Story 3: The Heart of Paul
Romans 1:7-17
When Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, some of his friends were already in Rome, living as members of the Church. There were also many Christians in Rome that he did not know, and he knew they would read this letter as well. So he started with a greeting:
“To all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way be opened for me to come to you.”
It is interesting and even touching, to note that even though Paul was the great apostle, he greeted them as his equals: men and women who share in the common cause of Jesus Christ. His words are soaked with love and belonging. Right from the beginning, Paul stretches out over the miles of distance and the fact that they have never seen each other face to face. Because they share Christ, Paul can say: this is who we are, together.
Let’s look at what Paul made sure to emphasize in his greeting: he pronounces a blessing of grace and peace, and reminds them that they belong to Jesus, they are the objects of His possessive love. Paul told them how grateful he was to God for them. Though he hadn’t met them, he was empowered to have rich feelings towards them. He encourages them: their faith in Jesus was so strong that people all over the world had heard about it. He said that he prayed for them constantly all the time. All of it amounts to an almost embarrassing outpouring of love and encouragement. Paul is living out the kind of relationship, the kind of communication and connection, that the Lord wants believers to have with each other. It is a model of something that we can pursue in our own hearts and Christian community.
Paul also emphasized prayer. He understood how powerful it was for his friends when he prayed for them. He claims to be praying for them at all times. We know it must be true, but can you imagine the thought life that such a claim requires? Can you imagine being the recipient of that kind of devoted prayer? Paul is modeling another possibility for believers. There is a life of prayer available to us that we can enter into for each other.
Paul was also praying that God would make a way for him to come visit them to see them face to face. He had wanted to come many times before. We will begin to see through examples like this that all of Paul’s energy went to two things. He was either telling people who did not have Jesus as their Savior the Good News, or he was teaching those who did know Christ how to draw closer to him and live more fully for him.
We can see what matters to Paul by how he wants to spend his time. Here is what he wrote next:
“I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong-that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also just as among the rest of the Gentiles.”
Such love for others is almost hard to imagine. He longs to see them. How often do we see that, other than in songs about romance, which often aren’t really about love at all. Somehow, when we live fully given over to God and the power of the Holy Spirit, whole new levels of love and generosity are possible. Paul envisioned a richness of mutual support and encouragement among believers based on how each related to God by faith.
Imagine if all of us who believe in Christ had this goal in our hearts when we met with each other. Paul didn’t think that the transformation ended once believers put their faith in Christ. The Good News is so rich and eternal that we will never come to the end of how many blessings God has for us. There are always new freedoms and joys in Christ to discover. There are new victories to be won!
Paul wrote that he wanted to go to Rome to encourage the Christians there by giving them spiritual gifts that would help them do this. He knew that he would be encouraged by them as well as they helped each other become more like their Savior.
Growth in the spiritual life is the finest harvest of all, and Paul wanted it for people far beyond the boundaries of Rome:
“I am under obligation both to the Greeks and to the uncultured, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the Gospel to you also who are in Rome.”
It is interesting that Paul says he is “under obligation.” His ministry was not based on a whim. He had specific marching orders, a calling from God. And Paul was eager to preach it…there is a hunger behind his words:
“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: ‘But the Righteous will live by faith.”
With these words, Paul gives us the Big Idea of his letter to the Romans. You have to imagine it as a bold declaration. The Gospel is not just another myth like the ones told by the Greeks and Romans. It is the actual truth that will transform the world, bringing revelation of the very God who actually sits on the Throne in Heaven. Paul is declaring whose side he is on, and proclaims clarifying truth about what it means to be on that side: The Gospel, or the good news of what Christ accomplished, is so powerful that it is the source for salvation that encompasses all eternity. It is so powerful that the only thing a person can do, all that is required to receive it, is to have faith in Christ.
This idea of being made totally righteous before God by faith alone was a radical change from anything that the world had yet to understand. Paul was writing to the Jews and Gentiles in the Church in Rome. They were having trouble getting along. The Jews were holding on to the Old Mosaic Covenant that God made with Israel when He established their nation. With it came a long list of rituals and requirements that the Jewish people were to obey as their side of the Covenant. However, it was no longer binding now that Christ had come.
To help the Jews understand, Paul pointed farther back, deeper into their history, to the Abrahamic Covenant. Unlike the Mosiac Covenant, it was eternal, and one sided. God took on the full burden of fulfilling it. All that was required on the part of humans was to have faith in the God of the Covenant.
In fact, the supreme example of faith in the Old Testament was the faith of Abraham, himself. When God explained to Abraham how He was going to fulfill His promises to Abraham in spite of impossible odds, Abraham believed God, and his faith was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:1-6). Abraham’s trust in God’s promises pointed forward to their ultimate fulfillment through the redemption that was coming in Christ. Abraham was the archetype, or the model, for all who would follow after him (Isaiah 51-1-3). Just as Abraham and the other saints of the Old Testament were looking forward to Christ, we look back to Him to understand that He is the source of our hope (Hebrews 11).
Paul declares here in Romans 1:16-17 that righteousness comes by faith alone. Paul will spend the next ten chapters of his letter to the Romans explaining how this salvation in Jesus Christ has been the center point of human history all along.