INTRODUCTION TO
Romans
CIRCUMSTANCES OF WRITING
Paul the apostle is the stated and indisputable author of the book of Romans. From the book of Acts and statements in Romans, we learn that Paul wrote this letter while he was in Corinth and on his way to Jerusalem in the spring of AD 57, to deliver an offering from the Gentile churches to poor Jewish Christians (Ac 20:3; Rm 15:25-29).
All of Paul’s writings grew out of his missionary/pastoral work and were about the problems and needs of local churches. The book of Romans is also of this genre, but it is the least “local” in the sense that Paul had not yet been to Rome. This letter was his opportunity to expound the good news message (the gospel). He could discuss the essence of sin, the salvation accomplished on the cross, the union of the believer with Christ, how the Spirit works in the Christian to promote holiness, the place of the Jewish people in God’s plan, future things, and Christian living or ethics. Though Paul did not write Romans as a systematic theology, his somewhat orderly exposition has been the fountain for the development of that discipline.
The origin of the Roman house churches is unknown. The founding of the Roman church likely goes back to the “visitors from Rome,” “both Jews and converts” who came to Jerusalem at Pentecost (Ac 2:10). Many of these visitors converted to Christianity (Ac 2:41), some of whom very likely hailed from Rome. In Acts 18:2 Luke mentioned Aquila and Priscilla, who left Rome because emperor Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave the city (AD 49). This exodus was caused by strife among Jews over “Chrestus” (Christ). The remaining Christians in Rome would be from a Gentile background. The Jewish-Gentile tensions in Rome had a long history. These tensions are somewhat reflected throughout the letter, most specifically in chapters 2, 11, and 14–15.
Rome was the primary destination of this letter. Yet some manuscripts lack the phrase “in Rome” (1:7), giving some support to the conclusion that Paul intended a wider audience for the book of Romans and sent copies to other churches.
CONTRIBUTION TO THE BIBLE
What is the gospel? The word gospel means “good news.” The good news is about Jesus and what he did for us. Most Bible students would say that the gospel is outlined in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5. Romans fills in that outline and clarifies the gospel in relation to the OT promises and the Mosaic law, the role of good works, and the gift of God’s righteousness. Paul emphasized righteousness and justification in this letter to a depth and detail not found elsewhere in the Bible. Sin is traced to its core in our union with Adam and the imputation of original sin. Paul also mapped out the spread of human sin and its results in both believers and nonbelievers.
There are three passages in the NT (each one long sentence in the Greek text) that contain the most important theology of the NT: John 1:14 on the incarnation; Ephesians 1:3-14 about the triune purpose and glory of God; and Romans 3:21-26 on justification, redemption, and propitiation. If a Christian understands these three sentences, he has a solid foundation for faith.
Paul, in Romans 6–8, gave the most comprehensive development of our union with Christ and the Spirit’s work in us. Romans 9–11 (on the role of Israel in God’s plan) has been called the key to understanding the Bible. Romans 13 is the classic NT passage on the Christian’s relation to and duties to the state. Romans 14–15 covers how Christians can relate to one another yet have different opinions and convictions on nonessential religious matters.
STRUCTURE
Paul wrote thirteen of the twenty-one letters (or “epistles”) contained in the NT. The four Gospels, the book of Acts, and the book of Revelation are not classified as letters. Romans is the longest of Paul’s letters, and it contains the elements found in a standard letter at that time: salutation (1:1-7); thanksgiving (1:8-17); the main body (1:18–16:18); and a farewell (16:19-24). Some scholars refer to Romans as a tractate (a formal treatise). But it bears all the marks of a real letter, although it is a finely tuned literary composition.
SPURGEON ON ROMANS
Paul was persuaded of four things. First, that God loves us. Second, that God has shown his love to us by the gift of his Son Jesus Christ. Third, his divine love comes streaming down to us because we are in Christ and we are loved for his sake. Fourth, nothing can ever break the bond of love between God and those who are in his Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.
THE GOSPEL OF GOD FOR ROME
1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle A and set apart for the gospel of God — 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures — 3 concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David B according to the flesh 4 and was appointed to be the powerful Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness C by the resurrection of the dead. 5 Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about D the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the Gentiles, E 6 including you who are also called by Jesus Christ.
7 To all who are in Rome, loved by God, called as saints.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
PAUL’S DESIRE TO VISIT ROME
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith F is being reported in all the world. 9 God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in telling the good news about his Son — that I constantly mention you, 10 always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I want very much to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, 12 that is, to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
13 Now I don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry G among you, just as I have had among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, H both to the wise and the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
THE RIGHTEOUS WILL LIVE BY FAITH
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, I because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, J just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith. K,L
THE GUILT OF THE GENTILE WORLD
18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, 19 since what can be known A about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. 21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.
QUOTE 1:18
When we and the truth quarrel, we had better end our fighting soon, for we will have the worst of it if we do not yield.
QUOTE 1:19-20
There is a gospel in the sea, in the heavens, in the stars, and in the sun; and if people will not read it, they are guilty.
24 Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
FROM IDOLATRY TO DEPRAVITY
26 For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women B exchanged natural sexual relations C for unnatural ones. 27 The men D in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons E the appropriate penalty of their error.
28 And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. 29 They are filled with all unrighteousness, F evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, G and unmerciful. 32 Although they know God’s just sentence — that those who practice such things deserve to die H — they not only do them, but even applaud I others who practice them.
1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.” The gospel explains this believing and thus receiving righteousness by faith and not by good works and also living by faith. This is the sweet story of the cross, of which Paul was not ashamed.
1:18 “For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” Sinful people do not let the truth work in their hearts. They do not allow it to operate in their minds; instead, they try to make it an excuse for their sins. Some people attend church for years; and the truth has pricked them, troubled them, made them lie awake at night; but they hold it down. When we are afraid of the truth, we would do well to be afraid of hell also! When we and the truth quarrel, we had better end our fighting soon, for we will have the worst of it if we do not yield.
1:19-20 “What can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.” If they open their eyes, people who have never heard the gospel can see God in his works. Enough is written on the face of nature to condemn people if they do not turn to God. There is a gospel in the sea, in the heavens, in the stars, and in the sun; and if people will not read it, they are guilty; for they are willfully ignorant of what they might know and ought to know.
A 1:1 Or Jesus, a called apostle
B 1:3 Lit was of the seed of David
C 1:4 Or the spirit of holiness, or the Holy Spirit
D 1:5 Or him for ; lit him into
E 1:5 Or nations, also in v. 13
I 1:16 Other mss add of Christ
J 1:17 Or revealed out of faith into faith
K 1:17 Or The one who is righteous by faith will live
B 1:26 Lit females, also in v. 27
C 1:26 Lit natural use, also in v. 27
D 1:27 Lit males, also later in v.
F 1:29 Other mss add sexual immorality
G 1:31 Other mss add unforgiving
GOD’S RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT
2Therefore, every one of you J who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things. 2 We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth. 3 Do you really think — anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same — that you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing A that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? 5 Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed. 6 He will repay each one according to his works: B 7 eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality; 8 but wrath and anger to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth while obeying unrighteousness. 9 There will be affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek; 10 but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. 11 For there is no favoritism with God.
12 All who sin without the law will also perish without the law, and all who sin under C the law will be judged by the law. 13 For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. D 14 So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do E what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law F is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them G 16 on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.
QUOTE 2:16
He felt that he could not live in the midst of so depraved a people without holding the gospel with both hands, and grasping it as his very own.
JEWISH VIOLATION OF THE LAW
17 Now if H you call yourself a Jew, and rely on the law, and boast in God, 18 and know his will, and approve the things that are superior, being instructed from the law, 19 and if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light to those in darkness, 20 an instructor of the ignorant, a teacher of the immature, having the embodiment of knowledge and truth in the law — 21 you then, who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach, “You must not steal” — do you steal? 22 You who say, “You must not commit adultery” — do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob their temples? 23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24 For, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. A
CIRCUMCISION OF THE HEART
25 Circumcision benefits you if you observe the law, but if you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 So if an uncircumcised man keeps the law’s requirements, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? 27 A man who is physically uncircumcised, but who keeps the law, will judge you who are a lawbreaker in spite of having the letter of the law and circumcision. 28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. 29 On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart — by the Spirit, not the letter. B That person’s praise is not from people but from God.
2:4 “Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” God is often exceedingly good to those who are utterly unworthy of such treatment: “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good” (Mt 5:45). Indeed, sometimes evil people seem to have more of the sunshine than good people do! David said, “I have seen a wicked, violent person well-rooted, like a flourishing native tree” (Ps 37:35). God’s patience has been misinterpreted and even misrepresented by some who have implied, or actually asserted, that God winks at sin and does not care how people behave. They claim that God treats all alike whether they are good or evil. This is a misinterpretation of the merciful design of God toward the ungodly and is corrected by the apostle in this verse. The goodness of God to a person of evil life is not intended to encourage him to continue in his sin but to woo and win him away from it. God manifests his infinite gentleness and love so that he may thereby kill man’s sin and win man’s hard heart to himself by his tender mercy. In his abundant loving-kindness, God awakens a person’s conscience to a sense of his true position in his Maker’s sight that he may turn away from the sin he now loves and may seek his God, whom he has despised and neglected.
2:16 “On the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.” [ED: After writing about “the hideous vices of the heathen”], Paul reminds himself of his chief comfort. While his pen was black with the words he had written in the first chapter, he was driven to write of his great delight. He clings to the gospel with a greater tenacity than ever. While in this verse he needed to mention the gospel, he did not speak of it as “the gospel,” but as “my gospel.” He felt that he could not live in the midst of so depraved a people without holding the gospel with both hands, and grasping it as his very own. Not that Paul was the author of it, not that Paul had an exclusive monopoly of its blessings, but that he had so received it from Christ himself, and regarded himself as so responsibly put in trust with it, that he could not disown it even for an instant. So fully had he taken it into himself that he could not do less than call it “my gospel.” In another place he speaks of “our gospel” (2Co 4:3; 1Th 1:5; 2Th 2:14), thus using a plural possessive pronoun to show how believers identify themselves with the truth they preach. He had a gospel—a definite form of truth—and he believed in it beyond all doubt, and, therefore, he spoke of it as “my gospel.” Here we hear the voice of faith, which seems to say, “Though others reject it, I am sure of it and allow no shade of mistrust to darken my mind. To me it is glad tidings of great joy; I hail it as ‘my gospel.’ If I am called a fool for holding it, I am content to be a fool, and to find all my wisdom in my Lord.”—“Should all the forms that men devise assault my faith with treacherous art, I’d call them vanity and lies, and bind the gospel to my heart.”
2:29 “Circumcision is of the heart—by the Spirit, not the letter. That person’s praise is not from people but from God.” It is not the outward, not the external, not the form and ceremony but the inward work of the Holy Spirit. It is holiness and change of heart. Let none of us ever fall into the gross error of those who imagine that there is attached to certain ceremonies a certain degree of divine grace. It is not so. He is not a Christian who is one outwardly; he is a Christian who is one inwardly.
J 2:1 Lit Therefore, O man, every one
A 2:4 Or patience, because you do not recognize
E 2:14 Or who do not have the law, instinctively do
F 2:15 The code of conduct required by the law
G 2:15 Internal debate, either in a person or among the pagan moralists
PAUL ANSWERS AN OBJECTION
3So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? 2 Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted with the very words of God. 3 What then? If some were unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Absolutely not! Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar, as it is written:
That you may be justified in your words
and triumph when you judge. C
5 But if our unrighteousness highlights D God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I am using a human argument: E Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath? 6 Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world? 7 But if by my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? 8 And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, “Let us do what is evil so that good may come”? Their condemnation is deserved!
THE WHOLE WORLD GUILTY BEFORE GOD
9 What then? Are we any better off? F Not at all! For we have already charged that both Jews and Gentiles G are all under sin, H 10 as it is written:
There is no one righteous, not even one.
11There is no one
who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12All have turned away;
all alike have become worthless.
There is no one who does what is good,
not even one. I
13Their throat is an open grave;
they deceive with their tongues. J
Vipers’ venom is
under their lips. K
14Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. L
15Their feet are swift
to shed blood;
16ruin and wretchedness are in their paths,
17and the path of peace they have not known. A
18There is no fear of God before their eyes. B
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are subject to the law, C so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God’s judgment. D 20 For no one will be justified E in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD THROUGH FAITH
21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. F 22 The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ G to all who believe, since there is no distinction. 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the H glory of God. 24 They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as an atoning sacrifice I in his blood, received through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be righteous and declare righteous J the one who has faith in Jesus.
BOASTING EXCLUDED
27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? K By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law L of faith. 28 For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then nullify the law through faith? Absolutely not! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
3:8 “And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, ‘Let us do what is evil so that good may come’? Their condemnation is deserved!” We never said—we never even thought—that we might do evil that good should come. No, if all the good in the world could come of a single evil action, we have no right to do it. We must never do evil with the hope of advancing God’s cause. If God chooses to turn evil into good, as he often does, that is no reason we should do evil, and it is no justification of sin. The murder of Christ at Calvary has brought the greatest possible benefit to us, yet it was a high crime against God, the greatest of all crimes, when man committed deicide and slew the Son of God.
3:24-25 “They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God presented him as an atoning sacrifice in his blood.” The sense of the term justified is, in this place and in most others, to declare a person to be righteous. A person is put on trial and brought before the judge. One of two things will happen: either he will be acquitted, or else he will be condemned. We all essentially stand before the judge, and we are at any given moment either acquitted or condemned. It is not possible that any one of us should be acquitted on the grounds of our not being guilty, for we must all confess that we have broken the law of God thousands of times. The Lord has provided a way by which he can be righteous and yet declare the guilty to be righteous. Simply stated, this is the way of substitution and imputation. Our sins are taken off of us and laid on Christ Jesus, the innocent substitute.
The term redemption means a price is to be paid—something needs to be redeemed. There is an intervening suffering and an intervening obedience. We are not justified freely without redemption, nor are we justified by his grace without the intervention of the atoning sacrifice. Oh, how people labor to get rid of this! Certain persons think themselves philosophic and will do all they can to smear this doctrine of substitution, but it is the soul, head, foundation, and cornerstone of the entire gospel. If it is left out, then the gospel preached is another gospel. The phrase atoning sacrifice can refer to the mercy seat, the covering of the ark of the covenant. Here it refers to a sacrifice that vindicates the injured honor of God and makes amends to the divine law for human offenses before a holy God.
D 3:5 Or shows, or demonstrates
F 3:9 Are we Jews any better than the Gentiles?
H 3:9 Under sin’s power or dominion
I 3:10-12 Ps 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Ec 7:20
D 3:19 Or become guilty before God, or may be accountable to God
E 3:20 Or will be declared righteous, or will be acquitted
F 3:21 When capitalized, the Law and the Prophets = OT
G 3:22 Or through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ
I 3:25 Or a propitiation, or a place of atonement
ABRAHAM JUSTIFIED BY FAITH
4What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? M 2 If Abraham was justified N by works, he has something to boast about — but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness. O 4 Now to the one who works, pay is not credited as a gift, but as something owed. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who declares the ungodly to be righteous, his faith is credited for righteousness.
DAVID CELEBRATING THE SAME TRUTH
6 Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7Blessed are those whose lawless acts are forgiven
and whose sins are covered.
8Blessed is the person
the Lord will never charge with sin. A
ABRAHAM JUSTIFIED BEFORE CIRCUMCISION
9 Is this blessing only for the circumcised, then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness. B 10 In what way then was it credited — while he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? It was not while he was circumcised, but uncircumcised. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith C while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also. 12 And he became the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.
QUOTE 4:11
Every promise of God’s Word belongs to all those who have the faith to grasp it.
THE PROMISE GRANTED THROUGH FAITH
13 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise nullified, 15 because the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.
16 This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants — not only to those who are of the law D but also to those who are of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations. E He is our father in God’s sight, in whom Abraham believed — the God who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist. 18 He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became the father of many nations E according to what had been spoken: So will your descendants be. F 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered G his own body to be already dead (since he was about a hundred years old) and also the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do. 22 Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness. A 23 Now it was credited to him A was not written for Abraham alone, 24 but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered up for B our trespasses and raised for our justification.
4:11 “And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also.” The historical argument is a forcible one. The blessing was not given to Abraham as a circumcised man but as a believing man. And hence it also comes to all of us who believe. What a mercy it is that there is, in this sense, no distinction between Jew and Gentile! I hate that plan of reading the Scriptures in which we are told, when we lay hold of a gracious promise, “Oh, that is for the Jews.” Then I also am a Jew, for it is given to me! Every promise of God’s Word belongs to all those who have the faith to grasp it. We who have faith are all in the covenant and are thus the children of faithful Abraham.
4:20 “He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God.” People seem to think that only workers can give glory to God, but more glory is given to God by one drachma of faith than by a ton of works. After all, works usually generate conceit and pride in us. But faith lays itself low before its God and gives to him all the glory. God is never more glorified than he is by the believing confidence of his people when difficulties seem to come in the way.
4:24-25 “It will be credited to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Jesus Christ is the great object of saving faith. Christ, once dead, has been raised from the dead. If you want to be saved, you must rely on the crucified and risen Savior. If you thus believe that Jesus the crucified is the Christ of God, the anointed Messiah and Redeemer, you prove that you are born of God. And if you trust yourself to the risen and glorified Christ, you have risen with him, and you will rise to be with him forever and ever.
M 4:1 Or What then shall we say? Have we found Abraham to be our forefather according to the flesh? or What, then, shall we say that Abraham our forefather found according to the flesh?
N 4:2 Or was declared righteous, or was acquitted
C 4:11 Lit righteousness of faith, also in v. 13
D 4:16 Or not to those who are of the law only
FAITH TRIUMPHS
5Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace C with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 We have also obtained access through him by faith D into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice E in the hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, 4 endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. 5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
THOSE DECLARED RIGHTEOUS ARE RECONCILED
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person — though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 How much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
DEATH THROUGH ADAM AND LIFE THROUGH CHRIST
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned. F 13 In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. He is a type of the Coming One.
God imparts his gracious salvation to people whom he regards as lost and condemned, as those who have no claim on him whatever, to whom nothing but his free favor can bring deliverance.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many. 16 And the gift is not like the one man’s sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification. A 17 Since by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18 So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is justification leading to life for everyone. 19 For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
5:12,15 “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned. . . . But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many.” We were ruined by the sin of Adam, but we are saved by a free gift. Our fall in Adam is a type of the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, but the type is not completely able to set forth all the work of Christ, so Paul said, “But the gift is not like the trespass.” We as Adam’s offspring were heavy losers by the offense of our first father, the head of our human race. We have lost the garden of Eden and all its delights, privileges, and immunities, its communion with God, and its freedom from death. We have lost our first honor and health, and we have become the subjects of pain and weakness, suffering and death. This is the effect of the fall.
Since we are helpless sinners, salvation must be a free gift. God bestows it on people without regard to any merit—supposed or real. Grace has to do with the guilty. Grace by its nature is not a proper gift for the righteous and deserving but for the undeserving and sinful. God imparts his gracious salvation to people whom he regards as lost and condemned, as those who have no claim on him whatever, to whom nothing but his free favor can bring deliverance. He saves them not because he perceives that they have done anything good, or have hopeful traits of character, or form resolutions to aspire to something better but simply because he is merciful and delights to exercise his grace and manifest his free favor and infinite love.
C 5:1 Other mss read faith, let us have peace, which can also be translated faith, let us grasp the fact that we have peace
THE NEW LIFE IN CHRIST
6What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness B of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be C in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self D was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin E might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, 7 since a person who has died is freed F from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. G
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey H its desires. 13 And do not offer any parts I of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. 14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.
FROM SLAVES OF SIN TO SLAVES OF GOD
15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not! 16 Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone A as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey — either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed B over, 18 and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 19 I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. C For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. D 21 So what fruit was produced E then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. 22 But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification — and the outcome is eternal life! 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.”
The Table of our Lord is a fitting place for taking a view of ourselves and God’s dealings with us. We may:
I.SEE OUR FORMER STATE: “slavery.”
1.A State of restraint from good and constraint to ill. The man sins with hell before him. The slaves toil in feverish atmospheres. A state of degradation, ruled by our own passions, our companions, Satan.
2.A state of uneasiness, fear, remorse, pain.
3.A toil for nought. Death the wages. Hell the end. This slavery was hopeless, from our own inability to pay or escape, and our Master’s strength.
II.BUT NOW, OUR PRESENT STATE: “servants of God.”
| 1.This perfect freedom. 2.Joyful existence. 3.Heavenly prospect. |
{Ways of pleasantness. Gift of God. |
III.THE MEANS:
Unfeigned obedience to pure doctrine. The Scriptures are our guide, and Jesus we wish to serve. “Obedience” to the doctrine. Not hearing only, but doing. And it is from the heart. Not outward merely, but inward.
IV. THE GLORY MUST BE GIVEN TO GOD.
“God be thanked.”
He did it:
1.By redemption with price.
2.Deliverance with power. He melts us and delivers us into the mould.
Let us thank him in our words, actions, prayers, and be desirous that all do so do.
Help. Amen.
96. 97. 269
6:14 “For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.” While we were under the law and simply heard it command us to do our duty, the command seemed to awaken all the hostility of our nature so that we remained under the dominion of sin. But now no longer does the law speak to us as it did before. We are not now under the law, but another principle governs us. The grace, the favor, the love God has shown us in Christ Jesus appeals to our hearts, and we cheerfully yield to it the obedience our unregenerate spirits refused to render when the law demanded it.
6:16 “Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?” The one who lives a life of sin proves he is the servant of sin, for he has obeyed its commands. Let that person know assuredly that he has nothing to do with Christ while living in sin. But the one who lives in obedience to Christ and seeks after righteousness and true holiness is evidently the servant of righteousness and so the servant of God.
6:21 “So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death.” We might say to the slave of sin, “You had such pleasure as sin could give you, but was it worth having? You derived some profit, perhaps, from evil pursuits, but did the profit ever make up for the loss you thereby sustained? You who have had experience of sin to the full, has it, after all, turned out to be the fair and lovely thing it once seemed to be? It came to you with all manner of deceitful unrighteousness, like Jezebel with her painted face, but it has worked nothing for you but sorrow and suffering, and it will work your eternal ruin unless God, in his great mercy shall prevent it.
E 6:6 Lit that the body of sin
F 6:7 Or justified ; lit acquitted
H 6:12 Other mss add sin (lit it) in
I 6:13 Or members, also in v. 19
A 6:16 Lit that to whom you offer yourselves
AN ILLUSTRATION FROM MARRIAGE
7Since I am speaking to those who know the law, brothers and sisters, don’t you know that the law rules over someone as long as he lives? 2 For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband. 3 So then, if she is married to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she is married to another man, she is not an adulteress.
4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us F to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.
SIN’S USE OF THE LAW
7 What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet. G 8 And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life again 10 and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. 13 Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.
THE PROBLEM OF SIN IN US
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, A sold as a slave to sin. B 15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. 21 So I discover this law: C When I want to do what is good, D evil is present with me. 22 For in my inner self E I delight in God’s law, 23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body, F waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.
7:13 “So that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.” Sin is rebellion against God and “sinful beyond measure” because it interferes with the just rights and prerogatives of God. The great invisible God whom we cannot see, whom even our own thoughts cannot encompass, made the heavens and the earth and all things that exist. And it was his right that what he made should serve his purposes and give him glory. Human beings are favored in God’s creation; we are not inanimate clods or worms, having only sensations without intellect. We have been favored with thought, emotion, affection, and a high spiritual existence. We have an immortal existence. We have been especially bound to be obedient to the one who made us. Does not God have rights toward us? Have we forgotten him that made us? Why have sinners spent their powers and faculties for anything but his glory? It is indeed “sinful beyond measure” when the royal rights of him by whose will we exist are ignored or impudently contravened. Yet according to the part we take in sin, we trample on his edicts and consider his jurisdiction as nothing.
We must meditate on his attributes and consider his majesty, for he is not only infinitely powerful, wise, all sufficient, and glorious, but he is also supremely good. His character is matchless. He is a pure and holy God whom we worship. Nothing in God warrants human rebellion. He is our Father, our God, our great Shepherd-King, so no one can frame an excuse when we for a single moment revolt against him or lift a finger against his will. It would and should be the greatest pleasure to serve him. The angels will tell you this. It is total bliss to do his will.
THE LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT
8Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, G 2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you H free from the law of sin and death. 3 What the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, I 4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. 6 Now the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. 10 Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit A gives life B because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through C his Spirit who lives in you.
QUOTE 8:8
People may wash this old nature, they may clothe it, they may decorate it, they may educate it, but no evolution can produce grace out of nature.
THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRIES
12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, 13 because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, D Father! ” 16 The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, 17 and if children, also heirs — heirs of God and coheirs with Christ — if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
FROM GROANS TO GLORY
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility — not willingly, but because of him who subjected it — in the hope 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. 23 Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits — we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 Now in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? 25 Now if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.
26 In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us A with unspoken groanings. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28 We know that all things work together B for the good C of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
THE BELIEVER’S TRIUMPH
31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He did not even spare his own Son but offered him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? 33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. 35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
Because of you
we are being put to death all day long;
we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. D
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.” This wonderful chapter is the cream of the cream of Holy Scripture. What a grand keynote the apostle strikes in the first verse! “No condemnation” is the first note of the chapter, and in the last verse it is “no separation.” What glorious music there is here! Happy are the people who have a share in this double blessing, but unhappy are the men and women who know nothing of it. Paul refuted the false doctrine of universal amnesty by saying only those in Christ are not condemned (see Jn 3:18). Everyone is condemned who is not in Christ Jesus, and the status of “no condemnation” for a person is solely because he is in Christ Jesus. His being in Christ Jesus is the sole great method by which he has escaped condemnation. Paul did not say what wicked men desire to hear, which is that everyone is free from condemnation. He taught the horrible truth that the unrepentant sinner is under condemnation, and since he believed that truth, he spoke it plainly.
8:8 “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” People may wash this old nature, they may clothe it, they may decorate it, they may educate it, but no evolution can produce grace out of nature. The child of nature may be finely dressed, but he is a dead child however gaudily he is attired. There is a vital eternal difference between the old nature and the new.
8:15-16 “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Oh the blessed state of heart to feel that now we are born into the family of God and that the choice word that no slave might ever pronounce may now be pronounced by us: “Abba!” It is a child’s word, such as a little child utters when he first opens his mouth to speak, and it runs the same both backwards and forwards: AB-BA. Oh to have a childlike spirit that in whatever state of heart I am, I may still be able to say, in the accents even of spiritual infancy, “Abba, Father!” What better testimony can we have than that of these two witnesses, first of our own spirit and then of the Holy Spirit himself? This is not spoken concerning everybody. The doctrine of the universal fatherhood of God is a doctrine of the flesh, not of the Spirit. It is not taught anywhere in God’s Word. This is a fatherhood that relates only to those who are spiritual. We are born into it by the new birth and brought into it by an act of divine grace in adoption.
8:38-39 “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul was persuaded of four things. First, that God loves us. Second, that God has shown his love to us by the gift of his Son Jesus Christ. Third, his divine love comes streaming down to us because we are in Christ and we are loved for his sake. Fourth, nothing can ever break the bond of love between God and those who are in his Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.
G 8:1 Other mss add who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit
B 8:10 Or your spirit is alive
C 8:11 Other mss read because of
ISRAEL’S REJECTION OF CHRIST
9I speak the truth in Christ — I am not lying; my conscience testifies to me through the Holy Spirit E — 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off F from Christ for the benefit of my brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises. 5 The ancestors are theirs, and from them, by physical descent, A came the Christ, who is God over all, praised forever. B Amen.
GOD’S GRACIOUS ELECTION OF ISRAEL
6 Now it is not as though the word of God has failed, because not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Neither are all of Abraham’s children his descendants. C On the contrary, your offspring will be traced D through Isaac. E 8 That is, it is not the children by physical descent F who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring. 9 For this is the statement of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son. G 10 And not only that, but Rebekah conceived children through one man, our father Isaac. 11 For though her sons had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to election might stand — 12 not from works but from the one who calls — she was told, The older will serve the younger. H 13 As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau. I
GOD’S SELECTION IS JUST
14 What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! 15 For he tells Moses, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. J 16 So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture tells Pharaoh, I raised you up for this reason so that I may display my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in the whole earth. K 18 So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
19 You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? ” 20 But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this? ” 21 Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor? 22 And what if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And what if he did this to make known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory — 24 on us, the ones he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As it L also says in Hosea,
I will call Not My People, My People,
and she who is Unloved, Beloved. M
26And it will be in the place where they were told,
you are not my people,
there they will be called sons of the living God. N
27 But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel,
Though the number of Israelites
is like the sand of the sea,
only the remnant will be saved;
28since the Lord will execute his sentence
completely and decisively on the earth. A,B
29 And just as Isaiah predicted:
If the Lord of Hosts C had not left us offspring,
we would have become like Sodom,
and we would have been made like Gomorrah. D
ISRAEL’S PRESENT STATE
30 What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness — namely the righteousness that comes from faith. 31 But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law. E 32 Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. F They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written,
Look, I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over
and a rock to trip over,
and the one who believes on him
will not be put to shame. G
9:3 “For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the benefit of my brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood.” They hated Paul intensely. Nothing could surpass the malice of the Jews against the man whom they reckoned to be an apostate from the true faith because he had become a follower of Christ, the Nazarene. Yet he is willing, as it were, to forfeit his own salvation if by doing so the Jews might be saved. We must understand Paul’s words as spoken out of the depths of a great loving heart, which speaks not according to the laws of logic but according to its own immeasurable feelings. There were times when he almost thought he would consent to be accursed, “anathema,” cast away, separated from Christ—if thereby he could save the house of Israel, so great was his love toward them. Of course, this could not be, and no one understood better than Paul that there is only one substitute and one sacrifice for sinners. He only mentioned this wish to show how dearly he loved the Jews, so that on their account he had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh.
9:25 “As it also says in Hosea, ‘I will call Not My People, My People, and she who is Unloved, Beloved.’” If we look at the original state of God’s people, we gaze on a gloomy picture. Yet this portrait reveals the state in which every unconverted person finds himself—the state in which all of us, who are now saved, once were. We were not God’s people—that is to say, God did not approve of us at all. Our thoughts were contrary to God’s thoughts. Our ways were such as God could not endure. Our speech grated on his ears. We followed the devices and imaginations of our own hearts. The prince of this world had dominion over us, and God’s grace had not been displayed in our lives. We went astray like lost sheep. That is the condition of all lost sinners today. But what a wonderful experience it is when the poor lost sinner finds out that he or she belongs to God and has been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ! In that case God says to all repentant sinners, “You are my people; you are loved!”
E 9:1 Or testifying with me by the Holy Spirit
A 9:5 Lit them, according to the flesh
B 9:5 Or the Messiah, the one who is over all, the God who is blessed forever, or Messiah. God, who is over all, be blessed forever
F 9:8 Lit children of the flesh
B 9:27-28 Is 10:22-23; 28:22; Hs 1:10
C 9:29 Gk Sabaoth ; or the Lord of Armies
E 9:31 Other mss read the law for righteousness
RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH ALONE
10Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God concerning them H is for their salvation. 2 I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 Since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end I of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes, 5 since Moses writes about the righteousness that is from the law: The one who does these things will live by them. J 6 But the righteousness that comes from faith speaks like this: Do not say in your heart, “Who will go up to heaven? ” K that is, to bring Christ down 7 or, “Who will go down into the abyss? ” L that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. 8 On the contrary, what does it say? The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. M This is the message of faith that we proclaim: 9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, N 12 since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. A
QUOTE 10:4
Like the fascination that attracts the gnat to the candle that burns its wings, people by nature fly to the law for salvation and cannot be driven from it.
ISRAEL’S REJECTION OF THE MESSAGE
14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful B are the feet of those who bring good news. C 16 But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? D 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ. E 18 But I ask, “Did they not hear? ” Yes, they did:
Their voice has gone out to the whole earth,
and their words to the ends of the world. F
QUOTE 10:17
Let human thoughts perish forever; the thoughts of God, and not the thoughts of man, will save souls.
19 But I ask, “Did Israel not understand? ” First, Moses said,
I will make you jealous
of those who are not a nation;
I will make you angry
by a nation
that lacks understanding. G
20 And Isaiah says boldly,
I was found
by those who were not looking for me;
I revealed myself
to those who were not asking for me. H
21 But to Israel he says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people. I
10:4 “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Like the fascination that attracts the gnat to the candle that burns its wings, people by nature fly to the law for salvation and cannot be driven from it. The law can do nothing else but reveal sin and pronounce condemnation on the sinner. And yet we cannot get men away from it, even though we show them how sweetly Jesus stands between them and it. They are so enamored of legal hope that they cling to it when there is nothing to cling to. They prefer Sinai to Calvary, though Sinai has nothing for them but thunder and trumpet warnings of coming judgment. Christ is the “end” of the law in that he is the purpose and object of the law, the fulfillment of it, and the termination of it.
10:13 “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” A person cannot call on the name of the Lord unless he trusts in that name. We must have reliance on the name of Christ, or else we have not called on him rightly. For those who have become aware of their guilt and awakened to their danger, here is their remedy. Christ Jesus the Son of God became a man. He was born of the virgin Mary, he was crucified, he died, and he rose from the dead. He did this to save sinners such as we all are. All that is asked is this: call on Jesus in faith. We are nothing, but we can take Christ to be everything.
10:14 “How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?” Here you have the whole plan of salvation. Christ is preached, sinners hear the message of the gospel, they believe it, and so they are saved. What a mass of rubbish people have interjected into this blessed simple plan! How different this is from the cumbersome, complicated plan by which men would destroy our souls. Cling to the old-fashioned gospel and never turn away from it! Nothing can take the place of the simplicity of divine truth.
10:17 “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.” I desire always, as a preacher, to feel that it is not my word but God’s Word that saves souls. We are to explain it and expound it, but we are not to add to it, take from it, or think we can improve it. We must not go into the pulpit and say, “I have been working out a subject from my own mind, and I am going to give you the result of my thoughts.” We had better keep our own thoughts for some other place and give the people the revealed truth of God. Some think all preachers worth hearing must be profound thinkers and inventors of improved theologies. Let human thoughts perish forever; the thoughts of God, and not the thoughts of man, will save souls. The truth of God should be spoken simply, with as little as possible of the embellishments of metaphysics, and philosophy, and high culture, and all that stuff. I say the Word of God, delivered as we find it, is what brings faith to the souls of men when it is heard.
ISRAEL’S REJECTION NOT TOTAL
11I ask, then, has God rejected his people? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah — how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and they are trying to take my life! J 4 But what was God’s answer to him? I have left seven thousand for myself who have not bowed down to Baal. K 5 In the same way, then, there is also at the present time a remnant chosen by grace. 6 Now if by grace, then it is not by works; otherwise grace ceases to be grace. L
7 What then? Israel did not find what it was looking for, but the elect did find it. The rest were hardened, 8 as it is written,
God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that cannot see
and ears that cannot hear,
to this day. A
9 And David says,
Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a pitfall and a retribution to them.
10Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
and their backs be bent continually. B
ISRAEL’S REJECTION NOT FINAL
11 I ask, then, have they stumbled so as to fall? Absolutely not! On the contrary, by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their transgression brings riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness bring!
13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Insofar as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if I might somehow make my own people C jealous and save some of them. 15 For if their rejection brings reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16 Now if the firstfruits are holy, so is the whole batch. And if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17 Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, though a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and have come to share in the rich root D of the cultivated olive tree, 18 do not boast that you are better than those branches. But if you do boast — you do not sustain the root, but the root sustains you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 True enough; they were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but beware, E 21 because if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. 22 Therefore, consider God’s kindness and severity: severity toward those who have fallen but God’s kindness toward you — if you remain in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, because God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut off from your native wild olive tree and against nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these — the natural branches — be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all F Israel will be saved, as it is written,
The Deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
27And this will be my covenant with them G
when I take away their sins. H
28 Regarding the gospel, they are enemies for your advantage, but regarding election, they are loved because of the patriarchs, 29 since God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable. A 30 As you once disobeyed God but now have received mercy through their disobedience, 31 so they too have now disobeyed, resulting in mercy to you, so that they also may now B receive mercy. 32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may have mercy on all.
A HYMN OF PRAISE
33Oh, the depth of the riches
both of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments
and untraceable his ways!
34For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
35And who has ever given to God,
that he should be repaid? C
36For from him and through him
and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever. Amen.
11:36 “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.” Paul explained as a general principle that all things come from God. They are from him as their source; they are through him as their means; they are to him as their end. They are from him in the plan, through him in the working, and to him in the glory they produce. Taking this general principle, we will find that they apply to all things, and it is ours to mark those in which it is most manifestly the case. Thus, it should be our desire and goal to bring glory to him in all things. If you really want to glorify God, take care that you don’t do it with lip service—which dies away in the wind—but with true honor in daily life. Praise him by your patience in pain, by your perseverance in duty, by your generosity in his cause, by your boldness in testimony, by your consecration to his work. Praise him not only in worship services on Sunday morning, but praise him also every day by doing something for God in all sorts of ways, according to the manner in which he has been pleased to bless you.
L 11:6 Other mss add But if of works it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
A LIVING SACRIFICE
12Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. D 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
MANY GIFTS BUT ONE BODY
3 For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one. 4 Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, 5 in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. 6 According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s E faith; 7 if service, use it in service; if teaching, in teaching; 8 if exhorting, in exhortation; giving, with generosity; leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness.
CHRISTIAN ETHICS
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good. 10 Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lack diligence in zeal; be fervent in the Spirit; F serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer. 13 Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes. 18 If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, G says the Lord. 20 But
If your enemy is hungry, feed him.
If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
For in so doing
you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. A
21 Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.
12:1 “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.” Paul boldly states the truth of God, but here he comes to pleading with us. I see him lift the pen from the paper and look around at us and say, “I urge you, in view of the mercies of God, God’s great mercy to you, his many mercies, his continued mercies.” What stronger plea could the apostle have? And what are we to do? We are to present our bodies to God, not our souls alone, to make real, practical work of it.
12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.” Sympathize with mourners. Take a share of their burden. It is easier to weep with them who weep than it is to rejoice with them who rejoice. For this old flesh of ours begins to envy those who rejoice, whereas it does not so much object to sympathizing with those that sorrow. We should carry out both commands.
12:21 “Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.” This passage gives us a choice between two things and bids us choose the better one: we must either be conquered by evil, or we must conquer evil—one of the two. We cannot let evil alone, and evil will not let us alone. We must fight, and in the battle we must either conquer or be conquered. Paul was like a wise general who says, “Conquer or be conquered! Be victorious or be defeated!” There is no avoiding the conflict, no making truce or holding negotiations, no suspension of hostilities after a brief skirmish. The battle must be fought through to the end and can only close with a decided victory to one or the other side. Soldier of Christ, do you need to debate which of the two to choose, victory or defeat? We are not called to conquer evil with evil—that is the way of the world—but to conquer evil with good. This passage demands not merely passive nonresistance, though that is going a good way, but calls us to active benevolence to enemies. We conquer evil with good with direct and overt acts of kindness; that is, if anyone has done you a wrong, do not only forgive it but avenge it by showing him kindness as well.
A CHRISTIAN’S DUTIES TO THE STATE
13Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God. 2 So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have its approval. 4 For it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For it is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong. 5 Therefore, you must submit, not only because of wrath but also because of your conscience. 6 And for this reason you pay taxes, since the authorities are God’s servants, continually attending to these tasks. B 7 Pay your obligations to everyone: taxes to those you owe taxes, tolls to those you owe tolls, respect to those you owe respect, and honor to those you owe honor.
LOVE, OUR PRIMARY DUTY
8 Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; C do not covet; D and any other commandment, are summed up by this commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself. E 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.
PUT ON CHRIST
11 Besides this, since you know the time, it is already the hour for you F to wake up from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over, and the day is near; so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk with decency, as in the daytime: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and don’t make plans to gratify the desires of the flesh.
13:11 “Besides this, since you know the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” Paul has been bidding us to pay attention to our relationships. In our role as citizens, he bids us render honor to magistrates and to those who are in authority, and to pay all lawful dues and customs, and the like, telling us that we are to owe no man anything except to “love one another.” And then he shows us that the law of love is the abstract and the essence of that great table of the law concerning one’s relation to his neighbors. He goes on to exhort us to keep that law of love, to manifest love more and more, and when he has done so, he interjects this sentence urging us to “wake up.” Now I gather he means that many Christians are in a sleepy state with reference to the law of love, with reference to their obligations to others.
13:14 “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and don’t make plans to gratify the desires of the flesh.” Christ must be in us before he can be on us. Christ must be in the heart by faith before he can be in the life by holiness. If you need light from a lantern, the first business is to light the candle inside it; and then, as a consequence, the light shines through to be seen by others. When Christ is formed in us and is our hope of glory, we cannot not conceal our love for him. Instead, we put him on in our conduct as the glory of our hope. As we have Christ within as our Savior, the secret of our inner life, so we put on Christ to be the beauty of our daily lives. The external is brightened by the internal, and this will be the armor of light that all soldiers of the Lord Jesus are privileged to wear. As Christ is our food that nourished our inner being, so we put him on as our garments that cover the outer man.
A man takes up his staff for a journey or his sword for a battle, but he lays them down again after a while. You are to put on the Lord Jesus as you put on your garments, and thus he is to cover you and to become part and parcel of your outward appearance, surrounding yourself as a visible part of your manifest personality.
C 13:9 Other mss add do not bear false witness
THE LAW OF LIBERTY
14Accept anyone who is weak in faith, but don’t argue about disputed matters. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while one who is weak eats only vegetables. 3 One who eats must not look down on one who does not eat, and one who does not eat must not judge one who does, because God has accepted him. 4 Who are you to judge another’s household servant? Before his own Lord he stands or falls. And he will stand, because the Lord is able A to make him stand.
5 One person judges one day to be more important than another day. Someone else judges every day to be the same. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 Whoever observes the day, observes it for the honor of the Lord. B Whoever eats, eats for the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; and whoever does not eat, it is for the Lord that he does not eat it, and he gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for himself, and no one dies for himself. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 Christ died and returned to life for this: that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living. 10 But you, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. C 11 For it is written,
As I live, says the Lord,
every knee will bow to me,
and every tongue will give praise to God. D
12 So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
THE LAW OF LOVE
13 Therefore, let us no longer judge one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean. 15 For if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy, by what you eat, someone for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore, do not let your good be slandered, 17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and receives human approval.
19 So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another. 20 Do not tear down God’s work because of food. Everything is clean, but it is wrong to make someone fall by what he eats. 21 It is a good thing not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble. A 22 Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23 But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, B and everything that is not from faith is sin.
14:10 “But you, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” Paul saw among Christians a much too common habit of judging one another. At that time the bulk of the converts were Jews, and as such they brought into the Christian church their former religious habits. They had devoutly kept the ceremonial law, and they felt as if they would violate their consciences if they did not continue to keep its more prominent precepts. And though they gave up certain of its observances that were evidently abolished by the gospel, they kept up others, such as special days for religious fasts and feasts. Many true but weak believers were scrupulous about what they ate, thinking to keep up the legal distinction between clean and unclean foods. At the same time, the church had in her midst those who said correctly, “The coming of Christ has done away with the old dispensation; these holy days are all types and shadows whose substance is in Christ. Has not the Lord shown to Peter, who is the minister of the circumcision, that from now on nothing is common or unclean?”
The people of strong faith blamed their weaker brethren for being superstitious and, by their superstition, bringing a yoke of bondage on themselves. “No,” replied the weaker sort, “we are not superstitious! We are conscientious, while you go much too far in your liberty and cause us to stumble.” Thus while the strong looked down on the weak, almost doubting whether they could have come into the liberty of Christ at all, the weak condemned the strong, charging them with turning their liberty into licentiousness. They were both wrong, for they were judging one another. Paul, who was himself most strongly opposed to the Judaizing party and who in every respect came out clear and straight on the bold lines of Christian liberty, was nevertheless so energized by the spirit of his Master that he was ready to be all things to all people. Paul saw grave peril of dissension where there should be love. He rushed into the breach and basically said, “Do not judge one another. What have you to do with judging? There is a judgment yet to come.”
A 14:4 Other mss read For God has the power
B 14:6 Other mss add but whoever does not observe the day, it is to the Lord that he does not observe it
C 14:10 Other mss read of Christ
PLEASING OTHERS, NOT OURSELVES
15Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves. 2 Each one of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself. On the contrary, as it is written, The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. C 4 For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures. 5 Now may the God who gives D endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.
GLORIFYING GOD TOGETHER
7 Therefore accept one another, just as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God. 8 For I say that Christ became a servant of the circumcised E on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises to the fathers, 9 and so that Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,
Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,
and I will sing praise to your name. F
10 Again it says, Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people! G 11 And again,
Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;
let all the peoples praise him! H
12 And again, Isaiah says,
The root of Jesse will appear,
the one who rises to rule the Gentiles;
the Gentiles will hope in him. I
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
FROM JERUSALEM TO ILLYRICUM
14 My brothers and sisters, I myself am convinced about you that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. 15 Nevertheless, I have written to remind you more boldly on some points A because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the gospel of God. My purpose is that the Gentiles may be an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 Therefore I have reason to boast in Christ Jesus regarding what pertains to God. 18 For I would not dare say anything except what Christ has accomplished through me by word and deed for the obedience of the Gentiles, 19 by the power of miraculous signs and wonders, and by the power of God’s Spirit. As a result, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum. B 20 My aim is to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named, so that I will not build on someone else’s foundation, 21 but, as it is written,
Those who were not told about him will see,
and those who have not heard will understand. C
PAUL’S TRAVEL PLANS
22 That is why I have been prevented many times from coming to you. 23 But now I no longer have any work to do in these regions, D and I have strongly desired for many years to come to you 24 whenever I travel to Spain. E For I hope to see you when I pass through and to be assisted by you for my journey there, once I have first enjoyed your company for a while. 25 Right now I am traveling to Jerusalem to serve the saints, 26 because Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. 27 Yes, they were pleased, and indeed are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual benefits, then they are obligated to minister to them in material needs. 28 So when I have finished this and safely delivered the funds F to them, G I will visit you on the way to Spain. 29 I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing H of Christ.
30 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in fervent prayers to God on my behalf. 31 Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, that my ministry to I Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 and that, by God’s will, I may come to you with joy and be refreshed together with you.
33 May the God of peace be with all of you. Amen.
15:1 “Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves.” When we are free from scruples on any point and feel that there are things we may do because we are strong, we still must not do them if by doing so we would grieve others who are weak. We must think of their infirmities and—whatever liberty we may feel entitled to claim for ourselves—look at the matter from the standpoint of other people as well as from our own so that we may bear the infirmities of the weak and not simply do what we desire.
15:5 “Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus.” What a blessed harmony it would be if not only all in any one church but all in the whole of the churches were like-minded with one another! It will be so when Christ gathers those who are now scattered. But may we never hope to have it so here on earth? At any rate we must all strive after it. We will be like-minded with one another only when we become like-minded with Christ but not until then.
15:7 “Therefore accept one another, just as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God.” Christ did not receive us because we were perfect or because he could see no fault in us or because he hoped to gain something from us. Not at all! But in loving condescension he covered our faults and sought our good. He welcomed us into a relationship with him. So, in the same way and with the same purpose, we as Christians must receive one another.
A 15:15 Other mss add brothers
B 15:19 A Roman province northwest of Greece on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea
D 15:23 Lit now, having no longer a place in these
parts
E 15:24 Other mss add I will come to you.
F 15:28 Lit delivered this fruit
G 15:28 Or and placed my seal of approval on this fruit for them
PAUL’S COMMENDATION OF PHOEBE
16I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant J of the church in Cenchreae. 2 So you should welcome her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints and assist her in whatever matter she may require your help. For indeed she has been a benefactor of many — and of me also.
GREETING TO ROMAN CHRISTIANS
3 Give my greetings to Prisca K and Aquila, my coworkers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their own necks for my life. Not only do I thank them, but so do all the Gentile churches. 5 Greet also the church that meets in their home. Greet my dear friend Epaenetus, who is the first convert A to Christ from Asia. B 6 Greet Mary, C who has worked very hard for you. D 7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews E and fellow prisoners. They are noteworthy in the eyes of the apostles, F and they were also in Christ before me. 8 Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord. 9 Greet Urbanus, our coworker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys. 10 Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus. 11 Greet Herodion, my fellow Jew. G Greet those who belong to the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord. 12 Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who have worked hard in the Lord. Greet my dear friend Persis, who has worked very hard in the Lord. 13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother — and mine. 14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters who are with them. 15 Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. 16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send you greetings.
WARNING AGAINST DIVISIVE PEOPLE
17 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned. Avoid them, 18 because such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites. H They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words.
PAUL’S GRACIOUS CONCLUSION
19 The report of your obedience has reached everyone. Therefore I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise about what is good, and yet innocent about what is evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
21 Timothy, my coworker, and Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my fellow countrymen, greet you.
22 I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. I
23 Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus greet you. J
GLORY TO GOD
25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for long ages 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God to advance the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles — 27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ — to him be the glory forever! K Amen.
16:1-16 “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church in Cenchreae. . . . Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send you greetings.” This chapter contains Paul’s loving salutation to the various Christians dwelling at Rome. Although it may at first appear to be noninstructive, there must be edifying matter beneath the surface because all Scripture is given by inspiration and is meant to benefit us in one way or another. At any rate it shows us this: Paul was of a most affectionate disposition; God did not select as the apostle of the Gentiles a man of a coarse, unfeeling, selfish turn of mind. His memory, as well as his heart, must have been in good condition to remember so large a number of names, and these were but a few of his many beloved brethren and spiritual children all over the world whom he mentioned by name in this epistle, as he did in other epistles as well to a lesser degree. His warm heart must have enlightened his memory and secured to his remembrance the form, condition, history, character, and name of each one of his friends. He loved them too well to forget them.
Christians should love one another, and they should bear one another’s names on their hearts, even as their great high priest wears the names of all his saints on his jeweled breastplate. A Christian, because of the love he bears to others, is ever anxious to please by courtesy, and he desires never to pain by rudeness. Grace makes the servant of God to be in the highest sense a person of true and godly character. If we learn nothing more from this passage than the duty of acting lovingly and courteously to one another, we will be all the better for it, for there is not enough tender consideration and gentle speech among professors of Christ at this time.
J 16:1 Others interpret this term in a technical sense: deacon, or deaconess, or minister, or courier
K 16:3 Traditionally, Priscilla, as in Ac 18:2,18,26
F 16:7 Or They are noteworthy among the apostles
I 16:22 Or letter in the Lord, greet you
J 16:23 Some mss include v. 24: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
K 16:25-27 Other mss have these vv. at the end of chap. 14 or 15.