Romans 1:8

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.

First, I thank my God ... There is no use to look for "second" and "third" in this epistle for no such outline ever entered Paul's mind. His "first" in this place simply means, "The first thing I want to say is ..." "Thanks to God" is always a good first, no matter what is intended; and, besides, Paul usually began his letters to the churches with thanksgiving to God upon their behalf. In this case, his thanksgiving was no doubt amplified and intensified by the circumstances of the Roman community of believers being so favorably located in the very heart of the great Roman capital, where communications with all the world of that day were centered, where the crossroads of the earth met, and where travelers from all the provinces were going and coming every day. As a result of their strategic location, the Roman Christians had a wide stage upon which to enact their deeds of faith; and Paul's appreciation of this may be deduced from the fact that most of his own great labors were directed to establishing the faith of Christ in great world-centers like Corinth, Ephesus, and Antioch.

My God ... Paul's use of the possessive pronoun here was not unusual, the same construction appearing in 1 Corinthians 1:4; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Philippians 1:3; 4:19; and Philemon 1:1:4. Old Testament precedent is "The Lord is my shepherd" (Psalms 23:1). And yet none of the apostles ever wrote, "My Father," an expression which our Saviour evidently reserved for himself alone, since he taught the disciples to pray, "Our Father, etc."

Through Jesus Christ ... honors the mediatorial office of Jesus Christ; and as Hodge suggested:

There is no need of the various forced interpretations of the words in the text, which have been given by those who are unwilling to admit the idea of such mediation on the part of Christ.[16]

Upon the great doctrine of the mediatorial office of the Lord Jesus Christ, the New Testament leaves no grounds for misunderstanding.

CHRIST; THE ONE MEDIATOR

John Wesley's statement that "The gifts of God all pass through Christ to us, and all our petitions and thanksgivings pass through Christ to God,"[17] constitutes a concise summary of New Testament teaching on Christ's mediation. The Lord said:

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do (John 14:13,14). If ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it you in my name (John 16:23).

Other New Testament instructions to the same effect are as follows:

Give thanks always for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father (Ephesians 5:20). And whatsover ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Colossians 3:17). Through him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually (Hebrews 13:15).

Paul himself always carefully followed this rule (Romans 7:25); and the fact appears that language could hardly be more comprehensive and emphatic in the description of exactly what communications were commanded to be addressed to the Father "through" Christ. "Anything ... whatsoever ... all things ... whatsoever ye do in word or deed" - thus the most comprehensive terminology is marshaled against any exceptions whatsoever.

And, are there mediators other than Jesus Christ? No. Paul said,

There is one God, one mediator also between God and man, himself man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all; the testimony to be borne in its own times (1 Timothy 2:5).

Thus, there are exactly as many mediators as there are Gods, namely, only one. All superstitions to the effect that prayers may be offered to God through various so-called saints, or even through the blessed Mother of Jesus, are flatly contradicted by New Testament teaching. Likewise, prayers which are offered ambiguously, "In thy name," or "In his name," etc., or in no name at all except that of the petitioner, are sinful in the light of these solemn teachings of the word of God. Even the use of such a formula as "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," is not in keeping with the commandments of the apostles, nor did any of them ever use such words in a prayer. True, people were commanded to baptize into that sacred triple name; but no man can show any other example of those holy names thus being subjoined to any other command or petition in the entire Bible. In the verse before us, Paul was scrupulous to express his thanks to God "through Jesus Christ"; and there can hardly be any doubt that his doing so was in keeping with the revealed will of God. As Hodge summarized it,

Such then is the clear teaching of the Bible, that in all our approaches to God in prayer and praise, we must come in the name of Christ, that is, in him, referring to him as the ground of our acceptance.[18]

For you all ... is the plural of "you"; and the only possible plural of that pronoun capable of including everyone. "You both," "you two," etc., are also grammatical plurals of that pronoun. Thus, the expression "you all" is not a colloquialism but stands in the best tradition of classical English.

Proclaimed throughout the world ... It was natural that the faith of Christians so favorably located in Rome should be widely known, but also implicit in the fact of their extensive reputation is their evangelical behavior. Their faith was not something which they held privately and selfishly, but a passionate conviction of which they spoke to everyone who would hear and which they preached as universally as possible. The use here of such a phrase as "throughout the world" is understood by some writers as hyperbole; and, although the use of that figure of speech is certainly found in the New Testament, as, for example, in Matthew 3:5, that is not necessarily the explanation here. It could be that Paul here employed the prophetic tense (in which future events are spoken of in the present tense), and the view that Paul did so speak here is grounded in the amazing truth that, nearly twenty centuries after his writing, it is literally true that the Christians of Rome have been spoken of, and are continually being spoken of in every village and hamlet of the earth, everywhere the Bible is read! In view of the facts, then, it seems rather arbitrary to limit Paul's meaning as, "Best understood as `throughout the Christian Church and wherever people knew of their faith.'[19] The similar passage, "The gospel which is come unto you; even as it is in all the world, bearing fruit and increasing" (Colossians 1:5,6), may also be interpreted in the same way.

[16] Charles Hodge, op. cit., p. 24.

[17] John Wesley, Explanatory Notes on the New Testament (London: The Epworth Press, 1950), p. 517.

[18] Charles Hodge, op. cit., p. 24.

[19] William M. Greathouse, op. cit., p. 36.