<p>1:5&nbsp;<i>T</i><i>hrough whom we received grace and apostleship</i><i>- '</i>We'&nbsp;is usually used by Paul in Romans regarding him plus his readership, i.e. all of us. We are all sent ones, apostles- see on 1:1.</p><p><i>To obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name's sake</i>- A reference to the great commission, which was enabled and necessitated by the Lord&rsquo;s resurrection. John speaks of preachers going forth to preach for His Name&rsquo;s sake (3 Jn. 7). We are not to merely inform them, but preach aiming towards a response- our apostleship, our being sent ones, is &ldquo;for&rdquo;,&nbsp;<i>eis</i>, elsewhere translated &ldquo;to the intent that&rdquo;. We should preach towards a response, expecting the ultimate obedience of at least some of our audience. In 6:16 Paul specifically associates obedience s.w. to the Gospel with baptism- this should be our initial aim and focus in witness. Peter likely does the same in 1 Pet. 1:2,22.</p><p>Paul makes a number of allusions to the great commission, in which he applies it to both himself and also to us all. The weak argument that it was &lsquo;only for the disciples who heard it&rsquo; evaporates when it is accepted that Paul wasn&rsquo;t one of the 12, and yet the commission applies to him. Rom. 1:5 RV is an example: &ldquo;...through whom we have received grace and apostleship, for the obedience to the faith among all the nations, for his name&rsquo;s sake&rdquo;. These words are packed with allusion to the great commission. And Paul is not in the habit of using the &lsquo;royal we&rsquo; to refer solely to himself. He clearly sees all his readers as sharing in just the same calling. The early preachers travelled around &ldquo;for his name&rsquo;s sake&rdquo; (3 Jn. 7), even though they were not in the original band of disciples. Having alluded to the great commission, Paul goes on in this context to rejoice &ldquo;that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world&rdquo; (Rom. 1:7 RV). He saw their example of faith in practice as being the witness that fulfilled the great commission; and goes on to speak of his sense of debt to spread the word to literally all men, hence his interest in preaching at Rome (Rom. 1:14,15). And here we have our example; &ldquo;as much as in me is&rdquo;, we should each say, we are ready to spread the Gospel as far as lies in our power to do so.</p><p>Collective societies are all about submission and obedience to those above you in the hierarchy- yet repeatedly, Christians are exhorted to be obedient and submissive to the Lord Jesus and the new community in Him (Rom. 1:5; 6:16,17; 2:8 etc.). And even within the new community, Paul's own example showed that acceptance in the eyes of those who appear to be the pillars of the society of Christ is also of little ultimate value if they have fallen away from the understanding of grace (Gal. 2:9). To keep using the word &quot;radical&quot; doesn't do justice to the colossal change in worldview that was required on conversion to Christ. Reflecting on all this, it seems to me that the reason the Jewish people crucified their Messiah was above all because He so powerfully turned their whole worldviews upside down- and they just couldn't handle it, just as so many families today turn against the one who truly turns to Christ.&nbsp;</p>