(Text Only)
Title: Paul’s Salutation
I. The Gift and the Charge
v5 “Through Him…” Paul is saying, “Through Him, this Jesus that I have just painstakingly outlined, it is through Him we’ve received this grace.”
“Through” Greek= “dia”
def. the ground or reason by which something is or is not done
Essentially, Christ is the reason that we’ve received grace
I know this may seem elementary, but keep it in mind because Paul is beginning to build his case on two related accounts:
1. That we are saved by Grace (before we’ve done anything to please God.) And
2. Christ is the exclusive pathway to righteousness.
In addition to this grace, Paul says we’ve also received apostleship. The Greek (Apostolay) means literally “a sending away.” It is the same Greek word used to describe the ceremony whereby the people would gather to “send off” an army to war on foreign soil.
So Paul says we’ve received grace (a gift) and apostleship (a charge).
Notice who Paul is writing to here. It’s not some holy counsel of elders. It’s not the denominational headquarters. It isn’t even the leadership of the Roman Church, it’s the Church itself. In other words, Paul is writing to you and me, that we all have this charge of apostleship.
II. Obedience to what?
Later in verse five Paul says something very interesting: He says that the reason the church in Rome has received this gift and this charge through Christ is because of their “obedience to the faith.”
We know what obedience means. We also know that
faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hbr 11:1 RSV)
So if we put these two things together Paul is saying that the calling card of a believer is that he is obedient to the assurance of things hoped for, he is obedient to the conviction of things not seen.
Let me say that again.
The Just shall live by faith. Do you live this way?
When I was a child and was swimming in my father’s pool. He told me not to go past a certain point because the slope of the pool floor would change and I would find myself unable to stay stand. I could see my father. I was obedient to him. But when my father looked away, I would test my ability. My father’s rules hadn’t changed but my obedience did, because I could no longer see him.
Friends, it is so easy to be obedient to the Heavenly Father when we can see him. When we are being blessed, when our worries are few, when our challenges are not really challenges. But we are called to be obedient when we cannot see God, when he chooses to be silent upon our hearts. I think of Job and how he just wanted to believe that what was happening to him could be explained by the God that he grew up worshiping. And he begged and pleaded with God to explain himself.
And when God appeared, he did no explaining, he revealed his presence and Job’s only response was: I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you, Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Job 42:5-6
III. Called of Jesus Christ
V6-7 (read)
This word “Called” will not leave us during our study of Romans, so we best understand it fully right now.
Greek=Klatos definition: divinely selected and appointed.
Paul says not that these believers in Rome are called to Christ, but that they are “among the called of Jesus Christ”
That language suggests that there is a group of people, they have been called by God, Paul addresses them as a distinctive people group, called to be saints.
If I say to you, “you are called by God.” What would your reaction be?
If I say to you, “ you are among the called.” Does your reaction change. Mine does. To be “among the called” means that this whole process was in play long before I ever had the ability to make a decision for myself. My salvation was God’s doing, not my own.
The test of my faith is, will I listen to my God, when I cannot see him. Will I be obedient to the Law as the Pharisees were? Or will I be obedient to the faith as a Christian should be?