Enduring Word Commentary on Romans 1

These are extracts from the Enduring Word Commentary on Romans 1

A bondservant… an apostle: Paul’s self-identification is important. He is first a servant of Jesus Christ, and second called to be an apostle.

There were several ancient Greek words used to designate a slave, but the idea behind the word for servant (doulos) is “complete and utter devotion, not the abjectness which was the normal condition of the slave.” (Morris)

“A servant of Jesus Christ, is a higher title than monarch of the world.” (Poole)

The word “God” occurs 153 times in Romans; an average of once every 46 words – this is more frequently than any other New Testament book. In comparison, note the frequency of other words used in Romans: law (72), Christ (65), sin (48), Lord (43), and faith (40). Romans deals with many different themes but as much as a book can be, it is a book about God.

Ironically – in the mystery of God’s irony – when Paul did eventually get to Rome, he came as a shipwrecked prisoner.

“I do not suppose that Paul guessed that he would be sent there at the government’s expense, but he was. The Roman Empire had to find a ship for him, and a fit escort for him, too; and he entered the city as an ambassador in bonds. When our hearts are set on a thing, and we pray for it, God may grant us the blessing; but, it may be, in a way that we never looked for. You shall go to Rome, Paul; but you shall go in chains.” (Spurgeon)

The gospel is certainly news, but it is more than information; it has an inherent power. “The gospel is not advice to people, suggesting that they lift themselves. It is power. It lifts them up. Paul does not say that the gospel brings power, but that it is power, and God’s power at that.” (Morris)

In particular, the city of Rome thought it knew all about power: “Power is the one thing that Rome boasted of the most. Greece might have its philosophy, but Rome had its power” (Wiersbe). Despite all their power, the Romans – like all men – were powerless to make themselves righteous before God. The ancient philosopher Seneca called Rome “a cesspool of iniquity” and the ancient writer Juvenal called it a “filthy sewer into which the dregs of the empire flood.”

It is essential to understand exactly what the righteousness of God revealed by the gospel is. It does not speak of the holy righteousness of God that condemns the guilty sinner, but of the God-kind of righteousness that is given to the sinner who puts their trust in Jesus Christ.

If God justifies a sinner, it does not mean that he finds reasons to prove that he was right – far from it. It does not even mean, at this point, that he makes the sinner a good man. It means that God treats the sinner as if he had not been a sinner at all.”

Therefore God also gave them up: In His righteous wrath and judgment, God gives man up to the sin our evil hearts desire, allowing us to experience the self-destructive result of sin. This phrase is so important Paul repeats it three times in this passage. Hosea 4:17 expresses the judgmental aspect of God “giving us up,” leaving us to our own sin: Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone.

We make a mistake when we think that it is God’s mercy or kindness that allows man to continue in sin. It is actually His wrath that allows us to go on destroying ourselves with sin.

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