Day 2: Why Did We Move?

It's Day 2 of our journey through Romans together, and in your transition time too. What might you be experiencing today? You have made the trek across the ocean, and you're exhausted. After all of the emotional buildup to this one day, you are now beginning to let down and see reality. This reality sets in and you realize that you have finally made it and you get to begin putting into action the calling that God set in your hearts. You know what also sets in at the same time? Fear and doubt.

I can imagine maybe on this day, when you enter a new, beautiful, terrifying country, that you might ask yourself, "Why did we just make that trip?" and "What now?"

Let's dip into the well of God's Word and seek answers to those questions.

Paul opens his letter to the Romans with an identity statement:

"Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God," 

- Romans 1:1

R.C. Sproul, in his commentary on Romans, says that when Paul opens his letter this way, he is essentially saying, "I have been commissioned to proclaim God's gospel, the gospel belongs to him. It is his possession, and I am going to communicate it to you" (Sproul 18).

Not only is the gospel God's, but it always has been God's. Even before the prophets, this gospel was promised by God. And now Paul has been set apart for its sake - as a servant. He is a servant of Christ Jesus, and also an unlikely apostle (he hadn't been with Jesus as a disciple before Jesus ascended, unlike other apostles), yet one who has definitively been called. The word apostle means, "someone who is sent, a messenger" (Morris 39), and Paul was specifically one who was sent to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13). Why was he sent? 

Paul was sent because he was set apart for the gospel. He is not in this way separated from something, in a negative sense, but rather to something so wonderful - the gospel. This doesn't mean he's only separated to preach the gospel, but to literally be a "gospel man, to live the gospel" (Morris 40).

After that introduction, we have a really long run-on sentence. Come on, Paul, let us breathe! Bear with him in this, because it's worth it!

"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

This Gospel changes everything, and it is Jesus who plays the central role.

It's not only Paul who was called to the Gospel, but the Roman Christians. Douglas Moo says it this way: "As Paul has been 'called' to be an apostle, so the Roman Christians have been 'called' to be people who name Jesus as Christ and Lord" (Moo 54). For who's sake is obedience of faith? For the sake of his name among all the nations, including you.

So just as you, one who used to be far off from relationship with God, were brought to him by faith and made righteous (that means, being made right in his eyes), now you get to live out that faith among all the nations. Yes, you get to live out this faith in this new country that you just moved to! 

Just like Paul was called to be an apostle, and the Romans Christians were called to be Christ's people, so you are called to be a messenger and ambassador for Christ. It is for this Gospel that you were set apart: Jesus, descended from David, the Son of God, our Lord, became Incarnate, lived, died and was resurrected, so that we might receive grace and live in faith. 

No matter what doubts you have today, know that your calling was and is true. It is the calling you not only received to go to the country you're in now, but it's your calling when you received the grace that comes by faith in Jesus Christ! Now you get to participate in obedience to him, for his name's sake. You belong to him, and you have been called by him. There is no doubt about that. 

Works Cited:

Moo, Douglas J. Romans. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000. Print.

Morris, Leon. The Epistle to the Romans. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1988. Print.