Limapela Education Project
Faith in Action
This project aims to provide quality education to children in Zambia's Copperbelt Province.
Traditionally, Paul's letter to the Romans has been regarded as a compendium and sourcebook of theology. In this second message on Romans, given at Greyfriars' Classical Service on 18 February 2007, Senior Minister Rob Yule argues that Paul's purpose in writing Romans was more strategic and practical. Rob makes a case that Romans was a missionary manifesto, written by Paul the experienced missionary statesman to recruit Roman believers as mission partners in his great vision of evangelising the west Roman Empire.
Most people think of Romans as a compendium of doctrine. I believe Paul meant it to be a manifesto of mission.
Paul wrote it for a practical purpose: to address issues in the house churches in Rome, and win the support of Roman Christians for the next phase of his missionary strategy.
He'd been an itinerant preacher for nearly twenty years. He'd seen the good news of God's salvation through Jesus Christ change the lives of Jews and Gentiles. Now he wanted to write an account of this gospel which he knew to be so effective in saving people. The letter is Paul's invitation to Roman believers to be partners in his missionary vision.
The greatest day in Paul's life was when he had a vision of Jesus (Acts 9:1-22). It totally transformed his life. Till that day he'd viewed Jesus as a messianic impostor. The vision convinced him that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. Before then his mission was to destroy the Christian movement. Afterwards his mission was to develop the Christian movement. Previously he was a dragon; 'breathing threats and murder' (Acts 9:1). Subsequently he was a disciple; preaching grace and mercy.
Paul never forgot that day. He often refers to it. He mentions it in his letters. He alludes to it here at the beginning of Romans. It was the day that changed his life; when he was 'set apart for the gospel of God' (1:1) and made God's partner in mission. On that day Jesus humbled him, knocked him off his high camel. When Paul cried out 'Who are you Lord' – that's when he became a 'servant of Messiah Jesus' (1:1).
Jesus not only humbled him. Jesus also gave him authority and made him bold, 'called' him 'to be an apostle' (1:1). 'Apostle' in Greek means a person who 'is sent'. In Latin, a person who is sent is a 'missionary'. A missionary is simply a person called and sent by God to go and bring others to faith and obedience in Jesus Christ (1:5).
Before you can change others, you must be changed yourself. Paul says that's what happened to him. When he met the risen Jesus he 'received grace' (1:5). He experienced God's undeserved mercy. The persecutor was pardoned. The fanatic received forgiveness. The murderer became merciful. He first 'received grace' and then was given 'apostleship' (1:5). Personal conversion precedes public mission. This is how Paul says God called him to be a partner in mission.
The relationship of Jews and Gentiles in God's purposes is one of Paul's main concerns in Romans. Today many Christians don't even realise – to use Edith Schaeffer's memorable phrase – that 'Christianity is Jewish'.
The gospel, Paul says, centres on 'Messiah Jesus' (1:1), who was foretold by the Jewish prophets in the Jewish Scriptures (1:2). Jesus' human ancestry was of the Jewish royal family, the house of David – which humanly qualified him to be the Messiah (1:3). Jesus' divine credentials were attested by his resurrection from the dead – which showed that he, unlike other prophets, was not just a messenger of God but the very Son of God (1:4). In short, salvation for Gentiles comes from God through the Jewish Messiah. And Paul, a Messianic Jew, was called by God to be a missionary to Gentiles (1:5). God's ideal is that Jews and Gentiles should be partners together in his mission.
Jew-Gentile relations were a hot issue in Rome. With over 1 million people, Rome was the only megacity of ancient times. Of these 40-50,000 were Jews, in numerous synagogue communities. The Christian message spread rapidly in these independent synagogues – beginning with the witness of pilgrims returning to Rome who'd been converted on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem (Acts 2:10). Soon there developed a 'Nazarene' sect in the Jewish community in Rome. Like Messianic Jews today these Jewish believers continued to live as Jews and attend their synagogues – resulting in heated arguments with 'Orthodox' Jews over whether Jesus was the Messiah. Suetonius, the Roman historian, records that 'the Jews were constantly stirring up a tumult under the leadership of Chrestus' (Claudius, 25.1) – which is probably a reference to Christ.
In AD 49, to put an end to these conflicts, the Roman Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome – including Jewish believers in Jesus. Paul met two of them – the tentmaker Aquila and his wife Priscilla – during his three-month stay in Corinth where he wrote this letter in the winter of AD 56-57 (Acts 18:2). This is how he'd have heard about the situation in the church in Rome – a church he hadn't founded or yet visited.
When Claudius died in AD 54, his successor Nero lifted the ban and allowed Jews to return to Rome. Aquila and Priscilla must have been among those who returned, because their names are listed in Paul's greetings at the end of Romans (16:3). But Nero didn't allow Jews to reopen their synagogues. So Jewish believers in Jesus would have been forced to worship in Gentile house churches – beginning their alienation from Judaism.
Can you imagine the strained relationship that would have resulted between Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome? It was a church originally completely Jewish, worshipping in synagogues. Then, as Gentiles were converted, it would have been partly Jewish and partly Gentile. Later, when the Jews were expelled from Rome, it would have become completely Gentile. Then Jewish believers who returned would have had to join exclusively-Gentile house churches – feeling alienated from something that was essentially theirs.
One of the main reasons Paul wrote Romans was to address these tensions between Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome. He addresses the letter 'to all God's beloved in Rome' (1:7). He uses the Greek greeting 'Grace' (charis) and the Jewish greeting 'Peace' (shalom).
Right through the letter he writes to both Jews and Gentiles. In Chapter 1 he says that the gospel is for the Jew first and also for the Greek (1:16), and in Chapter 3 he says God is not the God of Jews only but of Gentiles as well (3:29). In chapter 2 he tells Jews not to think of themselves as superior and pass judgement on Gentiles (2:1-3). In chapter 11 he tells Gentiles not to become proud and boast over Jews (11:18-20). Chapters 9-11 explore the strangely interwoven destiny of Jew and Gentile in the mystery of God's purposes for the world. Paul longed for Jews and Gentiles together to be partners in God's mission.
Paul hadn't founded the church in Rome, nor had he had opportunity to visit the imperial capital in his travels. Yet he already had a deep interest in the Roman believers:
Here we get a glimpse of Paul's evangelistic and missionary strategy:
The letter to the Romans is part of this grand missions strategy. Paul understood the importance of casting a mission vision. Since he hadn't been to Rome personally, he wrote a summary of the message he'd been preaching on his missionary journeys for the past nearly twenty years. Partnership in mission, support for mission, springs from two factors. The first is confidence in the person they are supporting – in their message and effectiveness. The second is communication of the vision – its scope and power to motivate people to join in.
The letter to the Romans provides both these things. It is Paul's mature missions theology – an account of the message he preached, and a vision of where he longed to preach it. Paul wrote Romans for a strategic missionary purpose – to build up the believers in Rome and recruit them to be his mission partners in the great task of evangelising the west Roman Empire.
I hope that you will catch his vision for the even greater task of making Jesus Christ known in world mission today.
Rob Yule, 18 February 2007
© 2007, Greyfriars Presbyterian Church
