Paul, Jesus’ Slave
Romans 1:1
“Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.”
Today we begin an in depth study of the Book of Romans, on of the most influential documents in all history. Besides it being instrumental to the conversion of St. Augustine. Martin Luther, and John Wesley, millions of Christians have been won or nurtured by this writing. As this is 2017 and the 500th year of the Protestant Reformation, it seemed good to me for us to begin this study. I do pray that the Holy Spirit will open our eyes to the truth of Romans.
We do know a few things about Romans. Romans itself tells us that it was written in Corinth before Paul’s journey to Jerusalem which would lead to his prolonged arrest and confinement. So it can be dated to around 58 AD. So it reflects the thinking of Paul over a long period of ministry.
We don’t know all that much about the Church of Rome of this day. Was there just one church, or were there different congregations at Rome? We don’t know that answer either, although it is likely that the churches met in different houses. We can surmise from the book of Acts that the word of Christ came to Rome before 50AD. Acts tells us that there was a riot of the Jews in Rome that caused the emperor Claudius to expel the Jews from Rome. A roman historian tells us the expulsion was due to a riot concerning one “Chrestus.” It is probable that this was a misunderstanding of “Christus” or Christ, or it could be a deliberate smear of the Christians as the term “Chrestus” means worthless. What seems likely that this riot was over Jesus and would fit in with riots recorded in the synagogues over the gospel in Acts. There is no evidence that Peter had ever been in Rome at this point, although if there were several congregations in Rome, it is not impossible.
We don’t even know the ethnic makeup of the congregation. Were they Jews or Gentiles? Scholars are deeply divided over the question, but it seems from following Romans that there were probably some of both.
We can probably say that the church knew about Paul, but at least for the majority of the people there, they had never met Paul. What they knew about Paul might or might not have been correct. It wasn’t Paul’s intent. But his message, like that of Jesus Himself was divisive. So what we have in Romans may serve to clarify to the Roman Church what Paul was preaching. This is especially so as Paul was planning to visit there and get support for a mission trip to Spain. We do know that Paul got to Rome in an unintended way and got into some disputes with the Jews there. We don’t know if he ever got to Spain or not.
We know a bit about Paul. Acts 8 talks about that Paul was a zealous Jew who tried to destroy Christianity in the bud. This is confirmed by Paul in several of his letters, including Galatians. He was dramatically converted on the way to Damascus and called to be an apostle to the Gentiles. After a time of preparation, Paul boldly proclaimed Christ in both the synagogues and in public venues. We know he met great opposition, especially from the Jews, and suffered greatly. Several of his letters to the churches he founded have been preserved for God’s purposes in the bible for our learning.
Now that we have had a very brief background sketch, let us now dive into the text of Romans. Today, we will cover just the first verse. It is Pauls introduction of himself to the Roman Church. This brief introduction is necessary before he introduces Jesus and the gospel. Even know this is a short introduction, it is, nevertheless, theologically packed. Paul uses three phrases to describe who he is. The three phrases overlap to make a composite picture of Paul’s ministry.
The first of these phrases is that Paul calls himself “a slave of Jesus Christ.” It is important to differentiate “slave” from “servant.” The Greek term used is “doulos” which means “slave” and not “diakonos” or “deacon” which means “servant.” Paul was not a hireling, a servant who was free but hired himself out for wages. He was in bondage to Jesus Christ. In the Roman world, slavery was common; in fact, it made up a majority of the population of Rome. There were probably slaves in the Roman congregation. But we must not think of slavery in the terms of American enslavement of Africans as well as native Americans. Slaves could actually commanded some authority. They ran households and served as tutors. Some actually became wealthy enough to buy their own freedom. Slaves actually were graded into 4 classes from “primus” to “quadratus” or one to fourth rank in English. Paul would have belonged in the Lord’s economy to a higher rank as he was invested to run the Lord’s affairs here.
But what is important about any slave is this. The slave did not have an effective will of his/her own. The expressed will of the slave was to obey his/her master in everything. The fact that a slave held a higher rank was not an exception. The high-ranking slave might have some liberty as to how his/her master’s will was to be carried out. In other words, the high-ranking slave was not micro-managed. The slave’s owner would from time to time issue executive orders which were to be followed, such as when Paul was diverted by the Holy Spirit from his intention to go to Asia and preach and was instead redirected to Macedonia. But Paul exercised some freedom of running the Lord’s affairs, as long as it was in accordance to the directives that had been given him.
I would think the same ideal hold true for all Christians. It isn’t only Paul who is to be a “slave of Jesus Christ.” The truth is we all are. The Christian walk is completely centered in Jesus. It is not a matter of our expressing our private will. We are all called to the obedience of faith. We sometimes tread God as if He were our slave who exists for us to excursive our wills. This is a capital mistake. We have some liberty in living out the Lord’s directives, but nevertheless, Jesus is THE HEAD of the body, the church. I might also add that the Lord appoints pastors and overseers who have authority over you to issue supplemental directives in carrying out the Lord’s will. In today’s American church, these words will raise hostility, but nevertheless, what I am saying comes directly from the Bible.
The second phrase Paul uses to describe himself is “called apostle.” The modern word for “apostle” would be “ambassador.” An ambassador is someone who is commissioned by the leader of a country to execute business in the name of that leader. Again, the authority of the ambassador comes from the leader. In the US, ambassadors are appointed (called) by the President as an intermediary to another country. Again like a slave, the ambassador is given some liberty to conduct routine business in accordance to his/her directive. But there are also times that he/she is given direct orders in dealing with important affairs. So Paul is letting the Church in Rome that his ministry was by direct appointment from the Lord. Therefore the authority he brings to and over the church comes from God Himself.
It seems that the term “apostle” is being used in many areas of the church today. I see people on Linked In addressing themselves as “Apostle” or even “Chief Apostle.” I would urge a lot of caution here. Did god call them to be “apostles” or are they “self-called” apostles. These so-called “apostles” were in the early church. In a formal sense, only those who were witnesses of the baptism of Jesus to the resurrection were “apostles.” Paul had seen the risen Lord, but not been a witness as far as we know of Jesus’ baptism. Paul calls others “apostles,” so in a less formal sense, one who is called by God to ministry is an apostle of sorts. But I feel that it is a term ripe for abuse of authority and should nt be used today.
The third phrase Paul uses is “separated unto the gospel of God.” There is a bit of humorous irony there. Paul was once a Pharisee which means “separated one.” The Pharisee made his own rules of interpretation of what it meant to be separated for God and applied these rules to himself. One thing was for certain. Any contact with Gentiles made one unclean. So the Pharisee carefully avoided them unless it was absolutely necessary. They would certainly not eat, worship or fellowship with them. Even when some became God-fearers or proselytes, they were kept at arm’s length. So here we have Paul, who was called to be an apostle to the very Gentiles he once despised. He was “separated.”
We should also notice it was the “gospel of God” and not the gospel of Christ. He was the slave of Jesus Christ, but Paul’s gospel was the “gospel of God.” The gospel belongs to the Holy Trinity as a whole. The gospel starts with God. As Martyn Lloyd Jones observes, the gospel begins with: “in the beginning. God….”
So in summary of this verse, we are confronted with the authority of Jesus Christ over the Church. We are also confronted that God appoints those over us for our direction. As with all Scripture, it’s authority comes from God Himself. These words are not the words of Paul. They are through Paul as a delegated authority over the church. But these words are to be obeyed as the Word of God. What we are about to study then is not advice, but instruction and command.
