Romans 1:7-11
by:
Dan Hill, PhD
Pastor
Southwood Bible Church
7655 South Sheridan Avenue
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74113
E-Mail: hill918@aol.com
Romans 1:7
"To all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
--------------------
Now Paul gets back to the salutation.
It is the beloved IN Rome, not the beloved OF Rome. And since the conclusion
of the epistle seems to indicate that there were three local churches in
Rome, this title looks both at our citizenship in heaven and our sojourn
here on earth. WE are a heavenly people, we happen to live for a time on
earth.
Paul does not, as he often did, use the term CHURCH. That term does not
appear until Romans 16. The broader terms BELOVED and SAINTS indicate that
there were a number of churches in Rome and internal evidence shows that
these are made up of both Jews and Gentiles.
Regarding these churches, we do not know how the Gospel of Salvation originally
came to this capital city of the ancient world. No Apostle had yet visited
Rome.
Acts 2:10 does indicate that on the Day of Pentecost there were visitors
in Jerusalem from Rome. Perhaps they carried the message of Christ home
with them.
Paul wrote this letter towards the end of his third missionary journey from
Corinth. This time and place of writing allows us to date the letter in
either the late winter or early spring of either AD 57 or 58.
While Paul was writing this impressive epistle, he was also faced with a
personal decision - where to go next. By all indications in the book of
Acts he should have gone onto Rome, but he instead went to Jerusalem. It
was in Jerusalem that God arranged circumstances that eventually got Paul
to Rome but as a prisoner, under arrest, awaiting trial.
So while he is used of the Spirit to communicate great doctrines of grace,
in his personal life and in his personal decisions he makes choices that
follow his plan rather than God's plan.
Principle: God is the one who is faithful and God honors His word even when
it is found in weak vessels of clay.
Two Titles Given to These Believers
Beloved: This title is found eight times in the synoptic Gospels and
there applied only to the Lord Jesus Christ. It shows the relationship of
divine love between the Father and the Son. Not until after Pentecost and
the start of the Church is this title applied to believers in Christ.
"Beloved" is a term that describes the relationship of God's love
for us and our love for one another. Paul was fond of the term especially
for those he had lead to the Lord. It speaks of and reminds us of our relationship
to God, He loves us, and to one another, we are to love one another in Spiritual
love. So this title is relational.
Saints: Here we have a title that is positional. At the moment of salvation
we are set apart unto God.
It was a very high and lofty term in the Greek cultic religions. It looks
at separation, purity, cleanliness, consecration.
The term is so sacred that it can only be applied to the believer as his
life is found in Christ.
Displaying the qualities of being a saint would be impossible for anyone
outside of Christ. But we share this position in Christ.
In the New Testament, all believers are called Saints with no regard to
behavior. All are saints in Christ.
No individual in the New Testament is ever called a Saint; it is used only
collectively for our position in Christ.
Summary: The terms "beloved" and "saint" remind
us of our relationship to God and one another and the basis for that relationship,
that we are in Christ.
The Formal Greeting
"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
The greeting of GRACE was common to the Gentiles. The greeting of PEACE
was common to the Jews. Paul brings them both together.
Paul includes these two words, sometimes adding the word MERCY, in each
of his thirteen epistles.
The order is important, it is always GRACE then PEACE.
Peace is that which flows from Grace:
- Grace is the unmerited favor of God to man. But it is also more than
that. It is the bestowal of favor where there should be wrath. It is grace
given to those who are not only undeserving but deserving of the opposite,
judgment.
- Grace then is not aided by merit or hindered by demerit.
- Peace is a condition not a feeling. Romans 5:1 "Therefore
having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ."
- 4. The condition is constant, the feeling of peace may come and go.
5. We have a sense of the condition of peace even when the feeling is absent.
This peace is not from man but from a divine source - from God the Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Topic: PEACE
Romans 1:8-17: Paul's Personal Relationship to the Gentiles
In verses 1-7 Paul established his official relationship to the church as
an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now he establishes his personal relationship
to these believers in Rome.
These verses might be seen as six windows into Paul's heart. How he felt
about them and his ministry.
Each window is introduced by a verb phrase:
v 8 I thank
v 9 I serve
v 11 I long
v 13 I have planned
v 14 I am under obligation
v 15 I am eager
Romans 1:8
"First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your
faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.
--------------------
The word "first" is not followed here by the word "second".
Here the word "first" implies importance rather than the beginning
of some numeration or list.
Paul sees his attitude of thanksgiving because of these believers as being
of first importance.
In ten of Paul's thirteen letters, he states that his relationship to others
is one that causes him to be thankful.
--------------------
"I thank my God through Jesus Christ"
Other than the Lord Jesus when He was on the Cross, Paul is the only New
Testament character that speaks of God as "my God".
This shows us the intensely personal relationship Paul had with God. God
was not at a distance for Paul; He was close, He was his Father and his
Friend.
Not only does the believer have a right to offer prayers to God because
of Jesus Christ, but also he has a right to claim God as "MY GOD"
because of Jesus Christ. There is nothing that we have and nothing that
we can do in our relationship with God that is not through Jesus Christ.
All of our approach to God is based upon our acceptance in the person and
work of Christ.
This phrase also demonstrates the divine order for prayer. All prayers are
to be offered to the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the power of
the filling of the Holy Spirit.
The Reason for His Thankfulness
"Because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world."
There are many things we can be thankful for when it comes to other believers.
And many of these may cause us to pray for them. Paul picks out their FAITH
above their salvation, their growth, their gifts, or their unity.
The reason is, is that FAITH is the distinctive by which we live. We are
to live by faith (see v 17), we walk by faith, we relate to others by faith.
Faith is a decision a person makes, and many believers make consistent decisions
of faith.
When we encounter believers who live by faith, who make decisions in life
based upon the Bible teaching they have,anbd seeing that doctrine cause
them to depend upon God in faith, we should be thankful. Paul knew enough
about these believers to know that they were men and women and even children
who lived by faith.
--------------------
"Being proclaimed throughout the whole world."
This FAITH was well known to others.
"Proclaimed" is a very strong verb meaning "to be advertised".
This was not some passive mention, but a strong proclamation of how the
believers of Rome lives, by faith.
By this time persecution was beginning, Christians were being harassed,
and it would get worse. This present reality, however, did not deter these
believers, they kept on living by Faith.
Faith must always be in something, and for these believers, faith was in
the Lord Jesus Christ and what they were coming to know about him in the
Word of God.
Their faith was proclaimed in the world. The emphasis is not on the strength
of their faith nor on the genuineness of their faith but on the publication
of their faith, that others heard about it.
Romans 1:9a
"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."
--------------------
This is the second window into Paul's soul.
The verb "serve" is LATREUW which means "to serve as a priest".
It is translated that way in the Septuagint (LSS) and is translated "worship"
in Philippians 3:3.
Service is worship. When we serve the Lord as Servant Kings, every act of
service is also an act of worship.
This understanding effectively removes the false idea of sp,e things being
Secular and other things being Sacred. All is sacred to the believer who
is in service to the King.
Paul's service is in the Gospel and we already noted that this word is not
limited to the Good News of salvation alone but includes the full counsel
of God's good news to the believer.
Paul is a servant tothe Word of God and to what Bible doctrine can do; it
can bring the believer into a continually increasing personal relationship
with God.
The word "preaching" is in italics indicating that it is not part
of the original text, but by including it the translators show us how we
serve in the Gospel.
We communicate it, we pass it on, we preach it, we teach it. It should be
on our lips we rise up and throughout our day, to the time we bed our head.
It is our priority in life and when something is our priority in life we
begin to build our lives around it.
Paul says he serves God in his spirit.
The word "spirit" is sometimes used for the soul, but not always.
Here it is used for the human spirit that is given to man at the moment
of salvation.
Man is born with body and soul and born again with body, soul, and spirit.
The body is the environment of the senses. The soul is the environment of
ideas and thought. The human spirit is the environment of divine relationship.
Hence, to serve God in spirit is to do so not merely formally through some
physical activity nor according to one's own ideas and thoughts, but according
to God's purpose and plan and based upon what God provided.
Three things are involved in Paul's service in communicating the Gospel:
- The Delineation of the Gospel: Romans
- The proclamation of the Gospel: Acts
- The protection and defense of the Gospel: Galatians
--------------------
Then Paul calls upon God to be a witness to what he is saying:
"For God . . . is my witness ..."
Paul only does this a few times in his writings. Here, in II Corinthians
11:11 and in Philippians 1:8. The common thread in these passages is that
Paul is trying to convey his intensely personal affection for those to whom
he is writing.
Does this then imply that normally Paul may have appeared on the surface
to be unloving, uncaring - perhaps so.
Luke 10:40, Martha accused the Lord of not caring about her because he engaged
her sister in conversation while Martha was slaving away in the kitchen.
So Paul calls upon God to validate his statement.
Romans 1:9b, 10
"As to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers
making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed
in coming to you."
--------------------
Paul's prayers of thankfulness were followed by a prayer of petition or
request ... that he may come to Rome . . .
In Acts 19:21, prior to Paul going to Corinth where he is writing this epistle,
he said: "I must also see Rome".
The only problem was that he ended up putting his own agenda into the plan
and he would decide to go to Jerusalem first. But we know that God got him
to Rome.
Principle: God will answer our prayers, be careful what you pray for.
Topic: PRAYER
Romans 1:11
"For I long to see you in order that I may impart some spiritual gift
to you, that you may be established;"
--------------------
The third window into Paul's soul sees his desire...Paul, at this time,
wants to see them.
On a number of occasions he had set out for Rome only to be hindered and
frustrated in his journey. But he continued to pray for the opportunity
to go to Rome.
This was his desire but up to this time it had not been God's will for him
to go.
His purpose is to impart to them some spiritual gift The pronoun is indefinite,
notice the translation "some".
So this does not look at our spiritual gifts that will be discussed later
in Romans 12. Paul uses this word in a general sense. This gift was the
Word of God that was effective both for the salvation of the lost and the
building up of believers.
The word "impart" is an aorist tense verb looking ahead to a point
in time ofcommunicating truth.
The Greek word METADIDWMI, means "to give", as in the sense of
giving an offering. So it is the giving of that which one has to another.
Paul has doctrine and wants to give that to the believers of Rome.
The Purpose: "that you may be established."
"Established" is STEIRIZW and it is an aorist passive infinitive,
and the grammar teaches us a great deal about this process.
The "establishing" occurs at points in time: the time of gospel
hearing, the time of accepting by a faith decision, and the time applying
the God's communicated Word..
The passive voice shows that we are established or set firmly in place by
the Word, not by ourselves. The Word of God acts on us; we receive this
stability.
The infinitive looks at a result; stability is a result of the hearing,
understanding, and believing in or trusting in and the applying of the Word.
It is initiated in us by the Word not by ourselves.
The word "stability" is often used for steadfastness of mind,
the mental resolve and steadfastness that comes from the mind being influenced
by BD.
SO PAUL PLACES THE EMPHASIS on what he wants to share with them, not on
what hecan do. He will bring the gift of Bible teaching; then it is the
doctrine, not Paul, that will establish them.
Warren Doud [ Grace Notes]
1705 Aggie Lane, Austin, Texas 78757
Phone: 512-458-8923
E-Mail: