Holman New Testament Commentary - Romans

William M. Kruidenier, Kenneth Boa, Max Anders

• Publisher: Holman Reference
• Year: 2000
• ISBN:
  9781433674211
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

One in a series of twelve New Testament verse-by-verse commentary books edited by Max Anders. Includes discussion starters, teaching plan, and more. Great for lay teachers and pastors alike.

---

Romans 1:1–17

Paul and the Romans: Potential Partners in the Gospel

I. INTRODUCTION

What Was Driving Columbus?

II. COMMENTARY

A verse-by-verse explanation of the chapter.

III. CONCLUSION

Prepared for “Come What May”

An overview of the principles and applications from the chapter.

IV. LIFE APPLICATION

Belief Determines Identity

Melding the chapter to life.

V. PRAYER

Tying the chapter to life with God.

VI. DEEPER DISCOVERIES

Historical, geographical, and grammatical enrichment of the commentary.

VII. TEACHING OUTLINE

Suggested step-by-step group study of the chapter.

VIII. ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION

Zeroing the chapter in on daily life.

---

“Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the gospel of God… . Paul was not conscious of himself. He was recklessly abandoned, totally surrendered, and separated by God for one purpose—to proclaim the gospel of God.”

Oswald Chambers

Paul, known only by reputation to the large Christian community in Rome, introduces himself and his message to the church. Wanting to enter into a long-term partnership with the Roman church, he boldly sets forth his credentials and his message: called by God to preach the gospel of God.

Paul and the Romans: Potential Partners in the Gospel

I. INTRODUCTION

---

What Was Driving Columbus?

Christopher Columbus labored for seven years to convince European monarchs to finance his seaborne explorations. Finally winning the support of Queen Isabella of Castille and King Ferdinand of Aragon, he set sail on August 3, 1492. Thinking he was on the way to India, he “discovered” the new world on October 12, 1492. In his Libro de las Profecias (Book of Prophecies), Columbus recorded a remarkable set of perspectives on his voyage. He was not sailing or exploring for himself; he was sailing by the will of God.

“I prayed to the most merciful Lord about my heart's great desire, and He gave me the spirit and the intelligence for the task: seafaring, astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, skill in drafting spherical maps and placing correctly the cities, rivers, mountains and ports. I also studied cosmology, history, chronology and philosophy,” Columbus wrote. “It was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel His hand upon me) the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me. There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy spirit, because he comforted me with … the Holy Scriptures … encouraging me continually to press forward, and without ceasing for a moment they [the Scriptures] now encourage me to make haste,” he professed.

His continuing remarks give evidence of an unshakable confidence in the purposefulness of his “calling": “All things must come to pass that [have] been written by the prophets… . I am a most unworthy sinner, but I have cried out to the Lord for grace and mercy… . I have found the sweetest consolations since I made it my whole purpose to enjoy His marvelous presence… . No one should fear to undertake any task in the name of our Savior… . The working out of all things has been assigned to each person by our Lord… . The fact that the gospel must still be preached to so many lands in such a short time, this is what convinces me.”

If one did not know the source of these statements, it would be easy to think they came from a same-generation protégé of the apostle Paul. Christopher Columbus lived many years after Paul, but he had a remarkably similar outlook on life: God is the ruler of all things; we are his servants; he communicates his will to us; we are responsible to fulfill it; the Scriptures are our guide; the Holy Spirit is our strength; courage is our banner; and the gospel is our message.

While no one should claim that Christopher Columbus was a perfect Christian, or that he had apostolic credentials, one thing can be said: his identity as a faithful servant of God is clear. Unfortunately, history books have removed much of his Christian identity, but the writings from his own hand make it clear. Nothing mattered more than to fulfill God's will for his life. And Romans 1 reveals the same thing about the apostle Paul. There was no mistaking Paul's identity by those who knew him, nor for those of us who read his writings. He was without question a charter member of the company of the committed.

Remember—the Romans had never met Paul personally. Undoubtedly, many or all of the Roman Christians had heard of him. But Paul's letter was a prelude to a future visit—a letter of introduction, if you will—and he wanted to make sure that the church in Rome could separate fact from fiction regarding his identity. Therefore, he clears away any confusion in the first chapter: “There are three things I am committed to,” Paul said in essence: “My calling from God (my ministry is not my idea), my concern for you (I believe God wants us to be partners in the gospel), and my understanding of the gospel (it is the only thing that can save the world).”

To the degree that Paul is an example for all believers (1 Cor. 4:16), our identity should be like his—and like that of William and Catherine Booth, founders of the Salvation Army. The Booths' daughter, Evangeline, characterized her parents this way: “Very early I saw my parents working for their people, bearing their burdens. Day and night. They did not have to say a word to me about Christianity. I saw it in action” (Hughes, Stories, p. 59). There should never be a question about the identity of those called by God, concerned about people, and committed to the power of the gospel.

II. COMMENTARY

---

Paul and the Romans: Potential Partners in the Gospel

MAIN IDEA: Paul is identified by commitment to his calling, commitment to people, and commitment to the gospel.

Paul: Called by God (1:1–6)

SUPPORTING IDEA: Truth is validated by its source.

Tony Campolo tells the story of a friend who discovered his true calling in life. He had been a college English teacher, but suddenly quit his position—to become a mailman. After hearing the man's reasons for resigning from teaching to become a mailman, Campolo tried to encourage him with the old Protestant work ethic: “Charlie, if you're going to be a mailman, then be the best mailman in the world!” To which his friend replied, “I'm a lousy mailman, Tony. I'm the last one to get back to the post office every day, and besides, I can't sleep at night.” When he asked for an explanation, here is what Campolo heard: “There are so many lonely people on my route who never had anyone visit them until I became their mailman. Have you ever tried to sleep after drinking fifteen cups of coffee in one day?” (Hughes, Stories, pp. 337–339). Tony Campolo reached an important conclusion about his friend Charlie: “He was alive with the excitement that comes to a person doing something meaningful with his life.”

There is nothing so debilitating as life without purpose. Conversely, there is nothing so energizing as life filled with purpose. A life purpose will bring focus and drive to anyone, be they Christian or non-Christian. And it does not even have to be a particularly spiritual purpose. But if a mundane purpose can empower an ordinary person, think what a divine purpose could do in the life of one who is linked to the eternal purposes of God! Outside of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the apostle Paul is perhaps the best example we have of a life transformed and empowered by living out a divinely-ordained life purpose.

1:1. The apostle Paul began his letter with an expanded introduction. Because his future mission to Spain and beyond involved the church at Rome, and because the believers there had never met Paul, he made extra efforts to validate himself in their sight. He wanted them to know, as he wanted the Galatians to know several years prior (Gal. 1:1, 10–12), that what they were about to read in his letter was not his own invention. His letter to them was part of a divine mission, and what he wrote, he wrote for God.

The common form of a letter introduction in Paul's day was “X to Y, greetings …” Paul followed this pattern with only slight variation in most of his letters, but here the “to” comes in verse 7. Paul takes six verses to identify himself and establish his credentials and mission. In fact, it can be said that Romans 1:7–16:27 is simply an explication of Romans 1:1–6. In these initial six verses Paul summarizes who he is and what he does: a servant of Christ who calls people from the nations of the world to come to faith in Christ.

“Easy for Paul to say,” we think to ourselves. “He was an apostle. He had been knocked flat on the ground after being accosted by Christ on the Damascus Road, being blinded in the process. He was smart; he was goal-oriented; he was committed; he was single without a family; he was …” and on and on. Our reasonings somehow make us think that apostles are supposed to live simply-defined lives (with the obvious implication being that it is okay if we do not!). Granted, all those things are true of Paul, but it is not those things to which we attribute the simplicity of his selfdefinition and identity. In fact, when Paul was saved by Christ, he was the same thing that the Romans are now to Paul, and that you and those you teach are now as well: potential partners in the gospel.

Remember, Paul was the enemy of Christ when he was saved, meaning he was only a potential partner in the gospel. He became a partner, a colaborer with Christ, through obedience—the same “obedience that comes from faith” (v. 5) to which he is calling the Romans and all who would read his letter, including us.

Paul was single-minded (Jas. 1:7–8) and uncluttered (Heb. 12:1–2)—characteristics which are to be found in every believer. Therefore, the potential exists for our identity to be the same as Paul's: servants of Christ committed to calling the nations of the earth to faith in Christ. If that is not our true identity now, perhaps we will be closer to it as we study Paul's great epistle to the Romans. The church has, after all, inherited the Great Commission which Christ entrusted to the original disciples (Matt. 28:18–20) and is presently under obligation (see Rom. 1:14) to fulfill it.

For all the theology and logic and reason and profundity that is rightfully attributed to the apostle Paul—and which the church commendably imitates—it must be remembered that it all served one purpose in his life: to fulfill the mission he had been given to take the gospel to the nations of the world. If there is a lesson for the church in Romans, it is that theology serves missions. If it did in the life of the greatest apostle, and the One who sent him on his mission, surely it must in our lives as well.

Three things characterized Paul: he was a servant, he was called to be an apostle, and he was set apart for the gospel. Perhaps the most radical evidence of the transforming power of the grace of God in Paul's life was what happened to his will. The transformation was subtle and therefore easy to miss—so subtle that many in the leadership of the contemporary church may have missed it. Paul was not changed from an active to a passive person; if anything, he was perhaps more active and goal-oriented after his conversion than before. The difference is that he submitted his activity to one whom he now knew personally and loved. He willingly subjected himself to the plans and purposes of a lord who was his master. He lived only to do the will of God (cf. the same perspective in the life of Christ as highlighted in John's Gospel: 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; 8:26; 9:4; 10:37–38; 12:49–50; 14:31; 15:10; 17:4).

Servant here is the familiar doulos, the word in the vernacular for “slave.” Its background is in the Old Testament provision for a servant voluntarily choosing to remain with a master after a required period of servitude was completed (Exod. 21:5–6; Deut. 15:12–17; see Ps. 40:6–8 and the NIV's rendering of “pierced” in v. 6 as a possible reference to King David's self-positioning of himself as God's bondservant). The owner pierced the ear of his voluntary servant with an awl; such a mark identified him forever as belonging to the master.

The words of a hypothetical servant to his master in Deuteronomy 15:16—"I do not want to leave you because I love you and your family and am well off with you” (author's translation)—have stunning ramifications for the one today who would call himself a servant of God. Paul surely understood the implications, but do we? Can every believer, but especially those who teach and lead as did Paul (Jas. 3:1), say with integrity that we do not want to leave? That we love God and the family of God? That we are better off with him—regardless of the trials and problems that attend us—than we would be anywhere else in the world? For how many is Christian “service” a vocation rather than a voluntary profession of loyal love?

Note also how Paul used a term (servant) that would have shocked the Gentiles in the church at Rome while appealing to his Jewish brethren. Rome was filled with slaves; some have estimated that the majority of the population was in forced servitude of one sort or the other. To be a slave in the Gentile mind was to be at the bottom of the social order. Servanthood was something to escape; freedom was a goal to attain. How arresting it must have been to the Gentile believers to learn that Paul had “given up” his freedom and willingly submitted himself to Christ Jesus, the Jewish Messiah.

Paul delivers a book-in-a-word on freedom when he calls himself a doulos of Christ. As Francis Schaeffer beautifully puts it, “Paul had [a slave's] iron band around his neck, not because it had to be there but because he held it there by the fingers of his own will” (Schaeffer, Finished Work of Christ, p. 14).

To the Jewish believers, however, being a servant of God called to mind a roll call of those used by God in the Jewish nation. Abraham (Gen. 26:24), Moses (Num. 12:7–8), David (2 Sam. 7:5, 8), Isaiah (Isa. 20:3), and the prophets (Amos 3:7) were all called the servants of the Lord in the Old Testament. ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Editorial Preface
• Holman Old Testament Contributors
• Holman New Testament Contributors
• Introduction
• Romans 1:1–17
• Romans 1:18–32
• Romans 2:1–3:20
• Romans 3:21–31
• Romans 4:1–25
• Romans 5:1–21
• Romans 6:1–23
• Romans 7:1–25
• Romans 8:1–39
• Romans 9:1–29
• Romans 9:30–10:21
• Romans 11:1–36
• Romans 12:1–21
• Romans 13:1–14
• Romans 14:1–15:13
• Romans 15:14–16:27
• Glossary
• Bibliography