Tertius

"I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the name of the Lord." Romans 16:22.

Now when was the last time you ever heard about Tertius? He was a real person with a real life. He had a real life, a real mother and father. He may have been in love at some time of his life. He may have been a Roman or a freed slave.

Not much is known about Tertius. We do know that he must have travelled with Paul. He evidently was a "man of letters." He served as Paul's secretary. As Paul dictates a letter to the Roman church, Tertius writes it down. At the end of book as Paul gives greetings to various people by name, Tertius pokes his head through the fabric of history and theology and says "Hi!" and includes his own greetings.

So often our lives seem to be filled with the mundane. Sometimes we are acting as a scribe for others. But God uses us in ways that are surprising. Only a handfull of names are known from that time of history , but we know of Tertius and his contributions to history were more outstanding than some emperors of Rome.

It is God's choice of how and when to use us and sometimes he uses us in surprising ways. I wonder if Tertius would have thought as a young man-"Someday, God will use me to help write and convey some of the greatest verses in the New Testament." Those verses would later serve to inspire many across the Ages including a cleric known as Matin Luther who would begin the Reformation in turn.

The verses of Romans include many of the verses that led many people to salvation including Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Romans 5:8 and Romans 10:9 and 10. These are often called the "Roman Road to Salvation." (Kind of a divine Appian Way leading up to the New Jerusalem, so to speak.)

All of these were presented to us thanks to a young man named Tertius.

Our goals in life are often to be first, Primus. Sometimes we are willing to be in Second Place, which in Latin is Secondus. But for the book of Romans, God chose to use a person whose name meant third place, Tertius.

It reminds me of the saying, God first, others second, self third.

So there is hope for those of us who are even third rate. We are Tertius. We are the third strike and sometimes God uses the humble in heart to hit a homerun.

There is hope for us yet!