A Cosmos-Wide Affirmation!

Romans 1:8-17

In a Nutshell

Paul embraces his readers to affirm God's purposes, to strengthen their faith as he and they look forward to his visit.

Firstly, I thank [the One who is] my God, through Jesus Christ, for you all, that your faith is being heralded in all the world. For God is my witness, in whose spiritual ministry I am [enrolled by and] for the good news of His Son, that I am ever and always mentioning you in my prayers requesting that God would prosper my way to you. For I do want to see you that I may pass on some spiritual gift [contribution] to you that you [all] may be strengthened and that we may be mutually encouraged by our faith. But I do not want you to be ignorant, my brothers, [of the fact] that I have been intending to come to you, but up until now have been prevented from doing so, that I might have a harvest, also among you, as indeed among all the other peoples [I will visit]. To both Greeks and Barbarians, both the wise and the foolish, I am the debtor. So, as far as in me lies, I am also eager to herald [this news] to [you] who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of this good news since it is the power of God for rescuing [restoring, saving] everyone who believes, Jew first and then Greek. For this is how a right standing with God is disclosed, from faith and leading to faith, in terms that have been written: The just [person in right standing] shall live by faith.

Paul tells his Roman-based readers that they, believers in Jesus Christ, are now part of a work of GOD that is world-wide, to all nations, an act that is Christ’s designated work of restoring and completing GOD's creational purposes. For this reason, he has come to see these people as an ongoing part of his ministry, even before he visits them.

Israel had long been the covenanted, communal domain called by GOD to bring His promise to Abraham to fulfilment. (Genesis 12:1-2) Israel had been commanded to live, generation to generation, in expectation of receiving the Person who would bring GOD’s redemptive blessings to the whole earth, the Messiah who would definitively confirm this promised blessing with the work that He had been sent to complete. And now, He had come. This letter is written in the aftermath of that redemptive moment. In the resurrection of Christ Jesus, GOD’s mercy is being poured out upon, and to be proclaimed to the entire earth. The whole earth has to hear that it is the domain for the coming of the Kingdom of GOD.

Paul’s aim is to minister to them – along with all the others he has been set aside to serve in the proclamation of this Good News. And that, in fact, has been his aim ever since he was sent out on this apostolic road, ever since it was revealed to Ananias of Damascus that Paul was to be sent as the Lord's messenger to the Gentiles, to their kings, along with the descendants of Israel (Acts 9:15). And note that he also includes the “barbarians”, presumably the unlettered, the uneducated, those beyond the borders of Greek literate civilization.

But did you notice that we, his 21st century readers, were also mentioned, as it were, en passant. When he writes “as indeed all the other peoples” we know that Paul’s proclamation, the Good News, has had an impact far and wide.

And here we are, so long after this was penned, reading this in the knowledge that we are, in some mysterious way, included, if not explicitly mentioned, here. Our hearing of this message now also presupposes that it was proclaimed and heard then.

In this complex statement Paul is not simply saying the same thing twice. Firstly, he refers to his commission, the command to which he is subject. In this he is made an accountable servant with responsibility that reaches out to this community in Rome. Then, because of God's call, he reckons himself responsible for those he is sent to serve, whether or not they have had face-to-face contact with him. He thus views his impending visit as a treasure that will be entrusted to him when, in God's timing, his prayers are eventually answered.

And that service, as in our own case, has with GOD’s timing come to another of its many provisional fulfilments after Paul’s own days were completed. And this letter in our hands today remains the evidence of GOD’s blessing of that commissioned service.

Here we read how Paul waits for his ongoing prayers for these fellow believers to be answered, and in the meantime Paul’s Gospel proclamation must take the form of a letter.

Now this letter should not be read as some neutral medium. Literacy – the ability to write and to read – is indeed a development that has arisen from the complex work God has given us for the development of His creation from the beginning. God’s image-bearers, male and female, have, from the beginning, had to learn to communicate, to talk and to write and to read. And in this regard, as we have noted, Paul includes in his “Gospel catchment” those who are unsophisticated, the unlettered, those who are untrained in what we might call “intellectual pursuits.”

And, as much as this is addressed to reckon with the Good News coming to those close by, locally, as well as those far away, to the ends of the earth, it is also given so all who receive it in their own generations, can pass it on. It is a letter with spiritual direction as much for the new born, as the maturing child, as much for the adult as for the elderly.

Paul is thus assuming that the Creator-Redeemer, who wants this Good News proclaimed in all creation, is fully cognisant, fully endorsing, fully guaranteeing, the committing of this message to letter form. It is a letter affirming that those already endowed with GOD-given responsibilities can “pass it on” in their lives as living and breathing “living sacrifices”. (12:1-2)

And so, this apostle’s work, his sowing of the seed after breaking up the fallow ground, will go on to flourish from one generation to the next. His treatise is therefore to be read as the work of one who is setting out to work in faith in his own time and place, with the skills with which he has been endowed. (James 1:17)

Here is Paul writing to these Christian believers at Rome, anticipating his face-to-face visit, explicitly suggesting that he has a spiritual gift to pass on to them, and here in our hands is the longest and largest of his letters, with the most comprehensive statement of his faith and theirs. His aim is … that you may be strengthened and that we may be mutually encouraged by our faith.

So, the fact that we are reading this so many centuries later, is evidence of a Holy Spirited superintendence over human history, over all the tribes and tongues that have contributed to and fulfill the purposes of GOD for our earth. The Good News has been an ongoing and authoritative leavening of human cultivation of the planet under Heaven.

And in this way we note, as we read, that in time, with the sovereign timing of the LORD, this extensive letter has blessed and strengthened Paul’s readers then and subsequently! Is he not already encouraged by their mutual faith? Of course, but presumably with this Lord, the One he is serving, there is always more. Paul does not just content himself with writing this extended letter.

The writing of the letter is indicative of his intention to see them; he wants to be with them, to shake their hands, to be warmly embraced by their hospitality. His spiritual unity and spiritual ministry to them clearly means he presses forward with spiritual vitality. This is what his life is all about.

It may read as repetition, but the reiteration of his concern for this pocket of Christian believers is itself an integral expression of his calling.

And here we are, centuries later, “listening in”, consulting this letter in our New Testament “archive”, reading what Paul had penned and we do so to our own profound benefit.

Paul outlines the calling by which he is called into service; then he describes his plans.

He is commissioned. He has been sent. He has a duty. He is a minister, a servant, yes also an apostle. It is all an affirmation of his identity as a slave of Jesus Christ. Thus, via this letter, his embrace of his readers, is an embrace of fellow believers who are already caught up in a world-affirming movement of God’s grace. Together they are part of the rich harvest which this Good News announces. They are fruit, evidence of what Christ Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, had continued to do after His ascension (Acts 1:2).

Just as Paul had been, so too are they now being incorporated into the vine (John 15). Whatever their background, whatever their skill or intellect, Greek and Barbarian, wise and ignorant – we might add: man or woman; old or young – they are together a part of this abundant harvest. That is what this is all about. That is what he will outline in the rest of this letter. He's not at all embarrassed about that. GOD is indeed busy with a work of world-wide (cosmic) restoration to fulfill His purposes for His handiwork.

Here again, as we read these words, we are induced to consider ourselves as part of, as included in, Paul’s discussion and even as part of the rich harvest that has resulted from this commissioned proclamation.

It is available to everyone including Jews – the first to be caught up in this world-changing proclamation – and Greeks and beyond Greeks to Barbarians. It is a message about how it is that God considers those standing before Him to be righteous. It springs from the faith of those caught up by GOD's love to them and it leads to faith as it is further proclaimed. It is a trust that GOD keeps His promises.

When we consider the full extent of this letter (i.e. its 16 chapters) a question arises and it is this: Could we simply skip 1:18 – 15:33 to maintain the “conventional letter” character of this communication and conclude with Romans 16. That indeed seems to be a distinct possibility, and we may even view it in this way while maintaining respect for the entire document.

 The feasibility of such a view would then require us to consider 1:18 – 15:33 to be the teaching he intended to deliver and expound after he arrives in Rome. Are these included as a series of lectures – or, as we might say in our social media terminology: a crucial “attachment” – the outline of a curriculum for a series of seminars, which Paul would develop in his teaching, the summary of the faith to those to whom he had been sent? Well, maybe that is so. It certainly would make sense of the letter as a whole.

So I am writing this with the possibility firmly in mind that the inclusion of this extensive exposition in this “letter” indicates that Paul sent it on, as a “taster”, an aperitif, of what he planned to teach once he got there and was given the opportunity of expounding his Good News. Chapter 16 certainly indicates a congregation of some vitality in that city. Luke’s account of Paul's encounter with the Roman Jewish community (Acts 28:16-31) is also helpful. From it we see Paul basing his appeal on the Old Testament prophets.

But then, maybe this letter was initially penned to a congregation of Christians in Rome, that Paul had been told about, maybe through some contact that involved Priscilla and Aquila (Romans 16:3) before they were expelled and fled to Corinth (Acts 18).

 As well, Luke's account of Paul’s confrontation in Rome with his fellow Jews reminds us in parts of the confrontation Stephen had to weather before his martyrdom (Acts 7-8:1).

 But in the meantime, Paul writes, prayerfully waiting for his prayer to visit Rome to be granted.

Bruce C Wearne

16/10/2024