Paul: Servant of the Gospel (Romans 1:1)
Who was Paul, and why does Romans 1:1 matter? See how the persecutor-turned-preacher's opening words proclaim God's grace: God saves sinners.
Introduction
Romans: The life-changing letter
There is no saying what may happen when people begin to study the letter to the Romans. [This study] launched great spiritual movements which have left their mark in world history. But similar things have happened, much more frequently, to very ordinary men and women as the words of this letter came home to them with power. So, let those who have read thus far be prepared for the consequences for reading farther; you have been warned! (F.F. Bruce, Romans, 58)
The Bible is the most influential book the world has ever known. The New Testament is its most influential half. It’s most life-changing writing is the letter to the Romans.
This letter converted one of the Roman Empire’s most powerful orators, Aurelius Augustinus, who went on to champion the message of God’s grace in Jesus Christ in the ancient world.
This letter lifted a German monk named Martin Luther out of his despair and thus changed western civilization through the mighty Protestant Reformation. Luther said of Romans:
This Epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament and the very purest Gospel, and is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul. It can never be read or pondered too much, and the more it is dealt with the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes. (Martin Luther, “Preface to Romans” in Commentary on Romans, xiii)
Are you ready to stand back and let God be God? Are you ready to let God speak his creative Word to you and change you? Look at verse 1: Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.
Theme
Paul identifies himself as a servant and apostle and thereby proclaims God’s grace.
Paul
This letter was written by Paul, also known as Saul. Sha’ul was his Hebrew name while Paulos was his Roman name. The first time we meet him in our Bibles, Stephen was preaching about Jesus from the Old Testament in front of the Sanhedrin when they cast him out of the city to stone him to death for blasphemy.
We read, “And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul” (Acts 7:58). Then Luke records, “Saul approved of his execution” (Acts 8:1). This led to “a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem” with “Saul…ravaging the church, and entering house after house” to “drag[…] off men and women and commit[…] them to prison” (Acts 8:1, 2). While “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, [he] went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem” to try them and execute them as he did to Stephen (Acts 9:1, 2).
Why was Saul so vehemently opposed to Jesus and his disciples? He tells us in an autobiographical statement in Philippians 3, that if we were to add up each other’s lists of accomplishments for boasting,
“I have more: circumcised on the eighth day [as God commanded Abraham], of…[God’s chosen] people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin [the tribe of the first king, Saul], a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee [that is, one set apart from all others as a cut above in terms of external obedience to the law.]; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Phil. 3:4–6).
In the words of Denzel, if he could base his standing before God on his own words, “King Kong ‘aint got nothing on me!” Saul had such savage street cred, that after he was converted and Lord appeared in a vision to a man named Ananias and commanded him to go find Saul, Ananias responded: “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name” (Acts 9:13–14). Later, when he was arrested in Jerusalem like Stephen, he addressed the crowd:
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness…I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished” (Acts 22:3–5).
He then spoke before King Agrippa:
“My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. They have known for a long time…that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee” (Acts 26:4, 5).
He wrote to the Galatians,
“you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it…I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers” (Gal. 1:13–14).
He thought he was serving God by serving the commandments by serving the traditions. So wrapped up with traditions around the law to protect people from the God who could not be named, that it was like Winston Churchill said: “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
So, here we have Paul, former savage, now saint; former persecutor turned preacher; formerly zealous for tradition, now for the gospel!
How? In Acts 9, as he was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus,
“suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do’” (Acts 9:3–6).
The one responsible for persecution underwent a conversion!
Why? As he says in 1 Corinthians 15, “I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:9–10).
Do you realize that this is what Christianity is all about? God saves sinners! Amen?
There is no sinner so lost on the way of life, so in the darkness of this world, so hard in their heart, so guilty for what they’d done that God cannot save them! Saul is exhibit #1!
So, here Paul…proclaims God’s grace.
Servant
This man became a doulos, a servant of Christ or Messiah Jesus (v. 1). A doulos could be a slave but also one who freely became a bond-servant. The idea is that he “belonged to”Christ Jesus.
In Scripture, one could be a servant by virtue of creation. For example, Psalm 119 says “all things are your servants” (Ps. 119:91b). There’s a sense in which all creation, then, serves God.
Yet Paul is here describing the service of God through faith. As he goes on to give “thanks…to God” in 6:17, “that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.” “Obedient from the heart,” in other words, by faith. He was a particular example of this.
Note that while he goes on to say he was called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God, there’s no verb associated with servant. He’s just a servant of Christ Jesus. That’s his identity.
What an example of humility. The ancient Bible commentator, Origen, said, “Being a slave of Christ is more distinguished than any freedom.” (Origen, Romans, 60) From slave of self to slave of Christ! That’s grace.
Paul was following Jesus’ example. Jesus said, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28).
Paul identifies himself as a servant…and thereby proclaims God’s grace.
Called to be Apostle
He was also called to be an apostle. “He did not obtain the title by seeking after it.” (John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans: Volume 1, 11) As Paul says in Acts 13, speaking to the Jews,
“Since you thrust [the word of God] aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth” (Acts 13:46–47).
This is foundational of all gospel ministry. We’re not apostles but the pattern is similar. You have to “be careful not to push [your]self forward improperly, but… must wait for God’s call, so that [you] may be assured of [your] calling and be certain and sure that [you are] chosen by the Lord.” (Belgic Confession, art. 30)
As an apostle, he was sent out by Christ himself as an ambassador to represent and speak for Christ. “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20). This language of being a servant and one called to speak on behalf of the Lord, links Paul back to the prophet Jeremiah:
Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jer. 1:4–5)
Paul identifies himself as an…apostle and thereby proclaims God’s grace.
Set Apart for the Gospel
As a servant, called to be an apostle, he was to express his servitude to Christ and speak on behalf of Christ as an apostle by being set apart for the gospel of God. What a testimony to the power of God! He who set himself apart as a Pharisee for the Jewish traditions that surrounded the law like a fence to protect the people from the God who was not to be named, was set apart by God himself to preach the very heart of God, the gospel, the good news that God saves sinners! (Robert Haldane, Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, 18) The ancient preacher, John Chrysostom, said,
Paul calls it ‘the gospel of God’ to set his audience straight at the very start of his Epistle. For he did not come to proclaim and gloomy tidings, as the prophets had brought accusations, indictments, and reproaches. Paul came to proclaim the good news and the gospel of God, countless treasures of blessings that could not be changed. (Chrysostom, Romans: Volume 1, 12)
As Martin Luther said in thesis 62, “The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of God.” As Jesus said, “the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matt. 13:45–46; NKJV).
He was set apart to preach this gospel! While “Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom…we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23, 24). “And I, when I came to you…did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:1–2).
He was set apart to preach this gospel alone: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8).
This is what your hearts should be burning to hear every single time you show up! Amen?
Conclusion
Paul identifies himself as a servant and apostle and thereby proclaims God’s grace.
And that’s just verse 1! “There is no saying what may happen when people begin to study the letter to the Romans…let those who have read thus far be prepared for the consequences for reading farther; you have been warned.”
Are you ready?