The Gospel of God

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God-

Romans 1:1

There have been many that have begun to preach through the book of Romans that have been said to spend multiple sermons on this one verse. It is full of truth and insights. I will not exhaust multiple entries on the many observations present here but I will allow, as is proper, this verse to set the tone for the rest of the study of the letter to the Romans.

I will assume that we know who Paul is and at least some of his history. I will take a moment to talk about Paul's approach to the gospel. Paul had three stances. Each of these were taken at the same time. It has been said that he had a foot in three countries at once (if he had three feet). One foot is in Judaism. Paul was a Pharisee, and by his own account, a good one (see chapter 11). Paul was deeply concerned with the Jews in each city he visited as he spread the gospel (see the book of Acts). Paul also had a concern that the gospel of God was not something new but something foretold by the prophets and in the Scriptures (see verse 1:2). It can be safely said that in Paul's eyes, the Christian movement was a Jewish movement.

His other foot was in the Hellenistic world. Paul was called to the Greek and Hellenistic societies. He was concerned with the freedom of these new communities to stand apart from the Torah (the Jewish law). Paul defended the rights of these churches in Jerusalem (Acts 15) and in front of Peter (Galatians). Paul primarily focused on the physical attributes of the Torah, like circumcision or dietary restrictions, but he also talked about the Gentiles as a fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham (see Galatians 4).

Paul's third foot (if he had one) is in the world of Roman government. Paul uses terms for Jesus that were normally reserved and used of Caesar. It was a way of Paul recasting allegiance to the true King, instead of the faux king of Rome. All three of these distinctions are prevalent in the letter to the Romans and we will highlight them as we have occasion. 

The gospel is a much bigger concept than a prayer involving the ABC's. The gospel is bigger than a decision that has been made or a pre-baptism ritual. For Paul, the gospel involved the efforts of God to make the world right again. God is a God of justice and that means that God will bring justice to creation. This has powerful ramifications for all of us (more on that later). The gospel involves us because God is involving us in his efforts to make the world right. If God is going to make the world right, then it is something that must come from his efforts. The gospel is God's way to save the world from itself (see 1:16).

In 1:18-3:20 we will explore Paul's expression of this truth.