[Portions of a new book I am working on regarding Paul’s Epistle to Rome will appear from time to time. This is the first such portion.]
Concerning His Son, Jesus Christ
Romans 1:1-7
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,
(which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:by whom we have received grace andapostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God ourFather, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The gospel of God concerns his Son, Jesus Christ, who is the Lord (v. 7) and our Lord (v. 3). Jesus Christ is the Lord over all: “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). “He is before all things, and by him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17). Jesus Christ is our Lord if you have accepted God’s record of his dear Son, as Paul, the author of the Book of Romans by God’s Spirit, and as I have done.
Paul first trusted in Christ (Ephesians 1:12). We have also trusted in Christ, like the Ephesians (Ephesians 1:13). Before the foundation of the world, God the Father hath chosen that we, who first trusted in Christ, should be holy and without blame before him in love. God hath chosen us, who first trusted in Christ, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. Which means we have had to trust in Christ before the adoption of children. Is the adoption of children when I turned in faith, repenting of my sin and believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ, or, is it the adoption Paul speaks of in Romans 8: the redemption of the body (Romans 8:23)?
The term to predestinate simply means prior to an event. Now are we the sons of God (1 John 3:2). Yes, but it does not yet appear what we shall be: but when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is! That is the rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). It is when we which are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, as Jesus had promised Martha (John 11:26).
Upon our faith in Christ, God the Father translates us into the kingdom of his dear Son (Colossians 1:13). He has predestinated it to be so! The gospel of God concerns his Son, Jesus Christ; not us, but Him!
After the seed of David
Jesus Christ was made after the seed of David. That places David himself after the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15). All of men are descendent of Adam and Eve in the physical; yet, there is a spiritual side. All who are of Christ’s seed, are of the seed sown by the Sower. They are of the word of God (Luke 8:11). Specifically, they are of the gospel message, sharing the common faith which hearing the word of God produces in the souls of men (Romans 10:14-17).
All who are of the gospel are counted for the “seed” (Romans 9:8), that is, they are the children of the promise. As the Apostle Paul testifies before Agrippa (Acts 26:6-8), Now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise of God unto our fathers: unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope’s sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?
Paul said none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and show light unto the Jews and to the Gentiles (Acts 26:22-23). The Apostle Paul testified that he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision of our Lord Jesus: he showed first to them of Damascus and Jerusalem and the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance (Acts 26:19-20).
In Isaac shall thy seed be called
The Jew is not the only descendent of Abraham physically. In Isaac shall thy seed by called explains the Jewish lineage: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As the Pharisees who showed contempt for our Lord though within their hearts, “We have Abraham to our father” (Luke 3:8). And that was all they had, a physical connection to Abraham. Yet, all who are of the faith of Abraham, Jew or Gentile, are counted as the children of Abraham (Galatians 3:7-9).
They are not all Israel which are of Israel. Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed” (Romans 9:6-8).
This is the spiritual seed, the “wheat” that springs from the seed sown. It is the soul that receives the word of God and becomes “wheat,” bringing forth the fruit of the Spirit, Christ’s Spirit (Romans 8:9-17).
Isaac is a picture of Christ, presented to us in the Old Testament as a foreshadowing of the crucifixion to come. We are not saved from our sin because we have a blood line to Isaac; we are saved from our sin because Jesus shed his blood for the remission of our sins. All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God, which means we have come short of Jesus Christ, who is the brightness of God’s glory (Hebrews 1:3).
Though all of us have sinned, all of us have been justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24). Christ died for the sins of the whole world, and not for ours only (1 John 2:2). God the Father set him forth to be a propitiation (an appeasement) through faith in his blood, to declare God’s righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God – to declare at this time God’s righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus (Romans 3:25-26).
Isaac is a picture of Christ. Abraham understood this. The Scripture (a reference to a pre-incarnation appearance of Christ in bodily form – see John 1:1-3; Genesis 18), foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then, they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham (Galatians 3:8-9).
When Sarah told Abraham to cast out the bondwoman and her son, Abraham was grieved. God told Abraham not to be grieved, saying, In Isaac shall thy seed be called (Genesis 21:12). When the Lord tests Abraham, telling him to offer Isaac on mount Moriah, we learn two great lessons regarding the gospel from Abraham.
The first lesson comes in response to Isaac’s question regarding a lamb for a burnt offering. Abraham declares: God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering (Genesis 22:8). The second one comes as Abraham is offering the ram caught in the thicket, the ram that took Isaac’s place. Abraham names the mount Jehovah-jireh: In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen (Genesis 22:14). What shall be seen? The Lamb God himself shall provide, offered in our stead!
Christ is the only begotten Son offered for our sins (John 3:16). He was declared to be the Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit, called in this passage the “spirit of holiness” (Romans 1:4). He declared Christ to be God’s Son when he raised Jesus from the dead (Psalm 2:7; Acts 13:33).
The Trinity is shown in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. First, the Lord Jesus has the power within himself to rise from the dead. He testified: Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. This commandment have I received of my Father (John 10:17-18).
Yet, God the Father raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. Recall what we are told regarding the word of faith which we have heard and received: If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:9-10). The Father raised the Son from the dead.
How did God raise the Son? He did so by the “spirit of holiness,” the one we know as the Holy Ghost (Romans 1:4). And if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you (Romans 8:11).
Separated unto the Gospel of God
The Apostle Paul describes himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and an apostle of our Lord (Romans 1:1). He was a servant of Christ before he is called to be an apostle. In other words, his call, mentioned here, is to a specific duty after his trusting in Christ for salvation (Ephesians 1:12). There is a call to salvation; and, there is a call to service. The call to salvation is contained in the preaching of the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth (Romans 1:16). To echo the words of Isaiah: Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else (Isaiah 45:22).
As a servant called to be an apostle, Paul is separated unto the gospel of God. The gospel is his message. He is not admonishing people to keep the Sabbath; nor is he preaching that men must satisfy the practices of the Pharisees. No! Christ warned us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees (Matthew 16:1-12). We are to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ first and foremost. It is the Word of God that is able to make thee wise unto salvation (2 Timothy 3:15).
The gospel of God concerns his Son and our Lord, Jesus Christ. The term which is utilized because the Spirit is speaking of the body of Christ when Paul instructs Tertius to write: which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh (Romans 1:3). As the son of David, the Son of God has complete claim to the throne of his father David (Luke 1:32).
Not only does Jesus have right to the throne of David, but he also has right to be seated at the right hand of God’s throne (Acts 2:34-36). God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ when he declared him the Son of God in raising Jesus from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 1:4).
We have received apostleship
It is by the Son of God that we have received grace. We first receive saving grace (Ephesians 2:8) when we heard the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation, and believed (Ephesians 1:13). That act of believing the gospel is the faith through which we are saved (Ephesians 2:8). The promise, that Abraham should be heir of the world, was not to him or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith (Roman 4:13). It is of faith, that it might be by grace: to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law (the Jew), but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham (the Gentile), who is the father of us all (Romans 4:16).
Sustaining grace comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, through the Spirit of Christ by which we were sealed when we first believed the gospel record (Ephesians 1:13). His Spirit gave birth to the new man (2 Corinthians 5:17-19), indwelling us (1 Corinthians 3:16). He will never leave us nor forsake us ( ). And, when we need his strength, his grace is sufficient for us, for it is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). As Paul testifies, Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
It is also by the Son of God that we have received apostleship (Romans 1:5). Either Paul is speaking of himself and the other eleven (Peter, Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, his brother John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus and Simon the Canaanite – [Matthew 10:2-4]); or, he is using the term apostleship in a broader meaning. There are only twelve apostles. Their names will be no the twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:14). However, others are called apostles.
James, the Lord’s brother, is called an apostle (Galatians 1:19). He is distinguished from James the son of Alphaeus, who is listed with the original twelve. Barnabas is called an apostle, along with Paul, in land of Lycaonia (Acts 14:14). When Paul states that we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ (1 Thessalonians 2:6), the Apostle spoke of himself, Silvanus and Timotheus (1 Thessalonians 1:1). In the closing remarks of this Roman epistle, Paul names Andronicus and Junia, declaring that they were of note among the apostles and that they were in Christ before me (Romans 16:7). These two trusted Christ before Paul received the Lord Jesus on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:1-6).
The apostleship that all believers in Christ have received is the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). We are ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). We are witnesses unto Christ (Acts 1:8) for obedience to the faith among all nations (Romans 1:5).
The Apostle Paul differentiates between we and ye (Romans 1:5-6). He speaks first of all who have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith: we have received grace and apostleship by the Son of God (Romans 1:5). He then reminds these Romans that they also received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among the nations, stating among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:6): the called to salvation and the called to service.
The Apostle first used the term called in reference to his personal service for our Lord Jesus: called to be an apostle (Romans 1:1). He will use that term again, this time relating it to the service of all that be in Rome: called to be saints (Romans 1:7). Among the nations, the believers of Rome were saved by their obedience to the faith: the faith of God (Romans 3:3), which is the faith of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22). The righteousness of God is offered unto all and placed upon all them that believe (Romans 3:22), being justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24).
By conducting ourselves as saints (which we are automatically through faith in Christ), we fulfill the apostleship that is given to all believers in Christ: we are witnesses (Acts 1:8), ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20), apostles in the general sense (Romans 1:5).
Yet, only twelve men will rule over the twelve tribes of Israel as apostles for eternity (Matthew 19:28). The Apostle Paul, replacing Judas Iscariot, will be the twelfth of those men (1 Corinthians 15:7-10).