Paul:
Gospel Summary. Romans 1:1, 2
The
purpose that Paul has for writing Romans is to clarify the relationship of the
righteousness of God to the human race and how the human race, fallen in
sin—including the moral person who thinks that he is good enough to
somehow gain God’s approval, including the Jewish person who has the law,
circumcision, the covenants and relies upon them—all come short of the
glory of God, and because all have sinned it is necessary for someone other than
a human being to provide the kind of righteousness that we need in order to
gain favour with God; we can’t do it on our own. As Isaiah said in 64:6, “All
of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” The best
that we do is still far below the standard of God’s righteousness.
Righteousness always refers to the standard of God, which is His own standard
of holiness and perfection.
The
first seventeen verses of Romans chapter one introduce us to the basic ideas
and theme that Paul is going to develop in Romans. A point of understanding: In
any piece of literature that is well written there is
an introduction and a conclusion. The introductory statements often are
repeated or clarified in some way in the conclusion. The introduction is going
to orient and focus readers on the basic ideas that are going to be developed
within the body of the literature, and then the conclusion is going to tie it
all together. The same is true for most of the books
of the Bible. Paul begins in verse 1 of this chapter with a salutation that is
interrupted by an anacoluthon (a fancy word for rabbit trail, going off on a
side track) from the middle of the verse and down through verse 6 in which he
emphasizes some of the main ideas that he is going to cover and develop within
the body of the epistle. He begins by identifying who he is as “the apostle
Paul” and that he is known to the congregation in Rome, not because he has been
there—this is the only epistle that he wrote which was to a group with
whom he had no face to face contact—he had never been to Rome.
Paul
was born somewhere between 4 or 5 AD on the one hand, and probably 15 on
the other hand. The first place that Paul is mentioned is at the martyrdom of
Stephen at the end of Acts chapter 7. He is mentioned there as a young man
standing by holding the garments of those who are stoning Stephen. He is called
a young man. That is not a technical term. He was probably between the age of
eighteen and thirty, we don’t really know exactly how old he was at the time
but there are some hints that do give us these parameters in Scripture. It is
indicated that based on where he was when he left Jerusalem, when he left
Damascus and who was ruling in Damascus that he would have to have left
Damascus before AD 40. Then if Jesus was crucified in AD 33, and most
scholars in chronology place the stoning of Stephen somewhere around AD 35, and if
Paul is a young man, say eighteen, that would mean that he was born somewhere
around AD 17. If he was twelve years older then he would have been born somewhere
around 5. He came to Jerusalem when he was fourteen to study under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). He would have arrived approximately
at the time when Jesus began His public ministry. If he was a little older he
would have already been in Jerusalem for maybe seven or eight years before
Jesus began His public ministry. It is probably a fair deduction to say that
with all the things that were going on around the ministry of Jesus, all of the
discussion, John the Baptist’s ministry—Luke tells us that everyone went
out to the Jordan to be baptized by John—and when Jesus began to teach
the same thing, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” there were
people saying “Who is He? Is this the Messiah?” These questions were being
raised, so it would almost be unrealistic to think that Paul being in Jerusalem
during this time would not have been aware of the presence and the teaching
related to Jesus. We can’t prove it but it is a fair deduction based on the
chronology.
Paul
would probably have had some training already in Tarsus. Tarsus had a
university that was highly respected throughout the ancient world. Many
scholars believe with varying degrees of certainty that the apostle Paul was
educated there because he demonstrates such a tremendous skill with language
and logic and rhetoric that are evidenced within his writing that this would
not have all been the result of his rabbinical training but that he had had
some education prior to that. Tarsus was also a major center
for tent making and it is believed that his father probably had a major
commercial enterprise in manufacturing tents. Paul had a Roman citizenship and
that would have come through his father. So we can assume that Paul came from a
fairly well-to-do family of merchants who manufactured
tents. By the time that Paul wrote Romans in the winter of 56-57 he would be
approximately 20 years older, somewhere between 40 and fifty.
Romans
1:1 NASB “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called {as} an
apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.” Paul speaks of himself by three
things. He is a bondservant of Jesus Christ, he was called to be an apostle,
and he was separated to the gospel of God. So Paul emphasizes his mission,
which is related to his commission by Jesus Christ to be an apostle to take the
gospel to the Gentiles. That is his message, the gospel, and that is what he
explains in the epistle to the Romans. The first thing that he says about
himself is that he is a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, the Greek word doulos [douloj] which was a
basic word that could mean either a servant who was in that position of their
own free will or a slave. Paul’s use of the phrase that he is a servant of
Jesus Christ has echoes of the phrase that is used again and again by the
prophets of the Old Testament that they were servants of Yahweh, servants of the Lord. What this emphasizes is that they
recognized that they were here on the earth for the primary purpose of serving
the Lord and not their own desires, their own interests, their own agendas.
They were given a divine mission to be carried out in terms of what God had
instructed them. So the fact that Paul calls himself a bondservant of Christ
first and foremost is a recognition that he had
reached a point in his spiritual growth and spiritual maturity that his whole
life’s purpose is subordinate to God’s purpose for his life.
But
this word doulos is also used in a
more fundamental concept in relation to the spiritual life. Paul had to reach
this point first before he would reach a more mature expression of being a
servant of God, just as we all do, and this is given in Romans 6:19 NASB
“I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just
as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness,
resulting in {further} lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to
righteousness, resulting in sanctification.” Remember, Romans 6, 7 and 8
describe the spiritual life. In this verse Paul states the fact that we were
originally born slaves of unrighteousness but now that we are dead to sin every
believer is to be a slave to righteousness. So he had to first come to a point
in his spiritual growth where he learned that he had a new master. It wasn’t
the sin nature, it wasn’t his own self-centredness, it was the Lord Jesus Christ
because at the cross at the moment he trusted Christ there is this break with
the sin nature. That tyranny is broken, we are to reckon ourselves to be dead
to sin, and now we are to live as slaves of righteousness. Once we get to that
point in terms of our spiritual growth then being a servant of God becomes the
natural next step as we recognize that we are here to serve God and not our own
agenda.
The
second thing that he says is he is called to be an apostle. The word translated
“called” is kletos [klhtoj] is one of two
or three different ways Paul expresses this idea of being designated something
by God. He is designated, given a commission as an apostle. That is what it
means to be called to an apostle. At the point of salvation in Acts chapter
eight when the resurrected, ascended, glorified Lord Jesus Christ appeared to
Saul when he was going to Damascus to arrest a number of Christians, and said:
“Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me?” Those with him saw the light and heard
the sound of the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn’t know what Jesus
said because it wasn’t any of their business. Paul was then ordered to go to
Damascus where he sight would be restored and the Lord Jesus Christ at that
point told him that he would be His messenger to the Gentiles. So the Lord
Jesus Christ commissioned the apostle Paul for a specific task. That is the
core meaning of this world apostolos
[a)postoloj]. In the New
Testament an apostolos is a man
who is officially commissioned by an authorizing agent—Jesus Christ, a
local church or someone else—and given the authority to perform a task.
In the New Testament there are three different kinds of apostles and they are
distinguished by three different categories: who commissioned them, what they
were commissioned to do, and whether the commissioning involved a spiritual
gift.
Jesus
Christ commissioned the twelve disciples who were called apostles in Luke
chapter six to take the gospel to the house of Israel, and their message was:
“Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” There was no spiritual gift
involved. They were called apostles but that is not the same as what we have
after the day of Pentecost. Then there was Jesus Christ commissioning the
twelve to go to the world, and this involved a spiritual gift that was given to
them when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost and the apostles had the
spiritual gift of apostleship, and it is a church age ministry. So there was an
apostleship of Jesus in the time during the incarnation that is related to the
house of Israel but it is not a spiritual gift, it is not a church age ministry
at all, and then there is the church age ministry that began on the day of
Pentecost that is related to this mission to the world. Then the third way in
which the term is used and applied is to Barnabas and a number of other leaders
in the early church who were not commissioned by the resurrected Lord Jesus
Christ but were commissioned by a local church and are sent out as
missionaries. So that is a lower case apostleship, it doesn’t involve a
spiritual gift of apostleship—though it may involve a spiritual gift of
teaching or evangelism.
There
are three things in Scripture that are requirements for someone to be an
apostle. First, it was a gift that was given by the Holy Spirit. They were
appointed by Christ, Ephesians 4:11, 12 NASB “And He gave some {as}
apostles, and some {as} prophets, and some {as} evangelists, and some {as}
pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service,
to the building up of the body of Christ.” This clearly emphasizes that it is
Jesus who appointed the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists and the pastors
and teachers. He does the gifting by the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:8-11.
Second, an apostle needed to be an eyewitness of the resurrection or have seen
the resurrected Christ, and commissioned by Him—1 Corinthians 15:8, 9; Acts 1:22. Third, the apostleship was evidenced by an enduement by miraculous power, 2 Corinthians 12:12.
Paul
was “separated to the gospel of God.” This is the Greek word aphorizo [a)forizw], aorist participle. We don’t have the
main verb here so it is hard to tell just what the grammatical function of this
is. There is a connection between his calling to be an apostle and is being
separated, appointed to the gospel of God. The idea behind the word aphorizo is primarily that which is
separate or separated for some purpose, the idea of being appointed. It is that
he is detached from the world and attached to or united to the cause of the
gospel.
In
that first verse Paul in just three phrases says a lot about who he is. He
identifies himself first and foremost in a means of humility by saying that he
is a slave or bondservant to Jesus Christ. The second thing he focuses on is
his mission. He is called an apostle, which also emphasizes his authority to
say the things that he is going to say and to explain and articulate the
doctrine that he is going to articulate in this epistle, and that this calling
to be an apostle is related to his being united to the cause of the gospel. As
soon as he mentions the word “gospel” then he is going to say some things about
what the gospel is. This is indicated in the next three verses. It is set up by
a relative participle at the beginning of verse 2, which begins “which He
promised.” The “which” refers back to the gospel.
Romans
1:2 NASB “which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the
holy Scriptures.” It is the gospel that God promised before, i.e. in times
past, a similar idea to that stated in Hebrews 1:1. This is his main thought:
the gospel, which God promised through the Old Testament prophets. That is his
focal point. The gospel didn’t start with Paul. At the time he is writing
Romans the term “holy Scriptures” would have referred to the Hebrew Bible, and
he is not referring specifically to the New Testament. This was a standard
operating procedure within the movement of those who understood and believed
that Jesus was the Messiah promised and foretold in the Old Testament. In fact,
Jesus used this exact approach many times in His ministry but one of the most
obvious occurred after His resurrection when He appeared to two disciples, one
of whom was named Cleopas,
on their way to Emmaus. Luke 24:44 NASB “Now He said to them, ‘These
are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things
which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms
must be fulfilled.’” He pointed out that everything that He did was a
fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies, clearly saying that there are numerous
statements in the Old Testament that point to the Messiah so that when the
Messiah comes the Jews would be able to recognize Him as the Messiah. [45]
“Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, [46] and He said to
them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the
dead the third day.’”
Jesus
said on the road to Emmaus that the Old Testament said that the Messiah must
“suffer these things,” that the Old Testament taught that the Messiah would
both rule and suffer. The second section of Isaiah focuses on the servant. In
chapter 53 Isaiah wrote: Isaiah 53:1 NASB “Who has believed our
message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? [2] For He [this
suffering servant in the future] grew up before Him [before God] like a tender
shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no {stately} form or
majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be
attracted to Him. [3] He was despised and forsaken of men, A
man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their
face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” He is
rejected by His people, which is what happened with Jesus.
[4] “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him
stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.”
The
Hebrew words that are used in verse 4 are the same words that are used in
reference to the atonement of animal sacrifices. So the words that are used
indicate that the suffering servant is going to bear in His body our griefs, our sorrows, our sin.
Isaiah
53:5 NASB “But He was pierced through for our transgressions [clear
statement of substitutionary atonement], He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being {fell} upon Him, And by
His scourging we are healed.” He is punished that we might have peace. That is
what Paul is going to talk about in Romans 5: the outgrowth of justification is
peace with God.
Isaiah
53:6 NASB “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has
turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. [7] He
was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb
that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.” What Isaiah is saying is that there is going to
be this future servant and God is going to punish Him for our sin. [8] “By oppression and judgment
He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut
off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom
the stroke {was due?} [9] His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was
with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. [10] But the LORD was pleased To
crush Him, putting {Him} to grief; If He would render Himself {as} a guilt
offering, He will see {His} offspring, He will prolong {His} days, And the good
pleasure of the LORD will prosper
in His hand.
This is one of the most precise
prophecies in the Old Testament and yet there are some
coming along today and saying this is not really talking about Jesus at all.
That has proved to be wrong and debunked by many people, but we live in a
horrible time today where people are just eviscerating the truth of the
Scripture. Paul said that the gospel is what God promised through His prophets
in the holy Scripture.