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As Paul introduces himself to the Romans in Romans 1:8-15, we get a window into his heart as a servant of God. In verse 9 he describes his heart for God like this: “Whom I serve in my spirit.” One translation says, “with my whole heart.” Paul’s great goal in life in 2 Corinthians 5:9 was “to be pleasing to Him.” Paul was devoted to God and God’s people. That was his life. I love how he ends his days in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” We want to learn how he served God in his spirit or “with my whole heart.”
I recently made a list of the men God used in my life, men I studied under, men who taught me God’s Word. Most are with the Lord now. Dr. Panosian gave me a love for history; Pastor Boyd was a lover of Christ; Dr. Whitcomb had unquestionable confidence in the authority of God’s Word; Pastor Bill Goode was a model of a good pastor; Jay Adams taught me to apply God’s Word practically; Pastor Ivan French was another lover of Christ and God’s people. Like Paul, these men fought the good fight, kept the faith, and left a legacy of what a servant of God looks like. May God help you and me to fight that same good fight, finish the course, and keep the faith. And today, from Paul’s introduction to Romans, we learn what it means to have the heart of a servant.
We’ll see six qualities in this introduction to the great epistle to the Romans that ought to motivate us in our own serving the Lord. We can apply every quality to our own lives.
A SERVANT OF GOD IS GOING TO HAVE A THANKFUL HEART
Romans 1:8, First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.
Paul starts with first, but he never gets to a second as he opens his heart to us. He says, “I thank my God.” Not just “I thank God.” Paul is expressing his personal love and relationship to God. Like Psalm 23:1, “The Lord is MY shepherd,” not just “a shepherd.” Paul lived for God, loved God, walked with God. He thanked his God.
His thanks or gratitude pours out through Jesus Christ. Why? Because Paul knew there is only one way for any sinner to have God as their God: through Jesus Christ. There is no access to God except through Jesus Christ. “No one comes to the Father but through Me.”
He thanks his God through Christ for what? Their faith is being proclaimed all over the world, to the far reaches of the Roman Empire. What kind of faith is this? Sometimes you hear people described as “a person of faith.” But what is your faith in? Barnhouse described some people’s faith as “the soft gooey concept of faith, a mushy attitude.” Faith is more than just saying, “I believe.” Remember that song, “I believe for every drop of rain that falls a flower grows?” Many are sincere in their so-called faith, but folks, you can be sincerely wrong. Many are trusting in their infant baptism or even adult baptism, but baptism doesn’t save. And faith isn’t just positive thinking or wishful thinking or some vague feeling of good. Norman Vincent Peale said when you get up in the morning say to yourself three times, “I believe.” He taught the power of positive thinking. Robert Schuller taught “Possibility Thinking.” If you can dream it you can achieve it. No, the faith of these Romans was clearly grounded in Jesus Christ the Lord.
And notice Paul doesn’t thank them for their faith. Imagine saying, “Thank you for believing in Jesus.” How ridiculous. No, he is full of thankfulness to God for their faith. God called them to faith in Christ. Salvation is a work of God! That’s why we thank God for people’s genuine faith.
And then Paul thanks God that the faith of these believers in Rome has had a huge impact. People have heard about them all over the Mediterranean world, all without internet, social media, phones, radios, TV. Something powerful was happening among the people in Rome. People were coming to Christ, their lives were changing, travelers, traders, soldiers in the Roman army were carrying the news near and far. This is great. This is what we want. Proclaim means unquestionable news. Paul said the same in 1 Thessalonians 1:8, “The word of the Lord sounded forth from you…in every place your faith in God has echoed out.” Paul thanks God for His work in their lives and how the news of their great change is going out into all the world.
Their faith may have been under fire and people are talking about it. Remember Grace Life Church in Edmonton, Canada? Officials shut it down, threw their Pastor James Coates in jail for a month, and put fencing around the building. Their faith was proclaimed far wide. We heard about it and prayed for them. God has a way of getting the news out. When God opened Luther’s heart to the gospel, he wrote and preached and very shortly all Europe heard about it. When George Whitefield preached the gospel in America, it didn’t take long for the people to hear. By the time he died, 80% of the colonists heard him at least once.
When God calls you and draws you to genuine faith in Jesus Christ, your life is going to change and will have some degree of impact. You become light and salt in your world. Your family, your friends, people at work, others you rub shoulders with will know. “Man, Jimmy’s not the same person. He got religion.” Peter even tells wives how to impact their unbelieving husbands with the gospel. Don’t lay Bibles all over the house or crank up the volume of Christian radio thinking, “MacArthur’s on. He needs to hear this.” No, God says wives can proclaim the gospel without a word as their husbands are blown away by the gentle and quiet spirits of their wives. (1 Peter 3:1-4)
Paul’s heart overflows with thanks to God for the Romans’ genuine obedience of faith.
A SERVANT OF GOD IS GOING TO HAVE A PRAYERFUL HEART
Romans 1:9-10, For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, 10 always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.
Paul served God in his spirit. This means fervently and sincerely. His heart was boiling over in fervency. He tells the Romans in 12:11, “fervent in spirit.” “In spirit” also means not externally or formally. He was fired up in his spirit to preach God’s good news. Martyn Lloyd-Jones talks about some who start out fired up but then lose their first love, grow cold, and the fire goes out. Sometimes I have to pray, “Lord, fire me up!” I often pray, “Here’s my sermon, Lord, but you have to set it on fire.”
Paul’s serving God was in preaching the gospel in his spirit, and that’s what we are to do. Not in the flesh. We trust God to work powerfully through the Word preached! Spurgeon said he prayed as he walked to the podium, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” We don’t need gimmicks and props. Iain Murray’s biography of Martyn Lloyd-Jones tells of his words to the driver on the car ride to his first church to preach, “I hope you don’t expect anything great of me.” As they drove into the parking lot there hung a big banner advertising Martyn Lloyd-Jones as Sunday’s speaker. Martyn said immediately, “I don’t like that. Don’t do it again.” He had total confidence in God’s sovereignty to be effectual when he preached the Word.
Paul prayed unceasingly for the Roman Christians. Notice, “unceasingly…always.” Paul knew the importance of prayer. This isn’t the only time he mentions his unceasing praying. In most of his letters he says this. He knew these believers faced all kinds of temptations; they needed God’s strength to resist the wiles and trickery of the devil. He knew God’s people could lose heart and grow cool in their faith. It has happened throughout church history. Matthew Henry wrote, “The church of Rome was then a flourishing church,” but now, “The epistle to the Romans is now an epistle against the Romans.”
Paul then prays that God might allow him to spend some time with these believers in Rome. In Paul’s other letters he prayed that believers would be strengthened with power in the inner man, and abound in love yet more and more, and be filled with the knowledge of His will so they would please Him, bear fruit, and grow in the knowledge of God. Calvin wrote in his Institutes: “Words fail to explain how necessary prayer is, and in how many ways the exercise of prayer is profitable.”
Folks, we’re all to be prayer warriors. As busy as Paul was with all his traveling and writing, he spent time in prayer, sometimes on his knees, often while he was walking down the road or riding a horse, sailing in a ship or in prison. You can pray anytime, even while driving down the road; just keep your eyes open and don’t text your prayers while driving.
A SERVANT OF GOD IS GOING TO HAVE A SUBMISSIVE HEART
Romans 1:10, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.
Paul wanted one thing in his life: to be doing the will of God. He tells us in Romans 12:2, “Don’t be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so you can prove what God’s will is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect.” Here in verse ten he wants to go to Rome. He’s praying, asking God to make it possible. So far God hasn’t answered his prayer, but he will. Paul didn’t command God what to do. He wasn’t a name it and claim, blab it and grab it prosperity preacher. He knew prayer wasn’t twisting God’s arm to give him what he wanted. Pray is really submitting our hearts to God, letting God bend our will to do His will.
So Paul’s been praying and asking God for the opportunity to go to Rome. In Romans 15:22-25 he mentions stopping by Rome on his way to Spain. Here is the itinerary that Paul planned for.
Romans 15:22-25, For this reason I have often been prevented from coming to you; 23 but now, with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you 24 whenever I go to Spain–for I hope to see you in passing, and to be helped on my way there by you, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while– 25 but now, I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints.
Above all, Paul was submissive to God’s will. He didn’t want to do anything that wasn’t blessed by God. God will answer his request, but Paul never dreamed he would be going to Rome as a prisoner. Commentator Robert Haldane noted that God so answered Paul’s prayer that “all fell out in the adorable providence of God, for the furtherance of the gospel.”
You can pray for stuff or even for spiritual opportunities to witness. Sometimes God will wait a while to answer your prayer, and sometimes He’ll answer it in a completely different way than you thought. Sometimes God just says, “No.” A little boy prayed for a BB gun for Christmas but he didn’t get one. A family acquaintance said to him, “God didn’t answer your prayer!” “Oh yes he did,” the boy replied. “He said no.”
A SERVANT OF GOD WILL HAVE A LOVING HEART
Romans 1:11, For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established.
Paul longed to see them. He said the same thing in Philippians 1:8, “For God is my witness how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.” This is the heart of a loving, concerned shepherd. Why does he want to see them? He wants to build them up in the faith. The spiritual gift here is probably the gift of the truth of the gospel. He wants them to be established. When you first come to Christ, you’re a babe in Christ. Peter says, “Like newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word.” Paul is like a loving mother or a loving shepherd who wants to feed them more of God’s truth. They had the gospel, but they needed more; they needed to be established in it. “Establish” is the origin of our word “stereo.” It means firm, full, solid. Paul loved God’s people and was ready to sacrifice his own desires for the good of others. Just like our teachers here in our church. You sacrifice personal time. When others are playing or doing other things, you study and prepare to bless your class of youngsters with your teaching. Your loving heart wants to establish them in God’s Word. And we are thankful for you.
Why is being established so important? Friends, this is super important today. We have an enemy Satan and his demons who will try to trip you up, discourage you, tempt you, make you miserable (nothing worse than miserable Christians), get you to doubt the Bible, to swallow the selfishness of the culture, throw wrenches in the gears between you and another believer. He has all kinds of devices to trip us up. Plus, he will suck you into false teaching through internet articles or wrong authors or the thinking of friends who haven’t been grounded in truth. Paul knew the importance of being established in the faith. He wants to establish them by getting them firmly rooted and grounded so they will stand courageous and unmoved in Christ. Romans will do this. Paul ends his letter in Romans 16:25 with this: “Now to Him who is able to establish (same word) you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ.”
We certainly need to be strong in the Lord in our day! We have an increasing pressure to compromise or deny the Bible, especially in this world of hyper-transgenderism, which is something that has sneaked up on us and today we are swimming in it. To be faithful to Christ may mean your job because of this. You’ll be called a hater because you come down on God’s side, on the side of truth. You may have read about Jaelene Daniels, who plays soccer for the North Carolina Courage in the National Women’s Soccer League. I don’t know what kind of church she attends, but she clearly bore witness to her Christian faith when she lovingly but firmly refused to play a game in which all the players were required to wear a pride-themed jersey. She said she was convicted in her heart that she could not do that, and so she wasn’t allowed to play. True love is concerned that we all be established firmly in the truth, without compromise, without caving to our own flesh or the pressures of our culture.
A SERVANT OF GOD WILL HAVE AN ENCOURAGING HEART
Romans 1:12, that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.
What a humble statement for this apostle of Jesus Christ to make. He wants to encourage their faith and be encouraged by their faith in Christ. What does this tell us? Everybody needs to be encouraged, and we can give it and receive it no matter who we are. Nothing is so encouraging for God’s people than to know others are growing and loving and rejoicing in the things of God. Paul wasn’t some high-brow priest over others, expecting them to kiss his hand or his ring. He would find encouragement from others and they from him.
This is the encouraging fellowship of God’s people. I made a list of all the believers in Rome who Paul greeted by name in Romans 16 – twenty-eight names. He somehow knew them personally. The word “encouraged” expresses, according to Charles Hodge, “all that excitement and strengthening of faith and pious feeling as well as consolation, which is wont to flow from the communion of saints.” How often have you been in a small group and been blessed, encouraged to hear others pray, and thank God for one another. Sometimes you may not feel like going to your small group, you’re tired, you just feel dull, uninspired, but you get up and go anyway. Afterward you go home thanking God for His people, for the joy of fellowship; you were encouraged by others and others were encouraged by you.
A SERVANT OF GOD WILL HAVE A HEART OF EAGER STEWARDSHIP
Romans 1:13-15, I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
I am under obligation and I am eager. That’s the perfect mix of a responsible steward of the gospel. You have a duty to God to do what He called you to whether you feel like it or not. Paul says he’s going to honor God by preaching the gospel to those Romans. He was obligated, but not reluctant. He was eager. Peter urged the elders in 1 Peter 5:2, “Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness.”
Obligation is translated “debtor.” We are all debtors to the world around us. God has given us a gift this world needs. And it doesn’t matter who they are. Paul is eager to preach to Greeks and barbarians, wise and fools. The gospel is the great equalizer: we are all equally sinners and equally in need of Christ. Everyone needs the same gospel. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says it’s a major fallacy to think you must tailor your gospel message to different types of people. You may be a super-cultured Greek. Or you may be an ignorant barbarian, someone who can hardly speak – an onomatopoeic word, “bar, bar, bar, bar.” That’s what the cultured, educated Greeks thought of everyone else. Kind of what the elitists in New York and California think about us nobodies out here in the fly over zone. But wise or foolish, the same gospel is for everybody everywhere. And Paul wants to take it to the Romans, the center of the world in that day. Before he goes as a prisoner, he sends them this God-breathed epistle for their establishing. And I’m glad he did!
So Paul says, “I’m eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.” But if they’re already saved, why does he need to preach the gospel to them? They’ve already heard it. Know this – you never outgrow the gospel. We have to live in the gospel of Jesus Christ, ponder it and think about it from every angle – from God’s grand plan to redeem sinners, to the coming and crucifixion of Christ, to the application of the gospel in your life, to obedient faith, to the imputation of your sin to Christ and His righteousness to you, to the great resurrection, ascension, intercession, and soon return of our Lord, to your union and identification with Christ. There is so much in the gospel! There are depths in the gospel we will never plumb in this life.
Arabella Katherine Hankey grew up in a wealthy home in London in the late 1800s. She came to Christ early in her life and became a fervent witness for Christ. As a teenager she started a Bible class for young girls in her neighborhood and then organized Sunday schools for girls. She wrote the hymn, I Love to Tell the Story. The last stanza speaks of hearing the gospel repeatedly:
I love to tell the story for those who know it best
seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest;
and when in scenes of glory I sing the new new song,
Twill be the old, old story, that I have loved so long.
A. Catherine Hankey
Before Paul lays on us the great theology of Romans, he has given us a window into his heart as he served God in his spirit.
Thankful – not miserable, fault-finding, gossipy.
Prayerful – not self-sufficient, but realizing God works through prayer.
Submissive – not proud or pushing with a personal agenda, but submissive.
Loving – desiring the fellowship of other believers.
Encouraging – trusting God to do great and mighty things among His people. And an Eager Stewardship of the gospel for all the Gentiles, concerned for lost people, ready to confess Christ before others.
May God develop these qualities of a servant of God into each one of us.