STUDIES IN ROMANS

�� Dr. Paul Brand was called by God to become an expert in treating the deformed hands of lepers.� This Christian doctor has done more for restoring the hands of lepers then anyone in history.� It all began in 1947 in a leprosy sanitarium not far from Madras, India.� He was being shown around the hospital by Dr. Robert Cockrone the renowned skin specialist.� He noticed so many of the patients had twisted, gnarled and ulcerated hands with some fingers missing.� He asked how they got that way and what they were doing for them.� The answer was that they didn't know, and that nothing was being done.�

�� Dr. Cockrone explained that not one orthopedic surgeon in the world had yet studied the deformities of the 15 million leprosy victims.� Dr. Brand was applauded.� That was more people than had been deformed by polio or in auto accidents world‑wide.� Yet there was not a single surgeon to serve this desperate need.� He walked up to one of the patients and pride his fingers open.� He put his hand in his own and asked the person to squeeze as hard as you can.� He was shocked at the power, and had to ask the patient to stop for he was hurting him.� He realized that the muscles in this deformed hand were still good, but the patient could not feel the force.� At that instant he knew the Spirit of God had called him to find the answer.� With that hand shake his vocation for life was determined.� He went on to become the leading surgeon in the world for lepers hands.

�� Dr. Brand's call was as clear to him as was the call of Moses at the burning bush, or the call of Paul on the road to Damascus.� Dramatic calls like this are very personal, and they may mean little to others.� Paul's call was doubted, questioned, and fought by many.� He had to defend his call all his life.� The same was true for Moses.� A call from God does not mean that even godly people will recognize it as God's call.

�� One of the greatest missionaries to China was the little British lady named Gladys Aylward.� She was converted at a Salvation Army street meeting, and as a cleaning lady she got to reading the books of her employer who had a large section of them on China.� She felt God wanted her to go to China to share the Gospel.� When she applied to the Mission Board they gave her an intellectual test she could not pass, and they said no.� She did not measure up and could not go.� She went anyway, and she became so successful that years later a motion picture called "In Of The Sixth Happiness," was made about her ministry.� God's call is above man's approval.�

�� We could go on endlessly telling stories of calls like this, for there are thousands of them.� But because they are amazing and dramatic they are the only calls that we hear about.� The result is that the greater call of God to all His people is obscured and terribly neglected.� The very Greek word that Paul uses in verse 1 to describe himself as called to be an Apostle is the word he uses 2 more times in his introduction to the Romans to describe the call of all Christians.� The word is kletos, and it is used in verse 6 of those called to belong to Jesus, and in verse 7 for those called to be saints.� Every Christian is called to belong to Jesus and to be saints.� This is a universal calling and one that would be more history changing than any other calls of God if God's people would heed the call.� We have so exalted the special call to the few that we have ignored the general call to the many.� This is so even though the calling of God to all His people is the primary emphasis of the New Testament.

�� This same word kletos is used by Paul again in Rom. 8:28 where he writes, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."� All Christians are just as called as Paul.� He does the same thing in I Cor.� He uses the word called twice as often for all Christians as for himself.� We tend to think of Paul as somewhat conceited because he is always telling people he is called to be an Apostle.� But Paul exalts all Christians, even the poor ones of Corinth, to the level of the called.� He begins I Cor. with, "Paul, called to be an Apostle," but in the next verse he refers to the Corinthians as those called to be holy.� They are just as called of God as he is.

�� We do not have time to study all the related words that show that every child of God is a called one.� Let me just read the last use of this word in the New Testament from Rev. 17:14.� "...the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings‑and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers."� To be a Christian is to be called.� There is no special class of Christians who are called and others who are not called.� All Christians are called.� They are not all called to be Apostles, or pastors, or surgeons, but every Christian is called into the ministry.� Any Christian not in the ministry is missing their calling.

�� This Greek word also means invited, and some translations have it as, "You are the invited ones of Jesus Christ."� The Gospel carries with it the invitation or calling to follow Jesus and be like Him.� The goal of God is not just to save people for eternity, but to produce Christ‑like people in time.� The call of Gospel is two fold:� Come unto me and be saved, and then come with me and be sanctified.� We are called to be saved and then called to be saints.� This calling may not be as dramatic as a burning bush, or a blinding light and voice from heaven,� but the fact is, it is just as authentic.� This universal calling means no Christian has to worry about his or her gifts and abilities, for regardless of their abundance or scarcity every Christian has a calling to be a saint.�

�� Paul makes it clear that anybody can be a saint.� In I Cor. 1:26‑29 he writes, "Brothers, think of what you were when you were called.� Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth, but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.� He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things‑and the things that are not‑to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him."� Paul is saying that if you are a dime a dozen, no big deal, and a commonplace nobody, you qualify to be called t be a saint.�

�� The problem is that the Christian world has so copied the secular world that we have lost this biblical truth, and instead we have magnified the super‑gifted and talented Christian to the level of stardom, and we assume that only these special people are called to reach the world and accomplish God's purpose.� This is why the will of God is not done on earth as it is in heaven.� You don't have ten percent of the angels doing the will of God while the other ninety percent watch them do it.� All in heaven do the will of God, and when all of God's people on earth will recognize they are just as called as the super star Christians, then God's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

�� One pastor asked another how many people in his church are willing people.� He said that all of his people are willing.� Ten percent are willing to work, and ninety percent are willing to let them.� This is very common because Christians do not realize they are called.� Paul was a super star who was called of God to write this letter to the Romans that has changed the course of history.� It has been the key influence in the conversion of other major super stars like Augustine, Luther, Wesley, and Bunyan.�� This is Paul's longest and most influential letter.� Luther called it, "The true masterpiece of the New Testament."� It has been called, "The Cathedral of the Christian faith."�

�� Ray Stedman expresses the conviction of many when he says, "It is safe to say that Romans is probably the most powerful human document every written."� Everyone agrees that to know the book of Romans is to be theologically educated.� Godet, the famous Swiss commentator, wrote, "The reformation was certainly the work of the Epistle to the Romans....and it is probable that every great spiritual renovation in the church will always be linked, both in cause and in effect, to a deeper knowledge of this book."� Everyone knows that Romans was not Paul's first letter, but it is the first one in the New Testament because it is the most important.

�� All of this just seems to support the idea that God's plan is to get his will done through superstars. But we need to read the rest of the story. How did this wondrous letter get to Rome? Paul did not take it there. It was carried by someone , and that someone is one of histories most important mail delivery persons. No plane; no train, no pony express rider ever carried a letter with a greater impact on history than did the carrier of this letter to the Romans. But this obscure servant is practically unknown to all of us. It was Paul's faithful female friend by the name of Phoebe. She was an active member of the nearby church in Chenchrea, and Paul asker her to help him out. She did by carrying this letter from Corinth to Rome.

�� Renan said that when Phoebe sailed away from Corinth she, "Carried beneath the folds of her robe the whole future of Christian theology."� Paul the superstar wrote it, but Phoebe the mere helper got it to the people it was destined for, and thus to the rest of the world.� Phoebe is only mentioned once in the whole New Testament, and Paul tells us her gift was that one everybody chooses when they feel like they have none, and that is the gift of helps.� In Rom. 16:2 Paul writes of her, "She has been a great help to many people, including me."� Here is superstar Paul commending obscure star Phoebe, for Paul has the mind of Christ, and he knew that Phoebe was just as called as he was, and just as vital to getting the will of God done with this letter as he was.�

�� Paul and Phoebe were a team, for Paul's gift of apostolic authority would have no impact on Roman Christians without the gift of helps to get the message to Rome.� Billy Graham knows that his impact on the world would be minimal without the help of masses of people nobody will ever know.� They are just as called to ministry as he is.� This is true in every ministry, and in every church.� Every Christian who is a part of the ministry and the church is called.�

�� Keep in mind that Paul did not start the church at Rome.� He had never been there.� The Christians who began this work are so obscure that nobody knows who they were.�� They are even less visible than Phoebe, but they are the ones who made it possible for Paul to write this famous life‑changing letter.� If they had not started the church, there never would have been a body of believers who needed this message of Paul like they did.� These persons will never be known in time at all.� They get no recognition whatever in the great plan of God for this letter, but they were just as called and a vital part of the plan as was Paul.

�� Paul would have loved the honor of having started this strategic church in the capital of the Gentile world.� But God gave that honor to people we do not know.� Being called does not mean having special gifts, or getting special notoriety or fame.� The obscure and unknown are just as called as those who get the limelight.� Paul knew this and he was applauded that the church at Corinth was setting up superstars for special honor, and the people were saying, "I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas, or I am of Paul."� Paul fought the superstar mentality, for he knew the facts.� God calls all His children to be a part of His plan, and every one of them is just as important as those who get the center stage.� The behind the scenes helpers are just as called and just as crucial for success.�

�� In verse 11 Paul may sound like a proud superstar when he writes, "I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong."� But he no sooner wrote that, and then continued in the next verse to write, "That is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith."� Paul was saying that he needed their help as much as they needed his.� Paul was no self‑sufficient superstar who had no time for the little guy in the church.� He needed the gifts of the common Christian just as they needed his special gifts.� In a truly biblical value system every Christian counts because every Christian is called. There are no non‑called Christians, and the sooner we all grasp this, the sooner we will realize that all of us matter to the success of God's plan.� All of us can help fulfill the will of God.� This is not for the few, but for the all.�

�� Now the question is, what in the world is a saint?� This is our calling as Christians.� This is the universal vocation of every child of God, and yet most saints would be hard pressed to define exactly what it is they are.� Many try to force the word into some canned idea of what a saint should be, and it scares the daylights out of most of us, and we figure we must not be saints.� You cannot define a saint by any system of theology, or any pattern of religious behavior.� Abraham married, but Jesus never did.� Paul spoke in tongues, but Jesus never did.� Peter wrote inspired Scripture, but Jesus never did.� Barnabas helped start Gentile churches, but Jesus never did.

�� We could go on and on revealing that the saints of the Bible did many things that Jesus never did. Yet the essence of being a saint is being like Jesus. But this is not helpful, for there are so many ways that no saint is like Jesus.� We don't walk on water; we don't change water into wine; and we don't weep over Jerusalem, or ride into it on a donkey.� We don't fellowship with prostitutes and tax collectors, or take a whip to religious leaders who corrupt the temple.� We can go through the life of Jesus and find so many ways we are not like Him.� It makes you wonder what it means to be Christ‑like.� If most of what Jesus did we can't do, and many saints do what He never did, how can saintliness and Christ‑likeness be the same?� It is no wonder one child's definition of a saint was, "A dead Christian."� The dead you can wrap in legend and mystery, and build and illusion, but how can living Christians who are so unlike Christ be saints?�

�� Alexander the great had his portrait painted with his face resting on his hand as if in contemplation.� The true purpose was to hide the ugly scar that creased his cheek.� The Bible does not so paint the saint.� The great heroes of the Bible have their scars in full view.� The saints are not portrayed as sin free at all, but they are seeing as sinful like all.� Every saint in the Bible is also a sinner, and not just in his or her pre‑saint days, but also in their sainthood days.� John tells us that if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.� So a saint is one who knows he is a sinner.� The concept of a saint being a holier than thou self‑righteous judge of all others is not biblical at all.� A biblical saint is one who is fully conscious of his sinfulness, and so is one who is humble rather than judgmental.�

�� To many Christians interpret humble to mean they are not important, and so they do not get involved.� They know they are sinners and that they are not superstars, and so they conclude that they are not called to an active role in the church.� They are of the people of God, but they see themselves as the little people.� It is as if God has different categories like the Bantam Baptist, or the Midget Methodist, or the Puny Presbyterians, or Liliputian Lutherans.� What they fail to see is that these so‑called mini saints are the foundation for the success of God's plan.�

�� The church at Rome and every church in the New Testament was composed largely of these mini‑saints who were unknown and not greatly gifted. Remove these from the church and you have no church for the superstars to minister to, and to minister through. The point is, every Christian in important to the successful working of the church. All are called to be saints.

�� Paul never even met these Roman Christians he is writing to, but he is sending them the most important letter of his life, and it is because he knows that God's purpose for history involves the average church member. They are all called, and only when all realize they are called can the church be all it was called to be. In Eph. 4:11‑12 Paul makes it clear that the whole purpose of specially gifted people like Apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor‑teachers is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Every Christian is in the ministry, and it is the gifted people who are to help them do their job more effectively. The gifted are God's gift to those less gifted. Gifted people are to help all the other believers be able to rise to a higher level of effectiveness.

�� It is folly to feel that because you do not know the Bible well enough, or because you do not know how to witness effectively, or because you have not learned how to overcome certain temptations, that you are not qualified to be called a saint. The Romans who received this letter did not know the Bible at all, and in fact, they did not have any of the Bible but this letter. They were inferior in many ways to the average believer today, but they were saints. All Christians are saints and called to be better ones. You do not work your way up to sainthood. You start the Christian life as a saint, and as one called of God to live for His glory, and to do his will on earth as it is in heaven. When you trust in Jesus as your Savior you are born a saint. Being saved and becoming a saint are the same thing.

�� We are all called to be saints, and that just means that we are called to be all we can be for the kingdom of God. We are to be willing to expose ourselves to the Word of God and be growing in the knowledge of God and His will. We are to be more and more conformed to the likeness of Christ in the way we think and behave. We are not expected to be superstars, but to just be who we are seeking to use what we have in ability to serve the cause of cause of Christ. We are to be growing and making ourselves available on any level to be of benefit to the body of Christ. We do not have to be like anyone else at all, but we need to be willing to become the more that we can become by the grace of God. The point is, the calling of God is not just for the few, it is for all of us, for all are called to be saints. That means all are called to be set apart from the secular world to be a part of that group of people who are serving God and His cause in the world in order to bring others into the kingdom of God by faith in Jesus Christ. The call is for all.

2.� ��VOLUNTARY SLAVERY based on Rom. 1:1‑7

�� In the early days of Israel if a man got into debt and could not repay he was not sent to prison, but was allowed to become the slave of his creditor. But it was not to be a permanent situation. When the 7th year came he would be liberated and be free to be his own master again, and begin to rebuild his life. Some of these free men would soon find that their chances of making it on their own was near impossible. They had no future as a free man, and if they liked their master and felt well treated by them they could go back to him and volunteer to stay as his slave. The master would then take him to the tabernacle where the priest would bore a hole in his ear lobe as a sign that he was the slave of his master.

�� Here was slavery that was not the result of war, or even debt, but a voluntary slavery by choice because it was the best option available at the time. This might seem crazy to give up your freedom to be a slave, but it is not a lot different that what we have today. Unemployed people have the freedom to stay at home, watch T. V. and go for walks and shop whenever they please, but this can only last for so long. So they go around looking for a place where they can give up this freedom and volunteer to be a slave for 8 hours a day for the sake of a paycheck.� We use different terms, but the end result is not all that different. We just get a number today instead of the hole in the ear. It is not all that bad to be a slave to some degree for the sake of the benefits.

�� Paul was happy to be a slave to his Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. The first thing he says in this letter to identify himself is that he is a servant of Jesus Christ. The word for servant is doulos, which is the word for slaves all through the New Testament. It is one of the paradoxes of the Christian life that the way to the top is to be a servant. There is no greater title than that of being a servant, and that is why Paul even puts it before his office as an Apostle. He does it again in his letter to the Philippians and his letter to Titus. The top of the totem pole is not chief, captain, kings, or President, but servant or slave of Jesus Christ.

�� Jesus established this value system when he said in Matt. 20:26‑27, "..whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave."� Mark 10:43‑45 repeats it with this added slant, "..whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

�� In the Old Testament in Isa. 52:13 God calls the coming Messiah, "My Servant." Jesus establishes the way by which Christian status will be determined. It will not be by in heritance or by riches or by honor or by power or by any of the methods that the world determines status. The Christian status symbol is a towel that symbolizes the Head of the church wiping the feet of His disciples. The Head serving the feet is the way Jesus wants us to see true greatness. The more needs a Christian meets in others the greater the status of that Christian. That is why Paul is proud to wear the title of slave of Jesus Christ, for his greatest joy is to sever the Head of the church by serving the church which is his body.

�� Paul knew the teaching of his Lord that the servant is the greatest of all and that the servant will be the one greatly rewarded in eternity. Jesus used this same word for slave in Matt. 25:21 where he said, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness." If you want the best that heaven can offer, do not seek to be a king or a noble, but strive to be a servant, for these are the people most pleasing to the Master of all.

�� The final use of this word doulos is in Rev. 22:6 where we read that God, "..sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place." There is no higher honor than to be a servant of God, and this will be an honor for all eternity. Three verses before this we see heaven described as a place where "his servants will serve him." When you become a Christian you are volunteering to become a slave forever. Once a slave to Christ, always a slave to Christ. Voluntary slavery is what the Christian life is all about.

�� Paul did not hesitate to call himself a slave, for he was sending this letter to many who were actually slaves.� If you go to the last chapter you read in 16:11, "Greet those in the household of Narcissus."� Before this in verse 10 he writes, "Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus."� Paul is referring to slaves.� Rome was filled with slaves, and many of them became Christians.� These who were slaves by necessity became voluntary slaves of Christ.

�� Even if one was not a literal slave when he became a Christian, he became a slave for Paul says in I Cor. 6, "You are not your own, for you are bought with a price."� Like a slave purchased from a market, so you have been bought out of slavery to sin by the precious blood of Jesus to become His slave.� There is no escape from slavery, for everyone is the slave of some master.� But not all masters are alike.� Some are so brutal, and it is miserable bondage to be in their service.� Others are kind and benevolent, and it is a joy to serve them.� One does so freely so that it is a choice of voluntary slavery.� Paul spells this out clearly in Rom.7:20‑22.� He describes the Christian life as escape from slavery to the freedom of a new slavery.�

"When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control

of righteousness.� What benefit did you reap at that time from

the things you are now ashamed of?� Those things result in death!

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become

slaves to God, the benefits you reap lead to holiness, and the

result is eternal life."

�� Everyone is either a slave to sin and death, or a slave to holiness and life.� The choice is not, should I be a slave or free, but whose slave shall I be, for all who are not slaves of God are slaves of sin, self, and Satan.� We tend to think the slavery issue is long past, but the fact is, it is always relevant and contemporary, for every person on the planet struggles with it continuously.� We are ever in an age of slavery.� People are slaves to every form of addition on a grander scale than ever before.� In our great land of freedom we have people in bondage to alcohol, drugs, sex, cigarettes, TV violence, and abuse of every kind.� Until Satan is in the lake of fire slavery will be a major issue of life.�

�� The New Testament answer to all forms of bondage is freedom in Christ. If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. But the freedom in Christ is not a form of total independence, for this will just lead to some other kind of bondage.� Freedom in Christ is a liberating form of slavery which is voluntary slavery.� It is a choice to be committed to Christ as Lord of one's life.� No man can serve two masters Jesus said.� But every man has to serve one. �Every man has to have a master.� The choice is of one that destroys and diminishes the self, or one that enriches an exalts the self to become what it was meant to be.� The Prodigal Son wound up as slave to pigs, but he chose to go back home and be a voluntary slave of his father.�� He made the wise choice, and that is a choice all of us must make.

�� There is no third choice of being independent and free from all commitments to either good or evil.� There is no such ground to stand on between good and evil.� You have to make a choice, and so in a very real sense every person is in some form of voluntary slavery.� If the Prodigal would have stayed feeding the pigs, that too would be a form of voluntary slavery.� When the Gospel is heard one can choose to follow a new master, and by the help of the Holy Spirit come out of bondage to the old master.� This is the ministry of the body of Christ in the world.� It is to help people be delivered from on form of slavery, and be set free to choose another form of slavery so radically different that it is called coming out of darkness into light.

�� The whole book of Romans is about slavery.� Paul stresses that Jews and Gentiles alike are slaves to sin.� The Jews are slaves to the law also, and the Gentiles are slaves to their evil desires.� The result is that the world is full of judgment on the folly of man. The only solution is the Gospel which is the power of God to liberate both Jews and Gentiles. It is hard for us to think in these Biblical terms, but the fact is, the battle with slavery is the crucial battle of life. Paul was a slave to the law and self‑righteousness. He had to be set free from salvation by works, and become a slave to Christ by faith.� The journey from slavery to slavery is the journey all must take if they are to be used of God to change the world.

�� In the 13 volume set called 20 Centuries of Great Preaching, most of the names are well known by those who have studied the history of preaching. But one name is very unknown and obscure, for though he was a great preacher John Jasper was born a slave in Virginia in 1812 as the 24 child in his family. At age 22 he married a slave girl, but when his master found he had spent a night away from his plantation he forced them to separate, and he never saw her again. He went on a wild rampage of rebellion as he lived a sinful life.

�� Then at age 27 he came under conviction and was radically converted to Christ and began to preach. He was so eloquent and full of fire that he soon became the most popular preacher around.� Whites as well as blacks would travel long distances to hear him.� He was soon preaching to several thousand people every Sunday.� So many whites came to the Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church of Richmond that they had to rope off a special section for them.� For forty years he was a slave, but then the Civil War set him free, and he lived forty years more as a free man.� Here was a man who had no training and was terribly ungrammatical, but he became so famous that his sermons stand along side of the most brilliant preachers of the centuries.� Was there ever a slave who set so many people free?�

�� Yes there was, for all of the great preachers in that set of books from Paul to Billy Graham were also slaves. They were not literal slaves like Jasper, but they were real slaves before they were set free in Christ to be slaves of a new master.� All of this might seem like a trivial play on words, but when you study the history of the word doulos or slave you begin to realize just how serious a biblical issue this is.� The word doulos was a nasty word until the New Testament cleaned it up and glorified it.� The Greeks use the word often as a despised word.� Plato and Aristotle used it in a derogatory way. �We still do today when we say who was your slave last year, or I'm not your slave.� Seneca said, "The foulest death is preferable to the fairest slavery."�

�� In the Old Testament you have the concept of a noble slave developing, but the Hebrew mind despised the slave just as much as did the Greek and Roman mind. A Jewish proverb said, "A dog is more honorable than a slave." This kind of thinking entered into the Christian world and many came to believe that slaves were less than dogs, and that they were sub‑human. There was a time when calling your neighbor a slave could lead to excommunication from the church.� It has been universally despised to be a slave. The only place where the term and idea become on of honor is in the New Testament.

�� Paul describes his whole ministry as that of a slave. In I Cor. 9:19 we read, "Though I m free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible." Notice how Paul stresses it is a voluntary slavery. He does not have to do this. He is not forced against his will, but he chooses to be the slave of everyone. He goes on to say he become all things to all men in order to win them to Christ. He is a slave to what others want him to be in order to win them. He did not try to be anyone's master and win them by authority, but he became their slaves to win them by service.� If you can catch the spirit of Paul as a slave, you will never judge him again as a proud or arrogant man trying to impose his will on others. He was a humble servant of Christ and a slave to all men.

�� It was Paul's writing about literal slavery that led eventually to the abolishment of slavery in the Western world. When Paul wrote to Philemon about his run away slave Onesimus he said in Philemon 15 and 16, "Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good‑no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord."� These words were the nails that finally put slavery in the coffin where it belonged. But it took centuries for Christians to grasp the implications of Paul's words. If it was not for servants of God fighting slavery we could still have millions today being treated like animals rather than like persons made in the image of God.

�� Paul has some powerful words in I Cor. 7:21‑23, "Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you‑although if you can gain your freedom, do so. For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ's slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men." The whole point of Paul is that Christians are to be free from all forms of slavery except slavery to Christ. Our job as slaves of Christ is to be rebels against all other forms of slavery, and to help people escape from all other forms of slavery.

�� The exodus out of Egypt was the great deliverance of God's people out of slavery. Salvation in the New Testament is also an exodus out of bondage to sin. Slavery is the number one problem of man, and freedom is the number one goal. The only adequate answer is a transfer of ownership. The slave to sin has to find a master who will purchase him. That is what the Gospel is all about. Jesus is the new Master who bought us with His blood. We are now free to come under his ownership and be slaves to Him rather than slaves to sin and all of the masters of the flesh. The Gospel revolves around the idea of voluntary slavery. We are freed by faith in Christ to choose a new master, and like Paul, become slaves to the Lord Jesus.

3.�� GOD'S HUMAN NATURE based on Rom. 1:1‑7

�� Superman has always been popular as a comic book character, and I can remember racing across the snow in a blizzard to trade comic books with a friend in order to get some new adventures of this heaven‑like hero of humanity. In our day now the movies of superman have made millions because they appeal to the universal human fantasy that man can be God‑like, and fly on his own power, be invincible as he fights the forces of evil. We love to have our super heroes. This is true in every culture.

�� Some of the early Christians exalted Jesus to the level of a superman. It is understandable why they did, but the majority of Christians got together and declared these Christians heretics by making Jesus a superman. They were guilty of thinking too highly of the deity of our Lord. This seems very strange to us, but the world is full of strange things. There is a rare metal called gallium which melts at 86 degrees, so that if you held it in your hand for awhile it would begin to melt. That does not fit our image of a metal, but it is a fact. It seems equally unlikely that anyone could think too highly of Christ's deity. How could this be possible?

�� The Christians who were called heretical were saying that Jesus was so divine than he could never be truly human. They so exalted the deity of Christ that they denied his humanity. They said he could not have been a real man for human nature is evil, and a holy God could never take on a human nature. These people were called Docetists from the Greek word meaning to seem. They said Jesus only seemed to be human.

�� Their theology has come down to us in the Acts of John which was written in the second century. In it Jesus does come down from the cross and does not suffer at all. That would be totally unworthy of the Son of God. The people saw him suffer on the cross, but that was only an illusion. Jesus appears to John and reveals to him that he is really not suffering at all. It is all a trick, and it is like superman acting weak when he is not. This superman image of Jesus became popular, and we have Gnostic documents from the third and fourth century that tell us Jesus did not really die. It was all an illusion and Jesus was really laughing as he watched them nailing him to the cross, for it was not real. The church declared these writings heretical for they rejected the real humanity of Jesus.

�� The New Testament does not give us this superman concept at all. The Jesus of the New Testament could not stop bullets, for he could not even stop� whip on his back. It cut through his skin and made him bleed, as did the crown of thorns on his head. The spear went through his side and the nails through his hands. He had to endure the pain a suffering of a fully human body.

�� The battle raged for centuries between the two groups with one saying it was all illusion and the other saying the pain was real in a real human body. Orthodox Christianity said Jesus was not a fake man, but he was totally real as a man. One heresy after another tried to deny the full humanity of Christ, but the church stuck to the Scripture and said he was fully real in his humanity. The battle goes on yet today, for many believe Jesus was fully God, but not fully man. They say his humanity was only a disguise. Charles Colson in The Struggle For Men's Hearts and Minds tells of a survey by Christianity Today in which people were asked if they believed Jesus was fully God and fully man. Among the general public only 26 percent said yes. Among evangelical Christians only 43 percent said yes. That means that the majority of believers are still rejecting one of the major doctrines of orthodox Christianity. They do not realize that they are heretical in their beliefs.

�� All of this brings us again to the introductory paragraph of Paul's letter to the Romans. In it he spells out the essence of the Gospel which centers in the two characteristics of Jesus, which are his humanity and his deity. Like the two ends of shoelaces, these two realities tie up the Gospel package. If you cut one side off you lose it all. Paul says in v. 3 that the Gospel regards God's Son as to his human nature and then in v.4 he says it regards God's Son as to his divine nature. Only a man could come from the seed of David. The word used here is spermatos. Jesus had a human nature that came from the very sperm of David. He is called the son of David because he was a physical product of David's body. But then in v. 4 Paul says Jesus was declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead. Only one who was God could raise himself from the dead.

�� So we have here in these two verses the basis for the two main Christian holidays of the year, which are Christmas and Easter. On Christmas we celebrate the humanity of Jesus, for he was God come in the flesh. He was totally human and had to grow in wisdom and knowledge and stature. On Easter we celebrate his deity, for he did what no man can do, as he defeated death and rose from the grave.� The full Gospel is Christmas and Easter, and that Jesus was fully man and fully God. He was the God‑Man. If you take either one out of the church year you have destroyed it, and if you take either of the natures of Jesus out of him you have destroyed the Gospel and the Jesus of the New Testament.

�� It can be hard to grasp how Jesus could be both God and man, but this is the clear revelation of the New Testament. Paul could not have made it clearer than he does in Rom. 9:5 where he writes of the Jews and says, "...from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised." There are numerous examples of the dual nature of Jesus. God does not sleep, but Jesus did. God does not get tempted, but Jesus did. God does not pray, but Jesus did. God did not die, but Jesus did. The list could go on and on because Jesus was fully man and experienced life as all humans do. He was one with us and felt all of the human emotions.

�� A� little girl said to her mother, "I just love Marjorie more than anybody else." The mother asked why she loved her more than her other friends and she replied, "Because when I cry she cries with me." That was the kind of friend Jesus was. He wept with those who wept. He could feel what they felt, and he still does have these human feelings so that he can identify with all who call upon him.� Paul says in I Tim. 2:5, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." His present and eternal manhood is one of the major teachings of the book of Hebrews. If we did not have a human Savior and mediator how could we have any confidence that he can really understand where we are coming from in our weakness? He says in Heb. 4:15‑16, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are‑yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Some poet