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223 Chapter 10 Romans: God Justifies the Ungodly Not Ashamed of the gospel Imagine living in the crowded, dirty, exciting capital of the empire, the city of Rome. As a decade-long believer in Christ, you have heard of the missionary Paul, but you have never met him. You learned at work yesterday that the congregation had received a letter from him, so you rush to the weekly worship gathering to hear it read. The letter starts out well enough: “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle”(Rom 1:1). Soon he indicates that he wants to proclaim the gospel in Rome (1:15). And then he explains why he wants to do that: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (1:16). Why does he say he is not ashamed, what exactly is this gospel, and how does he view faith? You would ask similar questions of any Christ-believing teacher, but you have heard that Paul is soft on the Law and on ethical behavior. 224 | Paul: Apostle to the Nations Introducing Paul and His gospel As is typical of Paul, he places his theological cards on the table in the opening section of the letter (1:1-17). Because these lines are filled with information about the way Paul understands himself, his mission, and the Roman congregation he addresses, they deserve particular attention at the start of our discussion of the letter. The salutation (1:1-7) is structured in typical fashion: sender (Paul) to recipients (“to all God’s beloved in Rome”), greetings (“grace to you and peace”). What is not typical is the dramatic way in which Paul expands his self-identification. Since he is writing to a congregation he did not found,he needs to introduce himself and his gospel in ways unnecessary in his other letters. Paul says four things about himself in verse 1: 1. His name is Paul, which was his legal name outside Judean circles. 2. He is “a servant of Jesus Christ.”The Greek word doulos, often translated “servant,” is better translated with its more literal meaning, slave. The people of Israel often thought of themselves as slaves of God, with slave of God a title of honor for Moses, Joshua, David, and the prophets (2 Kgs 18:12; Judg 2:8; 2 Sam 7:5; Jer 7:25, for example). In addition, as Robert Jewett has reminded us,1 Romans was written to the capital city of the Roman Empire. That empire was run by a vast bureaucracy, much of which was composed of slaves. On their tombstones, they proudly proclaimed that they were the “slaves of Caesar.”Who is Paul, then? He also is a slave, but a slave of Christ. In writing to a city whose population was composed of 25 to 40 percent slaves,2 Paul’s language was particularly appropriate. What Paul is doing is to introduce himself with the proper credentials as the representative not of Caesar but of Christ Jesus. And he declares that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, terms with royal meaning , as they designate the anointed king of Israel who is to be the ruler of all kings (Pss 72:8-11; 89:27; Isa 11:1-4). Such language sets up the political-religious contrast between Caesar and Christ.3 3. Paul is “called to be an apostle.” Paul did not appoint himself to be an apostle. God called him (see Gal 1:1, 11-12; Acts 9, 22, 26). 4. Paul says he was “set apart for the gospel of God,” meaning God had called him to a particular task (see also Gal 1:15-16).The particular task was to announce the “gospel of God.” Gospel (euaggelion) literally means good news.The word was used in imperial propaganda. So the citizens of Priene, in the province of Asia, proclaimed concerning Caesar Augustus in 9 bce: “Not only has he surpassed earlier benefactors of humanity, but he leaves no hope to those of the future that they might surpass him. The god’s [birthday] was for the world the beginning of the good news [plural of euaggelion / gospel] that he brought.”4 As Helmut Koester has reminded us, such inscriptions “result from the religio-political propaganda of Augustus in which the rule of peace, initiated by Augustus’ [3.16.83...

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