We are in a verse-by-verse study of the book of Romans and got through verse 1 with the expanded translation: "Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called an apostle, through having been appointed because of the Gospel from God."
In the verse we found 3 doctrines to explore: the doctrine of adjustment to God's justice, the doctrine of apostle, and the doctrine of the Gospel.
Last time we concluded the doctrine of God's justice and started the doctrine of apostleship. Before we stopped last time we noted that the apostles had to be eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Christ.
This certainly qualified the eleven, and Paul who was also qualified by seeing Christ on the road to Damascus. Acts 1:22; 1Cor 9:1; 1Cor 15:8,9.
The authority of apostleship also included the possession of certain additional temporary gifts. Three temporary gifts were used to establish the authority of an apostle before he was well known.
They were the gifts of miracles, healing, and tongues. Acts 5:15; Acts 19:16-18; Acts 28:8,9; After the apostle's authority was established the additional temporary gifts were phased out.
The roster of apostles was twelve, the eleven minus Judas Iscariot. Matthias was elected but was not appointed by God as an apostle. Paul replaced Judas Iscariot as the twelfth apostle. 1Cor 15:7-10.
Others were delegated the authority of apostle and therefore functioned with apostolic authority when they were fulfilling their responsibilities without actually having the spiritual gift.
Examples of this include: Barnabas Acts 14:14; Gal 2:9; James, the Lord's half brother James 1Cor 15:7; Gal 1:19. James was not an apostle but he was given the authority of an apostle to write the book of James.
Apollos 1Cor 4:6,9; Sylvanus and Timothy 2Thes 1:1; 2Thes 2:6; also functioned with the authority of Apostle.
There were twelve apostles to the Church just as there were twelve apostles to Israel. Mark was not an apostle; he was Peter's amanuensis. Mark's Gospel is the gospel from Peter's viewpoint.
He had the temporary authority of an apostle. The same was true of James and Jude, the half brothers of Jesus. They carried the authority of an apostle in their writing the books of James and Jude.
The apostles in the New Testament carried on the work of the prophets in the Old Testament. Since the prophets who wrote the Old Testament were called prophets when we get to the apostles who wrote the New Testament they are called apostles and prophets indicating their relationship to scripture.
It also reveals that the Canon that contained the Old Testament was a work in progress that was completed with the New Testament. Rev 22:18-21;
This brings us to the to the doctrine of the Gospel.
The Greek word translated gospel is "euaggelon" that is a compound noun. "Eu" means good; "aggelos" means a messenger, an envoy, one who brings the news. It is also used for angels as messengers of God, but not in this case.
So the word "Gospel" actually means "good news." God's good news to mankind regarding eternal salvation is called the Gospel.
The Greek verb "euaggelozo" means to announce good news. It is translated in the Scripture to proclaim, to announce good news; to communicate. It means to bring good news of victory, to declare good news of victory in a battle or war. But it finally came to mean to announce God's good news of salvation.
The Hebrew verb "basar" has the same meaning: to proclaim good news. The Hebrew noun "besorah" is equivalent to the Greek word "euaggelion"
In the context of Rom 1:1,16 "euaggelion" means the declaration of good news of our Lord's victory on the cross, where He was judged for the sins of every human being who ever lives in the devil's world.
The Greek noun "euaggelos" was used in the ancient world to describe a messenger who was bringing good news from a battlefield in a war. In the case of the gospel communicated in God's Word of truth the battlefield is the world and the war is the angelic conflict.