REFLECTING ON ROMANS (2)

CALLED TO BE AN APOSTLE

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God (Romans 1:1, NIV).

With so many demands on our time, why should we spend time reading the letters of Paul.  After all, they were written nearly two thousand years ago to people whose cultures and circumstances were very different from ours.  They are not philosophical or moral treatises intended for all people of all time but personal letters addressed to particular churches or persons with their particular problems and questions.  They are certainly of historical interest but are they of continuing relevance?

I can suggest two answers to that question.  First, times may change but people do not.  Whatever their country, whatever their language, whatever their culture, human beings are much the same everywhere.  We in the twenty-first century struggle with the same problems, are tempted with the same sins, and wrestle with the same questions as those in the first.  ‘What has been will be again, and what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun’ (Ecclesiastes 1:9).  

The second answer was given by Paul himself in the opening words of his letter to the Romans: he says that he was ‘called to be an apostle.’  What was an apostle?  And why does Paul’s being an apostle make his letter important, not only for the Roman Christians in A.D. 57, but also for us today?

Our English word ‘apostle’ comes from the Greek word apostolos, which occurs seventy-nine times in the New Testament and is derived from the verb apostellō, which means ‘I send.’  An apostle is ‘one who is sent, a messenger, a representative.’  We may define an apostle as a person who is sent on a specific mission, who acts with the authority of the sender, and who is accountable to the sender. 

In the New Testament we see three marks of an apostle of Christ.  First, an apostle was personally chosen and appointed by Christ.  We see this in the case of the original twelve apostles: ‘One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.  When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles’ (Luke 6:12,13). 

We see this also in the case of Paul.  When Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus, he said to him, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ... I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and a witness. ... I am sending you to them [the Gentiles] to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light’ (Acts 26:15-18).  After he had appeared to Paul, Jesus appeared also to Ananias and said to him: ‘This man [Paul] is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles’ (Acts 9:15). 

Secondly, an apostle was a witness to others of Jesus’ resurrection.  A witness is a person who has seen an event and is able to tell others about what they have seen.  An apostle must have seen the risen Jesus so that he could bear witness to his resurrection.  We see this when the apostles met in the upper room to decide whom Jesus had appointed to be an apostle to replace Judas.  Peter said to them, ‘One of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection’ (Acts 1:22).  We see this, too, in Jesus’ final words to his apostles before he was taken up to heaven: ‘You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8).  

Paul was also a witness of the risen Christ.  The risen Jesus had confronted him on the road to Damascus: ‘About noon ... as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. ... And I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” ... Then I asked “Who are you Lord?” “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” the Lord replied’ (Acts 26:13-15).  And Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, ‘Am I not an apostle?  Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?’ (1 Corinthians 9:1).  And again, 'He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and ... he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. ... Then he appeared to James and to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me, as to one abnormally born' (1 Corinthians 15:4-8).

Thirdly, an apostle was given authority both to act and to speak for Jesus.  They were, for example, given authority to perform miracles.  So, when he sent out the twelve, Jesus told them, ‘Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons’ (Matthew 10:9).  Similarly, Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, ‘I persevered in demonstrating among you the marks of a true apostle, including signs, wonders and miracles’ (2 Corinthians 12:12).     

More important than authority to perform miracles, however, was authority to speak for the Lord.  The apostles’ message was not their own; it was the Lord’s.  So, Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, ‘And we also thank God continually because when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe’ (1 Thessalonians 2:13).  

Why then, should we read and study Paul’s letters?  Because Paul was an apostle and an apostle was one who was given unique authority by Jesus to teach others about him.  As Christians we are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as Christ appointed apostles teach us about him, we read their writings with diligence and thanksgiving and take to heart what they teach us.  As we read Paul's letter to the Romans, let us pray, then, Thomas Cranmer's prayer for enlightenment in the Book of Common Prayer:

Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; grant us that we may in such a way hear them, read, mark, learrn, and inwardly digest them; that by patience and comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

Note.  As well as apostles of Christ, the New Testament also speaks of ‘apostles of the churches’, that is persons sent, not by Christ, but by churches, as representatives of the churches that sent them.  (See 2 Corinthians 8:23 and Philippians 2:25.  While the word used in these verses is apostolos, in our English Bibles it is often translated ‘representative’ or ‘messenger’, to distinguish these apostles of the churches from the apostles of Christ).  Some of those who are called ‘apostles’ in the New Testament, such as Barnabas (Acts 14:14) and Andronicus and Junia (in Romans 16:7), were probably apostles of the churches rather than apostles of Christ.  In this short article I am concerned only with apostles of Christ.

Copyright © Ronald Nugent 2021