In View of God's Mercies: The Gift of the Gospel in RomansSample

Day 2: To Whom?

One of my seminary professors said something in class one day that rattled me. He said, “The Bible was written for you, but not to you.” As you read that statement, you may react like I did—with indignation and frustration. I thought, What do you mean it wasn’t written to me? I’d learned that the Bible was like a love note from God written directly to me.

Not only did I eventually come to agree with him, but his point proved tremendously helpful in my ability to understand, interpret, and apply the Bible in my own life. He meant that the words in the Bible, as we saw yesterday, were written by real people, to real people. If you were to read a letter I had written (back when that was something I did), knowing to whom I had written the letter would prove to be tremendously helpful. A letter I wrote to my mom would read very differently than a letter I wrote for a job application.

The people who first received the Scripture are called the original audience. We have to first understand what God, through the human author, was saying to them before we can know what God is saying to us. That was my professor’s point.

Read Romans 1:7.

Paul addressed his brothers and sisters in Rome with words that express our foundational identity in Christ.

Have you ever wondered how this church in Rome came to be? If Paul had never been to Rome, how did the church there get started? How had anyone in Rome even heard about Jesus and the events of His life, death, and resurrection—events that happened thousands of miles away in Jerusalem? How did the good news about Jesus reach Rome so quickly?

Read Acts 2:1-12,37-41.

Most likely, the church in Rome began with some Jewish men and women who were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. They heard the gospel, realized Jesus was the fulfillment of all the Old Testament promises, and believed. They then took the gospel back home to Rome. As they faithfully lived out and proclaimed this good news, Gentiles living in the area heard and also believed.

The gospel cascades down through faithful people, like those in Rome, who, by the mercy of God, heard the good news of Jesus Christ, believed, and shared this good news with others. You and I stand downstream from them, the grateful recipients of God’s plan and their faithfulness. And, if we’re faithful to proclaim the gospel, others will receive it from us. What a gift, what a privilege!