“The Book of Romans – Wordle style” by Rowen Atkinson
START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Romans 1:1-7
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OBSERVE:
The Apostle Paul is introducing himself and his message to the church at Rome. Most scholars agree that he had not yet visited the community of faith in Rome, and that this letter was written prior to his arrest in Jerusalem and his eventual voyage to the Imperial City under armed guard.
Therefore, this introduction is somewhat formulaic, but it also lays out some of the essentials of Christian faith — almost like a creed.
First, he establishes his own authority and credentials:
a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Good News of God…
His allegiance is to the service of Christ, but he also claims equal billing with the 12 apostles because he has been called and set apart to be sent forth to preach the Good News (the Greek root of apostle means one who is sent forth, particularly as a messenger).
Second, Paul establishes the continuity between the revelation to the Jews and the advent of Christ:
…which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was born of the offspring of David according to the flesh…
Two things are made clear here — first, that the Hebrew Scriptures are the source of prophecies concerning the coming of Christ; and second, Paul is very much aware of the Davidic dynasty and the genealogy of Jesus as David’s descendant. Therefore Paul does not see any discontinuity between Judaism and the Gospel.
However, Jesus was more than just the offspring of David according to the flesh.
[Jesus] was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord…
This is truly a credal statement. Paul will insist that this is an article of faith for the church, i.e., that Jesus has been certified as the Son of God with power by the Holy Spirit, and because of his resurrection from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus is the essential historical fact of the Gospel, without which everything revealed in the Scriptures falls like a house of cards. As Paul insists to the church at Corinth:
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
Everything else follows from this central fact. Because of the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, Paul says:
we received grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake….
Note the foreshadowing of one of the important themes of the Epistle to the Romans — the inclusion of all the nations. The original revelation of God’s plan of salvation was revealed to the Jews through the prophets, but it has been made available by faith even to the gentiles (i.e., the nations).
Finally, Paul makes his formal greeting to the church in Rome:
among whom you are also called to belong to Jesus Christ; to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints….
All who are called to belong to Jesus Christ are called to be saints. The Greek word for saint means holy. It must be said that Paul has twice mentioned grace in relation to this holy relationship with God. He will explore grace at length in the book of Romans. Here we simply get a small preview that holiness is a result of God’s grace (his gift), not a result of human achievement.
His final greeting in our passage is also very notable:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Father and the Son, are mentioned as co-equals. We can also make the case that the whole Trinity is implicit here, with the mention of the Spirit of holiness in verse 4.
So, Paul has addressed, in this brief introduction, a synopsis of the Gospel:
- The Hebrew roots of the Christian faith;
- The nature of Jesus as Son of Man (the offspring of David) and Son of God;
- The resurrection of Jesus from the dead;
- Justification by faith, which he will explore in great detail in this letter, as well as the grace whereby one may be saved;
- The inclusion of the gentiles in this new covenant;
- and, yes, even the Trinitarian nature of God as Father, Son and Spirit.
APPLY:
We are reminded that the coming of Jesus and his Good News didn’t occur in a vacuum. He came as the fulfillment of the promises of the prophets in the holy Scriptures.
But it is also true that his resurrection and power are available to all who believe — Jews and Gentiles alike.
And that is Good News!
RESPOND:
I was listening with some interest to a writer who was being interviewed on the radio. I only caught the very end of the program, but I heard him say something that caught my imagination. He said, “When we write well, we think well.”
I’m amazed when I think of how concisely Paul introduces some of the central ideas of his letter to the Romans in just these first few verses.
When I have attended writer’s conferences over the years, we have been encouraged to develop what is called an “elevator pitch.” An elevator pitch is a very brief summary of our book, play, or screenplay. If we find ourselves alone with an editor or publisher or producer, we could reel it off very quickly. The pitch is limited to one minute — the hypothetical time it would take to ride in an elevator! The trick is to be brief and to get their attention with something different, or something that they need.
It seems to me that every Christian should be ready with an “elevator pitch” concerning their faith, so that they can share the Gospel with anyone in a brief but compelling way.
Lord, you have fulfilled all your promises to us in Christ, and we believe that you will fulfill all the promises that are to come. May we live with faith and in hope for your kingdom. Amen.
PHOTOS: "The Book of Romans - Wordle style" by Rowan Atkinson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.
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