The Romance of Romans-Part 129 (The final installment!)

[Michael]

Romans Chapter 16 cont'd

My co-worker, Timothy, Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my relative, send
their greetings.
(I Tertius, to whom Paul dictated this letter, greet you in the Lord
as well.) My host, Gaius, and the whole church here say hello.
Erastus, the chamberlain of the city also sends his greetings, along
with a brother in the Lord named Quartus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you. Let it be so,
Lord!

Now we honor him who has the power to firmly establish you in this
good news and in an intimate relationship with the person of Jesus
Christ. This is the revelation of the mystery which was hidden from
the beginning of the world, but is now manifested, and which is a
fulfillment of many prophecies in scripture. And now, by the express
commandment of the everlasting God, it is to be made known to all the
nations of the earth, leading them into the passionate pursuit of God
that flows from genuine faith.

Comments:

Some final personal greetings and a summary of what Paul has written
in his letter to the Romans penned as a thanksgiving prayer brings us
to the end. The doxology (Gk. glorious words) is highly reminiscent of
his opening purpose statement in the first 5 verses of chapter 1:

"This is a letter from Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be a
divine ambassador I was apprehended for the express purpose of
spreading the good news of God that was spoken of in times past by the
prophets in the holy scriptures. This message centers around his Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord, who, in his humanity, was the Son of David. He
was also proven to be "the Son of God" when he was raised from the
dead through the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the same Spirit I
have received this ambassadorial commission to introduce many people
from many nations, for the honor of Christ, into the passionate
pursuit of God that flows from genuine faith."

At long last, the penultimate focus of the Old Testament prophets and
their messages to Israel and the nations, the longings and sighings of
the prayerful Hebrew fathers and mothers, that which the angels long
to fully comprehend (see 1 Pet 1:12) and the mysterious divine
construct that would provide the previously missing cipher code for
integrating into a whole all that God had done with his ancient
people...God's Big God Story...was unveiled and revealed for all to
see and understand. The Person of Jesus Christ and his Gospel
burst...exploded...onto the scene of human history. And God is able
and willing to firmly establish Christ-followers in their
understanding of the points of this now-revealed secret that had been
prophesied throughout the previous generations and that were preserved
in OT scriptures.

Paul is boldly (audaciously) declaring his letter to the Romans
captures the essential major points of this divine revelation that had
been hidden from all people throughout all human history...the Jews
and their rabbis, scholars and scribes, the gentiles and their
philosophers and religious mystics and even the Hebrew prophets
themselves who were used by God to utter his very words...had now come
to pass and fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah. It required the
incarnation of the Son of God and the cosmos-shifting events that
followed in those 33 years to bring clearly to light a full
understanding of what had been hidden. This new revelation was based
on Jesus' own authoritative commentaries on the OT scriptures that he
passed on directly to his apostles both before and after his
resurrection...and provided the hindsight needed to unlock the
mysteries of God's Big God-Story.

A major paradigm-shifting part of this Great News, that Paul expounds
upon in chapters 9-11, was that the gentiles could now be freely
grafted in to the ancient "olive tree" of Israel that God planted in
the earth when he cut his original covenant with Abraham...if they
would receive and follow Jesus as Lord and Messiah. For the "natural
branches", the Jews, their long-awaited Messiah had arrived and they
must personally receive him to remain in the covenant. Otherwise,
they, as branches, would be pruned from the "family tree" for their
blatant rejection of Jesus as Messiah. (And though many 1st century
Jews...a believing "remnant"...accepted Jesus, the vast majority did
not. Even so, an outstanding prophecy declares that God has not
forgotten them as a people group, but that many Jews will yet come to
faith in Jesus as Messiah.) They would not be "saved" and at one with
God on the basis of their natural Jewish heritage, their knowledge of
scripture and/or their performance of Jewish cultural and religious
rites and traditions. Moreover, God had not lied or broken his word to
the Jews in the revelation of the Gospel of Jesus (or the Gospel of
the Kingdom of God), but many of them had, over time, forgotten,
twisted and misinterpreted the nature and spiritual roots of the
salvation he has promised to them (and ultimately the Gentiles) from
the very beginning. The "Substance" of all that was foreshadowed had
arrived and a fateful and personal life or death Moment of Decision
was introduced into the planet by his coming...his intervention. It
was a watershed moment in human history and nothing would, or possibly
could, ever be the same again.

Eph 2:11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who
are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in
the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought
near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has
made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15
having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of
commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one
new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might
reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby
putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you
who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we
both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Jesus was and is the integrating element for the Story that is now
fully declared in the light of the Day of the New Creation that dawned
with his personal arrival to the earth. Those who put their faith in
him, whether Jew or gentile, would become "one new man"...a new kind
of humanity that possesses the very uncreated life of God in their
souls...in Messiah Jesus. A new temple of God has been erected in the
earth...one made "without hands" that consists of Holy Spirit indwelt
human lives scattered throughout the whole earth and gathered in local
relational networks. Race and religious (or irreligious and/or falsely
religious) backgrounds are irrelevant in light of the coming of the
Christ. The Gospel of Jesus eclipses all that human beings tend to put
their trust in to pridefully distinguish themselves from other
peoples. God put an exclamation point on the inauguration and
dedication of his new temple in Christ, by fulfilling the tragic
prophecies of Jesus recorded in the gospels concerning the utter
destruction of Jerusalem and its Jewish temple in 70 A.D. by the
Romans.

Through the Gospel of Jesus, a final and authoritative divine
revelation is being held out to humanity by the hand of God himself
that is inter-generational, international, inter-gender and inter-aeon
in scope. Ever since the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ
and up to this very day, that same "Moment of Decision" is continuing
to be held out of individuals and tribes and nations. Who do we say
Jesus of Nazareth is? Who do you say Jesus of Nazareth is? Who do I
say Jesus of Nazareth is? Will I attempt to ignore him? Will I reject
him for who he says he is? Or...will I agree with who God says he is
and pledge my allegiance to believe in and follow him? It is an urgent
question that requires a response from every person who hears of him
and his message. It is also a message that must be urgently shared
with all the peoples on the face of the earth

Indeed it is worth our while to drink deeply of this inspired letter
that is brimming with words of grace and truth written by this
brilliant Apostle. I pray that this devotional paraphrase and my
musings on the meaning and application of Paul's exquisite letter will
be used by God to bring greater spiritual life, encouragement and
empowerment to my readers.