Introduction
The themes in the book of Romans include our need for a savior, the righteousness of Jesus Christ and our spiritual condition as sinners. The book is clear that Jesus came to save us. This is the gospel and in Romans Paul makes this his central focus. We are saved when we put our faith in Jesus Christ who died for us on the cross. Paul dives right in, and these opening verses go straight into these great themes of our faith.
Most of the background we find written about the book of Romans come from somewhere besides these opening verses. When Paul introduces himself in the book of Romans, he does not give his background. He introduces himself as a servant of Christ Jesus. He gives the background to Jesus Christ who called him. This is a book about the gospel and who Jesus is.
Paul speaks of 13 important theological concepts. If we understand every term in these seven verses we have a strong theological foundation as disciples of Christ. These terms are:
God
Son of David
Son of God
The resurrection
The Holy Spirit
Messiah
Scriptures
Grace
Faith
The church
The gospel
Apostle
The great commission
When we read the entire first chapter and get much more about sin and justification by faith we can say that understanding Romans chapter 1 gives us a solid theological foundation as a Christian.
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— (Romans 1:1)
Paul wrote Romans while he was in Corinth at the end of his third missionary journey. He had done the pioneer church planting ministry as he said, “from Jerusalem to Illyricum,” and he was ready to go to Rome as a launching pad to take the gospel ministry to what was then the regions beyond in Spain, the more remote place.
He has never been to Rome when he wrote this. Paul had been close to Rome when he went to Illyricum, just a trip across the Adriatic Sea and then a brief land journey away. Although he had not physically been there the church in Rome was loaded with some of his best partners from his last twenty plus years of ministry.
When we look at Romans chapter 16 and see the list of Paul’s partners in the gospel ministry who he mentions by name it becomes apparent that though Paul had never visited Rome he was very connected to many people there. His main partners of the work in Corinth, Aquila and Pricilla had returned to Rome by this time.
The Gospel and the prophets
The Bible as we have now, contains the Old Testament and the New Testament. There is a difference in the two testaments, and yet there is a harmony. From the fall of man in the Garden of Eden there have been prophesies about the coming Messiah. These promises about the Messiah were clearly proclaimed by the prophets.
the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures (Romans 1:2)
Paul was serious about his statement that the gospel was promised beforehand by the Old Testament prophets. The book of Romans contains 84 quotes of Old Testament passages. The theme of Romans which is Romans 1:17 comes from one of these prophets, a quote from Habakkuk 2:4. That is the verse that says, “but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
The gospel we have through the coming of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection is what the prophets wrote about and what they longed for. We live in that great future day. Yes, there is more ahead when Christ comes again and that too is what the prophets foretold, but now, as we live in this time where Jesus has already died and risen and we put our faith in him and are justified by our faith, this is the gospel that was promised beforehand.
Jesus the Son of God and Son of David
In verse 3 we find two significant statements of Jesus Christ in this verse. He is the Son of God and Son of David. This verse communicates the incarnation of Jesus, that he is fully God and fully man. The Son of God communicates he is fully God and as the Son of David he is fully man.
regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, (Romans 1:3)
Jesus was the Son of David which pointed to him being the awaited Messiah. This was what the crowds shouted when Jesus came to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday riding on a donkey. (Matthew 21:9) The Son of David is the Messianic title given to Jesus in the Genealogy of Jesus this is in the opening verse of Matthew (Matthew 1:1).
Resurrection of Jesus
Buckle your seatbelts because here we go. Paul is already proclaiming the gospel in this letter. He mentions the gospel in verse one but by verse four he is proclaiming the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What is the argument that Jesus is the Son of God. It is by the power of his resurrection from the dead.
and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 1:4)
In this opening passage of Romans Paul clearly states that Jesus is the Son of God. This is what makes Christianity a unique religion. Only Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God. It can take hours for a person from a non-Christian religion to come to understand that Jesus is the Son of God. They cannot understand how Jesus being God could be crucified, a death reserved for sinners. But Jesus was sinless, and he died not because of his sin, but for our sin.
The central aspect of the gospel is that Jesus, who was sinless died the just for the unjust to bring us to God. He died and on the third day as foretold by the scriptures he rose from the dead. It is the empty tomb of Jesus Christ, the resurrection that defeated sin and death. Our eternal life is based on the resurrection of Jesus. In that we put all our hope. That is why Paul said if Jesus did not raise from the dead, we are to be of all people most pitied.
But we do not need to be pitied because Jesus did rise. The tomb of Jesus is empty. Death could not hold him. As Paul will explain more fully in Romans chapter 6 our baptism is a picture of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Not only for Jesus but spiritually our baptism symbolizes our identification with Jesus making his death and resurrection our own death burial and resurrection.
When we are justified by faith we die to self. We repent from sin and put to death our sinful nature. We by faith ask God that Christ’s death on the cross be the penalty for our sin.
Our faith in Jesus
There are two important concepts here, grace and faith. The word grace (Strong's #5485) is charis. It means a gift brought to man by Jesus Christ. Our salvation is by grace. Paul also mentions here that his being an apostle was a gift of God.
Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:5-6)
As an apostle Paul will give his whole life to call all the nations to Christ. The word sometimes translated gentiles sometimes translated nations is the word ethnos. Among the ethnos (Strong's #1484). Ethnos. That is where we get our word ethnic. The term rightly means people groups. That was the mission of Jesus when he gave the great commission (using this same word ethnos), to us, while speaking to his disciples.
This mission to proclaim the gospel to the people groups was the mission of the church the day of its birth at Pentecost through the Holy Spirit. On that day 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus the Holy Spirit came. On that day the ethne or people groups from all over the then known world heard the gospel in their own ethnic language.
This mission of which Paul was an apostle, a sent one, will be carried out until the satisfaction of our Lord and then the return of Christ will come.
The church in Rome
Paul is writing to the church in Rome. It is estimated that at the time of Paul writing Romans there was a population in Rome of one million and the church was under one thousand members.
To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:7)
My wife and I just spent several days walking around modern Rome. Today the population of Rome is less than 3 million. That is a pretty stable population as big capital cities go. Some cities have a population that has tripled in 20 years and yet, Rome has not tripled in population in over 2,000 years.
The real difference in the Rome which Paul wrote, and the Rome today is the political influence of Christianity. What we saw in modern day Rome was a very different environment than the Rome to which Paul wrote. There was no state church in Rome at the time of Paul’s letter. It was the opposite.
By the time of writing Romans, the original Pantheon Temple in Rome was constructed and dedicated to the god’s but not the one true God. Yet, though the church was small in number there was a spiritual vitality there. The 27 partners mentioned by name in the last chapter of the book were men and women of faith.
When Paul wrote his letter there was probably a series of house churches. Paul mentions in Romans chapter 16 that Aquilla and Pricilla had a house church in Rome.
That house church form of church was likely the pattern of church for the Christians who made up a tiny fraction of the population of Rome who worshipped Jesus. If there were one thousand Christians, they probably had about thirty house churches spread across Rome. It is what we would call a drop in the bucket.
It may have been a small band of Christians without political influence, but their faith was strong. Paul mentions in verse 8 that in Rome, their faith was reported all over the world.
Conclusion
The introduction of Romans has the theological truths of first importance. The Gospel, the incarnation and the resurrection. So, what is the main point? What is the application?
The main point is that Jesus Christ the Son of Man and Son of God is the awaited Messiah. The theme of Romans that we are justified by faith and is explicitly laid out in Romans chapter 1. Jesus came to save sinners, and we are sinners. He came to save you. He died for your sin and rose again, and we receive our salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Our application for this passage of scripture is to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It means we should have original saving faith in Christ. It means that following this we live by faith in God.
