To all in Rome who are loved by God and called
to be his holy people:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ.
When I read the first section of any epistle I always try to
glimpse what it is that the author is trying to express for this epistle. Each
letter has a different introduction. I think that this is because of the
subject matter that will proceed after this introduction. So when I read in the
first few verses of Romans that Paul is referencing the Gospel quite heavily, I
immediately strive to find out what this Gospel he speaks of incorporates.
He starts by saying that it is the Gospel of the prophets.
We’ll dive into what all that entails, but lets first continue with what Paul
has to say about it. The Gospel is the account of the Son of God, who is a
descendant of David, and was resurrected from the dead by the Holy Spirit.
“Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the
obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.” The last statement there
shows forth that this is a Gospel of grace through faith.
Now, this is all fine, but it seems a little shallow. I
don’t mean shallow as in selfish. I mean shallow as in lacking depth. Obviously
Paul is writing to those who have already been redeemed. This is written to the
Church in Rome. It isn’t necessary for Paul to spell out all of the details of
the Gospel (at least not at this first introduction) to those who have already
received Christ.
So Paul’s motive is something else.
He starts with two things I want to focus upon: the Gospel
of the prophets, and Jesus is the son of David.
What was the Gospel according to the prophets? If you take a
casual glimpse at any of the prophets, you will find that we are taken into the
gutters. We are taken down into the slop of society. The prophets cried out as
loud as they could about the injustice and paganism of God’s people. They
exposed in a Deuteronomic way that Israel has not kept its covenant with God,
and therefore there would be judgment.
However, the prophets saw something else. In the midst of
their emphatic exposure of sin, they also bring into focus a time when God
would restore all things. The prophets spoke of what Jews know as the Messianic
Age. This is a time when the Messiah restores the Kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6).
He comes as King and destroys the nation of the north’s power. The immanent
Northern Kingdom that is continually prophesied about is God’s judgment against
His people Israel. However, the release of God’s people from this judgment is
the coming of the Messiah.
This Messiah will take away our sins (Isaiah 53). He will
establish world peace (Isaiah 2) where nations will beat their swords into
pruning hooks and their spears into plowshares. There will be no more cold or
frost – no more day or night – in the evening there will be light (Zechariah
14:6). Israel will be sifted through the nations (Amos 9), but will be brought
back to the Land again (Ezekiel 11:17-21) together will foreigners that will be
united with them (Isaiah 14:1). There would be a time when the powers of heaven
above (demons) and the kings of the Earth below will together be thrown into a
prison for many days after being released only to be punished (Isaiah 24:22;
reference Revelations 20:2). The tabernacle of David will be restored (Amos
9:11, Jeremiah 30:9) and David will rule as King forever. There will be no more
tears (Jeremiah 31:12, 15-16). The coming of the Messiah would mean the
resurrection from the dead (Daniel 12:2, 13). Never again will Israel be an
object of scorn to the nations (Joel 2:19). Many nations will stream to the
mountain of the Lord so that they might walk in the path of righteousness (Micah
4:1-2).
This is a general overview of what the Messiah was to
fulfill. Yes, there are many Scriptures that also relate how the Messiah must
suffer. There are Scriptures that talk about how He will die and be raised
again. The Psalms have many Scriptures about how the Messiah would be the
redeemer. Micah 6:7 indicates that God had intention of offering His own Son.
Zephaniah 3:13 indicates that during the Messianic Age there will be no lying
and no deception to be found within Israel.
So my question becomes this: how much of this do we take
literally and how much do we blow off as spiritual metaphor? Does God intend
for all of this to be fulfilled toward Israel? If so, then when does this take
place? If not, then are we the new Israel? Has the Messianic Age started? If
the Messiah has come and His name is Jesus, then why have the last 2000 years
been marked with wars, violence, and brutality? He didn’t bring world peace
like has been prophesied…
We as Christians talk about how there are two comings. The first
coming is to fulfill the Scriptures about how the Messiah should take away sin.
There should be a great ingathering of Gentiles into the Kingdom. This has
taken place. The second coming is at the end of the antichrist’s reign. He
comes and destroys the rule of the antichrist and establishes His Kingdom on
Earth for 1000 years.
However, we miss a couple aspects too. Moses prophesied in
Deuteronomy 32 that God would take a people that are not His people and use
them to provoke Israel to jealousy. Isaiah prophesied about how eunuchs and
non-Jews would be found in the redeemed Israel. Ezekiel talked about Judah and
Ephraim becoming one again (I wonder if this was also symbolism of those who
are outside of the House of Israel being grafted in).
The second aspect I wanted to focus upon was that Jesus is a
son of David. This is where these prophecies come together. God promised David
that he would have a descendant upon the throne forever. David then prophesied
in the Psalms that this Messiah would be God Himself. “The Lord said to my
Lord…” Jesus references this by asking the Pharisees and Scribes what David is
talking about.
So the Messiah must be God. Isaiah even hints at this. God
shares His throne with no one. Redemption is God’s and no one else gets to
share that glory. It must be God to redeem Israel and the Gentiles. Yet it must
be from David that the Messiah comes. This is why the prophets spoke of the
tabernacle of David being restored, by the way. David’s tabernacle is his
throne, lineage, character, etc.
This is why the virgin birth is crucial. According to
Numbers, the lineage of David for establishment of his throne can only come
through the father. Joseph had to be a descendant of David and the father of
Jesus. However, Joseph was neither a descendant of David nor Jesus’ father. In
the same chapter of Numbers, it mentions that if there is not a father, that
the lineage of the mother is valid. This is how Jesus can both be a descendant
of David as well as be birthed by Mary. Joseph wasn’t the father.
Now the reason why I establish this early in Romans…
The book of Romans hits on a lot of subject matter. Paul was
writing to Christians. They already knew of salvation. They already had
obtained salvation. Paul is reiterating to them the same mystery that he speaks
to the Ephesians about. We as Gentiles have been grafted into Israel. They are
not forgotten. However, we aren’t to bring our Greek models into the Hebraic
faith. So Paul establishes what it means to be a part of this Hebraic faith.
As we continue through Romans we’ll dive into some of the
subject matter like sin, faith, salvation, justification, death, and
resurrection. We’ll also reexamine the prophets and what they teach about
Israel’s redemption and our part in that. We’ll move from there and discourse
on how these things relate to everyday life. This is what the book of Romans
does. Next we’ll examine verses 8-17 and some of the subject matter contained
therein.
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