Footsteps #224

“This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News.” NLT (Rom.1:1)

 V1 – what is an apostle? The dictionary defines the biblical word as one who is “sent out”. But an apostle is not merely any Christian who gets sent somewhere, nor is it the equivalent of “disciple”. To the contrary, in the Bible an apostle is a disciple with great authority. According to Acts.1:15-26, an apostle was one who had personally known the Lord and had been a “witness to His resurrection” (v22,) In addition, an apostle was a disciple who had received a call “not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father”, (Gal. 1:1) 

Paul repeatedly asserts that God had called him to be an apostle (see, e.g., 1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1). Paul tells us he is a “slave”. Then he declares that he is an “apostle”. The first is a term of great humility that expresses Paul’s sense of personal insignificance. The second is a title of great authority – so much authority that Paul could claim equality with the disciples whom Jesus chose while on earth. 

In actuality, Paul’s claim to be an apostle lined up in one sense with his claim to be a slave of God, since the Old Testament also identified Joshua and other prophets as “slaves” of God (Josh. 24:29; Amos 3:7). Thus Paul, in describing himself as both a slave and an apostle, was placing himself in the succession of the prophets. As a result, he could assert that “the gospel which was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through revelation.” (Gal. 1:11, 12). Are you ready for the authority that this letter carries which has advice and counsel for nearly every aspect of our religious experience and daily life?  

Paul has told us three things about himself in v1 – a slave, an apostle, and set apart for the gospel of God. Paul did not invent this “good news’ but it was delivered to him from God. It was this gospel that changed him from a Pharisee to a Christian. As he says in v16 – there is power in this gospel.