Paul first gives thanks
“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, as your faith is proclaimed throughout the world.”
Rom 1:8
Paul gives thanks to his God. There is both recognition and certainty in this statement. It is an expression of familiarity and a personal relationship. “First, I thank my God.”
At the same time, it is also Paul’s recognition that One is above him. It is a God to Whom He puts everything, Who carries everything in the world and the world itself. Thus, on another occasion, he speaks of God as “the God who created the world and everything in it” (Acts 17:24-29).
More than a diffuse trust in God
Simple trust in God is still present in many people, but it is often diffuse and indistinguishable from a religious feeling. It takes a bit more to get to the statement “my God”. However, it is not a “Christian” invention, or something that only becomes known in the New Testament. This always bothers me a bit when in Christian circles the personal relationship with God is “rented”, so to speak. Because then we would immediately put the Tenach (the Old Testament) out of play. For there we read by way of example:
“A Psalm. From David. When he was in the wilderness of Judah. God, my God you are; for you I seek. For you my soul thirsts, for you my flesh pines in a dry and exhausted land without water. So I look for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. For your mercy is better than life; my lips will praise you. So I will praise you during my life, lifting up my hands in your name. As of marrow and fatness shall my soul be satisfied, and with rejoicing lips shall my mouth praise, when I remember thee in my bed, pondering thee in the night watches. For you have become my help, and in the shadow of your wings I can rejoice. My soul hangs on you; your right hand upholds me.”
Psalm 63:1-9
It is precisely because David maintained such a personal relationship, with all that was known to Him there, that his psalms still speak to us today. David is completely with himself and completely with his God when he sings:
“Praise you I will with all my heart!”
Psalm 138:1
From the Tenach to the New Testament
David was called by God “a man after my own heart” (1Sam 13:14, Acts 13:22). If we do not want to see the biblical witness narrowed, we cannot limit “faith” to “faith in Jesus.” If we did that, we would be misjudging God’s work in the Tenach (Old Testament).
If we do not want to see the biblical witness narrowed, we cannot limit “faith” to “faith in Jesus.”
Of course, there is a difference between then and now. But what is this difference? When we read of Paul giving thanks to his God, he is certainly drawing on these experiences from the Tenach. But how does he do it?
Paul is no longer in the same place as a David. When Paul writes in the first verses of Romans that he became familiar with the gospel of God, which God had promised beforehand through His prophets in holy scriptures, it referred to the origin and promise. But now he speaks of a fulfillment. Because according to what Paul writes, the promises have become reality. And with the fulfillments of the promises, he stands on new ground. This has everything to do with God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. That is why the apostle adds here, and in countless other places, the connection to Jesus Christ:
“First, I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ.”
Rom 1:8
