Grace and Apostleship

Romans 1:1-7

1. Read vs. 1. How does Paul introduce himself? (1) What is his relationship with Christ? What is implied in saying that he is a servant? How did he become a servant of Christ? (Ac 9:1-19)

2. Read vs. 2-4. How was the gospel originated and revealed to us? What is the main content of the gospel? How do we know that Jesus is the promised Messiah?

3. Read vs. 5-7. How did Paul describe his life? What does it mean by “grace”? What does he do as an apostle? How does he describe the believers?

Grace and Apostleship

Romans 1:1-7

Key verse 1:5

Good morning. 2020 was a special year because of COVID 19. 2021 will be another special year because we are going to study the book of Romans. Romans was written by apostle Paul, around AD 57. He planned to visit Rome many times to preach the gospel. But somehow he was prevented from doing so. And then one day he heard that a church was established in Rome. He was so happy to hear the works of God in Rome. In order to strengthen their faith, he wrote this book. The main theme of the Romans is that people are justified by faith and the righteous will live by faith. The main word of the Romans is the gospel. The gospel is the answer to all in Christian life. Throughout history, many people such as Martin Luther, Augustine, John Wesley, and Calvin met Jesus while they read Romans. Romans has changed people, society, and nations. In the middle of coronavirus, I would like to reconfirm our faith through Romans. Especially I pray we all may understand about the gospel very clearly. Also the gospel we already know does not stay on our head but come here (heart) to change our heart, our character, and our life.

  1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus

How did Paul introduce himself? Let’s read verse 1? “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God” He has two names: one is a servant of God and the other is an apostle.

First, a servant of Jesus. NIV says “a servant” but in the original Greek NT (Doulos), it says “a slave”. In modern world, we are very careful to use a word “slave”. That is why NIV says “a servant”, but as I said, the real meaning is “a slave”. Here the Greek word, a slave refers “a bondage slave”. What is a bondage slave? It comes from Exodus 21. The chapter talks about a Hebrew slave. There was a man and he became a slave. We do not know how he ended up being a slave. He might get a big loan from bank for his business, but because of the pandemic he had to close his business. He could not pay for his debt. He had only two options: go to jail or be a slave. When he was sold as a slave, how anger, sorrow, and bitterness he might have. But his master turned out very nice. His master treated him fairly, he even found a wife for the slave and gave the slave a house. On the seventh year, according to the law, he could go free. But he said “I love my master, I do not want to go free”. Then he became a bondage servant to serve his master for life. I am not sure if anybody actually did.

Who wants to be a bondage slave? Probably no one. But surprisingly Paul said I am a bondage servant of Christ Jesus. He volunteered to become a slave of Jesus. It is amazing how he wanted to serve Jesus for life. He was not from slave family. Before he met Jesus, he was the Pharisees, the lawyer. He was a free Roman citizen. He was a student of Gamaliel. Gamaliel was the best scholar at that time. He had a bright future. He also worked as a special task team member who found and arrested Christians into prison. But when he was on the way to Damascus to arrest Christians, Jesus appeared to him, saying “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”(Acts 9:4). Paul realized he singed against God. He deserved to be revenged by Jesus, but Jesus forgave him from his sins and even called him as his chosen instrument. Acts 9:15 say “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.” Since then, out of thankfulness, he worked hard for his master Jesus. The more he worked for Jesus, the more he knew who Jesus was. He wanted to know about more him. He confessed in Philippians 3:8 says “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ “

Like Paul, in the bible, many people were willing to be servant of God when they tasted the goodness of God. For example, king David said in Psalm 84, “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked” David wanted to be even a doorkeeper as long as he could stay in the house of God. He praised God that God appointed him as king over Israel. While he was running away from king Saul, God was with him and protected him from his enemies. When he committed adultery, God sent the prophet to rebuke his sins. When David thought about God’s mercy upon him, he wanted to serve God even as a doorkeeper in the house of God.

In a famous novel,  Les Misérables, Jean Valjean stole some bread that he was sentenced 5 years prison. He thought it was unfair. He tried to escape the prison but failed that he spent 19 years in prison. He was full of anger, bitterness, and curse against people and God. When he was released from the prison, he happened to stay at one priest’s house one night. But he stole silver spoon and forks and ran away. However, he was arrested by police and when the police came to the priest to confirm his stealing, the priest told him, “I gave him them as a gift. He even said, “Jean, you forgot to take sliver stand”. Jean was so touched by him and from that moment, he decided to live a good Christian life.

When I think about what Jesus had done to me, I cannot but confess he is my Lord and my master. In spite of my sins, my weaknesses, my shortcomings, he has been faithful to me. Even when I could not decide whether I should obey and come to DE or not, he was patient and kept speaking me through his challenging and encouraging words. Finally, he helped me to come to DE. Compare to what he has done to me, my sacrifice is nothing. I am just thankful that Jesus saved me from my sins and has been so good to me. I am so lucky to have Jesus as my Lord and my master.

Second, an apostle. In verse 1, Paul introduced himself as an apostle. Apostle means the sent one for the gospel. Paul never planned to be an apostle in his life. Rather, he tried to destroy the gospel. But Jesus called him and set him apart for the gospel. Like him, today, we are also called to be God’s people. Jesus in John 15:16 said “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last”. God chose each of us according to his plan. Tia, when you came to America, did you plan to become a Christian? Probably not. John, when you were born, did you plan to be born in Christian parents? No, by God’s calling, we became his people and we are here today to worship God together.

  • What is the gospel?

After introducing himself, from verses 1-6, Paul briefly mentioned what the gospel is. He will explain the gospel in detail from verse 8 through chapter 16. What is the gospel?

First, the gospel was invented from God. Let’s read verse 1 and 2. “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God. the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures”. In verse 1, Paul said “the gospel of God”. This means the gospel was not a made up story by him or church. But it came from God. In the OT, God promised people the gospel through his prophets. Beginning from Genesis 3, all the way to Malachi, the last book in the OT, everywhere the prophets talked about the gospel. In Genesis 3, when Adam ate forbidden fruits, God had to punish Adam but at the same time, he promised to send the offspring of the woman to crush the head of the Satan. Moses told Israel that “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him”.(Due 18:15). Isaiah said “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.(Isaiah 7:14). Micah 2:5  “It says out of you will come for me, one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” It was God who put an idea, processed, and completed the gospel.

Second, the gospel is about God’s son, Jesus. Let’s read verse 3 and 4. “regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life[a] was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in powerby his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.“ Jesus came as a descendant of David. In the OT, God promised David that he would raise up David’s offspring and establish his kingdom and his throne shall be established for ever” (1 Chronicles 17). Joseph and Mary, Jesus’ earthly parents, were line of King David. Also, as a human, Jesus came to understand us and eventually offered his life for our sins. Since Jesus dwelt among people, he himself went through all difficulties, hardships, and temptations. In his earthly life, he symphonized with our shortcomings and our weaknesses. Lastly he offered his life to pay for our sins on the cross.

Jesus also proved he is the son of God in power by the resurrection. In human history, only Jesus rose from the dead. Through this, he confirmed that he is not just a human but the son of God. What does his resurrection mean to us? Bible says “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Cor 15:20). As Jesus defeated the power of death, in him, we will also defeat the power of death. While we live in this world, we can live a victorious life and when we die physically, God will take us into his kingdom and live with our Lord Jesus forever!

Third, through the gospel we receive grace and apostleship. Let us read verse 5. “Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes fromfaith for his name’s sake” What is grace? It is God’s forgiveness to our sins. The bible says we were originally the objects of God’s wrath. It also says “no one is righteous before God, not even one”. We were supposed to receive his judgement. However, as Jesus payed for our sins, we freely received God’s forgiveness. God also adopted us his own children that we could call him “Abba, Father”. In addition, we received apostleship from him too. What is apostleship? It is the office (the work) of apostle. We are not an apostle (I mean in terms of title in church), but we received apostleship from Jesus: doing the same work as apostle does: serve Jesus and work for the gospel. Especially, call the Gentile to obey God by faith for his name’s sake.

Paul himself received grace and apostleship through Jesus. As we know, Paul persecuted Christians. Yet, Jesus freely forgave him from his sins and gave him a mission to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. In the NT, whenever he had a chance, he mentioned how Jesus called him and gave him a mission. He said in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them-yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” He was so thankful that not only Jesus forgave his sins but also gave him a work of sharing the gospel to the Gentiles. He worked harder than all other peoples, yet he did not have any self-righteousness but he confessed it was only the grace of God, he could serve Jesus and work for the gospel.

In the Bible, Peter received God’s grace and apostleship too. As we learned in the book of Mark, he swore to Jesus, “even if all fall away, I will not”. But when Jesus was arrested, he disowned Jesus three times. Later even though he heard Jesus rose from the dead, he could not come to Jesus. Then, in John 21, Jesus visited him first. At the seashore, Jesus knew Peter was hungry that he made a fire to warm Peter and prepared for fish and bread for him. Jesus asked him three times, ‘Simon, do you love me?”. Jesus showed his unchanging love to Peter. Then he asked Peter, “feed my sheep”. Peter was so thankful that Jesus forgave him and gave him a mission. We know he was faithful to feed God’s sheep until he was martyred later in Rome.

William Wilberforce received grace and apostleship also. In 18 and 19 century, England made billions of money through slave trading business. A famous man, “John Newton”, a writer of “Amazing grace” worked as a slave trade businessman during this time. There was a young man named William Wilberforce. He was an ambitious congressman, but he was slave to sins. However, by the grace of God, he was forgiven from his sins. He was so thankful that he wanted to be a pastor. But some people including John Newton persuaded him to remain at congress as a politician and to find God’s calling in his career. While he prayed and read the Bible, he was convicted that God called him to stop the slave trade business in England. On 28 October 1787, he wrote in his diary: “God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.” Starting from that year until 1807, he worked hard in congress to abolish slave business. Whenever many people opposed him and threatened him, he clang to God more in his prayer. Finally, in 1807, the England congress passed Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. God used him to save thousands of thousands of slaves.

Ruth used to be like an invalid man for 38 years in the Bible (John 5). When she was young, she saw tombs. She asked her mom, what is that? Her mom told it is a grave, a place where people are buried after they die. From that moment, she lost a meaning of life. No matter how I work hard, I will end up going to tomb. Why should I work hard? Eventually I will die with empty handed. She became like an invalid man for long years. But God was gracious to her. A friend of hers invited her to a bible study. During studying the Bible, Jesus visited her. Luke 5:10 says “Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” Through Jesus, she received God’s forgiveness. She found a meaning in her life. She received apostleship. Since then, God has used her as a good fisher of man in Korea, Maryland, and now DE.

Jesus says in Matthew 11. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Serving Jesus, working for the gospel, taking the cross of Jesus is not a burden but a blessing and God’s wisdom for us. Because Jesus is with us, we learn from him and he gives us rest for our souls. When we do not serve God, anyway, we have to serve something else (like a boss, money, and so on). But it causes us weary and burdened when we serve something else other than Jesus. So apostleship is not a burden. It is another God’s grace for us.

I thank God for this verse 5. Working on SWS message and fishing have been a big burden and stress to me since I moved to DE. But I can see now, it is God’s grace given to me. What might I do if I were in College Park right now? I might complain the snow because I cannot play tennis or worry about my retirement plan? In spite of my early 50s age, God is doing a new thing in my life. Who am I that I share the good news to my son’s age college students? Who am I that I pray for University of Delaware? It is all by the grace of God. Recently I was kind of disappointed and I had lots of grumbling spirit. I repented it. I want to resume my fishing on campus again. But I need a fishing partner. I pray God may send me a fishing partner that I can go out campus to share the gospel.

Fourth, through the gospel, we belong to Jesus. Can we read verse 6? “And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. Paul said we belong to Jesus Christ. We used to belong to sins. The sins harmed us and separated us from God. But Jesus purchased us with his own blood. Now we are his. We do not belong to sins any more. We do not belong to this world any longer. Though we live in this world, we belong to Jesus. He is a good shepherd. He makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us beside quiet waters. What a safety and security under his wings! We should be proud that we belong to Jesus!

As a conclusion, thank God for blessing us to start the book of Romans. We praise God who sent us the gospel Jesus. Through him, we received grace and apostleship. Through him, we can serve God and work for the gospel. I pray God may bless each of us to know the gospel deeply through the book of Romans.