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God is starting something new in you!
Thank you for tuning into FirstDay. I am Patrick Cooley, pastor of Northport Methodist Church. You can visit the podcast website at, firstday.us, and there you can link back and listen to every episode of FirstDay from way back in 2017. So, it started when I was still serving a church in Vernon. So I am I'm I'm excited and glad to be back at it in the grand scheme of things, and I am very excited to start Romans chapter 1 with everyone.
Patrick:You'll you'll notice here from the very beginning, just right at the offset outset of this letter to the Romans, that, sometimes in the translations, Paul's can get Paul's verses and sentences can get a little verbose. So oftentimes, what we're gonna find here as we go through Romans is we will start at the end of the sentence and kind of work our way back up. And sometimes we'll start in the middle of the sentence in terms of unpacking. So, it can be, it it Paul can be a little daunting sometimes if you, if you go by sentence structure and and sentence length. For instance, this o the opening sentence of the letter to the Romans, 1 chapter 1 beginning at verse 1 in the NASB, the opening sentence runs 7 verses.
Patrick:But in that 7 verses, there's an awful lot of information. Paul, a bondservant 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 a son who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God by power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles in behalf of His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. 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. So so here in this opening, this this the the greeting here at the beginning, these these first seven verses, we learn that Paul is doing what he is doing because he is called to do it. He he he states at the at the very beginning in the in in the first verse that he is a bondservant or a slave of Christ Jesus.
Patrick:He he has no other choice other than to serve Christ Jesus. He is called as an apostle set apart for the gospel of God. Recall, this is a man that had made a name for himself by hunting down Christians and bringing and by bringing them to trial. In fact, he was headed up to Damascus to arrest Christians, Jewish Christians there, when Jesus claimed him and made him a bond servant. So he can't do he's telling the Romans here, he can't do anything other than what he does because of who he has become through the agency and by the presence of Jesus Christ.
Patrick:And what we'll see here in these next few verses, that what is being done is sort of or what was being done through Him and and what has been done through the ministry of of Christ and His presence and by the Spirit and by what He has done, has been in the works for a long, long time. Sort of like this it's an inevitable machine, like that scene in, one of the Austin Power movies where the he's on the the the steamroller and the guards stop. And it's the, you know, the steamroller is just moving so so so slowly, and God never gets out of the way. That's that's that's sort of that's sort of you know, I kinda picture that here. That the Holy Spirit is this steamroller, and it's coming whether you want it to or not.
Patrick:And and we'll see this idea of the inescapable nature of God's call, and the inescapable nature of what Jesus has done, or the, the the quality of, being inescapable in terms of Jesus and what he's done on the cross, We'll see this this kind of identity oriented thing as we progress on through Romans. As I said in the introduction episode, this book is really is very much about identity, which is something quite, was ever present in 21st century western world right now. So so he is called to be an apostle, and he is set apart for the gospel of God. He has this purpose. He has the purpose.
Patrick:We we learn later in this opening sentence, He has the purpose of bringing about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles in behalf of His name. So that's verse number 5. So this is the purpose that he's he's set apart for, is to do that. And this thing that Paul does, he says to the Romans in chapter in verse number 2, was promised throughout the Holy Scriptures. Now note this as we go on here through, and I think sometimes we have a tendency to forget this as Christians.
Patrick:When the New Testament or when the Bible refers to the Scriptures, in, our Christian Bibles, it's referring to the Old Testament. It's it's referring to the the story of God and His relationship with His people and the redemption of the the covenant, the, the the promise to make everything right again at some point. It's all of the prophets. It's all of the writings. It's all of the history.
Patrick:So Paul here Paul here says at verse number 2 that what is being done is not something new. It's not something spur of the moment. It is something that has been promised by God's prophets in the Holy Scriptures. All those promises that Isaiah made, all those promises that Daniel made, all those promises that we we we find in the minor prophets, All of these are coming to pass, and all of these are being fulfilled. It was a plan laid out long ago.
Patrick:So he is a slave for Christ Jesus, so he can do none he can do none other than what he is doing. He was called by Christ as an apostle, one who will bring about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles. And all of this was promised beforehand. It's been essentially in God's, purview of things already written in stone. It's it's inescapable.
Patrick:And this message, we see we see it kind of fleshed out here a little bit more in verse number 3, concerning His Son. So He is a bondservant, and this promise concerns his son, Jesus, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh. So this is all founded upon Jesus. It's all founded upon His mission, and all of these promises concern the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and gives us the heritage. He was born of David according to the flesh, matching up with the prophecies and the promises made in Isaiah, for instance.
Patrick:He was declared the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So he was declared the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. So that's really the key here, the the being set apart. Now, yes, we we just celebrated Jesus' baptism. And, yes, when He comes up out of the water, be when He comes up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove, and the voice of God declares that he is a son and that God is is pleased with him.
Patrick:But here Paul says very specifically, that hang on one second. Sorry, my computer for some reason went to a screen, went to sleep. For some, and so what what Paul says here very, very specifically is that the spirit of holiness, that that Jesus is declared the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead. So Jesus in Jesus' resurrection, that that act of resurrection is this declaration that Jesus is truly the Son of God, that He is Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 5, through whom through Jesus Christ, through whom we have received well, through whom the resurrected Jesus Christ, through whom we have received grace and apostleship, and the we here, as we will see all through the letter to the Romans, is the the royal we for the most part.
Patrick:So so Paul here is saying that, through whom through Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, through whom he has received grace and apostleship so this is why he is an apostle. He's called to be an apostle. He can be an apostle because the risen Lord, who was risen in power, has the power to do that, to to to claim Paul, to set him apart, to give him the ability to bring about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles in behalf of His name. So as an apostle, he says Paul says to the Romans, as an apostle of Christ, it is my responsibility to bring you Roman church back together as a singular church and put you back on that path of discipleship and that path of the life of Jesus Christ. Because they, the Romans, had been called the same way that that Paul has.
Patrick:They they were also, in verse number 6, called of Jesus Christ. Even though they were Gentiles, they were called of Jesus Christ. So here at the very very outset of the letter, the actual beginning of the outset, Paul essentially tells the church of Rome that what he is doing, he can do no other. That he has no no option that he is a slave. He was set apart by the risen Lord Jesus, who had received power through that resurrection from the dead.
Patrick:He has been given the power of God, set apart so that He might proclaim the gospel to the world, to the Gentiles, so that the Gentiles might, take hold of and become, obedient and have an obedient faith in God because they too have been called like him. They too have been set apart and made holy like him by the resurrection of the dead. So so I I that resurrection is the sign, the symbol, the proof that Jesus Christ was obedient and fulfilled the will of God. And we'll learn He fulfilled the will of God on our behalf. So this little first section here is incredibly dense.
Patrick:And again, at verse number 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. Notice, in these first seven verses in this opening sentence of the letter, how many times the word called is used. The That's something I I think we tend to to forget. We we as Christians nowadays, we make our faith so much about us and about feeling good and about our security, etcetera. But it's that's not what it's about.
Patrick:It it's about answering the call to be apostles, answering the call to to be, to help bring about the obedience of others. The the church of Rome, the Romans are there because God in Christ called them as saints, called them to be set apart as well, called them to be holy, called them to have this purpose that they are going to live. And and I and I think when we start realizing that our relationship with Christ Jesus is not for our benefit, but it is for the benefit of others, When we start to kinda let that sink in as Christians and we let that sink in as, as as the church, I I I think it brings a whole new meaning and depth and and strength and transformative power to to our faith. It takes our faith, the eyes of our hearts off of ourselves and places the eyes of our hearts on Jesus Christ, who then turns the our eyes out to others so that they might come to, so that we might, in others, bring about the obedience of faith among them. Again, back in back in verse number 5, Paul has received grace and apostleship for a purpose.
Patrick:He has received grace not to allow him to go to heaven or to escape the fires of hell. He has received grace and apostleship for the purpose of bringing about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles. So I want to just kind of sink sink in on that one, ponder that for a a little bit after this is over with. Read read through that a few times and and and notice that there is a reason and there are expectations of performance once we enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ, no matter how that relationship was started. Some argue, some Christians argue that Jesus is the primary initiator of all contact.
Patrick:Others say Jesus is kinda there, and we choose to respond or choose not. And we'll talk about those sorts of things at some at some later point. Regardless of who initiates the relationship. And by the way, I believe Jesus initiates the relationship. Once we enter into that relationship, once we open the door, once we once we say to Christ Jesus, I will follow you and I can do no other thing.
Patrick:Once we realize that we have been enslaved bond servants, once we have been enslaved by Christ Jesus, unpopular word but, you know, it's one of those loaded words but that's what it is, we realize that we can we we we can do no other thing. Once we take our eyes off of ourselves and turn them toward the one who is calling us and empowering us, the one who has given us grace, and we realize that we're in this new covenant and we have a new essentially a new covenantal agreement with Him. Paul's disciple Luke will write about the new covenant in the grand scheme of things and the new law, the law of the spirit, the law of life in Luke chapter 6, we realized once we enter into that relationship, we must do the things that He has called us to do. And what we do, we do for the purposes that He has laid forth, and that is to bring about the obedience of faith among other people. And I think that's very, very important.
Patrick:So with that, I am Patrick Cooley, pastor of Northport Methodist Church, owner and host of the FirstDay podcast. Please listen, like, and subscribe. You can reach out to me at connect at firstdate.us, and I look forward to continuing this journey through Romans with you. Blessings and goodbye for now.