Paul, a Slave of Messiah Yeshua
1: 1-7
Paul, a slave of Messiah Yeshua DIG: What does “slave” and “emissary” reveal about Paul? From the use of “call” and “called,” what does it mean for believers? How are obedience and trust linked together? How is the Trinity in view in this passage? What does this passage reveal about the promise of the Good News and the Person of the Good News? Who are believers called to reach? What do the terms in verse 7 indicate about how God views us?
REFLECT: What part of this passage impresses you about Paul? About the gospel? Why? How did God call you to Messiah? How did that change your goals? Your sense of obligation to others? Do you know any Sha’ul’s, who think they are “serving” ADONAI, when in reality, they are working against Him and His Kingdom? Can you be patient as you share? How can you be wise as a serpent, but innocent like a dove in dealing with them (Matthew 10:16 ESB)?
Paul is Sha’ul and Sha’ul is Paul
From: Sha’ul (1:1a). Born in Tarsus (Acts 22:3), he was invited to Jerusalem, probably after his bar-mitzvah to study under Gamali’el, the foremost Pharisaic rabbi of his day. In the first century rabbis and students had a different relationship than they do today. It was by invitation only, you had to be invited to study under a rabbi. An ancient Jewish blessing says, “May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi.” The idea is that a rabbi’s disciples – those who took on his yoke, his set of interpretations of scripture – were to follow closely behind him. So, Sha’ul had to have been one of the foremost of the rabbinical students for Gamali’el to even hear of him. Paul eventually became the leader of the Anti-Messianic movement, but later he admitted that he did that out of ignorance. He thought he was serving God!
Dear loving Heavenly Father, in the midst of all the loud turmoil in this world – how wonderful to rest secure in Your love and care (Psalms 91:1-2). Love is a powerful driving force. Paul encourages his readers with God’s love for them. To all those in Rome, loved by God, called to be kedoshim (Romans 1:7). As we lift our eyes to your love, sure and eternal (Psalms 90:2), like Saul the rising young rabbi, we have strength to leave behind wrong paths and to move on to the best choice – your eternal love for Your children (John 1:12, First John 3:1). May we always feel the comfort and joy of Your eternal love, and may Your love empower us in living in ways that please You. You are the most Awesome Father! In Your holy Son’s name and power of His resurrection. Amen
As it turns out, Sha’ul – came from the famous first king of Isra’el, from the tribe of Benjamin, to which Sha’ul/Paul himself belonged (Philippians 3:5) – is simply the Hebrew name for this person. Paul, is a Greek name derived from the Latin surname Paulus. For someone born in Tarsus (Acts 21:39) but educated under Gamaliel in Yerushalayim in a strict form of Pharisaism (Galatians 1:14; Philippians 3:5-6), this was not unusual. Sha’ul was a Jew of the Diaspora because he came from Tarsus, and Jews of the Diaspora always had two names – a Jewish name (Sha’ul) and a Gentile name (Paul). This is true today in the present dispersion.
Here’s the clincher. When Paul recalls his conversion, he specifically notes that Yeshua was speaking in Aramaic, the common Hebrew language of the day: Sha’ul, Sha’ul, why are you persecuting Me (Acts 26:14)? Paul draws attention to how Messiah addressed him by his Hebrew name, and makes no mention that it is now abandoned.
When Sha’ul/Paul launched his Gentile-focused ministry among Greek-speakers (beginning with Acts 13:9), it was natural for Luke, the author of Acts, to begin referring to him exclusively by his Greek name. Nor is it surprising that he’s later referred to as Paul in Jerusalem, since there were Greek speakers there also. Indeed, Luke could be making a thematic point by shifting from Sha’ul to Paul around Chapter 13, given the broader theme in the book of Acts as seen in 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. After all, there was a shift going on from the beginnings of the Messianic Community in Jerusalem, to the Goyim at the ends of the earth and the Roman Empire.
Sha’ul/Paul’s two names were not unique. Several other people in the B’rit Chadashah were given two names: Joseph, later called Barnabas (Acts 4:36); Simeon, also called Niger (Acts 13:1), Thomas, also called Didymus (John 21:2); and Tabitha, was also called Dorcas (Acts 9:36), and Nakdimon, his Jewish name, was also known as Nicodemus (John 3:1-21), among others.6
A slave (Greek: doulos, meaning a bond-slave) of the Messiah Yeshua (1:1b). From a very powerful rabbinical student and leader of the Anti-Messianic movement, Sha’ul considered himself a bond-slave to Messiah, a slave by choice. There were certain individuals in the Roman empire designated, “Slaves of the Emperor.” This was a position of honor. One finds a reflection of this a reflection of this in Paul’s act of designating himself as a slave of the King of kings.7 The concept there is that when Messiah sets us free from the slavery of sin, we have the freedom to choose to be a slave to God, a bond-slave. And that’s what he is going to encourage us to do in 12:1-2. He puts this ahead of his apostleship.
An emissary (Greek: apostolos meaning a messenger, one sent on a mission, an apostle; Hebrew: shaliach meaning a representative of the sender) because I was called and set apart for the Good News of God, and a representative of Messiah Himself (1:1c). The Talmud says that the shaliach is the same as the one who sends him (Tractate Berachot). The word he uses for set apart (Greek: aphorizo) has the same root as where we get the word Pharisee from, set apart ones. Once, he was a Pharisee of rabbinic Judaism, but now he is a spiritual Pharisee set apart totally for Yeshua Messiah. Nevertheless, some Jews today think Yeshua is alright, but Paul changed Judaism into Christianity. No, he was a shaliach.8 When you heard the words of Paul, you heard the words of Yeshua. One of the reasons the Hebrew Roots movement is a cult (see the commentary on Galatians, to see link click Ak – The Hebrew Roots Movement: A Different Gospel), is because they do not accept the words of Paul as coming from Messiah Himself.
God promised this Good News (First Corinthians 15:1-4) in advance through His prophets in the TaNaKh (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Mu – 354 Prophecies Fulfilled in Jesus Christ). In this one book alone, there will be 61 quotations from the TaNaKh. As a result, Paul will prove that the gospel that he preaches is from the Word of God (1:2).
He descended from David physically: It concerns His Son – He is descended from King David physically (1:3) through His mother Miryam. Her husband Yosef was also a descendent of King David, but was not Yeshua’s physical father (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ai – The Genealogies of Joseph and Mary). For Mary was impregnated by the Ruach Ha’Kodesh (Matthew 1:18-2:12; Luke 1:26-56; 2:1-38). While YHVH is, in one sense Father to everyone, and in a more intimate sense to the people of Isra’el (Exodus 4:22; Matthew 2:15), He is Father, in this unique sense, only to Yeshua (Romans 8:3; John 1:18; Hebrews 5:7-10).9
He was powered by the Ruach Ha’Kodesh: With respect to His humanity, our Lord descended from the royal line of King David; however, with respect to His divinity, He was powerfully demonstrated to be Son of God spiritually, which is another way of saying according to the nature and work of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh. It was the Ruach Ha’Kodesh working in Messiah who accomplished Yeshua’s resurrection and every other miracle performed by Him or associated with Him. In the incarnation, Yeshua Messiah was conceived by the Ruach Ha’Kodesh, and was raised from the dead by the power of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh.10 I believe the Trinity is in view here: the Ruach Ha’Kodesh, the Son of God, and God the Father. He was set apart by His having been resurrected from the dead, the first-fruits of all the righteous to come (1:4a).
He is Yeshua Messiah our Lord: The Son of God and the Son of Man who was resurrected from the dead by the power of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh is Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord (1:4b). He did not become the Son as a result of the resurrection, He already was the Son before the resurrection. Nevertheless, the resurrection proves everything (Acts 17:31). As you read through the Bible you will discover that the Lord Yeshua Messiah is presented in the power of His resurrection. First, He is seen in the days of His flesh, walking upon the earth, despised and rejected by men. He is even seen in His humanness as He sits down to rest at a well and sleeps through a storm on the sea. And finally, He is brought to humiliation, shame and death on the cross. Although He was a man of pains, well acquainted with illness (see the commentary on Isaiah Ja – Who Has Believed Our Message), there came a time when He was resurrected from the dead. The days of walking along the dusty roads of Isra’el are over now; He has come back from the dead with power.11 And He is not only our Savior, He is our Lord.
Through Him we (identifying himself with the other apostles) received grace (Greek: charis), which incorporates attributes of God which the Hebrew in the TaNaKh calls chesed (see the commentary on Ruth Af – The Concept of Chesed). And were given the work of being an emissary on His behalf promoting trust-grounded (Greek: pistis, meaning faith, trust, belief) obedience (1:5a). Obedience and trust are often linked (Romans 15:18, 16:26; First Peter 1:2). Paul saw his task as calling men and women to submission to the lordship of Messiah (1:4b and 7b), a submission that began with conversion, but which was to continue in a deepening, lifelong commitment. This obedience to Messiah as Lord is always closely related to trust and as a continuing trusting relationship with Messiah. In light of this, we understand the words obedience and trust to be seen as one: obedience always involves trust and trust always involves obedience. Paul always called men and women to a faith that was always inseparable to obedience – for the Savior in whom we believe is nothing less than our Lord – and to an obedience that could never be divorced from faith/trust/belief – for we obey Yeshua as Lord only when we believe in Him. Viewed in this light, the phrase captures the full dimension of Paul’s task as an emissary, a task that was not confined to initial evangelism, but that included also the building up and firm establishment of churches.12
Among all the Gentiles in Rome. Paul’s unique calling was to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15, 22:21; Romans 11:13; Galatians 1:16). It is likely that he preached the gospel during his three years in Arabis (Galatians 1:17), but he began his recorded ministry by preaching to Jews. Even when ministering in the basically Gentile regions of Asia Minor and Macedonia, he frequently began his work among the Jews (Acts 13:14, 14:1, 16:13, 17:1 and 18:2, for example). As with Paul, every believer is to proclaim Yeshua Messiah to everyone, both Jew and Gentile alike. Including you, who have been called by Yeshua the Messiah (1:5b-6).
You have been called to serve. Growing up, you may have thought that being called by God was something only missionaries, pastors, and other “full-time” people experienced. But the Bible says every believer is called to service. Your call to salvation included your call to service. They are the same. Regardless of your job or career, you are called to “full-time” service. A “non-serving” believer is a contradiction in terms.13 You need to find out what your primary spiritual gift is and start serving!
To: All those in Rome, both Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:14), whom God loves, who have been called to be kedoshim, holy ones, who have been set apart for Him. Grace to you and shalom from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah (1:7). This is Paul’s usual greeting, found at the beginning of his letters.
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