Paul expresses in his opening remarks how he was passionate to preach the gospel and see people established in the reality of Christ. He explained that he felt obligated to everyone; whoever was willing to listen to him declare the good news. This was the very thing he desired to do in Rome. Within these opening remarks, Paul makes the following statement regarding the gospel he had spent his life preaching:

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. Romans 1:16

This is an amazing statement for him to make when you consider that this letter to the Romans was written after a life time of ministry that included the very public Corinthian debaucheries and the Galatians churches rejection of him and his gospel. He went through his whole life preaching Christ and the good news of the new covenant reality; the good news of God’s grace apart from law. He continually served people; humbling himself and coming down under people to where they were at in the hope that they would take hold of this wonderful reality. Paul was not standing proud and pressuring people to accept his theology. To Paul, the gospel was a reality that was outlived in his life as well as his preaching.

It was well known that other preachers felt it their duty to slander the ministry of Paul during these times through pointing out, as evidence of his illegitimacy as an apostle, the churches he founded and the mess they were in.

Perhaps they went about publicly slandering and humiliating Paul with the hope of pressuring him to change his message to include not only the finished work of Jesus, but also the unfinished work of the law. Their slander attempted to expose that his message was wrong; he was wrong, his churches were wrong and he should have been preaching the law to the churches he founded; telling them that they were sinners and they needed to clean up their act!

Yet Paul never buckled to such preachers, rather his attitude was that if anyone had accepted Christ then they were a new creation, the old had gone and the new had come and all this was to the glory of God! Paul refused to preach to the believer’s ‘old self.’ Paul maintained that the old self died with Christ in his death, and every believer had been raised with Christ in his resurrection and made a new creation. In Christ we are all new, and Paul was committed to maintaining this was indeed every Christians reality and preaching from that perspective.

Paul was steadfast in his belief that the new man could not be broken like the old man; believing that Christ in the believer was strong enough to walk out the ‘God life’ in their life, they only needed to put their confidence in him and in the reality that was rightly theirs in him. What broke the old man could not break the new man; the need for the believer wasn’t to hear about their old self, but to hear of the reality of their new self and given confidence to live in it.

Paul’s ministry was discredited. Some simply dismissed him as a fool, some took offence at him, others slandered him as a false teacher. Everything that he did was continually discredited, and yet even at the point of writing his letter to the Romans, even after all the set backs, the failures and the misunderstandings that took place in the churches he founded, he still was preaching the good news of God’s grace apart from law.

It was after all this that he wrote within his letter to the Romans this bold statement that he was not ashamed of the gospel, because Paul knew it was the reality of God. Paul didn’t care how discredited he got, and how many people called him a fool, pointing out his failings or how he wasn’t a trained speaker and often stumbled upon his words. Paul maintained he was not ashamed, because despite his lack, weakness and failings, the gospel message he preached was nonetheless the power of God!

Paul wasn’t ashamed of the gospel, and today we too join Paul as a community of people who are not ashamed of the gospel, because the gospel of God’s grace, apart from law is the power of God! It is the power of God for obedience, righteousness, holiness, wisdom, salvation. What ever you need to be saved from, this gospel is the power that brings that salvation into your life.

It is the gospel that lifts up Jesus and boasts in the glory of who he is, and boasts in the incomparable riches of his grace, and rejoices in him; in his glory, his power and his person. It is the good news that reveals his finished work; that he is powerful enough to fulfil the old covenant, and powerful enough to establish a new covenant. It is the message that testifies to the truth that his sacrifice on the cross and the spilling of his blood was powerful enough to cleanse us perfectly. It is the good news that declares that Jesus is powerful enough to make us new and perfect and whole in him.

Paul was preaching the same message his whole life; the gospel that is truly glorious and gives all credit to God, and when believed upon, caused the ‘Christ life’ to be lived out victoriously in the lives of the believers. Paul didn’t look to his own ministries fruit, or what other people were saying to decide what truth was; he looked to the gospel that God gave him and declared that it was simply the truth, and that is why he preached it.

That too is why we preach it today!

In Paul’s introduction, he both thanked God for the Roman church and comments on how their church was known around the world for their faith. They were evidently a passionate church, but they were clearly still lacking the foundational understanding of living in the grace of God apart from Law. In addressing this issue, it’s worth taking note that Paul didn’t talk anywhere near as harshly to them as he did to the Galatians church.

It is clear that the Roman church misunderstood the fullness of the gospel, but Paul took a very different approach with them than he did with the Galatians church. When Paul talked to the Galatians church, he was much more emotional, he seemed to take their rejection of his gospel much more personally; he was shocked how they had turned from the gospel foundation that he had preached to them and established them in and had turned to another gospel.

The difference between the two churches was that Paul never laid the foundation in Rome; he never taught them the foundational teaching of the good news of God’s grace apart from law. Because of this, Paul didn’t rebuke the church for believing ‘a different’ gospel as he did with the Galatians.

I believe this is an important point to consider for preachers today. We can not be overly critical of other church communities that don’t understand the reality of God’s grace apart from law if they have never been taught it to begin with. If we have not been personally involved in laying the foundation of the gospel in their community, then we can not take offence at their lack of understanding, but rather we can offer our gift as communicators of God’s grace to build the church up and help them see the greater reality of the gospel that is rightly theirs in Christ.

If it is our own church community; the ones that we have been personally involved in preaching the foundational truths in, and we know that they clearly did understand it and embrace it but are now turning away from it to embrace another gospel, then there is a place to be very firm in our approach and correction. However, if it is another local church community, one that we have not laid the foundations in, then we need to encourage them through love, to serve them with a spirit of love and grace to help them embrace the greater reality that is rightly theirs in Christ.

Paul wanted to first acknowledge that the Roman church’s faith had a great reputation and that they were full of faith, but he also wanted to take them on a journey. It is possible that the reason Paul was writing this letter because although the church was full of faith and loved Christ, they still couldn’t grasp how it is possible that they can now be in a new covenant that is completely apart from the law. That, I believe, was their greatest difficulty.

As we discussed earlier, Paul evidently had some personal relationships with some of the leaders within the Roman church community. It was one of these friends who most likely had contacted Paul and explained that many in the church were still clinging to the idea that law the means to be righteous, and that it was the law, and not Christ in them, that caused them to have knowledge and understand truth.

Before Paul jumped into talking about this very topic, he first expressed his heart to the church; he wanted the church to know that he loved them and that he cared deeply for them. Paul explained to them how he not only serves God with all his heart, but he was also constantly thinking about the church in Rome and praying for them; explaining to them that one of his hearts desires was that God would bless him by making the way possible for him to visit them. It’s good to know that God did answer Paul’s prayer, as Paul did end up not only visiting, but staying in Rome for about two years, as we read in the end of the Acts account.

Paul also encouraged the church with his motives for wanting to visit them. He said that he desired to impart a spiritual gift to the church. He went on to explain what that meant to him; he told the church the way he could impart a spiritual gift to them was through being encouraged by their mutual faith. Paul was explaining that when he would come to see them and they would see his faith and that he was living in God’s grace and the hope he had in Jesus, they would be encouraged by that and it would stir their faith and bless them.

Paul was also explaining that it worked both ways; it was a double blessing. What he meant by that was that when he came and saw their faith in Christ, and that they were living in the liberty of Christ and allowing his life in them to be walked out, that is what would encourage Paul in his faith. It is a beautiful reality that encourages all of us when we see one another letting  Christ in us live his life and overflow his grace through our lives. When we see each other letting that be our reality, it encourages us in our spirits greatly!

Paul’s letter to the church in Rome is just as relevant to us as the church today, and we too need to open our hearts to hear what God is saying to us through this letter. When we don’t cling to religious ideas and religious traditions that we have been taught and indoctrinated into, but we lay them aside and open our hearts to listen to what Paul has to say to us regarding our inheritance and new creation life in Christ, then we too can be greatly encouraged.

God certainly wants to speak to us through this letter, just as he originally spoke to the Roman church through it, and help us to accept and live in the fullness of God’s abundant grace and truth.

More to come…

To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 1:7

Paul makes the statement in his opening remarks that the church in Rome was indeed a church community who was loved by God and called to be saints. This, in essence, really is the first experience that happens to all of us when we first unite ourselves with Jesus; we experience this new reality where the Spirit indwells us and we have this newly created spiritual understanding, “I am loved by God.”

In Christ, God also calls us saints because the truth is that anyone who is in Christ is a saint. God not only calls us saints, but he also encourages us that we will outlive the life of a saint. A saint in Christ is not defined in the same manner as the world defines a saint. A saint in the world is someone who excludes themselves from anything they deem to be unholy or indulgent. God’s definition of a saint has nothing to do with what one excludes themselves from and everything to do with whom they have been included in!

A saint to God is simply someone who is in Christ Jesus and allows Christ to live his life through them. You are a saint because you have accepted God’s invitation into the good news and now allow Christ to live his life through you. Not only that, but you also receive the blessedness to actively partake in that life with Christ, for you are one with Jesus! It’s not that Christ now lives in us and we have no active part; not at all, we are very much an active part, it’s just that we realise that the power is coming out of the Christ in us!

The truth is that we united ourselves with Jesus and we became one with him in his death, and we remained united with him in his resurrection. We are now walking and living this life united with Christ. We walk with a revelation that we are one with Jesus and that is why God calls us saints; we are saints of grace! The true mark of saint is one who has an overflow of grace for others, because that is the very heart and nature of God himself.

We benefit from a grace empowered life that shines God’s love and nature, and we can rest knowing that it’s not our power that outworks this life, rather it is Christ’s power; it is Christ in us who lives and that is why we are assured that as we walk, we are walking in a way that is pleasing to God.

Jesus came to give us rest. Jesus gives us the blessedness to rest in God’s presence without fear that we will be judged or condemned for our weaknesses or failings. In Christ, his perfect sacrifice upon the cross was enough to completely cleanse us and make us holy and acceptable to God; it is this wonderful rest that we receive through the grace of Jesus that empowers us to truly live in the obedience and the good news of God.

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16

It’s also interesting to note that the first statement Paul makes to the Roman church after his brief introduction is the same statement he makes to all the churches he wrote to: that God’s grace and peace is for the church. It seems Paul lived out of a revelation that, as a preacher and a leader in God’s community, he needed to establish the church in their inheritance. That inheritance is that God’s grace and God’s peace is for them.

It does not matter how far wrong you might have gone; God’s grace is for your life. If you are in Christ the old has gone and the new has come and all of this is to the glory of God. When we rest in this reality it gives us the empowerment to actually lives in a way that is pleasing to God, for the way that is pleasing to God is to live with a revelation of the Christ who is in you, and let that grace and that goodness flow out of you.

Living with the revelation of the Christ in us allows us to not be judgemental to others because of their weakness, but rather we can be full of grace for people; we can have grace for them in their weaknesses, just as God has had grace for us. We know that just as grace transformed our lives, when we let that grace flow out of us it can transform the lives of other too!

…more to come…