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Below, I explore the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the church at Rome to share its relevance for our world today.
You Receive Your Purpose in Life Rather Than Create It
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,” (Romans 1:1, ESV)
Your purpose in life derives externally and separate from your brilliance, emotions, and genes. No one can concoct their true purpose no matter their mental capacity nor discover it no matter how deeply they plumb the depths of their souls. Furthermore, the society does not confer it upon an individual.
All of these aid us in fulfilling our purpose, but our purpose does not come from them. It comes from God.
The Christian messenger, Paul the Apostle, wrote the verse above as the introduction of his letter to the church in Rome while he lodged in the city of Corinth sometime between AD 55 and 58.
Paul calls himself a servant of Christ Jesus asserting that Jesus still lived despite Jesus’ crucifixion over twenty years earlier. Paul believed Jesus resurrected from the dead. The book of Acts, written by Luke, contains the account of Paul’s encounter with resurrected Jesus. Paul wanted to destroy the church. Jesus made him part of it and told him to grow it.
That’s why Paul says he was “called to be an apostle.” An apostle simply delivers the message from the sender. Jesus sent Paul to proclaim his message. Paul discovered his purpose by receiving it rather than creating it from his own genius or searching for it within himself.
God set Paul apart to deliver the message of God’s gospel. Paul did not set himself apart. Paul’s parents did not set him apart. Paul’s Jewish club didn’t set him apart. Paul’s talents did not set him apart. God set him apart for a specific purpose. God does the same for you.
All people want to feel special. Some people believe they’re special without any need of being told so. Most of us rely on all sorts of scales and measurements to prove to ourselves, and others, we’re unique and special. We add zeros to our bank accounts, speed away in flashy cars, use selfies to show off our abs, run faster than anyone else, code better than anyone else, or put forward our model partner to convey we’re special. All great stuff, but poor purpose dispensers.
Self-comparison leaves us empty and impels us to strive for more lest we come up short on achieving our self-contrived purpose. There’s a better source for finding purpose: the gospel.
Gospel simply refers to good news for public announcement. That’s the meaning of the Greek word euangelion. God wants his message about Jesus Christ to be announced to those who haven’t heard it. That’s what Paul did to build the church. God’s news differs from the news you and I read on CNN or Fox News. It’s news with a call to respond like a wedding save the date.
However, God’s gospel differs from a save the date. With a save the date, you mark your calendar and maybe call your friends to congratulate them. But they don’t send you a filet mignon sampler in the mail for you to have a foretaste of their big day. God’s gospel not only extends a call, but a promise to benefit the hearer upon his or her immediate reception of the message. How?
The gospel invites you to connect with God immediately, in a real relationship, and receive from God His joy, peace, forgiveness, wisdom, hope, and . . . purpose for your life.
The Message of Jesus Can Breakdown Personal Prejudices
“For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.” (Romans 1:9–10, ESV)
The gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to subdue, even squelch, personal prejudice.
Romans 1:9–10 reveals Paul’s intent to travel to the church in Rome as well as his motive for doing so. That desire stemmed from Paul’s service in the work of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He proclaimed the gospel. He taught others the bone and marrow of the gospel message and he taught them how to live by the power of the gospel.
Before becoming a Christian, Paul was a Jewish Pharisee. This religious sect not only divided themselves from many non-Jews, but also many Jews whom they believed didn’t live up to their interpretation of the Torah, the Jewish law from Moses.
Paul became a Christian about fifteen to twenty years before writing his letter to the Roman church. Paul said he eagerly wants to join them that they may benefit from him and he from them. He prayed for them consistently as you can see above. Most of whom he prayed for, populating the Roman church, did not have the Jewish badge.
When Paul believed the gospel of Jesus and lived by its power, it broke down common societal prejudices. But it not only broke down prejudices, it impelled Paul to serve and love against those he formerly those prejudices.
Paul assumed God sees what we do in this life and has an interest in it. Paul first said, “For God is my witness.” In verse eight, Paul told the Roman church how often he gives thanks for their faith in Jesus and, by extension, the uncommon lifestyle that accompanied it. To emphasize his consistent praying, he argues that God is a kind of legal witness to these prayers.
God did not create the world in a natural, metaphysical cocoon, with no intent to be involve Himself in every minute detail. He sustains all intentionally. He cares.
God not only sees what we do and has an interest in it, He intends for us to do certain things while avoiding others. Paul said he serves God with his whole spirit. Paul simply means that he fully engaged himself in his service to God with as much effort as he could give.
The Greek word Paul uses for serve comes from the cultic sphere of life that could also mean “worship.” The Greek word is used in religious contexts rather than master-employee or master-slave contexts. Paul assumes that God has revealed how we can serve Him. Paul assumes God has revealed how we can delight Him. Paul assumes that God likes particular actions and attitudes and not others.
People cannot do whatever they want and claim they’re serving God without first learning what it is God wants. Doctors don’t apply local anesthesia to your right foot to prepare for surgery on your left hand. Doctors first learn learn from you what’s hurting or needs correction, then they act. Likewise, in our relationship with God, we first learn who he is and what he likes by what he has communicated to us about himself.
He’s communicated to us through the gospel of Jesus. Paul’s faith evidenced itself via broken down personal prejudices. God liked that.
God Provided the Gospel to Benefit Us
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16, ESV)
Those who hear and believe the Gospel of Jesus can benefit from it.
Romans 1:16 launches Paul into the most sustained theological treatise we have from him. It lasts from Romans 1:16 through Romans 11:36. In it, Paul unfolds the meaning and relevance of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The benefits of the gospel outweigh the social pressures it may create. Paul said he’s not ashamed of the gospel. When Paul proclaimed the gospel in the ancient world—whether to Jews, Greeks, or Romans—he put himself at risk of persecution, injury, oppression, or even death. He told Jews, “We now know God through the message of a crucified Jewish peasant.” He told Greeks, “Only through the crucified Jew from Nazareth can you find true wisdom.” He told Romans, “There is one Lord, Jesus Christ, whose kingdom will soon rule over all—not Caesar.”
Paul didn’t say this to get rich, to start a riot against pagan cultic systems, to impose pressures on a corrupt government, to achieve fame from his debating prowess, or to start a separatist movement in desert caves.
Paul wanted people to hear the gospel because it is good news from God for them. People can benefit from it. People can connect with God through it. Paul let this desire to benefit others impel him despite the risks of publicly announcing a controversial.
The gospel might bring shame because it always brings to light evil perpetuated by humans. He names what’s wrong with the world. According to the gospel, each person stands at fault. Environment didn’t create evil. Poverty didn’t begin evil. Power didn’t conjure up evil.
Moral evil begins in each person’s heart. What leads an eighth-grader to punch another in the face leads a dictator to extinguish an entire class of people based on race or wealth. What leads a thirteen year old to watch pornography also leads frat-guys to gang rape a drunken co-ed.
But we don’t have to stand condemned before a holy God or travel the world to find paradise or inject chemicals to discover peace. The gospel clarifies the issue and offers the solution.
The gospel channels unique, divine power to the one who believes it. Paul said the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Humans stand in need of salvation. We need salvation form our own evil devices, salvation from God’s just wrath against wrongdoers, salvation from the wicked acts of others, salvation from deceptive schemes of thought, salvation from this world’s natural disasters, and salvation from our ultimate enemy, death.
The world’s evil does not bind the power of God. God created the world. The first humans turned astray preventing the full blessing of God from permeating the earth. While God’s partial blessing remains, corruption also festers—from hurricanes to the abuse of power. Through the gospel, God reverses the effects of corruption beginning by giving us new hearts and ending with a world that has his full blessing as he intended.
Through the gospel, God is making all things new. Through the gospel, you can be made new because God pledges to do so to the one who seeks him through the message of the gospel. Simply believe it.
The gospel channels God’s message to every human being. God does not discriminate on language, race, or nationality. He gave the gospel that all may hear it, understand it, believe it, and receive hope from it.
God does not use online marketing to the upper-middle class and above. He doesn’t send invites to only those with a college degree. He doesn’t look at your hair style or where you live. Through the particular message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, God makes himself universally available.
Your past doesn’t keep God from freely extending to you his message of hope and life. God knows death pervades, but he wants new life to sprout all over the world through the gospel.
The gospel derives from, fits within, and continues the grand story of God’s goal for the world. The events and message of Jesus Christ do not appear randomly in the vicissitudes of human history. God began the story with Adam, promised the blessing to Abraham, gave the law to Moses, promised a priest-king to David, and actuated all of his promises through Jesus Christ.
The story of the Hebrew Testament, the Old Testament, prepares the world for the story of Jesus Christ. All of God’s promises find their yes in Jesus. Most of these promises, Jesus inaugurated, but he won’t finalize them until the end of human history which will come at a cataclysmic event in which all will see the power of God and understand that Jesus is Lord of all.
God wants humans to be, without hindrance, those whom they were meant to be—individuals made in His image who love each other and have a thriving relationship with the one who made them. It takes God’s message and God’s power for humans to receive this purpose and live it.
God Likes Certain Attitudes and Behaviors, But Hates Others
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (Romans 1:18, ESV)
God distinguishes between good and evil. Not all behavior is good; not all is bad. God’s judgment resides outside the bounds of culture or human opinion. The gospel comes to us as good news of God’s grace, forgiveness, love, and hope because we all stand under his wrath. Paul assumes God is a personal God who has moral standards for how humans should act and think, and Paul assumed that this God applies these moral standards to the world—approving and praising the good while judging and condemning the bad.
God does this to humans and not to orangutans, tiger sharks, or golden retrievers because He made humans in his image to reflect his nature. By doing what God wouldn’t do, we wrong Him, defame Him, offend Him, belittle Him, and injure Him. God deeply cares about what we do.
I’m sure for most, this makes no sense because it doesn’t match our experience. Men don’t go to jail for lusting after another man’s bikini-clad wife and women don’t go to jail for coveting another woman’s flashy ride. But God would not have those thoughts nor commit deeds from lust or covetousness because those attitudes and behaviors don’t come from love. God is love and does what is loving. He made us to do the same. When we don’t, we commit a crime against God.
For these crimes, God holds us accountable responding by removing from us the life He gave to us and the good things we could receive while living the life He gave to us. People don’t create themselves nor conjure their own purpose for living. Death reminds everyone that we, ultimately, will never be the captain of our fate or the master of our soul.
Paul calls this kind of judgment, for wronging God, God’s wrath. It’s punishment. Just because you haven’t felt wrath against another—perhaps due to your exemption from the heinous, unjust crimes of criminals—doesn’t mean wrath isn’t real and that God doesn’t act from it.
The love of God directed his wrath to fall on the head of His perfect son that we, who are all guilty, might not receive it. Those who embrace the Son, through the gospel, step out from under the wrath of God into His unfettered love. But below, we’ll see what happens and why to those who don’t receive Jesus.
God actively opposes moral evil committed by people. Without Jesus, all people tip-toe on a thin sheet of ice that could break at any moment. We know it as death. Only Jesus can reverse death. We can’t reverse death on our own. No one cheats death. Only God’s grace and love, suspending the full release of his wrath, allows people to enjoy the bounty this world produces.
Yet, even though this lush earth sometimes hides the wrath of God against wrongdoing—whether it be to others, ourselves, or against Him—corruption and corrosion binds itself intrinsically to this world. That corrosion comes from the partial removal of God’s life-giving blessing.
That the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven signifies God dimming the full expression of the light of His beneficent presence. We know death. We know murder and hatred and greed. We know tsunamis and hurricanes and earthquakes. The world does not exist as God originally made it. God does not intend for it to eternally abide this way. So Jesus came to reconcile the world to God. Now God is revealing his salvation while also revealing his wrath.
So we experience not only the side of God that blesses, but also the side of God that curses.
God partially enacts judgment against people who commit evil and will one day fully judge those who do evil. We see the side of God that curses because of the wrath of his judgment that he partially reveals in the present world. While we don’t understand, completely, the cosmic meaning of all earthly events, we do know that God chooses to execute partial retribution against wrongdoing.
He does this that those who see it may stop whatever wrongdoing they commit, fostering death, and turn to him, the author of life.
We have the ability to label moral evil as unrighteousness and ungodliness. Paul assumes we’re able to place our finger on tangible actions and label them as ungodliness and unrighteousness. We can label falsehood, rape, theft, envy, lust, and pride as moral evils. God hates these acts no matter what culture or time period in which they surface.
No culture stands equal to another. Some civilizations hold more superiority than others. But all have moral evil in common. Some more, others less.
We can label evil practices done by individuals as well as systemic evil that pervades a society. In other words, unique perspectives do not determine whether evil is evil or good is good. Good and evil exist whether everyone recognizes it. However, most of us can and do whether we admit or not.
By doing what isn’t morally upright or in accordance with God’s intention, we personally squelch the presence and existence of the personal God who made us and loves us. In this verse, Paul said that the evil, which people perform, masks the truth. While this truth refers to God and God’s nature, it also refers to moral truth. Moral truth transcends cultural values. Just because a culture or people accept adultery as good doesn’t mean God does.
When people commit wrongdoing, they suppress God’s truth about himself and his intent for this world according to Paul. Evil deceives and blinds us from reality. Our false desires make us see reality as we want it to be rather than as it is.
All have been consigned under the propensity to commit moral evil. All have the inclination, and act on this inclination, to do ungodly and unrighteous deeds. All stand guilty before God by the guilt of our first ancestors, who disobeyed God, and because of the guilt from perpetuating that evil doing..
For many, inherited guilt is difficult to understand. More so, inherited consequences. But it’s like the children of Adolf Eichmann. He helped lead Hitler’s extermination of the Jews and was captured by Israeli agents and eventually executed. Eichmann had children, one young, when Israel found him guilty and hanged him. For Eichmann’s evil, the children inherited a fatherless life and the stigma of the deeds his father committed.
The difference between that illustration and our situation is that all have continued the evil done by our parents—while it may differ in expression from person to person, it continues in our nature, with our minds, through our lips, and by our hands.
The Gospel counteracts and overcomes the works of evil and satisfies God’s own judgment against it.
As we read in Romans 1:16, the gospel reveals the righteousness of God to all who receive it. God’s righteousness defeats the works of evil mentioned in Romans 1:18. This righteousness God gives to us for receiving Jesus because Jesus received the punishment we deserve—which he didn’t deserve.
Not only this, God gives us a new nature that gives us the power to conquer our evil and do good. While evil tendencies remain in us, God’s power can conquer them and we can confess this evil to God knowing that he can forgive and restore us.
One day, Christians will receive a new nature and a new body untainted, in any way, by the inclination to do evil or live in a world affected by it.
God Sometimes Punishes Us By Letting Us Get What We Want
“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” (Romans 1:28, ESV)
When we actively reject God, God actively rejects us. God does not coerce us to love him and do what he wants. When we reject God by doing evil and ignoring his ways, he lets us go. He lets us run free. He lets the wind of our desires carry us off the foundation of his truth.
When we reject God’s ways, the immediate judgment we receive is getting what we want.
Sometimes, the worst that happens to us comes to us when we get what we want. We think it will be better. We think we will have more money, feel better, be happier, enjoy more security, or earn more respect. But the attainment of that goal leaves us dissatisfied and hungrier for something more.
Similarly, God lets us loose to do the evil we want. Often that evil puts chains around us preventing us from escaping. By turning to Jesus, he’ll break the chains, let you lose, give you a new heart, redirect your life, and give a taste of what you’re truly looking for.
We can see God’s first judgment against evil—that judgment is we want what shouldn’t be wanted and ignore what’s true about God and this world.
The first glimpse of the evidence of evil in ourselves and in others lies in wanting what we shouldn’t want, refusing to believe what’s evidently true, and neglecting the existence of an involved God.
According to Paul, when we reject God, we believe what’s incorrect and engage false pursuits—like an all-cookie diet to lose weight.
The Gospel reveals that God actively pursues us even as we reject him. As we see in Romans 1:16, even though the natural state of humanity inclines away from the true God toward what’s evil—even as some good persists—God pursues us through the message of the Gospel because he loves us.
It’s God’s love that expels our evil inclinations, opens our eyes to His grace, and attracts our hearts to him.
We see glimpses of the power of love—especially in moms and dads toward their sons and daughters. This selfness and sacrificial love can be so moving to see—how much more when we actually experience it from the God of the cosmos.
The gospel reverses the affects of sinful corruption by teaching us what God is like, how to think about the world, and how to desire what is good.
When we embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, it first benefits us by changing the way we see God as well as the way we see the world. It changes our thinking. Thinking that used to corrupt us falls under the weighty truth of the gospel.
Then we grow by letting God’s truth permeate our minds, transform our desires, and alter our habits so that our lives more closely become reflections of God and his nature. We begin new lives aimed at imaging him. That new life begins, is sustained by, and has as its end a thriving relationship with the living God our father through his eternal son Jesus Christ.
Bibliography
1) The Lexham Hebrew Bible, 2012.
2) The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, 2016
3) Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 2003.
4) The Lexham Theological Wordbook, 2014.
5) The Lexham Bible Dictionary, 2016.
6) G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, 2007
7) Kurt Aland, Barbara Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metzger, Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th Edition, 2012
8) William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, 2000.
9) Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans, 2018