PAUL'S PRAYER & MOTIVATION: ROMANS 1:8-17

 

Paul’s Prayer

1:8-15

After the greeting, Paul states his prayers for the Roman believers. First, he gives thanks for them. He does this in several of his letters. Here he says he is thankful because their faith is proclaimed in all the world. 

Here we see one of the interpretative issues in the New Testament: the meaning of the word “world”. Some people believe the word “world” means every person in the world. But it is very unlikely that Paul believed that the faith of the Roman church was known to every person in the world. It is doubtful that Paul even knew all of the countries and peoples of the world. 

The word “world” can mean different things in different contexts. Here, Paul likely means the world of the Roman Empire, of which he would have knowledge.  

And, it was, in fact, a significant thing for the church to grow in Rome. Rome was the capitol of the empire. It was the center of government, the residence of the empire, and the location of many temples and statues that served the Roman religion. The Roman religion was interwoven into the fabric of Roman culture and politics. 

The second thing Paul prays for is that he will will be able to visit them. He wants to preach to them to strengthen the believers and proclaim the gospel to non-believers. He also wants to receive encouragement from them. 

But Paul recognized God’s sovereignty in the matter. He said “by God’s will”. (10) If God willed him to come, he would make it happen. If not, God would prevent him from coming. 

Paul then mentions his apostolic ministry. He is to preach to the Gentiles, which he calls “Greeks”. This includes the Romans and others who are civilized members of the Roman Empire. They spoke Greek and adopted the Greek culture. It also includes the Barbarians, those Gentiles outside the Empire. 

 

Paul’s Motivation

1:16-17

The reason Paul wants to preach in Rome is that the gospel is the “power of God to everyone who believes”, both Jew and Greek. God has given power to the gospel to bring salvation to those who believe. In 1 Corinthians 1:18, Paul said: “For the word of the cross is folly to whose who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”. 

This is an important concept that has been forgotten by large segments of Evangelicalism. Many pastors and church leaders have come to rely on various acts of entertainment to bring people to attend their churches. Others rely on emotionalism. Consciously or unconsciously, these people have ceased to believe that we proclaim the gospel knowing that only the gospel has power to bring salvation. 

The gospel reveals the righteousness of God. God is righteous. He is perfect. He is, therefore, the standard of righteousness. His laws reflect his righteous nature. He requires righteousness from us, expressed by obedience to his laws. We cannot obtain it on our own. God, in his righteousness, imputes righteousness to those who believe in his Son. He declares them to be righteous because of their faith in Christ. Romans will make clear to us that the path to righteous standing before God is one of faith, not works. That is what the gospel reveals. 

 This was also true for the Old Testament saints. In fact, when Paul said “the righteous shall live by faith”, he was quoting the Old Testament in Habakkuk 2:4. We also know this to be true of Abraham. Genesis 15:6 says “And he [Abraham] believed the LORD and he counted it to him as righteousness. 

In Galatians 3:6-9, Paul wrote: “…just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

Paul will explain this in greater detail in this book of Romans, in chapters 3 and 4. 

Notice also that there is no universalism here. Universalism is the belief that all persons will be saved because of Jesus’ death. But, Paul clearly teaches that salvation comes only to those who believe in Jesus as the Son of God.