THE distinct teaching of the epistle and the exhortations based thereon terminate at verse 7. of chapter 15. The remainder of this chapter contains certain details as to the circumstances of the apostle, which are most interesting and instructive.
He again shows with what admirable consistency the Scriptures reconcile the admission of the Gentiles to blessing with the distinct promises made to the fathers (vers. 8-13). “Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm” these promises. The Jewish nation, it is true, filled with unbelief, rejected Him and put Him to death, but none the less was it true that He came unto His own (John 1:1111He came unto his own, and his own received him not. (John 1:11)), and the Gospel of Matthew describes the presentation of Christ to the nation as their Messiah, Not, however, until they had definitely rejected Him did mercy flow out to the Gentiles. Direct quotations then follow from each of the divisions of the Old Testament, the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets, amply sufficient to disarm Jewish prejudice.
These prophetic utterances no doubt will receive a special fulfillment by-and-by during the millennium; they are used to show that the blessing of the Gentiles on the ground, not of promise, but of mercy, was not foreign to the thoughts of God. The last of them — “in Him shall the Gentiles hope (trust)” — suggests to the apostle the desire on behalf of the believers at Rome, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost,” a beautiful description of what should ever characterize the child of God in this world, and indeed will, when he walks in the power of an ungrieved Spirit.
The apostle then, in the most delicate and touching manner, introduces the subject of his own ministry with reference to the saints at Rome. How far removed from the pretentious claims of the one who blasphemously assumes to be the Vicar of Christ is this self-effacing allusion to himself. He takes for granted that all was prospering in their midst, and that in a spirit of love, and according to divine knowledge they were able to admonish one another.
Nevertheless, special grace had been given to him of God; and if Jesus Christ had been a minister of the circumcision to confirm God’s promises to the fathers, Paul was a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. The gospel of the circumcision had been committed to Paul (see Gal. 2.), and in fulfillment of this he now writes to the Romans. How strange that the Church of Rome to-day should so utterly disregard this plain teaching of the Word of God, and put Peter where God as decidedly has left him out. The fact is that no apostle had to do with the establishment of the Church at Rome, the great center of Latin Christianity. It is most improbable that Peter ever was at Rome, and Paul never was there except as a prisoner. That there were Christians at Rome before Paul ever got there, is clear from the last chapter.
The Roman world came within the sphere of Paul’s official service. He was the chosen instrument to minister to the Gentiles the gospel of God, and, on the other hand, like Aaron of old (Num. 8:1111And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord for an offering of the children of Israel, that they may execute the service of the Lord. (Numbers 8:11)), to present them as an offering to God, acceptable, not on the ground of natural birth or external rites, but through sanctification of the Holy Ghost. Well might he glory in this work of vital and eternal grace! (vers. 15-18).
Was he satisfied with any mere outward pression, such as the emissaries of papal Rome who have sought to make nominal Christians of heathen races by baptism and the sword? Nay, he would not dare to speak of anything that Christ had not wrought by him by word and deed. The obedience of the Gentiles, that submission to God of heart, mind, will, and conscience, was alone of any value; for this he labored, and in this he could glory, for not Paul, but “the power of the Spirit of God” brought it about through “mighty signs and wonders” (vers. 18, 19).
Nevertheless God wrought through human means, and what indefatigable energy we see in the case of Paul! “From Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.” What this entailed in the way of bodily suffering we learn a little of from 2 Corinthians 6:1-11, 11:23-33, for Paul was often single-handed in the conflict of the gospel. Not where Christ was already named did he go; that would have been a far easier path, but it would have been a building upon other men’s foundations, and less in accordance with that blessed Word of God, by which he desired that all his ways should be directed. What an encouragement to every child of God to search the Scriptures diligently and read them with prayerful attention! How often will an Old Testament passage throw light upon our own pathway, and find a present application before the day comes for its full accomplishment; this is seen here in the use made by the Spirit of Isaiah 53:15.
But this diligent zeal in evangelizing the Grecian world had hindered the apostle from reaching to Rome, though for many years he had had a great desire so to do. There had been much ground to be covered, but now in those parts his work was finished. There is a touch of sadness in the way in which Paul writes, “but now having no more place in these parts” (ver. 23). How closely he followed in the footsteps of his blessed Master has often been observed; rejection and apparent outward failure marked the close of his ministry. After years of incessant toil and indefatigable labor in the gospel, and amongst the saints in Asia, the Spirit records, “This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me” (1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)).
But now his thoughts turn towards the West: “Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you” (ver. 24). We have no record in Scripture that he ever reached Spain, and so far as Rome was concerned he was there only as a prisoner, and that in cruel iron chains, not the scarlet and gold of the pretended prisoner of the Vatican, who reigns after the fashion of the most worldly of earthly potentates.
But first Paul must go to Jerusalem. It is not for us to question whether in this he had the mind of the Lord. At any rate “all things work together for good to them that love God,” and had he not, he might never have found the leisure required for writing the Epistles to Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, and Colosse, which he did when sent a prisoner from Jerusalem to Rome.
It mattered not to Paul what the service might be that he engaged in, whether preaching here and there and founding assemblies of God’s people, or the less showy deacon’s work as the bearer of the gift which the grace of God had caused to abound on the part of Macedonia and Achaia toward the poor saints at Jerusalem (read 2 Cor. 8., 9.). He loved to identify himself with this fruit of the Spirit; nor was it the first time that he had done so (see Acts 11:27-3027And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch. 28And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. 29Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea: 30Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. (Acts 11:27‑30)). A fleshly spirit of retaliation might have led the Gentile believers to shut up the bowels of compassion towards their Jewish brethren who had manifested some little hostility against them at the start; pride on the other hand might have rejected help from those whom religious prejudice was wont to despise. But where grace, the grace of God, is at work, every difficulty is removed, and it was a duty which was owed to the Lord that those who partook of spiritual things should themselves minister in carnal things to His people — and God loves a cheerful giver.
When this act of service on Paul’s part should be completed, he hoped to see his brethren at Rome, and it would be not a mere social visit, though surely a time of deep spiritual joy and happiness (“if first I be somewhat filled with your company”) — “I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.”
Nevertheless the apostle realizes the dangers that he incurred at the hands of the unbelieving Jews at Jerusalem. This casts him upon God, and he earnestly desires the prayers of the saints at Rome on his behalf. He takes no superior place — “that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” How many a time throughout his arduous life he had already proved the delivering hand of God! Had he not stood in jeopardy every hour? But, as he writes to the Corinthians, God “delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that He will yet deliver; ye also helping together by prayer for us” (2 Cor. 1:10, 1210Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us; (2 Corinthians 1:10)
12For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward. (2 Corinthians 1:12)).
Yet all must be in accordance with God’s will (Rom. 15:3232That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed. (Romans 15:32)); what beautiful activities of the divine nature! Fellowship with the saints for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake and the love of the Spirit; earnest and united supplications; happy submission to the will of God, and whatever that will may entail for himself of persecution and even death; ardent desires for the peace and blessing of those whom he had never yet seen, but whom he loved in the Lord!
“Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.”