The Gospel ...

Monday, August 22, 2016. The gospel of Jesus Christ is in the center of Christian faith. The message of Jesus is the culminating point of the Jewish faith as well - the “son of men”, the Christ, the coming savior is a key topic of the prophets, starting with Moses and becoming more and more detailed in the books of Isaiah and Ezekiel.

Through him …

When we read the New Testament books, the evangelists and apostles write about him, about Jesus. They try to explain the gospel of the salvation which Jesus brings to their environment, to their fellow humans. They explain it with different images and arguments, linking it to the scriptures of the Old Testament.

Today, we start to read the letter which the apostle Paul wrote the the church in Rome. When you start such a letter, it is often a good idea to first look into the historical background. But let us skip that for a moment and just start to read and explore what we find. The letter of Romans is a fascinating and deep text. At its beginning, Paul starts with some introductory words:

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. 7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1)

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Savior and Lord …

There are many things we should talk about in this paragraph already. Paul calls himself a servant of Christ. In the background of this there is his story how he came to faith - as someone persecuting the Christian sect. He said he was set apart. He talks about his background as a Jewish scholar, who followed the Jewish faith from early years. He talks about the prophets in the Holy Scriptures. This is all the books of the three major prophets and the 12 small prophets.

Then Paul talks about Jesus himself, the son of David. You find two different family trees in the Gospels, one pointing to Jesus mother Mary, the other to his early father Joseph. He talks about the Holy Spirit - pointing to both the baptism of Jesus, his whole life full of the spirit, and his death and resurrection. He talks about Jesus as “the lord” (Greek “kyrious”). This is the title given to the resurrected Jesus, who was hold worthy to receive all power and wisdom.

And Paul talks about his mission, about the call to spread the gospel, to talk about Jesus and his life. He talks about obedience which comes from faith and through faith. He talks about grace and peace, which are brought to us in Christ Jesus, through his death and resurrection, through the holy spirit. There are many things which have deep meaning and should be part of a discussion between us. We will talk about it step by step when we read on … (Roland Potthast) ... more texts