Romans 15:14–21 (ESV)✞: Paul the Minister to the Gentiles
In the previous passage Paul called out the fact that Christ is the hope of Jewish and Gentile people alike, and in this passage he builds on that to point out that he himself has been the minister to the Gentiles.
He starts by resetting the conversation; yes, he’s been pointing out a lot of truths to the Roman Christians, but not because he thinks they’re worse sinners than others – quite the opposite:
14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.
Paul feels free to share such deep truths with the Roman Christians because they’re able to take it – in fact, not only hear and understand it but apply it in instructing one another.
However, even strong Christians have their blind spots, and need to be reminded of things from time to time:
15 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder,
Remember that part of the reason Paul is writing this letter to the Roman Christians is because of divisions in the churches there – especially between Jewish and non-Jewish Christians. (It hasn’t been as prominent a feature of the letter to the Romans as I’d been expecting, but it comes out from time to time.)
You can be a strong Christian and still have your blind spots. At the time I wrote this post fresh war had broken out between Israel and Gaza and I’m sure a lot of Christians were exhibiting either anti-Jewish or anti-Muslim hate; they needed reminding of the Gospel. In the 1980s many Christians were exhibiting anti-Communist hate, and needed reminding of the Gospel. (Or, in some cases, it’s not hate but fear – which is a lack of faith, meaning they also need reminding of the Gospel.)
What are my blind spots? I don’t know, I’m blind to them; but I should listen when others try to point them out to me. They may or may not be right, but if I reject them outright I’ll never know which is which.
Though… maybe I should listen harder to comments from some than from others:
because of the grace given me by God
The Christians in Rome knew who Paul was, and so would/should have been listening hard to all he had to say. There are Christians in my local church who have proven themselves to have that same Grace, and I’ll listen even harder when they talk.
… but I interrupted Paul in the middle of a point, which we should never do.
because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Ah! God Gave Paul this Grace for a reason: to minister to the Gentiles! And it’s not just something Paul decided to do on his own; he’s doing it in the priestly service of the Gospel of God – God put Paul into this work.
And when Paul talks about the Gentiles being acceptable and sanctified he’s using Jewish language; in fact, he’s using Temple language. The Temple is where sacrifices were made in the Old Testament system; the utensils and other items in the Temple had to be sanctified to be used for their purpose in the worship of God. However, Gentiles weren’t even allowed in the Temple. (There were inner and outer courts of the Temple, and they were allowed in outer places, but not in inner places.) But, to use New Testament language, not only are Gentiles now “sanctified” by the Holy Spirit, they’re part of the “temple”—the Church—just as much as Jewish Christians are!
In his role of evangelising to the Gentiles Paul has done a good job:
17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God.
But, Paul being Paul, he has to remind us that it’s not really him, it’s Christ who accomplished it:
18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me
This is something all Christians would do well to remember. We’re pretty good at prefixing every sentence with “Lord willing”—“Lord willing I’ll see you at church next week,” or “Lord willing I’m going to work tomorrow,” or whatever—but do I actually believe and remember in our hearts that anything I accomplish is actually something that was accomplished by Christ, and not by myself?
I’ve done it again and interrupted Paul in the middle of a sentence, but the remainder of the sentence goes on to say what Christ has been accomplishing through Paul:
to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—
I find it interesting that Paul doesn’t speak here of the Gentiles “believing” or even “receiving the Holy Spirit”—though he could have—but instead calls out that the Gentiles have been brought “to obedience.” I’m guessing one of the Jewish Christians’ biggest complaints/worries about the Gentile Christians would be whether they’d ever obey God. Those wild, lawless people! They didn’t know God’s Law like the Jewish Christians did!
Not that Paul is claiming the Gentile Christians are obeying the Law—meaning the Old Testament rules and regulations—he’s already talked about the Law a lot in Romans. But the Gentile Christians are obedient to God in the same way that the Jewish Christians are; there’s no room for Jewish Christians to scoff at those “wild, disobedient Gentiles” who they might have been perceiving as invading their relationship with God.
And they proved their salvation with “signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.” In the New Testament, signs and wonders—miracles—are called “signs” for a reason: they’re never accomplished on their own, they’re accomplished to prove something. Jesus didn’t come to this world to perform miracles, but He performed miracles as a sign that He was who He claimed to be; the Apostles in Acts didn’t perform miracles because it was really cool—or even out of love for the lame and the sick—but as a sign to prove that they had authority from Jesus to act on His behalf.
When Peter first brought the Gospel to a set of Gentiles (Acts 10✞), they spoke in tongues. When Peter reported back to the Church (Acts 11:1–18✞) a number of the leaders there were initially hesitant; why was Peter eating with uncircumcised men?!? But when they heard that the Holy Spirit had descended on those Gentile listeners, they changed their minds completely: “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life,” they said (Acts 11:18✞). Paul is hoping the Roman Jewish Christians will see the same thing: God is working through these Gentile Christians, they have the same Holy Spirit as the Jewish Christians.
Paul ends this brief passage by expanding on where he’s preached the Gospel – which is everywhere he could!
so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; 20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, 21 but as it is written,
“Those who have never been told of him will see,
and those who have never heard will understand.”
He had a very clear view of his mission: to spread the Gospel to people who’d never heard it before. (Given the context, we could say especially to the Gentiles, though from what we read in the book of Acts Paul typically started by preaching to the Jews whenever he got to a new town.)
Is there anything wrong with “building on someone else’s foundation?” Not at all! In fact, in a sense, that’s what the vast majority of preachers around the world do: the congregation has the Bible—the Word of God—and the preacher is expanding on that, and helping people to understand it and live it out in their lives. But some, like Paul, are called to be missionaries, spreading the Gospel to parts of the world where nobody has ever heard it before.
In a sense it was “easier” for Paul to do that, in that everywhere he went was in that state: Paul could travel to any city in the Roman Empire and be pretty confident they’d never heard the Gospel before! There are less places in that state in the world now than then.
In another sense, however, it’s just as “hard” as it’s always been, because wherever Christians go, in whatever time and place, to whatever culture, humans’ innate reaction will always be to reject it. However, the Holy Spirit is not powerless; in many places, at many times throughout history, the Gospel has taken hold and people have believed.
Paul’s quotation is from Isaiah 52:15; a larger portion of that passage is:
13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
14 As many were astonished at you—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
15 so shall he sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand.
As always, when Paul quotes the Scriptures he is expecting his readers—especially his Jewish readers—to recognise the context. When he says, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand,” he expects people to be thinking of this larger passage, and thinking of Christ—the Messiah that was spoken of in Isaiah—and how His truths would be spread throughout the non-Jewish world.
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