To Those In Rome Who Are Loved By God

The Gospel of God Concerning His Son
(A Series on "The Greatest Letter Ever Written")
Romans 1:8-15
- We live in a time of Christless Christianity. Many professing Christians are not attending church regularly due to busyness, laziness, disillusionment with church, personal conflict, burn-out, doctrinal differences, and other trivial reasons.
- The church has always had this issue. It's nothing new, only seemingly getting worse over time.
- An alternative vision for the church is found in this part of the book. We see Paul's attitude toward the church, his sense of eager love and obligation, because God loves them and they are called to belong to the church.
Reasons to love the church:
1. Because God loves it
- If you write a letter to a specific person/people, how you address it sets a tone. Paul is wanting his tone to be love and yearning.
- He described the church as [a] called (in an effectual sense) and [b] loved (verse 7)
- Is God fair to offer a call, whether it is a general (universal) calling or a specific (effectual, electing, salvific) calling? Neither is fair! Fair is no calling at all. What was even more unfair was that He let His sinless Son to die for sinners.
- What Paul is doing is tell the church why they are precious. They are precious, because they received a special, effectual calling, and eternal, electing love of the Father
- We have no right to dislike the church, because it is Christ's Bride, called to belong to Jesus and loved by the Father
2. Because Paul loves it
- Paul is not God, but God did inspire him to write every word of this epistle.
- Do we ever "thank God for the church"? Paul's letters almost always start with him saying this phrase "that their faith is proclaimed in all the world"
- Paul rejoices in this fact and so may it be true for South City, too!
- Paul's love for the church extends beyond words to his desire to be with the church. He has deep feelings of obligation to serve it with eagerness.
- He has the highest view of the church, because it is precious in the sight of God
- May there never come a time when sleep is more important than church. May it never be that our jobs, sports or house chores, grudges or pride, prevail over church attendance.
- Paul, who is arguably the greatest preacher, is not just interested in preaching to them but also in encouraging them and being edified by them, to celebrate this faith - "For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you- that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine." (Romans 1:11-12, ESV)
- The church is not perfect but is always loved by God and called in Christ, purchased at the highest price
- If we say that the church doesn't matter, we sin against the God who loves this church so much.
Let us be a church that always longs to be with one another, being built up, and building others up.
May we love our church, for as we do so that we become more Christlike.