephesians 3, it’s the same thing, We’re partakers of His (God’s) promise in Christ by the gospel.

It concerns the grace given to Paul and the grace given to you. That’s why Paul calls it the gospel of the grace of God.

In Romans 1, he’s already been preaching this.

He writes to the Romans and says, ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation.’

Now he’s going to explain in detail how this can save you in the next few chapters.

The gospel he’s preaching here in Romans is the same gospel he’s been preaching in 1 Corinthians 15, to both Jew and Gentile. There’s no difference.

 

So, back in Romans 1:15 he said,

So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. 

He’s sent with the gospel that was given to all, Jews and Gentiles.

There are lots of people with lots of different backgrounds in Rome.

Paul’s never been there yet. He’s writing to this mixed bag of believers stating his responsibility and obligation to preach the gospel.

 

Most people will just separate Paul’s apostleship as if he’s just going to a different location or simply going to a different congregation or a different culture, but it’s the message he preaches that’s different. The message that was preached before this gospel was given to Paul didn’t allow such things. His ministry was to all, Jew and Gentile. To everyone.

But that’s not what we read in Jesus’ earthly ministry, or in the Old Testament, or even at Pentecost, where Peter went to the men of Israel and preached the gospel of the Kingdom and emphasised the need for their works as part of that gospel.

 

Romans 1:14 he says,

I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. 

Greeks and Barbarians are not Jews.

 

We get back to Romans 1:16’

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

 

Most people preach shame from this verse. Do you feel ashamed of Jesus Christ? Are you ashamed to say His name? Are you ashamed to stand for Jesus? And the preaching goes on and on about whether you’re ashamed or not.

When Paul says, ‘I’m ready to preach the gospel and I’m not ashamed,’ it’s true that if he were ashamed, he wouldn’t be motivated to preach the gospel—which would be true for you and me as well.

If we’re ashamed of what we believe, thinking it’s not powerful, it is not true, it is not something that really is an answer to people’s problems, then we would feel a bit embarrassed talking about the gospel. But once we realise the power of it, we’re not so ashamed of it.

 

Paul backs this up in 2nd Timothy 1. Timothy wasn’t an unbeliever or a new believer; he was a preacher, a minister, an elder in the church.

Paul tells him in 2 Ti 1:7-8,

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, 

 

It’s not that we preach Paul; we’re preaching Jesus.

But the culture doesn’t like to hereof God and Jesus.

It’s perceived as unscientific, and unintelligent, and less esteemed in the eyes of the world—that’s the shame. That’s what Timothy’s facing here.

He’s facing a growing audience; people who’re probably older than him and who might push their weight and their power around.

But Paul’s telling him, don’t be ashamed but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God.

 

When we suffer the loss of things—physical things, esteem in the world, reputation with other people, we feel ashamed. We feel we’ve lost something, and nobody’ll listen to us anymore.

But Paul’s in prison. People weren’t listening to him.

He says in 2 Timothy 1, ‘All those in Asia turned away from me.’ Now, he says, ‘I’m not ashamed.’

He saw it as his ministry to clearly communicate the truth with boldness, and without shame. He didn’t try to sugarcoat it or cover it up.

In fact, he preaches against that in 2 Timothy 4:3-4,

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 

 

How should we deal with shame? We increase our knowledge!

When we increase our knowledge of the truth, the word of God, of Jesus Christ, and who He is, and what His will is, we increase our confidence and boldness and reduce shame.

That’s why Paul says, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.” Because he loves it, and he knows about it. That’s why he’s writing these epistles. He’s confident about the information, and he has a heart for it, and he loves it.

To him personally, it saved his life. It saved ours too, if we know and trust the gospel.

That’s why he says in 2 Timothy 1:12,

For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. 

 

Pauls not instructing us to go around blasting people with this gospel truth, saying, ‘You’re all going to hell.’ It’s about knowing the truth, and being confident in it, so we can show the fruit of the Spirit and that takes our personal growth.

 

So shame is an issue, However, and it’s a big However, Paul’s simply not talking about this in this verse. He’s not saying, ‘I’m not ashamed of the gospel because I’m not scared.

 

We might say, “Well, if anyone asks me about Jesus, I’ll talk about Him all day.” Well, so would Peter and so would every Jew in the synagogue. They read all the scriptures about Christ and the Messiah. They just didn’t believe Jesus was Him.

 

So what is Paul talking about here?

The shame that he’s talking about experiencing is the potential shame of overturning a 1500-year-old God-given religion through Israel. That’s what he’s facing.

It was the Jews who took him to trial over this for eight chapters in the book of Acts. That’s why eventually he’ll end up in Rome in chains, because he’s preaching the gospel to Gentiles and Greeks and those in Rome without going through Israel, which is what the covenants and prophecies required. And it was the Jews who put him there.

It was unbelieving Israel who said, ‘You’re a heretic.’ It wasn’t the Gentiles; it was the Jews.

 

He says, ‘I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.’ What’s he saying? Well, the potential shame that he’s dealing with is what we read up in Romans 1:14,

I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. 

 

See that? He’s a debtor, he’s obligated, he has a duty. To whom is that duty? To Israel? To the high priests? To the prophets? To the law? To Moses? To the angels? To the Greeks? To the Barbarians? To the wise and unwise?

And, who sent him? Who gave him that obligation? Christ did.

But, all the oracles of God were given to Israel, and they’re God’s chosen people, they’re God’s people of promise. Every Gentile in history, up until Paul, had been obligated to bless Israel in order to get a blessing from God.

 

The shame he’s potentially facing is his gospel being sent to all nations, for the obedience of faith as he said in Romans 1:5. That’s the shame.

From our perspective, two thousand years after Paul wrote this, he really was breaking ground here. He was the pioneer. We might say ‘Of course the church goes everywhere to all nations.’ But Paul started that. Try and find where that happened before Paul.

 

In teaching this, he’s going to the Greeks before Israel, contrary to the order of the covenants and of prophecy. And so the accusation he’s getting from Jews is, ‘You’re going against scripture.’

Paul’s defence in the book of Acts will be, ‘No, I’m not.’

In Romans here he’s preaching the mystery. He’s preaching something that was not known in those scriptures.

 

Now back to Romans 1:16 where he says,

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

 

The gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation.

What a statement that is.

Incidentally, two words ‘of Christ’ are removed from the ESV, NIV, CSB, and the American Standard, which are the most popular Bible translations excluding the King James.

So with the words ‘Of Christ’ removed, we’re left with just ‘the gospel.’ The gospel of what? We don’t know. It also brings the question, what is the power of God to salvation? You say, ‘Well, it’s the gospel.’ But the gospel of what exactly?

It’s of Christ. Christ is the power of salvation, and 1 Corinthians, chapter one deals with that in detail.

 

So we learn that the power of God is the gospel. It is not music. Once people get into the atmosphere created by music and lighting and things, they’re supposedly feeling God’s presence and power.

But the Bible says the power of God is the gospel of Christ. It’s the message. It’s the information. You may say, “Well, nobody feels God’s power studying the Bible.” Well, actually, yes you can. That’s the true power of God.

The power of talented musicians may encourage us with music, but it’s not the power of God that comes from words.

You say, ‘Well, they’re singing words.’ So long as they’re the right words! Not church musicians sing the right words.

With the right words, we can claim God’s power, but it’s not through some sort of feeling we’re having; it’s the words and what they actually express, what they tell us.

Even though there is a place for music and for singing, the power of God is the gospel of Christ, not music.

And it’s not miracles. People seek the miraculous. They say they want to see God’s power in their lives.’ By that, they mean healing, raising the dead, speaking in tongues, spiritual giftings.

They want to see miracles happen; that’s the power of God. Wouldn’t that mean that God’s power is not being seen when there’s not a visible miracle going on.

That would be entirely wrong because the gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation.

It’s not in the baptism or church traditions or rituals or in the bread and the cup or anything like that. That’s not the power of God.

It’s not in revival.

If the gospel of Christ is not preached, then it’s not the power of God. Something may be making people feel guilty and the Mosaic law that power. But that’s not the power God’s dispensing today. It’s the power of God’s grace, the gospel.

 

People get saved by the gospel of Christ, and we don’t see them get saved. When someone believes the gospel, we don’t see them glowing or something. We never see anything visibly, but it’s no less a miracle when God regenerates someone from the dead and puts them in the body of Christ. It’s a miracle. You hear the word, you trust it, and God does the work there.

 

The power of God also requires Christ. And we don’t mean simply naming him. ‘I’m doing this for Jesus. I first want to thank Jesus.’ That’s not what all this is talking about. The power of God requires Christ and him crucified.

Look at 1 Corinthians 1:17.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. 

 

They were arguing about baptism and who baptised whom.

Paul says, ‘I also baptised some, but I thank God I didn’t baptise any more of you because Christ didn’t send me to baptize.’

Then, Paul goes on about what Christ sent him to do.

This is a big deal in Romans and other epistles, for him to say, ‘Christ sent me not to baptise.’ It’s Paul excluding water baptism from what Christ sent him, his special apostle, to do.

That’s a big statement that tells us baptism isn’t part of the gospel.

The gospel concerns and includes the cross of Christ, which we read in

1 Corinthians 1:17-18,

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. 

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

 

Why is it foolishness? Because “those who are perishing” don’t see how that solves a problem, or even what the problem is. ‘He died for our sins.’ Yes, what’s the problem in that gospel? The problem is sins, and Christ is the solution.”

If people don’t see sin as the problem, it’s foolish anyway. It’s not really the big problem. But it really is!

What’s the power of God?

The preaching of the cross. The Christ on the cross, dying for yours and my sins. It’s not the miracles we’re seeking, not the success we’re seeking in the name of Christ. It’s the cross, and it’s already been completed, and we can’t add to that.

It’s not our power, it’s his. That’s the whole point of the gospel in this dispensation.

 

We’d have to go back to Israel’s program and their covenants and promises to find any hint of a nation and a people contributing to the display of God’s glory and power in a city on the earth—that’s Israel.

But the church doesn’t have the same ministry.

So 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 tells us in detail how the cross is the power of God.

 

1 Corinthians 1:21 for example says,

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

 

It’s the communication of a message. Because as we covered before, salvation comes from you hearing the word of God and then trusting it. And if you’re hearing it, someone’s saying it. That’s the preaching. So salvation comes from hearing something and believing it.

 

How is that actually practically going to solve this real problem that we have in the world today?

The major issues in the world are ideological, doctrinal, spiritual, eternal, invisible.

In fact, some of the smallest problems we have in the world are physical, material. Most people think those are the biggest problems because they’re right in front of their faces. The sicknesses in their body, finances, circumstances around them—those are obvious and real.

But bigger than those are actually people’s agendas, their perspective, their direction, their goal, their value, their morals, where they find life, joy, hope.

You give someone hope, joy, life, love, it matters far less how much money they have or their present circumstances. That’s what the Bible talks about. So you see, God makes foolish the wisdom of the world, which tries to redirect the problem. They deny the spiritual and they make the real problem something else.

1 Co 1:22 says,

For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom. 

 

The Jews are waiting for the power of God to display in a visible miracle.

They want a visible sign and the Greeks, the gentiles, seek after wisdom. They don’t want to see the signs; they want to see proven facts and wisdom. Prove that there’s eternal life. Prove that there’s a judge of all the Earth.

You try to give them arguments for it, but of course, it requires their belief in God and the scripture.

 

He says in verse 23, ‘But we preach Christ crucified.’ Unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.

 

You might say to the religious, to the miracle-seeking, to those who esteem power in the world, a stumbling block.

They all look to Christians to have a holy standard and live a certain way, but it’s a stumbling block to say that Christians are better behaved than non-Christians.

Well, the bible describes a Christian as an ungodly person who believes Christ died for their sins and therefore they’re saved. Not an ungodly person who stops being ungodly and therefore they’re saved. That’s not the gospel!

 

But the unsaved don’t want spiritual understanding. They want physical solutions. They want answers to their problems. They want the material problems of this world fixed.

This planet is broken, they say, and thank you God for a broken planet.

But, well, we. Man, did that, actually. You see, that’s spiritual understanding, but they don’t want it. It’s foolishness unto them.

 

But to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. We find the wisdom and the power in Christ. That’s why Paul’s not ashamed of the gospel of Christ? Because it’s the power of God unto salvation.

Christ is the source of power for us who are saved and believe, and he’s also the source of wisdom for those who are saved and believe. He’s also the source of our righteousness and the source of our sanctification.

 

It’s so easy to distract people from the truth and the clarity of the gospel by other things that sound good, things that God ‘s done before and He’ll do again in the future, things that people think they need.

 

They’ll try and grab those things and think that’s the way to salvation not in trusting Christ crucified.

This is one of the biggest problems we have in the church. In the world, people don’t know the gospel, but in the church itself, people think that they’re saved because they love God, they live well, they stand for certain values or principles in society. They claim God can do powerful miracles in their life, they’re waiting for revival, they’re involved in the singing and the worship. And you ask, ‘Well, what about Christ crucified?’ ‘Oh yes, and he died for us too. Doesn’t he love us so much?’

He died for your sins. You need that or you’re not a Christian. And you have to trust that.

It’s not simply us trusting in our power or his love; it’s his love committed in Christ that while you were a sinner, he died for you. He rose from the dead. That’s message that allows the Romans to be saved.

 

So what’s the power of the Christian today? Is it in our ability and strength, or is it in Christ when we’re weak? That’s precisely the lesson of God’s grace in 2 Corinthians 12.

Paul has a thorn in the flesh, an infirmity and he pleaded three times for the Lord to take it away.

But in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Paul says,

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

We see that power come out quite often when Christians know about it and they know Christ crucified, and they can testify when they’re dying, sick, and weak, and with nothing they can do to save themselves.

Then on their deathbed, they proclaim the hope of glory because of Christ crucified, dying for their sins.

 

They’ll rise from the dead shortly and that testimony is more powerful than almost anything else. As everyone’s looking saying, ‘How terrible,’ we’re the closest we’ve ever been to glory if we know the gospel!

 

That’s what Paul preaches in Philippians 1:21

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

 

In 2 Timothy 4:6 he says,

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.

He says, ‘I’m about to depart to be with Christ.’ He never said, ‘I’m dying.’ He said, ‘I’ve got a crown waiting for me.’

 

Of course, without Christ, there’s no power on our deathbed. There’ll be a day where there’s no hope of a miracle. We’ll die. The real miracle will be in the resurrection and that’s only because of what Christ did and our belief in it.

 

So the power of God is in salvation, performed by God in Christ through the Spirit as our verse in Romans 1:16 says that salvation is.

 

Romans 6:3-4 says,

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? 

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 

 

That baptism has to do with your identity with him by faith in the gospel. We trusted his death for our sins.

If we believed that we’re sealed with the Holy Spirit and identified and baptised into the body of Christ, We’re baptised into his death.

 

It wasn’t simply that he died for us, but that his death is now also our death. So we’re reckoning our old man dead every day we’re alive because we’re dead with him. We’re crucified with Christ. And you walk in newness of life because we’re risen with him.

 

Romans 8:37 we’re told,

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 

We’re more than conquerors even though we’re heading to death. We’re not more than conquerors because nothing can stop you and every bullet and cannonball that gets shot at us gets deflected.

That’s not what he’s saying. You see, it doesn’t matter what’s thrown at us because the power of life that we have doesn’t come from our flesh or our own strength.

 

That’s why Paul’s writes in Romans 1:16.

I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God.

 

In Ephesians 1:17-21 Paul says he prays,

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe… 

 

What is that exceeding great power? It was wrought in Christ, when God raised Him from the dead. And, if we believe the gospel, He’s risen us in Him. We have a position in heavenly places now, above all things. He’s above all principality and power, these verses say, and that’s where His body’s going to be. And we’re a part of that.

That’s that great mystery in Ephesians 1.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:13, Paul thanks God that the Thessalonians received what he preached to them, not as simply an invention of himself, but as the words of God, which we can read in the scripture as well and that has an effect on all that believe.

 

We may say, ‘Is God working in my life today? Is He working in the world?’ Yes, He works in me and yes He works in the world today. But HOW is the big controversy.

The power and the working of God is through the gospel of Christ. It’s in the word of God working in us that believe. It’s not the things that many religious people and many Christians claim.

 

Let’s cover the last part of Romans 1:16.

The gospel is the power of God for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

This is really the point of what Paul’s talking about here.

Of course, the gospel of Christ is a critical part of it. But none of that is really new information.

We can learn that from the Old Testament as well.

But this bit about, ‘to the Jew first and also to the Greek,’ that’s something that was never spoken of in the prophets.

See the kingdom’s not here and Israel’s not saved, yet all people can be saved. Salvation was promised, Christ was promised, a gospel was promised, the power of God was promised. But ‘to the Jew first and also to the Greek’? When there’s no kingdom and no Israel in their land? That’s new.

Paul’s gospel is unique here in how he keeps bringing up the whole Gentile bit.

 

He says that the power of God in the gospel of Christ is salvation to all, to everyone that believes. To the Jew first and also the Greeks, the Jew and the Greek, there’s no difference. That’s what Paul’s saying. To the Jew and the Greek, both.

The power of God cancels every religious, social, and political class. It does that to any system of thinking, any religion in the world. And whether you claim to have a religion or not, you have a thing that you worship with your time, your life, effort, and choices.

 

Saying the gospel of Christ is to the Jew first and also to the Greek, is removing the age old Jewish separation.

You see, God separated Israel and the Jews from Gentiles, creating a religious class of chosen people to whom He would speak to and through.

All would be blessed through them, which is saying no one could get blessed except through them. But the gospel says, ‘Not anymore. Not according to Christ.’

 

If we believe the gospel, there are no classes in Christ. None. The gospel of Christ eliminates those things.

 

When Paul was preaching this in the first century, in the Roman Empire, there were political classes between the Roman citizens and those who weren’t Roman citizens. In the Jewish system, there were the Jews and the Gentiles. The Gentiles were the sinners. The Jews were the religious ones.

 

Classes existed everywhere, and every religion in every country was like this. And Paul’s going around preaching that there are none in Christ. You can all be one and the same in Him, saved by grace. And by the way, you’re all sinners, Jew and Gentile We’re all a bunch of sinners, but God can save any of you by His mercy. It’s a completely level playing field, cancelling all those classes.

 

Later in Romans 11:32, Paul writes,

For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. 

The key word there is ‘all.’

So Israel, which had a special spiritual standing with God, lost that spiritual standing when they rejected the Christ.

And, as Paul preaches, He counted them, Israel, in unbelief.

That’s the worst thing you could say to a Jew: that you’re considered uncircumcised before God, just like a Gentile.

‘But I was born a Jew, they say!’ It doesn’t matter anymore. That’s what Paul’s saying. He says, ‘To the Jew first,’ but that’s not his point. It’s also to the Greek, the gentile. The Jews had it, but now the Greeks have it too. It’s not because the Jews gave it to them; it’s because God sent it to them.

 

This gospel tears that down.

In Galatians 3:27-28, Paul talks about those who are in Christ.

He says,

For as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ. 

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 

This gives us a definition of the word baptism. It’s being identified with.

1 Corinthians 12:13 says,

For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 

So it’s the gospel that makes us a part of the body of Christ. Our identity has changed. That’s baptism into Christ.

 

There is neither Jew nor Greek. There goes Israel’s religion. There is neither bond nor free. There goes the social system of slaves.

Anyone who thinks the Bible teaches slavery hasn’t read Paul. He says there’s no bond or free in Christ. And it’s from teachings like this that sowed the seeds of anti-slavery. It starts when the gospel is heard.

 

We all know the story of the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’, written by John Newton, who was a slave trader. When he got saved by the gospel, that made him no longer a slave trader.

In the gospel of salvation there’s no different classes and no difference between male and female.

As believers, we’re all one in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 3:11 adds one more difference to the list, which is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision.

Now, where Paul talks about not being ashamed in our verse Romans 1:16, this’s really the part that potentially causes the most shame.

We can see some of these other things, male and female, bond and free, causing chaos in that society, but the circumcision!

There’s no circumcision nor uncircumcision in the body of Christ?

That’s huge because it relates to Israel’s religion, No wonder Paul was branded a heretic by the Jews.

 

Going right back to Abraham, if you’re circumcised, you’re in God’s covenant. If you’re not, you can get blessed from us, but you’re not God’s covenant people. And Paul’s saying it doesn’t matter anymore!

Galatian 6:15

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.

That’s the gospel of Christ according to the revelation of the mystery.

It’s hard for us living today to really understand the impact of those statements on the Jews.

 

Paul’s gospel is the gospel of grace because it’s not a class system, or reliant on a special heritage. It’s not a law-keeping, or a ritual to be perform. It’s grace to all sinners because all are sinners. There’s none righteous, Jew or Gentile, male or female; we’re all sinners. And grace is now given to all to save all. We all need God’s grace.

 

So this is how, in this statement in Romans 1:16, it’s not really just the gospel of Christ part, or the salvation part, or the power part, it’s the Jew and Greek part. Salvation is now sent outside of Israel while they’re fallen, to all people without difference. And that’s this mystery.

 

John 4:22, Jesus, in His conversation with the Samarian women at the well says,

You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 

Salvation is of the Jews, Jesus says. Salvation is metred out through the Jews just as throughout history.

So when Paul says the gospel of Christ, the power of God to salvation is to the Jew first. Everyone already knew that. That’s not new information.

He’s simply saying, yes, salvation to the Jew but then and also to the Greek.

 

Acts 3:25-26, at Pentecost, Peter preaches to the children of Israel,

You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.’ 

To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.” 

 

See, in you (the Jews) first, Christ came to forgive your sins and save you from your sins, and then the nations, the world, will be blessed. But that’s not what happened.

Israel didn’t accept salvation through Christ according to the prophecy, and so Paul’s sent to preach salvation through Christ according to the mystery, which is salvation in Christ to both Jew and gentile without the priesthood of Jews being the intercessor.

Christ was promised, prophesied, and sent to the Jews as we saw in Matthew 15:24,

But He (Jesus) answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 

 

Jesus went to Israel first. Did he go to Gentiles? No, He went to Israel first. He was promised to Israel. He came to Israel, fulfilling those promises.

In Isaiah 42:6 and Isaiah 49:6, we see prophesies about Christ as a light to the Gentiles.

 

Mark 7:27 says it this way:

But Jesus said to her (He’s talking to a gentile woman), “Let the children (always children are Israel). Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs (the gentiles).” 

 

He said, ‘It’s not good to take what I’ve been sent to give to Israel and give it to Greeks.’

But Paul says, “To the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Greeks are now welcome to the salvation in Christ. That’s the big difference.

 

There’s no earthly kingdom, and there was no Israel anymore. This was a mystery of the gospel given by Jesus Himself to Paul.

 

By the way, in Mark 1:1, is the only other place in the Bible outside Paul you find this phrase, “the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

This phrase is not unique to Paul.

Mark 1:1,

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 

 

Mark is about Jesus’s earthly ministry. It doesn’t contain the gospel of the grace of God, but it does talk about the good news that Christ has now come to Israel and salvation, as was promised, is found in the Christ.

The Messiah was promised to Israel, and that’s what Mark’s preaching.

But Paul’s also preaching salvation through Christ Jesus as the promised, prophesied one, but now being sent to all men according to a mystery.”

 

Everyone knew that salvation was to the Jew first. Everyone knew, like the gentile woman in Mark 7, that salvation was to Israel.

That’s why this women responded to Jesus saying, ‘Yes, Lord, you’re right, but don’t we get blessed through Israel?’

 

By the way, when Paul says, ‘and also the Greek,’ it doesn’t say ‘then also the Greek,’ which is what prophecy would describe. Israel first, and then all the nations would come to them to learn about salvation.

Instead the verse says, ‘and also,’ which is to say Jews got it first, and also the Greek. See the subtle difference? The Greek got it the same way as Israel, through the gospel.

 

Israel rejected the truth of God’s Word, The Messiah and the Holy Spirit. That’s the story of Acts. It’s a rejection by Israel of the gospel of the kingdom preached to them through Peter and the apostles.

As a result Paul’s apostleship comes into being with ‘and also the Greek.’

He was sent to all nations—the Gentiles, the Romans, the Greeks, and barbarians.

Salvation’s going to all men because you, Israel, rejected it.

 

Acts 13:13-52 tells the incredible account of Paul and Barnabas going to the synagogue in Antioch where they present Israel’s history of rejecting God and the prophets and then Jesus in Jerusalem.

Paul preaches that you, all the audience, can now be justified from all things through Jesus Christ that you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

In other words, the law can’t justify you, but Christ can, which is also part of that grace gospel.

Within that passage is Acts 13:46 which reads,

Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.

 

Notice Paul says, ‘It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you, Jews.’

There was a time where the nations, the gentiles, were blessed through you.

But, because of your rejection. it’s not necessary that you hear it and believe it and receive it anymore in order for salvation to be offered to the gentiles.

 

That’s the mystery information. That’s Paul saying that God set you up as a people, but not anymore. And so, I’m going to the Gentiles. I’m turning around right now, going to them, because it doesn’t matter if you receive it or not, or believe it or not, or are saved or not. You don’t have to be saved for Gentiles to be saved today.

Big Stuff! That’s why they chased him around the Mediterranean and threw him in prison, because he’s overturning their whole covenant promise system that God gave them according to prophecy.

 

Of course, he’s not contradicting scriptures. Christ himself gave this to him. He says in verse 47,

For so the Lord has commanded us: and he quotes Isaiah 49, ‘I HAVE SET YOU AS A LIGHT TO THE GENTILES, THAT YOU SHOULD BE FOR SALVATION TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.’ ” 

 

This is not Paul being salvation; this is Christ being salvation.

Isaiah 49:6, prophesying of Christ says,

Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ “

Luke 2:30-32 in the account of Simeon we read,

For my (Simeons) eyes have seen Your salvation Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.” 

 

Jesus, The Christ will go to the Gentiles and to his people Israel. Prophecy was always about Gentiles and Jews, but Jews first.

 

But Paul’s saying the first doesn’t matter anymore. It’s ‘and also to the Greek.’ If you’re Israel and you reject the Lord’s salvation, it doesn’t matter. Salvation is going to them. Through Israel’s fall, salvations come to Gentiles.

 

In Romans 11:11 we see that Israel’s fall is temporary. The question was, “Have they stumbled in such a way that they’ll not rise again?” The answer is an absolute “No”.

He’s pointing out that it’s no longer a thing. They were first historically, but now, at this point in time, they’re not.

 

So Paul goes to Gentiles in Acts 13:48,

Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. 

 

Why were they glad? Because they didn’t have to wait for the Jews to believe for them to get blessed.

They’re saying, “We know the prophecy said we’re going to get blessed when Zion comes and when Israel’s Saviour comes and when Israel receives glory.” But Paul tells them, “Guess what? You don’t have to wait.” And those gentiles said, “We’ll take it”

 

Being Israel doesn’t matter in this dispensation of grace. That’s what Paul says multiple times in his ministry.

So the mystery is that it’s not necessary to save Israel to go to Gentiles. So Paul preaches to Jews and Gentiles to save them by the power of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery.

We should remember that Jesus did not speak directly to the church, the body of Christ in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

He spoke so we, the church, would know who He was and what He came to this earth for but not instructions to the church.

However, He most definitely spoke directly to the church through Paul!!!

Paul recorded and published Jesus’s word just as faithfully as Matthew, Mark Luke and John did.

 

So, we now come to Romans 1:3-4, and I guess it would help get the flow if we read it in context with the first 2 verses.

Romans :1

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, 

And Romans 1:3-4,

concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. 

 

Notice we’ve left out the “to be” again and said, quote, “declared the Son of God” instead of declared to be the Son of God.

We already looked last time at Christ in associated with hundreds of years of prophesies and scripture.

 

What does Paul mean here with the phrase, “the seed of David”?

Well, back in Genesis 3:15 we have the reference to the Seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent. That was the promised line of redemption, the thread of salvation that starts with Genesis 3:15 and carries all the way through Scripture. So, the Seed of the woman was to crush the head of the serpent, Satan.

Then in Genesis Chapter 12 we have the Abrahamic Covenant, and Paul states in Galatians 3:6, the following,

Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “AND TO YOUR SEED,” who is Christ.

Christ is the Seed of Abraham.

 

We’ve got three seeds that Paul ‘s going to talk about.

The first goes all the way back to Genesis Chapter 3, as the Seed of the woman Who would crush Satan and now Christ the Seed of David.

From David would come Mary, and Joseph, who is the legal father of Jesus. He’s not the natural father of course, that’s God the Father and Jesus is His only begotten Son.

So now we have the Seed of the woman, Who is going to defeat Satan at the Cross, and we have the seed of David which brought Jesus to the world in human flesh to go the way of the Cross, and He’s the rightful Heir to the throne of David from where He’ll rule over kingdom on earth for a thousand years and then on for eternity.

Paul also talks of the seed of Abraham which brings us, the church, the Body of Christ, into the picture. When we believe in the Gospel, the Word of God unto salvation, we’re walking in faith and that faith, plus nothing else, makes us Gentile believers the seed of Abraham and because of that faith we are in Christ and Christ, being the Seed, is in us, making us also the seed when we’re in Christ.

 

Then we have Romans 1:4 and remember we’re still in this one sentence,

…and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead…

Paul uses this word “power” over and over when he talks about his Gospel. He calls it the power of God. God’s Word is power and that’s just what the Gospel is, God’s power filled Word about salvation. It’s our faith alone in that Word of God that saves us. It’s the same faith of Abraham.

 

Flipping for a moment down to Romans 4:20-21, Paul talks of Abraham’s faith, and we read,

He (Abraham) did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 

What God had promised! What God had said! God’s Word. Abraham believed it!

Now, we can get what this verse 4 means if we temporarily take out the middle bit that reads “with power according to the Spirit of holiness”. Then we read the verse like this, “…and declared the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead…”

See it was the resurrection from the dead that announced and affirmed to the entire universe Who Jesus was, The Son of God.

 

Now we place the passage back together again where we have,

…and declared the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead…

Now we see the evidence that Jesus was indeed the Son of God through the power of the resurrection according to the Spirit of holiness.

This is not speaking of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus lived in Perfect holiness on earth, without sin, the One and only being in human form that ever did and ever could be sinless and therefore holy. To be holy is to be set apart, sacred and most of all, without sin. He had the Spirit of holiness.

He was raised from the dead because it was unjust for Him to die. Death is the wages, the reward, for sin you see, and it was therefore impossible for One without sin to suffer death.

This demonstrated that He was, and is today, the Son of God.

 

So many church goers today, along with many church teachers and pastors have no problem believing that Christ died on a Roman Cross, but have a big problem with His Resurrection.

It’s critical to realise that if we can’t accept the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead, we have nothing, we’re totally lost, because His Resurrection from the dead is the very basis of His power, it’s the most critical key to our own salvation from sin and our own resurrection.

If we don’t accept and believe in the resurrection we’ll die in our sin and it’ll be through our disbelief in the Word of God, The Gospel of Salvation!

If Jesus Christ was not resurrected from the dead, He was not God. He would have been a mere man. That would mean His death would have been no different then any human death, no different even than the deaths of our own relatives and friends.

And it wasn’t the method of death that made any difference either, crucifixion on a Roman cross. Thousands in that day were killed by that method and indeed to the two men who were crucified next to the Lord on that day could never had paid the price for sin for all mankind.

Human death could not pay the price for sin in our place. Why? Because all have sinned and as such all are subject to the wages of sin, which is death. That’s not physical death, just the body ceasing to function anymore, it’s what the bible calls the second death, eternal separation and eternal torment in which the sufferer will be aware of every aching moment for ever with no possible hope of the situation ever changing. The spirit, the real you will never simply cease to exist.

 

At the time of Jesus’s Crucifixion, the eleven disciples scattered and ran for their lives out of fear. But then something changed to make them fearless. What changed? The Resurrection!

After Christ rose from the dead, Peter never again would have kowtowed to a young girl and swore that he never knew Christ. As near as we can tell, all eleven of the apostles were martyred without fear. Why? Because of the truth of the Resurrection. And it’s the same way with us. We can say with Paul, that we don’t have to worry what men can do to this body because they can’t touch the invisible immortal part of us which one day is going to be resurrected. And this makes all the difference in the world as far as Christians are concerned, we have the hope of the power of Resurrection. First, in salvation out of deadness, as we see in Ephesians 2:1,

And you He (God) made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 

How did He do it? The power of Resurrection!

 

Now onward to Romans 1:5,

Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, 

 

Paul says here that it’s through Jesus Christ that he has received grace for his own salvation and through that same grace he has also received apostleship.

Apostles were specifically chosen and to spread the gospel. They were sent with a purpose, a mission, to carry out God’s message with authority and dedication. They were ambassadors of Christ.

With Paul, that apostleship was to all nations, Jew and gentile but specifically to gentiles.

 

Obedience to the faith.

He’s not saying I’m going to preach to the Gentiles, which is all nations, that they need to shape up and live right. That’s not what he’s saying at all.

The obedience is to the faith, not obedience to the law. It’s not an obedience to some standard of behaviour it’s to the faith.

In Romans 6:17 he’ll say the same thing where he writes,

But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 

 

That’s faith. Faith in the doctrine, the Word, that was preached to them. Sometimes people who really emphasize God’s grace don’t like words like obedience because it seems like going back under law.

However, if we trust the gospel we’re obeying Christ.

In Romans 4:4-5 we read, talking about the keeping of the law,

Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. 

But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 

 

Does that sound exactly like Genesis 15:6 relating to Abraham? We read,

And he (Abraham) believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. 

Paul reinforces this in Romans 4:3,

For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” 

 

Disobedience would be saying, “Well grace is wonderful, but I need to work the works of the law as well. I need to earn God’s favour. I don’t believe my salvation can be by simply having faith in the gospel.”

So, Disobedience to the gospel is actually trying to do something to prove to God you’re worthy to be saved even religious things.

Obedience would be not doing anything other than believing the gospel which seems almost impossible to many people, that grace is offered today freely totally apart from anything we can do.

Sure, good works should follow that faith and from Romans chapters 13 to 16 we have the standards with which we, as the Body of Christ should live by, however the critical point to understand is that we don’t try and keep those standards in order to get salvation.

Isaiah 64:6 says this,

But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags…

Then in Hebrews 11:6 we read,

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. 

Obedience is when we hear the gospel of salvation acknowledge and believe it and are, as a result, established in it and we do that by the obedience of faith. Faith is an obedience.

Disobedience is rejecting that gospel.

 

Now to Romans 1:6,

among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; 

Who are the called?

Well, they’re those who’ve heard, acknowledged and believed the gospel of salvation.

It’s very simple. He calls, and we answer. If we’ve answered, we’re among the elect, one of “the called of Jesus Christ.” This is the same for every believer.

Paul assures the Roman Christians that they are called ones.

 

This verse finishes the parenthesis, or the detour Paul makes in this introduction to this letter to the Romans.

There’re four features of this parenthesis, this detour.

1. Paul has a message that’s in complete harmony the Scriptures.
2. That message is from the risen Christ.
3. The message is universal, for everyone, anywhere.
4. And the message is for the obedience to the faith.

 

Now Paul returns to the main introduction in verse 7 and we’re still in Romans 1 and his introduction to the book,

To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

To all that be in Rome. Who are the “All”?

It’s not the Roman emperor or to the Roman senate and neither is it all the general inhabitants in Rome.

It’s to the believers there and God loved those believers.

 

Let’s take a closer look at the “all who are in Rome” because it’s going to come up again and again in the book.

Whether in Paul’s Ministry, Peter’s Ministry or Jesus’s ministry, we need to know who’s being spoken to. There’s times when Jesus is speaking to unbelieving Pharisees and there’s times He’s speaking to his disciples and so who He’s speaking to can change what’s being said. Mistakes and confusion can happen when we ignore the audience being spoken to.

We can think Jesus is talking to all of us all the time and that’s simply not true.

It’s the same with Paul in his ministry and his Epistles. It’s all there for our information and learning, but it’s not always written directly to us and for us to live by.

 

In the book of Acts for example we have many recorded sermons preached by Paul. In fact, the only recorded sermons we have of Paul are in the book of Acts and most often, in those sermons, he’s not talking to the body of Christ, to you and me.

He’s talking to people who’re in this dispensation of grace but they’re unbelievers.

However, in his Epistles he’s mostly writing to Believers, but there are other times when he’s specifically and other times specifically writing to Gentiles or talking about historical events.

We have to know who he’s talking to and what he’s talking about and so context matters a great deal.

So, it matters when Paul wrote Romans and to who he wrote it to.

We might say, “Well it’s Romans isn’t it? Isn’t that simple enough”?

Well not necessarily.

The book of Romans was believed to have been written in the 50 AD period; many say AD 58 but the exact year it was written is less important than where it is placed in the Bible.

We have Matthew Mark Luke and John and Jesus’s earthly ministry and then the book of Acts and then this epistle of Pauls to the Romans.

The book of Acts gives us a lot of insight into what’s going on between the end of Jesus’s earthly ministry and Paul’s ministry.

So, Acts is very perfectly placed right after Matthew Mark Luke and John and right before Romans.

Acts is this bridge between John and the Book of Romans. It’s a transitional book which shows us the movement between the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom by the twelve apostles and the preaching of grace and the dispensation of grace by Paul.

How did it get from Jerusalem where the kingdom and repentance and obedience to the Mosaic law were being preached to Rome where a new dispensation of grace where salvation is by faith alone, outside the law, and to both Jew and Gentile.

Well without the book of Acts, the Acts of the Apostles, we wouldn’t know.

The Acts of the Apostles is a very good to study or to just read through to see how that happened.

 

Legends and myths have been passed down through so-called traditional churches that say that Peter was given the keys to the kingdom. He was given the keys to further the kingdom message that Christ came to teach and in so doing Peter established the church in Rome.

That’s what Legend and myth tells us but there’s simply no evidence of that apart from traditions passed down without any documentation.

However, we have in the book of Acts the biblical record of what actually happened so we can compare what people say about it to what the Bible says about it.

We always need to examine which is our Authority, what people have said or what the Bible actually says.

Acts doesn’t record Peter going to Rome but Paul going to Rome and it tells us why he went there and when he went there.

 

So, who are the Romans?

We’ll see here he’s writing to are a group of churches not simply one, but a group of churches who apparently are having some problems establishing right and proper Doctrine.

That’s why Paul writes Romans to lay a foundation and to have a mutual faith to bring them into one mind.

He’s establishing them. Things are a bit unstable there, no doubt partly because of the political situation in Rome but also because there’s many different churches and different peoples and they were struggling with different doctrines.

We know Paul didn’t start the church in Rome because in verse 7 here he’s writing to all those that be in Rome to the church that’s already there, but in verses 11 to 13 of Romans 1, he makes it clear he’s never been there.

So, Paul didn’t start the church there and nor did Peter. We see in Acts that Peter didn’t leave Jerusalem.

Later Peter does go to Antioch which is outside of Israel but that’s the first time we read of Peter leaving the country and Paul has already been ministering with Barnabas and there’s Gentiles there.

 

In Galatians 2:11-12 Paul says of this trip of Peter’s to Antioch,

Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. 

 

Paul rebuked Peter for keeping this law of separation among the Gentiles. See he can’t keep his Jewishness away from the Gentiles.

So how could Peter, who obviously struggles with mixing with gentiles, go to Rome and establish a church there where there’s hardly anything but Gentiles, yet history claims that Peter went to Rome and established the universal Church there.

 

Called to be saints, or called saints if we leave out the italicised “to be” added by the translators.

Saint is the name or rather the title of every believer. A saint is not one who’s been exalted to some sort of special status or a person who was perfectly good and given some, almost divine, position by man. A saint is simply one who exalts Jesus Christ.

A person becomes a saint when Jesus Christ becomes their Savior. We could say that there’re only two classes of people in the world: the ones that are saints and the ones that aren’t.

If we’re a saint we’re set apart for Him, Christ. As Paul said of himself in the beginning of this book, he was a bondslave of Jesus Christ.

Saints are saints whether we’re rich or poor, bonded or free, male or female, Jew or Gentile, there’s no difference. We’re all one in Christ Jesus, and, in this verse saints are described as beloved of God.

They’re called saints but they weren’t born that way.

Neither do they become saints through their own power, but only by God’s grace and everlasting love. People are first beloved of the Lord, and then called to be his saints.

They’re beloved of God not for any loveliness in them, or because of any love of God in them, nor on account of their obedience and righteousness, but through the free favour and sovereign will and pleasure of God, who loved them before he called them, even from eternity, and will love them to eternity.

This love of His is the source and the spring of all the blessings of grace that come from God.

 

Pauls introduction and salutation ends with “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”.

“Grace and peace” are included in the formal introduction in all Paul’s letters. Grace (or charis in the Greek) was the gentile form of greeting, while peace (shalom) was the Jewish form of greeting. Paul combined them.

This should indicate to us that he’s not preaching judgment and wrath, the opposite of Grace and peace.

Some may say, “Well he’s a Christian why would he preach judgment and wrath?”

Because in the Bible people preached exactly that.

In Acts 2 for example Peter preached the coming day of the Lord and wrath. In Revelation 19 verse 11, before the kingdom happens, Jesus Christ comes back in judgment and to make war.

Paul says I come in peace because God is preaching peace and Grace in this dispensation we live in today.

So, he writes very differently in his Epistles than say Malachi who wrote the burden of the word of the Lord. A “burden” is a judgment, a judgment from God, and it’ll be a very strong and terrible judgement that God’ll give to them.

This is the gospel, the good news of salvation.

This is Grace and peace, and which explains how God’s operating in the world today.

Grace here doesn’t mean some sort of ministerial gift, nor the Gospel, which was at Rome already, nor the love and favour of God, which these persons were already partakers of.

It doesn’t even mean the grace of God by which they’re saved because they’ve already experienced that. They’re already saved by God’s grace.

This is an increase of grace. You see those who have the most grace need and want more.

There’s such a thing as growing in grace as we see in 2 Peter 3:18,

but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

Also, we have this in 2 Corinthians 9:8,

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

 

Peace means peace with God through Christ. It’s a peace in our own consciences, and with one another. It’s not peace in the world between nations and people. That’ll never happen until the millennial reign of Jesus on the earth.

This is an inner peace that’s not affected by the turmoils of everyday life in this evil world.

God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

God the Father of Christ is spoken of as our Father here, which is by adoption. It should generate fear and reverence of him as Almighty God.

The Lord Jesus Christ” is the person of the Godhead through who, and for whose sake, all the blessings of God come to a person. He’s on the same level as the Father showing him to be equal with God the Father and therefore truly and properly God.

Peace between mankind and God became possible by the blood of Christ on his cross.

 

And there we have the opening salutation; the greeting and introduction Paul wrote to the Roman Christians.

As we close and before we begin Romans 1 verse 8, it’s worth noting that the modern-day organised church

Paul was the divinely appointed “minister” of the church of this present dispensation, which is called in Colossians 1:18-24, the Body of Christ.

No other Bible writer has a single word to say about the Church which is Christ’s Body.

None of the other apostles discuss it or even mention the Body of Christ of which believers today are members. But Paul, who wrote more books of the Bible than any other writer, deals constantly with those truths.

It’s sad to say that this great revelation and the glorious truths associated with it have been largely lost to the organised Church today.

 

The church today, the organised church, has become weak and ineffective, concentrating on outward flesh driven things. The beautiful building, the comfortable pews, the light shows and the emotional high so desperately encouraged by music that often resembles a Sunday concert are all outward displays.

Numbers flock to these modern churches to hear music and listen to life improvement messages, but because the modern organised church has moved further and further away from Paul’s church epistles, especially the book of Romans, it has become weak in communicating truth.

When the book of Romans ceases to become the foundational doctrine of a church organisation, and when the whole counsel of God is neglected for “live your best life now” messages, the people within grow weak in the knowledge of God.

One of the scariest passages of scripture relating to this is 2 Timothy 4:2-4 and we read,

Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 

When we fail to rightly divide God’s Word, as 2 Timothy 2:15 tells us to do, and we fail to understand what God’s doing in this particular age we live in, and we fail to separate that from what God was doing in previous or later ages, we fall into hopeless confusion.

We don’t know who or what we are as Christians, we lack knowledge of God’s

plans and purpose, and we constantly mix what God was doing before, in a different age or dispensation, to what He’s doing now.

This is the basis behind much of the error riddled concepts on social media today relating to the end times.

It’s the cause of fear and uncertain surrounding world events especially as those events are fed to us in the popular media.

This ignorance of the epistles to the church from Paul also leads us to an uncertainty as to where our own personal lives are going and none of this needs to be.

Friends we desperately need to go back to God’s Word. The we need to divide it correctly into what God’s doing today. We’ll find that when we look at the whole counsel of God and understand the foundation of the prophets, the history of sin and the person of Jesus Who was the Christ, the Messiah.

And then we look at Paul’s epistles to find out the message Jesus Christ has for the church, the Body of Christ today. The foundation of that message is the book of Romans.

Until next time friends, may God, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth be with you and keep you.