Paul's Prayer Priority. Romans
1:8-12
To
reiterate a couple of points we have been looking at Romans 1:5 NASB
“through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about {the}
obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake.” Grace relates
in this context to salvation (Ephesians 2:8, 9); apostleship refers to that one
apostleship that was related to those who were commissioned by the Lord Jesus
Christ to carry out what is usually referred to as the great commission. This
is what helps us to understand the phrase “obedience to the faith.” Obedience
to the faith is a phrase that refers to obedience with relationship to faith,
because believing in Christ as savior is also a response to a command. It is
obedience to that command to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be
saved. Faith is also a response to the various other mandates and prohibitions
that we find in the Scriptures. But the idea of apostleship for obedience of
the faith among all the nations for His name specifically relates back to
Matthew 28:19, 20 which gives the primary mission for the church in the church
age.
We make a distinction here because what is often heard when this passage
is taught is that this is directed not only to the individual apostles but to
individual believers as well. We don’t think that is true. It is not the job of
every believer to make disciples; it is not the job of every believer to make
disciples by means of baptism or by means of teaching them to observe all
things. Not every believer has the gift of evangelism; not every believer has
the gift of pastor-teacher. So the mandate here is with reference to the
mission of the church as a whole, the church looking at the church universal,
i.e. everyone during the church age who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, when
they are baptized by means of the Holy Spirit and are entered into the body of
Christ, at the instant of salvation one of the Holy Spirit’s ministries in the
life of every believer is to give the believer a spiritual gift—sometimes more
than one. We get these spiritual gifts in different proportions and different
measures. The role that each individual plays within the body of Christ is a
complementary role. Some have the gift of administration, some have the gift of
mercy, some have the gift of teaching, some have the gift of helps, some have
the gift of pastor-teacher—all of these gifts work together in a complementary
role so that the entire body of Christ is to be focused on this mission of
making disciples by baptism and by teaching. (The phrase “by baptism” is a
reference to entry into the Christian life, which is related to evangelism;
then teaching is related to spiritual growth) These are two separate events.
They are related in that they both have an organic unity in the work of Christ
on the cross but they are distinct in that being born again or regenerate does
not necessitate spiritual growth; it doesn’t make spiritual growth inevitable.
That is the big heresy that we see in what is often referred to as “Lordship
salvation.” Lordship salvation comes out of a reformed or Calvinistic theology
and is usually related to what is referred to as the T in TULIP.
Everybody plays a role on the team and the goal of the team is to make
disciples of all the nations by baptizing and by teaching them to observe all
things that we have been commanded. Even though that emphasis is on obedience,
that doesn’t make this legalism. Legalism says obedience is the basis for God’s
blessing, but what we are talking about is we walk by faith, and faith focuses
on the promises and the mandates and the principles of Scripture. So faith
looks at those promises, looks at those mandates, looks at those prohibitions
and says I believe that is true so I am going to act this way, or I’m not going
to act this way; I am going to think this way or I’m not going think this way;
and that is how we begin to implement all the principles of Scripture and begin
to grow. And this exactly is what was happening in the church in
Romans 1:8 NASB “First, I thank my God through
Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the
whole world.
What we see in verses 8-10 are some ideas. One sentence is covered in
vv. 8-10 which focuses on his gratitude to God for the way these believers in Rome
have responded to the doctrine that they have learned and the impact that that
is having, not just in terms of their own personal private walk with God, but
in terms of the impact it is having in the culture and city of Rome itself. And
beyond Rome Paul says their reputation is being proclaimed throughout the whole
world. That would refer to mostly the
We find as we compare Paul’s different epistles that Paul puts this
emphasis on gratitude in prayer. When we think about prayer there are different
elements that go in to any prayer. We have used the acronym before of A-C-T-S,
and that prayer includes adoration, which is a focus on God, on who He is and
what He has done. Adoration focuses on a praise for God for His works in our
life, for all that He has given us, all that He has provided for us, and that
focuses upon Him. It also includes the C which is confession. Confession has to
do with admitting our sins to Him so that we are cleansed of sin and are in
fellowship and our prayers, then, can be efficacious. When we are out of fellowship
they cannot be efficacious. As the psalmist said: “If I regard iniquity in my
heart the Lord will not hear me”—Psalm 66:18. Then a third area of prayer is
thanksgiving. This is very important. In eight of Paul’s thirteen epistles he
begins with an expression of gratitude to God for the impact that the Word of
God is having on these individual believers in the congregations. E.g. 1
Corinthians 1:4; Ephesians 1:16; Philippians 1:3; Colossians 1:3; 1
Thessalonians 1:2; 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Timothy 1:3; Philemon 4. Gratitude is
a reflection and a barometer of our own grace orientation. Grace orientation
means that our thinking is aligned to grace. We understand grace; we understand
that our relationship with God is based on grace; we understand that our
relationship to other people should be based on grace. Grace orientation means
that we are not operating on a quid-pro-quo approach to God, i.e. I’ll do this
and then God will bless me; it is based on an understanding that everything is
provided for us as believers because of the work of Christ on the cross.
Therefore we are motivated by gratitude that God has done everything for us
rather than being motivated by trying to get more from God. Grace orientation
means that we come to understand that as we live our spiritual life we are to
live in a way where we recognize God has already provided everything for us, we
are not trying to get more from God, to motivate God. Our relationship with Him
is not based on meritorious works. The application of that is then, in terms of
our relationship with other people, we treat them in grace and not on the basis
of who they are or what they’ve done. We treat them in grace and kindness even
though they don’t deserve it and we focus on living our life on the basis of humility
which is the underlying mentality of grace orientation. Grace orientation
recognizes that I don’t do anything, I can’t do anything. No matter how smart
or gifted I am everything comes from God and I have nothing to offer God
whatsoever, therefore I am only to serve Him. It is an attitude of genuine
humility, that I am under His authority, He has given me everything and
whatever I have has nothing to do with anything other than God’s plan and
purpose for my life. And we realize that our life is not about us. Life is not
about us, it is about God’s plan and about serving Him.
The opposite of humility is arrogance, and arrogance is something that
is totally self-centered. We only have those two options: we are either going
to be God-centered or we are going to be self-centered. When we are God
centered we are going to be in fellowship. The consequence of being in
fellowship is spiritual growth and when we shift back to arrogance then it is
all about me again, and that means that we are out of fellowship and the sin
nature is under control. In arrogance we are operating on self-absorption; it
is all about me. We move from self-absorption and self-indulgence and then we
learn all kinds of sophisticated ways to justify all of our self-absorptions so
we can be very proud of it, and this just leads to redefining reality on our
terms instead of God’s terms. We can’t see reality or truth for what it is
because that is going to really run counter to our own self-absorption and our
primary motto is really all about me. In arrogance, then, we end up worshipping
ourselves, worshipping the creature, we are the ultimate determiner of truth,
and that is self-deification. This is what Paul ultimately refers to in Romans
1:21. In describing the pre-flood culture he says that although they knew God
they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their
thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. So rather than glorifying God
we see the contrast: they are not thankful, there is no gratitude.
Another thing that is important in understanding grace and being grace
oriented is that in grace orientation our focus is on gratitude and
thankfulness for whatever we have. We understand that we don’t have an innate
right to anything. Once we realize that then we are thankful for anything that
we have, and we can then focus on serving God instead of serving our own
narcissistic whims. In Romans 14:6 Paul looks at it this way: NASB
“He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so
for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he
does not eat, and gives thanks to God.” In other words, there are those who
have and there are those who don’t have and are thankful. They are able to
operate within that environment of having or not having because their focus is
on the Lord. Paul talks about is personally from his own experience in
Philippians 4:6ff. NASB “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to
God.
Anxiety and worry all come out of a me-centred orientation. We are so
consumed with what might happen in our experience that we just become absorbed
by our circumstances and the details of life. When that happens, when that
appears to be threatening, then we become anxious and we worry and just can’t
put it in the Lord’s hands. The final letter in our acronym is S for
supplication, which is bringing our requests before God. It is supplication
that really can be broken down into two other areas of requests for others,
which would be intercession; and requests for ourselves, which would be under
the category of petition. So Paul says that gratitude to God should be
something that raps itself around our prayers; that we are thankful for whatever
the Lord has given us. And the result of that is that there is peace, which
means stability in our life that is in contrast to anxiety. Philippians 4:7 NASB
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” It is not something that we are going
to arrive at through rationalism or through empiricism, it is something that is
a by product of our spiritual life because we are focusing on God and His plan
and agenda and not on our plan and our agenda. It provides, as it were, a
defence structure, so that as circumstances change we don’t fall apart in worry
and anxiety and panic, and all of these other mental attitude sins. We are able
to maintain stability because circumstances are always going to change and we
can’t do anything about them by worrying about them.
Then Paul relates this in terms of personal example. That personal
example has to do with the fact that his current status as a prisoner in
In terms of gratitude and understanding the significance of it there
some other passages that we need to relate to. 1 Thessalonians
The next two verses are interesting because they are consequences of the
filling of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Word of God in our life as a
result of the filling of the Holy Spirit. The first of these verses is
Colossians 3:17. In verse 16 we have the command “Let the word of Christ richly
dwell within you,” and one of the results of letting the Word of God richly
dwell within us and to fill up our thinking is gratitude: [17] NASB
“Whatever you do in word or deed, {do} all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” Another thing: notice in Romans
1:8 Paul says, “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all.” That
phrase “through Jesus Christ” is something we are going to see in these prayers
because as Christians we are commanded to pray in the name of Jesus and through
Jesus because He is our high priest, and it is by virtue of our position in Him
and His intercession for us that we have access to God the Father. So giving
thanks and gratitude is a barometer of our spiritual life and our making the
Word of Christ richly dwell within us.
Paul says much the same thing in Ephesians 5:20 NASB “always
giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even
the Father.” Verse 18 Paul says we are to be filled by means of the Holy
Spirit. Here, two verses later, we have a participle that expresses the result
of the filling of the Spirit—giving thanks always for all things and, again, in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are representatives of the body of
Christ. So both Colossians 3:17 and Ephesians 5:20 are verses that emphasize
the fact that it is through Christ and in His name that we are to pray. This is
clearly taught by the Lord in John 14-16. Several times He emphasizes this as
He is giving new instructions to His disciples the night before He went to the
cross. Up to the point of His rejection by Israel He had focussed on the
message of the kingdom. Once the kingdom was postponed then He began to teach
in terms of what the situation would be in the intervening dispensation between
the day of Pentecost and the Rapture. Twice in John 14 He talks about praying
in His name.
John
John 14:26 NASB “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your
remembrance all that I said to you.” Here we have that same phrase, “in My
name.” The Father sends the Spirit but the Spirit is not saying, “I am here in
the name of Jesus.” He comes on the basis of who Jesus Christ is and what He
did on the cross.
John 15:16 NASB “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and
appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and {that} your fruit would
remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”
This is not talking about salvation. Jesus is talking to the eleven now and He
is giving them part of their mission statement. He chose them to be the
apostles; this is not talking about choosing them to be saved. John talks about
this in a little different way in 1 John 5:14 NASB “This is the
confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His
will, He hears us.” It is the same thing; it is not a blank check that whatever
we ask in the name of Jesus it is going to be answered, it is qualified by the
fact that God still has sovereign rule over prayers and sometimes He will say
no to what we request.
John
Romans 1:8 NASB “First, I thank my God through Jesus
Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole
world.” The phrase “spoken of” is the Greek katangello
[kataggellw] which has the idea of a public proclamation or public statement.
Usually it is used in reference to public pronouncements related to what God
has done. So what Paul is thankful for is that the faith is not just their
saving faith but what they believe and the application of it. They are learning
the Word and are applying it. It is their desire to learn the Word and to put
it into practice that is being announced, not just that they have a good
reputation. This is being proclaimed and becoming well known throughout the
whole world [
Romans 1:9 NASB “For [gar/gar,
a
continued explanation] God, whom I serve in my spirit in the {preaching of the}
gospel of His Son, is my witness {as to} how unceasingly I make mention of
you.” God is his witness. What he is saying here is: you can’t see me pray
because you are in
We use the word “gospel” in a couple of different senses. We have a
narrow sense of the gospel which is what a person needs to believe in order to
have eternal life, in order to avoid eternal condemnation. But there is a
broader sense of the gospel and that is all that flows out of that, the good
news that Jesus came not to just give life but to give life abundantly. So in
this broader sense of the gospel it includes what one needs to do to avoid
eternal condemnation but the question of how do I grow and mature as a
believer? Paul is referring to Romans as an expression and development of the
gospel and it includes justification only in the first five chapters. Chapters
6-8 talks about sanctification, 9-11 about how God’s justice is demonstrated in
history through His relationship to Israel, and then chapters 12ff talk about
how the righteousness of God needs to be worked out in the life of every
believer in all the different areas of life. Here in verse 9 Paul is talking
about the entire dimension of biblical teaching on how to get saved and how to
live once we are saved.
“…how unceasingly I make mention of you.” This is such a priority that
on a regular basis, whenever he has an opportunity, he is praying for other
people.
Romans 1:10 NASB “always in my prayers making request, if
perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.
Romans