A Gospel Of Which To Be Proud
A GOSPEL OF WHICH TO BE PROUD
ROMANS 1:13-17
Who needs saving—and why?
Paul owed, he said, a debt “both to Greeks and barbarians.” Here the word barbarians refers to those who simply did not speak Greek. The word implied no cultural inferiority. The Greeks called the Persians and the Romans “barbarian,” while acknowledging the superiority of both, the former in material culture, the latter in political power. The “natives” of Acts 28:2, (“barbarous people,” KJV) are in the Greek text barbaroi. Paul was referring to the Phoenician-speaking Maltese. In the present text the word means those who did not share completely in the Mediterranean civilization. He found such people at Lystra (Acts 14:11). He probably met others in Illyricum (15:19). “Greeks” would include Romans, for Greek was their second tongue. Paul sensed an obligation to those of his own culture and those outside it. He felt a passion for souls.
In 1:16f. Paul writes of the gospel which is to be the theme of his letter. He had preached it proudly in two continents. It brought “salvation.” In the mind’s depths, for all the materialism and self-delusion which obscures reality, people are still conscious of a need for a hand reaching down. Death may be a less present and pressing reality than in previous ages. Medicine has postponed it and softened its impact. It is nevertheless true that the whole approach to life would be spoiled, and society gravely injured if all thought of another life and of ultimate justice were stamped out from the human consciousness.
Sin still presses on mind and body for all the words used to take away its sting. Frustration and despair are still real. A sense of helplessness before forces beyond control is still a reality. Hell can be a present experience for those enslaved to evil. Christ gives purpose, “life more abundantly,” a sense of being real, clean, useful—Christ saves.