Romans 1:1-4 (NIV)
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God–the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
In this opening sentence of his letter to the Church in Rome, Paul defines three vital things.
First, he defines himself. Paul is first and foremost a slave of Jesus. Despite the use of the word “servant” in many translations, the modern concept of servant did not apply to Paul. He understood that he had been bought by the blood of Jesus (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 7:23). Formerly he had been a slave of sin, full of anger and hatred (Titus 3:3), but when he surrendered to Jesus, he was willingly purchased by a new Master: Jesus. And now Paul lived entirely to do His bidding.
But Paul was also significantly an apostle, the calling Jesus put upon him in Damascus when Saul of Tarsus completely surrendered to Him. An apostle is one who is sent out, from the Greek words “apo” meaning “out”, and “stellein” meaning “to send”. Paul was specifically set apart to be sent out to the gentiles, the vast majority of the people of the world who were not Jewish, to bring the gospel to them so that they could be saved.
Next Paul defines the gospel, or “good news”. The gospel is identified specifically as “the gospel of God,” or the gospel that originated with God. The good news is not a human invention, or a philosophy dreamed up by people. It is the divine plan of God to save mankind from the twin curses of sin and death.
This gospel was “promised beforehand” through the prophets, those who spoke and wrote a message that originated from God. And these messages were recorded in the Holy Scriptures, the literature that is now commonly referred to as the Old Testament. The Old Testament writers and prophets were often shown pictures of the coming of the kingdom of God on earth, and of the Messiah, the one who would make it a reality.
The pictures of the kingdom and the Messiah were so clear and coherent that, even after the gospels were competed, even after the letters that make up the majority of the New Testament were compiled, Christians frequently used the writings from the Old Testament to show how Jesus was the fulfillment of the plan that God had revealed through the prophets long centuries before His birth.
And finally, Paul defined the vital core of the gospel message: Jesus. Jesus is clearly portrayed here as both fully human, a direct descendant of King David (Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38), and thus qualified to be the Messiah from a human standpoint, and fully divine. Jesus’ divinity was finally understood by His followers only after He rose from the dead and giving “many convincing proofs that He was alive” (Acts 1:3) after He had conclusively been proved to be dead.
Paul finishes his definitions by stating Jesus’ full title: Jesus Christ, our Lord. Jesus is the shortened, Hellenized version of the Hebrew name Yehoshua, which means “the Lord is the Savior”. The word Christ or Christos is Greek for “anointed one”, a precise translation of the Hebrew word Messiah. And the word Lord not only meant “master” in the Greek language, it was also the Greek version of the divine name of God. So, in a single phrase, Paul defines Jesus, the central figure of the gospel as the promised Messiah, God in the flesh, who came to be the Savior of all mankind.
Father, it’s really easy to skip over this introductory material of Paul’s letter. But he really loaded it up with significant information. He starts with himself, the messenger, but moves quickly on to the message, the gospel, and from there to the Messiah, the core of the message. In a few pen strokes, he gives the essence of all he expands on in the whole rest of the letter. Amazing! Lord, help me to always keep the central focus of both my life and my message right where Paul’s was: on Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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