Introduction

Hello, welcome to the Will Preach for Food podcast. I’m Doug, a pastor here at Faith Lutheran Church, based out of Shelton, Washington, a congregation of the ELCA. You can learn more about Faith at our website, www.faithshelton.org. This podcast is being recorded for the 1st Sunday in Lent, February 26, 2023. Over these next few weeks, I think I’m going to try my best to preach from the book of Romans. “By Grace Through Faith” is my series title, and today is Part One, looking at Romans 1-2. 

So we’re going to spend some time getting to know a man named Saul of Tarsus, whom we know as the Apostle Paul. Paul was a Jewish teacher and tentmaker turned Christian missionary, theologian, reformer. Paul introduces himself to the Romans as simply “a servant of Christ Jesus.”

Romans 1:1-4

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 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. 

After twenty years of missionary work around the Mediterranean, Paul has on his heart to bring the gospel all the way to Spain. To get there, he’s going to need support from a cluster of little churches in Rome. He needs donors, backers, companions, prayer. He writes a letter to a group he’s never met. It is an ambitious attempt to summarize and demonstrate his message, his vision, and his mission strategy. He is coming to visit them in person, and he wants to be ready and receptive to his vision. 

Romans 1:7-10

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. 9 God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10 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.

History tells us that Paul makes it to Rome, although as a prisoner, not a missionary. And he never makes it to Spain.

But we have his letter to the Romans, arguably the most important of Paul’s writings if not the entire Bible. Paul wants to let them know about what he calls “the gospel,” the euangelion, the good news that was promised in the Hebrew Scriptures and finally revealed and realized in the person of Jesus, the Messiah Christ sent from God. This letter gives us ways to talk about human depravity and God’s righteousness. He gives us language for a doctrine of justification: Saved by grace through faith, apart from works of the law. And for sanctification: daily dying and being made new through the Holy Spirit, symbolized and set into motion through Baptism.