Paul was writing this letter to a church that he had planted in Rome (verse 7). From what I can gather, we know three things about the people he was addressing. (I assume it was either written to the entire church or that there was some sort of "you know who you are" thing going on.) Either way, first of all he was writing to people in Rome. Pretty clear there. Secondly, he was writing to those who were "loved by God" (KJV says "beloved of God"). This goes hand in hand with the third thing mentioned about the people he was addressing which is that they were "called to be his holy people" ("called to be saints" in the KJV). These seem like odd statements to make because it implies that not everyone is loved by God or called to be a saint, because otherwise, why even bring it up? Well, that kind of brings up the doctrine of predestination, which is a widely debated thing among church people. If you're interested in finding out more on the topic, click the "predestination" link and let Pastor Mark tell you all about it, because he's a good, informed Calvinist. Anyway, I will not be going deeper into that subject anymore in this blog, because it will come up later in Romans and I plan to get a lot deeper then. And I'm a chicken. And a procrastinator. I will say, though, do the research and decide for yourself; I'm leaning toward the Reformed (Calvinist) side of things, but the whole thing is a bit too technical for me to go into right now. For now, I'll suffice to say Romans 1:7 is either pointing at the doctrine of predestination, or, if you side with Arminius, it is saying simply that Paul was writing to the Christians in Rome and not to the non-Christians.
One thing that stands out to me about Paul's feelings toward the Roman Christians is that he notes their big faith (v. 8). They have a faith that's being reported all over the world! The Roman church definitely had a lot of problems, but lack of faith was not one of them. They truly believed in the gospel that Paul was preaching. It seems that the Roman church was not filled with the Holy Spirit, or at the very least they didn't have enough knowledge to properly use their spiritual gifts (v. 11) and Paul was hoping that he could come to them to help correct this problem. And along with that, he was hoping that he could come spend time with this faith-filled people (v. 12) so that they could be mutually encouraged by each others' faith.
This seems like a very strong statement to me. When I think about Paul, I can completely imagine being encouraged by his faith; to spend time with him would have been very beneficial for one's relationship with God because of his knowledge and his faith. But to imagine him being encouraged by my faith? Either the Roman church really had a BIG faith (which is what I'm thinking) or Paul was just trying to lessen the blow of the other things he had to say. Paul was not generally one to pull punches, so I'm thinking that the Roman church was truly faith-filled. This can be a great encouragement to all of us, because it means that no matter how messed up we are (and the Roman church really was) we can still have a big faith. I think it was because of that faith that the Roman church was even worth bothering with. If they hadn't had a lot of faith in Jesus Christ, the many problems that they had wouldn't have been fixable and they really wouldn't have been worth fixing anyway.
So Paul wants to visit the Roman church. He wants to visit them for a variety of reasons. Firstly, he wanted to see them because they were predestined to God's kingdom (or because they chose to be Christians, depending on which way you swing), which made them family. He had been praying for them for some time, and hoped that he would get to meet this faith-filled group of Christians. He was also hoping that he could help kick-start their church. They were full of faith, but lacking in the spiritual gifts department, so he wanted to help them, as he had helped other Gentile churches. And lastly, he wanted to visit them because he felt spiritually obligated to them.
Paul was obligated to the Greeks and non-Greeks, to the wise and the foolish. But where did he get this sense of obligation from? Ironically, he got that obligation from the Jews. Okay, actually it came from the Lord, but a little bit from the Jews too. Basically, Paul went to preach to the Jews and they rejected him, contradicted him, insulted him and abused him. And once that happened, Paul was able to freely pursue his true calling. He had to preach to the Jewish people first, because they were God's "chosen people". But what God really chose for Paul was a mission to the Gentiles. Once the Jews had rejected Jesus, Paul kicked the dust off his sandals and moved on. And so he truly and literally was obligated by God to the Gentiles, whether they were wise or foolish. (Back to the big P...It could be said that this is an argument against Calvinism, since Paul felt called to preach to anyone and everyone. However, a good Calvinist would tell you that TULIP is the very reason for witnessing to anyone and everyone; there are some who feel the pull of Irresistible Grace - the I - and once witnessed to, they will receive God's free gift of salvation. Foiled again, Arminius!)
When I initially read this verse (v.14), I got the impression that Paul felt a bit of superiority toward the Roman Christians. He says that he is obligated to "both the wise and the foolish" And that is why he was so eager to preach the gospel to those in Rome. Doesn't it seem like he's calling them foolish? I mean, really... there's no reason to mention the foolish unless he thinks of them that way. And honestly, why wouldn't he feel that way? They were completely jacked up as a church. Even so, that didn't lessen his obligation, and after giving it some thought, I believe there's a real lesson within those couple of verses. I think it's possible that he said that to let them know that even though a lot of their problems were foolish, he was still obligated to do what he could do help them grow spiritually. And that is what can really can speak to us here. Often times, (and I'll just speak for myself) someone screws up so many times that I'm tempted to just write them off. That's not the way God wants us to behave; we are obligated to the wise and the foolish, just like Paul. We are especially to care for and minister to those whose actions are completely foolish, because God's awesome power is made perfect in the many weaknesses of his people. (And really, aren't we all pretty foolish?) So I think that Paul really mentioned that, not to call them fools, but to reassure them that both he and God care for them despite their foolish behavior. I would say that he didn't necessarily feel superior to them, but that he cared for them in a fatherly sort of way.
Paul also mentioned in that passage that he was obligated to "both the Greeks and the non-Greeks" (or "barbarians" depending on your translation). It appears that this was kind of a cultural thing. Greek culture was totally happening at the time, and Greeks referred to anyone who was unaffected by their culture and didn't speak their language as a "barbarian". So Paul was basically saying there that he was obligated to the cool kids and the losers.
Paul was not (v. 16) ashamed of the gospel! But why on earth wasn't he? He had plenty of people hating on him and wanting him dead because of the gospel. It seems like an easy thing to be ashamed of, or at least like a thing you might want to keep slightly hidden. But Paul didn't feel that way. He was happy to shout it from the mountain tops (praise God!). The biggest reason, and the reason that Paul gives, for not being ashamed is because the gospel is the power of God to bring salvation! That's kind of a big deal. And Paul had seen it first-hand. The gospel came to Paul in his depravity and changed his world (for the better btw). Paul had seen where his life was headed and Jesus fixed it all. Sure, he was a marked man in this life, but he had his eyes on the prize; on bigger and better things for eternity. And I think a lot of times we forget about all of that.
Christians in our culture are often marked as hypocrites, crazies, fanatics, closed-minded, or holier-than-thou, but we're not often marked for death. And yet we're often ashamed of the gospel and Paul wasn't. Why is that? To put it in perspective, it is difficult in the culture to be branded as different or weird, or even worse closed-minded or unaccepting. And that's what Christians are considered. But are you really a Christian if you're ashamed of the gospel? Are you really a Christian if you don't share what God has done for you? That's a tough question and a touchy subject. But I'm kind of leaning toward no. I think the best way to deal with this is to "Be the change you wish to see in the world" as Gandhi so eloquently put it. Christians should not be crazy hypocrites and they shouldn't be culturally irrelevant. Being ashamed of Jesus Christ certainly doesn't help anyone's opinion of Christians, but being a different kind of Christian might. I'm certainly not saying we should just go around affirming people for Jesus, because that's not what we're called to do at all (and I'll certainly get to that later in Romans), but we could try being kind, being true witnesses for Christ, going to people where they are instead of peeking out from behind stained glass windows at them. Just a thought.
To get back on topic, Paul was not (and we should not be) ashamed of the Gospel because it is the "power of God...". The word used here is dynamis and means "power residing in a thing by virtue of it's nature" (and is also, to my understanding, the root of our word "dynamite"). For some reason, knowing the literal meaning of the word here speaks mountains to me. The Gospel, the Bible I have opened next to me, the knowledge we hold in our hearts, is the literal power of God. The power of God to redeem us, the power of God to stop Satan in his tracks, is the Gospel. And this power of God brings salvation to everyone who believes. And note that it says the power of God to bring salvation; not to bring religion to everyone who believes. That is salvation from sin and salvation to a relationship with the living God. Jesus, the Bible and specifically (for my purposes here), the book of Romans, demand a lot from us as Christians. These things are not asked of us for our salvation, however, they are asked of because of our salvation. I think it's important to get that out of the way right now. The gospel is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes. Period. Anything that's asked of us after that point is our response to that salvation, not our way of earning said salvation.
Paul then notes that this salvation is available to everyone who believes. I know I've bantered away about predestination a good bit while writing this. And I will talk about it again (specifically in Romans 8 and 9, just so you know when to expect it). But the basic point here is that, for our purposes, salvation is available to everyone who believes. And that's really all that we need to know. We don't need to have a full understanding of doctrine to know that we're saved or to know that we can and should share our stories with others who aren't saved. When we let go of our religious-ness (not a word, but I just made it one), we can easily see that the only reason a Christian is different from a non-Christian, is because Jesus stepped out and turned us around while we were dancing our way to Hell. It was not through any merit of our own. So the absolute right response to this is to tell people - anyone and everyone - so they can hopefully get some of that good grace too.
Not only is the gospel the power of God to bring salvation, but it is also the righteousness of God revealed. So what does that even mean? Generally, we think of righteousness, or at least the righteousness of men, as being conformed to a moral standard. But God has no standards other than His own self, so how does He conform to said standard? I believe what that means is literally that His actions are consistent with His own holy character. "God is always consistently Godly", to quote A.W. Tozer. God shows us His righteousness by revealing His will and word (the Gospel) to us and then acting in accordance with it, thus upholding His own standards.
Paul also mentions righteous men in this passage, and the only characteristic that he gives for righteous men is that they live by faith. That wasn't something he just thought of either, it actually came from Habakkuk 2:4. What that means to me is that a man (or woman) is made righteous by their faith in Jesus Christ. No one is good. Not even one. The only way that we can hope to be made righteous (ie conforming to His moral standard) is through Jesus Christ. We are all sinners, but He's got that covered.
[Yes. It took me way longer to crank this one out than I thought it would. Six days longer to be exact. I have definitely started brushing up on my Calvinism through this passage and hope to have it pretty refined by the time I get to chapter 8, because I will seriously need it at that point. Another week or two and I might actually make it through Romans 1. (Although I am considering revisiting Romans 1:14-16 next week, because Paul had a major case of the "I Am"s there and I think it might be worth addressing.)]
"The trouble ain't that there's too many fools, but that the lightening ain't distributed right." ~Mark Twain
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