Why Does God Have a Gospel? (Romans 1:1-8)

The letter to the Romans is recognised as Paul's most comprehensive statement about the gospel. If someone were to ask us for a summary of the gospel, we could answer, 'The Book of Romans.' They might respond and say that it is a very long summary, to which we should reply that it is a very large gospel. So it is important for us to appreciate the contents of the Book of Romans.

As with all of Paul's letters, the first section of the book, after the introduction, focuses on doctrine and the doctrinal section in Romans stretches to the end of chapter 11, covering many doctrines in the process. The remainder of the letter concerns several practical features that should be seen in the lives of those that have embraced the gospel.

Paul wrote this letter because he intended to come and visit the church there. His intention was to do so on a proposed journey to Spain. He did get to Rome, but not in the way he had intended. Instead he was taken to Rome as a prisoner, which is a reminder that not even the apostles had infallible insight into their personal providences.

In his introductions to his letters Paul often drops hints about the matters he is going to deal with in the rest of each letter and we can that is the case here. His greetings focus on the content of the gospel and how it affects those whom he here calls saints. And that is what the letter is about – what is the gospel and how should saints live in this world? Or we might say, he alludes to the doctrinal and to the practical sections of his letter.

1. The gospel has proclaimers

We know that the gospel can be explained at different levels. It can be done on a one to one basis or it can be done in a study group or it can be done through preaching in public. Further, it can be done by people of different intellectual levels or by people with very different ways of speaking. How did Paul communicate the gospel? He did so as an appointed individual, chosen by God and recognised by the church as a special authority, an apostle. His description of himself in verse 1 highlights three things in which he gloried.

First, he saw himself as a servant of Jesus Christ. This means that he did what Jesus told him to do and Paul obeyed gladly. This is a reminder that true gospel proclamation at whatever level requires an obedient heart.

Second, Paul saw himself as a messenger with a specific task. An apostle is an emissary of an authority, and Paul was given this role by Jesus to set up churches in lots of places, to provide them with guidance, and to write under divine inspiration several books of the Bible, including the one he was writing at that time. He did this conscious that he was serving Jesus. We cannot serve Jesus as an apostle, but we should serve him according to our place and position in the church and in life.

Third, Paul knew he was 'set apart for the gospel of God'. He had been taken from doing something else (he summarises that former lifestyle in Philippians 3) to engage wholeheartedly in spreading the gospel and teaching about it. And that is what he had been doing for almost three decades in all kinds of places.

2. The gospel was promised

Paul then reminds his readers that his message could be found in the Old Testament. It is an interesting study to consider the various passages from the Old Testament that Paul refers to in his various letters and he will mentions some later in the Book of Romans. If you were to be given a piece of paper, could you write down some Old Testament passages that he cites?

Where in the Old Testament is the gospel mentioned? The first is in Genesis 3, with the promise of a Champion who would destroy the work of the serpent (the devil). After that reference, there are countless promises and prophecies about the coming Rescuer. Jesus himself explained to the two on the way to Emmaus how the Old Testament spoke about him.

What is the point of mentioning those promises? The answer is that they reveal that God knew the future, that he had planned a supernatural way of salvation for sinners, and that people who read or heard those prediction should have depended upon the Saviour they described. When did God’s gospel begin to be preached? Right at the beginning of human history when he announced in Eden after the Fall that a Deliverer would come.

3. The gospel is about Jesus

So what does Paul say is in the gospel? He gives his answer in these words: ‘concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 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.’ As we read that summary, we can identify several crucial aspects of the person and work of Christ.

First, Jesus is both God and man or divine and human. His deity is seen in the statement that he is God's Son and his humanity is seen in the statement that he is the Son of David. His deity had no beginning and his humanity will have no end. In the union of the divine and human natures of Jesus we see a great miracle, one before which we should bow with wonder. What would have seemed impossible was achieved when the Son of God was conceived in the womb of Mary. Although it may seem complicated, the gospel is not explained unless the reality of his deity and humanity is stressed.

Second, the gospel includes what happened to him at his resurrection and afterwards. Paul says several things about what happened to Jesus at that time. It is important to see that what Paul says about Jesus here is connected to him being the promised Son of David is, that is the Messiah. His resurrection declared him to be what probably was not seen so clearly before. The Old Testament predicted a Messiah who would have universal power. Before his death, there is no suggestion that Jesus wanted to be a political Messiah who would deliver the Romans. No, his path to universal sovereignty included his death and resurrection, followed by his ascension and enthronement, when he was recognised as Lord. The gospel includes an explanation of his sufferings and glory.

How was the resurrection brought about? Paul says it was through the Spirit of holiness. Some discussion has taken place over what he meant. Did he mean that the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead or did he mean that Jesus was raised from the dead because he was holy and death could not hold him? We might say that both teachings are true, but only one of them can be the truth mentioned here. I suspect it is a reference to the work of the Spirit when raising Jesus from the dead.

There is a sense that what Paul is stressing here is what the Father did in the work of salvation. After all, it was the Father who provided the Son with his human nature (the Son assumed it into union with himself and the Spirit conceived it in the womb of Mary) and it was the Father who raised Jesus from the dead and exalted him to the highest place (as Paul says in Philippians). Of course, there is a lot more to the gospel that the details we have just mentioned, but it is good for us to think about how each person of the Trinity contributed to our salvation. And the verse that is best known for highlighting the work of the Father in this regard is John 3:16.

4. The gospel demands a response

Paul mentions the correct response in verse 5, which he summarises as the obedience of faith. Although the gospel contains a free offer of salvation we must also remember that it includes the command to accept. The gospel is not an offer like we see in shops where a person can take or leave what is on show without any consequence. Instead, the gospel comes to us with divine authority to accept it. It is great disobedience to spurn the gospel offer.

What is the faith that Paul requires here? How should we respond to the message of what Jesus did? Faith in this sense has four elements. The first is that it is penitent faith, accompanied by repentance. Second, it is dependent on Jesus, because the sinner leans his soul on him. Third, it is delighted with Jesus because everything about him is so suitable for sinners. Fourth, faith contains the outlook of dedication in that the sinner submits to Jesus as Lord. 

The response to the gospel is universal (the same everywhere). Yet Paul is saying more than that when he refers to the nations. In addition, he is intimating the success of the gospel because sinners will be brought into the church. And it will all be done to bring great glory to Jesus – it is for the sake of his name, and he deserves eternal glory because of what he has done.

5. The gospel is a door to riches

The apostle concludes this opening section by reminding his readers that through the gospel they have received several blessings. The first is that they have a new Owner, which is a reminder that they have been taken into the kingdom of Jesus, transferred from the kingdom of darkness. Jesus redeemed them from spiritual slavery so that they would be his. A kingdom all depends on its king.

The second is that God has called them to be saints in a particular place, which indicates that they can live for God anywhere. I suppose they might have been apprehensive living for God in the place of pagan power, but even there because they have been set apart to God as his saints they can live for him. They have the Holy Spirit.

The third blessing is that there is a direct channel between them and the Father and the Son and those divine persons give continually from their permanently full storehouse. They receive grace and peace continually from the Father and the Son.

Paul encourages his readers by reminding them that they are loved by God. This is the source of all the blessings they can enjoy and Paul will move on in this letter to describe what they are. And they all belong to the gospel!