Vince Lombardi was hired by the Green Bay Packers as their new head coach and general manager in 1959.  The year before he joined the Packers, they finished the season with the worst record in franchise history:  1-10-1.  He called the team all together on the practice field on his first day and with all eyes on him he held up a football and simply said, “Gentlemen, this is a football.”

That’s it.  He paused.  Nothing more..and the faces of the pro football players and coaches grew confused and questioning.  Then he explained.  “As a team last year we were horrible at the fundamentals of the game of football.  Nobody here knows how to block and nobody knows how to tackle.  All I saw last year was grab, grab, grab!  What we’re going to do now is go back to basics and we’re going to learn, we’re going to drill and we’re going to practice the fundamentals until we become better at them than anyone else in the game.  If you do this with me, I will make you champions.”

Lombardi created punishing training regimens and expected absolute dedication and effort from his players.  The 1959 Packers immediately improved to 7-5, and rookie head coach Lombardi was named coach of the year.  In his second season, Green Bay won the NFL Western Conference for the first time in 15 years. 

The team then went on to win 9 post-season games in a row (a record streak not matched or broken until Bill Belichick won 10 in a row from 2002 to 2006).  Under Lombardi, they also won the first two Super Bowls ever played!  Why?  Fundamentals!  The Green Bay Packers became famous for their precision and consistency in the fundamentals of the game and even when opponents knew certain plays were coming, they were unable to stop them.  You see it was their attention to (and discipline in) keeping solid their fundamentals that made them great, powerful and victorious!

I have come to understand that same truth for a follower of Jesus Christ and it’s the Book of Romans which masterfully lays out the strategy, the plan, the practice schedule of the fundamental truths and practical points of Christianity.  Man’s sin, God’s grace and the magnificent and uncomplicated truth of God’s provided salvation through Jesus! 

Martin Luther said that the Book of Romans is “the chief priest of the New Testament.”  Because you see it was a very discouraged and lost Martin Luther sitting at his monastic desk…being attacked by thoughts so ungodly that he picked up an inkwell and threw it against the wall, aiming at what he believed to be an image of the devil.  Then he read something that broke his chains…set him free…”the just shall live by faith.”  Romans 1:17

So basic, so fundamental, so foundational….and so missing from his busted and defeated religion!  At last, his eyes were opened and his life was changed…and because of this, Romans 1:17…the entire world was changed as God would use him and this absolute basic of the Bible in this Chief Priest of the New Testament to usher in the Great Reformation Movement!

You see the Book of Romans is the believers guide to simple faith.  It is a beacon of light that will draw all who invest their desire and confidence in it right into a life lived well and good, man.  Jesus said, “well done, good and faithful servant…enter into My rest.”  Man, this book, as we walk through it together, will walk us right up to “well” as Jesus would say “well done,” and will introduce us face to face with “good” as Jesus would say “this is how to be good and faithful servant.”

This is the book that set free Martin Luther.  This is the book that set ablaze John Wesley.  This is the book that Chrysostom read once a week, every week throughout his entire powerful ministry!  This is the book that blew Augustine’s mind man and caused him to be enlightened with the righteousness and peace of God!  This is the Book that brought the realization to Chuck Smith in 1965 as he taught through it at a Foursquare Church that he could throw off the yoke of religion…that God loved him simply because he was His creation, His Son…and that nothing could separate Chuck from God’s love and grace…and forever his life was changed.  And through him, my life also!

You see it’s foundational.  It’s fundamental.  And if you too will join me as we get back to the basics man…then your life will never be the same again.  You will walk in newness of life, armed with the practical and theological weapons to utterly anhialate the tired wiles of evil…and just be free man.  As we saw with Luther, Welsey, Augustine, Smith…truly the road to revival leads through this book.  And great will be the growth of your relationship with Jesus should you choose to give yourself wholly over to what is contained within it…

The religion of the law and of man thunders, “responsibility!”  But relationship with the Lord simply says, “respond, just respond…the work is done.  The price is paid.  Just come know Me.  Come and be with Me.  Come and Follow Me…and I promise you more than Super Bowls and lasting legacy…but everlasting life…eternal life…enlightenment and power…eyes to see truth…a heart with the strength to endure and navigate righteousness…and a soul soaring through the skies of freedom man…” 

Wiersbe once wrote, “if you are tired of all the wrong things in your life, in the lives of others, and in this world, then Paul’s epistle to the Romans is the book for you.  The theme of this book is the righteous love of God…if you press in to understand Romans, you will have the key to understanding the rest of the Bible.  Better still, you will have the secret to successful Christian living!” 

Romans Chapter 1 Verse 1

• And so immediately we are introduced to the author.  This is a Pauline epistle written around the year AD 56 while Paul was in Corinth.  Paul himself did not deliver this letter to Rome, it was actually carried to the Christians at Rome by one of the deaconesses in the church at Cenchrea, which was the port for Corinth on the eastern side…here name is Phebe.  (Romans 16:1)
• Paul had just concluded a journey through Athens and had arrived in Corinth before moving on to Antioch and so his burden for Rome was fresh as he penned this epistle.  (All of this is found in Acts 18)
• And I love how Paul opens this letter, just as anyone would open a letter in those days, he presents his credentials.  What qualifies him to write this authoritative, doctrinal and highly practical letter to the Romans?  What enables Paul to speak and to teach that which would cause life and power to surge with revival within Luther and to Wesley?
• Its not his schooling…as you know Saul of Tarsus, which he was before changing his name to Paul after getting saved, received the finest of religious educations.  The top of his class with the best mentor, Gamaliel.  Its not his professional accomplishment…as you know he was more accomplished as a Pharisee than any of his contemporaries…Its not his reputation, its not his studies, its not his bloodline which was pure and documented within the tribe of Benjamin…its not his intellect, his energy, his strength, his ability…its simply that his hearts desire is to serve Jesus Christ…his credentials, his qualification is simply and wholly comprised of his love for Jesus man…
• Paul, a bondservant…that would lose most folks right at the gates.  Essentially he is saying, “Paul, a slave.  Paul, the lowest of the classes.  Paul, the one who has no rights and doesn’t want any…I wonder how many passed the parchment at that point.  I wonder how many of you pass on Christianity at that point also.  Claiming the comfort of heaven and the promise of eternal life but disinterested in serving the Lord today…taking the title and the responsibility of being completely His…and man, hot tip, that is what a Christian does…
• The word bondservant is “doulos” which literally means bondslave.  For Paul to introduce himself in this fashion would be meaningful to the Romans, because this word slave, represented an estimated 60 million people within the Roman Empire.  Or let me put that another way, 60 million pieces of property.
• What qualified Paul to lead the people of the Lord?  What caused him to surge with power and purpose and authority and love?  What set him absolutely free?  Willfully becoming the doulos of Jesus Christ.  The first secret is out…
• Why are we as a corporate church so watered down?  Why are there movements such as the prosperity gospel and the word faith movement and religions of men that replace worship with ritual so that man can live as sinful as they please and then once or twice a week have their sins forgiven by some religious exercise?  Why are our marriages without love?  Why are our lives without power?  Why are our nights without sleep and our children without peace and without a desire for truth and righteousness?
• Because we claim the high calling of Christ to take up our cross, deny ourselves and follow Him…but only just as long as it is compatible with my own convenience.  Just as far as I don’t suffer.  Just as much as Jesus serves me, you might say…yet He is not our bondslave…right?
• He is our Lord.  He is our deliverer.  He is our Father.  He is our Leader…not the other way around…and all these movements, and even the false doctrines of the cults that we see flourishing today…and even the lukewarm church that will follow Jesus into a mall but not into the Garden of Gethsemane…at the very center of it all, is self.  Everyone’s favorite radio station, WIIFM (Whats In It For Me?). 
• We have effectively reversed in our hearts and minds and churches and lives what it means to know Jesus…and many on that day when all is reckoned will call out to Him “Lord Lord” and with pain in His voice Jesus will reply, “depart…I  never knew you.” 
• He said to them in Luke 6:46, “why do you call me Lord, and do not what I say?”  Why do you believe (and I believe people truly believe) that you are a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ and yet you do not serve even your spouse, let alone an entire nation as Paul is doing by traveling around, planting churches and writing epistles.  Why on earth do we think we are fooling God?  Please hear me…the first of many secrets is out…lest you be a slave of Jesus, the truth is you may not know Him.  Lest your heart’s desire and purposeful plan is to lay down your rights in true humility, that is without complaint against others, without accusation against others, without abuse to others, you very well may not know Him.
• And if this is the first church service you’ve ever been to you may be saying, “welp, warm up the car, time to get…I didn’t come in here to choose to be a slave,” well hear me out for just a few more minutes because you see you came in here a slave already.  A slave to sin.  Like a horse with a bit in his mouth being pulled this way and that…sin is playing you man.  Your emotions and your senses and your logic they make you dance like a puppet on strings and the end of serving that master will be great loss. 
• Paul wasn’t born a slave.  He was born into nobility amongst his people.  Paul wasn’t dumb.  He wasn’t unintelligent.  He wasn’t un-thoughtful and uncalculated.  He was brilliant, the top of his class, the leader of his people and he willingly laid it all down because the end of all of that is regret.  He found something more.  He found peace, power, purpose, love, joy, strength…he chose a new Master.  One that is good and One that will care well for Him not just in this life (and maybe not even at all in this life) but throughout all of eternity man…and in the light of eternity, what is today?  A vapor. 
• Yes, being a bondslave to Jesus is what it is to be a Christian.  To choose His will, His ways…to follow what He says and wants while simultaneously denying what you may say and want…but in so doing, you give up what you cannot keep to gain what you cannot lose…you hand over death and decay and destruction and you are given life, liberty, freedom from all this mess around us and within us, and ultimately an incorruptible inheritance in heaven…any fool would take that deal…let alone any wise man. 
• But Satan says, “serve you man.”  Forget this hard and narrow path…I have this wide and easy one prepared for you right here…lets do this, together…I’ll escort you myself…and many, many, many…even in the church…buy that ticket.  Not Paul. 
• That is why he is so powerful!  That is why he is so loving!  That is what qualifies Him…He is a Christian man, a bondservant, a doulos of the One that is Power, the One that is love…
• And he says in that I have been called to be an apostle…which quite simply and quite literally means “one who is sent out.”  Paul says, Romans…I’m a slave of Jesus and He has given me great purpose…great direction…you see I’m on a mission man!  God has sent me out…sent me to you…
• Fundamentals peeps.  The Christian serves Jesus Christ…and the Christian lives on a mission…a rescue mission..
• And yet Paul continues his credentials, continues the fundamentals…separated to the gospel of God.  Notice he doesn’t say “for,” he says “to.”  Oh Paul is a super Christian, called by God to be a pastor, and evangelist, a preacher, an apostle, a missionary…but not me.”  Not correct folks.  The same Spirit that dwelt within Paul, that dwelt within Luther, that dwelt within Wesley, Billy Graham, Chuck Smith, even Jesus Christ Himself…dwells within you believer…
• We dream of the day when we can ask the mighty King David in heaven what it was like to slay the lion, the bear and the giant Goliath!  To run without armor or sword head first, pedal to the medal, right at the largest and fiercest of enemies…and he’ll look you right in your eyes and ask you to tell him what it was like having the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you…yet so often the smallest and weakest of opponents thrashed you…What happened?  And the cause…failure…in the fundamentals.
• Paul simply responded man.  And he changed the world.  The entire world…he continues today to change the world…me, you, our neighbors, our friends, our enemies…all because he answered the call of God to “come away with Me…” 
• The fundamentals folks…Paul wrote, and we’ll read in the weeks and months to come as we march through this magnificent book, the letter to the Romans, that if you train hard, keep at it, apply what you read and hear and learn…in other words, take up your own cross, deny yourself and follow Jesus…choose the Lord, just as He choose you that fateful day upon the cross of Calvary, then He’ll make champions out of each one of you…as you serve Him completely, go forth as one sent directly from His throne in Heaven, and come out from this sham of a world unto the gospel, the good news man, of Jesus Christ.