We begin the walk through Romans by understanding Paul’s introduction and where he was coming from thinking that he was empowered to write a letter to a group of people he had never visited.

¹ Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, ² which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, – Romans 1:1-2 ESV

Romans 1 opens with Paul introducing himself and declaring that he was “called to be an apostle” and that he was “set apart for the gospel of God”. Then followed up with how  God “promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures”

Being called to be an apostle means Paul received a direct commission from the risen Christ himself. Rather than selecting this role himself, Paul was “called” into apostleship—commissioned and taught directly by the risen Jesus. This gave him direct authority from Christ to teach, distinguishing apostolic authority from other forms of Christian leadership. Paul’s apostleship was authenticated by having seen Jesus our Lord (1 Cor 9:1), which was foundational to his credentials. This wasn’t a position Paul earned or aspired to; it was a sovereign appointment that fundamentally transformed his entire existence.

Being set apart for the gospel describes the purpose toward which that apostolic calling was directed. The phrase means being “separated,” moved away and apart from everything else, so that Paul would spread the gospel and pursue this one overriding aim. This separation for a specific purpose was inherent in Paul’s conversion experience on the Damascus Road.

The language echoes Old Testament prophetic commissioning—just as Isaiah and Jeremiah were set apart to proclaim the word of the Lord, Paul was called and set apart to proclaim the gospel of God.

These two ideas work together: Paul’s apostolic authority (called) exists for a singular mission (set apart for the gospel). The gospel here means God’s own good news about what God has accomplished in Jesus Christ. This gospel is what Paul will “slave” for all his life, willing to separate himself from wealth, health, acclaim, friends, and safety in order to be faithful to his calling.

³ concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh ⁴ and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, ⁵ through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, ⁶ including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

Paul’s then establishes Jesus as the theological foundation for everything that follows in Romans. These verses move through Jesus’s identity, his vindication, and the universal implications of his work.

Jesus is presented first as one “descended from David according to the flesh” (Rom 1:3–6)—emphasizing his genuine humanity and his connection to Old Testament messianic promise. The promises of 2 Samuel 7 concerning the house of David have been fulfilled through Jesus’s resurrection and his enthronement as Son of God. This wasn’t merely a spiritual claim; Jesus entered history as a real human descendant of David’s line.

However, his identity extends far beyond his earthly lineage. The gospel concerns God’s appointing of Jesus to be God’s Son through God’s resurrecting power when he raised Jesus from the dead—the moment in history when God installed Jesus as David’s messianic descendant and king over Zion. The resurrection functioned as the decisive vindication and enthronement of Jesus’s divine sonship. Jesus’s resurrection and exaltation were the moment when God told his preexistent Son to sit at his right hand until he appoints his enemies as a footstool under his feet, the moment when he began to reign over the throne of David as the Jewish God-man and Messiah.

This cosmic reality has immediate consequences for believers. God gave grace unconditionally to unworthy recipients, but this grace transformed them so they would respond with faithful obedience to Jesus Christ—the grace God gave to Paul to preach the gospel was for the purpose of giving the Gentiles this grace so they would be transformed by it and live in obedience to the gospel. The Christ-followers in Rome are those whom God effectually called to believe the gospel about Jesus Christ, his Son.