... in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, Lord
Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen. Glory
to You, our God, Glory to You.
O Heavenly King,
the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, You are everywhere and fill all things, Treasury
of blessings, and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every
impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal,
have mercy on us (three times).
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it is now, was in the beginning, and ever
shall be, world without end. Amen.
The
Epistle
Romans 1:1-32
Framework
The first chapter of Romans
divides itself naturally into four parts.
Each part consists of a longer narrative, and concludes with a terse
summary statement of some sort or other.
We have called this matrix of summary statements the framework of the
chapter: yet, of course, this framework will lead is forward into the
corresponding framework of the whole book of Romans.
This framework is fairly
obvious, consisting of these four statements:
7 “To all being in Rome, beloved by God, called
saints,
Joy to you all, and
peace from God our Father and [our] Lord
Jesus Christ.”
16 “For I am not ashamed of the good message:
for it is the power of God to salvation to all being convinced, both Jew and
Greek: 17for the justness of God is revealed in it, of conviction
into conviction, just as it stands written,
‘The just will live by conviction.’ ”
25b [The Creator] “Who is praised for the
ages. Amen.”
32 “Who having understood the justness of God,
that the ones practicing such
things are worthy of death; not only are doing, but also are approving the ones
practicing them.”
These four statements suggest
that Paul is far more concerned about the Divine call of the Greco-Romans, than
he is about his own credentials. His
credentials are merely the warmup, before the pitch, and now he delivers a
ninety-mile-per-hour fastball, right into the hearts of his readers.
They suggest that Paul is even
more concerned about the good message than he is about the attendant call of
the Greco-Romans. Paul can throw the
heat and now he delivers at one-hundred miles per hour. Flame and smoke are boiling off the ball as
he delivers the motto of Romans, “The
just will live by conviction.”
A slider delivers Paul’s third
concern, subtle, but even more important than personal conviction; equally
important with the good message. The
Creator of the Universe is alone worthy of praise and God is that Creator. How often we overlook this point. How often we assume that we understand Paul’s
letter without considering this. God has
created us; and not we ourselves; He is to be praised. Nothing of whatever Paul has to say has
meaning without this one fact sinking into our brains.
Finally, Paul delivers his
curve. God has standards of justness
that are neither bendable nor negotiable.
However, God loves His creation in spite of its many faults and
flaws. God created it in perfection, but
with the freedom to love Him or not love Him.
Still, there is a way of escape: for being worthy of death is not a
certainty of death.
These four statements are
pillars for the book of Romans: we are called; we live by conviction; we owe
allegiance to our Creator; He wants us to escape our own self-willed
condemnation, and we may do exactly that.
Sub-frame
We’re not done with the matrix,
yet. The following points might be
contested, but we would suggest the possibility that the second part divides
itself naturally into four sub-parts.
These, like bullets in a modern document, are:
†
Paul is thankful, especially for their conviction. (8-11)
†
Conviction brings the power and reality of one-another-ness. (12)
†
Paul treasures the Greco-Romans as brothers and sisters, seeing in them
a broader meaning for evangelism: far beyond simply leading people to Christ. (13-15)
†
Paul sees conviction as the core issue of life. (16-17)
Conclusion
Perhaps, as you read and reread
the first chapter of Romans, other things will stand out to you. That’s a good thing. What is important is that you engage the book
of Romans with energy and wrestling: wrestling for life itself.
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