When it functions as it should, the gospel of Christ brings vastly different people together. This is not always easy, yet the Christian church was never meant to be monolithic or monocultural. Paul, writing to a church in Rome which is divided by cultural identity – Jew versus Gentile – gets back to basics. He reminds his readers that while the gospel of Christ represents the fulfilment of Jewish messianic expectations (v 3), God’s promises were always intended to bring blessing to the whole earth. Jesus Christ is now Lord over all (v 4). 

This is where Paul comes in: his apostleship means God has given him special leadership in the church, to call all the Gentiles to faith and obedience (v 5). This is difficult for Jewish believers to adjust to. As a people they had become used to being separate from the ‘contaminated’ Gentiles who neither obey the Torah (the Old Testament Law) nor follow its practices. But the gospel eliminates these barriers. Christ ushers in a new age of redemption and reconciliation for all of us. Very different people are to become the one people of God. 

Pray for spiritual insight and right understanding as you begin this study.

In these opening words, Paul gives us the big picture. The word ‘Trinity’, the crucial Christian insight into God’s being, never appears in the New Testament, but a trinitarian pattern of thought plainly underlies the story the New Testament tells and the word Trinity appropriately conveys that story. 

We can see it here. Jesus Christ is the Son of God and has been confirmed as such by the resurrection. In his earthly life he was a descendant of the royal line of David (v 3). He was powerfully raised from death by the Holy Spirit or ‘Spirit of holiness’ (v 4) and is now proclaimed as Lord and Christ. All of this is an outworking of the purpose of the God of Israel whom we call Father (v 7). This purpose was revealed and promised beforehand in Israel’s scriptures and constitutes the gospel of God (v 1) or the good news that Paul has been commissioned to proclaim. Paul’s mission is to call all people, Jews and Gentiles, to the obedience of faith in Christ (v 5). Through this faith, the love and grace of God embrace people’s lives. In this way they belong to Christ and to each other as God’s holy people (v 7).

We are sometimes told that the age in which we live is no longer tolerant of grand narratives. This is because they have been used, by Marxists for instance, to imprison people within a way of understanding history that takes away liberty and the freedom to believe otherwise. Christianity has occasionally fallen into this trap when it has become powerful and worldly, but Paul has nothing of this type in mind. For him the gospel brings freedom, grace and peace. Rome was the most powerful empire on earth. Paul is about to tell the story of a very different and much more wonderful kingdom.

Reflect on how your personal story fits into God’s story.