The Epistle to the Romans is considered Paul’s masterpiece. Coleridge thought it to be the most profound work ever written. Calvin stated that it opened the door to all the treasures of Scripture. Luther esteemed it the chief book of the New Testament, and the purest gospel. Godet styled it the cathedral of the Scriptures. A great writer has said of Phoebe, when she sailed to Rome, carrying the parchment, on which was inscribed the Epistle to the Romans, “She carried beneath the folds of her robe the whole future of Christian Theology.”
Its start is amazing, a veritable multum in parvo, not only in what is stated, but in what is implied. Romans 1:1-5 needs only a few strokes of the pen as far as writing is concerned, and yet what is presented and implied in these verses would take volumes to expound.
To begin with, the Epistle to the Romans is the orderly presentation of the gospel of the grace of God to Christians, to those who had already believed it. When we are first converted, beyond being convicted of our sin by the working of the Holy Spirit upon our consciences, and then the gracious presentation of a loving Saviour, who died for us in love upon the cross of shame, bringing us peace and joy in believing, we knew next to nothing of the truth of the gospel of God. The careful understanding of the Epistle to the Romans lays, however, a very solid foundation in the soul of the believer.
In these opening verses of the Epistle we have presented to us:
(1) The gospel of God.
(2) Its promise in the Old Testament.
(3) Its Mediator.
(4) Its triumphant proof.
(5) Its reception.
(6) Its results.
(1) It is the gospel of God. God is its source. It springs from His heart of infinite love. It is God’s glad tidings. It is the only ray of hope to a perishing world. It is conceived in all its parts by God Himself—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—in Divine counsel.
(2) It was promised centuries before the birth of Christ into this world by the prophets in the Holy Scriptures. No sooner did sin come into the world than the promise was given that the seed of the woman, that is Christ Himself, should bruise the serpent’s head, implying the cross of our Lord where this victory was obtained. This promise runs through the Old Testament in book after book. It is seen in the coats of skin with which the Lord God covered our first parents, type of the atoning work of our Lord, procuring righteousness for the believing sinner. We have it set forth in Abel’s offering. We have it set forth in the Paschal lamb slain on the night the destroying angel passed through the land of Egypt. We have its promise in the writings of Isaiah, notably in chapter 53. We have it in the breathing of the Psalms, especially Psalm 22. Men’s minds were being prepared for the wonderful moment when type and prophecy should be fulfilled in the Person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(3) The gospel of God is concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The usual idea is that the gospel concerns us sinners. It does indeed most blessedly, but first of all it is for the glory of God, and it concerns His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Sinners get the blessing, but that can only come through the finished work of our Lord upon the cross.
We are told that He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. What does it mean when it speaks of our Lord being made of the seed of David? Solomon was of the seed of David. But he was not existent till he was born. He was the seed of David. He was not made of the seed of David. But here we are told of a Divine Person, who was made of the seed of David, who came of David’s seed according to the flesh. Is not the Deity of our Lord implied, His Manhood stated? Is there not a great mystery wrapped up in this great truth?
All the great controversies that have raged in the Christian Church since the days of the fathers down the ages to this present time have centred on this very point, it has ever been the ceaseless attack of Satan. Reduce our Lord to mere manhood refuse His Deity, and the whole of Scripture becomes a fraud. Refuse His true Manhood, pure and sinless, and you have lost the Saviour. “The Father sent the Son [Deity] to be the Saviour [Manhood] of the world” (1 John 4:14).
Scripture is plain. “GOD was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16). “We are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). “The Word was God. The Same was in the beginning with God … And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:1-2, 14). “Who are Israelites … of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen” (Rom. 9:4-5).
It is no wonder with such a Mediator the blessings of the gospel flow world-wide to mankind in every place for all the time. And it is manifest that the mystery of the union of Godhead and Manhood in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ must be beyond the comprehension of the creature. Our Lord Himself said emphatically, “No man knows the Son, but the Father” (Matt. 11:27). Though beyond our comprehension, it is not beyond our faith. It constitutes one of the greatest and most cherished of the fundamentals of the Christian faith. “Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:5).
(4) The triumphant proof of the gospel is the declaration by His glorious resurrection, that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God, and that with power and according to holiness. If our Lord were not what He said He was, God would never have raised Him from the dead. The Jews fully understood that the claim our Lord made that God was His Father was the claim to Deity, for we read, “The Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God” (John 5:18). If that were not a true claim, it would have been the extreme height of blasphemy. If it were not true, God would never have raised Him from the dead. Moreover, if in His holy Manhood there had been the faintest breath of sin, even in thought, God would not have raised a sinner from the dead. Above all He claimed with His latest breath that He had completed the work of redemption on the cross, crying with a loud voice, “IT IS FINISHED” (John 19:30). If that had not been true, God would never have raised Him from the dead.
Moreover, it came with power. There were outward signs. The rent veil, the chased-away darkness, the rending of the rocks, the mighty earthquake, the opening of the graves after His resurrection, and the outstanding miracle of saints, already dead, being raised, and appearing to many in the holy city, proof that the power of death was broken, extorted the confession from the Roman centurion as he watched the Holy Sufferer, and witnessed His death, “TRULY THIS WAS THE SON OF GOD” (Matt. 27:54).
Moreover the manner of His resurrection was unique. The Jews remembered the words of our Lord when He again and again said He would rise the third day. They urged on Pilate that the tomb in which His body was laid should be guarded against the possible plot of His disciples to steal His body, by placing round it a powerful Roman guard. To make precaution doubly effective, the tomb was sealed.
Did all this effect its purpose? We do not believe that it was necessary to roll away the stone to allow the Lord to emerge from the tomb. The way the clothes were left, not crumpled up and in disorder, but rather like a chrysalis leaving its silken sheath in the energy of a new life, declares this.
The demonstration on the part of Divine power was seen in the great earthquake, and the angel of the Lord descending and rolling back the stone. The appearance of the angel, unlike most visitations of angels, was enough to make the strong soldiers shake with fear, and become as dead men. The angelic countenance was like lightning, and his raiment was white as snow. Thus, was our Lord declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection.
Finally we read that “with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection” (Acts 4:33). Notice, “GREAT power.” Scripture does not throw its adjectives about at random. Every word tells as here. No wonder the Jews cried to the magistrates of Thessalonica, “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also” (Acts 17:6).
A Mohammedan urged that his belief was superior to Christianity, because they could take the one great pilgrimage of their lives to the tomb of their prophet in Arabia, whereas the Christian had no tomb. The Mohammedan however, played into the hands of the Christian, who replied in something like these words, “Yes, you have the tomb of your prophet, for he is dead, and his bones lie in his coffin; the Christian needs no tomb for he has no corpse, Jesus is triumphant, alive for evermore, risen from the dead.”
A schoolmaster asked his boys to state, who were the three greatest living persons. One lad began his list with the name of the Lord Jesus. “But,” said the schoolmaster, “Jesus is dead.” “No, sir” replied the young scholar, “He is alive.”
Yes, the resurrection is the great proof of the Son of God, and that great fact is the confirmation of all that our Lord was as God and Man, and Saviour. I remember urging upon an infidel the great truth of our Lord’s resurrection. He replied, “If you can prove the resurrection, I am bound to be a Christian.”
(5) The Epistle makes it abundantly plain that the reception of the gospel is by FAITH, and by nothing else. The law cannot bring about this blessing. Nor can any works of man earn it. It comes by God’s grace, its source; by our Lord Jesus Christ as its Mediator on the ground of His redemptive work performed to God’s satisfaction at the cross. It comes as the declaration of God’s righteousness, “that He might be just, and the Justifier of Him, which believes in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). Faith and faith alone links the believer to the Lord Jesus, with all the blessings—forgiveness of sins, salvation, justification, eternal life—consequent on so believing. It is a glorious gospel, and worthy of God. To Him be all the praise, world without end.
(6) Its results are world-wide. The Apostle “received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations, for His Name” (Rom. 1:5). You have only to read the Acts of the Apostles to see how faithfully Paul carried out his commission, surely in line with the risen Lord’s commission given to His disciples, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). The resurrection indeed set in movement a mighty force, which the centuries have witnessed. Converts by the million have sprung up. Every part of the world has contributed to this great effort.
John in prophetic vision saw in part the grand results of this glorious resurrection, “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands” (Rev. 7:9). And these are only a section of the great ransomed throng that will sing, “Salvation to our God, which sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb” (Rev. 7:10).