Monday 13 April 2020

Psalm: Psalm 2

Background

In Paul’s day letters began with the sender’s name, the recipient’s name and a greeting. Verse 1 names the sender Paul, verses 2 to 6 introduce Paul, not personally known to the recipient the Church in Rome, verse 7 includes the greeting.

Verse 1 – Paul serves Jesus, like every Christian. An ‘apostle’ is more specialised, as one ‘sent’ by God’s call, singled out, to announce the gospel, the ‘Good News’ of Jesus. Paul is ever conscious of his specific calling to bring the gospel to gentiles (non-Jews) (verse 5).

The Roman church is a mixed church with Jews and gentiles.

Verse 2 – This gospel is not invented by Paul. Paul shows he is faithful to his Jewish roots. The gospel was foreseen in Scripture and is a fulfilment of prophesy. Paul’s teaching has sound foundations.

Verses 3-4 – Connect people’s experience of the human Jesus; and their experience of the divine power of Christ Jesus manifest after his resurrection. Very quickly, Christians developed brief formulas, creeds, to explain and affirm the heart of their belief and faith. Paul is using one of these creeds.

This one has two parts:

• The first connects Jesus to the House of David in line with prophetic expectation that the Messiah would be a descendant of David. This is his human context.
• The second proclaimed Jesus to be God’s Son because of his resurrection.

The resurrection confirmed for believers who had known the earthly Jesus, their intuitive growing understanding that he was the Son of God. This is his divine context.

Paul had not known the earthly Jesus. He sometimes uses other ways to express his beliefs, reminding listeners that he had an encounter with the risen Christ (Acts 9:3-7; 1 Corinthians 9:1, 15:8).

The early Church soon came to view that Christ Jesus had existed as God’s Son before his birth.

Verse 5-6 – Paul brings the gospel to the gentiles and the Romans through the grace and call of Jesus Christ.

Verse 7 – Grace and peace in combination was a greeting in the early Church. Peace: a Jewish greeting bestowing wholeness; Grace: a Greek word denoting God’s kindness. The greeting brings a blessing of God’s peaceful, kind relationship.

To Ponder:

• Try summing up your faith in two sentences: to explain and affirm why you are a Christian.
• Have you had a sense of being singled out by God with the calling to a specific role? Explain.
• Do you see yourself as a servant, friend or curious explorer of Jesus Christ or a combination of all and why?
• How keen are you (like Paul) to share your faith with outsiders and why or why not?