“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 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, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name, among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” Romans 1:1-6
Romans is an extraordinary book that opens with the most extraordinary news of all, which is the fact of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul introduces himself. It’s a letter to the church in Rome, after all, and in doing so lets us know that this isn’t about him at all, but about Jesus Christ and His gospel. And what is that exactly? It’s that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, according to prophecy, lived a perfect life, was crucified for sin, and was raised again from the dead so that all who are called to believe in Him will have eternal life.
This, the glory of the gospel, is Paul’s focus and delight. It’s what he lives for and sees as the central thing of his entire existence. Look at what most people are proud of in this world. They boast of their job, their income, their education and things like that. Paul, on the other hand, comes out swinging with an entirely different priority. He identifies himself as a servant., which is to say in this case that he’s someone totally at the disposal of another. But it’s who this other is that counts and that’s the whole point to it.
Paul’s point, his focus and his joy, is his identity in Christ. Much misery is avoided in life when we’re alert to this fundamental privilege of Christian life. We read that Paul has received the special call, through grace, of apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith – in us – who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
This is something that’s so often overlooked and given short thrift in Christian living. Paul starts his gospel with it. We should be forever ecstatic over our high privilege in Christ, to whom we are called to belong. This is what Paul is telling us. We often fret over the little particulars in life (not that they aren’t important at all) while ignoring the grandest thing of all: our salvation through faith in Christ. It’s for this that the universe has come into existence! The whole point of life is in this opening paragraph. God’s sovereign plan, from eternity past through this very instant, and to the age to come, is for Christ to be glorified by the redemption of the elect. All of the law and the prophets, that is, the holy Scriptures, testified to this very thing. There are no random facts in this universe. All is the Lord’s and part of His redemptive plan.
Thus, the point of our lives – every little detail of them – is to know and worship God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
In this opening we also see the glorious doctrine of the trinity as the work of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all on display. And what goal do they work toward? The gospel of Jesus Christ. To omit this historical/theological point of life is to cast oneself into an abyss of uncertainty and depression. Christ is presented here as the goal of history and life. All attempts to live outside of Him, or to understand history without the cross and resurrection, are futile because all things were made through Him, to Him, and for Him. The problem of our lives is sin. But Christ took away the penalty and power of sin. And we look forward to that great Day of consummation, in the age to come, where we will also be delivered, by Him, from even the presence of sin.
The great calamity of weak Christian living, that is a Christian still entangled by sin and brought low by it, is due to our lack of focus. When our focus shifts from Him and His word, the vacuum is filled by the world.
The aspect of “according to the flesh” ties His life to this earth. He was a real man; the God-man. There is a temptation to over-spiritualize things. There’s a sense of “what does the physical world matter in light of spiritual truth?” But the two are reconciled in that Christ was descended in the flesh and walked among us. This means that our daily lives matter and derive their meaning from Him. Our work, no matter how seemingly meager, matters because this is His world. Sure, it’s still sin-infected but we are, in Him, the first fruits of the redemptive plan what will one day make all things new.
Plus, “he was declared to be the Son of God, in power, by His resurrection from the dead.” What a line! Paul throws down, so to speak. Jesus conquered death and not only that but we’re told the _meaning _of His resurrection. It was to declare Himself as the Son of God, the Savior and Lord. This was all preordained, just like our calling. The Bible everywhere presumes God’s sovereign control over the events of history and much anxiety is avoided when we contemplate the enormity of what it means. Far from stripping us of freedom, it grants it to us in that it delivers us from living in a chance-riddled universe devoid of meaning. Many times we may not know exactly why something happened, but we know the God who does. This process, when we think about it humbly, and pray over it, brings us further into submission to Him. Reliance upon self is antithetical to Christianity.
Lastly, we often are anxious because we don’t know the future – and yet we do. We know how this plays out…with us in the presence of God, through faith alone, redeemed by Christ, glorifying Him with all the other saints, rescued from condemnation, free from the tyranny of death, of tears, and pain. All of sin will be gone and, with It, all the penalties too. That’s our future in Christ. We have glory and peace and joy in the presence of the God who saved us. This we know about the future. We simply don’t know the in-betweens. How do we live with this knowledge? Simply by faith. We live by reasoning backwards.
If this is our reality and that is our destiny, what type of lives should we now live?
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