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A SELFLESS INTRODUCTION

by Jeffrey Hagan
10/20/2014 / Christian Living

by Dr. Jeff Hagan

Romans 1:1-7 "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 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, 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, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (ESV).

Introduction: When you have to introduce yourself what is it you say? I'm uncomfortable whenever I happen to do this. When you guest speak somewhere, or have an article or blog published, they always want you to introduce yourself. They want you to just offer up a little bit of autobiographical information about yourself. This is always uncomfortable for me. I tend to just include bullet point facts and let them pick what they want to include and word it how they wish to word it.

Paul is interesting. Paul introduces himself at the beginning of each of his letters, but his longest introduction is in the passage in Romans we just read. What's interesting though about how he introduces himself, is that he actually says very little about himself. Instead, he speaks of:

1. His Calling (v.1) - Those of us who have been redeemed were clearly called to be Christians (v.6), but there is also another calling on our lives, it's a call of service. As we read in our passage, Paul's particular calling was that of an apostle. All of us have some area of service God calls us to.

2. His Gospel (v.2) - When introducing himself Paul makes sure to center the focus on the gospel and not himself. And we see in our passage that this gospel was promised long before during the Old Testament time period. This should give us a renewed comfort in knowing God is sovereign in all things.

3. His Savior (vs.3-4) - In verse 3 we see the humanity of Christ and in verse 4 his deity. Again, what's important to note is that in the process of introducing himself Paul points others to the Savior. Our identity is in none other than Jesus Christ.

4. His Duty (v.5) - We see here that Paul's duty was a mandate for missions. Paul, and the same goes for us, was to reach out to "all nations."

5. His Resources (vs.6-7) - Paul was always wishing and offering grace and peace to those he ministered and wrote to. It's a great example for us to remember to continual be focusing on doling out grace and peace to others.

Conclusion: Do you have a low self-image? Do you suffer from low self-esteem? The best remedy for this is identifying ourselves by God's calling on our lives, his message to us and others, the Lord Jesus Christ, our duty as believers, and the resources God gives to us. When this is in the forefront, and we are in the background, that is when our self-worth is where it should be.

Jeff Hagan is the President of True Grace Ministries and Theological Institute. Interested? www.preacherjeff45.wlxsite.com/truegracetheolgical

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