(Romans 1:11-17) 11 -For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; 12 - That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. 13 - Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. 14 - I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. 15 - So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. 16 - For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 - For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

The Roman Road weaves through the most basic instincts of human nature in a meticulous patter designed to show us how deeply we have disconnected from our most essential relationships, how profoundly we need to return, and how hopeful and possible that return is through a simple message called "the gospel."

It is all about relationship.

Letters are wonderful. E-Mail is nearly miraculous. Any medium that helps us connect with each other is a blessing, but nothing beats person-to-person meeting between fellow humans. Nothing compares to a one on one meeting between God and man.

It is in that meeting that the just begin to live by faith. It is in those meetings between believers where God is present that spiritual gifts are imparted, mutual encouragement is shared, and people are established, built up, grounded, and made stronger.

Paul often wanted to go to Rome, not to see the great architecture or experience its granduer, but to meet with his fellow believers. He wanted to "have some fruit" among them and that fruit would come through a sharing of the gospel/good news.

Paul's primary and vertical relationship with God informed everything about his horizontal relationships with other human beings. In this light, he makes three strong statements about his burning drive to come to them:

I am a debtor - He was a man under conscription.

• Paul did not see himself as a volunteer soldier. In God's army there are always volunteers and draftees. Paul was a draftee. He wasn't looking for a light that night on the road to Damascus, but he saw one anyway and every road from then on became his Roman Road. It has been said (I heard it from Frank Pollard), "Because I know if, I owe it."

• His debt was to the Jews. From the Jews Paul had received his heritage and his formative spiritual education. Like us, He had come to know of Yahweh because of the Torah. While he doesn't state his debt specifically here, he does elsewhere.

• His debt was to the barbarians (and he seems to include all non-Greeks here, even his own countrymen, the Jews). He enters into the language of the people and their feelings of superiority as heirs of Greco-Roman civilization as well as into the sense of inferiority the disenfranchised may have felt. He has a debt to them - all of them. No one was a greater advocate for the multi-cultural relevance of the church and its message than the apostle Paul.

• His debt was to the Greeks as well. They had contributed much to his thinking, but because of God's great gift of the gospel, he had even more to bring to them. In displaying his own sense of calling to the grander mission of crossing cultural barriers with the good news, we are challenged today with the same call.

• His debt was furthermore to the wise and the unwise. There is no exclusivity in the gospel. It is at the same time, intellectually challenging, and childishly simple. Paul was ready to share the good news at anyone's level at any time. So must we be ready.

I am willing and eager - He was a man under compulsion.

• Paul's was a deep, internal passion that made him willing, ready, and eager to share the news that was so life changing and profound in his own life. His compulsion went to the core of his being. It defined it and drove him.

• The Road to Rome had an appeal to Paul, but it was "also." He hints that he is not bound by any one location. He has the world in his heart generally as well as specific mission points along the way. He was able to think globally and act locally to borrow from Tip O'Neil.

• In all things, we might say that Paul was a driven man. What drives you?

I am not ashamed - He was a man under conviction.
Here is what Paul believed in more than anything else about the gospel: It was and is powerful. When it is shared, it works.

• It is the power of God ... God's message is His power. It proceeds from Him verbally and visibly. He accompanies it, not just sending it forth and forgetting about it. He is present whenever the good news is proclaimed.

• It is His power to salvation. It produced a miracle in the lives of people - daily miracles of salvation, redemption, forgiveness, hope, and purpose. Paul had no desire to beat people over the head with the gospel. His motive was to share it because of the good it would produce in people's lives - and he had faith that it would do so.

• It is that kind of power to people who believe it, embrace it, and receive it by faith. It is not coercive or bund up with deception. People do not receive the gospel through manipulation but by hearing and opening themselves to it impact.

• It comes to everyone regardless of their background. Historically, it came to Jews first and has special significance to Jews, but it is also for non-Jews.

• It reveals God's simplest and yet, most profound truth about Himself with amazing implications for men and women on this planet: God's righteousness is about people living by faith. That's how they get right with Him; that is what affirms who He is among people. That is what He desires - as simple as that- faith from first to last is the righteousness of God.