Romans 1:1-15 The Gospel

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God – the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son…” Rom. 1:1-2

Language, in particular the English language, is evolving because words lose their meaning and new ways are needed to communicate the original meaning of words. Here’s a goofy example: “Hey man, you’re really bad!”

Meaning 100 years ago: Someone was abruptly addressing an older male person and telling him in no uncertain terms that he was depraved.

Meaning today: Someone is addressing any age and any gender and saying in affect “you have some tremendous things about you that I really like.”

So when we read in Scriptures about the “gospel” and look up the definition, we find that the word means “good news”. This can be a rather mundane definition but if we go to the intent of the words when they were defined, the gospel means “incredibly, the best news that any human being could ever hear”. This is the gospel, good news on steroids, mind-blowing, astounding, good news!

This good news is prophesied in the Old Testament, it’s about Jesus, the Son of God. It’s about His death, burial, resurrection, present risen life and coming glory. It’s about the free gift of eternal life and being set free from slavery to sin. It’s a message that is to be shared with non-Christians and …yes, a message to be taught to Christians. It’s a message that applies to every human on earth and when we share this message with others we are in essence serving God. This is much of the message in Romans 1:1-15.

Give it some thought!



[Note: I will be using the NIV Bible as the source of Bible references throughout the study of Romans.]