The Desperate Need for Justification – 1:1-4:25
Lesson 1: Theme of salvation/justification – 1:1-17
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures,
3 concerning His Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh
4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations,
6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.
9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I mention you
10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—
12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.
14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Our study of this book begins with a statement from the Apostle Paul about the purpose of his life – to spread the good news of Jesus to all the world. Even this early in Christianity the evil one was already spreading lies so people would not understand the truth about this good news – the good news about how people could become children of God, saved from their sin, and live a life of victory in Jesus Christ. The theme of this book is found in Verses 16 and 17 – the good news (the Gospel) is the power of God for salvation, and those who want to be righteous must live this life with God by faith rather than by works.
Even in Paul’s day, just 25 to 30 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, there was already a large effort from those who did not believe in Jesus to tell people how they must also keep certain rituals and practices regarding the Law which had been given by God to Moses hundreds of years earlier. This same lie is still told today, making the message of this book just as important today as it was when Paul wrote these words at the direction of the Holy Spirit.
To understand this issue between keeping the Law and living by faith, we need to first understand the real purpose for the Law that was given by God in Exodus and Leviticus. And the best answer is found in Galatians 3:15-29 (www.bible.com/bible/59/gal.3.esv) where it says the Law was sent to be a guardian until Christ would come. The Law was given to show us what God required of us to be able to come to Him. Without the Law, we could have no idea of what God considered to be sin. Even today, we want to believe that if we just do the best we can then God will be pleased. But the Law said one single violation earned us the death penalty (Romans 6:23) and there is not a single thing we can do to overcome that penalty. Jesus then died to pay the death penalty for us, and He rose from the dead to prove to us that He had won the victory over death. Now, as we will learn in the rest of this study of Romans, Jesus says we are saved by faith (Ephesians 2:8-10) and we are to live our Christian life by faith.
*Which is more important to you today – living by faith, or living by the rules? Why?