Romans Dip - Day 1
DAY 1 - PROGRAM INCLUDED
Romans 1:1-6 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
The openings of Paul’s letters are incredibly important. Paul sets out what he is about to address in his letter, like a program to a play. He presents the topics, the characters and the important issues he is about to go through. I personally hate reading the prologue and epilogue of books, I feel like it’s a waste of time – why can’t I just jump into the story? But don’t make this mistake with your Bible, take your time to read the opening salutations of the New Testament letters so that you are set up for what is about to happen.
Let’s quickly have a look at this section and what we find out in just six verses:
Romans 1:1-6 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
We find out who wrote the letter: Paul
and then his calling to write it: as a servant of Christ Jesus, an apostle (sent one) set apart (special, separate and specific)
then like a program he sets out his message of the book of Romans:
Chapters 1 - 8 set apart for the gospel of God: in the first eight chapters of Romans Paul unpackages his message of the gospel. The very thing he is set apart to preach.
Then the program continues, Chapters 9 - 11 The gospel he promised through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. In 9 - 11 Paul shows how God was faithful to the prophecies of a promised Messiah in the Old Testament.
And then finally the action part of the book, Chapters 12 - 15: shows us how to action this calling of grace and apostleship to everyone around us!
See how Paul packs the summary of his entire letter into these few verses? Now we are going to just ‘dip’ our toes into some sections of the letter, but I pray that you will love the next 7 days so much that you will want to read the whole book of Romans. I can guarantee you will love it!
recommended
Dip into Ephesians
Dip into Mark
Dip into Romans