Paul: The Set Apart Sent Servant
Rom 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God
Servant -A Bond-servant a servant of Christ Jesus Gk doulos –slave- one who is in permanent servitude to another, his will is altogether consumed in the will of the other, one who gives himself up to another's will, one who is devoted to another to the disregard of one's own interests. The word is used of someone who is dependent on another, bound to them. A slave under bondage (Newell). Paul's says that he is bought and owned and ruled by . . . Christ (1 Cor 7:23), Christians are slaves of Christ because he bought us by dying for us, and therefore he owns us. (1 Cor 6:19-20). Paul is the bond-servant of Christ Jesus because Christ bought him and owns him. It also means this living Christ rules him. (Gal 1:10), . . . being a bond-servant of Christ means utter submission to what pleases him, not what pleases anybody else. Paul's self-understanding is that he is bought and owned and ruled by Christ Jesus. In Romans we are not dealing with a man and his genius. We are dealing with a man and his Owner and Ruler and God. (Piper) No other apostle calls himself the “slave of all” (1 Cor 9:19, Mark 10:43,44, 2 Cor 4:5) (Newell). Paul met Jesus and from that point on he was never his own man. He was a servant of the Lord (Boice). Paul uses the term “a servant of Jesus Christ –to say that is who I am and that is what I am. The most important thing about Paul is that he is a servant (bond slave) of Jesus. That is why Paul put this first in his list of credentials. Paul is always boasting and glorifying in Christ rather than himself. Paul wants the people of Rome whom he has never met to think about Jesus rather than of the one who is writing. He use the term to identify himself with those to he is writing, all Christians are slaves of Jesus. He is no different. All have been bought with a price by the blood of Christ (1 Cor 6:20). We are never free we were slaves unto Satan and now we have become bondservants to Christ Jesus (Rom 6:15-18). (Lloyd Jones). Paul learned that a man is only free when he becomes a slave to Christ (Gal 5:1). Without Christ, man is a slave to sin; but when enslaved to Christ, he knows the royal liberation that only Christ can bring. Paul in citing his own credentials, regards as his highest virtue that he is a slave of Jesus Christ. (Sproul) Paul was a super achiever, so he could have introduced himself in the book of Romans by a long list of his accomplishments. He could have cited his ancestral tree, his degrees, his success as a church planter, or even his pervious writings (Gal 1:13-14). But Paul doesn’t do this. Why? It is not because he is embarrassed about these things: he mentions them elsewhere (Phil 3:4-6, Acts 22:3-5, 26:4-5). Paul overlooks these achievements because what he is most concerned about simply overshadows them. Above all else, Paul saw himself as a servant of the Lord. (J Gersham Machen). This provides a good testing of our Christianity. Many of us like Paul know the truths of the Bible and are convinced of the truthfulness of Christianity. Ah, but do we love Jesus? Are our thoughts constantly occupied with him? Is he at the forefront? Is he the center of our lives? When we talk to one another; do we speak often of him? Are we content to let the honors of the world pass by, so long as we can be known as Christ’s servant? Our religion is one of personalities, plans, and programs, of buildings and bigness. This faith is shallow and selfish, constantly shifting in the ebbs and flows of cultural standards. As we grow in grace we should think less of ourselves and more of him (Boice). On the road to Damascus when Paul encountered Jesus he responded with two questions: “Who are you Lord?” and “What Shall I do Lord?” Here is instant, utter surrender! (Newell). The liberty (freedom) of the gospel is the silver side of the same shield whose side of God is an unconditional vassalage (servitude) to the liberating Lord. Our freedom is “in the Lord” alone, and to be “in the Lord” is to belong to him, as wholly as a healthy hand belongs to the physical center of life and will. To be a bondservant is terrible in the abstract. To be “Jesus’ Christ’s bondservant” is paradise, in the concrete. Self-Surrender, taken alone, is a plunge into a cold void. When it is surrender to the “son of God”, who loved us and gave Himself for me, it is the bright home-coming of the soul to the seat and sphere of life and power (Moule).
Sent -Called as an Apostle called to be an apostle
Paul was always being subjected to “credibility” checks about his apostleship. Primarily because he didn’t travel with Jesus and wasn’t called by Jesus when Jesus was still alive. All Christians are disciples and certain ones are called “chosen” (Luke 6:13) to became apostles. Apostleship is a special office appointed to specific people who are called out by God (Jones). Called means designated by the action of God to some special sphere and manner of being and of consequent activity. (Newell). We are all “called”. Every human life is to be lived under the authority of God. This means that the career that you pursue, the job you take, is to be in conformity with the will of God. In other words, my life is to be dedicated to God whether I am a minister, a farmer, a carpenter or a physician. Each one of us has a calling from God that we are to carry out to his glory and for the benefit of His kingdom (Sproul). The term “apostle” Gk apostolos means one who is sent, a delegate, messenger, one sent forth with orders. The Hebrew concept is of an authoritative representative or delegate, legally empowered to act on behalf of the one who sent them. (Barrett). An apostle is someone how is sent on a mission. He is sent in behalf of another. He is one who has been called to a mission and conferred to carry it out. An apostle is one chosen and sent with a special commission as the fully authorized representative of the sender (Jones). The Marks of an apostle 1) He had to be a disciple of Jesus during his earthly ministry (Acts 1:21) (Sproul). 2) He must have seen the risen Lord (Acts 1:22,9:1-5, 1 Cor 9:1, 15:8) 3) He must have been specifically called to be an apostle by Jesus himself (Acts 1:26, Luke 6:13, 1 Cor 1:1, Gal 1:1) 4) He is one who is given authority especially to do miracles (Mark 3:15, 2 Cor 12:12) 5) He is able to give spiritual gifts (Acts 8:14ff, Acts 19:1-4) 6) To teach and determine doctrine (Acts 2:42, 2 Cor 13:10, 2 Pet 3:15-16) Because Jesus was no longer alive, Paul had to be approved by the other twelve apostles before he could function as an apostle this was because their credentials were not in question, but Paul’s were (Acts 9:26-28, Gal 1:18 (Sproul). Commissioned by Jesus and lead by the Spirit, Paul the apostle penned the book of Romans and all his other Biblical texts. Paul was chosen and called directly by God and not by any man, but by the sovereign choice of God (Gal 1:1) (Jones). Paul is not only bought and owned and ruled; he is also called. Paul's significance is not first or primarily what he has done, but what has been done to him - he has been bought and owned; he has been called and he has been set apart. In Paul's mind, to be an apostle was to be a person who had seen Jesus Christ risen from the dead so that he could give first-hand testimony, and who had been commissioned and authorized by Christ to represent him and speak for him and provide a foundation for his church through true and authoritative teaching. Paul saw Jesus on the Damascus Road. And there Jesus called him into his apostolic ministry. (1 Cor 15:7-8), Paul affirms that Jesus appeared to him, "to appoint him to be a minister” (Acts 26:16). Paul says that he is "called as an apostle" so that the church - so that we - will receive the book of Romans as the message not just of a man, but of Christ. Romans is not great because it is the word of a genius, but because it is the word of God (1 Thess 2:13; 1 Cor 2:13) (Piper). Apostleship was from God. God spoke authoritatively through the apostles, so what they said carried the force of divine teaching (Gal 1:1, 11-12). By calling himself an apostle, he is reminding them that he is writing as no mere ordinary man but rather as one who has been given a message that should be received by them as the very words of God (Boice). He is an apostle of Jesus Christ (1 Cor 1:1, 2 Cor 1:1, Col 1:1, Gal 1:1), from whom alone his mission and authority is derived (Barrett). Christ chose his greatest enemy to be his greatest apostle (Newell). To every man is his work given by the one sovereign will. In a Roman household one slave would water the garden, another keep accounts, another be in the library; yet all equally would be “not their own, but bought with a price.” So in the gospel, then and now. All functions of the Christian are alike expressions of the one will of him who has purchased, and who “calls”. (Moule). Paul’s unique character, background, education, heritage and experiences prepared him for the calling that God had for him to be an apostle to the Gentiles. (Rom 15:14-20, Acts 9:15, Gal 1:15-16)
Set Apart for the Gospel of God set apart for the gospel of God The Greek means to mark off from others by boundaries, to limit, to separate. Paul is not only "a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, [and not only] called as an apostle, [but he was also] set apart for the gospel of God." Here he is eluding to the Old Testament when prophets were set apart by God for a specific work (Jer 1:5, Is 6). The Greek even suggest a play on his religious upbringing. The word for set apart Gk aphorizo has the same consonants as the Hebrew root for the word Pharisee, which means separated. Paul had been a Pharisee supposing himself set apart “separated” from other men for the service of God (Barrett). Before Paul was separated from all manner of things, and as a result he was self-righteous, narrow, cruel, and obsessive. Afterward, he was separated unto something, unto the gospel. That separation was positive- expansive and joyful, yet humbling. Like Paul we must live in the liberation that comes from being separated unto God and the gospel. (Boice). Paul was set apart for the gospel from his mother’s womb (Gal 1:15) This means that before Paul was bought as a slave, and before he was called on the Damascus road, and before he was born, God set him apart for the gospel of God. Which means that God did not look around for a person to fill the apostolic role; he prepared Paul from his mother's womb to serve the gospel - which is an astonishing thing when you realize the pathway that led from the womb to the Damascus road, namely, Paul's unbelief and persecution of the church. Which means that in the very first verse of this great book we taste some of the magnitude of God's inscrutable wisdom which Paul worships in 11:33-36 ("Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!"). God did not leave anything to chance in the founding of his church through the writing of his apostles: He set him apart before birth; he purchased him by the death of his Son; he called him effectively on the Damascus road. (Piper)
Paul was born at Tarsus, in the province of Cilicia (south central Turkey. Acts 22:3
He was born a Roman citizen Acts 22:25-28
Paul's name was originally Saul. Acts 9:11 Acts 13:9
Paul was born and raised an Israelite (a Benjamite). Phil 3:4-6
Paul was also a Jewish citizen of Tarsus, Acts 21:39
By trade, he was a tentmaker. Acts 18:1-3.
Paul was very zealous for Judaism. Gal 1:14
Paul was Pharisee and Hebrew of Hebrews. Phil 3:5
Paul used his strict Pharisaical background. Acts 23:6
Paul trained under Gamaliel, Acts 5:34, Acts 22:3
Paul he had a sister in Jerusalem when the Jews plotted to kill him. Acts 23:16.
Paul may have been married. 1 Cor 9:1ff
Paul was a member of the Jewish council. Acts 26:10
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