1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the first seven verses of Romans, Paul pens his introduction to his letter to the Christians in Rome. However, because it is the introduction, one may be tempted to read over these verses quickly to get to the meat of the letter. Please don’t! These verses contain so much theology that one could write a book just on these seven verses alone. Because words have meaning, we want to look at each word, each phrase, and the whole section in order to get everything out of it we can. It is through this introduction that Paul sets the stage for the rest of the letter, introducing some key terms and establishing the background for what is to come.
The author of this letter puts his name up front, as is customary for a letter in the 1st century. Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, was a Jewish Pharisee of great learning and zeal for the Jewish faith until Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and changed his life forever. Saul was on a mission to Damascus to harass, capture, convert, and kill if necessary Christians in defense of the Jewish faith. However, God had other plans for his life. Acts 9 describes the conversion of Saul, a man turned from a hater of the church into one of its greatest apostles. Put into today’s terms, this conversion would be tantamount to Osama bin Laden meeting Jesus on the road to Kabul and becoming a Christian. The conversion of Saul into Paul just goes to show us that with God, nothing is impossible. As much as we run from the Holy Spirit, reject Him, or persecute Him, if God wants us, He will have us, all in His good time. Read the rest of this entry »
