Or, Let All the Peoples Praise Him
Scripture: Romans 15:7-13
Date: November 19, 2023
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Hope is as good as God’s Word. We learn what hope is, and what our hope is in, from Scripture. The strength and power of our hope comes from the trustworthiness of Scripture. Our confidence in what Scripture tells us to hope for in the future comes from what Scripture reveals about all the realities that God has fulfilled so far.
That should sound advent/Christmas related. In fact I’ve used Romans 15:4-13 four times in our annual Christmas Eve service Scripture readings. Just as God promised to send a Savior to earth and did, so also God promised to set up a King in a kingdom on earth, which He will. One good advent deserves another, and here we are learning how to behave and wait—while everyone doesn’t agree on everything—in hope.
Since the start of Romans 14 the instruction is about living in light of the coming Lord’s unique position. He is the one to whom we will give account, He is our Master, we serve Him. So we can get off our brother’s case regarding his diet choices. We pray for the kingdom to come to earth as it is in heaven, and we reckon that the kingdom is a matter of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (14:17). So eat and honor the Lord and give thanks or don’t eat, yet still with honor and thanks. Either way, take off the judgy-pants and put on your joy-pants.
Welcome your brother (15:7), like 14:1. Welcoming is how it started, and welcoming should be how it’s going. How it started was receiving, and how it’s going is still receiving with hope that it’s going to happen for God’s glory. For all of the possible problems between people, God’s purpose and God’s power are still on track to accomplish all God’s promises. That’s a reason for hope.
Based on God’s granting of unity to glorify Him (verses 5-6), there is responsibility to embrace that unity.
Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. (Romans 15:7 ESV)
Welcome is the same word and imperative as opened this section of the letter in 14:1. It has the idea of taking toward (oneself), of receiving as into one’s home or circle of acquaintances. Open the door and invite them in.
The strong were told to welcome the weak in faith (14:1), and the weak were told to stop judging the eaters because of God’s welcome (14:4). The one another in 15:7 covers them both. And the standard calls us to level up. Don’t just welcome because Christ is Lord, but welcome just as also Christ received you. Christ bore reproaches of God’s enemies to receive His people, and that all happened for the glory of God. But this must also apply to us welcoming others like Christ.
Do you want to glorify God? It is as obvious as patterning your welcome of the brothers after Jesus, and as onerous. Study the Scriptures for endurance/encouragement/example and welcome your brothers for the glory of God.
The welcome of Christ gets higher than divisions about disputable matters and touches people groups.
For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, (Romans 15:8 ESV)
This has explanatory power for our welcoming of one another over issues of meat and wine and days and such, but bringing in the Jew/Gentile distinction doesn’t map onto strong/weak differences, as if one ethnicity of Christian necessarily was more able or less able in choices by faith. If there is one thing we’ve learned, it’s that (almost) anyone can have any problem.
That said, the problem between Jewish Christians and non-Jewish Christians was a thing that required a lot of parchment in the first few centuries of the church. The believers in Rome were living with such tensions.
Even though most Jews rejected Jesus as Messiah and would not confess Him as Lord, Paul, a Jew (Romans 9:3), said Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God (NASB). What is the truth? It’s the promises given to the patriarchs. And what were those promises? They had heard about a Seed who would save them (Genesis 3:15). The Lord promised to make Abraham a great nation, to bless that people and make them a blessing (Genesis 12:1-3), and to give them promised land (Genesis 13:14-15).
Why refer to them as the circumcision rather than “Jews” or “Israelites” as previously in Romans? Probably because circumcision was the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 17:4-13). To the Israelites belonged the covenants and the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) and the Christ (Romans 9:4-5).
Christ served the circumcised in order to confirm the promises. It’s important that Paul does not say in order to fulfill the promises, as if all the promises had been completed by Christ. They have been confirmed, “put beyond doubt” (BAGD), validated. The Gentiles might have thought that God was finished with Israel, but they shouldn’t have.
The Jews are welcomed by Christ because of God’s covenant.
The Scriptures that were given for endurance and encouragement that lead to hope also foresaw a Son of Jacob/Israel that would save the world. Salvation blessings were covenanted to Israel and purposed for the nations.
and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. (Romans 15:9 ESV)
The only covenant made with the nations is that God would not destroy them with a flood (Genesis 9), though even that was technically a covenant to Noah, and there weren’t any nations at that point. And yet, while choosing Israel as His national people, God purposed to bring Himself glory through every tribe, tongue, language, and people. He would show them His mercy. The good news is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Romans 1:16).
All this was prophesied. No Scripture proofs were needed to corroborate Christ’s receiving of Jews; it would have been surprising if Israel did not receive God’s mercy. These multiple texts, though, leave no doubt about mercy extended; it shouldn’t have been surprising that Gentiles would receive God’s mercy. Paul weaves together four quotes in a row, from the Law, the Writings/Psalms, and the Prophets. The Jews might not have expected Christ to welcome the Gentiles, but only if they didn’t read their Scriptures.
The first Scripture is Psalm 18:49.
As it is written,
“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,
and sing to your name.” (Romans 15:9 ESV)
The second Scripture is Deuteronomy 32:43.
And again it is said,
“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” (Romans 15:10 ESV)
The third Scripture is Psalm 117:1.
And again,
“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,
and let all the peoples extol him.” (Romans 15:11 ESV)
The fourth Scripture is Isaiah 11:10.
And again Isaiah says,
“The root of Jesse will come,
even he who arises to rule the Gentiles;
in him will the Gentiles hope.” (Romans 15:12 ESV)
Jesus is the Son of David, and it was to David that God covenanted a descendent who would be the King of kings.
The Gentiles are welcomed by Christ because of God’s mercy.
Just as I argued that the benediction/prayer ended the previous paragraph (verses 5-6), so this section ends with another fantastic expression of divine blessing.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13 ESV)
The God of hope compares with “the God of endurance and encouragement” in verse 5. The reference to the Holy Spirit compares to “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” in verse 6; it’s a Trinitarian project.
The God of hope is enabling and empowering hope. Three times hope in verses 12-13. There is hope for you, hope for me, hope for the world, hope by the Spirit through the Word in the Son of the God of hope. God fills us that we might overflow/ abound in hope.
If we are not allowed to despise a brother over meat, which he can choose, we certainly are not allowed to despise a brother over his ethnicity, which he did not and cannot choose.
It’s a welcome hope, as in, a hope better than we were hoping for. It’s also a hope that enables us to welcome others. The only reason we don’t laugh at this international praising project is because we can look back at almost two-thousand years of God’s mercy in the lives of disciples of all nations.
The Lord’s covenant and promises are on their way to being fulfilled, but it has not all happened just yet. The promises to the patriarchs are not completed, nor are they consumed in Christ as the terminal end; they will all be fulfilled through Him. Our Lord, come!
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His mercy to all peoples, and so welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
Give thanks for the Messiah who confirms promises. Give thanks for the mercy of God that teaches you to rejoice. Give thanks, with all joy, and praise the Lord with your mouths, in songs and at suppers. Look to the Lord who blesses us, and who will return to rule us all.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13 ESV)