Romans 1:1-7 Commentary

When I read this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson, I think of the English Standard Version’s translation of John 1:16: “From [Christ’s) fullness we have all received grace upon grace” (italics mine).  Since Paul layers Romans 1 with grace upon grace in both obvious and subtle ways, it offers preachers an opportunity to explore how God’s grace includes more than just rescuing us from eternal separation from God. On this last Sunday in Advent, preachers might follow the Spirit’s promptings to explore how Christ came into the world, in part, to grace us in multiple ways.

Paul follows this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson’s greeting with a description of God’s incarnate Son whose birth we plan to celebrate this week. As preachers proclaim this great news, we might consider describing how some of our contemporaries’ view of Jesus conflicts with the apostle’s. We might also lay this Sunday’s Gospel Lesson next to Romans 1 to help our hearers understand how some of Jesus’ contemporaries thought of him.

Many of our own contemporaries think of Jesus as the cute little baby of creches, cards and other sentimental scenes. Paul views the Jesus whom Mary and the Holy Spirit partnered to parent (Matthew 1:18) as at the heart of “the gospel [euangelion*] of God” (1b). In other words, the Spirit inspired the apostle to profess that Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection is the best news the world will ever hear.

In fact, Paul recognizes that this is such great news that he uses the word euangelion (“gospel”) twice in the space of just five Greek words. In the second instance the apostle insists Jesus’ gracious work wasn’t some surprise gift from God. It’s something God “promised beforehand [prosepengeilato] through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures” (2).

In other words, long before the Son of God became visibly incarnate in Jesus at Bethlehem, God promised that he would come. Through prophets like Isaiah, Joel and Zephaniah, God planted hope deep within God’s dearly beloved people. Through them, God promised to send God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (4b) into the world.

“As to his earthly life [kata sarka],” Paul continues in verse 3, this Jesus “was a descendant [spermatos] of David.” As even some of his contemporaries recognized (cf. Luke 4:22) through his “adoptive father” Joseph, Jesus was a descendant of David. In fact, members of his family sometimes seemed to assume he was little more than that. They appeared to view him as nothing more than their deluded sibling (cf. Mark 3:20-21).

The prophet had promised a “shoot … from the stump of Jesse” on whom the Lord’s Spirit rested (Isaiah 11:1-2).  Now the apostle basically announces that Jesus Christ was that “shoot,” the fruitful “branch” that sprang up out of the dead stump that was not just David’s family, but also Israel.

However, Paul goes on to insist this descendant of David was even more: “Through the Spirit of holiness [hagiosynes] [he] was appointed [horisthentos] the Son of God in power [dynamei] by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” This is a mysterious verse whose complete understanding defies easy interpretation. After all, Jesus Christ our Lord wasn’t somehow made into the Son of God. He was eternal God.

It may help for preachers to note the word horisthentos that we translate as “appointed” more likely means “was declared as.” That’s why a paraphrase of verse 4 The Message employs is helpful: Jesus Christ’s “unique identity as Son of God was shown by the Spirit when Jesus was raised from the dead.”

So it’s as if Paul presents Jesus’ credentials right near the beginning of his letter to Rome’s Christians. Jesus Christ was certainly a “son” of David (3). However, the apostle professes he was also the Son of God (4). Much of the rest of the book of Romans explores the gracious implications of those “sonships.”

Yet given humanity’s naturally sinful ignorance, Jesus’ identity and work would have meant nothing had God left people to our own devices. God met our willful ignorance by graciously announcing the saving work of that Son of David and God. It’s a grace not just that Jesus Christ our Lord did all this work on behalf of the whole creation and us. It’s also a grace that God told God’s dearly beloved people about it.

In Romans 1:1-7 Paul uses the word that we translate as “grace” twice. In verse 5 he recounts how he was among those who “received grace [elabomen charin] and apostleship [apostolon] to call all the Gentiles to the obedience [hypakoen] that comes from faith [pisteos] for his name’s sake.”

In doing so, Paul admits he didn’t choose to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ on his own. Were it up to him, in fact, the one formerly known as Saul would have lived and died in rebellion against the living God and God’s ways in Jesus Christ. In this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson the apostle admits he could only call all people to the obedience that comes from faith because God first graced him with a call out of darkness and into God’s glorious light.

Then in verse 7 Paul pronounces a blessing of grace on his Roman brothers and sisters in Christ: “Grace [charis] and peace [eirene] to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” In doing so he sets a tone of grace and peace for communication with Rome’s Christians that can at times sound rather harsh. The apostle essentially prays that those believers will know the full riches of God’s blessings of grace and peace that are ours through the saving life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.

God’s gracious act of calling plays a prominent role in this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson. Paul, in fact, refers to it three times in just three verses. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, he writes in verse 5, “we received grace and apostleship to call (italics added) all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.” God, in other words, didn’t keep the gospel of Jesus’ saving work to himself. God, instead, called God’s dearly beloved people to what The Message refers to as “obedient trust in Jesus.”

In verse 6 Paul also speaks of calling. There he reminds Jesus’ Roman followers: “You also are among those Gentiles who are called [kletoi] to belong to Jesus Christ.” By nature we surrender sovereignty to Satan and his allies, sin and death. People are his willing slaves. However, the apostle celebrates how God graciously freed us from that slavery so that we might belong, as one of the Reformed Confessions so famously celebrates, in both body and soul, as well as in life and in death to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

Paul adds this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson’s third and final reference to calling in verse 7. There he addresses his original readers as “all in Rome who are loved [agapetos] by God and called [kletois] to be his holy people [hagiois].” It’s a lovely reminder that God doesn’t just grace Jesus’ friends with God’s unconditional love. God also graces us with a call to live holy lives, lives that, in other words, reflect the ways for which God created us.

This adds yet another subtle grace. When God calls God’s adopted children to be God’s hagiois (“holy people,” literally “saints”), God doesn’t just summon us to love God above all. A vital part of such saintliness includes loving our neighbors as ourselves.

By nature we hate both God and our neighbor. So when God makes us holy, that’s a grace for our neighbors. It doesn’t necessarily mean God grants our neighbors, especially those who are vulnerable or marginalized, saving grace. God summons Jesus’ friends to grace our neighbors by treating them as God both treats them and created us to treat them – with unconditional love.

*I have here and elsewhere added in brackets the Greek words for the English words the NIV translation uses.

Illustration

In her famous Diary, Anne Frank spoke of the grace, though she’d never use that word, some Dutch people showed their Jewish neighbors and her. She noted, “There are many resistance groups, such as Free Netherlands, that forge identity cards, provide financial support to those in hiding, organize hiding places and find work for young Christians who go underground.

“It’s amazing how much these generous and unselfish people do, risking their own lives to help and save others. The best example of this is our own helpers, who have managed to pull us through so far and will hopefully bring us safely to shore, because otherwise they’ll find themselves sharing the fate of those they’re trying to protect.”

In a book I once read whose title I’ve since forgotten, the author insisted the Dutch people who risked their lives most for their Jewish neighbors during the Nazi occupation were communists and members of Reformed churches. While it may seem like an odd partnership of grace, it shows the power God and God’s grace has to make a difference in the lives of people who don’t even necessarily recognize it.

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