The Call-Start of Romans

The Call

Rom 1:1-7

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God-- (NIV)

2 (Which he had promised beforehand by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) (KJV)

3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David(descendent of David) according to the flesh; (KJV)

4 And declared to be the Son of God with (dunamis)power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: (KJV) [dunamis means miraculous power]

5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

6 Among whom are you also the called of Jesus Christ:

7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The above can be considered an introduction to the book of Romans. Romans is one of the deepest theological books of the New Testament-almost as deep as the book of John. In Romans we are given an understanding not only of human nature but God’s and His love for us, especially in relation to what He did for us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let’s take a look at the first verse. Paul introduces himself as one who was called to be an apostle, an emissary, someone called to be an ambassador and messenger, some one who is sent out with a message. Paul states that he was set apart for this job for the purpose of giving out, proclaiming, sharing with others the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. So Paul’s identification here is that he is an apostle, a sent one. Someone called him to that work and we know that it was God. We also know how God called him-appeared to Paul when Paul was on the way to Damascus from Jerusalem.

In verse two we are told the fact that this message Paul is carrying had been promised in the past through God’s prophets. The promise of the message, the promise of the gospel had been written by the prophets in the Old Testament scriptures. So this shows that the message God gave out through Jesus Christ and now through Paul was not exactly a new message, but that it had been prophesied. What is that message? That is the whole subject of the book of Romans, but in a nutshell it is Jesus’ death and resurrection for our salvation from sin and receiving a new heart that would follow after God. And in verses 3 & 4 & 5b Paul is explaining that.

3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David(descendent of David) according to the flesh; (KJV)

Rom 1:4

4 And declared to be the Son of God with (dunamis)power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: (KJV)

5b for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

Now in 5a we find Paul explaining again who gave him his commission as apostle and the grace needed to operate in such a calling. It says "By whom we have received grace and apostleship". Who is the "whom" referred to here? We must go back to verse 1 for that answer. Paul is indicating that Christ Jesus and God the Father (who is referred to by "he" in verse 2) are the one who has given him the calling and the grace to accomplish it. Why is it not the Holy Spirit as referred to in verse 4? Notice that it says Jesus was declared the Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness. In other words, the Holy Spirit witnessed to the fact that Jesus was holy, and sinless his entire human life. You see, folks, Jesus could not have been raised from the dead as He was unless He had been sinless. Death had no hold over Him at all, but He was willing to lay down His life anyway and go through death for our sakes and for our salvation. Death only has sway over those people who commit any sins. Which is why it states in the book of Hebrews that

Heb 9:27

27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:(KJV)

So physical death for all of us other than Jesus has been foreordained. And when Jesus took on to Himself the human form, experiencing life in a human body, He lived a sinless life and could have lived in that human body forever. Just as Adam before his sin could have lived forever in the state he was created, Jesus too could have lived forever in His human body. But instead He chose to go through all things that people go through without sinning so that He could be the pure lamb that took away the sins of the world and experienced the punishment for those sins.

Did it ever occur to you that it was because He was holy and perfect, sinless, that death could have no hold over Him? Do you see now how important it was for Him to be raised from the dead? It was the final proof that He was who He said He was-God, the Son of God. No one has ever come back from death the way Jesus did. When He arose, He arose with a perfect spiritual/physical body. Lazarus did not come back that way. He was resurrected from death back into a flawed body. Same for others that were raised from the dead by Jesus as well as those in the old Testament. Those folks had to die again. But Jesus’ body after His resurrection was different. It was raised an immortal, eternal body. And guess what, after Jesus resurrection, there were others God raised from the dead in the same way Jesus was. You find the reference to that in Matthew.27:52 &53. Can you imagine what it was like for folks not only seeing Jesus in His resurrected body but these other saints as well? Pretty mind boggling to say the least.

And here Paul is writing to these Christians in Rome letting them know that he was sent by God, by this Jesus, the Anointed One, to share the good news of Jesus Christ. This very Jesus who had been crucified by the Romans according to the wishes of the Jewish leadership and the mob was the same one who sent Paul.

What have you been called to do? Aside from being called to salvation, what is your calling as a believer? Are you an emissary like Paul was, some one who is called to evangelize the lost and get them saved, or are you called to another job? In Romans 12 we will see some of the callings God gives His people, and if you want to jump over there, do so and read that. But remember, you have been called to a responsibility-just as Paul was-within the body of Christ. What is it and are you doing it? Or are you at least readying yourself by the immersing of yourself in the Word for the call you have been given? If you don’t know your calling, it is time you find out from God what it is, so get with Him and find out.

May God bless us all from the reading of His scriptures.

Before I get into the Bible Trivia questions, I have two Praise the Lords to give you. First God did preserve all my files of data, all my documents. It had been the C drive that died but all my stuff was on another drive so it was safe. God prearranged that I discovered. The other Praise the Lord is that God also saved me a lot of work. I had started doing a back up of all my files onto a CD and was thinking I had to rename the files with smaller names, etc, and had spent two days doing that and what does my husband do when I go ask him to supervise my burning of the first CD? He deletes all the work I do. Well I was angry to say the least-but God had this all under control. It was He who prompted my husband to do it and in the ensuing discussion I discovered that I had not even needed to change the names on the files. So I have virtually everything now backed up on floppys and CDs and it didn’t take all that long to do it. So folks, even when things seem to go wrong, even when your spouse does something you think he or she has no business doing, think again cause sometimes God has him or her doing something that needs to be done because He knows something about your need that you don’t.

That’s all for today, folks, have a great weekend. The Good News Lady