Greetings and Credentials | Romans 1:1-7

The Text

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.

Thoughts

As we will see soon enough, Paul has many credentials in his past that he could give as his opening greeting, but he only here and always in other letters refers to two credentials as his title.

1. A servant of Christ Jesus. The actual Greek word here is doulos which means a slave, not a servant who is employed to take care of menial tasks, but a slave who is devoted to another to the disregard of their own interests.

2. An apostle. The word apostle means “one who is sent out.” In the New Testament, there are two primary usages of the word apostle. The first is in specifically referring to the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. The second is in generically referring to other individuals who are sent out to be messengers/ambassadors of Jesus Christ. To be an Apostle of Christ, you must have been directly chosen by Christ and having witnessed the resurrected Christ. The only ones who were Apostles in this manner were the twelve disciples minus Judas and Paul who was brought to the third heaven to be specifically appointed and taught by Jesus himself post resurrection. While the generic reference to being an apostle as an ambassador of Christ applies to all of us, we are not Apostles in the same manner as the disciples and Paul were.

Paul knew as we should know that were are the Church, the called out ones, the separated ones. But to what end are we called? For the spreading of the Gospel of God or the good news of God. And the reason we are called to spread the Gospel is to bring others into the obedience of faith. And the reason we are to bring other into the obedience of faith is for the sake of Jesus name. For the sake of Jesus name is more than just a name we call Him by, but conveys everything about Jesus, including his life, his authority, his teachings, all of his attributes, including his God-ship. In essence, we spread the Gospel to prove what God is all about.

This was one of the first keys to being a true follower of Jesus and to know why we are following him in the first place. We are not saved to have a better life. We are not saved to solve our problems. We are saved to spread the Gospel. The great commission, the last command given by Jesus was to go and preach the gospel and make disciples. There is no room to be saved to sit down and let everyone else do the work.

Fellow Christian, this may not be what you expected when you first repented of your sins and turned to follow Christ, but what an exciting journey you have been chosen for. Bear with me as I pour over this book with you and reflect on my life changes in hope that your life will be changing as well.