Romans 1:1 – 7, A Meditation (1)

 

 

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles in behalf of His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

I’ve been pondering this passage for a few days, what do you think of it? What do you see? Is this something we skip over so we can move along with our reading? Can you see the holy Trinity in this passage? If so, what do you see regarding the Trinity?

 

This morning I looked at a blank page, or rather a blank screen, and I knew I wanted to write something, but what to write? How to write? For the writer, there is nothing quite like a blank page; it can represent opportunity, or fear, or foolishness, or risk. It can send some of us running for cover, it can nurture procrastination, it can offer joy, or agony, or exposure – all at the same time!

 

One thing I am learning is that when I need to write and have so many images and thoughts swirling around in me and am pulled in various directions and don’t know where to begin, that I am always safe in the Scriptures. This, my friends, is true of life, and it is critical for the person who calls himself or herself a Christian to know this, to practice this, to model this – for a man or woman whose life is not grounded, anchored, and tethered to the Bible cannot be said to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

 

I suppose that last statement raises a few questions, but I’ll simply say this, it is better for you to know Jesus Christ in one book of the Bible that you are actually spending time in, rather than attempting to read a book about the Bible without actually reading and meditating in the Bible. You can’t eat an elephant all at one time. You can’t eat all the offerings on a dinner buffet at one sitting. This is one reason many folks recommend beginning with the Gospel of John – get to know it, spend time in it, ponder it, see yourself in it, and let it become a part of you. Also, begin with Psalm 1 and read one Psalm a day and continue to do so for the rest of your life.

 

There are too many professing Christians who don’t know Jesus Christ, I don’t want you to be one of them. They speak of Jesus as they speak of someone they don’t know but know about. Their knowledge is pretty much secondhand, they know what they’ve been told, not what they have experienced. While God reveals Himself to us in many ways, the center of gravity of His self-revelation, His self-disclosure, is the Bible as it is illuminated by the Holy Spirit; and the central revelation of the Bible is Jesus Christ – the Bible is held together in the Person of Jesus Christ.

 

Professing Christians can also be like sports fans who speak as if they know certain sports stars, but in reality they’ve never met them. When we used to attend NASCAR races, fans would speak of “Dale” or “Mark” or “Rusty” as if they had coffee with them every morning, and yet they had never met them, and in the few cases where they met them in passing, they didn’t really know them, they didn’t have a relationship with them. How might you characterize your relationship with Jesus Christ?

 

What do you see in Romans 1:1? What do you see about God? What do you see about Paul? What do you see about yourself?

 

Here are some elements I see:

 

Jesus Christ has bondservants. Some translations may have “servant,” others may have “slave.” I think either “bond-servant” or “slave” give us the best sense of the Greek word – Paul belonged to Jesus Christ, Paul was not his own – and neither are we. Jesus Christ purchased us with His blood, with His life (Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 6:19 – 20, 7:23; Titus 2:14; Heb. 9:11 – 14; 1 Peter 1:18 – 19; Rev. 5:9 – 10).

 

Within the Kingdom of God, within the Church, the Bride, the Temple, there are only those who have been bought with a Price and who are, therefore, the property of Jesus Christ; there are not some who are slaves (bondservants) and some who are not, for all men and women and young people who are in the Church are there because they have been redeemed (purchased) by Jesus Christ – this means that Jesus owns us. To be sure there are other dimensions of our relationship with the Trinity: we are saints, we are the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, we are the sons and daughters of the Father, we are holy vessels of the Holy Spirit, and we have various gifts and graces imparted to us so that we may be a blessing to others in Jesus Christ (what other aspects of our relationship with the Trinity can you think of?).

 

Do you think of yourself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ? Does your congregation think of itself as a bondservant of the Messiah, Christ Jesus?

 

Someone once asked in a small group I was in, “Aren’t we independent contractors for Jesus?” Of course we aren’t! Jesus doesn’t have the equivalent of independent contractors, He has bondservants who are called to abide in Him, to live by His Life (John 15:1ff; Galatians 2:20). If Jesus wasn’t an “independent contractor” in His relationship with the Father (see passages such as John 5:19), we can hardly be independent contractors in our relationship with Christ Jesus.

 

What would the witness of the Church of Jesus Christ be like in the United States of America if its people saw themselves as slaves of Jesus Christ? If we lived in obedience to the truth that Jesus Christ has purchased us with His blood and that we now belong to Him and not to ourselves? As Paul writes in Romans 1:5, and as Jesus commissions us in Matthew 28:19 – 20, Biblical faith is obedient faith, and we are to teach others to obey what Jesus Christ has commanded. (How can we teach others to obey Jesus Christ if we are not obeying Jesus Christ?)

 

The order of the words “bond-servant” and “apostle” in Romans 1:1 direct our attention to the fact that Paul was first a slave and then an apostle. Paul was a bondservant who was sent (the word “apostle” means “one who is sent”). Friends, I don’t care what “ministry” God has given us, as individuals or as congregations, I don’t care what glorious insights we’ve glimpsed, I don’t care how inspiring our music and lyrics are – if we aren’t living as bondmen and bondwomen of Jesus Christ we need to come back to our Master, for we are sheep gone astray from the Shepherd.

 

Behold the anarchy in the professing church today! See how we pick and choose which elements of the Bible we will obey and teach. See how we align ourselves with political agendas and make politics the litmus test for fellowship. See how we ignore the righteousness and holiness of Scripture. See how we justify our lack of Christian unity. See how impotent we are in our preaching and living and witnessing. See how there is no accountability in the professing church. See how we look like the world, talk like the world, walk like the world (are we not ducks of the world?). See how we make decisions based on return on investment, on the pragmatic – rather than fasting and praying and beseeching God for guidance and direction.

 

If we are pastors, are we preaching and teaching and shepherding as slaves of Jesus Christ? If we are listening to pastors and teachers, are we listening and responding as slaves of Jesus Christ? When people watch our lives; our family, friends, coworkers, neighbors – do they see that we are not our own, but that we  belong, and are accountable to, Another? (See Matthew 8:9 – this is what the centurion saw in Jesus Christ).

 

Are we living in the anarchy of society, or are we living as the bondservants of Jesus Christ?