I think that most people want to visit the capital city of their homeland. I remember when my parents took the family to London when we were in our teens. To visit the capital was quite an occasion, especially nearly 50 years ago when travelling wasn’t so easy as it is now. It was quite something to press the Buckingham Palace railings, to walk around the Houses of Parliament, visit Madame Tussauds, a ride on the Underground and so many other sights. It brings back memories.
The apostle Paul also had a longing to visit the capital of the empire - the Roman Empire - Rome, the most important city of the world at that time. He wrote to his friends at Rome that he was really keen to visit their city. Rome was a symbol of imperial pride and power. People spoke of it with awe. Everybody hoped to visit Rome at least once in his or her lifetime, in order to stare and wonder. There’s a saying, "Visit Rome and die!" But Paul wasn’t going as a mere tourist.
"I AM EAGER"
This is the first of three personal statements Paul makes in connection with his visit to Rome (Rom 1:15). He had visited quite a number of cities in his itinerant ministry. If you look at a map of the world of his day and compare the names with his missionary journeys recorded in the Acts of the Apostles you’d see how extensive his travelling had been. But it wasn’t even that he wanted to tick Rome off as another city that he ministered in - he had a higher reason: "I am eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome" (1:15).
Isn’t it stimulating to hear of someone who’s eager; someone who’s filled with enthusiasm for a task? It’s true the enthusiast can sometimes "go over the top" and do something embarrassing, but as it’s been said, "It’s easier to cool down a fanatic than warm up a corpse!" William Booth said, "I want my religion like my tea - hot!" The apostle Paul had the same standard of Christian service: "I am eager ... " - he just couldn’t wait to get to Rome to continue his work for the Lord.
Orthodox Christianity deplores the error of the cults but we have to admire the enthusiasm they bring to their mission, often putting us to shame. I like the eagerness expressed in Charles Wesley’s verse: "My talents, gifts and graces, Lord, Into thy blessed hands receive; And let me live to preach thy Word, And let me to thy glory live; My every sacred moment spend In publishing the sinners’ Friend." Richard Baxter, the Puritan preacher of the 17th century conveys the urgency, the zeal of Christian witness when he said, "I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men!"
"I am eager to preach," wrote Paul, but of course not all are called to preach. There are many tasks to be done in serving the Lord - some are up-front, but many are behind the scenes, but all are equally important in the Master’s eyes. Those that are hidden from the public view probably require more eagerness than those seen by others. There’s a quaint but true saying: "It takes more grace than tongue can tell to play the second fiddle well."
Christian service is often a team effort. The apostle told the Christians at Corinth that the work of the Church wasn’t centred on him as the pastor or leader. "We are God’s fellow workers", he wrote (I Cor 3:9). We admire the courage and skill of the astronauts who go into space and even to the Moon, but they couldn’t possibly do it without the support of thousands of back-up workers at the space-centre. It’s been put rather well that the only difference between a missionary and someone at home is geography, provided both are truly committed to Jesus Christ.
I came across some thought-provoking questions, "At the close of life, the question will be: Not, "How much have you got?" but "How much have you given?" Not "How much have you won?" but "How much have you done?" Not "How much have you saved?" but "How much have you sacrificed?" It will be "How much have you loved and served?" Not "How much were you honoured?" The apostle Paul shouldn’t have much trouble, bearing in mind his words, "I am eager" but I wonder how will we answer those pertinent questions?
Paul has stated his eagerness to travel to Rome to preach the gospel but then he goes on to explain in two further statements what motivated his evangelistic enthusiasm. In the first place, he wrote:
"I AM A DEBTOR"
This is quite an unusual admission. As Shakespeare put it in famous words in "The Merchant of Venice": "Better a creditor than a debtor be!" No one likes to be a debtor - it means you owe something to someone. It could be money but equally some obligation or duty. Generally speaking we’d prefer it being owed to us. But the apostle Paul is quite clear. "I am a debtor," he wrote, "both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish" (14). What he is saying is that he’s a debtor both to the cultured and the uncultured; he has an obligation to discharge, a duty to perform and a debt to pay to all men.
It’s rather puzzling how and why the gospel could be a debt. There are two possible ways of getting into debt. The first is to borrow money from someone; the second is to be given money for someone by a third party. For example, if I were to borrow £1,000 from you, I would be in your debt until I paid it back. But equally, if a friend of yours were to hand me £1,000 to give to you, I would be in your debt until I handed it over. Your friend would have put me in your debt by entrusting me with £1,000 for you. It’s in this sense that Paul is in debt.
He hasn’t borrowed anything from the Romans that he must repay. But rather Jesus Christ has entrusted him with the gospel for them. It is Jesus who has made Paul a debtor by committing the gospel to his trust. He was in debt to the Romans. He had been especially called to be the apostle to the Gentiles. It happened on the road to Damascus some years before. He was called Saul at that time and was a fierce opponent of the despised Christians.
He was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus to persecute the followers of Jesus, carrying letters from the Jewish authorities stating that wherever he found a Christian, he might accuse him and have him thrown into prison or even put to death. He certainly felt no debt to Christ, his gospel or followers - rather he was out to stamp out the name of Christ from the face of the earth. But on that road something happened to him.
The Lord suddenly arrested him. A brilliant light shone about him and he fell to the ground and he heard the voice of Jesus calling on him not to reject the message of the gospel that he’d heard from those he’d been persecuting. He was convicted of his appalling sin and made a 180-degree turn to become a follower of Jesus. He received forgiveness of his sin. In a moment the "chief of sinners" (1 Tim 1:15) as he would later describe himself, became a Christian - he was now a debtor to the Lord Jesus Christ.
From that moment on Paul had planted within himself the feeling of indebtedness to all men - he became their debtor. His journeys in the countries of the eastern Mediterranean - what we now know as Turkey and Greece - showed him a world of corruption and hatred between the races. There were the hardened Roman soldiers who brutally suppressed the peoples they had conquered; there were the sophisticated Greeks who revelled in their culture, despising the lower races; there were the people from other parts of the Roman Empire brought in as slaves, the barbarians, as they were called. But Paul loved them with the love of Christ. No matter what nationality, culture and language, intelligent or uncultured, "I am a debtor", he said, to all.
We, too, are debtors whether we acknowledge it or not. We are debtors on many levels. We owe a debt of gratitude to our parents for their love, care and support in the years of our minority and often many years afterwards. We owe a debt of gratitude to our island and country for the privilege of living in a favoured community where the rights of the individual and freedom are respected. But, if we are Christians, we owe an incalculable debt to our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, for making possible our redemption - to have the peace of God in our hearts through the forgiveness of sins.
The only honourable thing to be done to a debt is to discharge it. For the Christian, it’s to share the Good News with others. Later in his letter (10:15), Paul would go on to quote from Isaiah, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news" (Isa 52:7). The prophet was speaking to the nation of Israel that at that time was dominated by the Babylonians. The prophecy was that God would redeem Israel and bring her back from exile to Jerusalem. It would be a symbol of a greater redemption through personal salvation through Christ. It’s a debt, of course, that can never be discharged. It is this sense of indebtedness that led Paul to write:
"I AM NOT ASHAMED"
The apostle now gives a second reason for being eager to share the gospel with the people of Rome and not be ashamed of it: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentiles" (16). There are two ways of understanding Paul’s words, "I am not ashamed ...", both of them meaningful.
The first is to see his use of the negative, "I am not ashamed" as an understatement to underline what he really means, as when Queen Victoria said, "We are not amused!" when she really meant, "I’m upset and angry". So Paul’sunderstatement, "I am not ashamed" was his way of saying that he gloried in the gospel and that he counted it a high honour to proclaim it. I wonder if we have that same desire and joy in sharing our faith with people we meet?
The other view of Paul’s words, "I am not ashamed" is to take them literally, for why make the statement that you’re not ashamed of something unless you’ve been tempted to feel ashamed of it? And without doubt Paul knew this temptation. He told the Corinthian believers that he came to them "in weakness and fear, and with much trembling" (1 Cor 2:3). He knew that the message of the cross was "foolishness" to some and "a stumbling-block" to others (1 Cor 1:18,23). The gospel of Christ often arouses opposition, contempt and ridicule that can be hard to bear.
Jesus warned his disciples against being ashamed of him - to believe in him but, for fear of what others might think or the consequences of being identified as a Christian, to remain a secret disciple. Nicodemus, the Pharisee, was the first recorded secret disciple of Jesus, and there have been many since who’ve followed his example. Perhaps we ourselves have done the same thing, when we should have identified ourselves as a Christian but kept silent. We need to remember Paul’s words, "I am not ashamed ..."
Whatever Paul had in mind when he wrote those words, he gives a powerful reason for his being eager to spread the gospel. "I am not ashamed" he stated, "because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." Paul’s words are clear and comprehensive. He tells us three things about the gospel. It is:
"For Salvation"
This suggests the existence of a danger. It was Jesus himself who made it quite clear why he’d come to planet Earth - it was "to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). The angel which appeared to Joseph to tell him of the coming birth of Mary’s child, said, "You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins" (Matt 1:21). We must give full weight to the word "save". The gospel doesn’t say that men and women just need to be helped, or that they need to be advised or strengthened - they need to be saved.
The need for salvation tells us of a serious, life-threatening situation - it’s because of the sinfulness of mankind. Some well-meaning social scientists would have us believe that mankind is inherently good and if only environmental issues could be sorted out, all would be well - good housing, secure jobs, freedom of speech, etc, - all would be well. Now these things are desirable and necessary, but the lack of them isn’t the reason for sinfulness. The source of man’s moral problem lies within man’s own nature. Like it or not, the Bible tells us that our basic nature, through Adam’s fall, is sinful. But thank God because the gospel of Jesus Christ is not only "for salvation", it tells us how it was made possible. It is:
"The Power of God"
We see it in the miracle of Christ’s birth; we see it in his sinless life; we see it in his ministry of bringing hope to the outcasts of society, but most of all the evidence of "the power of God" is seen in his death. As the story of Jesus progresses, the whole emphasis of thought moves steadily towards the climax of the Cross, for it is there that "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ" (2 Cor 5:19).
Only in the Cross could mankind’s sinfulness and God’s righteousness be reconciled - "justice and peace kissed" (Ps 85:10) - for there Jesus took on himself the sin of the world. Imagine a bottle of ink has been spilt and a sheet of pure white blotting-paper is placed over it: it soaks up all the black liquid. Jesus did that with our sin and, as he hung on the Cross, God the Father turned away from his Son as he bore our sin. As the hymn says, "He died that we might be forgiven ... saved by his precious blood." Hallelujah, what a Saviour! No wonder that the apostle Paul enthused over the gospel because, as he said, "it is the power of God for salvation". But he was careful to add one final and important aspect. It is:
"For Everyone Who Believes"
We can’t make any contribution to our salvation, it’s all of God’s mercy and grace in making it possible and giving us the opportunity to take his free gift. We can’t just drift into Christianity. We are moral beings made in God’s image with the power of choice. Salvation cannot be foisted on man, ignoring the integrity of his personality. We do have a responsibility to "believe" or, sadly, not to believe. When I was on holiday in the Canadian Rockies, I came across a notice board stating that on this spot was the division between two river systems - a raindrop would flow either to the Pacific or to the Atlantic Ocean. When we’re confronted with the claims of Christ, it’s the biggest choice of our life -it’s a choice which has eternal consequences.
Paul’s three statements, "I am a debtor ... I am eager ... I am not ashamed", all in relation to the gospel of Christ, come as a personal challenge to us all. May we respond in the same way as he did.
