Romans Chapter 16 cont'd
My co-worker, Timothy, Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my relative, send their greetings.
(I Tertius, to whom Paul dictated this letter, greet you in the Lord as well.) My host, Gaius, and the whole church here say hello. Erastus, the chamberlain of the city also sends his greetings, along with a brother in the Lord named Quartus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you. Let it be so, Lord!
Now we honor him who has the power to firmly establish you in this good news and in an intimate relationship with the person of Jesus Christ. This is the revelation of the mystery which was hidden from the beginning of the world, but is now manifested, and which is a fulfillment of many prophecies in scripture. And now, by the express commandment of the everlasting God, it is to be made known to all the nations of the earth, leading them into the passionate pursuit of God that flows from genuine faith.
Comments:
Some final personal greetings and a summary of what Paul has written in his letter to the Romans penned as a thanksgiving prayer brings us to the end. The doxology (Gk. glorious words) is highly reminiscent of his opening purpose statement in the first 5 verses of chapter 1:
"This is a letter from Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be a divine ambassador I was apprehended for the express purpose of spreading the good news of God that was spoken of in times past by the prophets in the holy scriptures. This message centers around his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who, in his humanity, was the Son of David. He was also proven to be "the Son of God" when he was raised from the dead through the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the same Spirit I have received this ambassadorial commission to introduce many people from many nations, for the honor of Christ, into the passionate pursuit of God that flows from genuine faith."
At long last, the penultimate focus of the Old Testament prophets and their messages to Israel and the nations, the longings and sighings of the prayerful Hebrew fathers and mothers, that which the angels long to fully comprehend (see 1 Pet 1:12) and the mysterious divine construct that would provide the previously missing cipher code for integrating into a whole all that God had done with his ancient people...God's Big God Story...was unveiled and revealed for all to see and understand. The Person of Jesus Christ and his Gospel burst...exploded...onto the scene of human history. And God is able and willing to firmly establish Christ-followers in their understanding of the points of this now-revealed secret that had been prophesied throughout the previous generations and that were preserved in OT scriptures.
Paul is boldly (audaciously) declaring his letter to the Romans captures the essential major points of this divine revelation that had been hidden from all people throughout all human history...the Jews and their rabbis, scholars and scribes, the gentiles and their philosophers and religious mystics and even the Hebrew prophets themselves who were used by God to utter his very words...had now come to pass and fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah. It required the incarnation of the Son of God and the cosmos-shifting events that followed in those 33 years to bring clearly to light a full understanding of what had been hidden. This new revelation was based on Jesus' own authoritative commentaries on the OT scriptures that he passed on directly to his apostles both before and after his resurrection...and provided the hindsight needed to unlock the mysteries of God's Big God-Story.
A major paradigm-shifting part of this Great News, that Paul expounds upon in chapters 9-11, was that the gentiles could now be freely grafted in to the ancient "olive tree" of Israel that God planted in the earth when he cut his original covenant with Abraham...if they would receive and follow Jesus as Lord and Messiah. For the "natural branches", the Jews, their long-awaited Messiah had arrived and they must personally receive him to remain in the covenant. Otherwise, they, as branches, would be pruned from the "family tree" for their blatant rejection of Jesus as Messiah. (And though many 1st century Jews...a believing "remnant"...accepted Jesus, the vast majority did not. Even so, an outstanding prophecy declares that God has not forgotten them as a people group, but that many Jews will yet come to faith in Jesus as Messiah.) They would not be "saved" and at one with God on the basis of their natural Jewish heritage, their knowledge of scripture and/or their performance of Jewish cultural and religious rites and traditions. Moreover, God had not lied or broken his word to the Jews in the revelation of the Gospel of Jesus (or the Gospel of the Kingdom of God), but many of them had, over time, forgotten, twisted and misinterpreted the nature and spiritual roots of the salvation he has promised to them (and ultimately the Gentiles) from the very beginning. The "Substance" of all that was foreshadowed had arrived and a fateful and personal life or death Moment of Decision was introduced into the planet by his coming...his intervention. It was a watershed moment in human history and nothing would, or possibly could, ever be the same again.
Eph 2:11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
Jesus was and is the integrating element for the Story that is now fully declared in the light of the Day of the New Creation that dawned with his personal arrival to the earth. Those who put their faith in him, whether Jew or gentile, would become "one new man"...a new kind of humanity that possesses the very uncreated life of God in their souls...in Messiah Jesus. A new temple of God has been erected in the earth...one made "without hands" that consists of Holy Spirit indwelt human lives scattered throughout the whole earth and gathered in local relational networks. Race and religious (or irreligious and/or falsely religious) backgrounds are irrelevant in light of the coming of the Christ. The Gospel of Jesus eclipses all that human beings tend to put their trust in to pridefully distinguish themselves from other peoples. God put an exclamation point on the inauguration and dedication of his new temple in Christ, by fulfilling the tragic prophecies of Jesus recorded in the gospels concerning the utter destruction of Jerusalem and its Jewish temple in 70 A.D. by the Romans.
Through the Gospel of Jesus, a final and authoritative divine revelation is being held out to humanity by the hand of God himself that is inter-generational, international, inter-gender and inter-aeon in scope. Ever since the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ and up to this very day, that same "Moment of Decision" is continuing to be held out of individuals and tribes and nations. Who do we say Jesus of Nazareth is? Who do you say Jesus of Nazareth is? Who do I say Jesus of Nazareth is? Will I attempt to ignore him? Will I reject him for who he says he is? Or...will I agree with who God says he is and pledge my allegiance to believe in and follow him? It is an urgent question that requires a response from every person who hears of him and his message. It is also a message that must be urgently shared with all the peoples on the face of the earth
Indeed it is worth our while to drink deeply of this inspired letter that is brimming with words of grace and truth written by this brilliant Apostle. I pray that this devotional paraphrase and my musings on the meaning and application of Paul's exquisite letter will be used by God to bring greater spiritual life, encouragement and empowerment to my readers.
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