Paul’s Desire to Preach the Gospel at Rome
Scripture: Romans 1:8-15
Date: June 10, 2012
Speaker: Jonathan Sarr
In about AD 49, amid political conflict and probably a measure of disgust, Roman Emperor Claudius banished all Jews from the city of Rome, regardless of whether they were Christians or not (he probably cared little of the difference). But in AD54, Claudius died, and with his death the banishment of the Jews was lifted. That meant that as Jews returned to Rome, they were being reintroduced to the churches. It’s not hard to imagine the tensions this may have caused.
In modern terms, conversations may have centered on who head usher or sound tech might be? Who would teach a Sunday school class, etc. The Jewish Christians had been suddenly removed from Roman church life by the government, then were suddenly thrust back in the middle of it when allowed to return to Rome. So they find themselves asking, “Did we get a new sound board?” “When did the Jones family move to Asia Minor?” “Who put leaven in the communion bread?” And things like that.
This group needed the gospel, plain and simple. And that is what Paul wants to give them.
Many of us are familiar with Romans 1:16-17, which gives us the theme of the book of Romans:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”
Here God grants us insight into the passion and energy of the Apostle Paul as he considered the gospel of Christ. He felt passionately and affectionately about the gospel and was motivated by its power. We know this passage well, and oftentimes in our reading we rush to this mountain peak, while missing some the very helpful, rich and insightful verses that rest in the shadows, offering a helpful and often-neglected context for the book of Romans.
In verses 8-15 we learn much about Paul’s heart and - if we read carefully and in the context of the rest of the book - we can even learn much about why he penned this letter in the first place.
The point of this passage is simply this:
Paul wanted to preach the gospel at Rome.
In a book as vast as the Bible, sometimes the point is rather simple, and we can tend to over-think themes amid our sermonizing and musing. But that’s it: Paul wanted to preach the gospel at Rome. Now there are plenty of nuances to the passage and the context and even points of application for us. Beyond this, it does beg the question, “WHY did Paul want to preach the gospel at Rome?” And I plan to get to that in greater detail next week, but in our study this morning I aim to strengthen the case that Paul wanted to preach the gospel at Rome. So this is the overarching point that will enrich our reading and understanding of this paragraph and the one that follows.
So let’s examine our passage this morning considering four points:
So let’s look together into the heart of the Apostle Paul, looking first at his Gratitude (1:8).
“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.”
It is common for Paul to include expressions of thanks for his recipients in his letters. He does so in 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, and more. But there are a couple of things I would have us notice. First is the prepositional phrase “through Jesus Christ.” This is no throw away phrase, but rather a part of Paul’s ongoing narrative about the intermediary work of Christ. He would have us remember that he doesn’t just offer thanks to the Father, but he does so through Christ. That is, with Christ as the Mediator and the Means by which we dare approach Him. And of course we offer any worship or praise or thanks to the Father the same way.
But of more central significance is the reason for Paul’s gratitude: what Calvin calls the “celebrity” of the Romans’ faith. Their testimony bore evidence of their salvation; this isn’t something that he would say to unbelievers. Their faith was well-known and was discussed throughout the empire, and the work the Spirit was already doing was a significant part of what was drawing Paul to Rome.
When he says “all the world,” Paul is speaking in hyperbole, because we know that he had not even been to Rome, let alone to the whole world to be able to testify firsthand to news of the Roman Christians’ testimony. Furthermore, the gospel had not gone forth to the western Mediterranean region, which is why Paul was so anxious to go there himself.
The point is not the exaggerated language as much as to say that Paul was excited by the testimony of the believers at Rome, and, as we will see, he wanted to be with these believers.
What we do not see here is any evidence that they had been particularly faithful, or that they were very zealous for the Lord or that there was a strong love among them. Contrast this expression of gratitude with Philippians 1:3-8:
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”
That’s a pretty resounding vote of spiritual confidence, and a loud expression of excitement about the fruit being borne out among the Philippian Christians.
Similarly, Ephesians 1:15-16 reads,
“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers…”
Paul is excited by the Ephesians’ testimony and the evidence of their faithfulness, namely, their faith in Christ AND their love for all the saints. He makes no such statement with the Romans, which is equally loud, if we are paying attention. The truth, it seems, is that the Roman believers were wrestling though some unique circumstances.
And while it is overreaching to suggest from these verses alone that the Roman believers were immature or unfaithful, the historical context and the rest of the letter do help us to know that this group needed to hear and remember the gospel.
If nothing else, the tone of this paragraph is sincere, so we can trust that he was not just being kind when he expressed his gratitude for their testimony.
“For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.”
This passage is not that hard to understand: Paul really wanted to come to Rome, and he called God as his witness that he wanted to come to Rome. It seems there are a number of reasons why Paul wanted to go to Rome, which come from biblical and extra-biblical context:
And it’s this last principle that really colors and informs our reading particularly of 1:16-17.
So it’s not hard to imagine why Paul wanted to get to Rome, and why he was praying for the believers at Rome. The appeal of a gospel-saturated Christian presence at the heart of the Roman empire was strong for Paul, and he wanted to get there.
Imagine if Washington DC were saturated with gospel-living Christians today. Don’t you imagine that our country would look a bit different?
But for all of this, it’s worth noting that Paul didn’t intend at this point to stay in Rome. We learn in 15:24 and 28 that his ultimate goal was to preach the gospel in Spain, where the gospel had not yet gone forth in power. He wanted to use Rome as an outpost on his way to Spain and to benefit from their spiritual and monetary assistance along his way.
In all this, Paul was acutely aware of his dependence upon God. We are all dependent upon Him, but rarely do we acknowledge that dependence. He knew it to be presumptuous to promise to come when it had been evident before that God’s desires didn’t always align with his. So he says, “I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.”
So this is his prayer, for God to allow him to go to Rome.
In verses 11-13 he more expressly communicates his Desire.
“For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.”
Now commentators disagree as they try to make sense of Paul’s language here. I would agree that his tone does sound different from when he’s writing to churches like the ones at Corinth or Ephesus or Galatia. He’s bolder, even more personal with them, and he doesn’t sound like that here in Romans.
Some suggest that he’s a bit sheepish because he didn’t personally plant any church at Rome, he didn’t feel as though he had the authority to speak boldly to the Romans. He hand’t even been there. Well, out of the gates in 1:5 he invokes apostolic authority, and the list of greetings we already mentioned in chapter sixteen are evidence enough that he knew lots of believers at Rome. So while he hadn’t been there, neither would he exactly call them strangers.
Others suggest that he had probably expressed his personal desire to get there to many of his friends at Rome and guess what? He still hand’t shown up! So, they surmise that Paul’s probably embarrassed by this.
While it’s true that he didn’t know the believers at Rome as well as the Ephesian Christians, for instance, I’m inclined to believe that none of these points actually explains Paul’s tone as much as his effort to not presume upon God. By now, it would seem, Paul knows better than to say, “I’ll be in Rome in a month.” Look back at the qualifiers of verse 10:
“…asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.”
Does that sound very confident or presumptuous to you? No, that sounds like a man who holds God’s will and his own desire in appropriate tension. So when he continues with similar language in 1:11-13 it comes as little surprise. Paul had wanted to visit them - even desperately, it seems - but had been prevented by God from being able to do so. We don’t have the details of how his efforts were continually thwarted, but we know this:
It is often a grace that God does not grant our desires. And even if it’s not a grace to us, it may be grace to others. For instance, I cannot imagine Scripture (let alone, life) without the book of Romans. But that’s exactly what we’d be left with had God allowed Paul to visit Rome when he wanted to. He’d certainly have no reason to write this letter.
What’s more, when he did finally end up in Rome as a prisoner, he went there at the expense of the Roman government, having appealed to Caesar. And while imprisoned this first time, many believe that he wrote additionally the books of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon…while as a prisoner. If he had been able to get to Rome when he wanted to, who knows whether we’d have those rich books? Of course there are no “if’s” in the scope of God’s sovereign plan, but that’s partly my point. Paul had his desires, but they came to fruition only to the degree that they aligned with God’s will and decree.
So God did have a plan for Paul to visit Rome. And the means by which it came about enabled him to not only preach the gospel amid Caesar’s household and in Rome itself, but God also made a way, then for countless millions of believers to be saved and encouraged by the content of these precious letters from the first century onward. Think of how many of us were taken down the Romans road when we first heard the gospel. It seems like a pretty good end to an otherwise frustrating story to me. Paul wanted to get to Rome, but God had a bigger plan in view.
But to return to the point of the paragraph, we’ve seen that Paul wanted to preach the gospel at Rome, feeling compelled, even obligated to do so, as he says in our final point.
I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
We’re all familiar with the story of Saul becoming Paul, his calling and conversion from Acts chapter nine. This was not something that he took lightly. His calling was dutiful, but a joy as well. We know that the obedience of faith brought Paul tremendous happiness.
But what I am compelled by is Paul’s eagerness to preach the gospel among believers. We have a tendency to view the gospel as powerful for salvation alone when it is also beneficial for our sanctification. Unbelievers need to hear the gospel, to be sure. It is the message of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, it offers us hope, and it is the powerful instrument by which we are saved.
Paul’s desire to preach the gospel to the Christians at Rome is plain. Some suggest that verse 15 speaks of Paul’s desire to evangelize the Romans, but the letter is clearly written TO BELIEVERS, as we have already seen.
We can reasonably conclude from verse 15 alone that the preaching of the gospel has benefit for believers and unbelievers alike.
Principles of grace, mercy, redemption, forgiveness, repentance, and so on have application for unbelievers AND believers, for relationship with God and with one another. That is why Paul wanted to preach the gospel at Rome: not because they needed to be converted again, but because they needed to live according to the gospel…just like us.
That’s also why he erupts as he does with the theme of the book of Romans in verses 16-17:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”