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“1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God –”
In the last devotion, we looked at the life and history of Paul, his conversion, and his apostleship. In this devotion, we’ll take a moment to define Paul’s use of the phrase “the gospel of God.”
What is this gospel that Paul says he was “set apart” for and is now preaching? Throughout the book of Romans, Paul is going to outline four elements that are necessary to understanding this gospel. In brief, they are:
- God: God is holy, perfect, and creator of all things. God sets forth the moral law and demonstrates the standards that all people are held to. (See Romans 1:20, 9:18-23, 11:33-36)
- Man: All people are created to bring God glory, yet all have transgressed God’s moral law. We are fallen and sinful human beings, and we are unable to redeem ourselves before God. God is just to punish us for our disobedience. (See Romans 1:18, 21-23, 3:9-12, 23, 10:3)
- Jesus: All people need a perfect, sinless Savior to die for them, once for all who God has elected, offered as a holy sacrifice, so that we may be redeemed from our sin. God’s Son Jesus Christ is this sacrifice. Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to God the Father after His crucifixion, confirming His deity and perfection. (See Romans 3:21-26, 5:12-21, 6:23, 8:1-2, 33-34, 10:4)
- Respond: For anyone to be saved from God’s just wrath, God must stir in their heart, and they must act, in repentance (turning away) from their sin, confess, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in his resurrection. (See Romans 6:1-2, 12-14, 15, 10:8b-11)
This gospel is at the core of the structure of Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome and is the gospel that Paul was “set apart” for and is now preaching both to Jews and Gentiles. We’ll continue to see these themes throughout this study of the Book of Romans.