Romans 1:1-7 (p. 1746) 

Int.: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God” – wow!  What impressive credentials Paul could claim as he wrote to the Christians in Rome!

1. Paul’s credentials were even more impressive when you realize that Paul was not set apart for the gospel by men nor called to be an apostle by the Church; Paul was chosen for this by God and called by Christ Jesus himself! 

1. It was on a trip to Damascus, Syria, to arrest Christians there and drag them back to Jerusalem in chains to face an inquisition, that Paul, who was called Saul back then, was stopped in his tracks by Jesus Christ and his whole heart, mind and life were turned around.  St. Luke records that event for us in the book of “The Acts of the Apostles” where he tells us:

“As (Saul) neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 

 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.  “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.  Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus.  For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.” (Acts 9:3-9)

1. This humiliating and very humbling experience changed Saul forever.  He changed his name from Saul to Paul, and for the rest of his life he worked tirelessly to spread the faith in Jesus as Savior that he had once tried to exterminate.  After his vision of Christ along the road to Damascus, Paul had a whole series of visions from Christ that showed him all that Jesus had said and done in his life on earth.   Following that, Paul, who did not know Jesus personally, could rightfully claim to be an eyewitness to the things he was teaching about Jesus, just as the other apostles of Christ were.

1. Like those other apostles, Paul would give up his life for the sake of the gospel. 

1. Eleven of the twelve apostles of Jesus would die violent deaths at the hands of those who hated Christ and his followers.  Like many of the other apostles, Paul could have saved his life by renouncing the story of Jesus and saying that it was only a bunch of myths, just like the stories of other religions.  Paul would not do that because he knew that everything he taught people about Jesus was the absolute truth, so Paul died by beheading in Rome in 68 A.D.

2. When St. Paul wrote the letter to the Roman Christians that begins with the words of our text this morning, he had not yet been to Rome or met any of the members of that congregation.  Paul was hoping to get there in the near future and explain fully to the Romans the story of Jesus and the teachings of Christianity.  But Paul’s plans were not God’s plans.  Paul did not make it to Rome until four years later, and then he arrived as a prisoner in chains.  Since Paul had not yet been to Rome when he wrote this letter, he wanted to assure the Christians there, and us, about certain truths regarding Christ Jesus.  Understanding these truths is essential to being Christians and to our celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, which we will do over the next two days.  As the Apostle Paul says in our text:

CHRIST JESUS -

I. Was Promised By The Prophets In The Holy Scriptures. 

1. The prophets were men who were specially chosen by God to be his messengers on earth.  They were filled with God’s Holy Spirit, and inspired with God’s infallible word.

1. What they wrote was considered to be the very voice of God by their people from the time of its composition onward, and from its very beginning the Bible was treated as no other book anywhere in the world has ever been treated.

2. What God foretold through his prophets has not failed to come true, not even in the smallest details.  Those prophets of God throughout the Old Testament era called upon their people generation after generation to turn away from their sins and idolatry and to turn back to believing in and to serving the true God with their lives.

3. Some of God’s prophets, like Isaiah who wrote our Old Testament reading for today, called upon people to reject the traditions of their teachers which had corrupted God’s word to them, and to go back to the Bible in their faith and for guidance in their lives.  The call to leave behind traditions and to go “back to the Bible” was a central message in the preaching of Jesus also, and it is the central message of Martin Luther and of the church which bears his name.

1. The prophets of God told all about the coming Savior from sin. 

1. That Savior was first promised already way back at the time of the first sin in the Garden at Eden.  Through the ages to come the Savior was promised and re-promised time and time again, sometimes in general terms, and at other times in very specific details.  Our Old Testament reading for today is one of those very specific promises about the Savior.  Isaiah told the thoroughly idolatrous king Ahaz of Judah, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel,” which means “God is with us.” (Isaiah 7:14)

2. The prophet Micah, who lived and prophesied at that same time as Isaiah, foretold the birthplace of the Savior.  Micah wrote, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2)

3. Isaiah the prophet also said of our Savior, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he 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.  He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteous­ness from that time on and forever.   The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.” (Isaiah 9:6-7)

4. Isaiah also told how the Savior would bear our sins for us and give up his life in our place.  Others foretold Jesus’ resurrection from death, his earthly life of perfect service to God, and that the Savior would establish an eternal kingdom that would spread throughout the entire world.  This kingdom would not be based on conquest and armed might, but on peace and love.  

5. St. Paul tells us in our text that Christ Jesus … 

II. Was A Descendant Of David In His Human Nature. 

1. This was a fulfillment of God’s promises to David and to David’s son, King Solomon.  

1. It was also a fulfillment of God’s much earlier promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Judah.  These were God’s chosen patriarchs of the Israelite and Jewish peoples.  They were chosen from among all of the peoples of the earth to be family of the world’s Savior.  Along with that promise of the Savior, came God’s rich blessings and faithful protection of those men throughout their earthly lives.  A thousand years after Abraham lived, God repeated his promise to send the Savior to the family of King David.  

2. As he was dying Jacob had promised his son Judah, “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.” (Genesis 49:10)  King David and his descendants ruled over the nations of Israel and Judah for 425 years, until 586 B. C.  For the next 600 years the Jews were ruled by governors of the empires of Babylon, Persia, Alexander the Great, and Rome.  But when the Roman Senate appointed King Herod the Great, an Idumean, to be the king of the Jews in 37 B.C., the scepter had truly departed form Judah.  When that happened, everyone in Judah knew it was time for the Messiah to come.

1. Then, just as God had promised thousands of years before, Jesus came into our world.  

1. He came into our world as the son of parents of royal descent, and Jesus had every claim to the throne as King of the Jews.  Jesus came to a people who were familiar with the word of God in the Bible, and who considered that word of God to be their most precious possession in life.  

2. Jesus came to Earth to place himself under the Law of God that was given in the Bible, and to obey that law of God for us in its entirety.  Jesus fulfilled that mission perfectly which God had assigned to our Savior, and in so doing he purchased for us the holiness which we need to be God’s children and to live with him forever.

3. And just as Paul says in our text, in addition to being a descendant of David in the flesh, Christ Jesus … 

III. Was Declared With Power To Be The Son Of God. 

1. He existed forever, from all eternity, before the beginning of time.  

1. As St. John tells us in his gospel account, it was Jesus, the eternal Son in the Trinity that is God, who created the universe and our world along with it. He molded and shaped this planet to make it the home of life and then he created life upon the Earth in all its vast array, so that the Earth went from a dead rock to a planet teaming with life everywhere in only four days. 

2. For thousands of years since then the Son of God has ruled over the universe and this world that he had made.  He did that in God’s name, acting on behalf of the entire Triune Being which we know by the name the LORD.  

1. When the right time came, the Son of God left his position and his ruling authority as God and became a human being like us in the person Jesus of Nazareth.  

1. Jesus did this so that he could become the sacrifice that pays for our sins, just as he had promised to do in his prophecies in the Bible.  This was no easy deal, for the payment for our sins carried a terrible price, one that could only be made by the Son of God himself.  That payment included rejection by God and men, suffering, torture and death.  It even included suffering the torment of hell before Jesus finally gave up his life in our place on the cross.

2. When Jesus’ earthly life was over, so was the alienation from God that had been caused by our sins.  The result St. Paul stated most clearly in his second letter to the Christians in Corinth when he said, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)  

3. And then Jesus raised himself back to life.  Jesus told his disciples, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.” (John 10:17-18)  What Jesus said he was going to do, he did.  And just as St. Paul says in our text, by raising himself back to life from the dead, Jesus proved that he was the Son of God who has the power of life and death in himself.

4. And now as our Savior, God and Lord, Christ Jesus … 

IV. Calls Us To Be Saints And Gives Us Grace And Peace From God. 

1. Full and free forgiveness from all sins for everyone – that is the central promise of the gospel that Paul was called by Christ to proclaim.  

1. Forgiveness from all sins for the whole world – that is the message which is proclaimed by Jesus’ resurrection from death just two days after he died on the cross.  God has accepted the sacrifice that his only Son made for us and now our sins are all washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ.

2. This forgiveness of sins and the righteousness of God himself which Jesus earned for us by his sinless life under the law of God is now offered in God’s Word, the Bible, to everyone.  It is delivered to us by God’s Means of Grace, his word and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  God’s gifts of forgiveness and holiness are accepted by us and become ours when we believe what God tells us in his word and make Jesus Christ our only hope and means of attaining favor with God and eternal life.

3. God has called you and me to be his saints and his children by faith in his word and in his Christ who is revealed there.  This call from God is the result of God’s everlasting love for us, his grace, for he chose us to be his own in eternity.  Then he sent his Son to earn our salvation here in time.  Next he called us with the Gospel in his word, and he himself created the faith in our hearts by which we believe his word and accept his call to be his children.

1. Through faith we now have peace with God in Jesus Christ. 

1. God has not made peace with us through threats and intimidation, although he certainly could do that if he wanted to.  Nor is it the kind of peace achieved by wiping off of the face of the earth all those who reject God and hate his ways.  That was the kind of peace that God brought about with the waters of the great Flood.

2. Our peace with God comes from having our sins forgiven and moved out of the way forever, for it is sin that stands as a wall and separates mankind from our God.  Now with those sins gone and in the strength that Christ gives us to overcome Satan’s temptations and our sinful natures, we are free to love God and to serve him all of our lives in love.  

3. What a glorious gift God gave us when he sent his only Son to be our Savior!  What a precious blessing Jesus gave us when he earned the forgiveness of all of our sins in the sight of God and perfect holiness for us as well.  What a wonderful peace God’s Holy Spirit brings to our hearts when through the Means of Grace he creates and sustains faith in our hearts to believe the Gospel and to accept all that God offers to us in his word.

4. Now our Christmas gift to God in return for his gift of salvation to us is to give ourselves to him – heart, soul, mind and strength, to love and to serve him forever here in time and hereafter throughout all eternity.  After all, when you celebrate someone’s birthday, you give your gifts to the person whose birthday it is, and not to yourself.

Con.: And so we firmly believe in the one whom St. Paul gave his life to proclaim and to serve: CHRIST JESUS -

1. Was Promised By The Prophets In The Holy Scriptures. 

2. Was A Descendant Of David In His Human Nature. 

3. Was Declared With Power To Be The Son Of God. 

4. Calls Us To Be Saints And Gives Us Grace And Peace From God through our faith in him.  Amen.