Romans 1:1-5

"Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake," --Romans 1:1-5

Thoughts:

-- Paul wrote Romans, but some dude named Tertius actually "wrote" it (Romans 16:22). My Bible's little introduction-to-Romans section says that Romans was probably written after First and Second Corinthians. That is interesting to note, because it means he would have been on his third missionary journey.
-- Paul is a bond-servant of Christ Jesus. This is an intersting phrase: should we ALL be bond-servants of Christ Jesus? This same word is used to describe Moses in Exodus 14:31, and to describe David in the title of Psalm 18. Is this a special commission from the Lord, or is it the state of every believer? I tend to think we ought all to have this disposition: we are all slaves to something, according to Romans 6:15-19. Or, check out Galatians 1:10.
-- Paul is called as an apostle. This is NOT a general calling: we are not all to be apostles (Ephesians 4:11). But we ARE commanded to "walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called," (Ephesians 4:1). I feel like I could really go deep into Ephesians 4 here, but that will have to wait for another day. A question I do have: what is an apostle?? What does it mean for Paul to say that? Check out 1 Corinthians 9:1-2 and following.
-- The term "gospel of God" is also used in these places.
-- The gospel was promised beforehand through the prophets in the Scriptures. It would be interesting to read through the Old Testament looking for promises of the gospel to come! I think, for example, that Isaiah 59:15-17 is fascinating in this light, because it prophesies that God Himself would accomplish righteousness for His people. Jesus was not just a great man, He was (and is: Revelation 1:17-18) God!
-- Christ was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh. This is important because of Jeremiah 23:5-6, but also because of Psalm 110 (check out Acts 2:29-36). I may have more thoughts on this later, as it relates to replacement theology.
-- Christ's resurrection from the dead "declares" Him to be the Son of God. Interesting.
-- His resurrection (or is it the declaration? it might be good to check the Greek grammar here) is according to the "Spirit of holiness." I can't find this phrase anywhere else in the Bible. When the Bible uses the word "Spirit" does it ALWAYS mean a personal spirit? Or can it mean a "general aura" of holiness, or an "atmosphere" of holiness, or some other such thing?
-- Paul received (1) grace and (2) apostleship. These things are GIVEN -- look again at Ephesians 4:11 -- which means that we cannot cook up grace on our own. Or apostleship, for that matter. Once again, I think that one of these things is to be common in the life of every believer (grace), and the other is Paul's personal calling (apostleship). We should be encouraged that every person has gifts from the Lord: He gives it all, which means that what you have been given is a gift specific to your needs and abilities in the Lord. Use what God has given you to win the lost and to unify the Church!!
-- The reason Paul receives these things is in order to bring about the "obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake." There is a ton of information here. I would first note that God gives Paul these things to an end: they are meant to achieve a goal:
(a) to bring about the "obedience of faith." Works must accompany faith if it is faith at all (James 2:14, John 14:15). There is an obedience which corresponds to having faith.
(b) to do this "among all the gentiles." Paul was primarily an apostle to Gentiles whereas Peter was primarily an apostle to the Jews (Galatians 2:1-10). God wants the gospel to go into all the world: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations," Matthew 28:19. I think the word "among" is interesting here when coupled with "all". These two words indicate, simultaneously, that salvation will not come to every gentile (it will come AMONG all of them), and that salvation will come to every tribe and nation of gentiles (it will come among ALL of them). What power there is in the Word of God!!
(c) to do this "for His name's sake." The purpose of Paul receiving grace and apostleship, and the purpose of God saving some to Himself from among all the gentiles, is that His name be given glory. It is all for the sake of His name: for his reputation among the men and women of the world that we live in.

There is a lot in these first five verses that I haven't even touched, but I think this is enough to suit my purposes. I'm not writing a Bible commentary! But I do want to continue to use this space to work through the scriptures on a regular basis. If you read all my ramblings, congratulations, and I hope the time you spent here was edifying! Owen

Romans

I decided that I want to start memorizing Romans.

Crazy? Maybe. Should I start with something easier? Maybe. But I think I need to start really digging into the Word, and Romans as a book has influenced me more than any other in my life. When I was in High School I met every Sunday after church with a small group of friends, where we carefully went through the Word. I am not quite sure how long this lasted (about two years?) but by the end we had covered Romans and both Corinthian books in depth, along with some other books, I think. It was at this time that I had my first real accountability to fellow believers, and when I first began to really understand and formulate my own faith. Words like "righteousness" and "justification," for the first time, actually MEANT something: they were no longer fill-in-the-blank lyrics for sappy worship songs.

Memorizing scripture is vital to our Christian faith, but in the last several years I have been guilty of laziness in this area. Psalm 1:2 has not accurately described me. Consider the following:

Joshua 1:8, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success."

Psalm 119:9-11, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. With all my heart I have sought You; Do not led me wander from Your commandments. Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You."

John 14:26, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." (This may be referring to the apostles being able to remember the words of Christ so they could compose scripture, but God's spirit DEFINITELY brings scripture to our rememberance in our daily lives, too.)

I think I am going to use this medium as a way to help me as I work through the text bit-by-bit. I will probably post my thoughts on the passage I memorize, and I'll try to include cross-references that I come across, or questions that I have. If you read this feel free to let me know your thoughts on the text, or on my comments.

America?

And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man's foundation; but as it is written, "they who had no news of Him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand." --Romans 15:20-21

John Piper on this verse:

He is just passionate to get out of America. He is just passionate to get out of here. Where it has not already been named, "lest I build on someone else's foundation." Is there anybody in this room with that passion? "I don't want to build on my predecessor, I don't want to go to a church that is established! Give me a totally pagan people, give me a people that don't want me to come! Oh God, grant me to do what Paul did." If there is nobody like that in this room we may as well fold up the shop of Christianity, because that job is not done.

More To Come...

Why hello there!

This is my new blog, I will be using it to give some updates about my life, so that you can more easily keep in touch with me.

I am off to class. There will be more than this.

Owen