The awfulness of a commission of doom. Jonah. But to herald forth God's good tidings to a sorrowing world! This is the crown of all Christian ministry. The angels might well sing and be glad when ushering this gospel into the world (Luke 2:9-14); and Paul is rejoiced that he can strike this note of gladness. There might well be preludes to this burst of joy: so the words, "which he promised afore," etc. For all the indications of God's purposes of love, from Genesis 3. to Malachi, did but prepare the way for the completed announcement in "the fulness of the time." And so virtually they all were Divine promises of a fuller gospel. The two main thoughts - God's gospel; its contents.

I. GOD'S GOSPEL.

1. A gospel carries the implication of a want, and, it may be, of a sorrow and a loss. So do the good tidings of God to man assume that man has lost his God, and with God all things good.

(1) Man knew not, surely, the reality of his sin; was deceived by the tempter; but awoke from his dream to find that God was gone! And this is the great loss of the world. Tim voices cry, "Where is thy God?" And he? The Good One - the light, the joy, the song of his creation. So man has blotted out his own heavens, and the earth thereby has lost its lustre and its grace.

(2) But the estranged God is a condemning God. He may not abdicate his essential relationship to the world as God, and if the love be lost it is replaced by wrath! So man's conscience testifies: stricken, sore, and bleeding.

2. A gospel carries the implication of a desire to have the want supplied, the sorrow and the loss removed. So man's sin has not hopelessly ruined him, else there could be no salvation. Room for God to work, and God does work.

(1) The historical preparation: God teaching the world to desire salvation. The Jews by direct dealings, a positive discipline; the Gentiles by indirect, a negative discipline. So, "the desire of all nations."

(2) The individual preparation: God's Spirit in the heart. Only the grace of God can bring us to God. And now God's gospel means, in general, that the condemning God will pardon, and the estranged God be a Father and a Friend again; that the yearnings towards himself which he has called forth shall thus find their full satisfaction, which is nothing other than the peace of forgiveness and the joy of adopting love.

II. ITS CONTENTS. But this general message has special terms. God's love is manifested, proved, accomplished, in his Son.

1. "His Son." For it is God's own love, his other self, which stoops to save us. Let us hold fast to this, for herein is the supreme pledge of our salvation.

2. His Son becomes "Jesus Christ our Lord."

(1) By the assumption of human nature. "Born of the seed of David according to the flesh." That it may be one of ourselves who saves us. (a) A Man, making atonement to God for men; (b) a human High Priest and Captain of salvation, himself "perfect through sufferings," and therefore "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" - the oneness with human-kind necessary for both the Godward and the manward aspects of the redeeming work. A Son of David, according to mere historical lineage and local appearance: "for salvation is of the Jews." But, grander and more royal than this, a Son of man - the Son of man, in his true human fashioning and for his world-wide work (Hebrews 2:14).

(2) By the glorification of human nature. "Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead." A Redeemer of men must assert their redemption in his own Person first. "We see not yet all things put under him [i.e. man]. But we see Jesus... crowned with glory and honour" (Hebrews 2:8, 9), the archetypal Man. His resurrection, which the apostle here links on to its world-wide correlative and consequence, "the resurrection of the dead," demonstrates the redemptive power of Jesus, who is therefore the Christ, our Lord, and therefore Son of God; for only he who has life in himself can give life to dying men - life from the death of sin, life from all death which sin has more indirectly wrought. Oh, let us hearken to such a gospel! God's good news to a dying world, spoken forth with all the power of One who was God's very Son, and with all the tender sympathy of One who is our very Brother. And for a proper hearkening to this good news may God, in his love, prepare our hearts! - T.F.L.

The Jews, throughout their history, differed from every other nation in their expectation of a Messiah. While heathen kingdoms decayed and fell without hope of deliverance, in Israel political decline was attended by an increasing expectation of a high and God-sent deliverer. This idea was always referred by the prophets to Divine revelation, and we have every reason to receive their testimony; for it is contrary to the very nature of things that such golden fruit as this should grow on the barren thorn of the simple human heart. Could this have been, surely the great and noble spirits of other nations would also have confidently expected salvation, whereas we only hear from the lips of a few some dim and obscure yearnings of this kind. It was only as a vanished epoch, a poetical dream, or a political panegyric, that heathen poets ever sang of a golden age. The heathen were "without hope" because they were without God in the world.

(Professor Auberlen.)

I. WHO THEY WERE. Persons —

1. Speaking by special Divine impulse (1 Samuel 10:6; 1 Corinthians 14:1).

2. Employed by God to reveal His will and to foretell future events.

3. Moved to compose and sing hymns to God (Exodus 15:20; 1 Chronicles 25:1).

4. Living in habitual communion with God.

II. WHAT THEY PROMISED. Christ and His salvation (Luke 24:27; Acts 3:18; Acts 10:43).

1. By Moses as —

(1)The woman's seed (Genesis 3:15).

(2)Abraham's seed (Genesis 22:18).

(3)Shiloh (Genesis 49:10).

(4)The prophet like unto Himself (Deuteronomy 18:15).

2. By David as —

(1)His son (Psalm 132:11).

(2)His Lord (Psalm 110:1).

(3)The Anointed (Psalm 2:2; Psalm 84:9).

(4)The Priest-King (Psalm 110:1).

(5)The Pierced One (Psalm 22:16).

3. By Isaiah as —

(1)The Virgin's Son (Isaiah 7:14).

(2)Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God (Isaiah 9:6).

(3)Rod out of the stem of Jesse. (Isaiah 11:1).

(4)Man of sorrows (Isaiah 53:3).

(5)Wounded and bruised Surety (Isaiah 53:5; Isaiah 10:1-12:6).

(6)God's righteous Servant (Isaiah 42:1; Isaiah 52:13; Isaiah 53:11).

4. By Jeremiah as —

(1)The righteous Branch (Jeremiah 23:5).

(2)The Lord our Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6).

5. By Ezekiel as the true David, the Shepherd King (Ezekiel 37:24).

6. By Daniel as Messiah the Prince (Daniel 9:25, 26).

7. By Micah as the Judge of Israel (Micah 5:2).

8. By Haggai as the Desire of all nations (Haggai 2:7).

9. By Zechariah as —

(1)The Pierced One (Zechariah 12:10).

(2)The Man who was Jehovah's Shepherd and Fellow (Zechariah 13:7).

10. By Malachi as —

(1)The Messenger of the Covenant (Malachi 3:1).

(2)The Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:3).

(T. Robinson, D. D.)

The prophets had foretold concerning the Messiah —

1. His Divine and human natures (Isaiah 9:6).

2. His descent (Genesis 3:15; Genesis 12:3; Genesis 49:10; Isaiah 11:1; 1 Samuel 16:11).

3. The time of His appearing (Genesis 49:10; Daniel 9:24, 25; Haggai 2:6-9).

4. The place of His birth (Micah 5:2).

5. The virginity of His mother (Isaiah 7:14).

6. The Forerunner who should prepare His way (Malachi 3:1).

7. The special scene of His ministry (Isaiah 9:1, 2).

8. The miracles that should accredit His mission (Isaiah 35:5, 6).

9. His sufferings and death (Psalm 22:16, etc.; Zechariah 13:7; Isaiah 53:28).

10. Jeremiah His resurrection (Psalm 16:10).

11. His ascension (Psalm 68:18).

12. His sitting down at the right hand of the Father (Psalm 110:1).

13. His effusion of the Holy Ghost (Joel 2:28).

14. His second coming in judgment (Daniel 7:13).

(T. Robinson, D. D.)

God sees the end from the beginning. All things in nature and grace are working out one grand scheme, which God before the creation of heaven and earth designed. The gospel was but a further and fuller development of God's plans in Old Testament times. The stem is no afterthought; the leaves and buds are no afterthought; the flower is no afterthought; the fruit is no afterthought; for they were all wrapped up from the first in the seed, or cutting, or bulb. Or, to take another illustration, it is of no unfrequent occurrence that the architect designs a Gothic church which is not to be built all at once, but as sufficient funds are forthcoming, or as the congregation increases. At first the nave is constructed, then one aisle after another is added; and afterwards the chancel is built, and last of all is erected the spire — whose "silent finger points to heaven." The pulling down of temporary walls and hoardings, and the additions from time to time made, are no afterthought, but only the carrying out of the original design. Thus the doing away with the ceremonial law and Jewish ritual, and the bringing life and immortality to light through Jesus, are no afterthought, but the forethought of God — the revealing of His glorious scheme of grace designed before the foundation of the world, and previously promised by His prophets.

(C. Nell, M. A.)

I. THEIR AUTHOR, God the Holy Ghost (2 Peter 1:21; 2 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 1:1).

II. THEIR MATTER, God's holy will, thoughts, words, and works.

III. THEIR DESIGN AND TENDENCY, to make man holy (2 Timothy 3:17; John 17:17).

IV. TO DISTINGUISH THEM FROM ALL OTHER BOOKS.

(T. Robinson, D. D.)

David, Paul, RomansRomeAfore, Already, Announced, Beforehand, Holy, Promised, Prophets, Scriptures, Writ, Writings1. Paul commends his calling to the Romans;
9. and his desire to come to them.
16. What his gospel is.
18. God is angry with sin.
21. What were the sins of mankind.

Romans 1:2

     2366   Christ, prophecies concerning

Romans 1:1-2

     1611   Scripture, inspiration and authority

Romans 1:1-3

     8166   theology

Romans 1:1-4

     2422   gospel, confirmation

Romans 1:1-5

     6668   grace, and Christ
     7708   apostles, function

Romans 1:1-7

     5328   greeting

Romans 1:2-3

     5467   promises, divine
     8427   evangelism, kinds of

Romans 1:2-4

     8425   evangelism, nature of

Beautiful Thoughts
"Beautiful Thoughts" From Henry Drummond Arranged by Elizabeth Cureton {Project Gutenberg Editorial note: Many quotes from "The Greatest Thing in the World" did not provide a page number.} 1892 The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.--Rom. i. 20. To My Dear Friend Helen M. Archibald This Book Is Affectionately Inscribed. …
Henry Drummond—Beautiful Thoughts

February 19. "As Much as in Me is I am Ready" (Rom. I. 15).
"As much as in me is I am ready" (Rom. i. 15). Be earnest. Intense earnestness, a whole heart for Christ, the passion sign of the cross, the enthusiasm of our whole being for our Master and humanity--this is what the Lord expects, this is what His cross deserves, this is what the world needs, this is what the age has a right to look for. Everything around us is intensely alive. Life is earnest, death is earnest, sin is earnest, men are earnest, business is earnest, knowledge is earnest, the age is …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Third Sunday after Easter
Text: First Peter 2, 11-20. 11 Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 12 having your behavior seemly among the Gentiles; that, wherein they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. 13 Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether to the king, as supreme; 14 or unto governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evil-doers and for praise …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

Nineteenth Day. Holiness and Resurrection.
The Son of God, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead.'--Rom. i. 4. These words speak of a twofold birth of Christ. According to the flesh, He was born of the seed of David. According to the Spirit, He was the first begotten from the dead. As He was a Son of David in virtue of His birth through the flesh, so He was declared to be the Son of God with power, …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

First Day. God's Call to Holiness.
Like as He which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy, for I am holy.'--1 Pet. i. 15, 16. The call of God is the manifestation in time of the purpose of eternity: 'Whom He predestinated, them He also called.' Believers are 'the called according to His purpose.' In His call He reveals to us what His thoughts and His will concerning us are, and what the life to which He invites us. In His call He makes clear to …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

The Gospel the Power of God
'I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.'--ROMANS i. 16. To preach the Gospel in Rome had long been the goal of Paul's hopes. He wished to do in the centre of power what he had done in Athens, the home of wisdom; and with superb confidence, not in himself, but in his message, to try conclusions with the strongest thing in the world. He knew its power well, and was not appalled. The danger was an attraction to his chivalrous …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

The Witness of the Resurrection
'Declared to be the Son of God with power, ... by the resurrection of the dead.'--ROMANS i. 4 (R.V.). It is a great mistake to treat Paul's writings, and especially this Epistle, as mere theology. They are the transcript of his life's experience. As has been well said, the gospel of Paul is an interpretation of the significance of the life and work of Jesus based upon the revelation to him of Jesus as the risen Christ. He believed that he had seen Jesus on the road to Damascus, and it was that appearance …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

Privilege and Obligation
'To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints.'--ROMANS i. 7. This is the address of the Epistle. The first thing to be noticed about it, by way of introduction, is the universality of this designation of Christians. Paul had never been in Rome, and knew very little about the religious stature of the converts there. But he has no hesitation in declaring that they are all 'beloved of God' and 'saints.' There were plenty of imperfect Christians amongst them; many things to rebuke; much …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

Paul's Longing
'I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; 12. That is, that I may be comforted together with you, by the mutual faith both of you and me.'--ROMANS i. 11, 12. I am not wont to indulge in personal references in the pulpit, but I cannot but yield to the impulse to make an exception now, and to let our happy circumstances mould my remarks. I speak mainly to mine own people, and I must trust that other friends who may hear or read my words will …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

Sin in the Heart the Source of Error in the Head
ROMANS i. 28.--"As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind." In the opening of the most logical and systematic treatise in the New Testament, the Epistle to the Romans, the apostle Paul enters upon a line of argument to demonstrate the ill-desert of every human creature without exception. In order to this, he shows that no excuse can be urged upon the ground of moral ignorance. He explicitly teaches that the pagan knows that there is one Supreme …
William G.T. Shedd—Sermons to the Natural Man

All Mankind Guilty; Or, Every Man Knows More than He Practises.
ROMANS i. 24.--"When they knew God, they glorified him not as God." The idea of God is the most important and comprehensive of all the ideas of which the human mind is possessed. It is the foundation of religion; of all right doctrine, and all right conduct. A correct intuition of it leads to correct religious theories and practice; while any erroneous or defective view of the Supreme Being will pervade the whole province of religion, and exert a most pernicious influence upon the entire character …
William G.T. Shedd—Sermons to the Natural Man

Knowledge. Worship. Gratitude.
The people mentioned by Paul in our text fell into two great evils, or rather into two forms of one great evil--atheism: the atheism of the heart, and the atheism of the life. They knew God, but they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful. We will first consider the first sin mentioned here, and then the second. I shall not look at these two evils as if you were Romans, because I know that you are not, but I shall adapt the text to your own case, and speak of these sins, as Englishmen …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 30: 1884

Inexcusable Irreverence and Ingratitude
"They are without excuse: because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful."--Romans 1:20-21. This first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is a dreadful portion of the Word of God. I should hardly like to read it all through aloud; it is not intended to be so used. Read it at home, and be startled at the awful vices of the Gentile world. Unmentionable crimes were the common pleasures of those wicked ages; but the chapter is also a striking picture of heathenism …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 38: 1892

The Beloved Pastor's Plea for Unity
"To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ."--Romans 1:7. IN A FEW MINUTES we shall gather together as members of the Church of Christ to celebrate the memorial of his death. It is a memorable sight to see so many Christian people sitting together with the object of observing this ordinance. Frequently as I have seen it, I must confess that, when sitting in the chair at the head of the table, I often feel overawed …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 39: 1893

Sources of Our Knowledge of Jesus
20. The earliest existing record of events in the life of Jesus is given to us in the epistles of Paul. His account of the appearances of the Lord after his death and resurrection (I. Cor. xv. 3-8) was written within thirty years of these events. The date of the testimony, however, is much earlier, since Paul refers to the experience which transformed his own life, and so carries us back to within a few years of the crucifixion. Other facts from Jesus' life may be gathered from Paul, as his descent …
Rush Rhees—The Life of Jesus of Nazareth

The Holy Spirit in the Glorified Christ.
"Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead."--Rom. i. 4. From the foregoing studies it appears that the Holy Spirit performed a work in the human nature of Christ as He descended the several steps of His humiliation to the death of the cross. The question now arises, whether He had also a work in the several steps of Christ's exaltation to the excellent glory, i.e., in His resurrection, ascension, royal dignity, and second coming. …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Proposition Though the Necessity and Indispensableness of all the Great and Moral Obligations of Natural Religion,
and also the certainty of a future state of rewards and punishments, be thus in general deducible, even demonstrably, by a chain of clear and undeniable reasoning; yet (in the present state of the world, by what means soever it came originally to be so corrupted, the particular circumstances whereof could not now be certainly known but by revelation,) such is the carelessness, inconsiderateness, and want of attention of the greater part of mankind; so many the prejudices and false notions taken up …
Samuel Clarke—A Discourse Concerning the Being and Attributes of God

Rome and Ephesus
Corinth as portrayed in the Epistles of Paul gives us our simplest and least contaminated picture of the Hellenic Christianity which regarded itself as the cult of the Lord Jesus, who offered salvation--immortality--to those initiated in his mysteries. It had obvious weaknesses in the eyes of Jewish Christians, even when they were as Hellenised as Paul, since it offered little reason for a higher standard of conduct than heathenism, and its personal eschatology left no real place for the resurrection …
Kirsopp Lake—Landmarks in the History of Early Christianity

With the Opening of this ChapterWe Come to Quite a Different Theme. ...
With the opening of this chapter we come to quite a different theme. Like a fever-tossed patient, Ecclesiastes has turned from side to side for relief and rest; but each new change of posture has only brought him face to face with some other evil "under the sun" that has again and again pressed from him the bitter groan of "Vanity." But now, for a moment, he takes his eyes from the disappointments, the evil workings, and the sorrows, that everywhere prevail in that scene, and lifts them up to see …
F. C. Jennings—Old Groans and New Songs

Here Some Man Shall Say; "If the Concupiscence of the Bad...
16. Here some man shall say; "If the concupiscence of the bad, whereby it comes that they bear all evils for that which they lust after, be of the world, how is it said to be of their will?" As if, truly, they were not themselves also of the world, when they love the world, forsaking Him by Whom the world was made. For "they serve the creature more than the Creator, Who is blessed for ever." [2670] Whether then by the word "world," the Apostle John signifies lovers of the world, the will, as it is …
St. Augustine—On Patience

On the Symbols of the Essence' and Coessential. '
We must look at the sense not the wording. The offence excited is at the sense; meaning of the Symbols; the question of their not being in Scripture. Those who hesitate only at coessential,' not to be considered Arians. Reasons why coessential' is better than like-in-essence,' yet the latter may be interpreted in a good sense. Explanation of the rejection of coessential' by the Council which condemned the Samosatene; use of the word by Dionysius of Alexandria; parallel variation in the use of Unoriginate; …
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius

Fundamental Ideas of Man and his Redemption.
To Athanasius the Incarnation of the Son of God, and especially his Death on the Cross, is the centre of faith and theology (Incar. 19, kephalaion tes pisteos, cf. 9. 1 and 2, 20. 2, &c.). For our salvation' (Incar. 1) the Word became Man and died. But how did Athanasius conceive of salvation'? from what are we saved, to what destiny does salvation bring us, and what idea does he form of the efficacy of the Saviour's death? Now it is not too much to say that no one age of the Church's existence has …
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius

Letter Xlv (Circa A. D. 1120) to a Youth Named Fulk, who Afterwards was Archdeacon of Langres
To a Youth Named Fulk, Who Afterwards Was Archdeacon of Langres He gravely warns Fulk, a Canon Regular, whom an uncle had by persuasions and promises drawn back to the world, to obey God and be faithful to Him rather than to his uncle. To the honourable young man Fulk, Brother Bernard, a sinner, wishes such joy in youth as in old age he will not regret. 1. I do not wonder at your surprise; I should wonder if you were not suprised [sic] that I should write to you, a countryman to a citizen, a monk …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

Letter vi (Circa A. D. 1127) to the Same
To the Same He protests against the reputation for holiness which is attributed to him, and promises to communicate the treatises which he has written. I. Even if I should give myself to you entirely that would be too little a thing still in my eyes, to have recompensed towards you even the half of the kindly feeling which you express towards my humility. I congratulate myself, indeed, on the honour which you have done me; but my joy, I confess, is tempered by the thought that it is not anything …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

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