Paul's letter to the Romans it's one of
the longest and most significant things
ever written by the man who was formerly
known as Saul of Tarsus he was a Jewish
rabbi belonging to a group known as the
Pharisees and he was passionate and
devout to the Torah of Moses in the
traditions of Israel and he saw Jesus
and his followers as a threat but then
he had a radical encounter with the
risen Jesus who commissioned him as an
apostle like an official representative
to the world of non Jewish people called
Gentiles in the Bible so he started
going by his Roman name Paul and he
traveled all around the ancient Roman
Empire telling people about the risen
King Jesus and forming his followers
then into these new communities called
churches and Paul would occasionally
write letters to these new Jesus
communities to help them foster their
faith or answer questions in the book of
Romans is one of these it was actually
written quite late in his career now we
know from the book of Acts that the
church in Rome had existed for some time
that it was made up of Jewish and
non-jewish followers of Jesus but at one
point the Roman Emperor Claudius had
expelled all of the Jewish people from
Rome and then about five years later all
of those Jews including Jesus following
Jews were allowed to return and when
they did they found a church that had
become very non Jewish in custom and
practice and so this created lots of
tension so that by Paul's day the Roman
Church was divided people disagreed
about how to follow Jesus they were
debating about whether non-jewish
Christians should celebrate the Sabbath
or eat kosher or be circumcised and so
Paul wrote this letter to accomplish a
few things he wanted this divided church
to become unified and for a practical
purpose he was hoping that the Roman
Church could become a staging ground for
his mission to go even further west all
the way to Spain and so these
circumstances are what motivated Paul to
write out his fullest explanation of the
gospel the good news that he was
announcing about Jesus's life death and
resurrection now the letter is designed
to have four main movements but it's
unified as one long flowing exploration
of the gospel the gospel Paul says first
of all reveals God's righteousness and
then it also creates a new human
which fulfills God's promise to Israel
and so it's this gospel that's going to
unify the church in this video we're
just going to explore the ideas in
chapters one through four
so Paul opens by introducing himself as
an apostle appointed by God to spread
the gospel about Jesus how he's the
Messiah of Israel who was raised from
the dead as the son of God king of the
nations and Jesus now calls all humanity
to come under his loving rule and Paul
says this good news about King Jesus is
first of all God's power to save people
who trust in him and second that it
reveals God's righteousness now
righteousness is a rich Old Testament
word for Paul it describes God's
character that he always does justice
what is right and what is good but also
that he is faithful and just to fulfill
his promises and Paul saying that the
story of Jesus shows how God has done
both of these things how he goes first
into a long creative retelling of
Genesis chapters 3 through 11 he shows
how all the Gentile world all the
nations have become trapped in a spiral
of sin and selfishness the human heart
and mind are broken Paul says we've
turned away from God to embrace idolatry
which means finding ultimate
significance in created things and then
giving ultimate allegiance to these
things that are not God this results in
a distortion of our humanity and
destructive behavior and so what's left
is a humanity that stands guilty as
charged before a just and righteous God
to which the people of Israel might say
well it's a good thing then that God
chose our people out from among the
nation's he saved us out of slavery in
Egypt he gave us the laws of the Torah
like the Sabbath and eating kosher and
circumcision and these all together show
us how to live as God's holy people but
Paul says not so fast he recalls the
storyline of the Torah and of the rest
of the Old Testament which shows that
Israel was just a sinful and idolatrous
and morally broken as the rest of
humanity Israel is actually more guilty
than the Gentiles Paul says because they
have the Torah they should know better
and so Paul concludes
all humanity Gentiles Israelites are
hopelessly trapped and guilty before God
but that is not the final word the good
news about Jesus is God's response
instead of holding humanity guilty Jesus
came as Israel's Messiah to die on
behalf of all people as a sacrifice for
sins as our representative Jesus took
into himself all of the just
consequences of the pain the sin and the
death that we have caused in the world
and he overcame it all by his
resurrection from the dead it's his new
resurrection life that he makes
available to others
Jesus became what we are so that we
might become what he is and all of this
Paul says is how God justifies those who
trust or have faith in Jesus
now justification is another rich Old
Testament term for Paul and it's related
to God's righteousness it literally
means to declare righteous because of
what Jesus did on our behalf we are
given a new status before God instead of
finding us guilty God declares that a
person is in a right relationship with
him and is forgiven
justification results in a new family
the person who trusts in Jesus is given
a place among God's covenant people
justification also results in a new
future which begins a journey of life
transformation by God's grace and so all
of these things about justification are
God's gift to those who through their
faith are in Christ and so this leads
Paul in chapter 4 to explore the huge
implications that all of this has for
who can be a part of God's covenant
family he goes back to the story of
Abraham in Genesis chapter 15 before any
of the laws of the Torah were given to
Israel Abraham was justified or declared
righteous before God how will God
promised the Abraham would become a
father of a large multi-ethnic family
that would receive God's blessing but he
and his wife Sarah they were really old
they had never been able to have
children but nonetheless Abraham had
radical faith and trust in God's promise
and so God declared him to be righteous
and so Paul says now Abraham
has become the father of God's new
covenant family and it's spreading all
around the world it's made up of Jews
and Gentiles who have the same kind of
faith and trust in the one who fulfilled
God's promise to Abraham Jesus the
Messiah so let's pause and summarize
Paul's main ideas here in chapters 1
through 4 because they're the foundation
for understanding the rest of the letter
all humanity is hopelessly trapped in
sin and needs to be rescued
that rescue however is not going to
happen by people trying to obey the laws
of the Torah rather God's righteous
character has moved him to rescue the
world through jesus's death and
resurrection so that he could create
that multi-ethnic family of abraham
based on faith as his own new covenant
people and so paul is going to go on to
show how this new family is a part of
something much much bigger that calls
them to a whole new way of life together
but it's all going to be rooted in these
core ideas explored in chapters 1
through 4 of Paul's letter to the Romans