Romans 1:1-7
Romans 1:1-7 forms the salutation of the letter to the Romans. Greco-Roman letter salutations customarily included the name of the author, the name of the recipients, and a greeting. Any of these three elements could be expanded according to the purpose of the letter writer. The salutation of Romans is by far the longest of the salutations of any of the surviving (and canonical) letters of Paul. The expansion is almost entirely found in the name of the author. That is, Paul spends far more time introducing himself as author in Romans than in any of his other letters. The most likely explanation of this is that the apostle had not planted the church at Rome and had never visited there, but was planning on coming for a visit and was wanting the Roman believers to support him in his mission to Spain (Romans 15:22-28). In a sense the whole letter to the Romans is an introduction to the apostle and his vision of the gospel and the salutation begins that introduction within the very first verse.
Paul begins by identifying himself by his relationship with Christ. He is “a servant of Jesus Christ.” (NRSV) The Greek word translated “servant” is doulos – a slave, and thus without yet using the word Paul has confessed Jesus as his Lord (kyrios). The first thing the Romans were to know about him was that he was bound to Jesus in a loving commitment of obedience and service. It is easy on the final Sunday before Advent to think of Jesus simply as a sweet baby; the apostle understood that Jesus is Lord and that truth calls for us to become love-slaves of the Messiah. From his identity Paul turns to his vocation. He is “called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel.” Though he was unknown by face to most of the Roman believers, they were in no danger of being taken in or led astray by him. His apostleship was by divine calling. His vocation was the gospel.
Paul had already encountered pastoral challenges in the churches of Galatia and the congregation at Corinth over their failure to understand and stay true to the gospel (2 Corinthians 11:4; Galatians 1.6). Perhaps that is why he gives particular attention to describing and defining the gospel to which he was dedicated. The gospel Paul preached was not his invention; it was “the gospel of God,” as the genitive indicates source or origin rather than simply possession. This gospel was “promised beforehand” by God “through his prophets in the holy scriptures.” With these words Paul draws the Romans’ attention to the first article of the earliest Christian preaching, the kerygma, that the coming of Christ brought the fulfillment of the long awaited promises of the Old Testament. Not only scripture, but time was fulfilled (see Galatians 4:4) when Jesus came. Israel’s waiting was over and the future hope had become the present certainty.
In the considered opinion of a majority of Pauline scholars, the apostle quotes or enlarges upon early Christian tradition in verses 3-4. The literary parallelism between the confession of Jesus “according to the flesh” in verse 3 and the declaration of Jesus as “Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness” points to a pre-Pauline creedal statement dating back to the Aramaic speaking church in Jerusalem. By identifying the gospel he preached with this early creed, Paul showed himself to be orthodox and reliable in his preaching. The Romans need not fear heresy or division from the gospel Paul proclaimed. These verses appear to play a significant role in Paul’s presentation of his Christian (ordination) credentials.
Though it probably would not have been intrinsically important to his Gentile readers, the apostle connects Jesus in his humanity to being “descended from David.” This confession of Jesus as Son of David was one of the ways the church affirmed that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. From a Jewish perspective this meant the long, long exile was over, the Messiah had come, and God’s goals for human history were about to be accomplished. Though Messianic hope was particular to Judaism, as the church became mostly Gentile, this faith that God’s goals for human history were now able to be accomplished through Jesus remained central to the Christian faith. It is also that affirmation of Jesus as son of David in verse 3 that inspired the framers of the lectionary to include Romans 1:1-7 as the epistle reading for the 4th Sunday of Advent.
Many Romans scholars believe that Paul enlarged the early pre-Pauline creed by adding the words in verse 4, “with power” and “by resurrection from the dead.” To say that Jesus was “declared to be Son of God” left the earliest church susceptible to an adoptionistic Christology. By the slight modification of words Paul closes that door to misunderstanding and affirms that God declared or even destined Jesus to be Son of God with power over sin and death by the act of raising Jesus from the dead. The centrality of the resurrection in establishing Jesus’ divine sonship is an important reminder for a church easily caught up in the cultural (and commercialized) baggage of Christmas. The resurrection was the most essential of Christian confessions (se 1 Corinthians 15:12-19) for Paul’s understanding of the gospel and it must remain so today.
The relatively detailed definition of the gospel of God’s Son in verses 3-4 concludes by affirming “Jesus Christ” to be “our Lord.” As Kyrios Jesus commands our allegiance and obedience. As Lord (Kyrios) Jesus was the means through which Paul had “received grace and apostleship.” The wonderful, matchless grace of Jesus had not only provided Paul salvation, it had also provided him with a vocation of apostleship. As he often noted, that apostleship had specific focus in his work in, with, and for the Gentiles. In an expression unique to Romans Paul declares that the purpose of his apostleship was “to bring about the obedience of faith.” The sentiment of the Christmas season can easily lead people who claim to be Christian to imagine that their faith in Jesus is strong. For Paul, faith that is not characterized by obedience is not faith at all. That is an important truth for the Advent season.
Because Paul’s apostleship is for “all the Gentiles” he feels authorized to exercise his apostolic leadership for the church at Rome. So, after 5 verses of introducing himself and explaining his gospel, the apostle turns to describe more briefly his audience. In verse 6 they are “called to belong to Jesus Christ.” The Greek text for this phrase could be understood to mean the Romans were called of (or by) Jesus Christ. However, the translation “called to belong to Jesus Christ” is both most natural and most consistent with Paul’s understanding of the Christian life. If his readers are “called to belong to Jesus Christ” they are called to be the love-slaves (douloi) of Christ and thus they are called to confess and live with Jesus as Lord. Thus Paul links his understanding of who the Romans are with his understanding (verse 1) of who he is in relationship to Jesus.
In verse 7 the Roman readers are also “God’s beloved.” Both Old and New Testaments are clear that believers love God because he first loved us. The gift of Christ celebrated at Christmas most powerfully expresses God’s special love for his people. Verse 7 also declares that the Romans are “called to be saints.” Popular culture has caricatured and debased this word, but its original meaning is holy persons. The readers of Romans – both those original readers in Rome, and all readers since, are called to be holy persons. Paul will eventually challenge the Romans to support him in his intended mission to Spain (Romans 15:28). But before they are ready to meet that challenge they must first rise to the challenge and calling to be holy as the Lord their God is holy.
Finally, the salutation of Romans arrives at the end of verse 7 at the traditional Pauline letter greeting, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul clearly understood these words as effective words of blessing. By the writing and speaking of these words “grace” flowed from God the Father and Jesus the Son into the lives of those who received these words. Likewise, the “peace” (shalom) of God permeates into the lives of those who receive this blessing. Surely it is no accident that these words of blessing and greeting echo the message of the heavenly host who sang in Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.”