Paul's Epistle to the Romans — page 2

Paul says that Christ was marked out (identified) as the Son of God “in power”. That is, He demonstrated that He was the Son of God by His acts of power when He walked here in this world. The power in His earthly ministry resulted from the “Spirit of holiness” (JND) being with Him (Luke 4:14; Acts 10:38). Mentioning the word “holiness” indicates that His power to do miracles did not come from some corrupt source (Satanic power), but from the power of the Holy Spirit. The greatest barrier to blessing is death itself, but the Lord overcame that great obstacle by raising the dead – thus showing that He was the Son of God, the great Giver of life (John 1:4, 5:21, 11:25). “The resurrection from the dead” (KJV) is in the plural in Greek and should literally read, “the resurrection of dead ones”. This is a reference to the daughter of Jairus (Matt. 9:18-26), the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:12-17), Lazarus (John 11:14-46) and the resurrection of the Lord Himself – all were raised by His power. Thus, the Lord's family lineage proved that He was “the descendant of David” (Matt. 1), but His acts of power in raising the dead proved that He is “the Son of God”. Vs. 5-6 – These verses bring us to the scope of the gospel. Paul declares that he was given special “grace” to fulfill his “apostleship” and take the gospel to “all the nations –TB”. Thus, the scope of the gospel message reaches the whole human race. By adding the phrase: “For obedience of faith”, Paul made it clear that the blessings the gospel promises are only received by those who have faith to believe the message.

1. 7 – Paul then identifies those to whom the epistle was

written – “To all who are in Rome, beloved of God”. This is not referring to all the people of Rome, but to all the believers there. It is likely that some of them had been saved through Peter's preaching at Pentecost (Acts 2:10), and took the gospel back home and spread it there. That Paul was referring to the believers in Rome is evident from the use of the word “called”. As a rule, the term is used in the Scriptures only for believers.

Another proof that he was referring to believers is the fact that he calls those to whom he was writing “saints”. A saint is one “separated” or “sanctified”. Saints could only be believers. All these were saved by the grace of God and are (positionally) sanctified, being separated for blessing. The King James Version (and several in Portuguese) says: “called to be saints”, but the words “to be” are in italics, indicating that they are not in the Greek text and were added by the translators to aid the reading of the passage. Unfortunately, as in the case of verse 1, this changes the meaning and makes holiness a goal to be reached in the future. This is a Catholic error. (Roman Catholicism teaches that if a person lives nobly for that system, after leaving this world through death, they can be promoted to a special place of being a saint.) People take this mistaken idea and say things like “I don't intend to be a saint, but...” The text should simply say, “called saints”. The truth is that, if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are saints – and we are such because we have been called by God! It is not something we hope to be, or are waiting to be, but something that the Word of God says we are by His grace. Some think it is evidence of humility to refuse to be called a saint now, but this denies the truth of the Scriptures. There is no Scripture that tells us to try to attain holiness, but there are many Scriptures that tell us that all believers are saints, even while they are still living in this world. It is not pride or presumption to believe the Word of God.

Personal Communications

Chap. 1:8-15 – Having formally introduced himself, Paul now makes clear his reason for writing. He also makes his personal desires known to the Roman believers. Paul seeks to gain their confidence by being as transparent as possible with them – even to the point of invoking God as a “witness” of his genuineness – thus manifesting his sincere care for their spiritual well-being. His desire was that they would see that he had nothing in his heart but their well-being.

Paul thanked God for the truth of their faith that had spread throughout the whole Christian community in “all the world”. This is an expression that refers to the Roman Empire; it is not the whole world (Luke 2:1). He also prayed earnestly for the saints in Rome and asked God to permit him to go to them. He had two main reasons for this:

• To impart “some spiritual gift” so that they might be established (vs. 10-11 – TB).

• So that both he and they might have “mutual comfort” (JND) in the Christian path through fellowship (vs. 12-13).

First of all, Paul's desire to communicate some “spiritual gift” to the Roman Christians was not what we see in the current activities of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. (This Christian group promises a “second blessing” for Christians some time after they have been saved, in which they profess to have the gift of tongues, healing, etc.) Paul was speaking of a spiritual gift in the sense of giving some spiritual truth to the saints in Rome. Since he had not been in Rome, it was likely that they were deficient in their understanding regarding some things he taught, and he simply wished to fill in those things that were lacking in their understanding (compare 1 Thess. 3:10). Paul's intention in giving them a spiritual gift was that they might be “established” in the Christian faith. This proves that the gift to which he was referring was not a miraculous gift of signs, because those do not build up (establish) the understanding of the truth in someone.

Nor does Paul's reference to a “prosperous journey” (v. 10 – KJV) mean that he expected to make money on that journey; he simply wished that God would prosper him in such a way that he would have the financial means to go. (See the footnote of J. N.

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Darby's Translation). As has been seen, Paul's prayer was answered in a completely different way from what he had prayed; the last chapter of the book of Acts records that he arrived there as a prisoner!

Paul's other reason for wanting to go to the Roman Christians was, as mentioned above, for “mutual comfort”. They would encourage him and he would encourage them “by the mutual faith both of you and me”. Paul explains to them that the reason he had not come to them until now was because he had “been hindered”. Since the door was closed at that moment, Paul committed himself to writing this letter in an effort to help them understand his gospel more clearly and thus lead them in a path where they would be established in the faith. He promised that when he arrived there, he would give them “the fullness of the blessing of Christ” (chap. 15:29 – TB). This is an allusion to the truth of the Mystery, which is a line of truth higher than that of the gospel, and is what truly completes the Christian revelation (Col. 1:25-26 – JND). Understanding the Mystery, which leads the believer according to “the purpose” of God “for the ages” (Eph. 3:11 – JND) and also according to His plan for the present dispensation (1 Tim. 1:4 – JND). Both lines of truth – the gospel and the Mystery – are necessary for the establishment of the believer in the Christian faith (Rom. 16:25).

1. 14 – Paul said he was ready to preach and teach the

gospel to all. He felt that he had a debt to pay in announcing the gospel – stating: “I am a debtor...”.

First, he was ready to preach to the various types of unbelievers – “the Greeks” and “the barbarians”. These were the civilized and uncivilized people of this world in Paul's day. (By using the term “Greek”, he is not referring to those who are Greek only by nationality. It is a generic term that includes all people among the Gentiles who were educated and refined to a certain degree under Greek culture. A refined Roman, for example, would have this title). Then he says: “both to the wise and to the unwise”. These were the instructed and uninstructed peoples of the world. Thus, by referring to these different classes of lost men, Paul drew a line across the globe from north to south, and from east to west, and reached every kind of unbeliever that exists in the world. Whatever their status in life – rich or poor, educated or uneducated, black or white – Paul was ready and willing to preach the good news to them, because he genuinely cared for them and desired that all be saved.

1. 15 – Second, Paul was ready to speak to the

believers about the gospel as well. He said: “I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also”. “You” are the believers in Rome. We might wonder why he would want to bring the gospel to believers when they were already saved, but it was because he wanted them to know the truth of the gospel better. His presentation of the gospel to believers, of course, would have a different character from that which he would emphasize to unbelievers. This second point shows that there is a need not only to preach the gospel to sinners, but also to teach the gospel to the saints. The saints need to learn the truth of the gospel in a sound way because it gives the soul a solid foundation on which they will grow spiritually (Rom. 16:25). It brings assurance, peace and gratitude, from which come obedience and devotion in service, which chapters 12-15 of this epistle indicate.

We see from verses 14 and 15 that it was not for lack of willingness that Paul had not gone to Rome with the gospel (he was ready for this when the Lord opened the door); but that he had not had opportunity, being hindered “many times” (v. 13).