Romans 15:14–24. This is more personal, but it is not filler at the end of the letter. Paul tells us something important about how he understood his missionary work: his ambition was to preach Christ where Christ had not already been named.

It also answers a question from Romans 1. Paul had told them he had “often intended to come” to Rome but had been prevented. Here, near the end of the letter, he finally tells us why.

WHY PAUL HAD NOT YET VISITED ROME

Romans 15:14–24

Paul has spent a long letter teaching, correcting, and sometimes speaking very directly to Christians he had never met.

Now his tone becomes more personal.

He says:

“I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.”
— Romans 15:14

Paul has confidence in them.

He doesn't think the Roman Christians are ignorant people who cannot understand Scripture.

He believes they can even:

“Instruct one another.”

THEN WHY DID PAUL WRITE SO BOLDLY?

Paul says:

“But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder.”
— Romans 15:15

That's interesting.

Sometimes teaching isn't about telling people something they have:

never heard.

Sometimes we need to be:

reminded.

We may know something and still need someone to put it in front of us again.

Bible study isn't always about discovering something new.

Sometimes it is about remembering something important enough that we must not:

forget it.

“BECAUSE OF THE GRACE GIVEN ME”

Why has Paul written?

“Because of the grace given me by God.”

There is that word again:

grace.

Paul doesn't describe his apostleship as something he:

earned.

It was something God:

gave.

And that grace carried a responsibility.

PAUL'S SPECIAL MINISTRY

Paul says God gave him grace:

“To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles.”
— Romans 15:16

That has been obvious throughout Romans.

Paul is Jewish.

He loves his Jewish people.

He longs for their salvation.

But God gave him a particular mission:

the Gentiles.

That explains why Jew and Gentile have occupied so much of this letter.

It wasn't merely a theological puzzle to Paul.

It was his:

ministry.

PRIESTLY LANGUAGE

Paul describes his work in unusual language:

“In the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable.”

Paul uses the language of:

priests

and

offerings.

But look at the offering.

It isn't an animal.

It is:

the Gentiles.

People from the nations who have come to God through the gospel become an offering:

“Sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”

Once again, New Testament worship language has moved beyond the old temple and animal sacrifices.

PAUL CAN BOAST—BUT ONLY IN CHRIST

Paul says:

“In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God.”
— Romans 15:17

That could sound strange after all Paul's warnings about boasting.

But listen to his next sentence:

“For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me.”

There is the difference.

Paul isn't saying:

Look what I accomplished.

He is saying:

Look what Christ accomplished through me.

The glory belongs to:

Christ.

WHAT WAS CHRIST ACCOMPLISHING?

Paul says Christ worked through him:

“To bring the Gentiles to obedience.”
— Romans 15:18

There is that word:

obedience.

Remember how Romans began?

Paul said he had received apostleship:

“To bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations.”
— Romans 1:5

Now, near the end of Romans, Paul describes his ministry in almost the same terms:

“To bring the Gentiles to obedience.”

That forms a beautiful frame around the letter.

Romans begins with:

the obedience of faith.

And as Paul approaches the end, he returns to:

obedience.

FAITH AND OBEDIENCE WERE NEVER ENEMIES

This matters.

Paul does not contrast:

faith

with

obedience.

He contrasts faith with attempting to establish righteousness through works of Law.

But genuine faith produces:

obedience.

That is why Paul can speak naturally about:

“The obedience of faith.”

Faith that never responds to God is not the picture Paul gives us in Romans.

“BY WORD AND DEED”

How had Christ worked through Paul?

“By word and deed.”

Paul preached.

And Paul lived.

His ministry wasn't words alone.

Then he adds:

“By the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.”
— Romans 15:19

Paul's apostolic ministry included miraculous signs.

These signs accompanied the spread of the gospel.

Again, we should let this passage say exactly what it says.

Paul is describing:

his apostolic ministry.

The question of whether every Christian in every generation should possess the same miraculous abilities is not the question Paul is answering here.

HOW FAR HAD PAUL PREACHED?

Paul says:

“So that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ.”

That's an enormous territory.

Paul had spent years traveling through the eastern Mediterranean world.

City after city.

Congregation after congregation.

Now he believed a major phase of his work there was nearing completion.

Why?

Because Paul had a particular missionary strategy.

PAUL'S AMBITION

He says:

“And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named.”
— Romans 15:20

Paul wanted to go where Christ was:

not known.

That doesn't mean there was anything wrong with teaching established churches.

Paul did that too.

But his particular apostolic calling pushed him toward:

new territory.

He wanted to plant rather than merely build upon someone else's work.

“LEST I BUILD ON SOMEONE ELSE'S FOUNDATION”

Paul continues:

“Lest I build on someone else's foundation.”

That helps explain something.

Why hadn't Paul gone to Rome earlier?

There was already a church in Rome.

Paul hadn't founded it.

His missionary priority had been places where Christ had not yet been preached.

So his delay was not necessarily because God had slammed a mysterious door shut.

Paul had other work to finish.

PAUL QUOTES ISAIAH

Again Paul explains his ministry from Scripture:

“Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”
— Romans 15:21

This comes from Isaiah 52:15.

And notice where that verse appears.

It is immediately before Isaiah 53, the great passage about the suffering servant.

Paul sees his mission to the nations as part of the fulfillment of Isaiah's vision.

The message about God's Servant is going to people who had:

never heard.

NOW PAUL ANSWERS A QUESTION FROM CHAPTER 1

Paul says:

“This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you.”
— Romans 15:22

That takes us all the way back to Romans 1.

There Paul said:

“I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented).”

Romans 1 told us:

he was prevented.

Romans 15 tells us:

why.

His mission in the eastern regions had not been finished.

This is a good example of why we read:

the whole book.

Sometimes an author answers a question many chapters later.

DON'T INVENT AN ANSWER WHEN THE TEXT GIVES ONE

We might read Romans 1 and speculate:

Satan prevented Paul.

God miraculously prevented Paul.

Roman officials prevented Paul.

Perhaps any of those things could happen in some circumstance.

But here Paul gives us his own explanation.

His missionary work elsewhere had repeatedly kept him from coming.

That's a useful lesson in exegesis.

When the biblical author explains something himself:

let him explain it.

“NO LONGER ANY ROOM FOR WORK”

Paul now says:

“But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions...”
— Romans 15:23

Surely Paul doesn't mean every person from Jerusalem to Illyricum had become a Christian.

There were still millions who had not.

Rather, his particular pioneering mission had established the gospel throughout the region.

Churches now existed.

Others could continue teaching and spreading the gospel.

Paul was ready for:

new territory.

WHERE DID PAUL WANT TO GO?

Paul says:

“And since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain.”
— Romans 15:23–24

Paul's goal wasn't:

Rome.

Rome was on the way.

His eyes were on:

Spain.

He wanted to carry the gospel farther west.

To places where Christ had not been named.

ROME WOULD BECOME A PARTNER

Paul says:

“And to be helped on my journey there by you.”

Paul wasn't merely planning to visit Rome as a tourist.

He apparently hoped the Roman Christians would help support his mission farther west.

Rome could become a base from which the gospel moved toward:

Spain.

Paul wanted partnership in the mission.

BUT PAUL DIDN'T KNOW HOW HE WOULD REACH ROME

There is something fascinating when we read Romans alongside Acts.

Paul wanted to go to Rome.

He prayed about going.

He planned to go.

He hoped eventually to continue toward Spain.

And Paul did reach:

Rome.

But not the way he probably imagined.

He arrived as:

a prisoner.

That is worth remembering.

God may answer the prayer.

But the route may look nothing like:

our plan.

PAUL'S PLANS WERE REAL—BUT THEY WERE NOT GOD'S PROMISE

Paul made plans.

Good plans.

Missionary plans.

Plans centered on preaching Christ.

Yet Paul's plans were still:

plans.

We should be careful about assuming:

“I want to do something good, therefore God must make it happen exactly the way I expect.”

Paul wanted Rome.

He reached Rome.

But:

in chains.

That doesn't mean his prayer failed.

It means God's answer came by a road Paul may never have chosen for himself.

THIS TELLS US SOMETHING ABOUT GUIDANCE

Sometimes Christians wait for a special feeling before making plans.

Paul appears much more practical here.

He sees where the gospel has been preached.

He sees where it has not.

He understands the mission God gave him.

So he makes a plan:

Go west.

Visit Rome.

Preach in Spain.

Paul trusts God while also:

thinking, planning, and acting.

Faith does not eliminate careful planning.

READ PAUL BEFORE READING SOMETHING INTO PAUL

Romans 15 gives us a good example.

Romans 1 said Paul had been:

“Prevented.”

We could create many explanations for that word.

But fifteen chapters later Paul says:

“This is the reason...”

Then he explains it.

That should teach us something.

Before filling a silence in Scripture with our own explanation:

keep reading.

The author may tell us.

And when he does:

let Paul explain Paul.

BEFORE YOU LEAVE

Ask the text:

Did Paul think the Roman Christians knew nothing?

No.

He said they were:

“Filled with all knowledge.”

Why did he still write boldly?

“By way of reminder.”

Who accomplished Paul's missionary work?

“Christ...through me.”

What was the goal of Paul's ministry among the Gentiles?

“To bring the Gentiles to obedience.”

What was Paul's special missionary ambition?

To preach where:

“Christ has not already been named.”

Why had Paul repeatedly been unable to visit Rome?

His pioneering work in the eastern regions had not yet been completed.

Where did he hope to go after Rome?

Spain.

And Paul's travel plans are not finished.

Before going west, he has one more trip to make.

He is going:

to Jerusalem.

And he is carrying something very important with him:

money collected from Gentile Christians for poor Jewish Christians.

After everything Paul has written about Jew and Gentile becoming one in Christ, that collection is much more than:

a bag of money.

NEXT: GENTILES HELPING JEWISH CHRISTIANS

Romans 15:25–33

TEXT B4 TRADITION
Read First. Conclude Later.

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