Romans 1: 8 “More Blessing”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁸First, I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ concerning all of you, because your faith is being proclaimed in the whole world.

“First,” he says. Paul has set down to write this letter because he has quite a message he wants to deliver, yet, before he gets to his “good stuff,” he thinks “first” he wants to say a few things. Isn’t it nice of him to say to these people, “I thank God for you.” It makes me wonder if we don’t need a lot more of that? Maybe this is just more of the “sincere greeters” I suggested we ought to be in the last post, but I still think it needs to be observed. How totally Christian to say to another person, “I thank God for you.” I wonder if that doesn’t communicate something deeper and more eternal than even just “I’m thankful for you.” That in itself would be a giant leap in the right direction for most people, but I think Paul is showing us a very simple, very basic Christian gesture we all ought to carefully cultivate.

It’s interesting that he says, “I thank my God.” I don’t know why he injects the “my.” I’m sure there is a good reason. I just don’t see any real difference between simply, “I thank God,” or “I thank my God,” or even “I thank our God.” There may very well be some point of wisdom in Paul’s choice which simply eludes me for now. If I live long enough to look at this closely again in years to come, perhaps I will have matured enough myself to say, “Well, of course…”

He’s also careful to add the “through Jesus Christ.”  This is of course always true whether we realize it or not – everything we do right is through Jesus. We pray through Jesus. We’re enabled through His Spirit to live and think and speak. I would guess if there was a reason why Paul particularly injects those words here, it is because of the nature of the letter he is writing. As we saw in the first few verses, Paul emphatically makes the point that it is all about Jesus. The Gospel is all about Jesus. The Gospel is Jesus.

What particularly interests me, though, is Paul’s statement that “your faith is being proclaimed in the whole world.” First of all, it’s interesting that that is specifically what Paul thanks God for – their faith and its broad acclaim. There are a lot of things which might stir in us a sense of thankfulness for other people. Is it not worth noting that one of the greatest things to be thankful for is when we see real faith in another person? If we are wearing our eternal eyes, is not faith the root of all other real blessings? Is it not the one thing which, if another person possesses, we can be assured they will be a person who will not only be blessed but also be a blessing? They may not be rich or enjoy good health or a lot of other earthly blessings, but if they have real faith, they will know “the peace that passes understanding.” They will have a wonderful Father who draws them ever closer and closer to His heart. Whether at work or at church or in the home or wherever they go, they will be able to live in the assurance of His great love and perfect wisdom, which will then overflow from their heart into the lives of others. It is such a blessing to see real faith in another person. Let’s not forget to notice it, to thank God for it, and maybe even tell them so!

But what leaves me curious is the fact that their faith is “being proclaimed in the whole world.” I wonder what exactly is “being proclaimed?” I mean if someone said about me, “The whole world is talking about your faith,” what would they be talking about? What particularly is it that they would see? Someone could mention Joni Eareckson Tada and certainly the whole world could speak of her faith trusting God above her terrible quadriplegia –but then I don’t have anything that dramatic to see, and I don’t think the Roman believers did either. Maybe it was the believers staying faithful to the Lord and loving to people and to each other in spite of their terrible persecutions. I’m thinking in my mind though that the intense persecution hadn’t started yet. The rest of the book certainly doesn’t give any such hints. So what is it that people saw that was so significant “the whole world” was talking about it?

Frankly I don’t know. This may be another one of those wisdom problems. Perhaps years from now it will be obvious to me. It just isn’t now. I do want to say, though, wouldn’t it be nice if that is what people talked about – our faith? I’m afraid when people talk about American churches or American Christians today, “faith” wouldn’t be their main point of discussion. Frankly, I’m ashamed to even suggest what they’d probably be talking about. But then, we can’t change the rest of the world, or the rest of the church for that matter. We need to worry about ourselves and let the Lord work on the rest of the world. I hope the Lord will help me to truly be growing in real faith and then, whatever it is that other people would see, I hope they see it.

And for whatever it’s worth, just because it’s been on my mind, I wonder if for many of us, we’ll never know when someone else “saw” our faith and it helped them. I know most of the people who have helped me all through my life didn’t even know they were helping me. It was so often just something someone said, or something I saw them do, that the Lord used to light some kind of a fire in my heart or teach me some very helpful truth. So maybe we just never do know?

I also suspect that, oftentimes, the Lord’s greatest use of our lives is after we’re dead and gone. Stop and think about it – there is a Paul to write the book of Romans because a man named Stephen prayed as he died. You and I are reading the book of Romans 2,000 years after Stephen died. He died not knowing the man holding the garments would be the Apostle Paul. He died not knowing that that very man would write the book of Romans and you and I would be sitting here being blessed by it now. I suspect that God often uses all of us that way. We just have to be faithful, love Him, try to trust Him, love people, live our lives, then lay down and die and let Him do His great eternal work with whatever fishes and loaves we left behind.

Again, those are just “for whatever it’s worth.” I’m certainly not getting it from the text.

But once again there is plenty of encouragement for us to grow on.

Romans 1: 7 “Blessed Encouragement”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁷to all ones being in Rome, beloved ones of God, called set-apart ones, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Once again, I find I can pause and ponder on almost every word in this verse and draw from it oceans of encouragement. I will try to briefly jot down the highlights as I see them.

First of all, I want to note the greeting itself. Paul writes to the Romans and says, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Just stop and ponder for a minute what a nice gesture this is – for this man to express such kindness to these people. There he is, going about his life, busy with this ministry opportunity and that, writing to these people who are just as busy with their lives, working, and shopping, and fixing their roof, or whatever else may be urgently demanding their attention. Into the middle of all of that, this one man writes to them and says, in effect, “I really wish the very best for you.”

Stop and ponder what a totally Christian expression that is. The rest of the world lives “hating and being hated.” I know from work, sometimes you wonder if anyone ever says anything nice about anyone else. It seems sometimes like people are only nice when they want to sell you something. That certainly isn’t pervasively true and I will be the first to acknowledge that I work with a LOT of very nice people. Still, one can’t read the news without being almost depressed by the constant rage of hatred that goes on. Once again, in the middle of that very world, this one man takes the time to say very specifically to this specific group of people, “I really wish the very best for you.”

Can we pause and appreciate this simple greeting? I think we tend to rush by the greetings in the Bible as if they are as cliché as (too often) human greetings tend to be. In Paul’s, there is nothing cliché about his greetings. They are genuine and heartfelt. What I want to suggest to our minds is Jesus’ words, “Go and do thou likewise.” Whether it is among fellow believers or just the humdrum of work and school and life, we as Christians should deliberately strive to be sincere greeters. There is a huge difference between shaking someone’s hand and shaking someone’s hand, yes? It can be thoughtless and routine, or one can pause long enough to actually communicate to someone else, “I value you,” or “I really am sincerely grateful to meet you.” I don’t necessarily mean verbally. I’m talking about our hearts and what everything about us communicates. We live in such a cold, uncaring world. May we believers be like Paul and extend to all others greetings that carry love, respect, and value to the people we meet and the people we know. We all know it is very encouraging (though unfortunately rare) to actually be treated like a human being. May you and I, “passing through this Valley of Bacah, leave behind springs of water.”

As I said above, the whole verse before us is full of encouragement. It is written to “ones being in Rome,” but then we know from context, it isn’t just anyone in Rome. It is written specifically to the believers. God loves all the people in Rome, but He has a special love and regard for those who have embraced His Son. They may be unimportant faces in the throngs of people who swarm the markets every day, but to the God of Heaven, they are precious.

He calls them “beloved ones of God.” That reminds me of I John 3:1: “Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God!” and Eph 5:1,2: “Therefore be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us…” “Dearly loved children” – it is so important for us as believers to really understand this and embrace it. Because of Jesus, we have become children of God, and not just sort of probationary children, as if God were still deciding if He really wants to “keep us.”

I remember a family that had adopted two little boys. The father told me one of the most difficult challenges he and his wife faced was convincing those two little boys they weren’t going to “send them back.” The poor little fellows just couldn’t seem to believe that this man and his wife had made them family forever. Unfortunately, we grown up Christians often have the same problem. We need to accept from the Lord that He really has accepted us and that He calls us “dearly loved children.” We who have had children know what that means. We love our children totally and completely and forever – and not only “if they’re good.” Dearly loved children are dearly loved children – and that is what we are to our wonderful Father and Lord.

We’re also “called set-apart ones.” That usually gets translated something like “called to be saints.” The “to be” is added. What is important to you and me is that, once again, the Lord sees us differently than the rest of the world. He loves the whole world, but He has a special love for us His children. He has “set us apart” from the rest.

Then look what He wishes for us: “Grace and peace.” We all know that grace means “unmerited favor.” What the Lord wants is for us to live in that grace. He wants it to be the air we breathe. “And peace” – in the Bible “peace” is much more than just the absence of conflict (although that in itself is a nice blessing!). For Paul, his understanding of “peace” would come from the Hebrew idea expressed in their word, “Shalom!” In Hebrew, shalom or peace means the fullness of everything in its place, everything as it should be. I think the best illustration for our modern minds would be the Norman Rockwell painting of a Thanksgiving dinner – a family gathered around, with everyone present, a bountiful table of delicious food, and the warm, complete comfort of that setting of family love. That is “shalom.” That is the “peace” the Lord is wishing for each of us here in Romans 1:7.

And who exactly is it that gives such pleasant gifts? They come from “God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Once again, I hope I’m not being cynical to observe that our world is sometimes seemingly devoid of such kindness. It seems too many people simply cannot be nice. What people hear all day every day is sarcasm, belittling, and discouragement. But, for you and me, our God crashes through it all and calls us “dearly loved children” and wishes for each of us “grace and peace.” Then He would have us turn and be like Him and “live a life of love” and be the same kind of encouragers to the people all around ourselves.

What a blessed little verse! Paul hasn’t even started into the letter itself and already we’ve enjoyed seven verses of heavenly sunshine! May each of us drink deeply of our Lord’s profound love and then may it flow out of our hearts and our mouths and our hands to be a blessing to others!

Romans 1: 5,6 “Encouraging Truths”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

…Jesus Christ, our Lord, ⁵through whom we received grace and apostleship into a hearing of faith among the Gentiles on behalf of His name, ⁶and you also are among them – called ones of Jesus Christ.

I found it instructive to stop and ponder pretty much every word of verses 5 & 6.

Verse 5 starts with “through whom.” Through who? Jesus. Once again, He is “the point of it all” and He is everything.  Everything is “concerning His Son!” Whatever good Paul received, He received it through Him, through Jesus. That is not at all surprising since, “For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…all things have been created through Him and for Him” (Col. 1:16). David said of the Lord, “You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing” (Ps. 145:16). It is a wonderful freedom to realize it true that “Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights” (Ja. 1:17). Sin, Satan, and this world promise us everything our hearts desire, then instead kill us; but we can look to the hand of Jesus and know we will receive good from His hand. Everything truly good comes “through Him.”

“We received.” These two simple words, when sincerely grasped, are the death of pride. If there is anything in my life that is good or right, why is it there? I received it. School always came easy for me. My whole life I’ve watched other people struggle with math, struggle with simple spelling, with proper English. That, of course, means I’m “better” than them, right? Wrong, of course. I Cor. 4:7 speaks directly to this matter: “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” Boasting? Yes. Every second you or I think in any way, shape, or form we’re “better” than anyone else, our hearts are “boasting.” We may in fact be better at something, but that doesn’t make us “better.” The fact is, no matter who it is, there are things they are better at than me. We all have our own gifts and talents. In our text, even something as “great” as the gift of apostleship only belonged to Paul because Jesus gave it to him. We all need to see our gifts as something we were given – something we received.

“Grace.” Paul here says through Jesus he received “grace.” Grace, in and of itself, is the death of pride. By its very nature grace is undeserved. That’s the point. Grace is God’s favor and kindness shown to me in utter disregard of what I do or do not “deserve.” Even in human terms, grace is about the person giving, not the person receiving. A gracious person is someone who gives good because they’re good, because they have a generous, kind heart. If you or I happen to land at the feet of someone else’s grace, we can only be thankful. Hopefully at those times we are keenly aware that their kindness has nothing to do with whether I do or do not “deserve” it. It’s just who they are. I enjoyed working several years under one boss who was like that. It seemed like every time we turned around he was giving us something. Working with him personally for those several years I got to see clearly it all came from his gracious heart. But the best news is that our Jesus is a God of grace. Even in what may be seemingly the most difficult of times, our hearts can be encouraged to remember He said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”

“Apostleship.” Woah, dude. Raising the dead, healing the sick, casting out demons, visions from God. Woah, dude. Although the apostles may be scorned by the world, by us believers they are held in very, very high esteem. Amongst us Christians, we might all agree it would be amazing to actually be an apostle – to preach one sermon and see 3,000 people saved in a single day! Wow. I mean, we all want to be used by God. We want to think we could actually be used in some mighty way. We wish we could be. A few people get selected. “He gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be pastors and teachers,” and for what reason? “… to prepare God’s people …” Some are chosen for gifted leadership. And who are the rest? Just “God’s people.”

The vast majority of us will always be simply “God’s people.”  Most of us will not be given “amazing” gifts. We are just “God’s people.” We get up in the morning and go to work. We brush our teeth and mow our grass. We’re fathers and mothers and neighbors and friends. But the genius of the Gospel is that there are a LOT of us! As Lincoln said, “The Lord must love common people – He made so many of them!” In the church, Paul’s “gift” was apostleship. Our gifts are just to be “God’s people” – to go out into a world of people who desperately need Christ and live the very truths God’s gifted leaders have taught us – to be living epistles, known and read by all men, written not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshy tablets of human hearts.”

“Into a hearing of faith.” This is the reason why Paul received “grace and apostleship.” The word I’ve translated “hearing” is exactly that. Many translations say some form of “obedience of faith.” What is happening is, just like in English, the verb “to hear” also can mean “to obey.” The parent says to the disobedient child, “You’re  not listening to me.” I don’t have any problem with understanding this passage as addressing the obedience that comes with faith. When we truly “hear” what faith is about, it will change our lives. To real born-again Christians, that is not something threatening, it is to us “Good news!” We don’t want to be who we were. We want to change. We want to be better. The wonderful thing about real faith is that is exactly what it does. It raises us. Our God is a Redeemer. His specialty is gathering up the broken shards of our lives, putting them back together, and giving us a “future and a hope.”

“Among all the Gentiles.” As the hillbilly would say, “That means us’ns!” We’re “the Gentiles.” We’re the people who were “having no hope, without God in the world;” but now “we are brought near by the blood of Jesus.” We can thank God for all eternity that faith burst out of Israel’s borders and hunted you and me down – in every corner of this world. Actually it had to be that way. Jesus is too great a Savior just to save the Jewish people. His grace explodes to cover our globe. This was actually prophesied in Isa. 49:5,6, “And now the Lord says: “It is too small a thing for You to be My servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make You a light for the Gentiles, that My salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

“On behalf of His name.” Once again, it’s all about Him.

Verse 6 goes on to very deliberately express, “and you also are among them – called ones of Jesus Christ.” Paul would have every believer to know, we’re “among them.” No matter who we are, we are His.

So much encouraging truth in just a few short words!

Romans 1: 3,4 “The Point of It All”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

…the Gospel of God,… ³concerning His Son, the One becoming out of [the] seed of David according to [the] flesh, ⁴the One marked out to be [the] Son of God in power according to [the] Spirit of holiness and out of [the] resurrection of [the] dead ones – Jesus Christ, our Lord…

Looking particularly at verse 4, a lot of people have written commentaries through the years. In understanding the Greek, the theologians have all had to express their opinions on practically every word in the verse. Because so much has been written on those questions, I don’t intend to record much, if at all. I think the basic, normal English translations are generally accurate and I’m just going to go with them.

Jesus was born a man, a descendant of David, but He was so much more than a man. He was born Immanuel, “God with us.” He is the Son of God and God the Son. As Paul will later say in Romans, “Theirs (the Jews’) are the Patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen” (9:5).

During His life, He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He got tired. He got hungry. He got thirsty. He appeared in many ways to be just as weak as the rest of us. He even ended up the victim of a very cruel and unjust murder. No doubt, as Joseph of Arimathea laid Jesus’ body in the tomb, Satan and his minions cheered ecstatically. The Seed of the woman is dead! The great Messiah who was supposed to crush Satan’s head, who was supposed to save the world was Himself killed before He could do any such thing. Now Satan was the unchallenged ruler of this world!

Then something happened to totally upend everything. Jesus got up out of the tomb. He was dead, but now He is alive and lives forevermore! In case anyone questioned just who Jesus was, His resurrection shouted a definitive answer: “He is the Son of God, God the Son.” “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” Jesus had told them. “No one takes my life from Me. I have the power to lay it down and to take it up again.” In some places we read that God raised Him up again. In other places, it was the Spirit. Jesus said He did it Himself. How could all three be true? Because He is God. No one less than God Himself could raise Himself from the dead.

What Paul is doing particularly in vv. 3,4 is informing us that the Gospel is Jesus. I would suggest we need desperately to consider this simple fact today. It is very easy to say things like, “The Gospel is the message of salvation,” and it certainly is, but, if we stop there, we’re missing the whole point of it all – which is Jesus Himself. “For this is eternal life, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (John 17:3). “That they might know You.” The Gospel is not just a set of facts to be believed. It is a Person, it is a personal relationship. The Gospel is Jesus Christ our Lord – Jesus, the Savior man; Christ, the promised Messiah; our Lord, the King of kings. To be saved is to meet Jesus.

I believe this is the fundamental difference between real Christianity and every other human religion: our “faith” is not about a set of rules or participating in some particular religious system. Our faith is Jesus. It is a real, personal, minute by minute, day by day relationship with Him, with this One who came not to condemn our world, but that the world would be saved through Him, who came not to harm us but to do us good, to give us a future and a hope, who spared not His own life, but delivered it up for us all, who loves us with an everlasting love, and who has gone to prepare a place for us, that where He is, there we may be with Him.

May we all go about our lives today filled with the wonder of who He is, knowing our Savior is the Son of God and God the Son, and may His spirit of holiness shine out of our hearts, not because of who were are, but because those hearts are filled with the God-man, Jesus! The world doesn’t need a new and improved “religion.” They need Jesus. He is the point of it all.