LESSON 2

Rom 1:1-17

Paul's Good News

The Meaning of the Word Gospel being “Good News”

The Word Gospel Literally Means “Good News”!

It can be the good news that a king has come to reign, as in the case of the Gospels of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (Mat 3:1-2; 4:23; Mark 1:14-15).

In the case of Corinthians the gospel was the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus by which all can be saved.

In the case of Romans it is that God is a righteous God who justifies all men (both Jew and Greek) on the same grounds, grace through faith in Jesus Christ, showing no ethnic partiality, and that men are not justified by works of the law since works of law can only kill those who fail to keep the whole law.  The good news is that men are justified by God’s grace only through trusting (faith) in what God has done in Jesus Christ, and not by their ability to keep the law or earn salvation by good works.
 

Why did Paul Write the Gospel Letter to the Romans?

Scholars continue to debate that question and they come up with differing answers. Perhaps there is no one single reason for Romans.

Paul’s possible reason for writing Romans is discussed by scholars in Karl Donfried, The Romans Debate.

For several reasons we conclude that this is a letter written by a senior Apostle to the churches in Rome because he wants them to send him on to Spain (Rom 15:17-29).  He plans also to preach while in Rome.  In Romans Paul explains the theological message he preaches, laying out his Apostolic “ambassadorial” credentials in an epideictic manner (epideictic = shared values).

Although Paul engages the discussion of grace through faith verses the law of Moses (the Torah = God’s instructions), he does not seem to have real opponents against whom he is debating, as in Galatians, only supposed opponents (which would be natural in view of Jewish sensitivities concerning Paul’s ministry)
He does address probable tensions within the Roman Christian community (Rom 14, 15)

The Theme of Romans – Rom 1:16, 17

Paul introduces his good news of God’s righteousness (faithfulness) in 1:1-17 which is good news for the whole of humanity, with no ethnic distinctions or partiality (1:5, 13b-17).

Note that the word “gospel” occurs six times in these opening verses which act as an introduction to the entire letter.

Since Paul uses the “good news” word gospel so often it should affect how we view the book as a whole.

However sombre some of the parts of Romans are we need to remember that Paul sees himself as a preacher and teacher of “the gospel of God” (1:1) and it’s the good news he preaches that wants to bring to the Romans and then take to Spain.

The good news that Paul preaches begins with the fact that God is a righteous God (1:17 – the construction of this phrase can refer to the righteousness that God possesses [which we believe is what is intended in this place], or the righteousness which God imparts to others by grace through faith [which certainly is taught in Romans and which shows God’s righteousness because he treats all men the same, both Jews and Gentiles]).

But it also includes the thought that God’s righteous king is being announced in this “good news” gospel.

The Meaning of the Word Gospel to Roman Ears! – Rom 1:16, 17)

An inscription discovered in Prienne in northern Turkey is dated 9 B.C. and gives us an insight into what the power the word “gospel” carried in ancient times. Here’s what the inscription says:

“Whereas the Providence which has ordered the whole of our life, showing concern and zeal, has ordained the most perfect consummation for human life by giving to it Augustus,  by filling him with virtue for doing the work of a benefactor among men, and by sending in him, as it were, a saviour for us and those who come after us, to make war to cease, to create order everywhere…and whereas the birthday of the God [Augustus] was the beginning for the world of the glad tidings that have come to men through him….Paulus Fabius Maximus, the proconsul of the province…has devised a way of honouring Augustus.” (NIDNTT, 2.108)

This “gospel” announcing the emperor Augustus we have here was considered a “divine” announcement of a king who had come with authority to rule Rome.

From this we also learn that the term “gospel” referred to glad tidings.

Furthermore It’s also clear that the gospel is a royal announcement or proclamation, rather than just an invitation to share the joy inherent in the good news.

The above inscription wasn’t  merely saying that Augustus is lord if only the people would let him into their hearts.!  It claims that the power that governs the universe had established Augustus as lord of the world and he was its instrument to bring peace and security to that world.

These are ideas that must have been conjured up when Paul spoke of the gospel with which he was not ashamed, for it carried the power of God (Rom 1:16, 17)!

Individualism is such a part of our culture and personal religious decision is so stressed that we forget this aspect of the gospel.  It is a strident announcement regarding a powerful king who “demands” our allegiance!

When Paul preached Jesus as King he wasn’t inviting people to simply  a faith in a new religion, he was proclaiming a change in the entire creation because a new King had risen!

Nothing is to be seen any longer in the same way as it had before!

So Paul warns the Romans as he approaches the gates of Rome, the world’s centre of “divine” imperial power, that he is coming with a gospel that is God’s power to save anyone who believes it!

Even the Roman historian Tacitus, in a bitter moment, admitted that Rome by force of arms created a desert and called it peace!  In contrast to this Paul insists that he was not on a destroying mission—he was coming with a powerful gospel of salvation to real life.

It is this gospel of the real king that Paul plans to lay before the Romans.

As we noticed in the Introduction, Paul writes as the ambassador of the king of the universe!
 

Some Characteristics of the Gospel Paul Preached

Paul says it is the “gospel of God” (1:1).

This phrase may mean it is a gospel that comes from God, a gospel that God himself makes known. It may also mean it is a gospel “about” God. There is no need to choose between these two because Paul might have had both in mind. Both are certainly true and it is important in the book of Romans to see that both are true.

The gospel isn’t about less important things like the weather, or the economy of the Greco-Roman world or how to get along with our neighbours.

The gospel is about God himself and how he relates to his sinful creation.

And the gospel comes from God himself.

It isn’t good advice or a philosophy that Paul or others have dreamed up—it comes from God himself.

This means is that the Romans (and we) should pay close attention to this gospel message.
 

Paul says the Gospel concerns God’s Son (1:1-4,9) who is Jesus the Messiah (Christ).

Paul insisted that God had made himself and his purposes known in Jesus Christ in a way that never happened before.

When we think of the Son of God Paul insists that he had come to the world as a son of David’s line but that he was also marked out as God’s unique Son by his resurrection out from among the dead (Rom 1:3).

The phrase “according to the spirit of holiness” seems to suggest that there was more to Jesus than his “fleshly” (human) nature.

Viewed from his “fleshly” side he is David’s son and viewed from his “spiritual” side he is God’s Son!

There are those who think we should understand that Christ was David’s son according to the flesh but that he was shown to be God’s Son by the Holy Spirit (“the spirit of holiness”).  However, this text explains that it was by the powerful resurrection form the dead that he was announced God’s Son.

Romans were impressed by power!
 

The Gospel is God’s power to save (1:16).

We’re tempted to think of God’s “power” as merely “divine muscle” but it’s a mistake to think of it like that in this context.

Even when speaking about human power we know the difference between the power to move a huge stone and the power to “move” a person.

A person “saved” in Paul’s sense means God brought that person back into relationship with himself and so saved him/her from sin and awful loss.

This kind of “saving” isn’t done with “divine muscle”.

Since God saves us in and by the cross of Christ it’s clear that he doesn’t bully us into life and doesn’t save us by force.

To be saved by God’s “power” means God set himself the task and was able to complete it.

The gospel, or good news, is the message that a faithful God did that very thing and that he did it through the crucified Jesus Christ.

There are some places naked power or force can’t enter and one of them is the human heart.

The Gospel is God’s power to save all who believe because in the gospel God’s righteousness  is revealed through his faithfulness (Rom 1:16, 17) to encourage faith in Jew and Gentile alike.

God’s righteousness is God’s faithfulness.

He keeps his commitments and when he created humanity he made a commitment to humanity.

Despite our rebellion against him he didn’t utterly destroy us—he was faithful to his word and that’s part of what we mean when we say God is “righteous”.

His faithfulness is demonstrated in his faithfulness to all people and not only those who are Jews.

The gospel message that proclaims God’s faithfulness draws people to God in response to that faithfulness so that people can put their trust (faith) in him.

So the gospel is “from” faith (God’s faithfulness) “unto” faith (the faith of those who hear) Rom 1:17).

The relationship between the righteous God and those who are declared righteous by faith must be a dynamic one if salvation is to be experienced.

It isn’t just God keeping faith with man, it is man trusting himself to the God who keeps faith.

The gospel is therefore about God’s righteousness and faithfulness and about those who will trust in God’s faithfulness!

Paul says the Gospel of God’s righteousness in Jesus Christ was promised in the Old Testament Scriptures (Rom 1:2).

The gospel preached by Paul, then, was not something new!

Paul will repeatedly make the point in Romans that the Old Testament scriptures (including the covenant Torah itself) pointed to the gospel he was preaching about Jesus Christ, God’s Son (see also Rom 3:21 with Acts 26:22-23).

(The term Torah is a Jewish Hebrew word which first stood for the first five books of the Old Testament, but in time became understood as God’s sacred instruction.  We think in terms of legal law, but the Jew thought in terms of divine instruction.  See how Paul refers to the Psalms as law-Torah in Rom 3:11-18, 19!)

So, in some senses Paul’s message might be surprising to some,  but the truth is, Israel had long been given fair warning of how the good news would be worked out in Jesus the Messiah (see Luke 24:25-27,44-47), and that it was also for the Gentile (Mat 4:12-17).

Many in Israel, eager to establish their own national connection with God missed what the Old Testament taught about God’s righteousness toward the whole human race (see Romans 9:30—10:4 in light of 1:16).

Lessons From Rom 1:1-17

ü      This is a gospel about God’s righteousness and faithfulness.

ü      This gospel concerns a divine king, Jesus Christ.

ü      This is powerful gospel that draws on the power of God to reach the human heart.

ü      This gospel springs out of the faithfulness of God and calls people to faith in God.

ü      The gospel involves an obedient faith which implies that man has to respond in an appropriate manner to faith in order to benefit by the power of the gospel.

ü      This gospel is not something new and against God’s previous action in the law or Torah, but is a fulfilment of the law-Torah.

ü      Paul is eager and under obligation to preach this gospel to the Romans, both Jew and Gentile.