We Are All Responders

Romans 1:6

“…among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;”

Paul is describing the position of the fellow believers in Rome.

“among whom” Whom refers to the nations. It is plural, all nations.

“called” klaytos. It means “to call or to bid”. It is a title. The called or invited ones.
This is important. Every single believer is a Called Believer.

“of Jesus Christ” This is in the genitive case which shows possession or ownership. Jesus Christ is the one who possesses us, who gives us the title, Called.

Cool note: The word ekklaysia comes from this word klaytos. The prefix ek means “out of”. This word is translated “church” because the church is a gathering of those called out of the world. Isn’t it sad to see many churches today trying to be so like the world? Their message is, “Hey, we will fit into the world, you don’t have to come out, we will come in.”

John 10:27 says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
This is Jesus talking, to the Jews who surrounded Him at the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem. Notice how He says that His sheep follow Him. They have responded to His calling. It is all about our response to Jesus.

John 6:44 says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” The Father not only calls, but also draws us to Himself.

This all comes into sharp focus for me in John 1:9, which says, “That was the True Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.”

This is an amazing verse that I have overlooked (or not fully understood) many times. Notice the exactness of this phrasing. It is powerful, and in Greek it is even more distinct. The true Light (Christ) enlightens EVERY MAN (neuter, meaning mankind) coming into the world!!! This is revolutionary!!! God reveals Himself to EVERY person that is born. Everyone in this world is exposed to THE TRUTH. It is not a matter of some people not realizing that there is a God, God has revealed Himself to everyone. The question is, how we respond to the light; to God’s revelation of Himself. This is so huge!! There are only two responses to God. One, we stiffen our backs and raise our fists at God, refusing to bow to His authority or even acknowledge Him. Or two, we bend our knee and bow our heads to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, acknowledging His right to rule in our life.


The awesome thing here is that God has revealed Himself to everyone, but not everyone responds with submission to Him. Some respond in rebellion and denial. The focus here is on our response to Him, The True Light.





How have you responded to His light?

Ears to Hear, Feet to Follow

Romans 1:5

Packed inside the tiny verse Romans 1:4, we saw the powerful doctrine of Jesus Christ; both His humanity and His deity. Now, in verse 5, Paul turns our attention to the provision of Jesus Christ. The verse starts with the preposition dia (when used with the genitive pronoun, “whom” referring back to Jesus Christ in verse 4), means “through”. It is through the provision and power of Jesus Christ that the following provisions are made to the believers Paul is writing to.
“Through Jesus Christ we received”. “Received” is a first person, plural, 2nd aorist, active, indicative. Let’s break it down:
1st person plural – we/us meaning inclusively, followers of Jesus Christ.
2nd aorist – tells of a single action that took place in the past
active – tells that the subject is doing the action (receiving). It is us being receptive.
indicative – tells that the verb is expressing a fact. Truth. Not a possibility or probability. Not a wish or desire, but actuality.
The important thing is that we received it; we did not take it, or earn it, or deserve it. We received this thing from the Lord. So what exactly did we receive?

Grace and apostleship. They are both in the accusative case, meaning they are the direct object of received. Grace - God’s grace did it all!! (see 1 Cor. 15:10 and Gal. 2:9). Apostleship – the word stello means “to arrange, set in order, to prepare” with the prefix appo, which is a preposition of separation, translated “from”. Put together, the meaning is “to order on to depart, to send away”.

Then the prepositional phrase that is translated “for obedience of faith”, when used with the accusative, shows purpose. These things (grace and apostleship) were received for the purpose of, or to bring about ….

Obedience. Love this word!! Hupakoane comes from akouoh which means, “to hear” and the preposition hupo, which means “under”. The word literally means to “put your hearing under”. Put your hearing under the persuasion of God. I love that!! It reminds me of Romans 12 where it talks about the renewing of your mind. This deliberate putting your hearing under the influence of God’s Truth and the Holy Spirit’s persuasion.

Of faith. This word is in the genitive case showing the origin. The origin of obedience is faith. Pistis means” to persuade”. God has persuaded us to put our hearing under His influence. He remakes us from the inside out. Spiritual, mental, and emotional regeneration (done by Him/His provision) which will be manifest in the physical realm as well.

Bury my hearing in the heartbeat of Jesus, to be propelled into motion by the Spirit of God, for the glory of the Father!!!

Powerful Pedigree

Romans 1:4

In the structure of verse four, all is built on the subject of verse 3 - the Son. Paul is unpacking the pedigree of the Son here. “The One having been declared, Son of God”. The claim, having been declared is an interesting phrase.

The actual word horisthentos (“having been declared”) is an aorist passive participle. A participle is a verbal adjective. It expresses the action of the subject in the sentence. Since it acts as a verb is has tense (aorist) and voice (passive). Aorist voice means that the action was completed in the past, and passive means that the declaring was done to Him not by Him. It comes from the words horidzo, which means "to declare, to ordain, or to appoint"; and the word horio means, "a limit or border". This is where we get our word horizon. It is a clear and defined boundary; a line of demarcation. It has been marked out precisely by God. The implication is that God is the one declaring (before this point in time) "this is My Son!". This man Jesus Christ is the Son of God, The One. How's that for authority!!!


Again, Paul uses three prepositional phrases to give clarity and definition to The One.
First, ”in power, strength, and ability”. Dunamae is the word we get dynamite from.

Secondly, “according to the Spirit of holiness”. This is a carryover from the Jewish phrase Ruach Ha Kodesh, which means the spirit of The Holy, obviously, the Holy Spirit. It emphasizes the sanctifying work of the Spirit and carries an implied meaning, “to blow clean”. That’s cool!!

Thirdly, “out of resurrection of dead”. This part of the prepositional phrase (the resurrection) proves His claim to be God. See John 2:18-19 and John 10:18. “The dead” is plural. The literal translation is “out of the dead ones”. Paul says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 15:20-22. “…Him being the first fruits of those made alive…” To the Jewish mind, a dead Messiah is not a Messiah at all. Duh!

Deuteronomy 21:23 says that the one who is crucified is cursed by God. Jesus took in His body, our sins, causing Him to be cursed by God. In Acts 9:1-6; Paul is face to face with the resurrected Lord. Paul is eyewitness to the fact that the crucified Jesus conquered death and rose again. The resurrection PROVED the claims of His Messiahship!!

The next phrase “Jesus Christ, the Lord of us”, concerns the identity of the Son.
What Paul has told us so far is that Jesus Christ is:
(1) the one out of the seed of David,
(2) according to the flesh,
(3) declared the Son of God,
(4) in power,
(5) according to the Spirit.

So…the first out of the resurrection of the dead ones is………………………………… Jesus!!!
Jesus (Yeshua) is His name. This highlights his humanity. We are all given a name; this is a basic element of our humanity. As humans, we live in community, and we have nominal designations.
Christ is His title. He is the anointed One.
Lord. This delineates His exalted position. He is the Sovereign ruler.

In this one small phrase, Paul packs the powerful doctrine of Jesus Christ. He verifies both His humanity and His deity. Such a POWERFUL passage!!!

Human Perfection

This verse is all explanation of the deponent verb in verse 2, “he promised before”. It starts with the preposition peri (sorry, I don’t have Greek fonts), which, when used with the genitive, means "circling something". It is usually translated “concerning” or” about”. The point is that the center of the gospel is the Son! He is the core. The center point!

In case his readers are still unclear on whom the Son is, Paul further identifies Him by using two prepositional phrases.
1. “Out of the seed of David”. Ek is the preposition used with the genitive, which delineates the source of something. It is translated “from out of”. Paul is drawing our attention to His humanity, identifying Jesus as the one fulfilling the Davidic Covenant. (See 2 Sam. 7:12-13, Psalm 89:3-4, Isaiah 11:1-5, Jer. 23:5-6, Matt. 1:1, Rev. 22:16).
2. “According to the flesh”. This is the category in which all of this (the gospel) took place. The gospel was accomplished IN Christ’s humanity. 1 John 4:2-3. The good news was accomplished in the humanity of Jesus.

We had the whole history of God's chosen people, Israel, to show us that we cannot keep the law! We are forever seperated from God and slaves to sin. Yet Jesus, the Messiah, the perfect man could Himself make attonement for us. It was planned this way, by God, before the foundations of the world.

C.S. Lewis says in his book, What Christians Believe, "...Here’s the catch. Only a bad person needs to repent. Only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are, the more you need it, and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly, would be a perfect person, and he would not need it…But the same badness that makes us need it (repentance/restoration) makes us unable to do it. Can we do it if God helps us? Yes. But what do we mean when we talk of God helping us? We mean God putting into us a bit of Himself-so to speak. He lends us a little of His reasoning powers, and that is how we think. He puts a little of His love into us, and that is how we love one another. We love and reason because God loves and reasons and holds our hand while we do it. Now if we had not fallen that would be all plain sailing; but unfortunately, we now need God’s help in order to do something in which God, in His own nature, never does at all. To surrender. To suffer. To submit. To die. Nothing in God’s nature corresponds to this process at all. So that the one road for which we now need God’s leadership most of all, is a road God, in His own nature, has never walked. God can only share what He has. This thing in His own nature, He has not. But supposing God became a man. Suppose our human nature - which can suffer and die - was amalgamated with God’s nature, in one person. Then that person could help us. He could surrender His will and suffer and die because He was a man. And He could do it perfectly because He was God. You and I can only go through this process if God does it in us. But God can do it only if He becomes a man. Our attempts at this dying will succeed only if we men share in His dying; just as our thinking can succeed only because it is a drop out of the ocean of His intelligence. But we cannot share God’s dying unless God dies. And He cannot die except by being a man. That is the sense in which He pays our debt; and suffers for us, what he himself, need not suffer at all.”

The Messiah Jesus, the seed of David came in 100% humanity, took on our sins, died, and rose again! I LOVE Easter!!!!

Old Promises - Romans 1:2

Verse 2 starts with a relative pronoun linking back to the phrase, “the gospel”. Paul says, “Hey folks, this gospel is not new”. It was promised before. The Jews had a saying: “If it’s true, it’s not new.”

The Greek word translated “he promised before” is a compound word. The prefix means before and is attached to the word meaning to promise or announce. This is the same promise that the Jews trace back to Abraham. God gave Abraham a promise that was not conditional or dependant. It was a flat-out promise. He said, “I will make you the father of many nations; and through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed”. All Abraham had to do was believe what God said. Everything that God says is a promise. God cannot lie and He is more than capable of doing whatever He says He will do. The gospel is not dependant on us. It is God’s promise, and He will do it. And it is not a new promise. The gospel is not a new message. It was promised long ago. It was God's preordained plan!!

It is interesting that faith is always connected to promise. Faith is believing that what God promises will come to pass; His words are Truth. Faith is believing that God can and will do it. Notice how there is no claiming, or doing, or being, or acting. The gospel is something that God has promised. We believe in faith, that He will do what he promised.

Paul is setting up to show his readers that this is not a new gospel. He uses two prepositional phrases, (1) "through the prophets", and (2) "in Holy writings". Paul will go on to quote the Old Testament 61 times in this letter. He is careful to lie out for his readers throughout the letter that this IS the same gospel, the same God, the same Messiah prophesied.

We don't have to get all wrapped around the axle over the Old Covenant, New Covenant debate. Paul shows us here that God is so much bigger than that. He didn't revise His plan. This IS His original plan. I love resting in the fact that nothing can thawart God.

Called apostle, God's gospel

Paul’s second credential for ministry is that he is a called apostle. “Called” actually modifies apostle. It tells us what kind of apostle he is. He did not volunteer or apply for the job. He was not recommended and voted in. God chose him.

The word apostle means “one sent forth with orders”. So not only does he belong to Christ and act in a capacity of slave for His master, he was also chosen by God as a special messenger.

Thirdly, Paul points out his consecration in regards to his position in ministry. The word translated “having been separated”, means to mark off from others by boundaries. It is in the passive voice, meaning the action was done to him. He was separated out by God. Paul was actually separated out three times. Once, he says he was separated from his mother’s womb. The second time was at his conversion (Acts 9:15), and the third time was when he was set apart by the Holy Spirit for ministry (Acts 13:2).

The next prepositional phrase is really interesting: “To the gospel God”. The Greek word sometimes translated “for” here, means to or towards. He was not separated from something, but to something.

It’s a little funny to me that the Aramaic word perishim is the word for Pharisee. Which literally means “separated one, legally”. The Pharisees were separated to the law and for the law. They served the law. Paul is clearly contrasting himself from them in this passage by saying in essence, “They are separated by the law, I am separated for the gospel!”

God is in the genitive case showing possession. God is the source and origin of the gospel. It is God’s gospel. He is the source of the gospel.

The word translated “gospel” is used in Paul’s writings 60 times. The word actually originated in Greek society, for an official government announcement made by town criers, usually to announce a victory. The word picture here is beautiful. Paul is crying in the town square, “The war is over!! Jesus has won!!!” That is the good news. That is the gospel. God is the source of it. Jesus has accomplished it. Amen

Doulos

I can't express how much I missed studying Greek. More accurately, studying God's word as written in the original language in the context of culture, time, and audience. We finished first year Greek and then took a break. Our class has started up again, now going though the book of Romans. I cannot tell you how affirming the Holy Spirit within me has been at the hearing of His Truth being poured into my life.

So, I am going to share with you what I am learning. This is my digestion, and sometimes straight regurgitation, of what I am learning. It is not MY teaching. But as far as I am able to determine and with the affirmation of the Spirit it is accurate and sound.

Romans 1:1-7. This passage is all one sentence in Greek. It's like Paul is talking as fast as he can to get this all in in one breath. He is addressing a congregation of believers that he has not personally visited-yet. He wants to establish his position in ministry. This is the ground he has to stand on. So naturally, he starts by stating his capacity for ministry. in verse 1.

The first thing he tells us about himself is that he is a slave. The word slave is in the genitive, showing possession or ownership. Paul says that he is owned my Christ Jesus. In Greco-Roman society, a slave is the most reprehensible member of society-an outcast, really. A slave was purchased property, owned and managed by someone else. In modern America we have a little different view of slavery than they had in Paul's day. For starters, our society is generations removed from slavery. Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating slavery at all! As far as one person owning another person is concerned, it is heinous. But I believe it is quite another matter when talking about the Creator of the Universe owning His created beings. I didn't make my fellow man, therefore, I have no claim of ownership or authority over them; even my children. I birthed them, but Psalm 139 tells us unequivocally that it was God who formed my children in my womb.

Anyway, back to Paul's day. Slavery was common practice; sadly, a thriving trade. According to the Mosaic law, you could own a slave for six years. On the seventh year the slave had earned his freedom, or in some cases, had the right to buy his freedom. However, if that slave desired, he could stay and serve his master for the rest of his life. The only motivation for this act was pure love and devotion-admiration and respect. If that were the case, the slave would give up his freedom voluntarily for the service of his master. Can you imagine the level of love and respect that would merit? From then on, he belonged to his master. His identity was his master's. He lived to the service of his master and his household. His master's needs were now his needs. His master's desires were now his desires. He would be taken to a doorpost, an awl would pierce through his earlobe, and a gold ring was placed in the hole.

The word picture to the ancient Roman was powerful!! Paul was calling himself something detestable. A slave. He renounced his own life to become property of Christ Jesus. He lived to do the bidding of Christ-exclusively. He worked only on Christ's projects. He went only on Christ's errands. He sought only the pleasure of Christ. He spoke only Christ's words.

Paul is supposed to be unpacking his credentials here; gaining respect so that the Romans would continue reading. The first thing he says is, "Hey folks, the most important thing for you to know about me is that I am a slave, owned by my master Christ Jesus. I have been purchased from the slave market of sin. Christ Jesus owns me and it is my deep pleasure to serve Him out of love. My life is not my own."

Paul is essentially saying I have died to my self and live for Christ. This is the perfect beginning to hear the words of Christ. Through the mouth of a man who is dead to self, living only as a mouthpiece of God. He is about to speak words and Truth that were not of his own design, but Christ Jesus'. Being a slave to Christ. Paul sets a supreme example here. Have I died to myself? Do I put Christ's preferences above my own? Am I pleased to be despised by the world? Is it ok with me to be seen as the lowest of low-barely human, because of my love for the Lord? Does my service flow from true adoration for Christ?

Paul's capacity for ministry is that he ONLY speaks for Christ, acts for Christ, lives for Christ, and loves with Christ's love. He is Christ's trusted slave.