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Romans 1:1-4 By Fred Siebert

to remind ourselves this afternoon that we cannot understand the word of God unless God himself gives us insights and opens our understanding let's pause pray and ask him to do that let's pray now God and our Father we ask you that you might indeed in a very special a very clear way speak to us yourself through your word you who turn the wisdom of man into foolishness and you who told us that the foolishness of God is greater than any wisdom of man we pray that we might not just apply our minds but that our hearts might be open understanding might be enlightened so that we might truly gain spiritual insights as you teach us through your word we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

I'm going to think of that door back we come to look at the first part of the book of Romans we've had a brief look at the whole reason why we need to study the word of God and how we ought to treat it and why in particular the book of Romans is so helpful and this afternoon we'll be trying to look at the first seven verses in this book the apostle Paul who wrote this letter wrote this letter gave some advice to the people in Colossae telling them in these words let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom and here at the introduction to this book to this letter I should say because that's what it is in beginning his letter to the people that wrote Paul is putting that advice into practice he is demonstrating it in a very forceful way in fact I believe he gives us a demonstration of what we might call communicating Christianly communicating Christianly and if we come to see all that he touches on here in his opening words it ought to challenge each one of us to consider if we do call ourselves Christians whether we communicate with one another and with other Christians in these terms because he really touches on nearly every aspect aspect of our Christian faith in his first seven verses let's read them first and then let's look in more detail in what way he touches on these important issues I'm reading from the revised standard version and let me say just as we're getting ready for that reading that I would strongly recommend as I have done in on previous occasions that to get the maximum help out of the studies that we're doing here on the Sunday afternoon it would be tremendously helpful to use the parallel version of the bible where either the parallel new testament or the power book the parallel whole bible where there are next to each other the various translations there are strengths and weaknesses with with each particular version
and having them side by side it helps us to get insights which we would not get by using
just one but I'd like to read the first seven verses of Romans here from the revised version
Paul a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God
which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures the gospel concerning his
son who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated son of God in power
according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ our
Lord through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith
for the sake of his name among all the nations including yourselves who are called to belong
to Jesus Christ to all God's beloved in Rome who are called to be saints
grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ
we go back to verse one Paul a serpent of Jesus Christ now we could spend more than just one
session to learn something more about Paul and we will learn a little more as we go even through
this section and as we go through the rest of the letter but it would be unwise for us to
concentrate too much on the personality of the apostle Paul because what is put forward here
is not the opinion or the thoughts of a man but rather the word of God Paul is the channel
there is no doubt about it and a channel used by God in tremendous ways but to become preoccupied
with the channel there always raises the danger of not paying enough attention to the message
which that channel is conveying from God Paul a servant of Jesus Christ most of us are aware
of the fact that the word servant here is actually translating the Greek word slave bond slave
completely sold out completely belonging having no rights now it was Paul himself
who pointed out to the Corinthians in chapter 6 that they were not their own they had been
bought with a price and here Paul reminds them right at the outset that the basis on which he is
writing to them and communicating with them is only on the basis of being a slave of the Lord
Jesus Christ nothing else again it ought to remind us about the emphasis that our Lord placed
when teaching his disciples the importance of being humble you may recall I think it's in Mark
chapter 10 we have the occasion where two disciples wanted to procure a position of honor
in the new kingdom that was to come and Jesus in teaching all of his disciples reminded them
that in the amongst the people of God he who would be foremost must be the servant of all
but the emphasis here is not so much on the service of one to another but the service
to our Lord Jesus Christ but that's fundamental and no one can know anything about serving other
Christians being considered less being humble truly no one can know that unless they are first
realized their position of being slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ
Paul a servant of Jesus Christ and we'll say a little more about his use of the word
Jesus Christ when we come to verse three but we go on to the next word called to be an apostle
now in our introductory session last time I pointed out that we need to look at the actual
words that are used but we also need to look at the words that are used in the theological
context we need to find out what we can in its historical setting in its implication as far as
the use of language is concerned and in what setting it was used but we also have to look
at it in the way in which it is used in the word of God itself for that is a tremendously important
guide and here we have a demonstration of that the word used here for called is a word just
according to its linguistic well I'll try again according to its usage in the in just ordinary
linguistic terms this word can mean simply to invite to invite with the option of whether there
is a response to the invitation or not but the word used in the scriptures is used in not just
that simple sense the word to be called is also used concerning what is often often been referred
to as the effectual call a call which goes beyond an invitation a call which is made by God in such
a way that the person who is called will respond now not against their will because their will
is changed not against their nature because the nature is renewed but called in such a way that
there will be a response now the scriptures use the word to call in both of these senses
in the sense of an invitation and in the sense of the effectual call now to give an example Jesus
after giving a parallel in Matthew 22 said in Matthew 22 and verse 14
many are called but few are chosen the idea being that the invitation goes out to many people
and again the same idea comes out in Romans chapter 10 about the gospel being preached
but not many people respond there is the call the invitation by the preaching of the word
so in a sense we can think of that use of the word called as in by way of invitation as the call
through the word the call that goes out to all people and here is where the the great commission
the great commission comes in to make known the word of God in all the world to preach to all
nations to preach to all people but then the bible also speaks about the specific and effectual call
and it is this that is referred to here in this context Paul a servant of Jesus Christ not just
invited to be an apostle but called set apart by God himself to be an apostle
now we get this sense of the use of the word call and you might like to turn um there with me in
Romans chapter 8 and particularly in verse 30 in fact all the verses surrounding that area are
tremendous importance but particularly verse 30 of Romans chapter 8 and those whom he that is God
predestined he also called and those whom he called he also justified no element of
doubt in all of this but a definite step God predestines God called God justifies
those who are predestined that's the effectual call now to demonstrate this that this was true
and Paul knew this to be true of himself let's have a look at Galatians chapter 1 where he
speaks about his being called and set aside to his particular task and to his relationship with God
Galatians chapter 1 verses 15 and 16 in particular
Paul says here but when he who had set me apart before I was born and had called me through his
grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles
I did not confer with flesh and blood nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles
before me but I went away into Arabia and again I returned to Damascus Paul he is emphasizing the
fact that God had set him apart before he was born God had called him by his grace God in
his sovereignty was pleased to reveal Jesus Christ to him Paul knew himself to be called
in that effectual way not simply not simply to be invited with the option of whether he would
respond or not but called by the spirit so to make the distinction we can speak of the word
called is being used in the general sense of being invited by the word of God
and we can speak of it in the specific sense of the effectual call which comes through the work
of the spirit of God and this is what Paul knew Paul a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an
apostle apostle also is a very interesting word and used in different ways in the New Testament
and of tremendous importance here right at the outset of this letter in this introduction because
it also lies at the heart of our understanding of Christianity in our understanding of scripture
it is first used the word apostle to signify not much more than what the word itself implies
and that is the sent one the New Testament uses the word apostle of those who are special
messengers sent to deliver a special message but then the New Testament uses the word apostle
in a unique and special way apostle apostles are those who have a special position in the early
church they have unique authority and they are the ones who have direct revelation from the
spirit of God they have direct revelation from the spirit of God now the early church was very
much aware of this and it was on that basis that the early church determined what writings were
truly inspired writings what writings would come in to make up what we today accept
as the canon of the New Testament it was worked out on the basis of whether the message
was conveyed through the apostles and so the writings of the New Testament are restricted
to the writings either of the apostles themselves or of those who are closely associated with them
and recorded the words of the apostles Jesus appointed the apostles to be the special
spokesman in setting up the church they are the ones who were inspired by God in order to give us
the word of God and as in the Old Testament the prophets became the spokesman of God and it was
the word of God was given by them and recorded for us so the word of God came directly to the
apostles and it was recorded for us and given to us as the word of God we ought to note here
a distinction between the apostleship the place of apostle of that of pertaining to the apostle
Paul and that's pertaining to the other apostles you may recall that in Acts chapter 1 as the
disciples were gathered together realizing that Judas had gone having betrayed our Lord of course
he hanged himself took his own life Peter stood up amongst them and said that it was time for
another person to be appointed to have his place with the other apostles to take the place of Judas
and the basis on which he suggested they ought to select this person was to look for someone
who had been with Christ during his whole ministry one who could be a witness to the
resurrection and one who would be specially selected and commissioned
now in Paul's case of course this was not the case Paul had not been with Christ in his earthly
ministry from the baptism of John he had not witnessed the resurrection in the same way as
the other apostles but of course he had been specially commissioned now the passage we read
now the passage we read from Galatians ought to remind us of his special commissioning when he
who had set me apart before I was born and had called me through his grace was pleased to reveal
his son to me in order that I might preach him among the gentiles I did not confer with flesh
and blood and going back a little bit before that back to verse 11 in Galatians chapter 1 he says
for I would have you know brethren that the gospel which was preached by me is not man's gospel for I
did not receive it from man nor was I taught it but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ
the apostle Paul was truly an apostle but he was unique in every way
he had not been with our Lord during the ministry to have the teaching face to face in a physical
verbal way but he had been with Jesus Christ for quite a period of time in Arabia
where he was taught by Jesus himself after he our Lord had been resurrected he received his
instruction not from other people but primarily from a direct revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ
and so it was as though he was a disciple with our Lord but in a different way to all the other
apostles but it didn't give make him any less an apostle and also concerning being a witness to
the resurrection it would be good for us to turn to first Corinthians chapter 15 where he speaks
of the those who were witnesses to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ
he takes up this account in verse 3 of chapter 15 of first Corinthians for I delivered to you
as a first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the
scriptures that he was buried that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures
and that he appeared to Cephas of course that was the apostle Peter then to the 12 then he
appeared to more than 500 brethren at once one time most of whom are still alive though some
have fallen asleep then he appeared to James then to all the apostles last of all as to one
untimely born he appeared also to me now let's just run through that list again
the apostle was one according to the selection that Peter that the apostle Peter suggested who
had been with our Lord during his earthly ministry and had been taught and and learned all those
things the apostle Paul wasn't with him in his earthly ministry but he had been taught by Christ
himself uniquely secondly he was to be a witness to the resurrection and after the resurrection
and the apostle Paul had an appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ as one born out of Jew time
a special resurrection appearance he knew the Lord Jesus Christ had been raised because he didn't
count him after the resurrection he was specially commissioned not by the way in which the ballot
was used in an upper room when they selected the apostle to replace Judas but he was commissioned
by Christ himself when he appeared to him and appointed him to be his spokesman Paul the servant
of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle commissioned by God himself separated unto the gospel
of God now here we need to take note of the use of this he was separated
put apart unto the gospel of God now usually we speak about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
and here we need to be reminded that we rightfully can speak of it not only as the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ but as the gospel of God the whole council of God is the gospel the whole
bible is the gospel it is the bible which prepares for and points to Christ the Christ of the bible
in fact what we need to beware against is that for those who insist that they preach only Christ
that they do not preach a Christ who is not based on the whole bible because if we want to
understand the nature of Christ the nature of our Lord we need to go right back into the old
testament scriptures to find out who he is they teach us much about the one who was to come who
was of God we can truly speak of the gospel of God as well as of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ for Christ is fully God we go on in verse two and I'm following here the words of the King
James that we'll make cross references to some of the other translations which he had promised
for by his prophets in the holy scriptures or in the revised standard which he promised
beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures now the reference is just that I just
made to first Corinthians chapter 15 or to see how closely all this is tied to the old testament
for there he said in verse 3 of chapter 15 for I delivered to you as a first importance what I
also received that Christ died for our sins yes but he doesn't stop there he died for our sins
in accordance with the scriptures now that's of tremendous importance this was not enough to
thought on God's path to send our Lord Jesus Christ it was part and parcel of the whole
design and plan of God predestined set up even before the foundation of the world
and so the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the gospel of God and we can find the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ beginning in the book of Genesis and going right through to the book
of revelation and as with that in mind that we need to read the whole of the bible
to see what it reveals concerning God and his son for all of it is important for us to even begin
to grasp the whole provision that God has made in his plan for mankind and for the glory of his
purpose we go on to verse three then to note as I say that that all of this is in accordance with
the scriptures as have been revealed the whole of the scriptures verse three concerning his son
Jesus Christ our Lord
a phrase of tremendous importance concerning his son
particularly for people who are not of Christian background
and I think particularly of Muslims this concept of the son of God is a tremendously hard concept
and I believe it also can be a difficult and a misleading concept if we base our understanding
of the concept of Christ being the son of God only on the basis what is often taught
in Sunday schools because what is referred to here is not the relationship that we know between
an earthly father a human father and a human son because you see when we think of it in earthly
terms we think of the son of a father finally becoming a father himself we think in terms of
progression of things changing we think in terms of the son being inferior the son having less
authority when we speak about Christ being the son of God we are pointing right at the heart
of the teaching of God being a three-in-one God from all eternity
it has never been any different and it never will be any different
from all eternity there has been the God who exists as father son and holy spirit
and it was Oregon who first coined the phrase which is very helpful here
as referring to this eternal sonship he spoke of it as the eternal generation
of the son it might be an idea to close the door there thank you for the eternal generation of the
son in other words here we are guarding against a misconception that at a point in time
God who had been one person on his own somehow made arrangements to have a son
the bible never suggests that the bible never points toward that it is only ever brought before
us as some something that has existed for all eternity there was never a point in time
when Christ did not exist there was never a point in eternity where the father was on his own
and then later Christ came now it's important for us to grasp that very clearly because it is at the
heart it is at the heart of some of the misconceptions of groups like the Jehovah's
Witnesses who make Christ to be less than God because they claim as the heretic areas claimed
back in the fourth century the beginning of the fourth century
when he coined the phrase there was a time when he was not
but the bible teaches and Paul here in reference to this
ought to remind us of this that there was not a time when Christ did not exist but in all
eternity there was the father the son and the holy spirit that is God God the three in one
the trinity concerning his son Jesus Christ now here we are introduced as we'll be looking at
a little more closely in the rest of verse three and verse four to the two natures of Christ
again a fundamental principle in Christian understanding Christ being fully God and fully
man Jesus was his human name now of course he was given his human name also at the instruction of God
Jesus being the Greek translation of Joshua that both of them meaning savior or deliverer
Jesus was so named because he was going he was the one who would save his people from their sins
as Matthew as recorded in Matthew the instruction that the angel of God gave to Mary but it was
nevertheless his human name as a man walking in flesh and blood he was Jesus of Nazareth
Christ was his God name his divine name it spoke of his divinity of his godness for Christ was the
translation of the messiah the promised one the anointed one of God Christ spoke of his the
godward aspect of his personality and so when we use the full title Jesus Christ we ought to be
reminded that we are speaking of the man in Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ fully human and
fully God of tremendous importance because if we reduce either the fullness of his humanity
or the fullness of his divinity we have something less than Jesus Christ our Lord
now we'll say a little more as we move into the rest of verses three and four on that
but first let's note our Lord Jesus Christ our Lord now if we read that
quickly without too much thought we may take that quite wrongly and think of it in terms as a
subjective relationship he is my Lord because I've asked him to be my Lord
now the scriptures do not teach that some people even under the guise of Christian teaching would
emphasize that he is Lord because I have asked him to be my Lord when Paul is speaking here of
Jesus Christ our Lord he is speaking of something more than what we have made him as Christians
he is speaking about his position as Lord of the universe now this is brought out
firstly by looking at the word that is used kurios kurios can actually mean nothing more
than the polite address of master or sir but it is of tremendous significance that the word
is kurios which is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for the term Jehovah
Jehovah the true God the true Lord you see whenever in the Old Testament
you come across the the name Jehovah and in the areas where he is constantly contrasted against
those who are not truly gods Jehovah being the only true God that word is translated in
the Greek translation as kurios here is Jesus Christ the true God our Lord in the sense that
the Lord of the whole world now to emphasize this we only need to remind ourselves concerning
um Acts chapter 2 and verse 36 which some of us have learned as as memory verses and let's
be reminded of it and here's what it says let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly
that God has made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified of tremendous importance
to realize that he is truly Lord and God again in Matthew chapter 28 and verse 18
in his final address to his disciples he says to them all authority in heaven and on earth has
been given to me and again in Philippians to illustrate even a little further chapter 2
and verse 9 through to 11 here's what it says therefore God has highly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
is Lord to the glory of God the father Jesus Christ is truly Lord and we could go on and on
and multiply references in the New Testament which emphasize that in him and through him
are all things in him all things exist he is the head of all creation the whole universe
Colossians particularly deals with that concept Ephesians also and so on but to remind ourselves
that when we speak concerning God's Son Jesus Christ our Lord we are speaking about the Lord
of the universe not just our master because we've said please be my master please be my Lord he is
Lord whether we recognize him as Lord or not and if we do not recognize him now the day will come
when we'll be forced to recognize him and we will fall down on our faces to acknowledge that Jesus
Christ really is Lord now we come to the a little further extension of the two natures of Christ
which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh our Lord was fully human
we are able to trace his line of descendancy we're able to see who his forefathers were
we can trace him right through as God promised that he would send a special one an anointed one
through the line of David he was made of the seed of David it ought to remind us there that that
word was made um who was descended from David in the um revised standard version
it comes out a little more strongly here in the King James version he was made of the seed of
David because John 1 14 reminds us that the word became flesh the process of God sending his son
of God coming in the flesh as God the son that process was one in which he took the form of a
true human being in every respect he was truly human there's nothing lacking in his humanity
and it's quite important for us to
realize this the only difference between the humanity of our Lord and our own humanity
was that his humanity was not corrupted he was not born in sin he only had an earthly mother
and not an earthly father for his father was the Holy Spirit his humanity was not corrupted
as all we are because we have descended from Adam and we are partakers in his sin
but in his full humanity it is tremendously important because the New Testament
speaks of him being the only adequate substitute because he was fully human
the only true substitute he died as a man for us from behalf of all men
he was the founder of a new race as Adam was the first founder of the first human race
so Christ was the founder of a new race of human beings
he is the elder brother in his glorified body he now for all eternity has his resurrected body
and in our identification with him we can only identify with God we can only become
part of God through the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ for we can never partake of the
essence of God but we can partake of the essence of the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ of
tremendous importance and then in verse 4 the other side and declared to be the son of God
with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead now
we need to be careful here of course to realize that our Lord did not become the son of God when
he was resurrected he was shown to be the son of God that was the demonstration the proof
that all that he had said all that he had claimed as being the son of God was true
being the son of God was true it was the resurrection which proved for all time
that he was truly God fully God and we notice here also in verse 4 of course
that the spirit of holiness or the holy spirit played a part we see here then already in this
introduction the emphasis on the triune God father son and holy spirit he was declared proved
to be the son of God and as we said earlier meaning fully God fully God and it was tremendously
important that our Lord Jesus Christ was fully God because only as he was fully God could he
be our sacrifice on the cross of infinite value and of eternal value
he could as the book of Hebrews points out
an earthly priest has to keep going back again and again to make sacrifices
a person other than the son of God who was fully God as well as being fully human
could not have made a sacrifice which was of such infinite value and of eternal value for all time
Jesus Christ our Lord who was truly human and truly divine now here's the tremendous
impact then already up to this point that we have seen and we're almost out of time
um in his introduction Paul touches all the elements now we've got a few more to go
in fact we'll we will look at the remainder of this next week when he is actually reminding
these people of all the essential foundational truths of Christianity
and we close here with verse four in just pointing to the fact of how central was the
resurrection from the dead Paul reminded the Corinthians again in 15 in first Corinthians
chapter 15 and verse 14 of this he said if Christ has not been raised then our preaching
then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain we serve a risen Savior who's in
the world today and that's tremendous importance the son of God eternally the son of God truly God
who took on the fall of man and through that enabled us to be identified with him
but he was fully God and died for us in order that we might be freed from our sin
he is alive he is coming again and that's the one of whom Paul is speaking and about whom
he'll say a few more things even just in his introductory section as he writes to the fellow
Christians in Rome communicating with them not about the mundane affairs of daily life
but communicating with them about the invisible eternal issues communicating truly in a Christian
way setting us an example that we might admonish and teach each other letting the word of Christ
will in us richly