The Gospel for Christians – Romans 1:1-18
Gospel in a Sentence: Because Jesus obeyed God and suffered his wrath in the place of everyone who trusts him, when he returns to earth to judge, he’ll bring everyone who believes in him into his eternal Kingdom.
Big Picture: The Gospel brings about the obedience of faith, spiritual growth, and salvation for people in every nation.
Goal: That we treasure the Gospel in community.
Key Ideas
1) The Gospel must be proclaimed to bring people from every nation to obey Christ for his glory.
2) Christians grow by hearing the Gospel and being with people who live according to the Gospel.
3) The Gospel saves everyone who believes by a righteousness of God’s – not by man’s righteousness.
Key Terms
Apostle – Literally, it’s ‘one who is sent.’ In this case, it’s someone sent directly by Jesus. Just like the Old Testament prophets, those sent directly by Jesus were recognized as authoritative teachers of his word. (1 Cor. 2:12-13)
Gospel – Literally, ‘good news.’ It’s an announcement.
Flesh – In reference to the world as it was before Jesus. See note below.
Spirit – Pertaining to the world after Jesus rose from the dead. He began to save his people from every nation then. See note below.
Name – The name of a person in the ancient world was in reference to his character. ‘For the sake of his name’ means ‘for his glory.’
Nations – Groups of people that are ethnically, linguistically, and geographically distinct from other groups. There are roughly 16,000 ‘nations’ in the world. 10,000 of them or so have a Gospel preaching church.
Christ – The Messiah – the Savior/King that the Old Testament foretells.
Saints – Literally ‘holy ones,’ or ‘people set apart by God.’
Grace – Favor that cannot be earned or repayed.
Faith – Trust
Gentiles – Non-Jews
Salvation – Rescue from danger
Sin – Breaking God’s laws, or the character that one has leading him to break God’s laws.
Righteousness – Possibly the most important word in Romans. It is a character trait. A righteous person keeps God’s rules. At its most basic level, however, righteousness is the character trait in which a person acts for God’s glory. A person who does this has the status of ‘righteous.’ The problem is that no one actually does it. No human, that is, except Jesus Christ.
Key Observations
1:1 Paul describes his call as an apostle, which asserts that his teachings bear Christ’s authority. They are Scripture.
3 The Gospel is about Jesus, the Son of God. He was descended from David, and therefore came from a line of Kings. 2 Samuel 7 promises that David’s line would never end – and David was known as the King who brought peace and prosperity. When Paul says ‘according to the flesh,’ he means ‘according to the world before Christ began to save it.’ More below.
4 Jesus was given a new title by means of rising from the dead: “Son of God in Power.” In other words, when he rose from the dead, he rose to a position of authority, though he was always God, and began to save the world – first from guilt, and when he would come back, from the very presence of sin.
Verses 3 and 4 are very difficult, yet very important. ‘Flesh’ and ‘Spirit’ are usually seen in contrast in Paul’s letters. ‘Flesh’ doesn’t mean merely physical, though. It is talking about the old world that is under the control and penalty of sin. Everything in the flesh-world is tainted by sin and will die. When Paul said that Jesus was appointed to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness, he’s saying that not only was Jesus a King in the line of David – but he’s also the one who has power in the new world, the Kingdom of God. He’s the King of the New Heavens and New Earth. And since he rose from the dead in the world of the flesh, the Kingdom of God has begun within this old and dying world. For help with these concepts, read 1 Corinthians 15:35-58.
5 The apostles were made apostles to bring about the obedience that comes from faith from every nation for the glory of Jesus, the King of all things. Thus, Scripture exists for that reason.
6-7 This included those Christians in Rome, and everyone else who is set apart by and belongs to Jesus. They are specially loved and called by him. It’s true that God loves all – but he loves his people in a special way.
8-10 Paul reveals how much he thanks God and prays for the Christians at Rome, praying particularly that he could come see them in person.
11-12 Paul tells the Romans that he wants to see them to give them a spiritual gift. That spiritual gift is the encouragement that comes from watching another walk in faith.
13 He also tells them that he intends to come to reap some harvest among them. But he’s talking about Christians; so the harvest he’s talking about isn’t people becoming Christians, but rather, Christians bearing fruit – or growing in Christ. He plans to do this by preaching the Gospel to them. See v. 15.
14 Paul states that he owes the Gospel to every type of person. He doesn’t owe God – he could never pay God back. He has received something he doesn’t deserve and owes it to others who are about to receive the fate he deserves.
16 Paul gives another reason why he’s eager to preach the Gospel – because he’s not ashamed of it. Even though it results in persecution, he won’t keep quiet about it, because it’s God’s power to save everyone who believes. To the Jew first and also the Greek means that God’s word was first given to Israel and people are saved through that same message. There’s more in chapters 3, and 9-11.
17 The reason that the Gospel saves everyone who believes is because God’s righteousness is revealed in it. In other words, people need to stand righteous before God. Verse 18 shows us that we don’t have righteousness of our own – and thus are under God’s wrath. But God gives us a new righteous status through faith and rescues us.
This is a hard verse. If the righteousness of God is his own righteous character, wouldn’t that mean that he must kill us? We’re sinners! The key is in the OT quote from Habakkuk 2:4. Those God considers righteous live a life trusting in God. This verse is also cited in Hebrews 10:38. If you look at that context, you’ll see that those who have faith are considered righteous and are saved from danger; but those who don’t have faith in God are destroyed. Furthermore, v. 18 is connected to v. 17 by the word ‘for.’ Why? Because v. 18 shows us that a righteousness from God is necessary for us to be rescued. We get wrath for our unrighteousness because we are indeed unrighteous. Yet, when we trust Jesus, God considers us righteous, and we are rescued. That is, God ‘justifies’ us who are sinners yet trust Christ, and he rescues us. The righteous status that God grants to all who believe in Christ is actually Christ’s righteous status.
Sample Discussion Guide:
-Think of a time when you were growing like crazy in your spiritual journey. Got it? What was that like? (What caused it?)
-We all want to grow, or move forward in whatever it is we’re doing, including spiritually. Paul wrote a letter to a group of churches in ancient Rome for their growth. In the first chapter, he gave those ancient Christians not only an introduction to his letter, but also a few very key elements of Christian growth. So, as we do our study, let’s pay special attention to what he says about how Christians grow.
-Have someone pray.
-Letters in the age of the Roman Empire began with an introduction of the writer, and a greeting given to the recipients.
-Have someone read vv. 1-7
-Does anything especially catch your attention? Bring a question up?
-What are some ways that Paul describes himself?
-Because Paul was an Apostle, he was in a unique position – he became an author of New Testament Scripture. Given that, what do these verses imply about our relationship to Scripture?
-What does Paul say about the Gospel?
-You need to be ready at this point to explain vv. 3-4.
-How does the fact that Jesus is the living and reigning Lord over all things change your life?
-Take a minute and think of a one-sentence definition of it the Gospel, given what these verses say. What’s yours?
- We fit in with the recipients of this letter – not the apostle. We’re now at the receiving end of the apostle’s ministry, through Scripture. What does this section say about us?
-How do you feel about that? How should that affect how you treat the Bible?
-Have someone read vv. 8-15
-Any observations/questions?
-The things Paul feels for the Christians in Rome, in a sense, reflect how God feels about us. What are some of the things that tip us off to how Paul feels about the believers in Rome?
-How then does God feel about us?
-What does Paul want to do in Rome? Why?
-What does this section say about how we grow as Christians? What can we do practically to grow, then?
-Verses 16-18 give more reason why Paul is eager to preach the Gospel to the Roman Christians. Have someone read vv. 16-18
-Any observations/questions?
-Explain v 17.
-How does it make you feel that salvation from God’s coming judgment is by a righteousness that’s not from you?
-What did you learn about the Gospel from this whole passage?
-What should we do as a result?
-How should we now pray in light of this passage?
-Pray as a group
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