A Glimpse of Romans: God’S Righteousness Revealed

By Richard J. Hill

A Glimpse of Romans answers lifes most important question: how can a sinful human being be forever right with a holy god? The answer is found in Gods righteousness revealed and received. The highlight of the book is Pauls use in chapters one and eight of the Greek word dikaiosunerighteousness. It is the key that unlocks the marvelous grace of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512789423

Richard J. Hill

Richard J. “Dick” Hill is a pastor and the founder and director of Glimpses of Grace ministries. He has worked to share through his writings the Bible’s doctrines of grace that have defined his ministry for over 50 years. This book, A Glimpse of the Coming King, is part of his book series (A Glimpse of the Christ, A Glimpse of the Christian, A Glimpse of the Chosen, A Glimpse of Galatians, and A Glimpse of Romans). Hill is a graduate of Florida Bible College, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Dallas Theological Seminary, and Louisiana Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Linda, reside in Kosciusko, Mississippi. They have three children and nine grandchildren.

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INTRODUCTION

While defending his apostleship to the church at Corinth, Paul penned these words: For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers (1 Corinthians 4:15a). Unlike the many teachers that the Corinthians may have had, Paul had a special place in their hearts because he was the one to share the gospel with them.

I have not had thousands of instructors in Christ, but I have had scores of teachers throughout my life—some highly educated, some hardly educated at all, but all used in some capacity to teach me portions of the Bible. This has occurred at a constant pace over the forty years I have been studying God’s Word. I truly believe that this is God’s design for every believer. Sometimes I was drawn to these teachers because of their scholarship and sometimes I was drawn by their communication skill. Sometimes God just placed them strategically in my path according to His plan to give me what I needed at the time.

Many of the spiritual teachers in my life made major contributions to my growth as a Christian, and some just gave me small glimpses into the depths of God’s Word. The Holy Spirit has used them all to work together to give me the views of the word that I hold.

This has become my motivation for writing this small commentary on Romans. It is not meant to be a scholarly in-depth study of the book. It is just my comments on Paul’s letter to the Romans. It is my prayer that God will be pleased to place it in the path of some believers along their way to help them grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER 1

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God. (Romans 1:1)

At the top of his game, Saul was a very important religious leader among the Jews. He was a second-generation Pharisee who was bent on stamping out the name of Jesus Christ by destroying His followers. Traveling to Damascus in Syria to continue his personal vendetta against Christians, Saul met the risen Lord Jesus Christ head on. Jesus dramatically transformed Saul’s life. Saul began preaching that Jesus Christ is the answer to eternal life—the very truth he had tried to destroy. He was destined to become God’s grace champion to Gentiles (Acts 9:15, 13:46–48; Galatians 1:16, 2:2, 8; Ephesians 3:1, 8; 2 Timothy 4:17).

It was not unusual for Jews to give their children Gentile names. Saul’s Greek name was Paulas. It was at Antioch in Syria that Saul began using his Gentile name, Paul, which means little (Acts 13:9). He would be called Paul for the rest of his life. Some believe it indicated that Paul was a small man, which is possible, but there is another option.

When John the Baptist introduced Jesus Christ to the world, he spoke these words: He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all (John 3:30–31). John recognized that his role was to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. John was the one who was chosen to introduce the heavenly Messiah to the earthly world. He realized that he had to step into the background so that the one whom he was introducing could rise to His prominent position.

I think this is what God had in mind for Paul. Saul, the great Pharisee, had been brought low. He had become Paul, small in his own eyes, in order that the one whom he was to introduce—the one who is from heaven who is above all—could rise to His prominent position. Paul referred to himself as a slave.

There are four significant words for slave or servant in the New Testament:

• Diakinos, a servant who waits on tables (Acts 6:2)

• Oiketes, a normal household servant (Romans 14:4)

• Huperetes, a slave who spends his life rowing a boat, serving on the lowest deck (1 Corinthians 4:1)

• Doulos, bondslave, which is found here.

The truth behind this word is found in the Mosaic Law. If a Jew purchased a fellow Hebrew, male or female, who would go on to serve faithfully for six years, then in the seventh year the purchaser would have to set the slave free. Slaves were not to be sent away empty-handed. The owner must supply them generously from his flock, threshing floor, and winepress (Deuteronomy 15:14b–15).

However, if the servant wanted to remain because he or she loved the owner and his family, the owner was to take an awl and pierce a hole through the slave’s ear. Then the slave would become the owner’s servant permanently. A bondservant was a slave who had been set free or who had bought his or her freedom and, motivated only by love, had submitted himself or herself to his or her owner.

Paul recognized that Jesus Christ, by His death, had purchased him from the slave market of spiritual death and set him free forever (Matthew 27:46). In response, motivated by love, Paul presented his body to Jesus Christ to become His lifelong slave (Romans 12:1–2). This meant that Paul pledged to serve Jesus Christ to the disregard of his own interests; he would not count his own life dear to himself. Paul was a bondservant. All true Christians are to become bondservants. In fact, children of God are to manifest all of these various characteristics of servanthood.

Bible students would do well to ponder the meanings of the various names for Christ when reading through the New Testament. The name Lord reveals His deity. He is God manifest in human flesh. The name Jesus is found in the four gospels 612 times, and it can be found in the rest of the New Testament 71 times. Jesus is the name under which our Lord was born, lived His life, and died (Matthew 1:21). It is the name of His humiliation—His humanity. It tells us that God became a man. Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew word Joshua, which means Jehovah our Savior.

The name Christ means anointed one (Matthew 1:16). It is the official title of the Son of God. It is the equivalent of the Old Testament name Messiah. The name pictures the Lord Jesus becoming the God-man, the one who was equal with God in every way and equal with man. The name Christ reveals the one who could represent God to humanity and humanity to God—the mediator, or the Messiah. The name the Lord Jesus Christ means that God was humiliated and took upon Himself the form of a man in order to die for sin and to be resurrected to become the mediator between God and humankind (Philippians 2:5–11; 1 Timothy 2:5). To understand Christ’s name is to know the gospel—the way of salvation. When one calls upon His name, salvation occurs (Romans 10:13).

Paul was called as an apostle. Called is from the Greek word kletos, which means to be invited. The text literally reads a called apostle. An apostle (apostolos) was one sent, and in this case it was one sent as a designated representative with a special message. The apostles were God’s special agents. They were literally living Bibles. God, the Lord Jesus Christ, spoke His word to His disciples (mathetes), and these disciples-turned-apostles were sent into the world.

For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

For this reason, not just anyone could be an apostle. Apostles had to be appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:10–11) and had to have seen the resurrected Lord (Acts 1:21–22; 1 Corinthians 9:1). They were given miracle-working powers that verified their identities and the credibility of their message (2 Corinthians 12:12; Hebrews 2:3–4).

Paul encountered the risen Lord while on his way to Damascus the day he was saved. Speaking of Christ in His resurrected body, Paul said, After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time (1 Corinthians 15:7–8). Paul became an apostle at a different time from all the rest. He was to be a special apostle with a special calling, as we shall see. Obviously, there are no God-approved apostles living today.

Paul used here the same Greek word, separated (aphoridzo), that he used when he said to the Galatians that God separated him from his mother’s womb. It literally means to set pre-established boundaries. God set the entire course for Paul’s life before he was ever born.

Gospel (evangellion) means good news. In order to be good news, it must be placed up against some bad news. The bad news is that through one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed on all men for all sinned (Romans 5:12). The entire human race sinned and died in Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22). All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

The good news is that God took on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. He died in our place and paid the debt that we owed to God. He rose again to indicate that His work was finished, final, and sufficient. We receive the amazing benefits purchased by Christ’s cross work by faith alone, in Christ alone. We receive the free gift of eternal life simply by trusting in Him (1 Corinthians 15:1–8).

Of God is what is called a genitive of source. The good news of the gospel originated from the source of God. The gospel was conceived in the mind of God. He planned our salvation long before anyone existed, and His plan was executed in Jesus Christ.

Which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. (Romans 1:2)

God promised the gospel long before He carried it out. The Old Testament office of the prophet was instituted and defined in Deuteronomy 18. Israel was not to rely on ungodly witchcraft in Canaan to divine God’s will for them; they were to listen to the voices of God’s prophets. God communicated His will through their words. Because there were many false prophets speaking lies, the true prophet, like an apostle, had to meet certain requirements.

God’s prophet had to be 100 percent accurate about what he prophesied. He had to prophesy short-range information that could be tested. If the prophecy failed to come to pass, the prophet was disqualified and usually killed.

I will raise up a prophet [nabi, a spokesmen] from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. (Deuteronomy 18:18–19)

The hearer is responsible for the information that has been heard from God’s spokesman. What about false prophets? There was a warning for the man who prophesied proudfully, proclaiming to speak for God.

But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. You may say in your heart, How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18:20–22)

The one with the legitimate gift of prophecy was to receive information from God and communicate it in a timeframe that could be tested so that the true prophets could be known and separated from the false.

The gift of prophecy had a two-fold emphasis. One aspect was foretelling, or predicting history before it happened (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel). Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure’ (Isaiah 46:10).

The other aspect of prophecy was forth-telling. Jonah preached the message of God directly to Nineveh, declaring their doom if they did not repent (Jonah 3:4). Both categories of prophecy were understood and received as being direct revelation from God.

Prophecy is not a matter of personal interpretation. God protected and preserved the credibility of His Word supernaturally (2 Peter 1:18). He prophesied His good news by means of His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. The gospel came from God’s mind through the prophets to the written Word of God. It was carefully copied and protected and ultimately passed on to us. God not only gave His Word through the mind of fallen human beings, He preserved it through the centuries.

Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. (Romans 1:3)

The name Lord (kurios) should always remind us of the true identity of Jesus Christ. He is known in the Old Testament as Yahweh. He is the eternal God who created all things—the universe, the earth, and man (John 1:1–3, 14; Hebrews 1:1–2; Colossians 1:14–16). He appeared to many in the Old Testament as the angel of the Lord (Genesis 16:6–13, 18:3–13, 22:11–12; Exodus 3:2, 6, 14:19–20, 17:1–4, 24:9–18, 33:14–23; Judges 2:1, 6:17–22, 13:1–25). It was His voice that called the prophets in the Old Testament.

The angel of the Lord of the Old Testament became flesh in the New Testament (John 1:14). God determined to take upon Himself a physical body through the physical line of King David. The days of the Davidic line of Israel and Judah are described in 1 Chronicles 17. The seed (zera) that passed from Abraham down through David resulted in God’s greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God produced a future everlasting kingdom and a literal everlasting throne.

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:6–7)

God took on human flesh through the second person of the Trinity. Even though He became a man, He never stopped being God. He had absolute control over the government of this world and of the entire universe.

God predicted a time when He would produce a branch springing forth from David who would execute judgment (mishpot, make a crooked line straight) and righteousness (tsedekah, a straight line, God’s right standard).

In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: The Lord our Righteousness. (Jeremiah 23:6)

And declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. (Romans 1:4)

The word declared means determined. Jesus Christ was determined to be the Son of God by means of the resurrection from the dead.

Power is the Greek word dunamis, from which we get our English word dynamite. Jesus Christ revealed His identity through His amazing miracles, but His power was especially highlighted through His resurrection from the dead. The Father sent the Spirit to dwell upon the Son at the Son’s baptism by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:16–17).

The Spirit of God empowered Jesus Christ to the cross and all the way through His resurrection. His resurrection shouted to the world His true identity (John 17:31). It verified beyond any doubt that He is indeed the Son of the living God and that He has truly satisfied God’s demand for death as a just payment for our sin. His resurrection proves that God was manifest in the flesh and that His every claim of deity is true.

He said, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die (John 11:25–26). We know this is true because He came back from the dead.

He said, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God believe also in me; in my Father’s house are many dwellings; and I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also (John 14:1–3). We know this is true because He came back from the dead.

He said, Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27). We know this is true because He came back from the dead.

If you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior, the object of your faith can sustain your faith, and you have indeed been given His forever life.

Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name. (Romans 1:5)

Grace means that God preplanned every detail of our salvation from the beginning, executed His plan through Jesus Christ in time, and created us. At His appointed time, God called us to Himself through the gospel and gave us the free gift of forever life. Every word of Scripture is God-breathed. Even the word order here is important.

Believers are always said to receive grace. We never earn it or deserve it. We receive that which God is pleased to give. God gives grace (Ephesians 3:6–8, 4:7; Romans 12:3; 1 Corinthians 1:4). It is His work through which we are saved, not our works.

Jesus appointed some believers to be apostles, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11). Paul said that the gospel that he preached was not according to man, nor did he receive it from man, but that it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:11–12).

When the gospel is preached, it is intended to bring a response of obedience to the faith in Christ. God is calling people from every language group among all nations for His name in every generation, both Jew and Gentile, to believe the gospel and to receive life.

Among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:6)

Roman believers were among those who were called (kletos, invited) to know Jesus (Yeshuah, Joshua, Jesus, God saves) Christ (Meshiach, Kristos, anointed one, the God who became a man). All that know Jesus Christ personally are called by Him to come to Him (John 10:27–28).

To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:7)

Rome was the capital of the largest and most powerful empire of the ancient world. Paul’s great desire was to go to Rome to preach the gospel and edify the saints there.

Three Greek words in the New Testament are translated love. They are phileo (brotherly love), eros (sensual or romantic love), and agapao (an unconditional love which never fails). Agapao love is the word used of God’s love. It is a love which never fails and is sacrificial in nature. It gives with the expectation of nothing in return.

To miss the fact that God has called us to Himself by means of His grace for a special purpose is to shut our eyes to a clear teaching of the New Testament. (See Chapter 12 of A Glimpse of the Chosen.)

Believers are called to be saints. The word saint is the Greek word hagios, or holy. Literally, it means to set apart. Christians are set apart by God for salvation and for service.

Grace to you! Paul said over and over again that grace comes from God downward. God’s many attributes explain clearly who He is. For instance, He is sovereign, eternal life, love, etc. These characteristics define who God is. Grace and mercy, on the other hand, are works of God and are based upon His choice to be gracious or merciful. God does not have to be either. He explained to Moses that He will be gracious to whom He will be gracious, and He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion (Exodus 33:19). Grace and mercy are not required of God. When He extends grace, He chooses to extend grace. Grace comes from Him because He elects to give it.

Receiving the grace of God is that which brings true peace with God. We come into this world as enemies of God. However, God in the person of Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself. He made forever peace with us in Christ. This peace from God is a heavenly, eternal peace that never changes or diminishes.

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Romans 5:10)

Therefore, having been justified [declared forever right before God] by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1)

God our Father planned