Romans 1:2-6

2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, ³ concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, ⁴ who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,⁵ through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, ⁶ among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ [NASB]

Before we dig into the text, a note about the translations I’m using for the Scripture quotations. Basically, unless otherwise stated, they’re my own. Why? Simple: copyright. The copyright for most Bible translations belong to a publisher, typically the one that published that translation. Fair use allows for the reproduction of a certain percentage of the text, but beyond that you have to ask permission and pay fees. To get around this, I will use more than one translation, and also translate from the Greek myself. Feel free to use the translation of your choice. I’m really only including the text to help you keep up with where we are.

So, to Romans 1:2-3, where Paul describes the nature of the gospel mentioned at the end of 1:1. He says that it was promised by God through His prophets in the OT. It’s interesting that he speaks of the gospel, not Christ, as foretold in the prophets. Not that Christ wasn’t foretold (see verse 3), but his point is that this gospel is not something suddenly sprung upon the world (particularly the Jews). You can go through the OT and read in the prophets elements of the gospel message. Where? Well, I could take time to go through them, but I think Paul may be setting his readers up for what’s to come. In the course of his gospel presentation over the coming chapters, he will quote various OT passages which support the message he proclaims.

The subject of this gospel is, of course, Jesus–“His Son” (verse 3). He says Jesus was of the seed of David according to the flesh, but declared the Son of God with power by the Holy Spirit (verse 4). I think Paul is deliberately paralleling Christ’s physical heritage (of David) and spiritual heritage (of God). This would be particularly meaningful to the Jewish members of his audience. I don’t think verse 4 is saying that Jesus wasn’t the Son of God until God declared Him so. Rather, I think he is saying that Christ’s divine status was declared with power in His resurrection.

I believe the “we” in verse 5 is referring to Paul and the other apostles as opposed to his audience. First, the office of apostle was a specific office given to only a few directly by Christ. Second, he has already tried to assure his audience that he recognized his apostolic status as a something he was called to. Now, he further affirms that it was given to him along with grace, and given for a specific purpose: the obedience of faith among the Gentiles for the sake of Jesus’ name.

Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, and he accepted that calling from the beginning. His goal was to spread the gospel among the non-Jewish nations, calling them to the repentance and faith in Christ. I think the significance of verse 6 is that it indicates that the Roman church, here especially the Gentiles, are also part of the called. Christians, whether Jew or Gentile are part of God’s chosen people. Given the situation I believe Paul is addressing, this is crucial to his message. In fact, I think we will see this theme (both Jew and Gentile are in the same boat) come up again and again.

I know this is skimming the surface, but this is a blog and I don’t want it to get too long. Just like in the class, though, I encourage discussion so we can dig deeper into the text. That’s what the comments are for. So, ask your questions, and make application in the comments.