Studying His Word and His Works

Listen to the study here: Romans 1:1-7

Read here: Romans 1

• Verse 1
  • Paul begins Romans with one long sentence, lasting 7 verses. In verse 1, he introduces several themes he returns to again and again throughout the letter. Christians are servants of Jesus Christ, called by God, set apart by God for the gospel.
  • Servant
    • Romans was written in Greek, so it helps to refer to Greek to gain more meaning of specific words. For example, servant is doulos in Greek, a slave, purchased by the owner, and once purchased became the master’s possession. In the Hawaiian Bible (Ka Baibala Hemolele) servant is kauwa, the lowest class, the slaves in their pre- Christian kapu system. Normally, slavery is a wicked thing, but not when Christ owns you. It’s the only doulos that can be considered a “good doulos.” We may have abolished slavery in America in the late 1800s, but forms of slavery, of human trafficking and worse, still occur in the US and worldwide. Slavery was ended by nations with majority Christian populations and laws founded in Scripture, which is one of many reasons why missions are so important still today.
    • Many other New Testament passages refer to this “good doulos:”
      • 1 Cor 6:19-20, We “were bought with a price,” Christ’s death on the cross. This passage is in the context of fleeing from sexual immorality. As Christians, you don’t own your body any more, Christ does, he wants every part of you. It’s not “my body, my choice” as you hear some people say regarding abortion. As Christians, it’s “my body, His will.”
      • Acts 20:28, 2 Peter 2:1 attest to being bought.
      • Galatians 1:10 describes being a slave to Christ, that believers no longer seek approval of men, but of Christ.
      • Later in Romans, Paul contrasts slavery to sin with slavery to Christ. Humans are either one or the other.
  • Called to be an apostle
    • According to Scripture, apostles were either 1) disciples during Christ’s earthly ministry, 2) eyewitness of the resurrection, or 3) directly and immediately called by Jesus (how Paul became an apostle, Acts 9). Beware of “new” apostles in today’s church, where some use verses like I Corinthians 12:28 to establish a hierarchy of church structure. This verse is describing how the New Testament church was established historically, through the apostles as the Bible defines them above.
      • In Acts 1:20-26, Matthias became the next apostle after Judas died, based on 1) and 2) above, they actually played a game of chance (casting lots) between him and Justus and Matthias won! In God’s providence, there is no such thing as “luck,” God is in charge of even games of chance (Proverbs 16:33).
  • Set apart
    • Paul did not set himself apart, God did. Paul makes it very clear in verse 1 that this is God’s doing, that Christ owns him, that God set him apart and not the other way around.
  • The gospel of God
    • Do you have a sense that you are set apart for the gospel? Like, it is something you can’t completely put your finger on, but you can sense it, and you know it is something you need to be apart of? You read verses like Romans 1:1-7 and think, “That’s what team I’m on, that’s me, a servant of Christ.”
    • The gospel means “good news,” and Paul clarifies that this is God’s gospel and he is just the messenger. Later, Paul does refer to it as “my gospel,” but does so in the context of “the preaching of Jesus Christ.” (Romans 16:25), again emphasizing his role as a messenger of a divinely inspired word.
• Verse 2
  • Promised beforehand
    • This is the same gospel proclaimed in the Old Testament! Did you know that the whole story in the Bible has always been about believers, about the faithful? It’s ultimately not about nations or ethnicities or earning your salvation. It’s about faith.
  • Through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures
    • It is clear in his writing that Paul 100% believed the OT is God’s word. He believed it was true in every aspect, from the prophecies fulfilled to the timing of events in real history.
    • It’s important to remember too that before salvation, Paul was a zealous Pharisee (Philippians 3). He was a top-notch OT scholar, and it shows. His skill in connecting the gospel to the OT is truly remarkable, and it is something you will miss if you simply read a chapter and move on. If you don’t have a study Bible, get one. Even the online ESV version (esv.org) is better than no study Bible, as it has clickable references to related NT and OT passages. Paul was an absolute master at letting “Scripture interpret Scripture.” He didn’t come up with a bunch of “new revelations,” but instead showed how God’s word has always pointed to Jesus. In Chapter 9 alone, Paul references almost 50 OT passages!
  • Jesus also spoke of the OT many times, including about his resurrection (Luke 24:27), as Paul mentions in verse 4.
  • As an apostle, Christ speaks through Paul. This is why the NT is written either by apostles (Paul, Peter, John, James, etc.), or those like Luke who had access to the apostles and traveled with them.
• Verse 3
  • The Father’s Son
    • Jesus is God, begotten, not made (John 1, Hebrews 1:3, Philippians 2:6)
  • Descended from David
    • Jesus is fully God and fully man, his human or “according to the flesh”  lineage is as a descendent of king David. 
• Verse 4
  • Trinity
    • Son: A Father is assumed if you’re called a Son.
    • According to the Spirit
    • Some people say “the word Trinity is not in the Bible,” as if logic and reason and of course Scripture itself don’t point to the three-in-one nature of God. The word Trinity is not a new revelation, it’s a conclusion.
  • Verse 4 completes the description of Jesus being fully man (verse 3) and fully God
    • Connects his spiritual aspects to the resurrection
  • Jesus Christ our Lord: Jesus is his name, full name would be Jesus bar Joseph or Jesus of Nazareth. Christ means The Messiah of Israel. 
  • “And” is a common theme in Romans. God is complex, He orchestrates an uncountable number of things simultaneously. That’s where “and” comes into play. Verse 4 begins with “and,” connecting the truths that Jesus is both fully God and fully man. God is not Father/Son “or” Holy Spirit, He is Father AND Son AND Holy Spirit.
• Verse 5
  • We have received grace through the Holy Spirit
    • Paul is saying this is how he received apostleship. Remember, he was persecuting Christians before God saved him. Paul knows, better than most, that grace is received, not earned.
• Verse 6
  • Verse 6 continues describing how God saves us, distinguishing Paul’s “apostleship” role as something unique (see comments on Verse 1). Paul again mentions God’s sovereignty in our salvation, that although believers may “cry out to Jesus,” the reality is that He called us first, through the Holy Spirit.
    • It is through Holy Spirit, Christ in us, we are able to “bring about” obedience.
    • Truly called have this trajectory, this “bringing about” of obedience that is part of the Christian walk and a big theme in Romans.

• Verse 7
  • Called to be a saint
    • In verses 1-7, Paul uses words like “set apart”(v.1) and “called” to describe the transformation that happens at the moment of salvation, from slaves to the world to slaves for Jesus. Another word the Bible uses is “elect.”
      • Ekklesia is Greek for the church, and it means “called out of”. So we are the ones who have been called out of the world by God.
    • Believers are saints. There is no study period, no works beforehand, not test. Jesus did the work, when we are saved we become saints!
      • Saint means “sanctified one.” Sanctify means “set apart for sacred use.” In pre-Christian Hawaii, the kauwa, or slaves, were sometimes used as human sacrifice victims to dedicate the construction of a new temple. They were slaves to the wicked system, they had no choice. Paul calls us doulos, slaves bought with a price. But he also says we are called. Believers are now slaves to righteousness, which Paul describes in more detail later in Romans 6. Kauwa or not, we are born into wickedness. Ultimately, we did not choose this, it was a result of Adam and Eve’s bad choice that sin and its penalty, death, entered the world. But Paul says Christians are called, which means at some point, we had to answer the call. We had to believe. We had to repent. And the only way we could do that is because the Holy Spirit was already at work in us. Leading us.
      • That there is nothing we can do towards our salvation becomes clearer as you read through Romans, so don’t stop reading here! And be okay with not understanding everything perfectly. Stay humble. This is you and I, mere mortals, trying to understand through Paul’s letter to the Romans how our infinite God operates. And as you will see, even Paul concedes that we aren’t called to know everything perfectly. We are called to believe.
      • When we answer the call, we become saints, set apart for righteous works instead of wicked ones. We need to walk in those. Paul talks about walking in those works in Ephesians 2:10. Romans is just 1 of 66 books, it doesn’t have all the answers, but we can look to other books for clarification, and trust God with the rest.
      • Set apart. Called. Saints. All these words Paul uses to show us believers are not to be like the world (Romans 12:2). By God’s grace alone, we are to establish our own culture and let the world conform to it, not the other way around.
  • Greetings
    • After one giant sentence, Paul greets the saints in Rome with “grace and peace.” There’s that “and” word again. Grace and peace go together. The peace that comes from God is by His grace, not something we earned, or deserve.
• Click here for Romans 1:8-17.