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First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may not last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you, as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God for it. So let us pray. Father, we come before you in the throne of grace and ask you to help us this morning as we look into your word to understand it, to draw insights from it, to see the Gospel clearly read it. Thank you, Lord, for applying it to our lives and we changed. Holy Spirit, lead us this morning. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
What is an obligation? So today’s sermon title is The Gospel Obligations. So, God is civil from verse 14 where Paul says, “I am under obligation.” So what is an obligation? Look back a few years and think about those COVID times, those fearful uncertainties, there is panic on everyone’s face. You keep hearing about people dying every day by thousands.
Then one day, what you feared might happen to you happens. You get COVID and you freeze and you get into a trauma. A sudden thought strikes you. You might die soon and might spread this disease to your dear ones too. Fear and guilt grips your heart.
Behind closed doors, you are in a complete shock and despair. You lose all your hopes and you just wait for things to happen. You do not know what to do. Nothing you can do to stop it. But suddenly someone knocks the door and gives you the medicine for COVID and leaves with you an abundant supply of that medicine. You take the medicine, say D vitamin 60k, and you get well soon.
How do you respond to the one who gave you that medicine? What will you do with the remaining supply of medicine that is left with you? Knowing that thousands are dying every day around you, how will you act? If you are truly grateful for that providence, then you will by all means spread that medicine to those who are in need.
You love it. Don’t you think so? What makes you do so? It is a sense of obligation. So here is how a dictionary defines obligation. It’s a course of action to which a person is morally or legally bound, a course of action to which a person is morally or legally bound, or a debt of gratitude for a service or favor, a debt of gratitude for a service or favor. So you have synonyms like duty, commitment, responsibility. All gives a picture of what obligation is. It’s a duty, or it’s a commitment, or it’s a responsibility that you have towards others. So one source says, in simple words, an obligation is something you have to do because it’s your duty, a promise you made, a rule or a law. It’s a responsibility or
commitment like paying in a debt, fulfilling a contract or helping a family member. It’s what binds you to act in a certain way, either by choice, morals or legal requirement. So that’s an obligation. Think about sentences that starts with, “you ought to do this,” “you need to do this,” or “you must do this.” That shows that you’re obligated to do something, right? So who has obligations? Who has obligations? Everyone has obligations, right? Children are obligated to obey their parents, are obligated to nurture their children, husbands are obligated to love and lead their wives, obligated to respect and follow their husbands.
Students are obligated to study. Employees are obligated to work. Everyone is obligated to submit to and serve the God who made them. There is none on this earth who do not have any obligations. Exceptional cases may be some special born children. Otherwise everyone is someday or the other to do something or someone to something or someone me. There are things we know that we ought to do but still fail to do, isn’t it? Why so? It is because of the influence of sin that’s in our system. As sinners we love to evade our duty, our responsibility. We love to receive but hate to give.
Even if we give, we want something in return. But when the gospel greets us, it changes us and it keeps changing us as we have seen last week. People who believe in the gospel can never remain the same. Jesus did not just save us from physical death, but from an eternal one. We were once bound towards eternal hell, but God had mercy on us and changed our direction towards Himself through our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave up His body to be beaten beyond recognition and shed His precious blood even to its last drop. Jesus satisfied God's wrath by taking it on Himself on our behalf, who are not at all enough to stand before God.
Only when we grasp the depths of His love and the heights of His sacrifice and the seriousness of what we are saved from and what we are saved to, can we truly understand what it means to be grateful to Him and feel obligated to live for Him alone.
Then you wouldn't want to waste a single second of your life — live it fully for him who died for you. Out of love for him and with a grateful heart, you will joyfully live for him and serve him in whatever way you can.
You would want to do whatever he tells you to do and not disappoint him. The gospel shapes you and makes you feel joyfully obligated to live so. How about you, dear brother? How about you, dear sister? Do you feel obligated to live for Jesus?
Did the gospel bring that change in you? This morning I want to talk to you about three obligations that the gospel brings us. Three obligations that the gospel brings us from this passage that we have just read. There might be many but we will see three from this passage and especially from the heart and life of Paul. Just a note, Romans chapter 1 verses 1 through 17 is like an introduction to this epistle. So there are some themes or topics in this section that I am not spending much time on because we will get to them in a detailed way in the later chapters of this epistle.
So when the time comes, we'll deal with them. So for now, we'll look at three obligations in the brings to us. So the first one is, Christians ought to be grateful to God for other Christians. Christians ought to be grateful to God for other Christians. We see that from verse 8 through 10 in chapter 1 of Romans. So if you look at what's happening here, after wishing them grace and peace, Paul does not get into but pauses and tells them how thankful he is towards God. Why thank God?
Because God is the source of all good that we experience in this life. It is the same Paul who says, “What do you have that you have not received?” In Corinthians it says that meaning, whatever good thing that you have in your life is from God's good hand. It is because God willed it, you now possess it. Otherwise, you wouldn't have had it. So realizing that God is the source of all good relations and good things happening in this world, what Paul does first and foremost is he thanks God.
He wants his readers to know about that. So how is he thanking God? He says there in verse 8, “through Jesus Christ.” It is interesting to note how theology pops out of Paul's mouth even in his general composition. We cannot approach God the Father apart from Jesus Christ our Lord. It is our union with Christ that gives access to the Father God. No one who is outside of Christ can approach the Father.
Now who is Paul thanking God for? He's thanking God for all those believers in the church at Rome. What did they do for Paul? Or what benefits did Paul receive from them that he's thanking God for them? Nothing. Nothing, yet he is thanking God for them. I mean, look at that. Is there any logic to it?
It was Peter who planted that church. Paul had not been there even once. He never knew them personally. He received nothing from them, yet he thanks God for them. Why Paul? Why? It is just because they are Christians. It is just because they are Christians and that their faith resounds in the world.
That's enough for Paul to thank God for them. He goes beyond that and says he is constantly praying for them and his prayer is for his desire to be fulfilled, that is to see them face to face. What a longing Paul has for these unseen, unmet believers.
To make sure that they believe Paul's love for them, he calls on God as his witness. So if you look at this verse, it says, “Thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness.”
It is this all-seeing God whom Paul serves. How does he serve him? Paul says, “With my spirit and the gospel of his son.” Serving God is a spiritual thing. Serving God is a spiritual thing. It does not matter how many things we do externally or how much physical work we put in if our spirit is not right within.
We must serve God with the right spirit, with the right motive, for the right cause. He also says that in the gospel of his son, outside the gospel, we cannot serve God. Our service must be gospel centered otherwise it is no service at all.
Look here what he says about the gospel in verse 1. He calls it the gospel of God in chapter 1 verse 1 but here in verse 9 he calls it the gospel of his son. This good news is from both God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ. The content or the matter of this gospel is the Son of God. He is the central focus. Jesus is the center of the gospel. Without him, there is no gospel at all. There is no good news at all. So only those who believe in this gospel can serve God. In fact, all those who believe in this gospel are called to serve God.
Not necessarily like the Apostle Paul, but according to the grace given to them, they are called to serve the one true God and his son, Jesus Christ. So dear brothers and sisters, we need to realize this morning that we are called to serve God in whatever capacity that we can according to the grace given to us by God. So the first step in our service to God should be to thank him for everything. To thank him for everything, especially for those Christians around us who are bought with the precious blood of Christ and who will reign with us forever in the coming age.
They might not look perfect now, but the one who began a good work in them will continue his work making them more like Jesus until they meet Jesus. We all have flaws but we all have Jesus, the flawless one and that is enough for us to thank God for each other.
Today will you cultivate this heart of thankfulness for your fellow believers? Will you take time to thank God for the members of your local church and for other churches too? Let us be grateful to God for Christians around us. That is our first spiritual service towards God.
The second thing that we will be looking is Christians ought to be in fellowship with other Christians. Christians ought to be in fellowship with other Christians. Look at the expression of Paul here in verse 11. In verse 11 he says, “I long to see you.” The word long shows a deep desire, a yearning after or a great affection for something or someone. In this case Paul is not longing to see his family members or his close friends which is easy. He desires to meet someone whom he had not met before and this epistle is his first correspondence with them.
What made Paul long to have this kind of desire within him? Sure we know the gospel that changed his affections. But how deeply were his affections changed? Just think about how far was Paul willing to travel to meet these Christians. At the time of writing this letter, he was in Corinth.
From Corinth, he's writing this letter. His plan was to visit Jerusalem first and then go to Rome to visit these believers and then to Spain that's his plan that's his agenda so from Corinth to Rome via Jerusalem is nearly 3,700 kilometers or from Jerusalem to Corinth is nearly 2,400 kilometers 2400 kilometers from Hyderabad to Delhi, it is 1500 kilometers.
And it takes 30 hours on drone if you go by car. Remember, there were no flights or trains or cars in those days. So he had to take a ship and travel via sea. And the journey from Caesarea to Rome via sea is nearly 2900, 2900 kilometers. kilometers and if the climate is good it only takes 30 days and if the climate is not good it only takes few minutes for the ship to go down and for a few seconds for paul to go up to heaven look at the wrist why would anyone risk so much to meet some strangers in a So why would Paul risk his life to meet those whom he has never met before?
Why did Paul risk his life to meet Roman believers? Why did Jim Elliot risk his life to meet the Waorani people in Ecuador? Why did John Paton risk his life to meet cannibals in New Hebrides? Why did Graham Staines risk his life to meet people in Orissa, India?
Why did Dion Stainhar risk his life to go to Manipur to train some pastors, even in such times? Why are some pastors risking their lives to meet and train other Christians in risky places? What do they get in return? Nothing of this world, but sometimes trouble, trouble. Then why do they do that?
The gospel compels them to do so. The gospel compels them to do so out of gratitude towards God with great joy in Christ and for the glory of God alone between it. The love of God compels them to do so. This love makes them feel obligated to serve him without counting the cost. That’s why many died on the mission field. This love makes them love others. Remember, Jesus lived to fulfill the law and died to release us from the punishment of the law, so that by his grace and Spirit now we can love God and our neighbor, our fellow Christian.
The greatest of the commandments that we once failed to obey in flesh we can now obey in our spirit through Jesus Christ who obeyed it for us. The gospel brings that change in our lives. Now let us look at for what purpose Paul is traveling to Rome. He wants to travel to Rome at least. He says in verse 11 that I may impart to you or share with you some spiritual gift.
I do not think that Paul is talking about the gifts which he talks about in Romans 12 or 1 Corinthians 12. The gift here is for the purpose of strengthening them in their spiritual life. Look at verse 11. “For I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you.”
So the gift here again is for the purpose of strengthening them in their spiritual life. So it could be a greater understanding of God’s revelation or a more in-depth knowledge of God’s word that Paul wants to impart to them. In other words, just to encourage them by preaching of the word and to strengthen their spiritual.
Paul is taking upon himself all the trouble of the journey just to go and encourage them. Whatever, he says that “we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” He’s an apostle, a man who is having an authority commissioned by God himself, Christ himself. Yet he humbles himself and depends on other believers to find encouragement.
When other believers are strengthened in the word, Paul is encouraged by it. When he sees other believers grow in their Christian life, Paul is encouraged by it. What an example we can see in Paul. Dear church, do you see that? We need each other for mutual encouragement.
That’s why we ought to be in fellowship as often as possible. You will find strength only in Christian fellowship. And that too when you gossip about Christ. And not about others. Does it make sense to you? I hope it does. When you strengthen each other, both will find encouragement and that is mutual benefit.
One author talking about fellowship said, “For there is no one so void of gifts in the Church of Christ who is not able to contribute something to our benefit.” There is no one who cannot contribute something to our benefit. So there is always something that we can give to the other. And he continues saying, “But we are hindered by our envy and by our pride from gathering such food from one another.”
“Such is our high-mindedness. Such is the inebriety produced by vain reputation that despising and disregarding others, others, everyone thinks that he possesses what is abundantly sufficient for himself.” So what the author is saying is here, you know, we know we can benefit from each other. Everyone has something to give and everybody has something to take from others. But we with our ego and pride do not come and do that.
We look down on others and we think that we are self-sufficient and that will be an hindrance for us to be blessed by mutual encouragement. So let us not be sober in this, sisters. Let us humble ourselves like Paul. Again, Paul says here in verse 13, “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles, that I may reap some harvest of fruit among you.” Paul tried to meet them before but could not make it.
Now he is eager to meet them to sow the seed of the gospel in their lives and see that it bears fruit in their lives. He expects this not just from them but from the rest of the world as well. That is why Paul went on three missionary trips evangelizing people and planting churches to disciple believers.
Remember bearing fruit happens in the context of a local church. Only when you are in fellowship with other believers you will be properly rooted in Christ and grounded in his gospel. school. Make no mistake here, my friends, watch out where you walk or stand or sit.
So dear church, let us cultivate that habit of meeting fellow believers often even on the weekdays. You do not have to travel thousands of kilometers to do so like Paul. There might be 20 kilometers away from you or even two kilometers away from you, and you do not have to find a ship to go meet them. You have an Uber app on your phones, that will do the job. Make time for them in your schedule and see over time how you will grow spiritually as mature Christians.
And the third point that I want to share is that Christians ought to share the gospel with others. Christians ought to share the gospel with others. And this point is from verse 14 on verse 17. Verse 14 verse 17. Here Paul is saying that he is under obligation or that he is a debtor or that he owes to everyone. How is he a debtor or how does he owe it?
God calls Paul to be an apostle to the Gentiles. He commissioned him with the gospel to take it to the Gentile world. So Paul is now bound by God’s commission. And in that he is a debtor to Christ. But since God’s commission to him is to hand down the gospel to the Gentiles, in that Paul owes Gentiles the gospel. So Paul owes Gentiles the gospel. So Paul is obligated both to Jesus, to obey his command, and to Gentiles, to hand them the gospel. Here the Greeks and barbarians are non-Greeks as they classified includes all Gentiles and Jews as well from the perspective of Greeks.
In other words, Paul owes the gospel to all nations, all nations and later he says even to the wise and the foolish that is to all classes. Rome is a city with mixed group of people from all classes and cultures and nations. So Paul sees his obligation as a great privilege and takes it up joyfully. In verse 15 he says that he is eager to preach the gospel. There is this eagerness in Paul. Paul is always ready and willing to share the gospel with anyone.
However, we see here that Paul is eager to preach the gospel to the believers in Rome. The believers in Rome. They might have heard the gospel long ago and they might be practicing Christians by now as Paul is writing to them, right? So why preach the gospel again to them, to those Christians who already heard the gospel and believed in it? So Paul gives the answer here in verse 16 and 17.
If you look at verse 16 and 17, it says, he says that the gospel is the power of God to save those who believe regardless of their ethnicity. The gospel is the power of God to save those who believe regardless of their ethnicity. And in this gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.
So to elaborate this a bit. So when mankind sinned and rebelled against the holy and righteous God, they were all sentenced to death in eternal hell as a punishment for their sins. That includes you and me as well. However, God the Father in his great love and mercy towards mankind sent his Son to save us from our sins.
Jesus came into this world and offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins on that cross. And God having accepted that sacrifice raised Jesus from the grave by his power. Now God through the gospel commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and trust in the sacrifice of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins.
All those who do so will be raised up along with Jesus by the power of God to eternal life. They are declared righteous by God because it is God’s righteousness that they are received by faith. They stay righteous from first to last, that is till they die, by faith alone.
Just as Habakkuk said, “The righteous shall live by faith.” So beginning from of a Christian life to the end of a Christian life in this world we will just live by faith. So it is this gospel that Paul is not ashamed to preach again and again both to Christians skills, for the gospel saves people, the gospel changes people, the gospel obligates people. Dear ones, do you feel the weight of this gospel on your shoulders? Do you feel the weight of this gospel on your shoulders? You have obligation towards it.
It is our responsibility to carry it forward. So let us keep sharing the gospel for there is no place or no time where there is no need for it. We need the gospel daily for us to grow as Christians and we need to proclaim the gospel daily so will be saved for it. So let us keep encouraging each other with this gospel truth in our local church as well.
If you are here and have not yet put your trust in the sacrifice of Jesus, I urge you to think about the gospel that you have heard. What do you want to do with it? You can either accept it or reject take a middle ground.
I encourage you to accept it for the forgiveness of your own sins and the benefit of your own soul. If you want to know more about it please talk to the pastor here or someone from this church who can answer your questions and help you see the truth.
Dear church, may we all grow in this gospel to which we are obligated to live and serve. So let us be grateful to God for other Christians around us. Let us continue to be in fellowship with each other. Let’s make time every week to meet them, to greet them, to sit and discuss the Word with them.
And let us keep sharing the gospel with each other so that we'll stay in the gospel. And that, let us hope and pray that this gospel will bring many more people to Christ and that many more people will join with us to worship the Lord even in this local church. Amen.