Romans 1

Ancient letters had a certain format that the Apostle Paul used in an amplified way. It was customary to begin a correspondence with a statement introducing the writer and the recipient, followed by an introductory salutation. That means that Paul’s letter to the Romans could have started as simply as this: “Paul, to the church in Rome, Greetings!” Of course, he says much more than that. He expands His greeting, and through these extended words we are helped to understand both Paul as an apostle sent by God, and the multi-site assembly of Christ in Rome as the Lord’s special people in that place.

Paul is a servant of Jesus the Messiah, a sent representative of the mightiest eternal King, an ambassador with the solid message of the gospel, the good news that will be described in wonderful detail in the first 11 chapters of this letter. This Jesus, according to His human nature is the promised Son of David who would sit enthroned over the people of God forever. According to His divine nature, He is the Son of God. While He has always been the Son of God in His essence, He has been declared by the Holy Spirit to have the highest royal heavenly authority through His resurrection from the dead.

As an apostle, Paul brings a message that demands the obedience of those who would hear and believe it. This apostolic gospel is going forth to all the nations, and it has reached the city of Rome. There are those within that city who are called by God as His beloved holy ones, set apart as “saints,” the designation given in the New Testament to the entire worshipping assembly of believers. Of all those who are living in Rome, these believers and followers of Jesus Christ have been called to belong to this great Messiah. These are the ones who have grace and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul is eager to visit these saints in Rome so that he might preach this gospel to them. He is always praying for them, and He longs to be there with them. To do so would be good for Paul’s soul, and it would be good for those who would hear the preaching of the gospel from his lips.

This message of the “good news” is a powerful word explaining the way that people can have a right standing with God and the fullness of salvation from God, blessings that come to us entirely by faith rather than through any merit from the Law that anyone might try to claim. In terms of any supposed merit that would come from obedience to the Law, our situation is bleak. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all men. All men everywhere are without excuse. They know God, since His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived in any reasonable consideration of the things that He has made. Yet from the beginning, mankind would not honor God or give Him thanks, choosing instead to worship images of created things rather than the Creator.

This rejection of God had consequences. God gave up mankind to their folly and lust. Now they display their own willful suppression of the truth in the unrighteousness of their lives. God gave them over to their passions. Though they claimed to be wise, they are found to be fools, hating any sense of boundaries, and loving their own shameless perversion. Because of this, God further gave them over to their own debased minds. They violated His good ways with every part of their being. Their very souls that should have been seeking him, sought base ways of depravity instead. Their hearts were turned also against one another, tearing down those they should have loved. Their thoughts and their words have turned against one another, and their societies have become places where the lowest kind of evil is not only tolerated, but even affirmed and celebrated.

So much for any hope of our achieving righteousness with God through our own merit! Because of the fact of our depravity, a manifest moral corruption that is everywhere around us and also within us, we absolutely require some other way of peace with God besides the Law. This way has been provided for us through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He came into this depraved world to save us. His resurrection from the dead testifies to the success of His great endeavor.

Here, in Him, we find our only reliable success. The world is still a very puzzling and dangerous place. Our lives can easily be taken away in a moment according to the most revolting injustice. Therefore our hope cannot be in our own abilities or in the goodwill of those who share this planet with us. Our success must be found in Jesus Christ. He is the object of our faith, and in Him we have found life. All of our progress in obedience must come as a fruit of the faith that we have in Him.