The Gospel of God
Romans 1:2-7
In the introduction to this series, we saw three ways which Paul introduces himself and his call to the Roman congregation. He called himself “a slave of Jesus Christ”, a “called apostle,” and “separated unto the Gospel of God. Today we will zero in on what the “Gospel of God” is. We know that Paul emphatically states his total commitment to this gospel. But what exactly is this gospel.
The Greek at the end of verse one immediately presents us with an apparent dilemma. Greek, like the English translation “of God” presents two possibilities. One of these possibilities is that the Gospel of God is the good news about God. It certainly seems to be “good news” if we discover a God who is willing to pardon rather than just judge our sin. The other possibility is that it is good news from God. In this view, God is the author of the plan of salvation. This too, seems plausible.
Perhaps it isn’t a dilemma at all. Perhaps it is both, a Gospel about God from God. The fact is that only God can reveal Himself. This is what Paul will affirm. This revelation comes from both the created order and from Scripture. So if anything is to be known about God, it is known directly or indirectly from God. So any gospel or “good news” must come from God Himself. But the content of the Gospel is about what God has done. God has demonstrated both His wrath and His willingness to pardon in action. So the gospel is about God as well. So instead of an either-or proposition, we should affirm both as true.
In verse 2, Paul reveals how God has revealed the Gospel. The Gospel does not begin with the book of Matthew. Rather it begins in the Old Testament. Many Christians today make the capital mistake of starting in the New Testament and reducing the Old Testament to secondary status at best. But Paul’s first statement about the Gospel was that it was preached in advance of Christ’s coming and recorded in the Old Testament. In reality, the Gospel actually begins immediately after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden in, the Gospel begins with God seeking out Adam and Eve in the Garden. They ran and hid and covered themselves. Sinners cannot look into the face of a holy and righteous God. But God, instead of striking them down dead immediately, instead sought out Adam and Eve. Yes there was curse and severe judgment. But God also came with words of promise. One of the descendants of Eve would have a Son whose heel would be bruised by Satan, but in return this son would deal a death-blow to the head of Satan. Here you have the Gospel in a nutshell. A suffering human would defeat Satan and remove the curse. See it for yourself in Genesis 3:15. This is where the Gospel truly begins.
The rest of the Old Testament, the Holy Scripture to which Paul refers here, is in a sense mere commentary on this passage. It narrows the scope of this promise to one particular Son, Jesus. By the way, Jesus constantly challenged His hearers to search the Scripture. He opened the eyes of the Apostles as well as the Emmaus disciples so that they could see the good news in the Old Testament, and that His own vicarious suffering and resurrection was prophesied in what we call the “Old Testament.” Psalms 22 and 118 as will as Isaiah 53 most prominently bring this out, but there are many other places where Jesus can be found in the Old Testament. There were witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. They ate and drank with Jesus. Paul in 1 Corinthians states that more than 500 saw Him after the resurrection. Peter in Acts reminds the Jews that Jesus went around doing good. The miracles and works that He did which no other man did testify about Jesus. Jesus’ own teaching testifies about Himself. The Holy Spirit and the mighty deeds the early church empowered by the Holy Spirit did testify of Jesus. A little later in Romans, Paul will even assert that nature testifies about Him. Nevertheless, what is stated as first among these evidences is the evidence from the Old Testament.
The content of this good news is about God’s Son. Paul in the following verses may be quoting from a common Christian confession. Paul may well be assuring the Roman church which probably had Jewish origins and probably still contained many Jews that the Gospel he preached was the same gospel that the other Apostles like Peter preached.
The first of these assertions about God’s Son is that Jesus was the Son of David according to the flesh. This is a statement of Jesus’ humanity. It is one assertion that Jewish opponents did not challenge. If they could discredit this statement about Jesus, or they certainly would have. The Pharisees believed that the delivering Messiah was to be a descendant of David. The Scriptures clearly demonstrate this necessity. There was some talk of a priestly Messiah, especially in the Qumran community who would suffer for his people. We Christians do not separate the two Messiah’s but see Christ as fulfilling both roles, although the right of priesthood was not established in the Levitical priesthood, but rather in that of Melchizedek who is mentioned in Psalm 110 which talks about a descendant of David: “You are a Priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”
The next statement Paul makes concerns the divinity of Jesus. It talks about His resurrection from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit and his ascension to heaven in power. This act of resurrection and ascension declares who Jesus is. It was proof of the divine approval and appointment of Jesus. It does not mean that Jesus before his incarnation was not the Son. It does not deny that this divine Son shed his divinity to become man either. The teaching of the two natures of Christ goes back to the early church, and the Chalcedonian Creed only affirms what Scripture teaches about Jesus.
The third statement Paul makes is that Jesus Christ is LORD. Many of the Scriptures used by Paul, the other Apostles and the early church were Old Testament quotations about Yahweh which the Christian Church affirmed to Jesus. Jesus was the Yahweh of the Old Testament. The Holy Trinity in which Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equal, distinct, yet one Yahweh is the confession of orthodoxy. So I think this is what Paul is saying here. Jesus was not just an exalted being under God, but is Yahweh which is translated “LORD”. As Paul states in Philippians, it is to Jesus that every knee shall bow and confess Jesus as Yahweh. Paul here connects the divine Son of the Old Testament promise as being Jesus of Nazareth.
Paul now further describes the result of this Gospel of God. He states that through Jesus, we have received grace and apostleship. Is Paul referring to the Apostles like himself, or is this something bestowed upon all Christians? Whereas it cannot be denied that all Christians are recipients of grace in Jesus Christ, the idea of universal apostleship is of great controversy today. There are many who are now calling themselves by the title of “apostle.” There are others in the church who are uncomfortable with this self-designation, including myself. But Paul in verse six does seem to include the Roman church when he states: “In whom you and me are called of Jesus Christ.” In chapter 15, he calls Junia one of his fellow-apostles, and she was a woman!
If we believe in the “universal priesthood of all believers,” why not assert the “universal apostleship of all believers?” If the universal priesthood is correctly understood in the sense that the church as a whole, of whom Jesus is the head exercises a universal priesthood, then the universal apostleship of the church of which Jesus is the head can also be affirmed. The Bible says that we are all of one body, even though we serve different functions in that body. We affirm this in the breaking of bread where the one loaf is distributed to the believers, each a part, yet confessing that the body of Christ is one and whole. His brokenness becomes the means of our unity in Him. Paul says in Corinthians that: “We all (plural) are the Temple (singular) of the Holy Spirit. So we do share in Christ’s apostleship as members of His body even as we share in His priesthood. But this should be seen in the context of the church body.
In verse seven, Paul gets around to identifying the recipients. Some think that Paul wrote this as a circular letter to several churches as they also think about Ephesians, but it seems better to see this letter as being written specifically to the Roman church. Paul is known for his extended sentences and to this point has not used a single main verb. Verses one through seven are actually one sentence. Even here, the verb “be” in this verse has to be supplied as there is actually not a single stated indicative verb in these seven verses.
In verse seven, Paul affirms the Christian status of the Roman church. They are fellow saints who have been called by God in the same way Paul had been called, even if their conversion lacked the drama we see in Paul’s. They are beloved by God. Both statements also are subtle hints to the church to be the church God has called them to be. And this also serves for us. Quite often, we don’t demonstrate very well what called us to be. There is not enough of God’s grace and peace demonstrated in the church. Grace (Charis) is a Gentile greeting and peace (shalom). The union of Jew and Gentile is a bold demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit and testifies to the legitimacy of the church. So is this what we see in today’s church which is fractured by denominations, social classes, age groups, nationality, and pet doctrines? Where is the grace? Where is peace? Where is holiness in the church? These are things that God demands of us, and when these things are not demonstrated, one must question whether it is a church at all.
So in Romans, which has often been used as a means of promoting individual freedom, grace, salvation, priesthood, apostleship, etc., we are immediately met with a challenge to this. I am not denying that one has to personally come to Christ and be saved. It is true God has no grandchildren. And for new converts, just like newborn babies, there are selfish needs that must be met in new converts. But like children, when one comes to maturity, one learns to function as part of a social unit called a family. The same is true of the convert. The convert has to learn how to function within a social organization called “the church.” This is how we must understand the Book of Romans and how I will proceed from here in the study.
