By Steven Newell
When Paul gave thanks to God, he did it through Christ. Just as we are to go to God, in Christ’s name
for our requests, we are also to do the same with our thanks and praise (John15:16).
Paul gives thanks to God for the faith of church in Rome. This is the highest from of praise. Paul did not talk about what the church did
but what they believe. Today, we hear
that faith is not enough to please God, we have to more. This is not true faith since faith never
requires anything else. The faith of the
Romans was known through the world. Since Paul had never been to Rome,
his acknowledgment of their faith shows this to be true. Paul also has given thanks to God for the
faith of the churches in Corinth (1
Corinthians 1:4), Ephesus
(Ephesians 1:16), Colossi
(Colossians 1:3-4), and Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 1:3-4 and 2 Thessalonians
1:3). For Paul, faith is more important
than what then local churches do in terms of “good works”. Why is this? Paul’s letters to many churches, dealt with
issues and errors in the various churches. In his letter to the churches in Galatia,
Paul does not comment on their faith, but on their lack of faith by accepting
another gospel. When we focus on what a
church does, we will look at both the good and bad things that a church
does. Also, we when look at the
activities of sinful Christians and we will be disappointed when they fail to
live up to our expectations. If we look
at the faith of a church, we will see what they believe by what they preach and
teach and we can compare that to Holy Scripture. A church with bad theology can produce many
“good works” (in human terms), but a faith church will produce true good works
that will be both seen and unseen by us. Many churches will have orthodox Christian
statement of what they believe, but what they teach and preach run contrary to
those statements. Does your church’s
statement of believe provide strong biblical basis? Does your church’s preaching and teaching follow
that statement of beliefs? In my own
church body, the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, many local churches will
affirm that Book of Concord as the correct exposition of the Christian faith,
but their preaching and teaching looks more like the theology of seeker sensitive
American decision theology than that of the Reformation.
Paul states that in his prayers for the church in Rome he desire to visit them (Romans 1:10-13). This desire was for Paul to provide
spiritual blessing to the Romans while also receiving from them as well. When Christians gather around Word and
Sacrament, there is always mutual strengthen of the faith.
Paul’s obligation comes from his calling when Christ stated
that “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles …
"(Acts 9:15). In Romans 1:14-16, Greeks are those who are
Greek by ethnicity by the “civilized gentiles”. Non-Greeks are non-civilized by what was referred to as barbarians. The “wise” refers to the educated in Greek
culture while the “foolish” are the uneducated. Since Rome is the center of
the Roman world, there will be all types of Gentiles to whom the Gospel can be
proclaimed.
Paul is not ashamed of the Gospel. Paul knows that many Gentiles ridicule the
Gospel. At Mars Hill in Athens,
Paul proclaims the Gospel to Greek philosophers. Some called him a “babbler” which is a
derogatory statement for the Greek. Paul
is ashamed of the Gospel because he knows the power of the Gospel first hand. Even today, the “new atheist” and the elite
class in our society consider Christians
to be uneducated and Christianity something to ridicule. What is our response? For Paul, he continued to proclaim Christ
crucified for sins (1 Corinthians1:22-23). Do we continue to proclaim the Gospel?
Paul now defines what the Gospel is as being the power of
God for salvation to all who believes in verses 16 and 17. The Gospel is what God did and does for us and not
what we do since we have no part of our own salvation. While is this not a detailed definition, it
does begin Paul’s explanation of Gospel in the following parts of Roman. Paul also makes that statement that it is belief,
or faith, that we need to receive that God has done. Again, Paul will farther explain what he
means by this. Paul introduces the
teaching that true righteousness is foreign to us, but it comes from God.
Finally, Paul ties to righteousness to faith (Romans 1:17). If righteousness comes from God and we are to have faith to receive the
Gospel, then faith also must come from God, since an unrighteous person cannot
live by faith. This is the only way that
could Paul quote Habakkuk 2:4. Later in his life, Paul will
write to the church in Ephesus, reminding them that our salvation is by God’s grace and our faith is also a
gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Paul
will explain how faith and righteousness are tied together a little later in
Romans.
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