I wonder if you got any good books for Christmas? I'm reading a PD James murder mystery that's set in a theological college!
But I'm not a great book-reader.
When I married Clare, it was obvious from her bookshelves that I'd missed a lot in my education. So I asked her to feed me with "books I ought to read" - I read "the grapes of wrath", "a farewell to arms" and "Tess of the D'Urbevilles" amongst others.
But I still haven't convinced Clare that she should read "The Lord of the Rings"!
Important books - or maybe not?!
Here's another book recommendation - the language is a bit old-fashioned, but bear with me:
"I think it meet that every Christian man not only know it by rote and without the book, but also exercise himself therein everymore continually, as with the daily bread of the soul. No man verily can read it too oft or study it too well: for the more it is studied the easier it is, the more it is chewed the pleasanter it is, and the more groundly it is searched the preciouser things are found in it, so great treasure of spiritual things lieth hid therein"
William Tyndale's wrote that about Romans in 1534 in his edition of the English NT (Bruce p.9)
Why is Romans such an important book?
Why should we read it?
Should we read it? After all, it's by the apostle Paul - and it's become quite trendy in some Christian circles to complain about Paul.
Well there's nothing new about that - some Christians mistakenly complained about Paul right back in the first century - and so it's no surprise that in these opening verses of the letter to the Christians in Rome, written around AD 57, Pauls gives them good reasons to accept him and his message.
Good reasons that still stand today, for us.
Why should we read Romans?
vv.1-7, because of Paul's Credentials
vv.8-15, because of Paul's Care
vv.16-17, because of Paul's Content
Three C's: Credentials, his Care, his Content.
And we're going to see that this book is really something very special - that Tyndale was not exaggerating when he called on "every man without exception [to] exercise himself therein diligently, and record it night and day continually, until he be full aquainted therewith" - or, put another way: read it, and read it, and read it, until you know it back to front.
Here's a clue from these opening verses to the treasure that we're going to find: Romans 1:17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
So let's start with vv 1-7, Paul's Credentials.
These first seven verses are where Paul says: "Dear Romans"
In those days they would start a letter: Paul, to Bloggs, Greetings
And that's what Paul does here:
v.1: " But Paul adds a bit more to tell us whose whose commission he has.
It's a bit like those "by appointment" crowns they have on cereal packets.
You know, they have a little colourful crown and underneath it says - "Weetabix, by appointment to Her Majesty the Queen, purveyors of breakfast cereals".
So when I'm giving the kids their "Ready Brek", I'm thinking - "ah, this must be good, the Queen has it."
Paul tells us here that he's "by appointment to His Majesty Jesus the King of Kings - purveyor, not of breakfast cereal, but of the Gospel.
It's not quite the same - because the Gospel comes from Jesus- but you get the idea. v.1: " The word "servant" there means basically " And he's not just any old slave - he's " Jesus Christ himself has commissioned him to be a special messenger: an And straight away, perhaps because it's so great he can't hold it in, Paul tells us something about this Gospel, this great proclamation.
v.2 - it's promised in the OT: this is something we're going to be exploring in the BodyShop Bible Overview which starts this Thursday.
v.3 - The Gospel is about God's Son, who was a real human being, descended from the Hebrew King David - that is, he is the promised Jewish Messiah.
v.4 - and he was truly God as well, he was the divine Son of God, a fact proved loud and clear by his resurrection from being dead.
This is " And, v.5, Paul is 'by appointment' to this Jesus: what did Jesus commission him to do?
" Jesus' uniqueness as the divine-human Son of God makes him uniquely important to people from every nation, it means the call of the gospel, the call to repent and believe in Jesus as Saviour and Lord, that call is for people across the world, whatever colour or culture they are.
Jesus Christ calls all people to himself, and only himself.
That's who Paul serves, That's whose message Paul brings.
And did you notice, that there are three calls here:
v.5 the call to the obedience that comes from faith
v.6 the call to be Jesus's
v.7 the call to be saints.
Jesus calls us to great privilege, and responsibility.
The wonderful privilege of being Jesus', belonging to him - that promised Messiah-Son of God.
The privilege of being a saint - which simply means being set apart by God, for God
All this comes as we believe in Jesus - but there's a responsibility with that too:
v.5 " Trusting in Jesus means trusting him as my Lord - that means obeying him, letting him rule my life - finding out from the Bible what he wants, and doing things his way.
Which is just what Paul did.
So should we read Romans, should we take any notice?
Yes - Paul's credentials are excellent: God's appointed apostle, the carrier of the Gospel.
by appointment
Gospel?
Paul's task
Well that's what his CV says - but what's he like in person?
He's a man who cares
That's what we're going to see in vv. 8-15: Paul's Care.
At the end of the book, in chapter 15, you can read about Paul's situation as he writes - it's around about AD 57 and Paul's probably staying in Corinth; he's visited all of the Eastern Mediterranean area with the Gospel, and now he wants to go to Spain. But first, he's got some money to take to the believers in Jerusalem - a gift from the Christians in Greece and Macedonia. And he hopes that then he'll be able to go to Spain via Italy and, at last, Rome.
And back here in chapter 1, Paul explains that he's been longing to go and visit them, but something has always stopped him, until now (perhaps!). He's heard about how they trust Jesus, he's committed to their growth in Jesus - so he prays for them all the time, and he wants to visit them to help them.
Have a look at v 11: "I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong The spiritual gift Paul wants to impart, as we'll see in a moment, is his teaching: his deep, God-given, understanding of who Jesus is, why we need him, and what he's done for us.
And he knows that if he has the chance to spend some time with the Christians in Rome, they'll be encouraged and made stronger in their trust in Jesus, and so will he as he sees their response to his apostolic teaching.
Paul Cares for them, and wants them to grow in Christ.
And that's an attitude and an aim that we can share: to see ourselves and other believers made strong and encouraged in our faith.
That's why we meet together today: so that, as we "give our attention to prayer and the teaching of the word", we can be encouraged and made strong in our faith, ready to look outwards again and share the Gospel with those around us.
That's the point of Homegroups, the BodyShop - that's why we have coffee after the service - the opportunity for mutual encouragement.
Why don't we make it our aim for our friendships with each other? We can "remember each other in our prayers at all times" - we can think of ways of talking about what we're learning from the Bible, what we're finding hard, what we're rejoicing about - and so on.
That way we'll truly be caring for each other.
In the meantime - should we bother with Romans?
Yes - Paul wrote it because he cared, because he wanted to build up his readers - then, and now.
shared aim
Paul's Credentials, Paul's Care.
Here's the last reason to listen to Paul - because of Paul's Content.
We read Romans avidly because of what Paul teaches us in it- it's a brilliant treasure: it's all about the Gospel about Jesus Christ.
v.16 "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
Paul glories in the Gospel - "I am not ashamed" is a Greek figure of speech meaning: "!! I glory in it - of course I'm not ashamed, it's so fantastic!!
The message is God's power (that's why we've got to make sure that we speak words about Jesus to people - there's something to hear, something to learn about and understand - and through that comes God's power)
And that's because it makes known something very important.
There's a revelation in the Gospel.
Tabloid newspapers are very good at revelations, aren't they: "Shock revelation: Cabinet minister does dot dot dot" - "Soap star visits blah blah blah" - and most of the time their revelations are a load of rubbish that we can safely ignore - but from time to time something is revealed that makes a big difference, and it reverberates around for ages, it's so important.
And the revelation in the Gospel in hugely important: did you notice it? - v.17: "in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last"
The Gospel, the message about Jesus - descended from David, risen from the dead - makes known God's Righteousness.
Now maybe that doesn't sound very important to you - but let me put it another way: The Gospel makes known how God can accept you without exploding in a black-hole of contradictions.
What am I on about?
Well think of a tennis club - the all England lawn tennis club at Wimbledon. For years and years they've said you can only play there if you're wearing white. You could be Pete Sampras or Anna Kournikova - but you can't play unless you're wearing white.
And there have been big fusses about coloured markings on people's kit.
Now imagine that I walk in there tomorrow, wearing a stripy tennis kit, lime green and yellow, and they let me straight onto centre court to have little game of tennis.
What are people going to say?
What will all the tennis stars, the advertisers, the commentators - what will everyone say?
"That's not fair!"
And they'd be right, it wouldn't be fair. And if the all-England club let it happen, they would be unjust.
But isn't that just what God does with the Gospel?
God is Righteous - he always makes just judgements and right actions and decisions.
But we're not: we're law-breakers. At the very least, we could keep God's ten commandments - but we don't even get past the first one: We're law breakers.
God would love us to live forever with him - that what he created human beings for: he'd love us to spend eternity with him.
But he wants whites - he always has - and the best we can manage is dingy grey.
And if God let you or me in, in our dingy greys - what would the host of heaven say?
"That's not fair!"
That's un-just, not-Righteous!
If God did that, he'd have to explode in a black hole of contradictions! - or something!
But that's exactly what God has done.
The Gospel declares that That's the wonder of the revelation of the Gospel: what the Gospel makes known, uniquely, powerfully, brilliantly - just what God has done: so that he can stay righteous, and welcome sinners:
What has he done? Jesus Christ - the Son of God himself - became a sacrifice of atonement on the cross, he took our unrighteousness and God's wrath on that in himself, so that it's taken away from us, and replaced in us by his Righteousness.
That's what happens when we believe in this Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
The justice that we deserve, is completely fulfilled for us, in our place, by Jesus in his death.
That's what Romans will show us, that's what the Gospel is about:
it declares God's Righteousness:
The righteousness of God, the righteousness from God
the righteousness of God: that he is in himself Righteous, he is Fair and Just in the way he saves people
and the righteousness from God: that he has righteousness to give to us, so that he can declare us righteous before him, if we trust in Jesus
v.17 in the Greek says literally: " And that could mean - the R of God, or it could mean the Righteousness from God - as the NIV has translated.
In fact, as you read Romans, it seems pretty clear that Paul means both: that God stays Righteous, as he gives us his Righteousness, when we trust in Christ.
v.16 "
"
- what, not shopping? "
- not cars? "
- not promotion? "
- not a Delia Smith kitchen and a Alan Titchmarsh garden? "Gospel revelation
- Yes, you are a law-breaker, a rebel against God.
- Yes, God is supremely just, and all sin will be punished justly
- But Yes - God has done something so that he can remain righteous, and yet welcome in sinners who trust in Christ.
It's pretty obvious why we bother with Romans, isn't it?
Pauls' Credentials are the highest - a servant of Jesus, called to be God's apostle, to call us to faith and obedience.
Paul's Care is the deepest - he longs to see fellow believers grow and be strong in Christ.
And Paul's Content is pure gold - a vital and profound revelation about how we can be in the right with God, by trusting in Jesus.
It's a message from God, to you.
You can have this Righteousness from God.
God can look at you and declare you in the right with him, even when in your heart you know that you are far from that.
He can do that because Jesus has died for you - and he calls you to believe: To think about these things, wrestle with them, assess them, accept them as God's truth, and live in obedience to them.