The Recipients of the Letter: Romans 1:6-7

Continuing our journey through the book of Romans, we turn now to verses 6 and 7 of chapter 1, where Paul addresses the recipients of his letter. Having looked at the author and the subject of the letter last week, we now want to think about the people he is writing to—because understanding the nature of the church at Rome will help us understand why Paul says the things he says throughout the entire letter.

The Story of the Church in Rome

We are not told very much about the early days of the church at Rome, but we can trace its beginning all the way back to the day of Pentecost. Luke tells us in Acts 2:10 that there were visitors from Rome in Jerusalem that day. These Jewish men and women heard the gospel being preached by Peter and the other apostles, were converted, and then returned home to Rome, taking the gospel with them. So the church in Rome began with Jewish Christians, and for the early years it was probably made up mostly of Jewish believers.

Then about fifteen years later, in 49 AD, the Emperor Claudius expelled all the Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2). Riots had broken out among the Jewish population, and Claudius responded by ordering every Jew out of the city—including Jewish Christians. What happened to the church during those years? The Gentile minority stayed, of course. They did not have to leave. They stepped up and filled the enormous vacuum, developing their gifts, taking on leadership roles, and continuing to evangelise the city. More and more Gentiles were converted and added to the church. What had begun as a predominantly Jewish Christian congregation became a Gentile church. The customs, character, and ethos of the church would have changed over time.

And then the edict was lifted. The Jews were allowed to return. The Jewish Christians—the ones who had founded the church in the beginning—came back to find their church full of new people who did not know them, who had never heard of them, and who did things in very different ways.

Imagine that happening here at Covenant Christian Fellowship. Our church was founded decades ago by Irish Reformed Presbyterian Christians, but very quickly people from many other nations joined the fellowship. Now imagine that for some reason all the Irish people in the church had to leave for several years. During that time, more and more Christians from other countries join. Then five years later the Irish founders return—and Covenant Fellowship has two hundred people. They are singing all kinds of songs, not just Psalms. There is a praise band up at the front. Instead of church lunches, everybody goes to the local pub for a meal after the service. And these strangers are welcoming the founders, saying, “Oh, it’s lovely to see you here! Is this your first time at Covenant Fellowship?” You can imagine the founders feeling hurt, annoyed, displaced. “No, this is not my first time. We started this church!”

If we can picture tension in that kind of situation, we have to multiply it by about a thousand for the church in Rome. It is hard to imagine, humanly speaking, two more different groups of people than first-century Jews and Gentiles. The Jews had centuries of rich biblical tradition, thorough knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures, strong moral purity and family life. And now they were sitting beside people who, until very recently, had been fornicators, idolaters, practitioners of the occult, worshippers of Greek and Roman gods. How on earth do you hold two groups like that together in one church?

Paul’s answer is not to divide the church into two congregations—one for Jewish Christians and one for Gentile Christians. His solution is to expound the gospel as fully, richly, deeply, and completely as he possibly can. He is essentially saying: when you understand who you are as Christians, when you grasp your identity in Christ, you will realise that these other divisions are very, very secondary.

Here at Covenant Fellowship, we have a reputation—a well-deserved reputation—for harmony, love, and wholehearted acceptance of people from all kinds of backgrounds. At our Presbytery meeting recently, this was one of the things mentioned about our congregation. But we cannot be complacent. A church like ours is especially vulnerable to this temptation, precisely because we have such a diverse mixture of people. The devil hates to see Christians loving each other and will do everything within his considerable power to drive a wedge between believers. So we need to pray earnestly that this unity will continue.

Four Phrases That Define Every Christian (vv. 6–7)

In verses 6 and 7, Paul uses four phrases to describe these Christians in Rome. Each one helps us understand more about who we are, and Paul is really saying: if you could just grasp who you are as Christians, these tensions would not magically disappear, but understanding your identity is a massive part of overcoming them.

1. Called to Belong to Jesus Christ (v. 6)

What a beautiful description of a Christian! If you are a believer this morning, you are someone who has been called to belong to Jesus Christ. Someone has chosen you. Someone has invited you to be part of something. You have a right to be there.

Remember blind Bartimaeus sitting at the side of the road begging. He hears that Jesus is passing by and shouts out, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” The crowd tries to silence him, but he shouts all the louder. And then Jesus summons him, and the crowd says, “Cheer up! He’s calling you.” If you are a Christian today, it is because God called you. He invited you. He wants you. It was not your idea—it was God’s idea.

And being called to belong to Jesus Christ means that Christianity is not first and foremost about adopting a set of beliefs or a code of ethics. It is about being in a relationship with Jesus Christ. You are to be loyal to him, faithful to him. You say to Jesus, “Not my will, but yours be done. I belong to you. I am not my own. I have been bought with a price.”

2. To All in Rome (v. 7)

This word “all” is emphatic in the original language. Paul is stressing it as if he has underlined it in red pen, highlighted it in luminous yellow marker, and drawn a big circle around it with an arrow pointing to it. To all in Rome. Remember one of the main reasons he is writing: the tensions between Jews and Gentiles. But in the gospel, everyone is brought together as one. Paul is going to drive this home repeatedly: “I am a debtor both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish” (1:14). “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (1:16). He will spend the first three chapters proving that absolutely everyone has sinned—the religious and the irreligious, the Jew and the Gentile—and so everyone without exception needs a Saviour. And there is one Saviour, and only one, for all people.

3. Loved by God (v. 7)

To all in Rome who are loved by God. Jews and Gentiles alike—not that God loves the Jewish Christians and merely tolerates the Gentile Christians. All together are loved equally by God, from all eternity.

There was nothing lovable about these people. There was nothing in them that drew God’s love to them. He did not love them because of their religion, their strong family life, their scriptural knowledge, or their Jewish pedigree. They were all sinners. Even their righteousness was like filthy rags, as Isaiah says—never mind their unrighteousness. God loved them in spite of their track record, not because of it.

And this is true of our church here in Galway. Perhaps you were born and bred a Reformed Presbyterian, baptised into the church, learned the Shorter Catechism, and can recite it backwards and forwards. You are loved by God. Or perhaps your life before conversion was one of utter chaos and depravity—no Christian influence of any kind, the name of God only ever heard as a swear word, a trail of wrecked relationships left in your wake. And then you became a Christian. You are loved by God—every bit as much as the person who grew up in a Christian home. Or perhaps you lived for years in pharisaic, legalistic self-righteousness, thinking you were earning your place in heaven, until God opened your eyes to your horrible pride. You turned from your sin. You are loved by God.

There are no second-class Christians. No place for pride, no place for envy or resentment. No Christian is more loved by God than any other. Even if you were the worst Christian in the history of the world, you would still be loved by God just as much as the best and most godly Christian who ever lived.

4. Called to Be His Holy People (v. 7)

At Mount Sinai, when God entered into covenant with Israel, he told them in Exodus 19:6 that he was calling them to be “a holy nation.” Now Paul lifts that ancient declaration of Israel’s identity and applies it to the Gentiles in Rome as well as to the Jewish Christians. Jews and Gentiles alike are all one in Christ, all sharing the same calling to be God’s holy people.

What does it mean to be holy? The word simply means “set apart”—set apart in two directions. We are set apart from the world and set apart for God. There are plenty of people in the world who delight in being different and eccentric, but they are not set apart for God. Christian holiness means putting God at the centre of your life and asking, in everything, “What does God want?” We parent our children in a holy way, conduct our marriages in a holy way, go about our work, drive our cars, respond to setbacks, receive rebuke, use social media, spend the Lord’s Day, and use our money—all in a holy way, because we are people called to be God’s holy people.

That sounds impossibly hard. But whatever God calls us to do, he equips us to do. And the rest of verse 7 tells us how: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” God gives us grace—his undeserved blessing, help, and strength. And God gives us peace—that rich Old Testament word meaning wholeness, health, fitness, and prosperity. You do not work these things up yourself. They come from God, through the channels of grace that Paul will unfold as the letter progresses.

This sermon is the second in our Romans series. It follows Introduction to Romans (Romans 1:1–5) and continues with The Means of Grace and Peace (Romans 1:8–15).