Studying His Word and His Works

Listen to the study here: Romans 1:8-17

Read here: Romans 1

• Verse 8
  • First, I am thankful
    • Thankful “through Jesus Christ”. The Greek here for “thank” is eucharisto, where we get the word Eucharist, a word used to describe the celebration of Lord’s Supper. In the early church, thanksgiving was a central theme of the celebration. 
    • As an apostle, Paul understood his unique God-given role in the Church, and the responsibility he had to set the tone. So, when he writes “First, I am thankful,” Paul is letting his readers know thankfulness is a priority in the Christian life. Thankfulness is a mindset. An “attitude of gratitude” is a sign of Christ in us. Later in Chapter 1, Paul contrasts this with being unthankful, so buckle up, because things get really raw and unfiltered after verse 17!
  • Faith proclaimed in “all the world.” In that time, “world” meant the known world, which meant the Mediterranean world for the Romans.
• Verses 9-10
  • For God is my witness
    • Paul wants the Roman church to know he is serious about wanting to visit them, makes a vow before God that he means it when he says he has been praying that he could come see them. He reveals many times in Romans the importance of fellowship among believers. The Christian walk is not a solo journey.
    • Paul wrote this letter around Acts 20:2-3. Little did he know he would come to Rome as a prisoner (Acts 27-28).
  • Another Trinity reference, v.4 in the last study.
    • “For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son…”
      • God and Son and “my spirit”; as a Christian his Spirit, the Holy Spirit is in us now, too. 
    • The gospel of his Son
      • Gospel of God in verse 1, connecting God=Father=Son, and Christ’s ownership of the gospel. 
      • It is important for Paul to identify the euangelion (Greek for gospel, which means good news) with Jesus, because gospel is a common OT word. This gospel is the good news of what Jesus did for us.
        • Isaiah 52:7, “how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news” (referenced in Romans 10:15). In OT days, watchmen in a city’s watchtower would look for runners returning from battle. A slow runner meant bad news, while a fast one meant good news. 
      • If we tell a friend, “I became a Christian,” we are not sharing the gospel of Jesus, we are telling them about ourselves. The gospel of Jesus is about what He did: His life of perfect obedience, His atoning death on the cross to be the final sacrifice of sin for the whole world, paying the debt of sin for all who believe, His resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven, and His outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the church.
        • This is the objective aspect of the gospel of Christ, which Paul describes so thoroughly in Romans. 
        • The subjective aspect is about what this means to us, which especially means that we are justified by faith alone (v. 17, Eph 2:8-9, etc.)
        • RC Sproul stresses the importance of preaching the gospel of Jesus, and how many modern churches are moving away from this. If you are searching for a church, pray God brings you to one where the pastor shows real concern for the members to articulate Christ’s gospel.
• Verse 11
  • Impart to you a spiritual gift
    • The point is to establish believers in confidence and maturity in their faith, “to strengthen you.”
    • The point is not to share a charismatic gift, like Paul can just touch them and impart spiritual gifts that way.
    • Thomas Schreiner writes that the spiritual gift is the letter itself.
• Verse 12
  • “Mutual faith of both you and me,” Paul has a very humble and pastoral tone here. He never treats his readers as inferiors, but as fellow saints that can also encourage him. There is a definite benefit in seeing brothers and sisters grow in faith. There is a bonding that happens when we are all headed the same direction, and it is a good bond for when trials come our way.
• Verse 13
  • Paul’s desire to visit is not just to strengthen faith of saints, but to reap a harvest among unbelievers in Rome.
  • The Gentiles are the main population left in Rome at this time, because the Roman emperor Claudius kicked out the Jews right before Paul wrote this.
• Verse 14
  • Under obligation
    • Paul’s obligation here is a moral obligation. He names a few groups of people, but in verse 5 he refers to “all the nations,” in verse 7 to “all in Rome called to be saints,” and in v. 16 that the gospel is “for everyone”. It is important to let Scripture interpret Scripture here, and not think, “oh, why didn’t he specifically mention blacks here, he must be racist,” or draw some other weird conclusion. He is identifying some of the key groups he hopes to reach, and actually he is saying here “I don’t care how elite (Greek) or backwoods redneck (barbarian) you are, I don’t care how wise or foolish you are, if God calls you, I want to be there for you and share the gospel of Jesus with you.” This is also why memorizing a large chunk of Scripture can be good, so we don’t forget the context. Martin Luther, for example, recommended memorizing the entire book of Romans! Time to get started.
• Verse 15
  • Be eager to share the gospel. God may have a specific individual or group for you to witness to, just like Paul did with the Romans.
• Verse 16
  • Not ashamed
    • One of the most famous verses in the Bible, and one that is easier said than done! Are you ashamed of the gospel? Is there a difference between being ashamed and being reluctant to talk about Jesus? Like, is there a time where keeping your mouth shut is not done because you are ashamed of Jesus? Shame means being embarrassed or humiliated. There will be times in your Christian walk when you really do need to kick yourself for being ashamed to share the gospel (I am speaking from experience here), while there are other times when it’s just not the right time. A quick self-test for you is that if every time is “not the right time,” then you probably are ashamed of Christ’s gospel.
  • The gospel is power, “the power of God for salvation.”
    • Greek dunamos=power, which is where the word dynamite originated.
    • This is why we want to share Christ’s gospel, that’s where the power is. Not in us, we are just the messengers.
    • Martin Luther said that the gospel rightly preached can bring conflict, so people water it down to prevent conflict. But then darkness creeps in, which is why the Reformation was needed.
    • It is important to note that Martin Luther, the key figure of the Protestant Reformation, emphasized getting to know the Bible and having a Bible-centered, not man-centered Church. He could have promoted the reading of books or the memorizing of Roman Catholic Church rules and regulations, but instead he promoted memorizing the Bible.
    • Although the Reformation had been going on for some time, October 31, 1517 is considered the starting date, when Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenburg, Germany. At the time, people in Germany were looking for power in relics, physical objects that were said to have a direct physical connection to Jesus Christ, his mother Mary, or an important saint from church history. People would worship or “venerate” these objects. Relics might be things like a piece of Joseph’s pants, straw from Jesus’ crib, part of John the Baptist’s beard, etc. People were looking for a powerful experience, as many are today (including new age movement), when true power is in Christ alone. Sproul says “Only one is omnipotent, and He is the Lord God, and the Lord God has power to spare. He does not need Joseph’s pants.” 
    • Satan’s playbook of deceptions is small but effective. Always tempting with “anything but Jesus” distractions. The relics of the past are the new age crystals of today, or within the Church the emphasis on a “something for me” consumer mentality, forgetting that we, like Paul are called to be servants, not spectators.
• Verse 17
  • The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith(also “faith to faith”)
    • This is the verse that awakened Luther, after reading Augustine’s commentary, and sparked the Reformation. This is not God’s own righteousness, but the gift of righteousness He provides for people, for “those called to be saints” (verse 7) because we have no righteousness. Luther called it “alien righteousness.” It is alien to us humans.
    • “From faith for faith” or “faith to faith” is an interesting phrase, but it probably means that right standing before God is by faith from start to finish. 
    • We are not talking about believing in God here, we are talking about trusting him. Even demons believe in God (James 2:19). Sproul says this does not require a crucifixion of our intellect or a blind leap of faith. We are Christians because there’s been a crucifixion of pride. There is a relationship difference there, a bonding that goes on, a spiritual event that we cannot fully comprehend but know it’s there. His spirit in us now. A receiving of His gift of faith. A humble acknowledgment that we have nothing to give a righteous God but our debt of sin.
    • It’s not believing in God that saves us, but believing Him. Believing he lived a life of perfect obedience, His atoning death on the cross, His resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven, and His outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the church. 
  • “The righteous shall live by faith” is from Habakuk 2:4. This has always been true, and if you don’t believe that now, then keep reading Romans. In the OT, the righteous believed His prophecies would be fulfilled. They believed His word and trusted Him. There are OT verses pointing to the gospel saving people like Abraham, Moses, etc. I won’t get into that here, but Hebrews 11-12 and Galatians 3:8-9 are a few places.
• Click here for Romans 1:18-25.