Since we are using Paul’s New Testament letter to the Romans metaphorically as the manger in which Paul lays the term “gospel,” let’s begin unwrapping the term that is swaddled in its Old Testament context and find a way in the manger in which we can understand Paul's use of the term "gospel".
Throughout his letters, Paul uses the term “gospel” on the average of one time per chapter for every letter he wrote. A quick search of usage indicates that out of the 86 chapters traditionally assigned to his authorship, Paul uses the term “gospel” 76 times. The noun form, εὐαγγέλιον, is found in every one of Paul’s letters.[1] So once more we may say that the term, “gospel” is Paul’s baby.
We have already noted that Paul, here in Romans, uses the term “gospel” five times in the first two chapters, and four more times in the last two chapters; 9 times to begin and end the letter, and 11 times total in 16 chapters. Both the beginning and the end of the letter is heavy laden with the term, “gospel.”
To begin our discovery, we notice very simply that in the very first verse of Romans, Paul identifies himself using three basic terms: Bonded, Called and Severed or “set aside”. There is much to say about all three terms, and we will get to all three eventually, but the phrase, “set aside for the gospel of God,” is just the first point of our discussion.
We will see in coming blogs that here Paul sees himself as one who has been severed from his Jewish fanaticism for the sake of the “gospel.” We will see God, as a master surgeon, performing a meticulous surgical procedure on Paul’s worldview, slicing away his legalistic Judaic self-perceptions and replacing them with the more robust term “gospel” filled with the three basic terms above which become the three pillars of his new self-identity.
But for now, however, as interesting as the phrase “set aside for the gospel of God may be in the very first verse of the letter, it is in fact the phrase that follows that is the focus of this blog. ”Paul qualifies the term “gospel” in that first verse with the phrase, “which He (God) promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son…” –(Romans 1:2)
There are several very intriguing points to notice in this qualifying phrase. One, the “gospel” was a promise. Two, the “gospel” was promised beforehand; we don’t know before what quite yet…(before it ever was conceived/before the world began/before it was announced?) Three, we need to know “before what” in order to understand this phrase. Four, the “gospel” was promised through prophets, meaning, most likely an Old Testament figure. Five, the “gospel” was promised by more than one prophet since the plural “prophets” is used here. Six, the promise was made via the “holy Scriptures”, meaning the Old Testament, since the New Testament had not yet been organized into a body of “holy Scriptures.” Seven, the “gospel” concerns God’s Son.
The claim here in Romans that the gospel was promised by prophets long ago and written in the scriptures is very similar to what Paul also claims in his letter to the Galatians.
In Galatians 3:8 Paul claims that the
“Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham:” Gal 3:8
So, in both letters (Romans and Galatians), there is the mention of the preexistence of the “gospel.” In the Galatians letter, Paul uses the phrase “announced in advance,” and in the Romans letter he uses the phrase “promised beforehand.”
So, the question arises, “Where in the Old Testament did a prophet make the promise of the “gospel” concerning God’s Son before God’s Son was conceived/before the world began/before it was announced? Does this question beg the answer that we return to the Beginning for an answer in Genesis 3:15 as the Protoevangelium would suggest? Just a question to ask, isn’t it?
If it does, then Paul, in the very first verse, lays the term “gospel” in the manger of the Romans letter identifying it from its conception in Genesis 3:15 with its full context and background of a victor in battle over an enemy and the announcement of salvation and peace to the people, which 16:20 seems to suggest. In it’s full context then the “gospel” is the Victory Song.
As such, we understand that from the very beginning of the letter, the letter of Romans becomes pregnant with meaning in a remarkable way.
However pregnant the beginning of Romans is with this contextually rich Protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15, this feature is not the most remarkable feature of Paul’s understanding of the term “gospel”. The most remarkable feature of Paul’s understanding of the “gospel” is the context within which Paul places himself in order to convey the radical transformation that this “gospel” had on his life.
In the first verse in Romans, Paul identifies himself in the context of a bondservant, a called-apostle and a separated one; one who has been severed from his traditional religious worldview establishment, then bonded to the risen victorious Messiah, and then sent to serve Him.
We will begin to see that it is very remarkable that these three reference points that Paul uses to identify himself, become the core of his religious worldview and the three pillars of his new personal self-identity as a believer in the Messiah, transforming his outlook on the world and himself.
On one level, we see that Paul gains his new identifies; as one who recognizes that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the victorious Messiah and one specifically called by Him to be an apostle; and as a result, as one who has been severed from his staunch traditional Jewish worldview, set apart from his previous lifestyle; and now as one newly bonded to Jesus the Messiah as his servant.
But on another level, we ask, how did all that happen? What force was so powerful that it severed Paul from is staunchly held existing worldview and radically reshaped him with a new one?
We will begin our discovery on the transformation of Paul or rather Saul. We will see how Saul, a staunch Jewish believer of the law, was severed from his former way of life, from his former staunchly legalistic Judaic self-identification, and how he became one of the followers of the Messiah, one among the very group he tried to abolish.
We will begin a five-part blog looking at Saul’s personal experience of the “gospel” being “the power of salvation to all who believe, to the Jew first and then the Gentile.”
In my next blog, we will introduce this five-part blog series by getting our first look at Saul the Man – Where is he Coming From?
[1] The Origin of the Term "Gospel", Millar Burrows, Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 44, No. 1/2 (1925), pp. 21-33 The Society of Biblical Literature
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