Romans 1:1 Commentary and Bible Study

The letter to the Romans has the longest greeting of any of Paul’s epistles, nearly twice as long as the next longest, and three times longer than most of them. The greeting breathes the sovereignty of God. ‘Paul, a servant’ – a slave, that is, in the Greek – ‘of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle.’ He calls himself a slave, and yet not quite a slave, in the ordinary sense of the term. Our King James translators have chosen the word, ‘servant’, and it is wise of them to have done that, because although the Greek literally is ‘slave’, ‘servant’ is better here. A slave, yes, in that this man, who was once an enemy of the church and an enemy of Christ, who was appointed with high authority to round up Christians and haul them off to prison or death, a persecutor; this man was transformed by the power of the Spirit of God. This man who was covetous – he hints at that in this very book, covetous for office perhaps, for recognition among his people, the Jews, for high standing – this man who was proud of his birth as a Jew, trusting in that for salvation, trusting in his keeping of the ceremonial law, which could never save, but rather, was a great teaching lesson to bring to repentance and faith; he was one of those proud Pharisees who felt that because he was so born, he was God's special person. Such a man was Saul of Tarsus before his conversion, but he was changed to be the most amazingly unselfish toiler for Christ: someone who would bear trouble, persecution, and all kinds of hardship. Paul, a slave – he saw himself now as owned by the Lord, who had purchased him, who had suffered and died for him on Calvary's cross, who had borne away the immense judgment that was due to him as a sinner, a rebel and a self-righteous Pharisee, and an enemy of Christ, and a slanderer and a murderer. But Paul was a forgiven man, and the one who had purchased his salvation was the Lord Jesus Christ, who had taken his eternal punishment, compressed into six hours on Calvary's cross for Paul. He could never fully take that in. So he was owned by Christ and under his authority, a slave, whose time was not his own, what he possessed was not his own. It was Christ's, given to him. That should be the case with us if we are saved. Paul saw himself as a slave under authority and dependent. Christ would supply everything, all the power he needed. So he was a slave under authority and completely dependent upon Christ. And yet in some respects, he was not a slave. What slave is due to inherit everything? What slave is due to be a sharer of eternal glory, sharing the estate with the owner and enjoying it to the limit? What slave ever volunteered to be a slave? Not quite a slave, because when God worked in his heart, he so overcame the stubborn will of Saul of Tarsus, and so opened his mind and inclined his will and put life into his heart, that Saul willingly, longingly, voluntarily ran to Christ and threw himself at his feet. He called upon him to save him and take him and make him his own. He freely, voluntarily gave himself to Christ and his service. So he was a slave with some exceptions.‘Called to be an apostle.’ The word apostle has a general sense and a very specific sense in the New Testament. An apostle is one who is sent. So there are others who are just sometimes called apostles in the New Testament who are not of the twelve apostles and Paul. They are just ordinary ministers or evangelists. But mostly it refers to a special office as it does here. They had accompanied Christ and heard his teaching. But equally even more important, they were witness of the resurrection. And not only had they received all his teaching and seen the resurrection, but they had directly commissioned by him to be apostles and to communicate divine revelation. Well, of course, there are no such people today who have been with the Lord and have witnessed his resurrection and have been personally called by him.The words in italics, ‘to be’, are there to help us, to keep the flow of the English. But actually you are better off without them, because without them you get the full sense of the Greek, ‘called an apostle.’ Not really ‘called to be an apostle’, but called in the sense of being summoned and, at the same time, made an apostle. He wasn't called so that he would respond and make himself an apostle. He was summoned, yes, but the making of him as an apostle was an act of God. You can't make yourself an apostle. God not only saved him, but placed him in the office of an apostle, so that he was like one of the eleven (plus Matthias). Paul, the apostle ‘born out of due time’, he calls himself, the one who wasn't born with the others, but came later. There have been no other apostles after him, because an apostle had to be commissioned by the risen Lord. Of course, the twelve disciples were personally commissioned by the Lord, and so was Paul. Christ the risen Lord appeared to him. That doesn't happen today. It hasn't happened since. An apostle was taught by the Lord. The twelve accompanied him for three years or so, were taught by him, and saw his miracles. The apostle was taken up to heaven and all was revealed to him in a special way. But he was an apostle on a par with the other twelve.‘Separated unto the gospel of God, separated, set aside. He wasn't a worldling anymore. He wouldn't serve the world. He would never be entangled with the yoke of business. He had to work for his living as a tent maker. Why did he do that? Because the now humble apostle didn't want anybody in the Gentile world to think that he preached the gospel for money. So although he didn't have to, he chose to work so that that charge could never be laid against him. A man of God, truly! But here he is, separated. ‘The gospel of God.’ God conceived a way, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the eternal counsel, in eternity. He conceived a way by which a member of the Godhead, Christ, the second person would come and suffer and die. God the Father would put upon him the punishment all those that would be saved, so that they could be set free, and pardoned, and forgiven. It is God’s genius, God’s solution, so it is called pointedly, ‘the gospel of God.’