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    Romans 1-8 MacArthur New Testament Commentary
    Romans 1-8 MacArthur New Testament Commentary
    Romans 1-8 MacArthur New Testament Commentary
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    Romans 1-8 MacArthur New Testament Commentary

    By John MacArthur

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    About this ebook

    These study guides, part of a set from noted Bible scholar, John MacArthur, take readers on a journey through biblical texts to discover what lies beneath the surface, focusing on meaning and context, and then reflecting on the explored passage or concept. With probing questions that guide the reader toward application, as well as ample space for journaling, The MacArthur Bible Studies are invaluable tools for Bible students of all ages. This work on Romans 1-8 is part of a New Testament commentary series which has as its objective explaining and applying Scripture, focusing on the major doctrines and how they relate to the whole of the Bible. This volume is a study of the first eight chapters of the Book of Romans.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMoody Publishers
    Release dateApr 1, 1991
    ISBN9781575676104
    Romans 1-8 MacArthur New Testament Commentary
    Author

    John MacArthur

    John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, where he has served since 1969. He is known around the world for his verse-by-verse expository preaching and his pulpit ministry via his daily radio program, Grace to You. He has also written or edited nearly four hundred books and study guides. MacArthur is chancellor emeritus of the Master’s Seminary and Master’s University. He and his wife, Patricia, live in Southern California and have four grown children.

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    Romans 1-8 MacArthur New Testament Commentary - John MacArthur

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    Preface

    It continues to be a rewarding divine communion for me to preach expositionally through the New Testament. My goal is always to have deep fellowship with the Lord in the understanding of His Word, and out of that experience to explain to His people what a passage means. In the words of Nehemiah 8:8, I strive to give the sense of it so they may truly hear God speak and, in so doing, may respond to Him.

    Obviously, God’s people need to understand Him, which demands knowing His Word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15) and allowing that Word to dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16). The dominant thrust of my ministry, therefore, is to help make God’s living Word alive to His people. It is a refreshing adventure.

    This New Testament commentary series reflects this objective of explaining and applying Scripture. Some commentaries are primarily linguistic, others are mostly theological, and some are mainly homiletical. This one is basically expository. It is not linguistically technical, but deals with linguistics when this seems helpful to proper interpretation. It is not theologically expansive, but focuses on the major doctrines in each text and on how they relate to the whole of Scripture. It is not primarily homiletical, though each unit of thought is generally treated as one chapter, with a clear outline and logical flow of thought. Most truths are illustrated and applied with other Scripture. After establishing the context of a passage, I have tried to follow closely the writer’s development and reasoning.

    My prayer is that each reader will fully understand what the Holy Spirit is saying through this part of His Word, so that His revelation may lodge in the minds of believers and bring greater obedience and faithfulness—to the glory of our great God.

    Introduction

    THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE EPISTLE

    Most, if not all, of the great revivals and reformations in the history of the church have been directly related to the book of Romans. In September A.D. 386, a native of North Africa who had been a professor for several years in Milan, Italy, sat weeping in the garden of his friend Alypius, contemplating the wickedness of his life. While sitting there, he heard a child singing, Tolle, lege. Tolle, lege, which in Latin means Take up and read. Take up and read. An open scroll of the book of Romans lay beside him, and he picked it up. The first passage that caught his eye read, Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts (13:13–14). The man later wrote of that occasion: No further would I read, nor did I need; for instantly, as the sentence ended,—by a light, as it were, or security infused into my heart,—all the gloom of doubt vanished away (Confessions Book 8, Chapter 12). The man was Aurelius Augustine, who, upon reading that short passage from Romans, received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and went on to become one of the church’s outstanding theologians and leaders.

    Just over a thousand years later, Martin Luther, a monk in the Roman Catholic order named after Augustine, was teaching the book of Romans to his students at the University of Wittenberg, Germany. As he carefully studied the text, he became more and more convicted by Paul’s central theme of justification by faith alone. He wrote,

    I greatly longed to understand Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, the righteousness of God, because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is righteous and deals righteously in punishing the unrighteous…. Night and day I pondered until … I grasped the truth that the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby, through grace and sheer mercy, he justifies us by faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the righteousness of God had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gateway to heaven. (Cf. Barend Klaas Kuiper, Martin Luther: The Formative Years [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1933], pp. 198–208.)

    Several centuries later, an ordained minister in the Church of England by the name of John Wesley was similarly confused about the meaning of the gospel and was searching for a genuine experience of salvation. For the Wednesday evening of May 24, 1738, he wrote in his journal,

    I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

    In assessing the importance of the book of Romans, John Calvin said, When any one gains a knowledge of this Epistle, he has an entrance opened to him to all the most hidden treasures of Scripture (Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul to the Romans [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979], p. 1). Martin Luther said that Romans is the chief part of the New Testament and the very purest gospel (Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans [Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1954], p. xiii). Frederick Godet, the noted Swiss Bible commentator, called Romans the cathedral of Christian faith (Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans [New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1883], p. 1).

    The famous sixteenth-century Bible translator William Tyndale wrote the following words in his preface to the book of Romans:

    Forasmuch as this epistle is the principal and most excellent part of the New Testament, and most pure evangelion, that is to say, glad tidings, and that we call gospel, and also a light and a way unto the whole scripture; I think it meet that every christian man not only know it, by rote and without the book, but also exercise himself therein evermore continually, as with the daily bread of the soul. No man verily can read it too oft, or study it too well; for the more it is studied, the easier it is; the more it is chewed, the pleasanter it is; and the more groundly it is searched, the preciouser things are found in it, so great treasure of spiritual things lieth hid therein. (Doctrinal Treatises and Introductions to Different Portions of the Holy Scriptures by William Tyndale, Henry Walter, ed. [Cambridge: University Press, 1848], p. 484)

    The popular Bible expositor Donald Grey Barnhouse, who broadcast eleven years of weekly messages on the book of Romans, wrote regarding this beloved epistle,

    A scientist may say that mother’s milk is the most perfect food known to man, and may give you an analysis showing all its chemical components, a list of the vitamins it contains and an estimate of the calories in a given quantity. A baby will take that milk without the remotest knowledge of its content, and will grow day by day, smiling and thriving in its ignorance. So it is with the profound truths of the word of God. (Man’s Ruin: Romans 1:1–32 [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952], p. 3)

    It has been said that Romans will delight the greatest logician and captivate the mind of the consummate genius, yet it will bring tears to the humblest soul and refreshment to the simplest mind. It will knock you down and then lift you up. It will strip you naked and then clothe you with eternal elegance. The book of Romans took a Bedford tinker like John Bunyan and turned him into the spiritual giant and literary master who wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress and The Holy War.

    This epistle quotes the Old Testament some 57 times, more than any other New Testament book. It repeatedly used key words—God 154 times, law 77 times, Christ 66 times, sin 45 times, Lord 44 times, and faith 40 times.

    Romans answers many questions concerning man and God. Some of the more significant questions it answers are: What is the good news of God? Is Jesus really God? What is God like? How can God send people to hell? Why do men reject God and His Son, Jesus Christ? Why are there false religions and idols? What is man’s biggest sin? Why are there sex perversions, hatred, crime, dishonesty, and all the other evils in the world, and why are they so pervasive and rampant? What is the standard by which God condemns people? How can a person who has never heard the gospel be held spiritually responsible? Do Jews have a greater responsibility to believe than Gentiles? Who is a true Jew? Is there any spiritual advantage to being Jewish? How good is man in himself? How evil is man in himself? Can any person keep God’s laws perfectly? How can a person know he is a sinner? How can a sinner be forgiven and justified by God? How is a Christian related to Abraham? What is the importance of Christ’s death? What is the importance of His resurrection? What is the importance of His present life in heaven? For whom did Christ die? Where can men find real peace and hope? How are all men related spiritually to Adam, and how are believers related spiritually to Jesus Christ? What is grace and what does it do? How are God’s grace and God’s law related? How does a person die spiritually and become reborn? What is the Christian’s relation to sin? How important is obedience in the Christian life? Why is living a faithful Christian life such a struggle? How many natures does a Christian have?

    Still more questions are: What does the Holy Spirit do for a believer? How intimate is a Christian’s relationship to God? Why is there suffering? Will the world ever be different? What are election and predestination? How can Christians pray properly? How secure is a believer’s salvation? What is God’s present plan for Israel? What is His future plan for Israel? Why and for what have the Gentiles been chosen by God? What is the Christian’s responsibility to Jews and to Israel? What is true spiritual commitment? What is the Christian’s relationship to the world in general, to the unsaved, to other Christians, and to human government? What is genuine love and how does it work? How do Christians deal with issues that are neither right nor wrong in themselves? What is true freedom? How important is unity in the church?

    It is no wonder that Frederick Godet, quoted above, once exclaimed, O Saint Paul! Had thy one work been to compose the epistle to the Romans, that alone should have rendered thee dear to every sound reason.

    Romans speaks to us today just as powerfully as it spoke to men of the first century. It speaks morally, about adultery, fornication, homosexuality, hating, murder, lying, and civil disobedience. It speaks intellectually, telling us that the natural man is confused because he has a reprobate mind. It speaks socially, telling us how we are to relate to one another. It speaks psychologically, telling us where true freedom comes to deliver men from the burden of guilt. It speaks nationally, telling us our responsibility to human government. It speaks internationally, telling us the ultimate destiny of the earth and especially the future of Israel. It speaks spiritually, answering man’s despair by offering hope for the future. It speaks theologically, teaching us the relationship between the flesh and the spirit, between law and grace, between works and faith. But most of all, it profoundly brings God Himself to us.

    An anonymous poet wrote these moving words that capture much of the heart of the book of Romans:

    O long and dark the stairs I trod

    With trembling feet to find my God

    Gaining a foothold bit by bit,

    Then slipping back and losing it.

    Never progressing; striving still

    With weakening grasp and faltering will,

    Bleeding to climb to God, while he

    Serenely smiled, unnoting me.

    Then came a certain time when I

    Loosened my hold and fell thereby;

    Down to the lowest step my fall,

    As if I had not climbed at all.

    Now when I lay despairing there,

    Listen … a footfall on the stair,

    On that same stair where I afraid,

    Faltered and fell and lay dismayed.

    And lo, when hope had ceased to be,

    My God came down the stairs to me.

    THE AUTHOR

    It is impossible to clearly understand the book of Romans without knowing something about its amazing author.

    Paul was originally named Saul, after the first king of Israel, and, like his namesake, was of the tribe of Benjamin (Phil. 3:5). He was born in Tarsus (Acts 9:11), a prosperous city just off the northeastern Mediterranean coast in the province of Cilicia, located in what is modern Turkey. Tarsus was a center of Greek learning and culture, the home of one of the three most outstanding universities in the Roman Empire. Saul may have received training there as well as in Jerusalem under the rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), who was the grandson of Hillel, perhaps the most famous rabbi of all time. Because he was said to personify the law, Gamaliel was often referred to as the beauty of the law. Saul was therefore learned both in Greek literature and philosophy and in rabbinical law.

    Following the Mosaic law, Saul was circumcised on the eighth day (Phil. 3:5). He probably was sent to Jerusalem soon after his thirteenth birthday, the age when Jewish boys became recognized as men. Under Gamaliel, Saul would have memorized and learned to interpret Scripture according to rabbinical tradition, notably that of the Talmud. It was probably during his stay in Jerusalem that he became a Pharisee. Because his father was a Roman citizen, Saul was born into that citizenship (Acts 22:28), a prized and highly beneficial asset. He therefore had the highest possible credentials both of Greco-Roman and Jewish society.

    In keeping with Jewish custom, Saul also learned the trade of his father, which was tentmaking (Acts 18:3). In light of the fact that this apostle never encountered Jesus during His earthly ministry, it is likely that he returned to Tarsus after his education in Jerusalem. Because of his outstanding training, he was doubtlessly a leader in one of the leading synagogues of Tarsus, supporting himself by tentmaking. By his own account, he was a zealous legalist, a Hebrew of Hebrews, totally committed to the law in every detail (Phil. 3:5–6).

    It was probably while he was back in Tarsus that he began hearing about the new sect that was filling Jerusalem, not only with its teaching but also with its converts. Like most of the Jewish leaders in Palestine, Saul was deeply offended by Jesus’ claim to messiahship and dedicated himself to stamping out the presumed heresy. He was still a young man when he came back to Jerusalem, but due to his zeal and natural ability he soon became a leader in persecuting the church. Instead of its softening his heart to the gospel, the stoning of Stephen at first hardened Saul’s heart still further, and he began ravaging the church, entering house after house; and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison (Acts 8:3).

    Luke reports that Saul was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord (9:1). He became like a war horse with the smell of battle in his nostrils, snorting out unrelenting fury against everyone and everything Christian. Toward the Christians, he became like the wicked Haman—the enemy of the Jews who determined to exterminate every Jew in the vast Persian empire of King Ahasuerus (Esther 3:8–10).

    Not content with persecuting believers in Jerusalem and Judea, Saul went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem (Acts 9:1–2). Saul was consumed by a passion to imprison and execute Christians, and before going to Damascus, he had hounded Christians in many other foreign cities outside Israel (see Acts 26:11).

    At that time, Damascus was a city of perhaps 150,000 people, including many thousands of Jews. It is therefore possible that the synagogues at Damascus to which Saul referred could have numbered a dozen or more. Damascus was the capital of Syria and was 160 miles northeast of Jerusalem, requiring at least six days of travel time from one city to the other.

    But on his way there, just as he was approaching Damascus, … suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ (9:3–4). In his defense before King Agrippa many years later, Paul reported that Jesus then added, It is hard for you to kick against the goads (Acts 26:14). A goad was a long, pointed stick used to herd stubborn livestock such as oxen. To keep the animal moving, he was poked in the flank or just above the heel. In Greek culture the phrase hard to kick against the goad was a common expression used to indicate opposition to deity, an expression Saul had doubtlessly heard many times while in Tarsus. With that phrase, Jesus was pointing out to Saul that his persecution of Christians was tantamount to opposing God, the very opposite of what he thought he was doing.

    In abject fear Saul replied to the heavenly voice, ‘Who art Thou, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting’ (Acts 9:5). At that moment Saul must have been both terrified and shattered—terrified that he was in the very presence of God and shattered by the discovery that he had been assailing God rather than serving Him. He was devastated to realize that the blood he had been shedding was the blood of God’s people. The Jesus whom his fellow Israelites had ridiculed, beaten, and put to death; the Jesus upon whom Stephen had called as Saul stood by consenting to his death; the Jesus whose followers Saul himself had been imprisoning and executing—that Jesus was indeed God, just as He had claimed! Now Paul stood exposed and helpless before Him, blinded by the dazzling brightness of His revealed majesty.

    For several years Saul had been totally engrossed in the annihilation of the church, and had he fulfilled his plan, the church would have died in infancy, drowned in its own blood. If the Lord had not immediately added, But rise, and enter the city, and it shall be told you what you must do (9:6), Saul could very well have expired simply from fear over the enormity of his sin. Many years later he looked back on that experience and declared,

    I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service; even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. And yet I was shown mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am the foremost of all. (1 Tim. 1:12–15)

    On that road near Damascus, Saul was marvelously and eternally transformed. Although temporarily blinded and all but speechless, during that experience he submitted his life to Christ.

    It is likely that Saul was so vehemently bent on destroying Jesus’ followers that no Christian would have been able to present the gospel to him successfully. Only God, by miraculous intervention, could get his attention. He had to be utterly shattered before he would listen to God’s truth. He was so feared by the church that even the apostles would not talk to him when he first asked to visit them. They found it impossible to believe that Saul of Tarsus could be a disciple of Christ (Acts 9:26).

    Consistent with his natural zealousness, as soon as Saul regained his sight, was baptized, and had some nourishment after three days without food or drink (see 9:9), immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues of Damascus (v. 20)—the very synagogues to which he had been given letters from the high priest permitting him to arrest any Christians he found among them! It is hardly surprising that those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, ‘Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?’ (v. 21).

    By remarkable divine illumination, Saul was immediately able after his conversion not simply to testify to what had happened to him but to defend the gospel so powerfully that he confounded every unbelieving Jew who argued with him, proving that this Jesus is the Christ (v. 22).

    He was so successful in proclaiming the gospel that soon his former accomplices, along with other unbelieving Jews in Damascus, planned to kill him. In their determination to exterminate this traitor to their cause, they enlisted the political and military support of the ethnarch under Aretas the king (2 Cor. 11:32). But their plot became known to Saul. And they were also watching the gates day and night so that they might put him to death; but his disciples took him by night, and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket (Acts 9:24–25).

    As Paul himself explains in his letter to the Galatians, it was at this point that he went to Arabia, spending three years there (see Gal. 1:17–18). It was probably there that the apostle learned much and received direct revelation from the Lord. As he had testified earlier in Galatians, the gospel he preached was not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ (1:11–12).

    After that divine seminary training in Nabatean Arabia, Saul went back to Damascus for a brief time (Gal. 1:17). It is possible that it was on this second visit that the ethnarch under King Aretas became involved, perhaps because Saul had raised the royal ire by preaching the gospel while in Arabia, which was under the monarch’s control. If so, Saul escaped from Damascus a second time, this time by being lowered through the wall in a basket (see 2 Cor. 11:33).

    Only after that three-year period did Saul go to Jerusalem and meet the other apostles. Through the trusting and gracious intercession of Barnabas (Acts 9:27), the apostles finally acknowledged Saul as a true believer and accepted him into fellowship.

    The exact chronology of this period in Saul’s life cannot be determined, but he spent fifteen days in Jerusalem with Peter (Gal. 1:18), at which time he may or may not have communicated with the other apostles. He soon began preaching and teaching there and was so forceful in arguing with the Hellenistic Jews that they were attempting to put him to death. But when the brethren learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus, his home town (Acts 9:29–30). He probably founded churches in Tarsus and in other places in Cilicia, and we know that the Lord later used him to strengthen the churches of that area (Acts 15:41).

    After Barnabas was sent by the Jerusalem church to organize the church at Antioch of Syria, he ministered there for a period of time and then decided to enlist the help of Saul. After searching out Saul in Tarsus, Barnabas brought him to Antioch. And it came about that for an entire year they met with the church, and taught considerable numbers. It was during this time in Antioch, under the joint ministry of Saul and Barnabas, that the disciples were first called Christians (Acts 11:22–26).

    When the world-wide famine predicted by Agabus occurred, the church at Antioch received contributions from its members for relief of believers in Judea, who were in special need. The offering was sent in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders at Jerusalem (Acts 11:28–30).

    As the church in Antioch grew, other prophets and teachers were raised up, and eventually the Holy Spirit instructed those leaders: ‘Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then, when they had fasted, prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away (Acts 13:1–3). It was at that time that Paul, still called Saul, began his unique ministry as the apostle to the Gentiles.

    THE PLACE AND TIME OF WRITING

    Paul made three extensive missionary journeys, reported in Acts 13:4–21:17, and then a final journey to Rome to be heard before Caesar (27:1–28:16). On the third journey he went a third time to Corinth, a thriving but wicked port city in the province of Achaia, in what is now southern Greece. It was probably during that stay in Corinth to collect another offering for needy believers in Palestine (Rom. 15:26) that Paul wrote the letter to the church at Rome.

    A careful examination by other commentators has arranged the chronological data furnished in the Book of Acts and the epistle itself to set the time in the early spring of A.D. 58, just before Paul left for Jerusalem (Rom. 15:25) to arrive before Pentecost (Acts 20:16).

    THE PURPOSE OF WRITING

    Paul mentions several purposes for writing the book of Romans. First of all, he had wanted to visit the church at Rome on numerous occasions but thus far had been prevented (Rom. 1:13). He wanted to go there, he explained, in order that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established (v. 11). Contrary to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, the church at Rome was not established by Peter or any other apostle. Paul makes clear at the end of the letter that he was determined not to build upon another man’s foundation (15:20), that is, not to instruct and lead a congregation that had been founded by another apostle or other Christian leader.

    It is likely the church at Rome had been founded by a group of Jewish Christians who came there from Judea. It is possible that there had been Christians in Rome for many years, converts from among the visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes at Pentecost (Acts 2:10) who witnessed the descent of the Holy Spirit, heard the apostles speak in their own native tongues, and then listened to Peter’s powerful sermon. If so, they would have been among the three thousand souls who believed and were baptized that day (v. 41).

    In any case, although they were a dedicated and faithful group and lived in the strategic heart of the Roman Empire, believers in the city of Rome had not had the benefit of apostolic preaching or teaching. It was that deficiency that Paul wanted to remedy by visiting with them for a period of instruction and encouragement.

    Paul also wanted to do evangelistic work there, suggested by his saying that he eagerly desired to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome (Rom. 1:15).

    In addition to those reasons, Paul wanted to visit the church at Rome for his own sake, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine (1:12). He wanted to go there not only for Christ’s sake but also for the sake of the church, for the sake of the lost, and for his own sake.

    He longed to get to know the believers in Rome and to have them get to know him. First of all, he wanted them to know him so they could pray for him. Although most of them were strangers, he implored near the end of his letter, Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, … so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company (15:30, 32).

    He perhaps also wanted them to get to know him so that, after his stay in Rome, they would be willing to help provide the needed resources for his journey on to Spain, where he hoped to minister at a later time (15:28).

    Paul’s letter to the church at Rome was, among other things, an introduction of himself as an apostle. He clearly set forth the gospel he preached and taught, so that believers in Rome would have complete confidence in his authority. He penned a monumental treatise to establish them in the truth and to show that he was indeed a true apostle of Jesus Christ.

    When he finally came to Rome it was at the expense of the Roman government, due to his insistence that, as a Roman citizen, he be tried before Caesar concerning the charges brought against him by the chief priests and other Jewish leaders in Jerusalem (Acts 25:2, 11). His ministry in Rome was therefore as a prisoner, and it was during that imprisonment that he wrote the epistle to the Philippians, in which he sent greetings from Caesar’s household (Phil. 4:22). It was also likely from Rome that Paul wrote Ephesians (Eph. 3:1; 6:20), Colossians (Col. 4:10), and Philemon (Philem. 1).

    The spectacular triumph of the gospel during and through Paul’s ministry is impossible to assess, but that incredible man was energized and used by the Spirit of God to accomplish things far beyond what we can imagine. Historians have estimated that by the close of the apostolic period there were a half million Christians! Heaven only knows how many of those were brought to the Lord directly or indirectly by the efforts of Paul. Through the intervening centuries the Lord has continued to use the Spirit-inspired writings of that apostle to win the lost and to edify, strengthen, encourage, and correct countless millions of believers. He had been set apart by God even from his mother’s womb, in order that he might preach [Christ] among the Gentiles (Gal. 1:15–16).

    PAUL’S CHARACTER

    Physically, Paul was not attractive (see, e.g., 2 Cor. 10:10; Gal.4:14). He has been described as being small of stature and having scars over his face and body from his many beatings and stonings. Whatever his physical appearance may have been, in spiritual stature and magnificence Paul is surely unsurpassed among the servants of God.

    Paul had personal characteristics that made him useable by God. Obviously he possessed a biblical mind. He was absolutely saturated with the Word of God, which in his day was what we now call the Old Testament. His great intellect was continually immersed in the Hebrew Scriptures, being constantly instructed by God’s previous revelation of Himself and His will.

    In the book of Romans, for example, Paul speaks with great competence about Abraham. He understood the relationship between grace and law and between flesh and spirit. In teaching about those truths, he draws upon the writings of Moses, Hosea, Isaiah, David, and others. Of the books of the law, he demonstrates special familiarity with Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. He quotes Jeremiah and Malachi, and alludes to Daniel. He quotes from Joel 2 and Nahum 1 and refers to 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, and Ezekiel 37. His thoughts and teaching continually intersect with the Old Testament, perhaps dominantly with Isaiah, whose prophecies he clearly had mastered.

    Quoting Isaiah 28:16, he declares, Just as it is written, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed’ (Rom. 9:33; cf. 10:11). A few verses later he quotes Isaiah 52:7, saying, Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things!’ (10:15). In chapter 11 he asks rhetorically about 1 Kings 19:10, Do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah? (v. 2). Twice more in that chapter he appeals to unspecified Scripture passages to reinforce what he says, introducing each citation with, Just as it is written (vv. 8, 26; cf. Deut. 29:4; Ps. 69:22–23; Isa. 27:9; 59:20–21). Throughout the letter he continues to appeal to scriptural authority (e.g., 12:19; 14:11; 15:3).

    The biblical thinking of Paul was combined with a determined and resolute sense of mission which would not be sidetracked or distracted. If beaten, he continued to minister, and if imprisoned, he would start an evangelistic meeting (Acts 16:22–25). If stoned and left for dead because of his preaching, God would raise him up and he would go on his way (14:19–20). When a weary listener fell from a window and died while Paul was preaching late at night, the apostle went out and raised him from the dead and then continued his message (20:9–12).

    Paul traversed the greater part of the Roman Empire of his day, from Jerusalem to Rome and from Caesarea to Macedonian Philippi. He was a foundation builder, tirelessly declaring the gospel with conviction for perhaps twenty years. While comforting and warning the elders from Ephesus who came out to Miletus to meet him, Paul said, The Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:23–24).

    Writing to the church at Corinth, he said, I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel (1 Cor. 9:16). In a later letter to that same church he wrote,

    I [am] in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches. (2 Cor. 11:23–28)

    The apostle had experienced all of those things and many more before he wrote the book of Romans. He admonished his young protégé, Timothy, to be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. He then went on to say of himself, For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith (2 Tim. 4:5–7).

    Though committed to truth and mission, he also had an immense, burning sense of God’s love that permeated everything he did, said, and wrote. The great apostle cannot be understood apart from his deep love for God, his love for believing brethren, and his love for unbelieving mankind, especially his fellow Jews. He had such an abiding love for Israel and longed so deeply for their salvation that he could say with perfect sincerity, I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh (Rom. 9:3).

    Paul’s love for his spiritual brothers and sisters in the church is evident throughout his letter to Rome. Chapter 16 is almost a continuous list of greetings to various believers who were especially dear to the apostle, including those who had ministered to him and those to whom he had ministered.

    He spoke from profound personal experience as well as from divine revelation when he said, The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Rom. 5:5). In the same way he declared, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us (Rom. 8:35, 37). As mentioned earlier, near the close of the letter he exhorts his readers: I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me (15:30).

    As it should be with every believer, Paul was totally under the control of Christ’s love (see 2 Cor. 5:14). As he more and more understood and experienced God’s love, he more and more loved God in return.

    Above everything else, however, Paul lived and worked to glorify God. Of the Lord he wrote, For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen (Rom. 11:36; cf. also 1 Cor. 10:31). He admonished his readers to have that same desire and purpose: With one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (15:6). As the specially-chosen apostle to the Gentiles, his great yearning was for them to glorify God for His mercy (15:9). The closing words, in effect, dedicate the epistle to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom will be the glory forever (16:27).

    As Donald Grey Barnhouse observed, Paul could never forget the pit from which he had been digged (Man’s Ruin: Romans 1:1–32 [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952], p. 8). He always maintained a realistic and humble perspective on his work and on himself.

    Paul was so totally devoted to Jesus Christ that he could admonish his readers with confidence, yet with perfect humility: Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ (1 Cor. 11:1; cf. 4:16) and Brethren, join in following my example (Phil. 3:17; cf. Acts 20:18–24; 2 Thess. 3:7–9).

    Every preacher who has proclaimed the gospel since Paul’s day has depended on that apostle’s teaching for his material. The thirteen New Testament books written by him are the legacy of that great man through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

    1

    The Good News of God—part 1

    Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, (1:1)

    A quick look at any newspaper or passing glance at a weekly news magazine reminds us that in our world most news is bad and seems to be getting worse. What is happening on a national and worldwide scale is simply the magnification of what is happening on an individual level. As personal problems, animosities, and fears increase, so do their counterparts in society at large.

    Human beings are in the hold of a terrifying power that grips them at the very core of their being. Left unchecked, it pushes them to self-destruction in one form or another. That power is sin, which is always bad news.

    Sin is bad news in every dimension. Among its consequences are four inevitable byproducts that guarantee misery and sorrow for a world taken captive. First, sin has selfishness at its heart. The basic element of fallen human nature is exaltation of self, the ego. When Satan fell, he was asserting his own will above God’s, five times declaring, I will… (Isa. 14:13–14). Man fell by the same self-will, when Adam and Eve asserted their own understanding about right and wrong above God’s clear instruction (Gen. 2:16–17; 3:1–7).

    By nature man is self-centered and inclined to have his own way. He will push his selfishness as far as circumstances and the tolerance of society will allow. When self-will is unbridled, man consumes everything and everyone around him in an insatiable quest to please himself. When friends, fellow workers, or a spouse cease to provide what is wanted, they are discarded like an old pair of shoes. Much of modern western society has been so imbued with the propriety of self-esteem and self-will that virtually every desire has come to be considered a right.

    The ultimate goal in many lives today is little more than perpetual self-satisfaction. Every object, every idea, every circumstance, and every person is viewed in light of what it can contribute to one’s own purposes and welfare. Lust for wealth, possessions, fame, dominance, popularity, and physical fulfillment drives people to pervert everything they possess and everyone they know. Employment has become nothing more than a necessary evil to finance one’s indulgences. As is often noted, there is constant danger of loving things and using people rather than loving people and using things. When that temptation is succumbed to, stable and faithful personal relationships become impossible. A person engulfed in self-will and self-fulfillment becomes less and less capable of loving, because as his desire to possess grows, his desire to give withers. And when he forfeits selflessness for selfishness, he forfeits the source of true joy.

    Selfish greed progressively alienates a person from everyone else, including those who are closest and dearest. The end result is loneliness and despair. Everything that is craved soon yields to the law of diminishing returns, and the more one has of it the less it satisfies.

    Second, sin produces guilt, another form of bad news. No matter how convincingly one tries to justify selfishness, its inevitable abuse of things and other people cannot escape generating guilt.

    Like physical pain, guilt is a God-given warning that something is wrong and needs correcting. When guilt is ignored or suppressed, it continues to grow and intensify, and with it come anxiety, fear, sleeplessness, and countless other spiritual and physical afflictions. Many people try to overcome those afflictions by masking them with possessions, money, alcohol, drugs, sex, travel, and psychoanalysis. They try to assuage their guilt by blaming society, parents, a deprived childhood, environment, restrictive moral codes, and even God Himself. But the irresponsible notion of blaming other persons and things only aggravates the guilt and escalates the accompanying afflictions.

    Third, sin produces meaninglessness, still another form of bad news and one that is endemic to modern times. Trapped in his own selfishness, the self-indulgent person has no sense of purpose or meaning. Life becomes an endless cycle of trying to fill a void that cannot be filled. The result is futility and despair. To questions such as, Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? What is truth? he finds no answers in the world but the lies of Satan, who is the author of lies and prince of the present world system (cf. John 8:44; 2 Cor. 4:4). In the words of Edna St. Vincent Millay in her poem Lament, he can only say, Life must go on; I forget just why. Or, like the central character in one of Jean-Paul Sartre’s novels, he may say nihilistically, I decided to kill myself to remove at least one superfluous life.

    A fourth element in sin’s chain of bad news is hopelessness, which is the companion of meaninglessness. The consumptively selfish person forfeits hope, both for this life and for the next. Although he may deny it, he senses that even death is not the end, and for the hopeless sinner death becomes therefore the ultimate bad news.

    Millions of babies are born every day into a world filled with bad news. And because of the boundless selfishness that permeates modern society, millions of other babies are not allowed to enter the world at all. That tragedy alone has made the bad news of the modern world immeasurably worse.

    The tidbits of seemingly good news are often merely a brief respite from the bad, and sometimes even what appears to be good news merely masks an evil. Someone once commented cynically that peace treaties merely provide time for everyone to reload!

    But the essence of Paul’s letter to the Romans is that there is good news that is truly good. The apostle was, in fact, a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest of the gospel of God (Rom. 15:16). He brought the good news that in Christ sin can be forgiven, selfishness can be overcome, guilt can be removed, anxiety can be alleviated, and life can indeed have hope and eternal glory.

    In his Romans letter Paul speaks of the good news in many ways, each way emphasizing a uniquely beautiful facet of one spiritual gem. He calls it the blessed good news, the good news of salvation, the good news of Jesus Christ, the good news of God’s Son, and the good news of the grace of God. The letter begins (1:1) and ends (16:25–26) with the good news.

    The entire thrust of the sixteen chapters of Romans is distilled into the first seven verses. The apostle apparently was so overjoyed by his message of good news that he could not wait to introduce his readers to the gist of what he had to say. He burst into it immediately.

    In Romans 1:1–7 Paul unfolds seven aspects of the good news of Jesus Christ. He first identifies himself as the preacher of the good news (v. 1), which will be discussed in this present chapter. He then tells of the promise (v. 2), the Person (vv. 3–4), the provision (v. 5a), the proclamation (v. 5b), the purpose (v. 5c), and the privileges of the good news (vv. 6–7).

    THE PREACHER OF THE GOOD NEWS

    Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, (1:1)

    God called a unique man to be the major spokesman for His glorious good news. Paul was God’s keynote speaker, as it were, for heralding the gospel. A singularly gifted man, he was given divine insight into the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4), the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints (Col. 1:26). That remarkable Jew with Greek education and Roman citizenship, with incredible leadership ability, high motivation, and articulate expression, was specially and directly called, converted, and gifted by God.

    Paul crisscrossed much of the Roman Empire as God’s ambassador of the good news of Christ. He performed many healing miracles, yet was not relieved of his own thorn in the flesh. He raised Eutychus from the dead but was at least once left for dead himself. He preached freedom in Christ but was imprisoned by men during many years of his ministry.

    In the first verse Paul discloses three important things about himself in regard to his ministry: his position as a servant of Christ, his authority as an apostle of Christ, and his power in being set apart for the gospel of Christ.

    PAUL’S POSITION AS A SERVANT OF CHRIST

    a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, (1:1a)

    Doulos (bond-servant) carries the basic idea of subservience and has a wide range of connotations. It was sometimes used of a person who voluntarily served others, but most commonly it referred to those who were in unwilling and permanent bondage, from which often there was no release but death.

    The Hebrew equivalent (‘ebed) is used hundreds of times in the Old Testament and carries the same wide range of connotations. The Mosaic law provided for an indentured servant to voluntarily become a permanent bond-slave of a master he loved and respected. If a slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’ then his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently (Ex. 21:5–6).

    That practice reflects the essence of Paul’s use of the term doulos in Romans 1:1. The apostle had given himself wholeheartedly in love to the divine Master who saved him from sin and death.

    In New Testament times there were millions of slaves in the Roman Empire, the vast majority of whom were forced into slavery and kept there by law. Some of the more educated and skilled slaves held significant positions in a household or business and were treated with considerable respect. But most slaves were treated much like any other personal property of the owner and were considered little better than work animals. They had virtually no rights under the law and could even be killed with impunity by their masters.

    Some commentators argue that because of the great difference between Jewish slavery as practiced in Old Testament times and the slavery of first-century Rome, Paul had only the Jewish concept in mind when speaking of his relationship to Christ. Many of the great figures in the Old Testament were referred to as servants. God spoke of Abraham as His servant (Gen. 26:24; Num. 12:7). Joshua is called the servant of the Lord (Josh. 24:29), as are David (2 Sam. 7:5) and Isaiah (Isa. 20:3). Even the Messiah is called God’s Servant (Isa. 53:11). In all of those instances, and in many more in the Old Testament, the term servant carries the idea of humble nobility and honor. But as already noted, the Hebrew word (‘ebed) behind servant was also used of bond-slaves.

    In light of Paul’s genuine humility and his considering himself the foremost of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), it is certain that he was not arrogating to himself the revered and noble title of servant of the Lord as used in the citations above. He considered Himself Christ’s bond-servant in the most unassuming sense.

    There is, of course, an honor and dignity attached to all of God’s true servants, even the most seemingly insignificant, and Paul was very much aware of the undeserved but real dignity God bestows on those who belong to Him. Yet he was constantly aware also that the dignity and honor God gives His children are purely from grace, that in themselves Christians are still sinful, depraved, and undeserving. He wrote to the Corinthian church, What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one (1 Cor. 3:5). Here Paul uses the term diakonos to describe his position as servant, a term commonly used of table waiters. But as in his use of doulos, the emphasis here is on subservience and insignificance, not honor. Later in the same letter he asks his readers to regard him as a galley slave (4:1). The term used here is huperetes (servants) which literally means underrowers, referring to the lowest level of rowers in the large galley of a Roman ship. This was perhaps the hardest, most dangerous, and most demeaning work a slave could do. Such slaves were considered the lowest of the low.

    Because he was called and appointed by Christ Himself, Paul would never belittle his position as an apostle or even as a child of God. He plainly taught that godly leaders in the church, especially those who are diligent in preaching and teaching, are worthy of double honor by fellow believers (1 Tim. 5:17). But he continually emphasized that such positions of honor are provisions of God’s grace.

    PAUL’S AUTHORITY AS AN APOSTLE

    called as an apostle, (1b)

    Paul next establishes the authority of his ministry, based on his being called as an apostle. Perhaps a better rendering would be a called apostle, which more clearly points up the fact that his position as an apostle was not of his own doing. He did not volunteer for that office, nor was he elected by fellow believers. He was divinely called by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

    While Paul, then called Saul, was still blinded from his miraculous encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road, the Lord said to Ananias about Paul: He is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel (Acts 9:15). In relaying the message to Paul, Ananias said, The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear an utterance from His mouth. For you will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard (Acts 22:14–15). Paul later gave the additional revelation that Christ already had given that message directly to him, saying,

    Arise, and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; delivering you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. (Acts 26:16–18)

    Paul told the Corinthian believers, I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel (1 Cor. 9:16). God had given him a task he had never dreamed of and had never asked for, and he knew he would be in serious trouble if he was not obedient to his divine commission.

    Paul was an apostle (not sent from men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead) (Gal. 1:1). He went on to declare, Am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ (v. 10).

    Apostle translates apostolos, which has the basic meaning of a person who is sent. It referred to someone who was officially commissioned to a position or task, such as an envoy or ambassador. Cargo ships were sometimes called apostolic, because they were dispatched with a specific shipment for a specific destination.

    The term apostle appears some seventy-nine times in the New Testament and is used in a few instances in a general, nontechnical sense (see Rom. 16:7; Acts 14:14). In its broadest sense, apostle can refer to all believers, because every believer is sent into the world as a witness for Christ. But the term is primarily used as a specific and unique title for the thirteen men (the Twelve, with Matthias replacing Judas, and Paul) whom Christ personally chose and commissioned to authoritatively proclaim the gospel and lead the early church.

    The thirteen apostles not only were all called directly by Jesus but all were witnesses of His resurrection, Paul having encountered Him on the Damascus Road after His ascension. Those thirteen apostles were given direct revelation of God’s Word to proclaim authoritatively, the gift of healing, and the power to cast out demons (Matt. 10:1). By these signs their teaching authority was verified (cf. 2 Cor. 12:12). Their teachings became the foundation of the church (Eph. 2:20), and their authority extended beyond local bodies of believers to the entire believing world.

    Although the apostles were the sent-ones in a unique way, every person who speaks for God must be called and sent by Him. There are many people preaching, teaching, and presuming to prophesy in Christ’s name whom Christ has clearly not sent. They obviously have no anointing of God because their teachings and living do not square with God’s Word.

    False prophets have always plagued God’s people. They corrupted ancient Israel, they have corrupted the church through all the centuries of its existence, and they continue to corrupt the church today. Through Jeremiah the Lord said of such impostors, I did not send these prophets, but they ran. I did not speak to them, but they prophesied (Jer. 23:21).

    Some religious leaders not only give no evidence of being called by God to preach and teach in His name but even give little evidence of salvation. In his book The Reformed Pastor, seventeenth-century Puritan pastor Richard Baxter devotes a hundred pages to warning preachers of the gospel to be sure first of all that they are truly redeemed and second that they have been called by God to His ministry.

    PAUL’S POWER IN BEING SET APART FOR THE GOSPEL

    set apart for the gospel of God, (1c)

    Because Paul was called and sent by God as an apostle, his whole life was set apart in the Lord’s service. Even a person who has been called by God to a special type or place of service cannot be effective if he is not also separated unto God for the gospel of God.

    Throughout the Old Testament, God provided for the setting apart of His chosen people. To the entire nation He declared, You are to be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine (Lev. 20:26). Just before He delivered His people from Pharaoh’s Army the Lord commanded: You shall devote to the Lord the first offspring of every womb, and the first offspring of every beast that you own; the males belong to the Lord (Ex. 13:12). God also demanded the firstfruits of their crops (Num. 15:20). The Levites were set apart as the priestly tribe (Num. 8:11–14).

    In the Septuagint (Greek) version of the above passages from Exodus, Numbers, and Leviticus, the words translated present, lift up, and set apart are all forms of aphorizō, the term Paul used for his being set apart. It is used of setting apart to God the firstborn, of offering to God first fruits, of consecrating to God the Levites, and of separating Israel to God from other peoples. There was to be no intermingling of the chosen people with the Gentile nations or of the sacred with the profane and ordinary.

    The Aramaic term Pharisee may share a common root with aphorizō and carries the same idea of separation. The Pharisees, however, were not set apart by God or according to God’s standards but had rather set themselves apart according to the standards of their own traditions (cf. Matt. 23:1, 2).

    Although Paul himself had once been the most ardent of the self-appointed Pharisees, he was now set apart divinely, not humanly. God revealed to him that he had been set apart by God’s grace even from his mother’s womb (Gal. 1:15). When he and Barnabas were set apart and commissioned for missionary work by the church in Antioch, it was on the direct instruction of the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:2).

    Paul’s clear understanding of this separateness comes through in his writing to Timothy. Timothy was a genuine servant of God, and he had been personally discipled by Paul and succeeded him as pastor of the church at Ephesus. But at some point in his ministry he may have come dangerously close to being ineffective, perhaps because of

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