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What I want to do today is to look at these
opening verses of this letter to the Romans and think
about why Paul wrote it. What we'll find is that Paul's
motivation comes from a sense of responsibility for the
great gift God has given him in the gospel, his
confidence comes from the power of God he sees at work in
the gospel, which brings a righteousness that comes from
God alone and overarching it all his single focus and the
primary focus of the gospel proclamation is Jesus Christ
and his victory over death. We're going to start at v7
rather than v1, but I assure you we will return to the
first section before we finish. |
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An Occasional Letter (7-13) |
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It's always worth paying particular attention to
the opening few verses or paragraphs of Paul's letters
because you'll often find there a summary of what he
wants to say, or the reason that he's writing. And so it
is here. As we read vs7-13 we discover that this is
something of an occasional letter. That is, it's written
for a particular occasion. Now we'll also discover that
it has a more general purpose, that is, to clarify the
nature of the gospel, but the first reason for writing
appears here: he's writing because he's hoping to come to
visit them. He's preparing the groundwork for a possible
visit, which we discover when we get to ch 15, will be en
route to Spain. |
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But he also says that he's writing because he
longs to share with them some spiritual gift to
strengthen them. In fact he hopes that he too might be
encouraged by their faith so that their encouragement
might be mutual. In other words he isn't coming as the
great guru to dole out spiritual riches that only he
possesses. There's a mutuality about his ministry that's
part of his motivation for wanting to come to them. |
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What does it mean for you, to share the gospel?
Does it sound like something that's a bit threatening? As
someone said after we'd read Jesus' call to begin to fish
for people a couple of weeks ago, does it feel like
you're supposed to go out and bag a few trophies? We were
talking yesterday at out vestry planning day about how
scary the 'E' word can be. Well, it's instructive to see
how Paul expresses his desire to share the gospel with
the Romans. He isn't wanting to chalk up a few more
victories. He isn't looking to bag some dumb fish in the
net of the gospel. What does he say? |
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He says "I am longing to see you so that I
may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen
you." We'll see in a moment that he wants to share
the gospel with people because it will bring them
salvation. This is a gift from God that he brings. When
we tell people about our faith in God, we're inviting
them to receive that same gift from God that we've
received, the gift of eternal life. This is a service
we're doing them, out of love. |
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Well, let's think about his motivation, because
he tells us about it in the next couple of verses |
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His Motivation (14-15) |
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He says "I am a debtor both to Greeks and
to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish 15--hence
my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are
in Rome." Now what does he mean when he says he's a
debtor? In what way is he indebted to all people? It's
obviously not a personal debt. It's too generalised for
that. When he talks about Greeks and barbarians he simply
means everyone. So why is he indebted to everyone? |
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Well, clearly, part of the answer comes from his
call by God to be the apostle to the Gentiles. God has
saved him and inherent in that salvation was a call to
take the gospel to the Gentiles. So he bears a
responsibility for the way that task is carried out. He
says he feels under obligation to those who haven't yet
heard the gospel. |
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But you have to think from what he goes on to
say that this isn't just an obligation that arises from a
sense of duty. Rather it's the sort of obligation that a
medical researcher might feel if they make a great
discovery. An obligation to let people know. To publish
their findings so people's illnesses can be cured. I
remember hearing about some research that was being done
some years ago to test the effect of aspirin as a blood
thinner for people suffering from heart disease. The test
involved a double blind test with one group taking half
an aspirin a day and the other group taking a placebo. As
the tests progressed the researchers discovered such a
marked improvement in those taking the aspirin that they
actually cancelled the rest of the experiment because
they didn't think it was fair for the control group to
miss out on the benefits that were clearly flowing to the
first group from taking the aspirin. They felt they had
an obligation to all their patients to give them the best
treatment possible. Well, that's the sort of obligation
that Paul seems to feels as he thinks about the benefit
that can be derived from hearing the gospel. And so he
talks about his confidence in the gospel. |
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His Confidence (16) |
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He says he's not ashamed of the gospel. Why?
Because it's the power of God for salvation to everyone
who has faith. I guess being unsure of whether it's OK to
preach the gospel to people isn't a new phenomenon. In
Paul's day preaching the gospel would have been in the
context of a multitude of gods that people would have
made offerings to on a regular basis, perhaps even daily.
Christians were even more of a minority then than they
are today, not to mention that they were also generally
speaking poor and without much social status. So to
preach the gospel, to tell people that there's only one
true and living God, the one they worshipped, no doubt
sounded just as presumptuous and even arrogant as it
sometimes sounds today, or at least as it's often
portrayed today. |
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But, he says, he isn't ashamed of preaching a
gospel that's unique, that makes exclusive claims on
people. The thing is, this gospel holds the answer to our
great dilemma. It holds the power of God to bring
salvation to everyone who has faith. |
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People throughout history have been seeking ways
of being right with God, of knowing that beyond this
world was another where we might enjoy the presence of
God forever. You think about the multitude of religious
systems that have arisen in the history of the world and
what you find in almost every case is people trying to
placate God or gain his blessing or find a way to enjoy
eternal bliss when this tough life is over. But the
reality is that we've never been able to do it. Paul is
about to go on to show how badly we've failed. Even the
Jews who were given a special insight by God into the way
he wanted them to live were unable to do it. Yet here in
the gospel we find a power that no-one even dreamed was
possible: the power to be made right with God. The power
to be saved from ourselves, if you like. And all that's
needed is faith. All that's needed is that people believe
the promises of God. God does all the rest. God has
already done all the rest. And do you see the reason Paul
gives for his confidence in the gospel? |
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His Reason (17) |
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His confidence is based on this simple fact:
that in the gospel "the righteousness of God is
revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, 'The
one who is righteous will live by faith.'" |
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Now it seems to me that this is a power packed
statement. How is the righteousness of God revealed in
the gospel? Well, there are a number of layers here,
aren't there? First of all, as we'll discover when we get
to ch 3, God is shown to be righteous on two levels. |
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At one level he's shown to have been righteous
when he forgave people's sins in Old Testament times,
even though the sacrifices they offered were merely the
flesh and blood of dumb animals. He was righteous because
the basis on which he could forgive their sins was the
same basis as that on which he can forgive ours: that is,
Jesus' death on our behalf. But he's also shown to be
righteous in that all the promises he made to his people
over the centuries have now come to pass in the life and
person of Jesus Christ. |
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But it isn't just God's righteousness that's
revealed in the gospel is it? The righteousness he talks
about is also a righteousness that God grants to everyone
who has faith in God's promises. |
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You see, if the great desire of people through
the ages has been to find a way to ensure their gods were
pleased with them, then the gospel has the answer. Yes,
it's impossible for us to live the sort of life that
would make God pleased with us. No matter how good we are
our efforts will always fail at some point. There'll
always be a flaw of some sort in us. That's just how
human beings are. But through Jesus' work on the cross
those flaws have been eradicated. Now a righteousness
that comes from God has been revealed. Now there's a
righteousness that's gained not by a long life of self
discipline and struggle against our sinful nature, a
course that's doomed to failure, but by faith, by
believing that God will do what he says he will do. |
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Paul will go on as he develops this theme of
salvation by grace alone to explain how this
righteousness comes about. He'll talk about the way
Jesus' death acts as a substitute for our own death, how
Jesus takes our place, standing in as the representative
of the whole human race, in a way similar to the way Adam
acted as our representative when he first chose to
disobey God. And he'll go on to show that everything
centres around Jesus Christ. We're going to go back now
to the first 6 verses where we discover the central focus
of Paul's message. |
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His Focus (1-6) |
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There's no doubt as you read through those first
6 verses that Jesus Christ is clearly at the centre of
this gospel message. Yes, it's a message that comes from
God. It's God's righteousness that's being proclaimed.
This is a message that God proclaimed beforehand. But the
focus of the message is Jesus Christ the Lord. Look at
what he says in vs3&4: "the gospel concerning
his Son, who was descended from David according to the
flesh 4and was declared to be Son of God with
power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection
from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord." The message
of the gospel is all about God's Son, Jesus Christ. If
you hear someone preaching the gospel and Jesus Christ
isn't at the centre you should start to get worried. |
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You may not have to go far to hear it either.
There are plenty of people around today who'll want to
convince you that you can be a Christian and worship God
without ever worrying about whether Jesus was really the
Son of God, whether he really did all those miracles,
whether he really rose from the dead. They'll try to
convince you that being a Christian is mostly about being
a good neighbour, or being part of a loving community, or
caring for others. They'll couch it in religious
terminology. They'll supply uplifting worship settings.
They'll use all the religious paraphernalia they can
think of. But Jesus will be missing, and so will the
power of the gospel for salvation to all who believe. |
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No, the gospel is first and foremost
Christ-centred. And why? |
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He was truly human, v3: 'descended from David
according to the flesh.' That's important for us, because
only one who is fully human is able to understand what we
experience as we seek to follow God. It was important
that there should be a human being to experience all the
temptations that we experience yet be able to obey God
fully, to stand as our representative in restoring all
humanity to the possibility of full obedience to God. |
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But at the same time he's also divine: v4: 'he
was declared to be Son of God with power according to the
spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead.' Jesus
is uniquely able to bridge the gap between God and
humanity because he is both divine and human at the same
time. |
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And finally, Jesus must be central to the
preaching of the Gospel because he's Christ (the
Messiah), our Lord. As Paul puts it in Philippians 2, God
has given him the name which is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, in heaven and on
earth and under the earth. If we fail to tell people that
in our preaching of the gospel, how are we preparing them
for the life to come? We're not are we? All we're
preparing them for is a great shock; what may well be a
fatal shock. |
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Do you sometimes feel embarrassed at the thought
of sharing your faith with others? Well, what we've begun
to discover here is that there's no need to be. We have a
message that can bring hope out of hopelessness. We have
the cure to the greatest disease of the human heart. If
half an aspirin a day can hold off heart disease, it'd be
unfair, even cruel, not to tell someone who had a heart
problem about it. Well, if faith in God, trust in the
saving work of Jesus Christ, can save a person from the
day of judgement and bring them to a position where they
can enjoy the presence of God for eternity, it'd be
equally unfair, even cruel, to deny them the possibility,
simply because we're worried about how they'll receive
the message. |
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Don't be ashamed of the gospel. Rather
understand the responsibility, the obligation, we all
have to share this saving knowledge with our friends and
neighbours. And be confident in the power of the gospel:
it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who has
faith because it brings with it a righteousness that only
God can give. |
