the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,
2. Which he had before promised, etc. — As the suspicion of being new subtracts much from the authority of a doctrine, he confirms the faith of the gospel by antiquity; as though he said, “Christ came not on the earth unexpectedly, nor did he introduce a doctrine of a new kind and not heard of before, inasmuch as he, and his gospel too, had...
Paul titles himself a servant of Christ, his glory, not his shame. He was called to apostleship, not self-appointed like the false teachers. He was separated to the Gospel by God's counsel itself, set apart from birth to be entirely devoted to it, the Gospel of God Himself, divine in origin and extraction.
AI summary
Commenting on Romans 1:1-7
Which he had promised afore,.... The Gospel is here further commended from the antiquity it: it was no novel doctrine, an upstart notion, but what God had conceived in his own breast from eternity. This mystery was hid in him from the beginning of the world, and was ordained before the world was; in time God was pleased to make it known to the sons...