Romans 15:15-33

The book of Romans is an impressive treatise on Christian theology. In the words of this letter, we have the ideas of the gospel laid out and expounded upon in great detail. This book gives us a view of what it really means to be a Christian; of what God has done, is doing, and will do for all those who have faith in Him. When it was written, and then throughout the course of Christian history, it sounded out a trumpet of no uncertain sound, the trumpet call of salvation by faith.

But for all of that, we can't lose sight of the fact that at the back of all the preaching and philosophy that fills this letter, it is, in fact, a letter. This was not written as a book or scholarly article; this was written as an epistle to be sent across the world and to be received by a particular church.

Romans is one of Paul's most impersonal letters. He had never been to Rome as yet and it is uncertain how much he knew of the church. There are few personal comments or references throughout the letter. For the most part, you could forget that this is a letter at all. But with this section, as Paul nears the conclusion, the personal element (which has been basically missing since the opening in Chapter 1) returns as Paul gives his conclusion.

A book can exist without any context. Sometimes an author may explain why he wrote, but often the mere existence of a book explains itself. If you find a cookbook, the writer doesn't have to explain the book was written to help you know how to cook. That's implied in the mere existence of the book. But a letter, generally speaking, needs a context. If you write a letter to someone, you probably have a reason. The reason may be just to get to know them or send some friendly greetings, but it does have at least some reason—at least, in most cases. 

And this section is Paul's explanation for Romans; it tells why he wrote the letter. But this does not just shed light on Romans, it also sheds light on Paul—it helps us see the kind of man Paul was. We see a little bit of what made him tick, so to speak. And while Paul was a very unique man with a very unique mission, there are things here that are of interest to any Christian. 

Before Paul explains why he wrote his letter, he first clears out of the way a false reason.

Paul ended the last section with an assurance of the goodness and knowledge of the Christians at Rome. He picks up that thought immediately in verse 15: “Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind.”

Paul didn't want to come off as condescending or arrogant—as if he were assuming that they were ignorant and knew nothing about the gospel--as if he was the only one who could explain it to them. As we see later in this passage, Paul was a church-planter. That was his main mission—to boldly preach where no missionary had preached before. But he had not planted the church in Rome. Neither, so far as we can tell, had anybody else. It was not Peter or James or John who had traveled to Rome and preached the gospel. Our best guess is that ordinary men and women had carried the gospel back from Jerusalem to their home in Rome and had built up the church without any sort of official sanction or help from the main body of Christianity. Perhaps something of this was in Paul's mind when he wrote—he wanted to make sure not to seem to dismiss the church as lesser simply because it was not the work of an apostle; certainly not to dismiss it because it was not his work.

He was convinced that they were knowledgeable of the gospel, that they had at least a general foundation. And that was why he wrote. It was because he knew that they knew the Gospel that he had the confidence to write to them and explain the gospel and the gospel call in a detailed way. 

I think there are two lessons we can learn from this. First, we should be careful to avoid an arrogant or condescending attitude when preaching the gospel, whether to the world or to other Christians. Paul was an apostle and was not afraid to use his authority when he needed to, but he also wrote with humility and tact. 

Second, we should never assume that because we are Christians, we have nothing new to learn. No dog is ever so old that it has no new tricks to learn. And even if we have learned a lesson, that doesn't mean we never have to learn it again. Paul says that he wrote “as putting you in mind.” The NET Bible translates that: “so as to remind you.” This is similar to Peter's explanation for his epistles: “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour.” (2 Peter 3:1-2) As humans, we are constantly forgetting and losing sight of the things we know. That is why we need to be reminded. The proud man says: “Don't tell me what I already know.” The wise man knows that it is often essential to be told what you already know.

So that brings us to the first reason for Paul's letter—it was to instruct his readers about the gospel, not because he thought they were ignorant, but because he wanted to help them hold onto and learn more of what they had already received.

But why would Paul in particular write to the Roman church about these issues? Because the Roman church was at least in part a Gentile church and it stood at the capital of the Gentile world. Therefore, Paul wanted to minister to them because he was the apostle to the Gentiles.

Verse 15 goes on to say that Paul wrote “because of the grace that is given to me of God, that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.” Some people have pointed out that there are some parallels between this passage and the opening verses of Romans. Look for instance at Romans 1:5: “By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name.” Paul began by talking about how God's grace had called him to be an apostle among all nations, and once again we come back to that here.

Paul had a mission to preach to the Gentiles and the Romans were (in part) Gentiles so Paul wanted to preach to them, and so took this letter as a way to do that indirectly since he was not yet able to preach to them in person. Paul introduces this idea in the second half of verse 15 and he continues to talk about his call and his ministry through verse 19. Perhaps he wanted to make sure the Romans (who had no personal experience with him) understood that he truly had a mission that explained his writing. Perhaps he wanted to make sure they understood that he had already had a successful ministry and so wasn't trying to steal any success from them. Most likely, the mention of his apostleship naturally led him to praise God for His grace in using Paul as He had.

In verse 17 Paul specifically says that he had reasons to glory through Jesus in the things of God, in the things which God had done through him. Paul had been given the opportunity to preach from Jerusalem (seen as the origin and center of Christianity) all the way northwest to Illyricum (which as far as I can figure out is near modern-day Serbia). Interestingly we don't have any record of Paul preaching in Illyricum, which reminds us that Acts does not record every single action of Paul. 

I had been going to write that Paul had had a successful ministry, but the word 'successful' is misleading. By human standards, you would not call Paul's preaching in Jerusalem 'successful.' What Paul says is that he had preached the gospel. He had an opportunity and he made use of it. He was fulfilling a mission that God had given him. Sometimes he saw great success and sometimes he didn't. But he had preached.

But he hadn't merely preached. Preaching can be performed on purely human resources. But Paul's preaching had been attended by something more, by “mighty signs and wonders,” by those things we would call miracles. 

This may sound like boasting. It is not because, as we will see in a moment, the point is not exalt Paul. But even if it were boasting, at least it was not empty boasting. The NET Bible translates the beginning of verse 18: “For I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me.” Paul would have been afraid to lie about God's work through him. This may also be to remind us that Paul's focus is specifically on what God has done through him as opposed to the work of other Christians. Paul is testifying to his own truthfulness, and his testimony of corroborated by Acts which records several of Paul's miracles.

But we have to understand something about the working of miracles. In the play Camelot, Sir Lancelot claims to be able to work miracles because of his purity and self-discipline. That is not the Biblical idea. Look at what Peter said following the healing of the lame man at the temple: “And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?” (Acts 3:12) It was nothing about Peter and John which worked that miracle—it was Jesus who worked that miracle through them as Peter explains in the following verses.  In the same way, Paul did not work miracles because of something special or unique about Paul himself. It was connected to his special mission, but in the end, it was not Paul who worked miracles at all. It was “by the power of the Spirit of God.” It was God who worked the miracles and Paul was only the instrument and the occasion.

There is something interesting here. Both Jesus and Paul worked miracles. And both Jesus and Paul spoke against those people who look for and desire miracles. And the explanation for this seeming paradox lies in the word that the New Testament uses for miracles—the word “sign.” A sign can be made of paper, of cardboard, of wood, of glass and neon lights, or of gold and jewels. But all of that is incidental—what matters about a sign is what it says; and if it is a road sign, the most important point is what direction it points—and whether or not we follow it. The miracles of the apostles were signs that were meant to point to Christ and the miracles of Christ were signs that pointed to His mission and to the Father. To desire a miracle, for the mere fun of seeing a miracle, is like looking for a sign and then not bothering to read it.

The miracles of Paul were not meant to exalt and glorify Paul. Many of them were miracles of healing, but helping those in need was not even the main thing. They were meant to help his mission. And what was his mission? “To make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed.”  This was the driving force behind Paul's work. He was not preaching to make himself look better. He was not trying to amass a large statistic. As strange as this sounds, he was not even trying to make a lot of converts. Merely getting people to embrace the Gospel and 'become Christians' was not his main goal. Because, as we've seen over the course of our study of Romans, becoming a Christian is only the beginning of God's work. And God's work was what Paul was after—transformation as well as justification. But specifically, Paul wanted to see this among the Gentiles. 

Paul cared about the Jews (as we saw earlier in Romans) and he did preach to them. But his mission was always particularly for the Gentiles. In verse 16, Paul pictures himself like a priest, offering an oblation to God, that oblation being the Gentiles, a sacrifice prepared and sanctified by the Holy Ghost so that it would be acceptable to God.

I mentioned before that there is a parallel between this passage and the opening verses of Romans. And to understand this section, we need to remember what Paul said in Romans 1:13: “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.”

That is the driving force behind this entire letter—it was Paul's desire to have fruit among the Romans, as among the other Gentiles. Paul had preached across the Gentile world; he had seen great success; his work had been accompanied by great wonders—and yet he had never had the chance to do anything at Rome, the heart and center of the Gentile world. And so he wrote this letter as a means of doing that indirectly—of preaching by proxy since he could not preach in person.

But why had he never preached in Rome before? Perhaps he felt the Romans would be asking that question—wondering why he had never visited them if he really had such a strong desire to do so.

There were probably several reasons, but in our passage, Paul mentions one specifically: Paul was a church-planter. This is verse 20, Paul's mission was always to carry the gospel into places where it was unknown. This wasn't always true—as we mentioned before, Paul had preached in Jerusalem—but this was his primary mission. And this was bound up with the fact that he was an apostle to the Gentiles.

Isaiah chapters 52-53 describe the triumphs but also the sufferings of the Messiah.  And in the midst of this, we have this specific prophecy concerning the Messiah: “So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.” (Isaiah 52:15) The Jews had the idea that the Messiah was solely for them. But here in one of the most important passages regarding the Messiah, we have this prophecy that the work and the message of the Messiah would go out to the nations and that those who had no previous knowledge or expectations of Him would receive His word.

That was the special mission of Paul—to carry the gospel to places where it had not before been preached. Paul was primarily a church-planter, not a church grower. That was an important work, but it was not his. Paul speaks of how this worked specifically at Corinth: “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” (1 Corinthians 3:6)

This was the call and the mission of the apostle. This was his particular work. And therefore, it didn't make sense for him to go to Rome, where there was already a thriving church present. They didn't need him and there were many other places that did need him. Therefore, even though Paul did want to visit the church there, his own work had kept him occupied.

Had is the important word in that sentence. And that brings us to one of the main reasons for the book of Romans. In verse 23 Paul says that he had "no more place in these parts" or "now there is nothing more to keep me in these regions" as the NET Bible translates it. Paul felt that his work had been completed in the western Mediterranean and that God was calling him elsewhere.

That elsewhere, as Paul thought, was not Rome. Rather, it was Spain. Spain was an important intellectual center of the Roman world at that time, so not surprising that Paul would want to start a work there. And so Paul's intention was to travel to Spain and stop at Rome on the journey to visit the church there. Perhaps there is an underlying idea that Paul wanted to make clear he wasn't trying to usurp any authority over the Roman church. His visit wasn't some kind of mission to take over and set them straight. He just wanted to visit on his way through.

So that, as I said, is one of the main reasons why Paul wrote Romans—to inform the Romans about his planned visit. This was, so to speak, his letter of introduction for, though he had many friends in the church, there were probably many more who only knew him by vague reputation if even that.

It is interesting that we have this clear itinerary laid out. Paul was going to travel to Jerusalem, then to Rome, then to Spain. But if we've read the rest of the New Testament, we are aware of the irony of this. Paul's plans did not work out, at least not as he had planned them. He did end up in Rome--not as a  passing visit, but as a prisoner. And most likely he never made it to Spain. 

The truth is that so often things in life do not work out the way we expect them to. James gave this warning on the subject: “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” (James 4:13-14)

This is a familiar warning, but I think it's good to remember that it applies even to religious work. Even when it comes to making plans for God's work, we have to remember uncertainty. A religious motive is no safeguard from detours or derailments. That doesn't mean that God's will is thwarted. We see how God used Paul's imprisonment to further his plans. But it does mean that we have to remember that what we think God's will is and what God thinks it is are not always the same.

I said that this is something we need to remember; it is something that is easy to lose sight of. But it was not something Paul had lost sight of. He had his plans but he was very much aware of the danger and risk which threatened him and all his plans. That is a point we will come back to in a second.

Paul's visit to Rome and then Spain was in the future. His immediate journey was to Jerusalem. In verse 25, he begins describing his plans regarding that journey. This journey had a specific purpose; it was a mission of ministry. 

We have to remember something about the early church. Christians faced opposition from many quarters; the gospel created animosity from different people for a variety of different reasons. But at this point, the one force that had most consistently and most intently opposed the church was Judaism. (The systematic opposition of the Roman government would not begin for a few years yet.) 

And the heart of Judaism, both as a nationality and a religion, was Jerusalem. So it makes sense that the church in Jerusalem faced a larger share of opposition than perhaps anywhere else. We know that many of the early leaders of the church were forced out of the city to save their lives. We don't know exactly the state of things at this time, but we do know how things were going when Paul was still on the scene as an agent of the Jewish authorities. “As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.” (Acts 8:3)

So picture that—you have this community of Christians in the heart of the city which is most directly opposed to Christianity. Those of the church are liable to imprisonment or other punishment. Many, perhaps, were cut off from their families because of their faith. Others were likely unable to find work because of it.

From a practical, one might say a financial standpoint, being a Christian in Jerusalem was probably harder than most places in the world at that point. Perhaps that is why we have frequent references throughout the New Testament to the poor saints of Jerusalem. But whatever the reason, there was definitely a need and it was a need that was always on Paul's heart. This would not be the first time he had carried a charitable contribution back to Israel. “Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea: which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.” (Acts 11:29-30)

Paul was going on a mission of mercy to help the poor of Jerusalem. But this was not merely a personal mission of Paul's. A number of Gentile churches had come together to contribute and Paul was carrying their offering. Verse 26 says “it hath pleased them” to make this offering. The Greek word here is the same that is often translated “good pleasure.” The idea behind the word is that it is a choice made freely and without coercion. This offering for Jerusalem was something that the churches had freely chosen to do. It's not clear whose idea it was initially—the idea may have come from Paul, but he didn't have to twist anybody's arm to get them to give. (Though he did drop a few tactful hints to the Corinthians.) It was something they freely, willingly decided to do.

That brings us to verse 27, where Paul commends the Gentiles for giving this offering, saying that the Gentiles are debtors to the Jews. “For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.” What I think is so interesting about this verse is that this calls back to several ideas already established in Romans. 

Throughout Romans, in dealing with the Jews and the Gentiles, again and again, Paul has come back to this idea—the one advantage of the Jews was that they had God's revelation,. They had received and maintained God's word. They had received God's covenants and through them the gospel had come. Though these advantages did not bring salvation on their own—the Jews could only be saved by grace just like the Gentiles—they did still have these advantages. And that meant that the Gentiles had the Jews to thank for Christianity. The foundation for the gospel had all been laid by the Jews. Most of the Old Testament—and most of the New Testament, for that matter—was written by Jews. The great cloud of witnesses which forms the backdrop of Christianity were mostly Jews. All the first preachers and missionaries were Jews. The gospel might have spread faster and deeper among the Gentiles than among the Jews, but it would not have spread at all if it weren't for the Jews. 

Therefore the Gentiles owed a debt to the Jews. And once again we come back to this idea of debt. Paul began the letter by speaking of the debt he owed to both the Jews and the Gentiles and how he intended to try to repay it. In the ethical section of Romans, Paul laid down one of the primary guiding principles of the Christian life that one ought to pay their debts, ought to fulfill their obligations. This is the principle of justice.

The Gentiles owed a debt to the Jews. But it was not a debt that anybody was going to send a debt collector after. They were not being forced to pay it. Paying the debt may have been a matter of justice, but the motive behind the payment was love. This was a free offering born out of the recognition of what they had received, out of gratitude. Speaking of this offering elsewhere, Paul makes this comment: “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7)

So this was Paul's plan, to carry this offering from the Gentile churches to Jerusalem. It was something Paul supported, something Paul was happy to be a part of. But it was also something he seems to have been a little nervous about. 

In verse 30, Paul offers a request. The form of it may remind of Romans 12:1. Once again he beseeches them as brothers. He offers as a reason for his request the Lord Jesus and the love of the Spirit—Paul was asking this as one Christian to other Christians, not merely as one man to other men. Paul had no claim on the Romans, aside from their shared interest in God and the things of God.

But what was it specifically that he was asking the Romans to do? It was to strive tother with him in their prayers. “Strive together” is a single word in Greek; Strong gives this literal definition of it: “to struggle in company with.” The picture is of two people fighting against a common antagonism or laboring together to accomplish a common end. Weymouth translates it: “help me by wrestling in prayer to God on my behalf.” This idea of fighting or wrestling is metaphorical, obviously, but it points to an intensity of prayer which, in turn, points to the intensity of the need.

And what was it that Paul wanted them to pray about? It was specifically about this trip to Jerusalem. There were two things that Paul wanted from this trip, two things which (we may safely assume) he felt some uncertainty about. We find these two things in verse 31. First, “That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea.” 

Remember what I said about the opposition to Christianity from the Jewish establishment in Israel. This obviously included opposition specifically to Paul—and Paul had the disadvantage of being very well known because of his previous association with the Jewish leaders. He could not hide in anonymity. He was known and his presence in Jerusalem would be known. There was likelyhood of trouble. On a previous visit to Jerusalem, Christ had appeared to him in a vision, telling him to leave because the Jews would not receive his testimony.

Paul had every reason to know that a visit to Jerusalem might end badly for him. But there might have been more. Romans was (probably) written from Corinth during Paul's third missionary journey. As he traveled towards Jerusalem on that journey, he stopped in Miletus and gave a farewell sermon to the elders of the Ephesian church. As part of that address, he said these words: “And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.” (Acts 20:22-23) We don't know if God had given him any of these warnings yet at the time Romans was written, but it's very possible. 

Paul was praying, and was beseeching the Romans to pray, for his safety in the face of the opposition he would face from the Jews in Jerusalem. This prayer, we may note, was not answered—at least, not in the sense Paul had intended, though in some way he was protected even if that protection took the form of imprisonment.

Paul was worried about how those outside the church would react to his presence. But he was also seemingly worried about how those within the church would react. This is the second half of verse 31: he asked them to pray “that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints.” We do not know exactly what lay behind these words. We know that when Paul first came to the Christian church in Jerusalem, many were unwilling to trust and accept him because of his past as a persecutor of the church. We also know there were some among the Jewish Christians who distrusted Paul because of his service to the Gentiles; some saw him as an enemy of the Jewish traditions because he insisted on the fact that they did not bring salvation. And he, the apostle to the Gentiles, was bringing an offering from the Gentiles to the Jews. Given how many of the Jews (even Christian Jews) felt about the Gentiles, you can imagine how friction might possibly arise. Whatever the reason, Paul prayed that his mission would be successful, that the offering he brought would be accepted. 

And with his mission completed, he would be able to come to the Romans. In verse 32 he states that he would come with joy and in the will of God. And he desired that when he came, it would be to bring some restoration or refreshment to them.

He ends the passage with a benediction: “Now the God of peace be with you all.” That sounds like a conclusion, and in one sense it is the conclusion of the body of the letter; chapter 16 is something like a postscript. This is purely my own idea, so take it for what it's worth—but we know from some of Paul's other letters that there was already a practice of passing around Paul's letters to other churches beyond their original recipient. Perhaps he deliberately gave a sense of conclusion in chapter 15 for the sake of any other church who read the letter, with chapter 16 being solely and specifically for the Romans.