Addressing the church in Rome, Paul calls Christians by the word that is key to understanding Christianity. He calls them saints. And the point is not that they were all...
Addressing the church in Rome, Paul calls Christians by the word that is key to understanding Christianity. He calls them saints. And the point is not that they were all righteous people. The idea of holiness as righteousness became characteristic of medieval Christianity, but in early Christian times holiness meant something else. It meant roughly the same thing it had meant in earlier, pre-Christian times. Then holiness meant, first of all, sanctification. It was a special state of nature or of a person that had come into contact with God's presence, that presence of God which was revealed in places chosen by God. For example, at Yahwist altars, which never appeared by accident, but always there and then, where and when God manifested Himself and in one way or another made His presence known.
This presence, invisible to the eye yet completely real, could change the nature of whatever it touched. This naturally included the human being. But the human being had one special feature: he necessarily had to take conscious part in the process of his own sanctification. A person can change when he encounters God, but only if he himself wants this, turns to God with the corresponding request, and then gives himself fully into God's power so that God may fulfill that request. Then a person can become different. His life can become different. In biblical language, his soul. And his heart as well.
The heart comes first, because it is there, in the heart, that the question is decided: will a person give himself to God or not? In the language of the Bible, the heart is the source of a person's will, his spiritual self, the very place where choice is made and decisions are taken. And the state of the heart then determines a person's life, its course, what the Bible calls the soul: the stream of life in which a person abides and which flows through the person. It is what a modern philosopher would call existence.
The fullness of this stream with God's presence is what the New Testament books call the holiness of a person and of his life. Of course, the call to holiness had sounded earlier as well. But before Christ's coming, if it was attainable at all, it was attainable only in part. Now it is different, when, according to the Savior's word, the Kingdom has drawn near. Now it is open to everyone who seeks, and everyone who seeks can share in its life. Christianity, in essence, is nothing other than the life of the Kingdom and life in the Kingdom. Everything else is secondary.
That is why Paul and the other apostles call Christians saints: they are sanctified by the life they live and carry within themselves. Of course, this does not yet guarantee not only Christ's sinlessness, but even traditional Yahwist righteousness, which presupposed a person's ability to follow God despite his own sinfulness. Such sanctification is not a human achievement at all: it does not depend on the person; it is given to him as a gift. But what he does with this gift depends only on the person. For Christianity is a path that must be walked. And Paul knows this path far from hearsay.
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1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ - To this introduction the conclusion answers, Rom 15:15, etc Called to be an apostle - And made an apostle by that calling. While God calls, he makes what he calls. As the Judaizing teachers disputed his claim to the apostolical office, it is with great propriety that he asserts it in the very entrance of an epistle wherein their principles are entirely overthrown. And various other proper and important thoughts are suggested in this short introduction; particularly the prophecies concerning the gospel, the descent of Jesus from David, the great doctrines of his Godhead and resurrection, the sending the gospel to the gentiles, the privileges of Christians, and the obedience and holiness to which they were obliged in virtue of their profession. Separated - By God, not only from the bulk of other men, from other Jews, from otherdisciples, but even from other Christian teachers, to be a peculiar instrument of God in spreading the gospel.
1:2 Which he promised before - Of old time, frequently, solemnly.And the promise and accomplishment confirm each other. Deu 18:18; Isa 9:6-7; Isa 53:1; Isa 61:1; Jer 23:5.
1:3 Who was of the seed of David according to the flesh - That is, with regard to his human nature. Both the natures of our Saviour are here mentioned; but the human is mentioned first, because the divine was not manifested in its full evidence till after his resurrection.
1:4 But powerfully declared to be the Son of God, according to the Spirit of Holiness - That is, according to his divine nature.By the resurrection from the dead - For this is both the fountain and the object of our faith; and the preaching of the apostles was the consequence of Christ's resurrection.
1:5 By whom we have received - I and the other apostles.Grace and apostleship - The favour to be an apostle, and qualifications for it. For obedience to the faith in all nations - That is, that all nations may embrace the faith of Christ.For his name - For his sake; out of regard to him.
1:6 Among whom - The nations brought to the obedience of faith.Are ye also - But St. Paul gives them no preeminence above others.
1:7 To all that are in Rome - Most of these were heathens by birth, Rom 1:13, though with Jews mixed among them.They were scattered up and down in that large city, and not yet reduced into the form of a church. Only some had begun to meet in the house of Aquila and Priscilla. Beloved of God - And from his free love, not from any merit of yours, called by his word and his Spirit to believe in him, and now through faith holy as he is holy. Grace - The peculiar favour of God.And peace - All manner of blessings, temporal, spiritual, and eternal. This is both a Christian salutation and an apostolic benediction. From God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ - This is the usual way wherein the apostles speak, "God theFather," "God our Father." Nor do they often, in speaking of him, use the word Lord, as it implies the proper name of God, Jehovah. In the Old Testament, indeed, the holy men generally said, "The Lord our God;" for they were then, as it were, servants; whereas now they are sons: and sons so well know their father, that they need not frequently mention his proper name. It is one and the same peace, and one and the same grace, which is from God and from Jesus Christ. Our trust and prayer fix on God, as he is the Father of Christ; and on Christ, as he presents us to the Father.
1:8 I thank - In the very entrance of this one epistle are the traces of all spiritual affections; but of thankfulness above all, with the expression of which almost all St. Paul's epistles begin. He here particularly thanks God, that what otherwise himself should have done, was done at Rome already.My God - This very word expresses faith, hope, love, and consequently all true religion. Through Jesus Christ - The gifts of God all pass through Christ to us; and all our petitions and thanksgivings pass through Christ to God.That your faith is spoken of - In this kind of congratulations St. Paul describes either the whole of Christianity, as Col 1:3, etc ; or some part of it, as Co1 1:5.Accordingly here he mentions the faith of the Romans, suitably to his design, Rom 1:12, Rom 1:17. Through the whole world - This joyful news spreading everywhere, that there were Christians also in the imperial city. And the goodness and wisdom of God established faith in the chief cities; in Jerusalem and Rome particularly; that from thence it might be diffused to all nations.
1:9 God, whom I serve - As an apostle. In my spirit - Not only with my body, but with my inmost soul. In the gospel - By preaching it.
1:10 Always - In all my solemn addresses to God.If by any means now at length - This accumulation of particles declares the strength of his desire.
1:11 That I may impart to you - Face to face, by laying on of hands, prayer, preaching the gospel, private conversation. Some spiritual gift - With such gifts the Corinthians, who had enjoyed the presence of St. Paul, abounded, Co1 1:7; Co1 12:1; Co1 14:1. So did the Galatians likewise, Gal 3:5; and, indeed, all those churches which had had the presence of any of the apostles had peculiar advantages in this kind, from the laying on of their hands, Act 19:6; Act 8:17, etc, Ti2 1:6. But as yet the Romanswere greatly inferior to them in this respect; for which reason the apostle, in the twelfth chapter also, says little, if any thing, of their spiritual gifts. He therefore desires to impart some, that they might be established; for by these was the testimony of Christ confirmed among them. That St. Peter had no more been at Rome than St. Paul, at the time when this epistle was wrote, appears from the general tenor thereof, and from this place in particular: for, otherwise, what St. Paul wishes to impart to the Romans would have been imparted already by St. Peter.
1:12 That is, I long to be comforted by the mutual faith both of you and me - He not only associates the Romans with, but even prefers them before, himself. How different is this style of the apostle from that of the modern court of Rome!
1:13 Brethren - A frequent, holy, simple, sweet, and yet grand, appellation. The apostles but rarely address persons by their names; 'O ye Corinthians," "O Timotheus." St. Paul generally uses this appellation, " Brethren;" sometimes in exhortation, " My beloved," or, " My beloved brethren;" St. James, "Brethren," "My brethren," My beloved brethren;" St. Peter and Jude always, " Beloved;" St. John frequently, " Beloved;" once, " Brethren;"oftener than once, My little children." Though I have been hindered hitherto - Either by
- business, see Rom 15:22; or
- the Spirit, Act 16:7.
That I might have some fruit - Of my ministerial labours.Even as I have already had from the many churches I have planted and watered among the other gentiles.1:14 To the Greeks and the barbarians - He includes the Romans under the Greeks; so that this division comprises all nations.Both to the wise, and the unwise - For there were unwise even among the Greeks, and wise even among the barbarians.I am a debtor to all - I am bound by my divine mission to preach the gospel to them.