Final Words: Paul Explains His Ministry
15:14-21
Starting with these verses, Paul is moving to the end of his letter to the Romans. Paul has explained the doctrine of justification by faith, its necessity, how we live in light of it. He explained how the failure of the majority of Jews to believe the gospel did not mean that God failed to keep his covenant.
Beginning in with verse 14 of chapter 15, Paul works toward the ending in four short topics: complimenting the Roman church, giving his reasons for writing the letter, telling his future travel plans might be, and sending greetings to people he knew in Rome.
First, Paul tells the Roman Christians they are full of goodness and knowledge and are able to instruct each other. He is convinced of this. (14) He began the letter with a compliment, noting their strong faith that was proclaimed all over the world. (1:8) Now he does the same thing as he closes his letter. These statements soften his instructions and commands by acknowledging the strengths of the Roman Church.
But, Paul acknowledged that he made pointed statements to them, writing boldly. (15) He did this to remind them of the truths they had been taught. He could speak boldly because of his calling, his ministry. He called it the “grace given me by God”.
The grace was God’s calling him to be the apostle to the Gentiles. (Acts 9:5, 15) He saw himself in priestly service, preaching the gospel to the Gentiles and planting churches among them so he could present them as an offering to God as they were sanctified by the Holy Spirit. (16) He may have had in mind that he was helping fulfill the prophesy of Isaiah 66:20: “And they shall bing all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the LORD…”.
Paul is not, however, saying he is a priest in the sense of the Old Testament priests. The Levitical priesthood ceased with the coming of the New Covenant. In the New Covenant, Jesus is our High Priest at the right hand of the Father continually interceding on our behalf. (Hebrews 8:1) He fulfilled the priesthood.
Like Paul, then, all believers are priests to God with the duty to proclaim the gospel and bring people to God. (1 Peter 2:9) As Peter said, “that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
For this reason, we do not appoint men or women to be priests over us with the sole ability to interpret, or add to, scripture and forgive sins.
Paul limited himself to speaking of what Christ accomplished to bring the Gentiles to salvation. (1 Corinthians 2:2) Paul was only the tool that Christ used. Christ used words spoken by Paul and deeds done by him.
He also used signs and wonders performed by the power of the Holy Spirit. (18-19) Those signs and wonders were given to validate the gospel as God’s message and the authority of the apostles to proclaim it, especially in the early church. The book of Acts records them healing the sick, raising the dead, and miraculously escaping their enemies.
These things have allowed Paul to preach and plant all over the area from Jerusalem to Illyricum in the Balkans. This means he traveled and preached from Israel through what was then called Asia, now Turkey, through Greece and to what we now call the Balkan states.
Paul’s ambition was to preach Christ where no one else had. (20) He cited Isaiah 52:15 in support. As a result, he established churches in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.
Paul’s Plan
15:22-29
Because God sent Paul to all of these places to preach the gospel, he was unable to come to Rome even though he wanted to for many years. (22) But now, his situation changed. He had to go farther away to preach in a new place that had not heard the gospel. His next target was Spain.
Before traveling to Spain, Paul wanted to visit Rome and the church there. (24) He wanted to fellowship with them. He also hoped they would support him as he traveled to Spain.
But, Paul had another mission to accomplish before going to Rome. He had received donations from the churches in Europe to deliver to the church in Jerusalem. (26) He acknowledged that those churches wanted to help the mother church in Jerusalem. He also felt they had a duty to help. They had received spiritual blessings from the mother church and so should share material blessings with it. (27)
Upon delivering the offering, Paul would begin the journey to Spain, stopping first in Rome. (28)
Paul’s Prayer Request
15:30-33
Despite his plans, Paul knew his trip to Jerusalem was dangerous. He faced the possibility of detention and persecution from the unbelieving Jews. He was famous, having turned from zealous persecution of Christ followers to following and evangelizing for Christ.
Facing this danger, he asked the Roman believers to pray for him. He asked that he would be delivered from the unbelievers, that the church in Jerusalem would accept his service, and that he would be able to visit Rome to fellowship with them.
God answered those prayers, but not in the way Paul had hoped. He was attacked by a crowd stirred up by Asian Jews who knew his ministry. He was delivered from them when the commander of the Roman troops in Jerusalem arrested him. He made it to Rome, but under arrest and waiting for trial before the emperor.
In Rome Paul was under house arrest for two years. But, he continued to preach to those who came to him. We do not know if he made it to Spain. But, reading his letters, it appears he was acquitted and released in Rome and went on to travel and preach. Tradition holds that he did indeed make it to Spain. Clement of Rome writes in his Epistle to the Corinthians that Paul "travelled as far as the extremity of the West”.
Paul was not deterred in his mission by risk or danger. He made plans, but he knew that God might change them. He was an amazing Christian, but relied on God.
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