When God wants to change a life, a church, or even the course of history, He often does it through the book of Romans. This letter is dynamite. The gospel Paul proclaims here has shaped the church and transformed the world—one life at a time. Think of Augustine. A brilliant but restless young man, trapped in sin. He opened Romans 13 and read: “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh.” In that moment, God broke in. Augustine was converted—and Christian theology was never the same.
Fast forward a thousand years. A troubled monk named Martin Luther was weighed down by guilt. Then he read Romans 1:17: “The righteous shall live by faith.” Suddenly the lights came on. Justification by faith alone. The Reformation was born. Europe was changed.
Centuries later, John Wesley—an Anglican priest and missionary—was listening to someone read Luther’s preface to Romans. He said his heart was “strangely warmed.” That moment sparked the Methodist revival, and the gospel swept across England and beyond.
In more recent times, Billy Graham pointed to Romans as the book that gave him confidence to preach the gospel with clarity and boldness. Through him, millions heard the good news of Jesus. And theologians like J. I. Packer say it was Romans that helped them finally grasp the heart of Christianity: the grace of God for sinners through Christ.
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Over and over, Romans has been the spark. Revival. Renewal. Transformation. Because at its core, Romans is about the gospel—the gospel that changed them, and the gospel that can change us too. Max Lucado puts it like this: “God used this book to change the lives of Luther, John Wesley, John Calvin, William Tyndale, Saint Augustine, Karl Barth, John Newton, Billy Graham and millions of others. There is every reason to think he’ll do the same for you.”
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So, over the next 10 weeks we will be looking at the first 8 chapters to Paul’s letter to the Romans. And it is a letter; which is why it starts in the form of a letter. “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.”
It’s from the apostle Paul, the one who met Jesus on the Damascus Road and was sent to preach the good news to the Gentiles. And that’s what he has done, travelling in and around Asia Minor, Europe and the middle east and he could have introduced himself to the Romans as the man who has written more of the NT than any other, or the one that has founded numerous churches or as a front-line warrior for the Lord or a brilliant theologian. But no, he calls himself an apostle & a servant of Christ Jesus. A slave. But someone that has been set apart for the task of sharing the good news. You see this Paul, is at his core, a gospel man.
And yes, he is writing to “To all in Rome who are loved by God & called to be his holy people” (verse 7) one of the greatest books ever written, filled with the deepest theology and the most amazing applications but it is also a deeply personal letter. For as Paul introduces himself & establishes his credentials, he uses the words “I”, “me”, “my” 26 times. Paul is not just an apostle but a brother in Christ. Who wants to tell the people in Rome primarily about
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1. God’s Gospel (verses 2-6)
For Paul is “set apart for the gospel of God, the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.” The Good news, the gospel of God was both initiated by God and is all about what God is doing to save a lost world. It is not primarily about you and me, about our sins and our salvation. It is about what God gives to us to forgive us our sins and give us eternal life. And the apostle Paul didn’t just make this good news up; no human being found the solution to mankind’s biggest problem. No God’s gospel tells us of that God did something that he had promised to do centuries before.
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Which means this good news, is not new news. It’s the not the beginning of a new religion or the start of a new philosophy. Someone didn’t do a PhD at the university of Jerusalem and found some groundbreaking formula that would work for the whole human race. Instead, it is the climax of what has been already said in the “Holy Scriptures”, the Old Testament. It’s the fulfilment of God’s ancient promises.
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At the moment we are building an extension to the Church but that building doesn’t just appear out of nowhere, it comes out of the architect’s plans. In the same way God had a plan to tell his world the good news right from the start “regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, & who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.”
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The good news is all about Jesus. It’s about a person not a theological concept. Jesus was a man, he lived an earthly life, he walked on this earth somewhere between 6BC and 30AD. He was a descendent of the great King David, so he was a Jew and from the line of Jewish kings. But he was more than just a man, because he was recognised to be the Son of God when he rose from the dead. Only God could defeat death and only this man, this God-man has the power of God within Him to defeat mankind’s biggest enemy.
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This good news is not about moralism or self-help, it’s about Jesus. Who he is and what he has done for us. Which means God’s gospel, this good news, concerning Jesus, demands a response. Slide 7 5 “Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all nations to the obedience that comes from
faith for his name’s sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ”
This good news is all about grace. God’s free gift to us that we don’t deserve and yet those who have been overtaken by God’s grace will show signs of both faith and obedience. We believe in this Jesus who rose from the dead. We put our trust in this Jesus who died in our place. We know this Jesus who is offering us a personal relationship with God through Him. And that faith leads to obedience to God’s word. An obedience that springs out of our faith. A doing of good works that God has planned for us to do even before we were born again.
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And that good news is for all nations. Not just for the Jew but the Gentile. Not just for those in Jerusalem but in Rome and in Lake Macquarie. God’s gospel is not just for the white Anglo Saxon people but coloured African people. It’s for the rich & the poor. The young & the old. Male and female. Slave or free. Its not just for people like us, it’s for everyone. It’s for the atheist, the homeless, the hurting, the gym junkie, the Hollywood movie star, the refugee.
That’s what Paul is telling us about. The good news that changed Augustine, Martin Luther, John Wesley, Billy Graham and me. And most of us as well. It’s not good advice, its good news. It is the power of God that brings salvation to all who believe. But to believe in that good news, we are going to have to hear it and receive it. Which is why Paul is writing to the Romans so they can have the chance to respond to God’s good news & it’s why under God’s protection; the book of Romans is still here today, some 1,970 years after it was written.
The world is lost. Its needs a saviour. It’s like a swimmer on an unpatrolled beach, caught in a rip, travelling further and further from safety when out of nowhere a helicopter appears and the pilot leans out of the plane and tells the swimmer that a saviour, a life saviour is on his way. Jesus. Who will help them from drowning in their own predicament and bring them back to life. That’s God’s gospel and Paul has been set apart for that gospel and now he is on
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2. The Roman Road (verses 8-13)
7 “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God
our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you,
because your faith is being reported all over the world.”
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They say that all roads lead to Rome, well when people of Paul’s day first heard the good news about Jesus, they ended up travelling on Roman roads and some of them even ended up in Rome itself, the centre of the great Roman empire. And they gossiped the gospel. You see you don’t need to be an apostle to be an evangelist & you don’t need to be an evangelist to share with others how Jesus can save them from the danger they currently find themselves in. And that’s what some people did and because of their witness, some people who lived in Rome also believed in that good news.
But just as all roads lead to Rome, those same roads lead away from Rome and so Paul is thankful that the good news that has come to Rome and is now going away from Rome. The Roman’s faith is being reported throughout the world. The people at the very centre of the greatest empire in the history of the world up until that point have become Christians, hallelujah! And that led to Paul praying prayers of thanksgiving.
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9 “God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.”
Paul wants to walk down that Roman Road and visit them. But up until now there has been something stopping him from doing so. It might have been the urgency of taking the gospel to other parts of Asia minor and Europe, to places that haven’t heard the gospel as yet or it might be the plight of the poor in Jerusalem where he is about to deliver some aid collected from his planted Churches to help their brothers and sisters in Christ. It might be just as simple as he missed the boat or was caught in jail or got sick.
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But as he tells the Roman’ believers in this letter, he thinks now is the time that he hopes to get to Rome, on his way to Spain. As he travels to the far west of the Roman empire, a place that the gospel has yet to pierce, he hopes to go via Rome. But his trip to Rome is not a touristy one, so he can see the Colosseum and the Pantheon and the Roman Forum. No, 11” I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong.”
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He wants to strengthen the faith of this young Church that occupy such a strategic place in the ancient world. As well, 12 “that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” Paul doesn’t want to just encourage these young Christians he wants to be encouraged by these young Christians as well. He wants to both give and receive.
You see for Paul the Roman Road is not just one way traffic. Where he the expert is able to give teaching and encouragement that will fire them on in their faith. For Paul himself is not too proud to acknowledge his own need. He needs encouragement himself and what better encouragement can there be but being around young Christians, eager to live out their faith. And he is going to need help, prayer & financial support to get to Spain. You see Paul is not just a one-man band, he builds up teams of committed Christians wherever he goes.
As someone has said, “It’s impossible to bless, without being blessed.” Those Christians who want to bless others or encourage others need to do their work with the same spirit of responsiveness. As an aside I have met far too many Christians that are really happy to help another, pray for another, give a meal to another but never allow others to do that to themselves. Paul is modelling a way of ministering to others where he is more than happy to give and give but also realises, he is part of team and at time he is also willing to receive.
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13 “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers & sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.” Paul is coming also for the harvest. He knows that one-man plants & another harvests & he has done plenty of seed planting in his time & he senses that the good news is about to explode in Rome & he wants to be a part of that energy & he wants to harvest that energy for his next missionary push.
Paul is like a doctor who has in his possession a cure for a deadly disease. He doesn’t just want to keep it to himself or his close friends and family in case they might need it in the future. He is willing to give it away to any who need it, to all whom are in need. And Dr Paul has the cure for death, for eternal separation from God, for forgiveness of sins and he is willing to go up any road, even the road to Rome and then onto Spain to give all and sundry an opportunity of eternal life. Which leads us lastly to
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3. Paul’s Passion (verses 14-17)
For we end our passage hearing what drives Paul up that Roman road, along that Spanish street, even up the Charlestown Crescent. What are his priorities, his passion when it comes to the good news of Jesus? Why would he bother putting himself out to travel up every road that is open to him? Well, its starts with his obligation. 14 “I am obligated both to Greeks & non-Greeks, both to the wise & the foolish.”
I am obligated… to God? No Paul doesn’t say that. He says that he is obligated to the Greeks and non-Greeks. He has an obligation to the whole world. He is indebted to them. But how can he be indebted to someone that he has never met? Tim Keller helps us by saying we can be indebted to him in two ways. He could lend us $100 and we need to pay him back that $100. Or someone else gives us $100 and tells us to give that $100 to Keller.
Paul is not obligated to the people of Rome and the people of the world because they gave him something and he has to give it back sometime. He is indebted because God gave him something to give to the Romans and to the whole world, the gospel. He is indebted until he shares what he has been given to all those who need to hear God’s good news.
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Hudson Taylor shows this principle in a slightly different way. He was once asked had he given his life to the evangelism of the Chinese become he loved the Chinese people. He shook his head “No, not because I loved the Chinese but because I loved God.” As preacher Paul Minear once put it “Obligation to him who died (Christ) produces an obligation to those he died for.”
Paul passion come firstly out of obligation. But the problem with that is that I am under that same obligation as well. And so are you. If Christ has given us the answer to eternal life and we now have the assurance of a lifetime in heaven and if he then says to you and me, share it with those in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and then the ends of the earth, then we are under obligation to do just that.
But let’s be honest here, most of us are very reluctant to step out in faith and talk to our friends, our family, our neighbour, our world about Jesus. We think its an optional extra on the model of Christianity that we have adopted rather than it being a standard inclusion. We have within out grasp the power of God that brings salvation to all who believe, both Jew and Gentile and yet we are loath to flick the switch. Now why is that?
Maybe its because we are secretly ashamed of the gospel. The gospel tells us that our salvation is free and undeserving and in a way that is really insulting. Because it goes against our pride. It side tracks all the good things we have done in our lives. Deep down we think we are good, well at least better than most, we’re good enough and the gospel says we aren’t good enough and that shameful. And sharing that good news is offensive to others, for the same reasons it is offensive to us. And so, when they push back against it, it hurts our feelings and puts doubts into our minds. Yes, all those who don’t share the gospel as often as they should, and that includes me, are really secretly ashamed of the gospel.
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But Paul is not just obligated, he is also not ashamed of this shameful gospel. 16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
Paul has seen the power of the gospel in his own life. His own goodness was not good enough; he needed God’s grace. And God’s grace was powerful enough to save even the chief of all sinners. And it’s powerful enough to save me. And you. And Paul has seen the transforming power of the gospel in all that it has touched. It lifts people up. It changes families, communities & nations. It is not just words; it’s God’s way of acting in this world.
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The ancient church father Theodoret likened the good news of Jesus to pepper. It looks small, insignificant & cold but those who crunch it between their teeth feel its fire. Or as someone else has said, the gospel is like a small key on the chain filled with a number of other keys that is on the belt of a prison warden. It may look small and insignificant but in reality, it can open a huge prison door and set the captive free.
That’s the gospel and that’s why we might be tempted to be ashamed but why should we be ashamed of it? It has the power to set any person free from the prison of sin and death and it might look small and powerless but it has a heat, a fire that can set a soul ablaze.
The gospel tells the world about a righteous God who saves unrighteous people through his righteous son. And if we have faith in the word of the father and the work of the son, then we will live by that faith from first to last. And that mustard seed of faith can build a mustard tree that will make a radical difference to all those who live around you.
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So, Paul is obligated, he is not ashamed & lastly, he is eager. 15 “That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.” That is why he is willing to trek thousands of miles to get to a country he has never been to before. That is why even on the way to Rome, he endured a massive shipwreck and even a snake bite but he was still eager to share the good news with those who needed to hear it. The gospel is the source of his passion & his priorities. And if we have come under the spell of that very same gospel, it should be the source of our passion and priorities as well.
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General Booth, the found of the Salvation Army was once asked by Queen Victoria what she might do for him and he replied “Your Majesty, some people’s passion is money and some people’s passion is fame, but my passion has been for men.”
Friends, can I ask you, what is your passion? Your job? Your family? Your house? Your fitness? Your love life? Or is it God and his gospel? You see if it is God and his gospel it will shape all these other passions. As well as trump all these other passions. Where is our passion for worshipping such a God? Where is our passion for obedience to God’s word? Where is our passion for the lost? Where is our passion for the gospel?
And can I ask the men here, where is your passion for men? Where is your passion for leadership? Where is your passion to sacrifice yourself for others? Where is your passion for your brothers in Christ? The women in our Church are streets ahead of us. They are far more committed to women than we are to men. They are far more committed to service than we are to serve. They are far more committed to God’s work than we are to God’s work. And yet one of the tasks God has given us men is to lead. Lead our families. Lead our church. Men, where is your passion for men?
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Our passion comes ultimately from Jesus’ passion. He died on the cross to give you and I a chance at eternal life. And that should give us a passion for doing his good will. A passion for his good news. And a passion for being good ourselves. Paul’s passion for the gospel drove him up the Roman road and because of that God moved mountains in the first century.
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Whose passion for the gospel will find God working through them to move mountains in the 21st century? Don’t forget the words of the apostle Paul, a slave who said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes”