Bible Studies

Introduction to Romans, part four

by Mike Stockwell
04/25/17
Free to Share
Author requests article critique

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

“And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So he, trembling and astonished, said, ‘Lord, what do you want me to do?’ And the Lord said to him, ‘Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.'” Acts 9:3-6.

From that moment on, Saul was never the same. In meeting Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, and obediently accepting Him as Lord and asking Jesus what He wanted him to do, Saul, now called Paul, was born again. He had walked in darkness; now he walked in the Light. He had hated Jesus passionately; now he would love Him more passionately; and he would love fellow Christians more than his own life. His life had been lived on his terms; now he was totally given to the Lord’s will for him.

Paul later described what had happened to him on the road to Damascus in this way: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” II Corinthians 5:17.

This amazing, supernatural experience called the new birth turns a bad man into a good one. Not perfect, mind you, but headed toward God instead of away from Him. And with this new birth, God equips us to be the people we were destined from the beginning to be: people of and for God, not self. This is what happened to Saul, now called Paul.

All of the 12 Apostles were Jewish, and  their ministries were spent trying to reach the Jews with the message of Christ. Paul would become known as the Apostle to the Gentiles. Simply defined, a Gentile is a non-Jew. One of the errors of Jewish thinking was that since they were God’s special people, then they were his only people. In their thinking, God hated the Gentiles.

Well, many passages of Scripture show this view to be false. We won’t take the time to cover them all, but call to memory the book of Jonah. Most people know Jonah was stuck in the belly of a great fish for 3 days, but do you know why? Because he wouldn’t obey God. He was a prophet of God, sent to Assyria, a Gentile nation, in order to warn them about coming judgement. Well, Jonah being a good Jew, hated Assyrians, and he wanted them destroyed!

In fairness to Jonah, Assyria and other enemy nations had tried to destroy Israel for centuries. The point is, God wanted Jonah to warn Assyria because God loves all people! The Bible says that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Ezekiel 18:32.

For our purposes, Paul’s own ministry to the Gentiles in obedience to God’s call shows how intensely the Lord loves all people, both Jew and Gentile alike. God tells us this in Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church: “For He himself (Jesus) is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of division between us, ” Ephesians 2:14. He was speaking of the wall of division between Jews and Gentiles. It has been broken down by the sacrifice of Christ so that now the two can become one in Christ!

By God’s grace, on Monday we’ll discuss the reasons behind Paul’s letter to the Roman church. Be sure not to miss it. Ask questions or make comments please; I’d love your input. In Christ’s love…Mike.