A Study by Scott Sperling   Romans 1:1-7 -  Greeting to the Romans   1  Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2  the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3  regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4  and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5  Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. 6   And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.   7  To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:    Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.   Paul begins his letter to the Roman church with an introduction, typical of the format of letters of that time.  He introduces himself as the writer of the letter: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus”; he then states his qualifications to write what he is about to write:  “…called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God”.  At this point, at the mention of the “gospel of God”, Paul abandons for the moment the typical letter format and, overflowing with the spirit of apostleship, cannot help but to expand on the term “the gospel of God”:  “…the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord” (vss. 2-4).  Mention of the “gospel of God” spurred Paul to include a parenthetical aside concerning it.  Paul, as we shall see in this Epistle, always went with the inspirational flow.  If a word or phrase spurred tangential thoughts, he spilled them as they came to him, without great regard for grammatical niceties.  It is one thing that makes Paul’s letters natural-sounding.  They lend credibility that they are actually letters, dictated live by Paul, without too much editing.  “It is an obvious peculiarity of this apostle’s style, that he abounds in what are commonly called parenthesis.  His mind was so glowing and so full of ideas, that the expression of a single word often calls forth, as it were, a burst of thought respecting the import of that word, which hinders him from advancing in the sentence that he had begun, until he has given vent to the feelings thus incidentally occasioned” [Stuart, 34]. Yet, despite the parenthetical asides, Paul’s Epistles, and especially the book of Romans, are masterpieces of organized and systematic presentation of Christian doctrine.  Even the parenthetical asides serve to strengthen the thoughts and ideas presented in the rest of the book.  For instance here, as Paul mentions that the “gospel of God” was “promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son” – he is presenting and foreshadowing one of the themes of the book of Romans, that the idea of salvation by faith and through God’s grace (the heart of the “gospel of God”), is not a new idea, but was existent in the Old Testament, and indeed, “promised beforehand through [God’s] prophets”.  Later in the Epistle, Paul will point out that Abraham was declared righteous, not by his own works, but by faith (see Rom. 4:1-4).  Paul will also teach us that David spoke the good news, the “gospel of God”, when he described the “blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works” (Rom. 4:6).  “This pre-announcement of the gospel is made in the Messianic promises, prophecies, and types of the Old Testament. Paul finds all of the cardinal doctrines of the New Testament, germinally, in the Old, and continually cites the Old Testament in proof of the truths and facts of Christianity” [Shedd, 7- 8].  “As the suspicion of being new subtracts much from the authority of a doctrine, he confirms the faith of the gospel by antiquity; as though he said, ‘Christ came not on the earth unexpectedly, nor did he introduce a doctrine of a new kind and not heard of before, inasmuch as he, and his gospel too, had been promised and expected from the beginning of the world.’” [Calvin, 2].  “The second verse teaches that the gospel is no abrupt innovation or afterthought, but the forethought of God, the fulfilment of His promise, and ‘the desire of all nations.’  This harmony of the New and Old Dispensations should be a convincing proof of the Divine origin of Christianity, not only to the Jews, who already believe in the Old Testament, and need only be convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was really the promised Messiah, but also to the Gentiles, who well know that it is the exclusive prerogative of God to foresee and prearrange the future.  In this view, Christianity is the oldest as well as the latest religion, going back to the first promise in Paradise, and even beyond the beginning of time, to the eternal counsel of God.” [Schaff, in Lange’s, 59-60]. Specifically, the gospel is “promised beforehand through his prophets”, in these ways:   “By Moses, as the woman’s seed, Gen. 3:15; Abraham’s seed, Gen. 22:18; Shiloh, 49:10; the prophet like unto Moses, Deut. 18:15; By David, as his Son, Ps. 132:11; his Lord, Ps. 110:1; the Anointed, Ps. 2:2; Ps. 84:9; the Priest-King, 110:1; the Pierced One, 22:16; By Isaiah, as the Virgin’s Son, Isa. 7:14; Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, 9:6; Rod out of the stem of Jesse, 11:1; Man of sorrows, 53:3; wounded and bruised Surety, 53:5, 10-12; God’s righteous servant, 42:1; 52:13 ; 53:11; By Jeremiah, as the Righteous Branch, 23:5; the Lord our Righteousness, 23:6; By Ezekiel, as the true David, the Shepherd-King, Ezek. 37:24; By Daniel, as Messiah the Prince, Dan. 9:25-26; By Micah, as the Judge of Israel, Mic. 5:2; By Haggai, as the Desire of all nations, Hag. 2:7; By Zechariah, as the Pierced One, Zech. 12:10; the Man who was Jehovah’s Shepherd and Fellow, 13:7; By Malachi, as the Messenger of the Covenant, Mal. 3:1; the Sun of Righteousness, 4:3; The prophets had foretold concerning the Messiah,—His divine and human nature, Isa. 9:6; His descent, Gen. 3:15; 12:3; 49:10; Isa. 11:1; I Sam. 16:11; the time of His appearing, Gen. 49:10; Dan. 9:24-25; Hag. 2:6, 9; the place of His birth, Mic. 5:2; the virginity of His mother, Isa. 7:14; the forerunner who should prepare His way, Mal. 3:1; the special scene of His ministry, Isa. 9:1-2; the miracles that should accredit His mission, Isa. 35:5-6; His sufferings and death, Ps. 22:16ff; Zech. 13:7; Isa. 53:2ff; His resurrection, Ps. 16:10; His ascension into heaven, Ps. 68:18; His sitting down at the right hand of the Father, Ps. 110:1; His effusion of the Holy Ghost, Joel 2:28; His second coming in judgment, Dan. 7:13… The Jews who received the Old Testament were properly the first to receive the gospel” [Robinson, 13, 14].   “Let us accustom ourselves to search the whole Scriptures,—of the Old Testament and of the New,—as bearing a united and harmonious testimony to Christ.  The Old should be read in the light of the New; and the New as the interpreter of the Old” [Wardlaw, 70]. Next, as part of his aside concerning the “gospel of God”, Paul writes of the nature of Christ, and of Christ as the center of the gospel:  “…regarding his Son, who as to His human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead:  Jesus Christ our Lord” (vss. 3-4).  Again, Paul is foreshadowing themes that he will later expand on in the book of Romans.  He speaks here of the humanity (“…as to His human nature was a descendant of David…”), and divinity (“…was declared with power to be the Son of God…”) of Jesus.  In the book of Romans, we learn of the importance of both the humanity and divinity of Christ.  In chapter five, we learn that Jesus was every bit as human as Adam, yet was without sin, so that because of Christ’s humanity and sinlessness, he is able to reverse the effects of the sin that Adam brought into the world.  In chapter eight, we learn that because Jesus is God’s son, we also may be co-heirs with Christ, and may, through Christ’s intercession, be glorified with him.  And so we see, the “gospel of God” is centered around the humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ:  we are saved because of his humanity; we will be glorified because of his divinity.  Jesus’s humanity was derived through his being “a descendant of David.”  He was conceived miraculously, but born in a normal, human way to Mary, who is shown to be a “descendant of David” in Luke’s genealogy (see Luke 3:23-38).  As to Jesus’s divinity, Paul tells us he was “declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead.”  During his ministry, Jesus made both the claim of being divine, and the claim of being the “Son of God”.  He said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).  His hearers took this statement as a claim to divinity, for some of them picked up stones to stone him with (see John 10:31).  At another time, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say I am?”  Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus commended Peter, saying that Peter’s answer came directly from God:  “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven” (see Matthew 16:15-17).  Now, it is one thing to make claims of divinity; it is quite another to prove divinity.  For Jesus, this proof came by his resurrection from the dead.  Numerous times, Jesus predicted his own death, yet every time he predicted his death, he also predicted his resurrection.  In doing so, Jesus set up his resurrection as proof that his claims made during his ministry concerning his divine nature were true.  In this way, Jesus was “declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.”  “Had Jesus not risen from the dead, he would be remembered today only as a Jewish moralist who had some inflated ideas about his own relationship to God” [Mounce, 41].  “Had Jesus continued under the power of death, all his claims and all his doctrines would have been falsified. His grave would have been that of a mere man, branded with the memorial of a false prophet, a false witness of God, the falsest and the guiltiest that ever had arisen” [Wardlaw, 65].   “Jesus Christ had declared Himself to be the Son of God; and on this account the Jews charged Him with blasphemy, and asserted that He was a deceiver. By His resurrection, the clear manifestation of the character He had assumed, gloriously and forever terminated the controversy which had been maintained during the whole of His ministry on earth. In raising Him from the dead, God decided the contest. He declared Him to be His Son, and showed that He had accepted His death in satisfaction for the sins of His people, and consequently that He had suffered not for Himself, but for them, which none could have done but the Son of God. On this great fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paul rests the truth of the Christian religion, without which the testimony of the Apostles would be false, and the faith of God’s people vain” [Haldane, 28]. Though the revelation of Christ was “promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures,”—that is, the Hebrew scriptures—Paul wants the Gentile believers to know that they also are within the reach of the gospel:  “Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith” (vs. 5).  Note first, that the calling that the Apostles received to preach to the Gentiles was “through [Christ] and for his name’s sake.”  It is for the glory of Christ that the gospel is preached to the whole world, that his name and work are proclaimed to everyone who lives on this earth. “The whole scheme of the gospel supposes that Christ is glorified by the salvation of men, so that all the progress of the saving truth is for his name, i.e. to his honor, and therefore we are bound to receive that gospel ourselves, and make it known to others” [Plumer, 43].  “The Gospel is preached among all nations for the obedience of faith, but paramount to this is the glory of the name of Jesus Christ” [Haldane, 32]. And then, the desired end result of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, and to anyone for that matter, is that they take hold of the “obedience that comes from faith.”  “The design of the apostleship was to bring all nations so to believe in Christ the Son of God that they should be entirely devoted to his service” [Hodge, 21].  “The gospel is good news for all who will respond in faith. But faith inevitably issues in obedience. Faith is not intellectual assent to a series of propositions but surrender to the one who asks us to trust him…  Paul’s desire was to take the gospel to the entire world and see the nations turn to God in a faith that changes conduct. Any other response would be inadequate. Apart from a changed life there is no real faith” [Mounce, 42].  Note well that “obedience comes from  faith.”  Our lapses into sin are due to a lack of faith:  in the word of God; in the power of God; in the strength of the Holy Spirit’s work in ourselves; in God’s providence; in God’s promises. Paul steers his message to his readers, directly to the believers in Rome:  “And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ” (vs. 6).  Paul began the letter by saying that he himself is a “servant of Christ Jesus.”  Now here, he tells his readers, those that have grabbed hold of the “obedience that comes from faith”, that they themselves are to be Christ’s servants, that they are “called to belong to Jesus Christ.”  “To accept Christ as Savior is to give up all rights to oneself.  Christians belong to Christ.  Paul the apostle was the servant of the Lord.  We who believe have placed ourselves at Christ’s disposal to be used as he sees fit.  There is little room here for the mistaken idea that people can accept Christ as Savior without also allowing him to be Lord of their lives” [Mounce, 43]. This ends Paul’s digression, and so now he returns to complete the greeting of his letter:  “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:  Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ” (vs. 7).  Paul addresses this epistle to all of the Christians in Rome (whether Jew or Gentile).  He describes his Christian brothers and sisters as those who are “loved by God and called to be saints.”  God loves all his created beings, but there is a special love for those who are children of God through faith in Christ.  “All men are in a sense loved of God (see John 3:16); but apart from faith, this love of God can only be that of compassion. It becomes an intimate love, like that of father and child, only through the reconciliation granted to faith” [Godet, 139].  Christians are “called to be saints.”  The Biblical use of the word “saints” is different than the popular use of the word today.  The Roman Catholic Church has designated certain believers as “saints”, but the use of the word in the Bible always designates all believers as “saints.”  Those who are “saints”, are “sanctified”, set apart from those of the world, and belonging to God through faith in Jesus.  “All Christians are ‘saints.’ To be a Christian, without being a saint, is impossible; an unsanctified Christian being a contradiction in terms” [Wardlaw, 79]. The blessing Paul gives his readers is, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Paul uses this greeting in all of his epistles.  It subtly joins together Gentiles and Jews by using the traditional Greek greeting (“grace”), and the traditional Jewish greeting (“peace”).  It also confers upon his readers two characteristics of those who are Christians:  “grace” flowing from God’s blessings; “peace” as a result of receiving this “grace.”  “Grace and peace are related to one another as cause and effect; grace is the Divine love manifesting itself towards sinful humanity, peace is that state of inward harmony of life which arises in man from the reception of grace” [Olshausen, 475-476].  They “constitute the chief blessings of Christianity, embracing all that we need” [Schaff, in Lange’s, 64].  “Grace is uniformly placed first in order, because it is the source whence peace and all the blessings of salvation flow. Grace is the free unmerited favor of God to sinners in the plan of salvation. Grace and peace are joined together, because they are inseparable” [Haldane, 34].   Bibliography and Suggested Reading Bengel, John Albert.  Gnomon of the New Testament.  Edinburgh:  T. & T. Clark, 1873. Brown, John D.D. Analytic Exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans.  New York: Carter and Sons, 1857.  Calvin, John. A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. London: Seeley and Sons, 1834.  (Originally published in 1540).  Chalmers, Thomas. Lectures on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans. New York: Carter and Brothers, 1863.  (Originally published in 1842). Dunn, James D. G.  Word Biblical Commentary:  Romans.  Dallas, TX:  Word Books, 1988. Exell, Joseph S. and Henry Donald Spence-Jones, eds. The Pulpit Commentary. Vols. 43. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1884. Godet, Frederic.  Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.  Edinburgh:  T. & T. Clark, 1883. Haldane, Robert.  Exposition on the Epistle to the Romans. Edinburgh: Oliphant and Co, 1874.  (Originally published in 1835). Henry, Matthew.  An Exposition of All the Books of the Old and New Testament.  Vol. V.  London: W. Baynes, 1806. (Originally published in 1710). Hodge, Charles. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.  Philadelphia: Garner, 1883. (Originally published in 1864). Lange, John Peter, ed. and Philip Schaff, trans.  A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical.  New York:  Charles Scribner & Co., 1865. Lloyd-Jones, D. M.  Romans.  14 Volumes.  Edinburgh, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1985. Moo, Douglas J.  The Epistle to the Romans.  Grand Rapids, MI:  Wm. B. Eerdman’s, 1996. Morris, Leon.  The Epistle to the Romans.  Grand Rapids, MI:  Wm. B Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1988. Mounce, Robert H., The New American Commentary:  Romans.  Nashville, TN:  Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995. Newell, William R.  Romans Verse-By-Verse.  Christian Classics Ethereal Library.  Originally published 1938. Olshausen, Hermann. Biblical Commentary on the New Testament.  Volume III.  New York:  Sheldon and Company, 1866. Plumer, William S. Commentary on Paul’s Epistle to the Roman. New York: Randolph & Co, 1870.  Robinson, Thomas.  A Suggestive Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.  London:  R. D. Dickinson, 1878. Sanday, William, and Arthur Headlam.  A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.  Edinburgh:  T. & T. Clark, 1895. Shedd, William G. T. A Critical and Doctrinal Commentary upon the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans. New York: Scribner and Sons, 1879.  Stuart, Moses.  A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.  Andover:  Warren F. Draper, 1854. Trapp, John.  A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments. Vol. V (Matthew to Revelation).  Edmonton, Canada: Still Waters Revival Books (www.PuritanDownloads.com). (Originally published c. 1660). Wardlaw, Ralph. Lectures on the Epistle to the Romans.  Edinburgh: Fullarton & Co., 1869.   Many of these books (those in the public domain) can be downloaded free of charge from:  http://www.ClassicChristianLibrary.com