8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. Why through Jesus Christ? To the modern church this doesn’t stand out and we chalk it up to the way Paul talks, but for the early church this was a fundamental teaching about their new relationship with God. Grace was given to us from God through Jesus Christ and we also show gratitude back to God through Jesus Christ. He is our mediator. We no longer need to go to a priest to communicate with God for us.
9-11. God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—
12. that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. This verse shows that Paul is not looking to lord his apostleship over the Roman church and he’s not going there just to get something from them. He wants everyone to benefit from fellowship with each other. Have you ever noticed how encouraging it is just knowing that someone you work with or go to school with is also a Christ follower. Realizing that we are not alone gives us some strength and even boldness.
13. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. Why couldn’t Paul go to Rome until now? Perhaps it was similar to the leading of the Holy Spirit we read about in Acts. People tried to stop Paul from going to Jerusalem because he was in danger and yet the Holy Spirit was directing him to go there anyway. Maybe he was giving priority to the needs and growth of the Gentile churches he planted and visited them a second time instead. Or maybe the Jewish expulsion from Rome mentioned in Acts 18:2 kept him away.
14. I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. Paul does not discriminate who he preaches the Gospel to. He is ‘obligated’. He cannot withhold the good news of Jesus from anyone. The Greeks called all non-Greeks barbarians or barbaroi. 'roi' is what you add to the end of a Greek word to pluralize it. There is thought that this word came about as a sort of imitation of foreign languages. So it's like saying everyone who is not American are flurdelurians (My imitation of another language, hee hee).
The Greeks take pride in their wisdom so all non-Greeks would be considered unwise in their estimation. Think of the Greeks in Athens who Paul addressed at Mars Hill (Acts 17:16-21). The Bible says that they spent all of their time debating new ideas. They were professional thinkers. So basically Paul is saying in two different ways that he must preach the Gospel to everyone.
15. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.
The Gospel According to Paul
The theme of the Gospel: The righteousness of God reveled (vs 16-17)
Paul’s basis for this next argument is the Hebrew thought process on Righteousness. It is not based on an intrinsic moral value. It is a legal status. They viewed right and wrong as if they were in a courtroom receiving a verdict. So righteousness (tsaddiq)= In the right and unrighteousness (rasha’)= in the wrong. In Exodus 27 Pharaoh says, "I have sinned this time. Jehovah is 'right'(righteous), and I and my people are 'in the wrong' (wicked)." The OT is the Law. It revels to us God’s righteousness and exposes our unrighteousness or wrongness because we are unable to keep His law. We are condemned. We can only be righteous if we are “right” in relation to his law. It is impossible to keep the law perfectly. The Gospel, however, revels God’s righteousness differently. It shows us that even though we are sinners, we can be righteous. God does this through the principle of faith. Paul will deal with this thought in detail here at the beginning of the book and later he will cover how God’s righteousness is shown or proved by making us, ‘the unrighteous’, right. Paul refers to Hab 2:4b as his text for his 'sermon' that we can be made righteous by faith.
16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: This is a figure of speech in the Greek. Paul is not just saying that he doesn’t hide the Gospel or if someone asks him that he won’t deny it. He is saying that he takes great pride and it is an honor to share the Gospel.
first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. The Jews were God’s chosen people. What does that mean? Do they have higher privilege? God chose to revel himself through a group of people. They were to demonstrate who God is to the rest of the world. It was this same group that God sent his Son to be born into. It is a great honor and an even greater responsibility. Romans 2:9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; Some pastors make the same mistake the Jews made and begin to see themselves as elite or somehow better than those they are sent to minister to. It is a huge responsibility and a great honor. There is great accountability involved. James 3:1 says, Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
Why does Paul choose to state the order of who the Gospel is revealed? This seems like a step in the wrong direction since he is constantly trying to level the playing field between Jews and Gentiles. Paul is not stating the order of importance, but rather the chronology. It would be like a suffragette saying, "We know how important voting is. It is a privilege and responsibility first for men and now for women."
17. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed— A passage from the Dead Sea Scrolls called Hymn of the Initiants expounds on this idea well. "By His righteousness my sin is blotted out...If I stumble because of fleshly iniquity, my justification is in the righteousness of God which shall stand for ever...By His mercy He has cause me to approach and by His loving kindness He brings my justification near. By His true righteousness He justifies me and by His abundant goodness He makes atonement for all my iniquities. By His righteousness He cleanses me from the impurity of mortal man and from the sin of the sons of men, that I may praise God for His righteousness and the Most High for His glory."
a righteousness that can be seen from faith to faith It can be seen from person to person who has faith. For example, having multiple crowns or swirlies in their hair is a Pridemore trait. Nick's daddy had more than one, Nick has 3, Calvin has 5 and Adison has 2. That trait can been seen from Pridemore to Pridemore. Similarly, each person of faith has this in common…that God’s righteousness is revealed in the Gospel.
just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” Hab 2:4 was used by Paul in Galatians 3:11 to prove that it is not the law justifies us before God. He uses the same passage in Hebrews 10:38 to encourage the readers not to give up. Faith in Hebrew is 'muna'. In Greek it is 'pistis': steadfastness or fidelity based on firm belief in God. In Habakkuk’s time God was promising that the evil would not go on forever and that eventually righteousness would win out. In the mean time the followers of God would endure the hardship by faith in God and what was to come. The word for life and salvation in Hebrew are the same word. Paul adds depth of meaning to Habakkuk’s words by saying those who are justified by faith will be saved.
And now I hear Amelia blowing spit bubbles in her crib. Hope to see you all next week!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Greetings to Rome
If you have not had a chance to join us the last couple of weeks at Resolved here is what we are learning.
Romans 1:1-7
Paul opens his letter to the Romans in the same way that was common for that time period. The general recipe is: ‘X to Y, greetings’. Paul uses this same standard, but expands on it. The skeleton is ‘Paul…to all God’s beloved in Rome…grace…and peace.’ His greeting, however, is expanded to seven verses. He adds great detail to each aspect of the greeting.
1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—. Some translations use the word servant and some use slave, why? This same issue comes up in the Gospels. The centurion’s son/slave/servant was sick and Jesus healed him. The Greek word used is doulos =bondservant. It was common in that time to sell oneself of a child into slavery/servanthood for a period of time to pay off a debt or to give the child a better life. At the end of the commitment a bond had often formed between master and slave so that the servant did not want to leave. He felt like family. There was a custom in which the servant/slave could pin himself to the door frame of the house by putting a spike trough his ear. When the master of the house returned home he could remove the spike showing that the servant was accepted into the family and could stay with them permanently or he could reject the servant by leaving him there. This is where the term bondservant comes from. A bondservant is one who is in his position of slavery by choice. Paul uses this word very specifically because he is at his master’s complete disposal and yet he has chosen to be in servitude and he also has a family type relationship with God.
His apostleship (a delegate, messenger, one sent out with specific orders) came straight from God and not from man. Gal 1:1,15-16 Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. He was singled out and sought after by God to preach the Gospel.
2. the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures Paul builds on this idea that The Gospel was foretold in the OT in the rest of his letter. 1:17 “The righteous will live by faith.”(ref Hab 2:4b), 4:3 “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”(ref Gen 15:6) and many more. Even in his greeting he is setting the stage for the rest of the letter.
It is important to Paul that those he is writing to know that this Gospel he is preaching is not a new message. It is the fulfillment of a promise. He appeals to the OT very often because even though this is a mostly Gentile group it is still a point of reference that grounds the Gospel message and gives credit to it.
3. regarding his Son, What is this Gospel that was promised in the OT? It’s Jesus!
who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, This is a common topic in early Christian sermons and is brought up in many places in the NT. Jesus never mentioned his lineage or tried to lay claim to it, however. Why is it so important to the disciples and apostles then?
Ps 132:11 The LORD swore an oath to David,
a sure oath he will not revoke:
“One of your own descendants
I will place on your throne.
2 Chron 6:16 “Now, LORD, the God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants are careful in all they do to walk before me according to my law, as you have done.’
2 Kings 8:19 Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.
2 Sam 7:12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom.
Unless Jesus is a son of David, He is not the Messiah. The apostles brought up Jesus' lineage regularly to help prove that He is the Messiah.
4. and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Does this mean that Jesus didn’t become the Son of God till He was resurrected? There are some that hold to the adoption theory which says one of two things. Jesus was just a man who God adopted as his son either at the baptism or when He raise Jesus from the dead. This is a dangerous theory! In college I heard Kenneth Coplan say on t.v. that had he lived during Jesus day he could have been adopted as God's son and died for our sins. Holy Crap!!! Talk about Blasphemy! The answer is: No, He has been the Son of God from the beginning. The resurrection put a stamp of approval for all to see on Him. It established His position in power. (vs 3-4)Jesus holds not only the physical right, but also the spiritual right to the claim of Messiah. His descent from David is a matter of glory for the earthly Jesus and His resurrection by the Holy Spirit is the greater glory of his exaltation.
The phrase ‘the resurrection from the dead’ is literally ‘resurrection of dead ones’. It is pluralized. In Greek this is type of phrase called a generalizing plural. Paul could have phrased it differently and just said His resurrection, but he chose this phrase to not only reference Christ’s personal resurrection, but also hint at the future resurrection of His people. It would be like saying, 'We know that so and so is the best football player by the draft picks' rather than saying, 'We know that so and so is the best football player by his draft pick'.
5. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. This is a statement about the specific calling and purpose of Paul. He was called to be an apostle specifically to the Gentiles so that they would come to faith in Jesus.
6. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. This is an indicator that the church in Rome was predominately Gentile. What does it mean to be 'called' to belong to Jesus? The calling is the work of the Holy Spirit drawing each of us and showing us our need for a savior. This phrase shows how it is that one gets to Jesus; by conviction and the wooing of the Holy Spirit.
7. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: If we are loved by God, then we are called to live holy lives. Here's an interesting tid bit. There are hints in the NT in various places that ‘the saints’ was a term that Jewish Christians reserved for themselves to set themselves apart from Gentile Christians. It was an indicator that they were to receive special recognition and authority from God. Paul uses this phrase specifically when addressing the Gentile Christians to further try and break down the segregation of the believers. He is constantly trying to make the church aware of the level playing field of all the believers.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a very common greeting from Paul accentuating the gift of love, favor, and rest given by God. It also reminds the reader of Paul’s single minded devotion to Jesus and desire for everyone to realize that Jesus is God.
Romans 1:1-7
Paul opens his letter to the Romans in the same way that was common for that time period. The general recipe is: ‘X to Y, greetings’. Paul uses this same standard, but expands on it. The skeleton is ‘Paul…to all God’s beloved in Rome…grace…and peace.’ His greeting, however, is expanded to seven verses. He adds great detail to each aspect of the greeting.
1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—. Some translations use the word servant and some use slave, why? This same issue comes up in the Gospels. The centurion’s son/slave/servant was sick and Jesus healed him. The Greek word used is doulos =bondservant. It was common in that time to sell oneself of a child into slavery/servanthood for a period of time to pay off a debt or to give the child a better life. At the end of the commitment a bond had often formed between master and slave so that the servant did not want to leave. He felt like family. There was a custom in which the servant/slave could pin himself to the door frame of the house by putting a spike trough his ear. When the master of the house returned home he could remove the spike showing that the servant was accepted into the family and could stay with them permanently or he could reject the servant by leaving him there. This is where the term bondservant comes from. A bondservant is one who is in his position of slavery by choice. Paul uses this word very specifically because he is at his master’s complete disposal and yet he has chosen to be in servitude and he also has a family type relationship with God.
His apostleship (a delegate, messenger, one sent out with specific orders) came straight from God and not from man. Gal 1:1,15-16 Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. He was singled out and sought after by God to preach the Gospel.
2. the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures Paul builds on this idea that The Gospel was foretold in the OT in the rest of his letter. 1:17 “The righteous will live by faith.”(ref Hab 2:4b), 4:3 “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”(ref Gen 15:6) and many more. Even in his greeting he is setting the stage for the rest of the letter.
It is important to Paul that those he is writing to know that this Gospel he is preaching is not a new message. It is the fulfillment of a promise. He appeals to the OT very often because even though this is a mostly Gentile group it is still a point of reference that grounds the Gospel message and gives credit to it.
3. regarding his Son, What is this Gospel that was promised in the OT? It’s Jesus!
who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, This is a common topic in early Christian sermons and is brought up in many places in the NT. Jesus never mentioned his lineage or tried to lay claim to it, however. Why is it so important to the disciples and apostles then?
Ps 132:11 The LORD swore an oath to David,
a sure oath he will not revoke:
“One of your own descendants
I will place on your throne.
2 Chron 6:16 “Now, LORD, the God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants are careful in all they do to walk before me according to my law, as you have done.’
2 Kings 8:19 Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.
2 Sam 7:12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom.
Unless Jesus is a son of David, He is not the Messiah. The apostles brought up Jesus' lineage regularly to help prove that He is the Messiah.
4. and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Does this mean that Jesus didn’t become the Son of God till He was resurrected? There are some that hold to the adoption theory which says one of two things. Jesus was just a man who God adopted as his son either at the baptism or when He raise Jesus from the dead. This is a dangerous theory! In college I heard Kenneth Coplan say on t.v. that had he lived during Jesus day he could have been adopted as God's son and died for our sins. Holy Crap!!! Talk about Blasphemy! The answer is: No, He has been the Son of God from the beginning. The resurrection put a stamp of approval for all to see on Him. It established His position in power. (vs 3-4)Jesus holds not only the physical right, but also the spiritual right to the claim of Messiah. His descent from David is a matter of glory for the earthly Jesus and His resurrection by the Holy Spirit is the greater glory of his exaltation.
The phrase ‘the resurrection from the dead’ is literally ‘resurrection of dead ones’. It is pluralized. In Greek this is type of phrase called a generalizing plural. Paul could have phrased it differently and just said His resurrection, but he chose this phrase to not only reference Christ’s personal resurrection, but also hint at the future resurrection of His people. It would be like saying, 'We know that so and so is the best football player by the draft picks' rather than saying, 'We know that so and so is the best football player by his draft pick'.
5. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. This is a statement about the specific calling and purpose of Paul. He was called to be an apostle specifically to the Gentiles so that they would come to faith in Jesus.
6. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. This is an indicator that the church in Rome was predominately Gentile. What does it mean to be 'called' to belong to Jesus? The calling is the work of the Holy Spirit drawing each of us and showing us our need for a savior. This phrase shows how it is that one gets to Jesus; by conviction and the wooing of the Holy Spirit.
7. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: If we are loved by God, then we are called to live holy lives. Here's an interesting tid bit. There are hints in the NT in various places that ‘the saints’ was a term that Jewish Christians reserved for themselves to set themselves apart from Gentile Christians. It was an indicator that they were to receive special recognition and authority from God. Paul uses this phrase specifically when addressing the Gentile Christians to further try and break down the segregation of the believers. He is constantly trying to make the church aware of the level playing field of all the believers.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a very common greeting from Paul accentuating the gift of love, favor, and rest given by God. It also reminds the reader of Paul’s single minded devotion to Jesus and desire for everyone to realize that Jesus is God.
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