Paul, bondman of Jesus Christ, [a] called apostle, separated to God's glad tidings,
Paul gives three descriptions of himself before he states a single doctrine. He calls himself a slave, an apostle by calling, and a man set apart — which raises three questions: whose slave, appointed by whom, and set apart to what?
Paul had never visited Rome, so he could not point to work he had done among them. One writer notes what he rests on instead:
In no other letter does the apostle put his apostleship on such firm and formal ground. At Rome he could point to no work of his own. He had never seen the Romans. He was still their apostle, because he was the apostle to the Gentiles.
The word translated "servant" means slave, and Paul puts it ahead of his office. One writer also draws a line between being called to be an apostle and being called an apostle.
Paul was not called to be an Apostle, but he was called an Apostle... Paul loved to call himself a slave of Jesus Christ. He knew the Lord had redeemed him. He was no longer his own. He belonged to the One who had bought him and made him one with Himself. His highest ambition was to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. His Apostleship he puts in the second place. The highest and best is to be in reality a willing, devoted servant of the Lord.
Belonging to Christ this way rules out belonging to anything else. The writer turns that into a question for the reader:
"Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus." He was not a servant of any society or party, but of Christ Jesus. Few of us can follow Paul in those few words, and yet how important it is that we do, if our service is to be acceptable to Christ! Have you thought of this as to the whole course of your life and service?
Paul's office did not come from himself. One writer lists what it was not:
Apostleship was not passed down from father to son, like a Jewish priest's place. It was not voted on by the assembly, as the seven men chosen to look after the daily food in Jerusalem were. Still less could a man take it for himself. He was an apostle by calling as the saints were called.
The verse names what Paul was set apart to, not what he was set apart from. One writer draws out both, and stresses how wide the break was.
Here, then, we see Paul a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, an apostle by calling, separated to the gospel of God. This word "separated" covers a great deal. Paul was separated from the world, from the law, and from Judaism, and separated to the glorious good news of God.
This is not a special category reserved for apostles. The same word stands over every believer named in the letter:
We may fall short of it, but we too should know what we are separated to. The name saint that we carry says we are separated, and the same grace that separated the apostle separates us.
Paul calls it the gospel of God. That title points to where the message starts, and it changes what the word "gospel" means.
He calls the gospel to which he was set apart, the gospel or glad tidings "of God": the Holy Spirit shows us where it comes from. It is not what man ought to be for God. It is not simply the way man can come to Him on His throne. It is the thoughts of God, and His acts, we may add, towards man... we never truly understand the gospel until it is to us the gospel of God — God at work, showing us His nature and His will in grace towards man.
The title itself rules out a popular picture of the cross:
Here we have God's gospel. The phrase shows that grace springs from God Himself. It rules out the common idea of an angry God whom Jesus Christ must win over. If it was necessary for our happiness that the Son of man should be lifted up on the cross, it is His own Son whom God has given.
- Source. It is God's gospel because it starts in Him. It is not man's way up to God, but God's own thoughts and acts in grace toward man.
- Bought. Because God moved first, Paul is a slave: redeemed, no longer his own, belonging to the One who bought him.
- Call. No one inherited, voted on, or claimed his office. God called him an apostle, just as God calls believers saints.
- Separation. The same grace that set Paul apart from the world, the law and Judaism sets apart everyone the letter calls a saint.
- Service. Paul is a slave of Jesus Christ, not of any society or party — the test of whether a life's service is acceptable to Christ.
(which he had before promised by his prophets in holy writings,)
God's good news did not begin with Paul, and this second verse says so. Paul says the message he was set apart to preach came first through God's own prophets, in writings God calls holy.
The gospel arrived far along in human history, but it had been in God's heart the whole time.
The fullness of God's spontaneous and active love toward man may be a truth that always feels new to us, because human thoughts prevail so constantly even in the saints. Yet it was no new thing to God. This gospel went out late in the world's history. But He had promised it beforehand through His prophets in holy writings. Those prophets always appear in the past, when everything on man's part was hopeless.
The verse looks back at promise. Paul stands on the other side of it. Notice too who owns the writings and the prophets.
The prophets had already promised this gospel beforehand in holy scripture. But now the announcement was no longer a promise. We do have precious promises for the path we must walk through this world, but the gospel is no promise. Instead, it is the fulfilment of the promises of God, so far as they relate to the Lord's incarnation, His finished work and His resurrection (1 Peter 1:11-12), and to His being glorified — though the Epistle to the Romans does not deal with that last point. Notice here that the "holy scriptures" are the promises of God, and that the prophets who gave them are God's prophets.
If God promised the gospel, we can go and read the promises. They run right across the Old Testament, and some are types — pictures that point ahead.
This Gospel was promised by God's prophets in the Old Testament Scriptures. The announcement came in many ways — in types, in the sacrifices, in direct predictions. Jewish believers looked forward to its accomplishment. You find the promises and predictions of the Gospel throughout the Old Testament, from Genesis 3 to the prophet Malachi. The Old Testament is the foundation of the Gospel. The rejection of the Old Testament as the inspired Word of God is therefore a very serious matter.
The message stood in writing before anyone preached it, so a preacher has something to point at. Paul did just that.
The glad tidings announced by Paul are also confirmed by Holy Scriptures. God's prophets promised them in past days. God's servants proclaim them now, in this day of grace. When they are preached, they carry the authority of the Holy Writings and confirm the promise made there. So in preaching the gospel, the apostle constantly appeals to the Scriptures.
The prophets did not announce everything Paul teaches. One writer draws a line between the gospel, which they foretold, and the mystery, which God kept secret.
But the Gospel, to which Paul says he was separated, had been "promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures." So the Gospel was not a secret hidden in the heart of the Creator. The prophets witnessed to it in the Holy Scriptures, right from the beginning of the fall of man until the end of Malachi. These Scriptures make a clear distinction between the Gospel and the mystery. The prophets witnessed to the Gospel during the whole time of man's testing. The mystery stayed the secret of God while that testing lasted.
The prophets spoke of things still to come. But what held all that prophecy together?
But this had been the subject of earlier promise. The prophets had spoken of these things. All prophecy had been the utterance of the Spirit of Christ; and all the promises found their object in His most blessed Person. So the "glad message of God" is simply the announcement that He has come — and in Him all the promises of God are yes and amen.
- Promised — God announced the gospel beforehand through His prophets. It is not a late idea.
- Person — every promise pointed to one object, God's Son, in whom the promises are yes and amen.
- Fulfilled — the prophets held out a promise. Paul announces it as done in Christ's incarnation, finished work and resurrection.
- Founded — types, sacrifices and direct predictions run from Genesis 3 to Malachi. The Old Testament is the foundation of the gospel, so Paul kept appealing to the Scriptures when he preached.
- Beyond promise — the prophets foretold the gospel. The mystery stayed God's secret, and the Scriptures themselves draw that line.
concerning his Son (come of David's seed according to flesh,
Paul opens his letter by naming what his gospel is about. The answer is not a doctrine or a benefit but a Person: God's own Son, born into David's family line. One short phrase holds two things together — who He already was, and what He became.
(The ESV says Jesus was "descended from David." Older translations say "made of the seed of David." Several writers below build on that older wording.)
Paul first says who the good news is about. Only later does he speak of sin, forgiveness, and righteousness. One writer warns that readers often reverse that order:
The first subject of the gospel is the person of the Lord Himself, before you have anything done for us — "concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 1:3); not — concerning "us." Too often the claim of Christ's person gets lost behind the thought of an individual being forgiven.
Nothing in this good news stands apart from Him:
"The gospel of God" is "concerning His Son Jesus Christ." If God is its source, Christ is what fills it through and through. Every single feature of it is joined to the Person of Christ by a living, vital link. The good news is the news that concerns Him. You will find it nowhere else, but you find it fully in Him.
The order of the words matters. Paul does not say that a man of David's line became the Son of God. He says the Son came of David's line.
It was the Son of God who became David's seed by becoming man. Though He was rejected as Son of David, He was declared "the Son of God with power … by the resurrection from the dead." … The idea that a Person in the Godhead, who cannot be described, became the Son of God by becoming man is a false theory, given a fresh lease of life in our day. That the Son of God became the Son of David by becoming man is the truth presented in the Gospel of God.
David's other descendants began to exist when they were born. Scripture uses different words for Christ. One writer sets the two side by side:
Scripture says He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. What does that mean, when it speaks of our Lord being made of the seed of David? Solomon was of the seed of David. But he did not exist until he was born. He was the seed of David. He was not made of the seed of David. But here Scripture tells us of a Divine Person, who was made of the seed of David, who came of David's seed according to the flesh. Is not the Deity of our Lord implied, His Manhood stated?
David's line is not a background detail. By coming from it, the Son fulfilled God's promise.
The first 17 verses of Romans 1 serve as a preface. In them the person of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, comes first as the primary subject of the gospel. He is seed of David according to the flesh, and so the fulfilment of the promise. He is proved Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness. His life was according to that power, and His resurrection was the proof of it.
How could David call his own descendant "Lord"? Writers point to this verse for the answer:
He was the Son of David, and David called Him Lord by the Holy Spirit, so there was no mistake. The explanation is that it was the Son of God who became the Son of David according to the flesh, as Romans 1:3 states so plainly. Once we fully acknowledge the Deity of Christ, everything is clear.
The same truth is the ground of the blessings Romans goes on to unfold:
The great Gospel letter, written to the believers at Rome, begins by showing that this is the foundation of all the rich blessings unfolded later for faith. Here, then, lies open before us the revealed secret of the believer's blessings now, and of Israel's blessings by and by. This also explains many passages that seem obscure. Some speak of Him as Man, others of Him as God, and sometimes one verse involves both.
- Person — The gospel's first subject is not what happens to us. It is who Christ is. Forgiveness follows; it does not lead.
- Son — He is called God's Son before the phrase about David's line; He did not become the Son by being born.
- Made — Solomon was David's seed; Christ was made of it. The word assumes Someone who already existed.
- Flesh — His entry into David's family line is God's promise kept in fact, not just in word.
- Key — Hold the two together and David's puzzle is solved. His Son is also his Lord. Verses that once looked contradictory now fit, and the letter's blessings rest here.
marked out Son of God in power, according to [the] Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of [the] dead) Jesus Christ our Lord;
Paul opens his letter by summing up the gospel in a description of Christ. He is a real man born into David's family, and the Son of God marked out in power. Two questions follow: what did the resurrection prove, and what does "Spirit of holiness" mean?
The verse names four glories of Christ, and the order matters.
First, Paul presents Christ as the Son. This speaks of His divine and eternal Personality, unchanged by anything He became. Second, he presents Christ in His incarnation, "come of David's seed according to flesh". This speaks not of His inherent Personal glory, but of what He became as a perfect Man. He was the Son before He came of the seed of David. He did not become the Son by becoming incarnate. Third, He became flesh, and the glory of His Person is guarded here: as a Man He is marked out from all others as the Son of God, in divine power. Fourth, Christ is acknowledged to be Jesus Christ, our Lord. Those who believe God's testimony about Him gladly come under His rule by owning Him as their Lord and Master.
Israel's teachers got as far as "the son of David" and stopped there.
When the blessed Lord asked them, "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" the scribes answer, "The son of David." They had no greater conception of their Messiah than this. And truly He was the son of David… But He had a greater glory than that of son of David; He was also Son of God. A mere son of David could have been no better than his father.
Raw power is not the point here.
Power raised Him, but it was not simply power — power will raise the wicked, yet will not declare them sons of God in any sense. This raising is according to the Spirit of holiness. It is according to the nature and character of God, glorified in all Christ's ways, and sealed and marked out in resurrection.
Commentators differ over what the phrase names. One writer sets out the common view, then rejects it:
Many take "a Spirit of holiness" (there is no article before "Spirit") to be the Lord's divine nature. That, they argue, is the proper contrast here: "according to the flesh," "according to the spirit." But Scripture uses no similar language anywhere else for the divine nature of our Lord.
Another writer ties the phrase to how Christ lived:
The Spirit of holiness that marked Him as He passed through this defiled world was the power by which He rose from the dead, having broken the power of death.
The phrase reaches wider than Easter morning.
Romans 1:4 does not limit the meaning to His own resurrection determining Him to be the Son of God with power. That is not what the verse says. It says that resurrection of the dead — the raising of dead persons — was the great proof that defined Him to be the Son of God with power. His own resurrection was the most astonishing instance of it, no doubt. But His raising of dead persons during His ministry was a witness too, and the resurrection of His saints later on will be the display of it.
Power and its proof belong together here, and one writer illustrates it simply:
If I lift up this table, I do it by power. At the same time, the act of lifting the table is what proves this power.
The world had already passed sentence on Him. God reversed it publicly.
The resurrection justified Jesus. It declared Him "Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness" when the world had crucified Him as an impostor.
The risen Christ is not only proof of who He is. He also shapes how believers now stand before God.
The cross, the death, and the blood-shedding of Jesus are now past. He was raised from among the dead, and the same Spirit of holiness now sets Him before us in risen life, with not a trace of the sin for which He suffered… This is what the letter opens out to us as the measure and pattern of our new standing and state before God.
- Person first. He was Son before He was David's descendant. Becoming man added what He became. It took nothing from what He was.
- Proof, not promotion. "Declared" means marked out or determined. The resurrection defined a Sonship already His. It did not create it.
- Power with a character. Bare power will raise the wicked too. Christ was raised according to the Spirit of holiness, which matches the nature of God.
- Proof at full reach. Not only His own rising, but every dead person He raised, and the raising of His people still to come.
- Pattern for us. The world called Him an impostor, and God vindicated Him. Believers own Him as Lord, and His risen life is the measure of their new standing.
by whom we have received grace and apostleship in behalf of his name, for obedience of faith among all the nations,
Everything Paul is and does came to him through the risen Christ. This verse holds four things together: grace, apostleship, obedience of faith, and a reach to every nation. All of it serves one purpose — the honour of Christ's name.
Paul names two gifts, not one. He received the office, and with it the grace needed to carry it out.
This, then, was the glorious Person that Paul came to present. Christ was gone from the world; but Paul is sent as an apostle to represent Christ. He comes "on behalf of His name". To be a fitting representative, he had received from Christ "grace and apostleship". Not only apostleship, but the needed grace to exercise the apostleship. He did not receive his commission from man, or by any human training, or ordination.
That grace was not a reward for anything in Paul. It reached him at the worst possible moment of his life.
Whatever Paul was as an apostle, it was all grace received. Did not the Lord shine across his path, in pure, free favour, at the very moment he was mad — yes, raging mad — against Christ?
The phrase sounds like a life of good conduct. One commentator argues it points first to a single act — accepting God's word about His Son.
Take the case of the soul's submission to the righteousness of God. Romans calls this "obedience of faith." It does not mean the practical obedience that faith produces in daily life. It means the first act of believing God's word. This is the heart's obedience. It is the person's obeying the truth, the soul's acceptance of God's testimony to His Son.
Another writer explains why faith and obedience are joined in this phrase.
If Paul comes as the representative of Christ, "on behalf of His Name", it is to bring people to submit to Christ, to bring them under His rule — to obey Him. Only those who believe will submit, so it is called the "obedience of faith".
The difference is not just which rules apply. It is where the obedience comes from.
This is not the obedience of law, which is only outward. It is the obedience that springs from a heart purified by faith. The gospel calls for, and produces, full confidence in the name of Christ — a confidence that bows in subjection to Him.
The wording is careful. Paul's commission travels to every nation without subduing any of them.
This obedience of faith was "among all nations," not of all nations. The grace and truth must go to men as such. God, revealed in this way, could not be for Jews only. But the time had not come to bring all nations under His power. It was time to call a people out of them — "to take out of them a people for his name."
The final clause gives the reason for the whole work. One writer sees in it the highest honour Christ's name can receive. He follows an older translation, which ends the verse with "for his name."
"To the obedience of faith among all nations" (Rom. 1:5), and then it is added, "for His name" — showing how His glory is bound up in this. As I have said, the brightest, dearest, most welcome honour His name could receive, it receives from the faith of a sinner.
If obedience stands at the front of the letter, does that make it a condition of salvation?
Scripture keeps obedience and practice in the right place. Good works do not make the Christian; they show him and suit him. They cannot exist before a person is born again... To speak to such people of obedience as a means of salvation proves complete ignorance of ourselves and of God. It shows that, like Israel at Sinai, we confuse responsibility with power.
The same expression returns at the end of the letter. The pair marks out the two halves of Paul's service.
This expression is found in only two places: Rom. 1:5 and 16:26. Here the gospel is presented for obedience of faith. The other passage presents the Church — the mystery — as revealed also for obedience of faith. Paul's twofold ministry is presented in this way.
- Grace first. Paul received grace and apostleship together. The office never came without the supply to carry it. Both came from Christ, not from human training or ordination.
- Grace to a rebel. The favour that made him an apostle met him while he was raging against Christ. Nothing in Paul earned it.
- Obedience, not law. The gospel asks the heart to bow to God's word about His Son. That obedience is inward, not the outward obedience of law.
- All nations, not whole nations. The message goes among all nations, not to Jews only, to call out a people for God's name.
- All for the Name. Grace, commission, and obedience all serve Christ's honour. A sinner's faith is the brightest honour His name can receive.
among whom are *ye* also [the] called of Jesus Christ
Paul has just described the grace and apostleship he received to bring "all the nations" to the obedience of faith. Verse 6 turns that commission on his readers. The Christians at Rome are not watching this work from outside. They are inside it. And the phrase Paul uses for them raises a bigger question: what makes anyone a Christian? (Older translations render the phrase "called of Jesus Christ," and the commentators below follow that wording.)
Paul has stated his own credentials. Now he states theirs, and one word links them.
Such was his passport: what was theirs? "Among whom are you also, called of Jesus Christ." They were among the nations. His commission was toward all the nations. Was he a called apostle? So were they saints, not by birth nor by ordinance, but by the call of Jesus Christ who had called him as apostle.
Who does the calling here? One writer answers: Jesus Himself.
God calls on man to obey Himself by receiving Jesus as the Lord. The name of Jesus is the revelation of God. But verse 6 presents Jesus as Himself acting in calling and giving life at His will. They were "the called of Jesus Christ." The Apostle knew well what this meant. Christ Himself had chosen him and called him, a vessel of divine mercy.
Much depends on how the word "called" is read. One writer explains it with a soldier.
Just as a soldier is called to be an efficient soldier. But he must be, and is, a soldier by calling or enlistment first… Let us take the apostleship of Paul to explain this. "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God." Do you notice the words "to be" are in italics? They are not in the original. The literal translation is this: "an apostle by calling," just like the soldier, "a soldier by enlistment, or calling." The Lord did not enlist Paul to reach apostleship at some future time. He made him an apostle there and then.
Israel's holiness came with the nation and its rituals. The believers in Rome had neither, and needed neither.
The believers at Rome were among these Gentiles. They were saints — not by birth, not by ceremonial institutions, but by divine call. The Jews were born a holy nation in comparison with the Gentiles. The Roman Christians were saints by the calling of Jesus Christ, and beloved of God.
How does a person become a saint? One writer rules out the two usual answers.
No church authority can confer the status of saint after death; still less can anyone acquire it by self-effort in life. Copying the manners of the Prince of Wales will never make you Prince of Wales. Striving after holiness will never make you a saint. People become saints by divine call. They hear the voice of God speaking to them in the gospel. It tells them of their sins and of the Saviour's atoning blood, and they bow to the message in faith… In a moment they are transformed from sinners into saints. It is God's doing; and it is a marvel of infinite grace. The robber of Calvary and the religious zealot of Tarsus, Mary Magdalene and the excellent Sarah, came from very different backgrounds. Yet all alike were saints. Each one had experienced the same gracious work of God in their souls.
Being Christ's called ones is not only a title. It attaches a person to Him and gives them work to do here.
Paul writes to these saints at Rome. They had believed the gospel he declared to them. He assures them that they were now "the called of Jesus Christ." As such they were attached to Him in heaven above, with His name resting on them. Not only were they blessed through Him, but they were to be His representatives in this world.
What is a saint, then, and what follows from being one?
A saint is a sanctified or separated person… No doubt we ought to be holy in our ways, our walk, and our whole manner of life. But we must know our place and calling first, before we can live up to it. A person must be my child to behave as my child. Another has well said Christian duties flow from Christian relationships.
- Called by Christ. Verse 6 shows Jesus Himself calling and giving life at His will. The readers are His called ones.
- Called, not qualified. The words "to be" are not in the original. Paul was an apostle by calling; believers are saints by calling, made so at once.
- Called, not born. Israel's holiness came by birth and ceremony. This one comes by divine call, so it reached Gentiles in Rome.
- Called without exception. The robber at the cross and the persecutor from Tarsus stand on the same footing. The same work of God made both saints.
- Called for Christ. The call attaches them to Him with His name resting on them, and duty follows: know your place first, then live up to it.
to all that are in Rome, beloved of God, called saints Grace to you and peace from God our Father and [our] Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul's opening sentence in Romans runs six verses before it names its readers. He describes them in three ways — in Rome, loved by God, called saints — and then greets them with grace and peace from two names.
Many translations, including the ESV, read "called to be saints." Translators add the words "to be." Commentators say the addition changes the sense.
"Called to be an apostle" is just as wrong as "called to be saints" in Romans 1:7. He was an apostle at that moment, and they were saints in the same way. There is no need to add any words in either case. In both, adding "to be" weakens the sense and makes it false, instead of defining it properly. For the saints in their call, as for the apostle in his, it was a fact. It was not a birthright, and it was not something they achieved. They became what they were — apostles or saints — by God's call.
Holy living is not the entrance fee. It follows from what God has already made us.
And then we are saints. We are not called to be saints, or to become saints, by living a separated life. God has made us saints in Christ, sanctified — that is, set apart for Himself. Nothing we do could ever make us the beloved of God. No effort of ours to live consistently and away from evil could make us saints of God. God has done it for us in Christ. And because we are saints, we can live holy lives.
The love named here is not God's general goodwill toward the world, but a bond that belongs to those who have believed.
This is not the side of God's love we find in John 3:16, where it is at work in a world of sinners and shown to everyone. This is the personal link kept for true believers alone. It is not just that the sun shines on all people. The light and warmth of that sunshine have broken into their old frozen state, and have stirred a love in return — a love that delights to find itself taken hold of and blessed according to God's love.
Paul does not greet them as a church, the way he did elsewhere. He writes to all the believers living in the city.
He does not write to them as a church, as he normally did when writing to a church he had founded. He addresses his letter to all in Rome who are loved by God, called saints. As the apostle sent to the nations, he could write to them all with the authority of Christ.
One writer traces a possible starting point:
The Bible gives us no details about how the church in Rome was formed. But we do know that on the day of Pentecost there were Jews from Rome in Jerusalem for the Jewish Feast of Pentecost. Acts 2:10 speaks of visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to the Jewish faith. If some of them came to believe in the Lord Jesus, the first Christians could have been living in Rome around the year 30 AD.
The two words are not decoration. One supplies, the other steadies.
The greeting is the same as in his other letters: "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Grace is the active favour of God, supplied in abundance. Peace is the calm that comes from submitting to Him and sharing close fellowship with Him.
Note which peace he means, and who in that city had it:
We need grace every day. We also need peace of heart all the time, or the circumstances we pass through will overwhelm us. It is peace of heart the apostle mentions here, not peace of conscience. What a privilege to be a Christian! A slave in Rome, if he was a believer, had a portion from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ that the Emperor, with all his wealth and all his power, knew nothing of.
Paul names the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ together as the one source of both.
This is the apostle's opening wish or prayer, here as in Romans 1:7 — from God in His relation as Father to us, and from Jesus Christ as Lord (compare 1 Corinthians 8:6). Joining the two names like this would be impossible in an inspired writing, and an insult anywhere, if they were not one in the unity of the divine nature. True and sovereign favour was the spring; grace was the result, proving and magnifying its source. Let us enjoy the gift and adore the Giver.
- Called — Paul was an apostle by calling; his readers were saints by calling. Not a rank they climbed to, but a fact God's call created.
- Loved — "Beloved of God" is a personal bond kept for believers, not the wide love shown to a world of sinners.
- Made — Nothing we do makes us saints. God set us apart in Christ, and holy living flows out of that, never into it.
- Supplied — Grace is His active favour for daily need. Peace is calm of heart in hard circumstances, not just a cleared conscience.
- Sourced — Both come from the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ together. A slave in Rome held what the Emperor could not buy.