5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:   6 Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:   7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Collateral Materials:

• Textual outline of the history of the Roman Church in the time of Paul
• Graphic for the first 100 years of the church

Romans 1:1-7

Review:

1. The Immutability The Gospel.
   1. It was promised before ( 2); The Plan of the Good news has, is, and will always be in the mind of God
   2. The Gospel is the Good News for all mankind from before mankind.
   3. Not all the scripture, but all the scripture points to the plan
2. The subject of the Gospel:
   4. It is concerning Christ, Rom 1:3; Rom 1:4.
   5. The prophets and apostles all bear witness to him; he is the true treasure hid in the field of the scriptures.
   6. His human nature: Made of the seed of David ( 3), that is, born of the virgin Mary, who was of the house of David (Luke i. 27), as was Joseph his supposed father, Luke ii. 4. David is here mentioned, because of the special promises made to him concerning the Messiah, especially his kingly office; 2Sam 7:12; Ps 132:11; Luke 1:32; Luke 1:33.
   7. His divine nature: Declared to be the Son of God ( 4), the Son of God by eternal generation, according to the Spirit of holiness, that is, the divine nature (as he is said to be quickened by the Spirit,1Pet 3:18; 2Cor 13:4), he is the Son of God. The great proof this is his resurrection from the dead

Today’s Study

The Good News still impacts individual lives

It is more than theory

It is more than philosophy

Augustine.  Traces his conversion to a few verses in Romans 13.

His godly mother, Monica, had been praying for him for decades that he would come to faith in Christ. His Dad wasn’t a Christian. In AD 386, he found himself in great despair. . . he was a teacher in Milan who had given himself to the ways of the world. . . he was running from God as fast as his feet would take him. . . he lived with a gal out of wedlock – they had a baby. . . he got into sexual immorality. . .   he got involved in the philosophies and cults of his day. . . he drank profusely at times. . . his life was a mess. One day sitting in the garden of a friend of his, he just began to weep – he’d come to the end of himself. . . he reflected upon his deplorable living and thought, “How on earth could anyone accept me?” While he was sitting there crying, he looked up and right there next to him was an open scroll of Romans. In his own words, he said, “I grabbed it and read the first passage my eyes fell upon!” This is what he read: “Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts” (cf. Rom 13:13-14). Augustine would later write, “In an instant I came to the end of the sentence and it was as if the light of faith flooded into my heart, and all the gloom and darkness of doubt vanished away.” In that very moment, the Spirit caused him to be born again.

Martin Luther

Man of good works, pilgrimages, shrines.  Not enough to make him holy.  On the steps of the LATERAN church where Jesus was condemned by Pilot. (they had been moved by God from Jerusalem to Rome).  Up the steps on his knees and kissing every step.  He was interrupted by a still small voice, ““Martin, the just shall live by faith.” This happened repeatedly, step after step. Finally, Luther stopped his ascent and stood to his feet and felt like a man who had come to his senses. He thought to himself, “What am I doing trying to make myself right with God with such stupidity? The just shall live by faith!” It finally made complete sense to him. He ran down those stairs, quickly went back to Germany, where he did a critical study of the book of Romans in the original language – and the Christian world has never been the same since. At that point Luther began to see that the Church of Rome in his day did not jibe with what Paul had taught them in his epistle 1500 years earlier. Night and day Luther pondered Romans until he grasped the truth that the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby, through grace and sheer mercy, He justifies us by faith (cf. Rom 3:20, 28). Thereupon, he writes, “I felt myself reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise; the whole of Scripture took on a completely new meaning; whereas before ‘the righteousness of God’ had filled me with hate [because he had been trying to obey the Law in his own strength], now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love.” At this point the Protestant movement began, and it spread like wildfire throughout all of Europe. The cry of the Reformation was “The just shall live by faith!” 

John Calvin

Protestant reformer whose life was profoundly changed by the book of Romans. He said this about it: “If a man understands the book of Romans, he has a sure road open for him to the understanding of all Scripture.” That’s because the book of Romans is a little Bible in miniature. It is a book of Christian doctrine, and doctrine is very important, because your doctrine will affect the way you live – right doctrine will lead towards right living; wrong doctrine will lead towards wrong living.

William Tyndale

first publisher of the Bible in English, and his life was profoundly affected by the book of Romans. When he finally translated Romans into English in 1534, he wrote this statement in the preface to the book – “I think it is important that every Christian not only know the book by rote, but that he also continually exercise himself in it as the daily bread of the soul. No man can read it too often, or study it too well; for the more it is studied. . . the more it is chewed. . . and the more groundly it is searched, the more precious are those things that are found therein.”

John Wesley

A spiritually dead minister in the Church of England. He spent years desperately trying to minister to people without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He had ritual and religion, but not a relationship with God. Then one evening in 1738 he reluctantly attended a little church gathering where his life would forever be changed. Later he wrote of that night: “I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was simply reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans – “I felt my heart strangely warmed, and trusted in Christ alone for my salvation; an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” Wesley was used by God to start a revival in the New England colonies of America – the blaze was so great that it’s still known today as the “Great Awakening.” Hundreds of thousands of people were saved, and the awakening spread to all of Europe. It was a marvelous move of God’s Spirit. The power of the book of Romans is not just something that worked 2,000 years ago, it’s power is something that still effects lives today. If you are spiritually dry or dead, this book can quicken your spirit and can cause you to come alive by the power of the Holy Spirit. One cannot read the book of Romans without the power of God affecting your life and motivating you to move for God.

5 through whom we have received grace and   apostleship ⁵ to bring about [the]  obedience of faith among   all the Gentiles, for His name’s sake, [Rom 12:3]; [Rom 15:18]; 6 among whom you also are the   called of Jesus Christ; [Jude 1:1]; 7 to all who are  beloved of God in Rome, called [as] ⁶   saints:  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  [1Thess 1:4]; [1Tim 1:2]; [2Tim 1:2]; [Titus 1:4]; [Phlm 1:3]; [2Pet 1:2]; [2John 1:3]; [Rev 1:4];

What is made available because of the Gospel.

3. 1. From whom – The source
      1. Jesus is the picture of the Gospel
      2. Jesus the person of The Gospel
   2. We receive (constant gift – verb tense – not a one time event)
      1. Who is We? Two Views here
         1. Paul is talking about himself and the other ministers working with him in Corinth.
         2. Paul is talking about a universal we of believers.
         3. Either view requires Grace
      2. Undeserved Favor (Grace)
         1. What was this undeserved favor exhibited to Paul?
         2. What was the undeserved favor exhibited to us?
            1. Calling
            2. Justification
            3. Pardon
            4. Adoption
            5. Being set apart. (sanctification)

• A call to send that message (Apostleship)
  1. It was a gift
  2. It was a favor bestowed
  3. It was something to be grateful for.
  4. It was not an office or a title, but a life with purpose.

The apostles were made a spectacle to the world, led a life of toil, and trouble, and hazard, were killed all the day long, and yet Paul reckons the apostleship a favor: we may justly reckon it a great favor to be employed in any work or service for God, whatever difficulties or dangers we may meet with in it.

4. A reason for the gift.
   1. This apostleship was received for obedience to the faith
   2. Received bring people to that obedience.
   3. Received that they might give.
      1. Obedience to the faith. It does not consist in a notional knowledge or a naked assent, much less does it consist in perverse disputing, but in obedience.
         1. Obedience is not action by accident
         2. Obedience is not something that happens naturally
         3. Obedience is actually doing something.
         4. Obedience is in response to knowledge
         5. Obedience is an act of the will.
      2. Give to who
         1. Gentiles
            1. For His name sake
            2. Not a controversy since the council of Jerusalem in 49
         2. Those who are called of Jesus Christ
         3. Beloved of God in Rome
         4. Called as saints

Paul was writing to all the professing Christians that were in Rome, whether Jews or Gentiles originally, whether high or low, bond or free, learned or unlearned. Rich and poor meet together in Christ Jesus.

The privilege of Christians: They are beloved of God, they are members of that body which is beloved, which is God’s Hephzibah symbolic name for the coming kingdom of favor of God (Isaiah 62:4),

The benediction ( 7): Grace to you and peace.

5. 1. Paul’s characteristic greeting combines two cultures:
      1. “grace” (charis – Greek)  grace that equips and empowers believers to live for and serve Christ
      2. “peace”(shalom –the traditional Hebrew greeting). “peace of God” that should reign in our hearts – even in the midst of a turbulent society, Paul wanted his believers to know the inner peace of God’s love.

• The combination is especially appropriate because Paul’s message tells how believing Jews and Gentiles are now one new man in Christ.