I love Paul’s focus upon Jesus Christ here in Romans 1:1-6, it is as if he is providing a mini-history in six verses and it is all about Christ!

 Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.  Through Him have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all the nations for His name, among whom you also are called of Jesus Christ;

Wow, quite a way to open a letter, get people’s attention, and more importantly, point them to Christ.  I love the fact that Paul reaches back and connects his current writing to the prophets in the Holy Scriptures.  Not only this, he states that the gospel of God was promised through the prophets.  This is a beautiful picture of the unity of Scripture.  From the very beginning we are expecting the One who will crush the serpent’s head, the One who will fulfill the Abrahamic promise and bless all the families of the earth, and the one who will fulfill the Davidic promise to have a King on the throne forever.  Jesus is the yes and amen of all these promises.

I would like to take a moment and comment on Paul’s Christ-centeredness.  Note how Paul immediately identifies himself as a slave of Christ.  Think about how we identify ourselves.  We might first think of our names, our occupations, our significant other, or our children to help identify us.  We might think of the successes we’ve had in our lives, or maybe even our failures.  What should we think of first when trying to identify and give meaning to our existence?  I think we should follow Paul’s example here.  If we have placed our faith in Christ and become one of His sons or daughters, that is our primary identification.  Just as our heavenly citizenship should be prominent in our thinking over our national earthly citizenship, so our heavenly identification should be prominent over our temporal identity.  When we trust Christ, there is one eternal and wonderful identification that is marked upon us; we are slaves of Christ.  I love the statements in the Apocalypse which allude to us receiving a new name from Christ.  This is a personal identification by which we are graced.  Though we were sheep who had gone astray, we are now heirs of the kingdom.

What does this mean for us?  Are we quicker to identify ourselves as Baptists prior to our identification as servants of Christ?  Are we more prone to think of our occupation when someone asks, “What do you do?”  What do we feel is the most important thing about us?  If we were given one sentence to describe our true essence, what would we say?  Paul wants to be known as someone who belongs to and serves the Lord Jesus Christ.  Do we feel that this is enough for us?  Do we need to add more to feel significant?

Let me just close by saying that I have struggled with these thoughts of identity and I have come to several conclusions.  First, if I am feeling insignificant in my identification with Christ, it is because I am forgetting the greatness of Christ.  Therefore, I believe that many struggles in this life such as depression, marital problems, relationships with our children, etc…. all stem from failing to realize the greatness of Christ.  When we realize that our identity in Christ is all the affirmation and significance that we ever need (He is King of the Universe, and He has adopted us!) then we stop seeking significance and satisfaction in an unhealthy manner from others.  So many marriages have trouble because mates seek for satisfaction in each other that can only be found in an identification with Christ.  There are many parents who seek their significance in their children.  Children are a wonderful source of joy, but they are not Christ, and they do not define us.  Second, I have noticed that dissent and trouble in the church stems directly from failing to realize this powerful truth.  This is interesting because many commentators look at Romans as an argument for unity between the Jewish and Gentile branches of the church.  This is simple, people argue because they feel that they deserve something.  They often selfishly feel that they deserve something because they are not happy with what they have.  Hence, very small things such as constructive criticism, the wrong color carpet, the wrong music, the wrong look, or the wrong words, will set this kind of person against another.  Let’s consider the opposite type of person who has found his or her all in Christ.  There is nothing that can be said or done to this person who (like Paul) has found something immovable and untouchable by any criticism or argument.  I’m sure you all know someone like this, they are almost impervious to having their spirits dampened.  Why, because they are connected to something eternal and unchangeable, the character of God.