Today on Insight for Living from Chuck Swindahl.
Some of you are convincing yourself these days that you're just too far gone. That you have been a prodigal beyond anyone's belief who would be sitting around you right now. Your past is too dirty. Your world is too impure for God to care that much about you. How wrong you are.
Grace covers it all. Grace is greater than our sins. Ever wonder why some people find the Bible boring while others can't put it down? Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl reveals the secret in his eye-opening exploration of Romans. the explosive first century letter that still changes lives today.
Yes, sometimes Paul, the writer, takes a long tangent that confuses us. But he always circles back to the simple truth about God's grace, purpose, and relentless love. Most importantly, Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, reveals the gospel of Jesus Christ in all its glory. Chuck titled today's message getting a grasp of the gospel. The ancient letters were never written in a hurry.
Writers labored over them. Just the putting of ink on a piece of papyrus. was a massive task. And then rolling it and preserving it and hand delivering it. another major task.
So, when it comes to New Testament letters, what we have is the treasure. of the scriptures.
Some letters are corrective by nature, some are confrontive. Most of them inspiring and encouraging, and a few of them. Um profound. All of them instructed. None more so than the letter to the Romans.
Written a little past the midway point of the first century. By a man sitting in an unknown Room. with Tertius by his side, Writing as a scribe, as the Spirit of God. Miraculously reveals the heart of God regarding his truth. To the servant of God, Paul.
Who spoke God's truth to Tertius? Who wrote the truth? into the text. Look down at verse 7. To all who are beloved of God in Rome.
Stop right there. I promise to keep this simple.
So what we have is a lengthy sentence. That introduces the letter in over 125 English words with one period. That concludes the opening thought. The parenthesis is wrapped around verse 2 down through verse 6. Again, I say, if you miss the excursion, you'll get confused.
Paul is a master in this letter to the Romans, connecting one thought to another, beginning a next verse that modifies a word in the previous verse, tying together the thoughts like dominoes that bump up against one another.
So, Paul introduces himself in verse 1, tells us three things about himself. He tells us in verse 7, he's writing to the Romans, and in between, he highlights what is really on his heart, and that's the truth regarding the gospel. How do I know that? It's mentioned four times in this introductory section. If you like to mark your Bible, it's mentioned in verse 1.
The gospel of God. Verse 9. The preaching of the gospel of his son. Verse 15. I am eager to preach the gospel.
to you also who are in Rome. Verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. If God includes in a few verses the same word again and again and again, the repetition is to underscore it, it's to highlight it. Today's words, it's to put it into a bold font. It's God's way of saying, pay attention.
This is what I want you to see right out of the chute. The gospel.
So Paul Cause himself to begin with these three things. First, A bond servant. In Paul's day, there were six terms he could have chosen. He chose the one that is the strongest word to describe absolute servitude. We would call it a bond slave.
Paul is saying, I'm a bond slave. of Christ. Christ has seen me on a slave block of sin, and He has paid the price for my freedom. And now I answer to him as my master. I am a bondslave of Christ.
Called an apostle. meaning called of God. not of his own work. Not of the word of any man, not the succession of some Denomination or some religious authority or hierarchy, he is called. From God to God You'd be an apostle.
That was one of his spiritual gifts. And thirdly, he says of himself, I am set apart to the gospel. The word apostle means one sent forth. Never forget that at the heart of Paul beat the heart of a missionary. If you miss that, you'll miss the thrust of his driving.
Message again and again with the gospel. He longed to see his fellow Jews born again. He longed to see the Gentiles that surrounded him, now in this case in Rome, born again. He has a missionary heart. He is sent forth to take the gospel.
The origin of the gospel is God. This isn't Paul's gospel. This isn't his church's gospel. And as we live our life today, it's not our gospel, it's the gospel. of God.
God originated it. God's love impelled Him to come and to reach down to us in grace. And to win us, it took someone to pay the price for sin. And that is Christ.
So the content of the gospel is Jesus Christ, as we will see in working our way through this letter. But before we do that, drop down again to verse 7. Let's notice it goes. To those who are beloved of God. in Rome.
Don't you love that? In the busy city of Rome, which was the busiest and most significant megalopolis of that first century. There existed a pocket of people who loved Christ. Paul tells them, you are beloved of God. Because that's what the gospel is all about.
The gospel is the good news. That God loves you. He loved the people of Rome, and he loves the people today. to whom I speak. And those to whom you will speak in the week to come.
This is the good news that originates with God. How about Are receiving it. The revelation, remember, giving it from heaven to earth. How did we get the gospel? Verse 2 answers it.
Which And that word modifies the gospel. That's the first time some of you have heard the word modified since you got out of high school English class, isn't it? Don't you wish you would have paid more attention to your English teacher? I often think that when I work my way through the sentence structure of a text like this, which answers back to the gospel? I think of a little arrow that points back up to the gospel.
The gospel is what he promised, he is capitalized, so it's God. It's that which God promised beforehand. through his prophets In the Holy Scriptures. Look closely. God originated the gospel.
God has communicated the gospel through the channel. of the Holy Scriptures. Romans 15:4 states, Whatever was written in earlier times, referring to the Old Testament, was written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort in the Scriptures should have hope.
So Paul is saying, as I deliver the gospel as an apostle, and as I carry it. being called to this work of mission. As I do all of this, I remember that it's not mine, it's really that which I have received from centuries past. You'll be surprised perhaps to know, as I was when I found this week, 61 times in the letter to the Romans, the Old Testament is quoted. Five times he quotes Genesis, four times Exodus.
twice Leviticus, five times Deuteronomy. Twice 1 Kings, 15 times from the Psalms, twice from Proverbs, 19 times from Isaiah. Once from Ezekiel, twice from Hosea. And Watson, Joel, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Malachi. Sixty-one times, Paul quotes, From that long channel of information called the Holy Scriptures.
As men were borne along by the Holy Spirit, they wrote the truth of God, and it's found its way now to Paul in the first century and comes all the way to us. here in the 21st century. By the way, it occurred to me that all of Romans chapters one through eight. is contained in uh Isaiah 53, 6. Remember the verse?
All we like sheep have gone astray. That's the depravity of humanity. We have turned everyone to his own way. That's chapters 3 and 4 of Romans. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
That's chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8. In one verse, there is contained the message of the first eight chapters of the letter to the Romans.
So it comes through us through the Holy Scriptures, and please note the content. The substance of the gospel, verses 3 and 4. It's concerning his son. And immediately, Paul thinks chronologically, starts with his humanity, works his way to deity, messiahship, and authority. Watch how it unfolds.
He was born of a descendant of David, that's the birth in Bethlehem according to the flesh. He was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection. That's the deity of Christ. According to the Spirit of Holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord. See the word Christ?
It's the term that means anointed one, frequently. can be rendered messiah. The work of Messiah is the work that Christ carried out, fulfilling the promises and the requirements set forth in the Old Testament regarding Messiah. And the term Lord always refers to authority. That's why Christians got in trouble.
In their day in the first century, Caesar was couriers. K-U-R-I-O-S. The word is Greek for Lord. But Christians came along saying, we serve another. We serve our Lord Christ.
not your Lord Caesar. That was sure death toward the end of Nero. We'll get to that in a moment. Here he says, as you see it written. We have Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Think of it. Jesus the man. Christ the Messiah. Lord, our authority. And he is set forth as the content.
of the gospel. Paul now pauses and says, through whom. This is Jesus our Lord, through whom, verse 5, we have received grace. an apostleship. I think that always made Paul pause.
and sort of shake his head. Mm-hmm. He remembered that he was one unworthy soul. He writes of himself in both the letter to the Galatians and the letter to Timothy. where he says that I was a violent aggressor.
I spent my days making life miserable for Christians. And there I was on that road to Damascus, and I was stopped in my tracks, and I was blinded. and I fell to the ground. And I heard the words of another courier. as he's converted me and saved my soul.
Um There is a marvelous sense of grace. That continues to be woven through the fabric of Paul's writings. And it emerges quickly now in the letter as we read: through whom we have received grace. It was Donald Barnhouse who said, Love that reaches down. Love that reaches up is affection.
Love that reaches out. I forget it.
So I'm going to go home and memorize that quote next time. Got it. Love that reaches up is adoration. Love that reaches out is affection. But love that stoops is grace.
That was worth waiting for, wasn't it? Love that reaches up is adoration. And we do that every time we praise Him. Love that reaches out. is affection.
But love that stoops. His grace.
Some of you are convincing yourself these days that you're just too far gone. that you have been a Prodigal beyond anyone's belief who would be sitting around you right now, your life is too soiled. Your past is too dirty. Your world is too impure for God to care that much about you. How wrong.
How wrong you are. Grace covers it all. Grace is greater than our sin. Came across a wonderful story, I think, is worth reading. When R.
A. Torrey was the president of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, he received a letter from a distressed father. The man, a pastor, had a prodigal son named Bill. who was breaking his heart. Would Dr.
Tory let the boy enroll at Moody? That's the question. Torrey replied that while he sympathized with the man, It wasn't possible to admit the boy. He said, after all, Moody's a Bible school, not a reformatory. The man rode back and doubled his efforts and intensified his plea.
Please. Please, you're my last hope. Dr. Torrey agreed finally, providing the boy would meet with him every day. The arrangement didn't go well at first, and Dr.
Tory thought the experiment was hopeless. The boy had serious problems and seemed torn apart by past turbulence. But day by day, as he vented his frustrations on Dr. Torrey. There began to be some room left in his life.
For hope. Ultimately, he turned his life over to Christ. Make a long story short, several years later, that boy became a beloved professor at that school. His name is William R. Newell.
On one occasion, 1895, Newell was on his way to class. And he was working over his testimony, wanting to put it into some form of verse. Suddenly, he got the picture in his mind. He ducked into an empty classroom and sat down on the back of an envelope. He wrote out in verse form.
His testimony. When he left the classroom on his way now, a little bit late to his class, he ran into Daniel Towner, who was a director of music at the Institute. He handed him the envelope and said, Uh this needs a good tune to go with it. When he finished the class, he ran into towner again. And the man told him, I was so taken with the poem you gave me that I went immediately to my studio and.
I composed the tune. Here it is. He says, I feel that it could be the best song that either of us will ever write in our lifetime. Years I spent in vanity and pride, Caring not my Lord was crucified. Knowing not it was for me, he died at Calvary.
Mercy there was great, and grace was free. Pardon there was multiplied to me. There my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary. That great. That a great background.
Your life worse than William R. Newell's? You don't even know. No life here is worse than the Apostle Paul's was. He was the chief of sinners.
He was the worst you could be. Anybody here killed Christians? Anybody here In a place of authority where you Deliberately misjudge those who claim Christ as Savior. And you throw him in prison? Nobody.
But the grace of God came to his rescue, and of all things. Became an apostle. You imagine how surprised he lived his life.
Well, no wonder the disciples were afraid to be with him. Word traveled that Paul was saved. Yeah, right. If it hadn't been for Barnabas, I never would have given him a hearing. But grace came to his rescue and And now he...
presents what it is that changed him. Verse 5. To bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake. What's the purpose of the gospel? The obedience.
of the faith. That's the purpose. The origin is God. The revelation is the Holy Scriptures. And how grateful we are that they are still alive and powerful.
The content, the substance, is Christ himself, and the purpose, never doubted. It's obedience. It's obedience. God did not save us in order for us to have a theological set of principles in our heads. We are saved in order to surrender our lives to Christ.
When you think of obedience, attach to it the synonym. Submission. When you speak of obedience to Christ, think of submission. to Christ. And Paul from Damascus to the end of his life.
was submitted to Christ. Whatever was the Father's will, whatever was the Savior's will. Out of obedience to the gospel, he yielded. May I pause here and urge you to be a person of balance? Please do not see the letter to the Romans as simply a place to pack up great doctrinal truths in a notebook.
The world of fundamentalism is full of people like that. with very little attention given to the graciousness of an obedient life. Submission to Christ. It takes both.
Now, on the other hand, to just emphasize submission and graciousness and love. Liberalism is full of that. Without the truth, the gospel, the doctrines, we need both. But we never can prove the delight of his love until all on the altar we lay. For the favor he shows and the joy he bestows.
Are for those who will trust. And obey. Trust. And obey, there's the balance. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust.
and obey. Paul emphasizes this, and now he reaches to the people in Rome, to all who are beloved of God. Can you imagine? Can you imagine what it felt like to be distant, you know. Thousands of miles away from Anything that these dear people would call Christian, and to get a letter.
A letter. Signed by Paul. Written to them to help them in their life there in the In the capital of the world.
Now, nowadays, except for the Vatican, There's not a lot of attention on Rome. It's a great place to visit, full of art and beauty. And back in those days, It was the heartbeat of civilization. One man describes it She was the eternal city which had given them peace, the fount of law, the center of civilization, the Mecca. Of poets and orators and artists, while being at the same time a home of every kind of idolatrous worship.
Yet God had his people there. Yeah. I love that. In every place in this world where there are tough cities, God has his people. You could name some of the cities around our country.
The city of New York, God has his people. The capital city of Washington, God has His people. I was with one of them just this last week for lunch. Lon Solomon and I, pastor of MacLean Bible Church, and I had lunch with Dr. Harold Hohner.
They came out to our little city, and we had a little while together. It was great being with Lon. to hear about his work that's going on there just outside the Beltway in Washington. Made a couple of comments I wrote down. One Uh Washington is a tough city.
Then he added this: a half strike and you're out. Isn't that good? With all the eyes of the nation on you, you got a half strike and you're gone. Not a lot of wobble room. Rome, half strike and you're out.
Part of the reason is Nero. Ruled. At this time, Nero is in the quasi-peaceful time of his reign. What some of you may not remember from your study of ancient history. One month shy of his 17th birthday, thanks to his mother murdering his predecessor.
Nero took the throne. He later murdered her, but that's another story. Nero at age 17. surrounds himself with the few who will guide him, Tacitus being one of the better of the counsellors. until he removes him later when he goes nuts.
And by and by Nero becomes a savage madman. At age 31, he finally takes his life. Between 17 and 31, His world is marked by a drag of blood. He took great delight in blaming the fire of Rome on Christians. covered many of them with tar and pitch, and set them on fire.
and their bodies lit the colossal. as the games were played. And he played in the games, saw himself as a charioteer. People held back the laughter because he was the emperor. He was given the uh Uh The award for winning, though he never won.
Because he was the emperor. And ultimately, after multiple, multiple murders and a series of homosexual relationships with boys, he had castrated. Nero finally met his match. came to be known by the Senate as public enemy number one. and took his life before they could kill him.
Rome's a tough city. When we understand Nero and the godless culture he promoted, we begin to appreciate the relevance of the Bible. The wisdom of God's Word is timeless, and we can easily apply it to life in 2025. You're listening to Insight for Living with Chuck Swindahl, and we're just beginning an in-depth study through Paul's letter to the Romans. Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote nearly half the books in the New Testament.
But many believe that Romans was his finest contribution because it describes God's character and the gospel of Jesus Christ with depth and clarity. This is an essential book for believers to understand, both seasoned Christ followers and new Christians. To help you in this process, Insight for Living offers an interactive spiral-bound Bible study workbook. It's in our popular Searching the Scriptures Bible Study format. And because of the scope of Paul's letter, it comes in two volumes.
You'll find all the details for purchasing Volume 1 at insight.org/slash offer. or call us at 800-772-8888. I also want to tell you about a brand new book from Chuck. It's 100 pages in length, and it's called Looking in All the Right Directions. Drawing from Paul's wise counsel to his protégé Timothy, this book features the final five sermons Chuck delivered to the congregation he shepherded for more than 25 years.
From his heart, Chuck spoke about mentoring, enduring hardship, and using your God-given gifts. You'll love the biblical wisdom shared in this book. It's called Looking in All the Right Directions. And you can purchase a copy by calling us at 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org slash offer. Insight for Living is made possible not through the sale of books and Bible study resources, but by the generous gifts from grateful friends just like you.
And during the summer vacation months, when our support sometimes declines, it's especially helpful to receive your gift. To send a donation in the mail, write to us at InsightForLiving. Post Office Box 5000. Frisco, Texas, 75034. I'm Bill Meyer.
Join us again when Chuck Swindahl continues his message called Getting a Grasp of the Gospel. Friday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Getting a Grasp of the Gospel, was copyrighted in 2006, 2010, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindahl, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
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