Romans 1:1-7

Beloved of God

Text: Romans 1:1–7

Main Theme

The gospel is the good news of God concerning His Son, Jesus Christ—our Lord, Messiah, and risen Savior—and all who trust in Him are beloved of God and called to be saints.

Key Points

• The Apostolic Greeting Matters

  • “Grace to you and peace” reflects how believers enter worship—through God’s unearned favor and reconciled peace.

  • Paul intentionally replaces the typical Greek greeting with “grace,” highlighting the heart of the gospel.

• Who Paul Is (v.1)

  • Bondservant (slave) of Christ – Under Christ’s authority; joyfully owned by a gracious Master.

  • Called Apostle – Personally commissioned by the risen Christ (Acts 9).

  • Separated to the Gospel – Appointed by God to proclaim His good news.

• The Gospel Is Not New (v.2)

  • Promised beforehand through the prophets.

  • Fulfillment of Old Testament promises: Davidic King, suffering servant, eternal priest, Messiah.

• The Gospel Is About a Person (vv.3–4)

  • Jesus is:

    • Son of David (according to the flesh) – True human descendant, rightful King.

    • Declared Son of God in power – Vindicated through the resurrection.

  • The resurrection proves Christ’s authority and mediatorial role.

• Grace for Obedience (v.5)

  • Paul’s apostleship is a gift of grace.

  • The goal: “obedience of faith” among all nations.

  • True faith results in joyful submission to Christ as Lord.

• Beloved and Called (vv.6–7)

  • The Roman believers are:

    • Called of Jesus Christ

    • Beloved of God

    • Called to be saints (holy ones)

  • Christians are:

    • Declared holy (justification)

    • Being made holy (sanctification)

• Grace and Peace for Imperfect People

  • Believers never “have it all together.”

  • Peace is not rooted in personal perfection but in union with Christ.

  • Our identity is not “barely accepted,” but deeply loved.

The Gospel and Our Identity in Christ

1. Biblical Themes

A. Servanthood Under a Gracious Lord

• Exodus 14:31 – Moses called servant of the Lord

• Psalm 89:3–4 – Davidic covenant

• Philippians 2:5–11 – Christ as Lord

• Romans 6:22 – Slaves of God leading to holiness

Christ’s lordship is not tyrannical but loving and redemptive.

B. The Promised Gospel

• Genesis 3:15 – First gospel promise

• 2 Samuel 7:12–16 – Davidic covenant

• Isaiah 53 – The suffering servant

• Psalm 110 – Priest-King

The New Testament fulfills—not replaces—the Old.

C. Resurrection as Vindication

• Acts 2:24–36

• 1 Corinthians 15:14–20

• Romans 4:25

Without the resurrection, there is no gospel. With it, Christ is publicly declared Son of God in power.

D. Called, Beloved, Holy

• Ephesians 1:4–6 – Chosen in love

• 1 Peter 2:9 – A holy nation

• Romans 8:29–30 – The golden chain of redemption

Identity precedes activity. We live holy lives because we are holy in Christ.

2. Historical Context of Romans

• Written around AD 57.

• Jewish believers had been expelled from Rome under Claudius.

• Upon return, tensions existed between Jewish and Gentile Christians.

• Paul emphasizes unity in the gospel and shared identity in Christ.

3. Doctrinal Connections (Reformed Theology)

Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF)

• WCF 8.1 – Christ as the only Mediator.

• WCF 11.1 – Justification by faith alone.

• WCF 13.1 – Sanctification as progressive work of God’s grace.

• WCF 20.1 – Christian liberty rooted in deliverance from guilt and wrath.

Westminster Larger Catechism (WLC)

• Q.36 – The Mediator is both God and man.

• Q.70–73 – Justification as an act of free grace.

• Q.75 – Sanctification as God’s work renewing us after His image.

Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC)

• Q.21 – Christ as Redeemer: prophet, priest, king.

• Q.33 – Justification defined.

• Q.35 – Sanctification defined.

• Q.1 – Chief end: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

4. Practical Applications

• Rest in your identity as beloved of God, not merely tolerated.

• Embrace Christ as Lord—not just Savior from hell.

• See obedience as a grace, not a burden.

• Live out your calling as one already declared holy.

• Enter worship expecting grace and peace.

Will you please turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 1. It was told to me while I was still at seminary that a pastor ought to wait till he has been in the ministry for 10 years before even coming up with the idea of preaching Romans. And the session asked that this is the book they would like me to preach. So about two years premature. So let's hope I finish it within two years. So Romans chapter 1. We'll be looking at verses 1 through 7.

Hear now God's perfect word. Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle... separated to God, to the gospel of God, which he promised through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Through him, we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations. For his name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Thus ends this portion of the reading of God's word. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for your word. It is good and true and righteous altogether. So Lord, we pray that it may be like gold to us. More so, Lord, than even the finest of gold. Lord, we pray that your word might not return void.

We pray that Your Spirit would help us to understand Your Word. God, You have given us a treasure trove of thought and instruction, of telling us of who You are and all You have done for us. And so, Father, we pray that Your Spirit would be with us as we have the preaching of Your Word. God, I pray that You would please Keep me bound by Your Word, under Your Word, teaching Your Word. Father, I might not lay upon Your people burdens that are extra biblical. Lord, we pray that Your Spirit would please be working in us, that we would test everything that is said and go back to the Word and figure out, are these things so?

And where are the Human ordinances of man might try to tie us down and steal our joy from you and the miraculous work you have done freeing us in Christ. We pray, Lord, that we might put those things aside and that we would enjoy you forever. God, we need your spirit. Please help us in Jesus's name. Amen.

I get up here every Sunday morning and I say something to you that maybe you don't even pay attention to. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do I say that? Is that just like something that just kind of rolls off the tongue, is off the top of your mind? When's the last time you've paid attention to that greeting? Why even have it?

One of the reasons why I start every sermon off or every time we have worship together off with grace to you and peace is because that's how we come into worship with the Lord. God is a gracious God. He has shown us his favor and he has brought us peace at a cost that only came through the blood of his son. And so that's how we enter into God's presence. And that's how I want to greet you every single Sunday morning, with a smile, and telling you there are hard things in this life, but when you come here, there is joy and there is peace to be had.

And if you read pastoral theology books, this is what they call a apostolic greeting. I say it because this is how the Holy Spirit told Paul he was supposed to open his letter to the Ephesians, or to the Romans. And so as we go through, this whole book of Romans, I'm going to just tell you, my plan as a pastor is to teach. But as we go through the book of Romans, I'm not here to deliver to you a whole bunch of exegetical lectures.

There is going to be some dense part. I'll probably tell you a bunch of Greek words and try to describe them for you, but I hope what that is, is to help you understand what this is and to love God more and to see what great love he has shown us in Jesus. And so with all those prefatory marks, those things to get us started off with, let's look at verse one. Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle. separated to the gospel of God. It's very normal.

Greek and Roman writing, if you were to write a letter to someone, there was a certain format, just like today, right? If I was to write a letter, if I'm out overseas somewhere, I'm gonna write a letter, an email to you, I'm probably, if I was to write it to my wife, I'd say, my dearest Olivia, or dear best friend, and I would give her a letter, and then I would say, love, Brian, or if it's one of you, I may say, love in Christ, or in Christ, Brian, or something like that. Or you have a, who is this to, the body, and then who it's from. Well, in Greek letters, they kind of front most of that. It's, who is this from? Who am I writing to? And then, greetings. And most letters in the ancient world were really short.

Like, I'm talking about just a few lines. And so when we come to Paul's letter to the Roman, and it's 16 chapters long, this is unique amongst all the thousands and thousands of letters that exist. of the ancient Roman world. And Paul does some things that are curious.

He changes things that you would expect. Like in verse 7, when he finally gets to greetings, he doesn't actually say greetings. He says, instead of greetings, he says grace. See, chairein would be greetings, but instead he says cheres, grace. So he's got a reason for writing this letter, and it's a very thoughtful letter. But he starts off with who he is. That's normal. But he could have just said Paul. But instead he writes a whole bunch about himself in verses one through six.

So who is this Paul? Look at verse one. There's three things that Paul tells us about himself at first. Paul, who is Paul? Well, he's a bondservant of Jesus Christ. He is a slave to Jesus. He is in obedience underneath Jesus. And this is not a distasteful thing.

By the way, in the Roman world in which Paul is writing with most of the New Testament is written, it is estimated that between 70% of the Roman population at that time either was a slave or had been a slave at one point. And so when Paul says that he's a slave, this isn't necessarily the way we think of American chattel slavery. This is the type of slavery where there were slaves put in charge of huge, massive estates. There were slaves who were highly educated. There were slaves who could be in charge of legions of armies.

This is him saying he is a man under authority. He's saying that he has a master, and his master, his Lord, is Jesus Christ. This isn't just a New Testament type thing either. Moses was called a servant of God. Joshua was called a slave of God. David himself was called a servant of God.

And so your translations, depending on what you have, it may say slave, it may say bondservant, or it may say servant. Doulos is the Greek word behind that, but the point is Paul identifies himself as someone under authority. Secondly, what Paul identifies himself in verse 1 is called to be an apostle. Paul is called to be an apostle.

He didn't decide this for himself. He didn't just one day decide, you know what I want to do? I want to convert to Christianity, that religion I was trying to destroy, and I want to become a leader in it. No, the guy was on his horse riding up to Damascus and Jesus Christ himself, the resurrected Lord, shone about him in glory and knocked him down on his rear end and made him blind and confronted him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

It was Jesus Christ himself who called him, who gave him this office to be an apostle. Now, apostle is used in a few different ways at different times. Apostle is somebody who's sent to go do a work. That's the base definition of apostolos in the Greek. And so you have an apostle, and they're commissioned, and they're sent to go do a certain amount of work.

Now, that could be a whole bunch of different things, depending. I could send one of my children as an apostle to go and tell their mother that I'm hungry for dinner, and what's the time going to be? And they would be under the authority to ask just that and nothing else. That would just be a basic definition of an apostle.

But here is a sense in which Paul is talking about a different type of special group. That the Lord Jesus himself commissioned twelve to be apostles. Twelve to have authority. And this is where I want to go in 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Paul talks about this. Just flip over a few pages. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Verses 1 and 2. Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

See, Paul had seen Jesus, and Jesus, the resurrected Lord, was the one who gave him the authority to go and preach the gospel, and it was accompanied by signs and miracles. And so Paul is a servant or a slave, and Paul is an apostle. He's been given a mission and a job to do and the authority to pull it off. But then also notice the last thing he says about himself in verse 1, as he is separated to the gospel of God. The separated could also be translated appointed. And so Paul is separated or appointed, singled out for this job. And what is his job? To the gospel. of God. A gospel is a, what is that word, is good news. Evangelion, in the Greek is evangelion, right, good word, good news.

He's got good news to say to people. And notice whose good news this is. It's not news that Paul gets to make up off the top of his head, creating whatever he thinks will make people happy, but it is the good news of God. This is the Lord himself. It is his gospel. It is his good news. And so Paul is one under authority as a slave, commissioned with a message to give. And the message isn't his. It's God's message. So he must, as a servant of God, of Jesus Christ himself, preach the good news. But what is this good news, this gospel of God? Well, first it's old. Look with me at verse two. The gospel which Paul is to preach is not brand new, which he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures. God had promised beforehand in the prophets of old.

And he had told Moses somebody was going to rise up after him who would be greater than him. He had told David that someday he would have a son who would sit upon the throne and his reign would last forever. He told Isaiah that one would come and be the suffering servant. He promised in Psalm 110 that there was a high priest of the order of Melchizedek. We knew in Psalm 2 that there was going to be a messianic king. We even find out where he's going to be born in the city of Bethlehem.

There's all sorts of good news, prophecies, all throughout the Old Testament that by the time Jesus shows up, it is a pregnant moment. People are waiting, longing, hoping for the Messiah. This is not brand new news, but as Peter said in Acts chapter 3, 24, this was news that was spoken of beforehand. So it is not new news, it is hoped for news. People have been waiting thousands of years to hear about this gospel. So what is it? Interestingly, the good news is Jesus. The good news is his son. Look at me verses three and four.

Concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is born of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. Paul was appointed preach the gospel of God concerning His Son, Jesus Christ. So who is Jesus? Well, notice first that Jesus, according to the flesh, is born of the seed of David.

Have you ever wondered, as you open up the New Testament, You open up the book of Matthew and you are, it just starts off riveting. I mean, it's like, it's a real page turner. It's 14 generations after 14 generations after 14 generations of genealogy. And people will scratch their head at that.

But it is pointing out the genealogy that Jesus is truly the son of David. See, David was never a perfect king. Quite the opposite if you go read the life of David. Many of us, when we read the life of David, go, really? That's the one you chose? Yeah, because... It made us long for the one who would be better than David, the offspring of David, who would be perfectly righteous, who would be holy, who would be powerful, who would never do anything foolish like what happened with Uriah and Bathsheba and the census and all the other junk that we find in David's life. One would come who would be better than David. And he came.

According to the flesh, he was born, Jesus Christ. But Jesus It's His name. He really does save us from our sins. That's why He was named Jesus. But He is also the Christ. That's not His last name. Right? If we were to go back and call Jesus by the name people would have known Him by, it would have been, it would have been, Iesus Wiu Yosef. Jesus, son of Joseph. That's what everybody in Nazareth would have called Jesus. They didn't have last names. You were first name, son of someone. So what is this Christ stuff here? It's not his last name, it's his office. His Christos is the closest translation at the time for the Hebrew word Messiah.

This is that picture when Samuel went, and he was going to go anoint a new king after Saul had become so filled with himself and his pride that God turns away Saul, and he says, he's not going to be the king. I'm going to go give you a new one. And tells Samuel, go fill your horn with oil, and go to the house of Jesse. Go to the Bethlehemite. And as you go to that house, you're going to find the one I'm going to have you make king.

And as he goes, he goes and he finds the runt of the litter. He finds David, the ruddy guy, the little brother, the smallest one out in the field. And he tells him to bring him in. And the Lord says, this is the one. And what does Samuel do? He takes the horn of oil and he pours it out on David's head. He's set apart for this work.

Jesus, the anointed one. Paul is a slave of Jesus. He's called, commissioned as an apostle. He's appointed to the work of the gospel, and that work of the gospel is concerning God's own Son, Jesus the Messiah, our Lord. And there's two ways that that happens. Our Lord, this gospel of our Lord is that Lord, is the one you serve.

It's just the word kurios. And so if you were a slave and you had somebody over, you would just call them kurios. But it's interesting. You would just call them Lord. But it's interesting that in the Old Testament, when the Jewish people took the Hebrew scriptures and they translated it from Hebrew into Greek, The Jewish people didn't like to call God by his formal name, right? The name he revealed himself to Moses is four letters, Tetra, and then letters, so Tetragrammaton. So four-letter name, so Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, Y-H-W-H, or Y-H-V-H. And the point is, sometimes this is translated Yehovah or Yahweh.

But Jewish people didn't like saying that name, because they were worried about breaking the third commandment. And so they had what was called a perpetual reading. So every time you would read the Old Testament, you wouldn't actually say God's name. Instead, you would say, Adonai, Lord. And every single time that God's name is supposed to be used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, they use the word that's ascribed to Jesus here, Lord. See, because Jesus is, yes, the very son of God, but he is also our Lord. He is our anointed one and our master and our God. We follow him.

I gotta say, there's a way in which people are able to come to Jesus. It always concerns me when I hear people, and I'll talk to them, and they'll tell me their testimony, and they'll say how they came to know Jesus, or why they believe that they're saved, and they'll say, well, I don't want to go to hell. My heart breaks for them. Because Jesus isn't just our get out of hell free card.

He is a loving master, a wonderful Lord. The one who loved us so much that he willingly laid down his life for us. He gave up of himself willingly as a living sacrifice. Why? Because he loves his disciples. He loves his sheep. He cares for them and he willingly lays down his life for them.

Nobody took Jesus's life from him, but he willingly laid it down. And that is our Lord. He's not some cruel despot. He's not some tyrant who's going to flip off the handle and crush you like a bug at any moment. But if you are in Jesus Christ, you are his beloved. He cares for us. He's a wonderful Lord. So who is Jesus? He's a true son of David, according to the flesh. He is the anointed. He is our Lord.

But then notice also who he's said to be. Declared, verse 4, declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Jesus declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness. There are some people who have said, well, you see, we look at this part and we see that Jesus wasn't always the son of God. And it's like, no, no, no, hold on, no, no, right?

Jesus makes it very clear from his own mouth, before Abraham was, I am. Jesus makes it very clear that he is pre-existent before the world. We go to the places like Colossians chapter 1, and we hear of Jesus being the exact imprint or the exact image of the invisible God. Right, when Philip even asks him, we want to see the Father. Jesus says, how long have I been with you? If you've seen me, you have seen the Father.

Right, this point in verse 4 is not that Jesus becomes the Son of God. But it's that he is declared in his office as the mediator, the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness. And what proves it? His resurrection from the dead. Jesus didn't just come saying, hey look, I'm the Messiah. Hey look, I'm the king and have nothing to back it up. Jesus came proving and showing and earning his right to be The very only mediator between God and man. He did it by his perfect obedience in this life. He did it by willingly dying on the cross, but even more so, he proved it and earned it by rising again from the dead on that third day. This is why.

This is why Paul says that if the resurrection is not true, we above all people are most to be pitied. Because if Jesus is still in the grave, if he was put in the tomb and then his disciples stole him out like the Jewish people left all this rumors around, and he was just put into another grave somewhere to be eaten by dogs or something, if that's true, then we don't have a mediator. then all the claims of Jesus as being the Son of God are a lie.

But we believe the historical record that Jesus Christ really, truly did raise again from the dead, and He is our Lord. He is our Savior. He truly is the Son of God. And He is powerful, and He was filled with the Holy Spirit, and He sent the Holy Spirit upon us. And so who is Jesus? He is our hope. He is our Lord. He's the one in whom we get to rejoice in for all eternity. He's the one we can follow in this life and into the next life. This is the gospel.

If you're in the Sunday school class for the adults, you guys are going through Machen's lecture series on Machen's Christianity and Liberalism. I'd really encourage you to actually pick up the book and read it. It's not that hard of a book. I shouldn't say not that hard, but it's not very long of a book. There's some things, right, that I don't agree with when he gets into some of his political stuff. But there's one thing that I found very, very helpful from Machen in Christianity and liberalism.

He says that faith always has an object. And the object of the Christian faith is the person of Jesus. This is why we say we believe in Jesus. We receive Jesus. We trust in Jesus. We hope in Jesus. We have the peace of Jesus Christ that surpasses all understanding, right? Because our hope, our faith, our joy, our peace is found in the person of Jesus.

And this is what Paul was appointed to as a slave. Called as an apostle to preach that there is good news to be had. And that good news is to be had in you wrestling with who you are without God. And the hope you have by holding on to Jesus. And that's what he's going to be talking about through all of the book of Romans. Is how do we be made right with God.

And the CliffsNotes version is, spoiler alert. You trust in Christ. You receive and rest in Christ alone. And this is Paul's grace in verse 5. This is part of God's unearned favor towards him. Look with me at verse 5. Through him, that's Jesus, we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. Paul had received through Jesus The word, there's an issue here, there's a Greek thing going on in verse 5. We have received grace and apostleship. And I would argue because of what's called a hendiatris there, or hendias there, there's something that those, it should be grace even apostleship, or something like the grace of apostleship.

Right, through Jesus we have received the grace of apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. Paul was given as a grace. He saw his apostleship as something, as a gift, a divine favor that he didn't earn. He didn't do anything good enough to become an apostle, but God graciously made him an apostle. But notice, he received this apostleship for obedience. Now, I got a hard time in my earthly flesh squaring that up. Because I think I'd be really tempted if I was Paul to maybe question or wonder or think, was I really called to this work?

I mean, the guy gets beaten. The guy is shipwrecked. The guy has his hands and feet literally tied together and a cane whipped across his back 39 times, multiple times. The guy is so hated that in one of the cities of Macedonia, they literally throw rocks at him, sorry, Asia Minor, they literally throw rocks at him until they think he's dead.

You might think of something like that and go, maybe this isn't the job I should be in. Maybe my Lord's a little bit heavy handed with me and hard. He says, no, it's not. It's his grace. It's his blessing to get to go to all the nations. And he knows that if they hated Jesus, they would hate him also. But he counts it all a joy. For there's a passing glory of knowing Jesus Christ. Because he knows that the sufferings of this life are incomparable to the riches of the life which is to come. And so Paul is willing to count it all as a loss, and say it is a gracious gift of my God who has saved me out of my wretched self-righteousness, and has shown me his grace, has loved me so much, and he has given me the opportunity to go and to tell all peoples of all nations, all tongues, all nationalities, whether they were in Asia, or whether they were in Macedonia, or Greece, or Rome, or to the furthest parts of the earth, he got to go tell people the best news ever, that there was hope to be found in Jesus Christ.

And so he's received this grace and he's going to obey the call. And he's going to call other people to the obedience of faith. And then he speaks directly to the people in Rome in verses 6 and 7. He's done talking about himself. And now he ties them together. Verse 6. Among whom you also are the called of Christ Jesus. Among whom you all. He's not talking to an individual there.

He's talking to the whole church. He's talking to everybody in that Roman church who actually believes. Now that Roman church has been through a lot. Paul is writing this most likely in about somewhere between 50 and 60 AD, closer to the end of that timeframe. And as Paul is writing this, the church has really gone through a huge rupture, right?

Because Jewish people had been used as a scapegoat by the emperor. And things weren't going too well, and there was actually a fire in Rome. And they would blame the fire in Rome on the Jewish people as some type of conspiracy theory. And one of the emperors actually expelled every Jewish person from Rome. They weren't allowed to be in the city of Rome whatsoever.

And so you have this church that was originally preached to both Jewish people and non-Jewish people, Jews and Gentiles, in the same church. But then all the Jewish people had to leave. So then you have just a non-Jewish church remaining and then all of a sudden that emperor dies and what happens? You have Jewish people returning. And as we go through the book of Romans you're going to find that There's some tension in between Jewish people and Gentile people in the church, trying to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, trying to figuring out how does this theology line up between the Old Testament and the New Testament? How does any of this make sense?

And when Paul says to all of them, among whom you all also are the called of Jesus Christ, he's not making any distinction of people there. He says, if you have been called of Jesus Christ, you all are in that group. If you are in the church and you have believed the gospel that Paul is saying he's preaching here, that he's a servant of here, that he has proclaimed here, then the people in Rome, those who are called of Jesus Christ unto obedience of faith, if you are one of those, then you are in Christ. regardless of your nationality, genealogy, or history. The Romans are those who are called to believe.

And then he gives them the beautiful hello in verse seven. To all who are in Rome, Notice these words are so beautiful. They're like dropping golden drops of honey. Beloved of God. Not enemies. Not strangers. Not outsiders. Not hostility. Not invaders. Not unclean. Beloved, all of God's affection poured out upon them.

Beloved of God, called to be saints. Those who once walked in darkness have now had the light of Jesus Christ shined in their heart, and as they abide in Jesus, they aren't becoming saints. They're called to be saints. That word saints, if you think of the word saints, and it's such a tainted word, you know, I grew up thinking with the idea of saints that you have somebody with the iconography of the person with the golden halo over their head, and they didn't do any sin, and they were perfect people. That's not what that word is. The word is that they're called to be holy. If you are a Christian, if God has called you, and you are in Christ, There are two things simultaneously at the same time happening in your life. The first is that God has declared you are holy.

He said you are not like the rest of the world. You're not like vessels that are ready for destruction, but no, you are special, set apart for a royal use, a holy purpose. You are like those articles in the temple that weren't to be used for the kings of Babylon who wanted to go feast and drink on the goblets of gold. No, you were to be used by God alone.

That's how God thinks of you, holy and pure. He's declared that's who you are. So that's thing number one, you are declared holy. And yet there's also a second thing going on. You were declared holy, but now in your life, guess what he's doing? He is making you holy. You are called to be saints, called to be holy ones.

So there's all sorts of things we're gonna find in the book of Romans. on both those aspects, where God has called us, He has saved us, He's done everything necessary for us to be His wholly chosen people, and yet, we're gonna find there's a pivot point in the book of Romans, at chapter 12, where it goes, God has saved you, now what are you gonna do about it? The Holy Spirit is in you, now how does the Holy Spirit lead you? You were dead in your trespasses and sins and yet God saved you, so now what do you do? How do you live your life obedient to the faith? How do you become more and more like Jesus who is in you? To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace.

There are some of you, possibly, who come into church week in and week out, and you don't want to let people know because it's just a little bit too painful or vulnerable to let people know that you don't have it all together in your life, that there are problems in your marriage, You struggle as parents. You fight with your siblings. There are issues with your finances. And there's a saying that happens amongst religious people where we want to come and we want to act like we have it all together.

You don't have to be. God shines his favor upon those who don't deserve it. He shows his covenant, chesed, loyalty and love to people who don't deserve it. I'm not telling you to wallow in your sins. I'm not telling you to just be okay with the areas of your life that you know need help. What I am saying is that before the Lord God of glory who shines divine favor upon his children, you don't have to pretend. And you don't have to put on a plastic mask for everybody else to see.

But when you come into worship, I hope that you come and you get a taste of knowing that God is good. And that you get to enjoy this God of grace forever. And that you have true peace. Eirene in the Greek. Shalom in the Hebrew. that when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, that when you bask in the glory of God's unmerited electing favor, that you are able to just say, I have wholeness, I have tranquility, I have everything I need because I know that I'm loved of God. Because newsflash, you're never gonna have it all together. In this life, you will never be perfectly sanctified.

I remember when I was younger, I used to look at, when I was first a Christian, I used to look at the Christians who were married, you know, 40, 50, 60 years, and I think, oh, this is wonderful. Like, someday I can be like them, and I can be happy, and we won't have any more problems in our relationship whatsoever. And then y'all know you've ruined that for me. I talk to people who have been married 40, 50, 60 years now, and I go, you mean it doesn't stop?

I have to keep learning how to love better. I have to learn how to be more patient with my children. And even when the children grow up, I have to learn even another level of patience because I know that they're going to make decisions that I don't got any decision about. You're never going to be perfect in this life. But that does not steal our peace. Because our peace is in Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The book of Romans starts with an invitation for you to know that there is good news to be had. That Jesus Christ loves sinners like us. That there is peace with God. And that it is found in us believing in his son. So I'm excited to preach to you and to work with you through the Book of Romans. And I hope we, through this book, will know Jesus more, will love God more, and will walk out of the Book of Romans, hopefully not in 10 years, but in a few months, hopefully, knowing that God is truly good and faithful and loving to all those who are in Jesus. So hope in Jesus, brothers and sisters.

This is the message that I have to proclaim to you. To you, those of you who have been called in Christ Jesus, who are at Sharon R.P. Church, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. God, you are good. And we pray that your spirit would be with us, that we may know you, and we may know your love for us, and that you would give us such a firm faith in who you are, and what you have done for us, that we would be deeply rooted, firmly fixed and established in Jesus Christ, and that we would bear good fruit. Because we remain, we abide, we find our life in Jesus. Thank you that you are our wonderful Lord, and you have given us good news. Lord, truly let it be for us. We pray in Jesus's name. Amen.

• What does it practically mean to live as a “bondservant of Christ”?

• Why is the resurrection essential to the Christian faith?

• How does knowing you are “beloved of God” change your daily struggles?

• What is the difference between justification and sanctification?

• How does understanding the Old Testament promises deepen your appreciation of the gospel?

• In what ways do you struggle to treat Jesus as Lord rather than merely rescuer?

• How does grace produce obedience rather than laziness?

• Gospel (Euangelion) – Good news of God concerning Christ.

• Bondservant (Doulos) – One under authority; slave.

• Apostle – One sent with divine authority.

• Messiah/Christ – The Anointed One.

• Justification – God’s legal declaration that sinners are righteous in Christ.

• Sanctification – The lifelong process of being made holy.

• Mediator – One who reconciles two parties (Christ between God and man).

• Grace – Unmerited favor.

• Peace (Shalom/Eirene) – Wholeness and reconciliation with God.