The Book of Romans: A Bible study series in 16 parts
Chapter One
By Bob Mendelsohn
Given in Sydney Australia
Beginning April 2020
The outline of J Vernon McGee influenced me
1.
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Salutation: Paul the slave
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2.
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Sin: What it is (First, the bad news)
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3.
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Salvation: How to get it (Then the good news)
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4.
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Sanctification:God makes us right with him
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5.
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Struggle with self and with Torah
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6.
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Spirit-filled living: Alive each day in him
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7.
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Security: Assurance of being his
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8.
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Sovereign God of Israel
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9.
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Sacrifice & service: Living for him
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10.
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Separation and priesting/serving each other
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11.
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Salutation and farewells
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Lesson One: Salutation: Paul, the slave (1.1-17)
Paul introduces himself in an unusual way. He had probably never been to Rome, though he always wanted to get there. He is known as the apostle, but his self-description before anything else is bond-servant. Servant, like Yeshua, (Isaiah 49.6) who lives to serve others.
The first part of chapter one introduces many themes which Paul will unpack as we trudge this analytical book together over the next few months while in lockdown. It’s like the opening movement of a Haydn symphony. It’s the overture that introduces the rest of the Broadway show. We will see themes of the nature of the Messiah, the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, the role of the Jews and the Gentiles and those who proclaim to them, obedience and grace. The purposes of faith… it’s all in this book. Stay with us; that’s what an overture announces. Like the announcer at ringside or on the television late-night show, telling us who is on the program; there’s more to come.
As we begin our study of this landmark book, may we find what Augustine found? One day, the story goes, he was weeping under a fig tree, in distress of soul, desperately convicted of his own sin. He heard a child walking by who was singing this phrase, “Take up and read.” He turned to Paul’s writings lying nearby and read Romans 13.13-14 “let us walk properly…put on Jesus, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.” He believed and obeyed, and God set him on a forever journey to influence thinkers for centuries.
Remember it was Martin Luther who was teaching a series of lessons from Romans and was seriously converted. He said he “felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. “ He was liberated by what he titled “the righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justified us through faith.”
Turn with me to verse 1 and let’s read together.
READING. (Text below at the endnotes)
Overture (1-7)
Paul starts with his introduction and then interrupts himself to boast in the Gospel. That’s consistent with his behavior throughout his life. He titles himself both servant, doulos, the lowest of the social classes to the power brokers of his day the Romans. It would be like saying “I’m a domestic from Soweto among the powerful in Johannesburg” Or to say you are from Villawood Detention Centre to the saints in Canberra. Lowly don’t speak to those above them, much less the most exalted. But Paul did. And so can you. If you don’t boast like we would expect “Paul, a Roman citizen, and apostle”. That carries a sentiment of boasting and pride. Paul is saying, I’m not worthy, and God called me. Thus I have to carry on, no matter the cost, even to you!”
Today we might use the term ‘apostle’ to mean a grand leader, a holy man, the top of the food chain, but Paul was indicating something else. He meant one who was summoned and sent. No matter the cost. Apostleship in Romans is nothing about which to boast; it’s the caller, not the called, who is in view. Thus he’s the servant-apostle. Set apart for the good news.
Set apart sounds like Jeremiah (1.5) and Isaiah (49.1). It’s not the prophet who is in view; it’s the Caller.
Verse two shows us why we love Paul so much. He interrupts his own introduction to boast in the Gospel and to show it as the same message God has been communicating since the beginning. It’s nothing he invented; it’s the prophetic historic Old Testament teaching about this one.
Verses three and four: Showing both the total humanity of Yeshua and the divine nature of the Son of David and the Son of God. That argument persists in these days among the yet-unconvinced, but Paul was not in doubt. Yeshua was totally human and totally divine. The word ‘descendant’ is the Greek word ‘sperma’. Don’t read that as something sexual, but as showing the nature of man was in the human Jesus.
And when was Yeshua declared “Son of God?” At the resurrection. That fact is going to continue to highlight itself in all of Paul’s letters. It’s the fulcrum of salvation history. We will see it again and again That doesn’t mean he began being divine then, but that it was trumpeted again then.
Now this idea of the divine messiah is not new to Paul. The royal messiah seems clear in Psalm 2 and Psalm 110. So Paul is saying that which the Jewish people have hoped for is made clear in our Yeshua. To this day there are those who think Paul changed the story; his argument is just the opposite.
Verse 5 highlights a call to the Gentiles. The Greek word is ‘ethnoi’ meaning nations. But don’t think of nations like Spain or South Africa. These originally were tribal units and that’s in view here. Ethnic groups; people groups. That means all people! He is not the apostle to the Jewish people, nor is he the apostle to anyone but Jewish people. He is called to the world, to all peoples, to speak and teach and proclaim the good news of Messiah to everyone. And so should we!
Verse 6, the called. This hints on what Paul will later address in the relationship between Israel and the Gentiles within the same fellowship. And that the promises to Israel are now available to the grafted-in uncalled ones, the Gentiles, who are now brought near. The continuity between ancient Jewish promise in the scriptures and new realization in Christ is underlined once again.
By ending verse 7 with God our father, he is personalizing the Fatherhood of God, in contrast to how Roman idolaters might have construed him. It’s more like the Jewish idea of the God of Israel, into whom the Gentiles are now grafted. Again it sings of the continuity of the Older Testament reality with what Paul is addressing. This is not a new idea; what’s new is that Gentiles ARE grafted in, not prophetically going to happen, but it HAS happened.
Paul gives thanks for them and prays that they will be established (8-14)
His prayer is clear. He longs to be with them. He’s never met them. He’s heard good things about them. He wants them to be established. Let’s talk about that word, ‘established.’ Paul uses that word (sterizo) in 2 Thes. 3.3 and is in direct contrast to the Septuagint word of Jeremiah 17.5 (making the arm of flesh a man’s strength) and consistent with Jeremiah 24.6 (building Israel from all over the world). It’s about what defines us, our strength, our continuity. In Ezekiel 6.2 the idea of ‘setting your face’ is picked up by this word. No surprise then that Luke uses it (9.51) to describe how Yeshua set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem. With this understanding, sterizo is not about a definition of what they have received in Rome as if checking their spiritual wallet. No, it’s a matter of their active participation in the life of the Gospel, and hence their need for a ‘spiritual gift’ (a charisma) to accomplish something. It’s not about what they have; it’s how they live and act.
That’s why Paul wants to visit Rome. He wants to impart and to obtain. Impart some spiritual connection to Messiah Yeshua and to obtain from them some encouragement. He wants to have what we have just now; he wants mutual faith to flow from one to the other. Friends, while we are on lockdown in our homes or offices, how can we strengthen and encourage one another? That’s what we are doing just now in this time on Zoom. We are stimulating faith in our Messiah. We are growing in love with the Scriptures. We are learning of each other’s hurts and joys and sharing in those. Mutualism is in view in Paul’s prayer here.
In verse 13 we read of obtaining fruit. What is that? At the end of the letter, he’s encouraged to take funds back to the Jerusalem church, so money (in our day) could be in view. Or maybe ‘new births’ as the word is used in Elizabeth’s cry to her cousin Mary (Luke 1.42). That’s used in the LXX in Deut. 28.4 for both new babies and crops. Bearing fruit then would show that new believers are joining the community of faith. Then John quoting Yeshua seems to indicate ‘fruit’ to mean growth in relation to the Father, that is, spiritual connection. Pruning leads to character development. And that is titled ‘fruit.’ I’m not convinced that any of these is the only way to read the word ‘karpos’ here in Romans. I like it when some things are unclear so that we can read this and take it on board in many directions and purposes.
Then Paul says three “I am” phrases (14-16)
In verse 14, Paul says he is ‘under obligation’ to anyone and everyone. I guess this could be confusing unless we had already read the prologue. He is under obligation to the Lord himself, first and foremost and then as a servant, he is under obligation to serve the needs of the community. Some of our people in churches worldwide are setting up service centers during this time of lockdown, serving people who cannot get to the shops and buy groceries. Some are delivering other products or taking people to their doctor’s appointments. Some are offering laundry services. There’s no end to the possibilities of care, and Paul is saying he is obliged to do this, within his role of doulos, of bondservant.
Not only is he under obligation, secondly he says he is eager! It’s not a drudgery to serve; he says he’s keen! And his eagerness is to preach the Gospel to believers there. That might seem weird. They are already believers; why do they need his preaching? He has more words to bring them. He wants to share good information and life-formation with them so they are established and can carry on. Maybe that’s what I’m doing today and as we start this study together. We have a lot to pass on; we have to establish and then pass on what we have learned. You have a lot to give. You have to pass on what you have learned, amen?
I am under obligation.
I am eager
Finally, he says, “I am not ashamed” The reader two millennia later want to say, “Duh, that’s obvious!” But he’s not boasting. Again, his saying this is to boast in the Gospel. What it does. It is God’s power to bring others to salvation. To Jewish people. To Gentiles. To anyone and everyone, no one is left out. God is merciful and kind. He calls us. No wonder I’m not ashamed.
We’ve been told many times that if we would change our T-shirts for suits, or change our confrontation into niceness we would be heard much more. That may be true, but what will affect people for good in the long run? What will bear fruit? What will give real grace and hope to people? It’s the Gospel. No wonder, I’m not ashamed.
Did you notice the order of Paul’s receivers? To the Jew first. Why is that? To finish the task of Older Testament information. Jewish people were already clued in with their owning covenants and promises and Torah and avodah (Romans 9.4). Using the law of apperception, start with what people know before you go to what they don’t know. Gentiles don’t know (in those days) about Torah or adoption as sons or Temple service. Being consistent with Older Testament practices, the Jewish people would have been informed and thus held accountable for practicing what they knew. Start with those who know sin, who might be looking for a solution, rather than pagans in the Roman empire who didn’t think in those categories.
Jewish people would have seen the slaughter of animals as compensation for sin and its consequences. Thus, they would have known that sin costs. They, first and foremost, should have been looking for a savior. Paul’s ‘order of things’ makes sense on many levels.
And that he labels Jews as ‘first’ does not in any way preclude the dismissal or forgetting of Gentile conversions. Everyone is included!
The righteous shall live by faith (17)
Have you ever tried to narrow down an epic poem to a single idea? Take The Wasteland by Eliot or Homer’s Odyssey or Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Narrowing all the ideas and thoughts into one or two ideas is very hard. Have you tried to narrow the thoughts of the Bible down to one idea? Or even one Bible book like Exodus or Matthew—have you? The rabbis have done that with the Older Testament. Some narrowed it down to 10 ideas, the 10 Commandments. Others say it went down to three: (Micah 6.8) justice, mercy, walk humbly with God. Then Yeshua narrowed it down to two: Love God and love your neighbor. But the rabbis take it to one more: (Habakkuk 2.4)
Hab. 2:4 “Behold, as for the proud one,
His soul is not right within him;
But the righteous will live by his faith.
There is it, the central theme of all of Romans in one key prophetic book from the Older Testament. And the unifying force in all the Older Testament. Being right with God is a matter of faith. And Paul has introduced his classic and epic teaching with that same idea. And so I shall leave it there for now, knowing all these singular themes, and this preeminent theme will rise again and again in our symphony of the book of Romans.
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1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4 who was declared the Son of God with power [by the resurrection from the dead, according to the [d]Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship [e]to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, 6 among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;
7 to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as [f]saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ [g]for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. 9 For 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, 10 always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be [h]established; 12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.14 I am [i]under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
