What Paul Wants the Romans to Know

Scripture Texts: Romans 1:1-4

Introduction

“Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that He was placated by my satisfaction. I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners.” So said Martin Luther in the year 1545, recounting how he habitually sunk in terror and dread at the thought of the righteousness of God, knowing he was entirely unworthy, that all his works were but hay and straw before the blaze of God’s holiness. But when the Lord opened up the true meaning of salvation to him, that this righteousness was a free gift given to sinners who lay hold of Christ by faith, then all was made new for him and he could not stop speaking about the justifying love and grace of Almighty God. The Lord quite literally changed his tune. And we have something similar, though to a greater extreme, with the apostle Paul. He hated and opposed and persecuted Christ and His church. If you remember Jesus’ words to him at his conversion, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me.” To persecute Christ’s body was to persecute Christ Himself. But this was his life; this was his mission. But what happened? The scales fell from his eyes and he was never the same. Now Paul, with all of his spirit, until the very end of his life, would proclaim the name of this same Jesus to all nations, never tiring of living for and speaking about his blessed Savior. The Lord changed his tune as well. And we see the fruit of this in Paul’s return to Jesus over and over again in this Christ-saturated, gospel-filled introduction to the letter to the church in Rome.