Romans 15

Paul does not flatten the Romans. He is satisfied that they are full of goodness, filled with knowledge, able to instruct one another. Wesley: full of goodness by being created anew; filled with knowledge by long experience of the things of God; to admonish is to instruct and confirm.

New creation shows in goodness you can practice and knowledge you can share. Mutual instruction is a living church's ordinary work, not an apostle's monopoly. They are able—and therefore responsible—to build one another up.

Calvin hears a concession that disarms pride: Paul writes not because he doubts their kindness or wisdom, but because his office constrains him. Two qualifications fit the one who admonishes—kindness and skill. He ascribes both to them, so they are competent to administer mutual exhortations.

The praise is not in doubt, and it is pastoral strategy. God has already stocked this church with goodness and knowledge. The apostle's later boldness will rest on grace given, not on contempt for what the Spirit has already done among them.

He has written boldly, yet as a reminder, not as if they had never heard. Wesley: because of the grace—that is, because I am an apostle of the Gentiles. The grace that sent him to the nations is why he may speak plainly to a Gentile church in Rome.

Classical Arminians take the grace as a commission he must fulfill. Bold reminder is love doing its job. Grace given does not nullify their ability to instruct one another; it explains why this particular man writes this particular letter.

Calvin: he acted boldly in a matter they were able to handle, yet he was led to it on account of his office. He humbles himself that he might exalt the excellency of the office; by mentioning the favor of God he shows he could not suffer apostolic work to be despised. He claims the part of an admonisher more than a first teacher.

The grace given is God's elevation of Paul to the Gentile apostleship. Authority in the letter is mercy, not native nerve. What God has assigned, the church may not shrug off as one more opinion from a traveling Jew.

The grace was to make him a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the gospel. Wesley: the offering up of the Gentiles as living sacrifices. Nations themselves are the offering—people yielded to God, not coins on an altar.

The gospel is a sacred service that gathers living sacrifices. Gentiles become acceptable as they are brought to obey the gospel and the Spirit sanctifies them. The offering is people, and the priestly work aims at a worship God can receive.

Calvin: Paul makes himself a priest in the ministration of the gospel, to offer up as a sacrifice the people he gained for God. This is the Christian pastor's priesthood: to bring people to obey the gospel, not to offer up Christ again. Let preachers have this end: to offer to God souls purified by faith. The voice of man is inefficacious and lifeless; the work of cleansing and properly belongs to the Spirit.

The offering is acceptable because the Spirit inwardly separates these Gentiles from the world. Ministry is honored; the boast stays with God. What makes the nations a pleasing sacrifice is not Paul's technique but the Spirit of holiness.

Then—given that priestly service—he has reason to be proud of his work for God, yet only in Christ Jesus. Wesley: all my glorying is in and through Him. The sentence both permits a holy boast and nails it to Christ.

Labor in the gospel may be named without shame when the name over it is Christ's. Pride in the work is forbidden; pride in the Lord of the work is commanded. Paul models how a minister may speak of fruit without stealing the glory.

Calvin: he records the fidelity with which he discharged the office, not from a desire to attain glow, but so that nothing be omitted which might procure favor and authority for his doctrine. In God, not in himself, did he glory; he had nothing else in view but that the whole praise should redound to God.

Appointment is little unless we act agreeably to the calling. The proud sentence is a window onto grace: Christ Jesus is the sphere of the boast, so the work is God's and the worker is a debtor.

He will not venture a word beyond what Christ has accomplished through him to bring Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed. Wesley: by word, in the power of God’s Spirit; by deed, through mighty signs and wonders. Paul is an instrument; the obedience of the nations is a response.

Wesley’s tradition hears both sides of the sentence: Christ works, and Gentiles are brought to obedience they must actually render. The apostle refuses stolen credit, not human agency. Word and deed are the field in which Christ is pleased to work through a willing servant.

Calvin: these words prove his object—to render his ministry approved by the Romans. God by the presence of His power had given testimony to his preaching. Paul will not speak of any things except those which Christ has wrought by him. The aim is Gentile obedience; the agent is Christ.

Even the apostle's resume is Christ's accomplishment. Obedience among the nations is not finally Paul's persuasiveness. What Christ did not work, Paul will not claim. That is how apostolic authority is sealed without inflating the man.

Word and deed were attended by signs and wonders, in the power of God’s Spirit of God. The map runs from Jerusalem around to Illyricum. Paul has fulfilled the Good News of Christ in that arc—not every soul, but the work given him there.

The Spirit's power is not an idea. It opened roads, confirmed the word, and made a Gentile harvest. Fulfilling ministry means spending yourself in the assignment, not waiting until results look finished to human eyes.

Calvin: miracles were seals of divine power, to awaken men to reverence and obedience. They are designed to prepare people to obey God; miracles that glorify creatures or seal lies are not from Him. The power of God’s Spirit is the author of word, work, and wonders alike. Success from Jerusalem to Illyricum exceeded the thoughts of men.

Who could have gathered so many churches without the power of God? The fulfilled ministry is evidence that the Lord sent this man. The Spirit's power, not the apostle's stamina, accounts for the map.

Thus—because of that fulfilled circuit—he makes it his ambition to preach where Christ has not already been named. Wesley: a holy ambition (so the Greek) to make the first proclamation where the gospel was quite unheard of, in spite of difficulty and danger, lest he only build on another man's foundation.

Holy ambition is not a vice. The gospel deserves pioneers. Paul will not make another apostle's work the pedestal for his name; he will go where the name of Christ is not yet spoken, and the church may still honor that impulse.

Calvin: this is the proper distinction of the apostleship—to propagate the gospel where it had not been preached. We ought not to make a general rule of what specially belongs to the apostolic order, nor treat it as a fault that a successor builds up the church. Apostles were founders; pastors strengthen and amplify the building. Another's foundation means laid by another man's hand; otherwise Christ is the only stone.

Do not turn Paul's pioneer vow into contempt for ordinary ministry. The very Lord who sent apostles to unnamed regions gives pastors to named ones. Both are building, if the stone is Christ.

Isaiah 52:15 underwrites the ambition. Those who were not told about Him will see; those who haven’t heard will understand. Wesley simply marks the prophet. Pioneer preaching is obedience to Scripture, not a personality type.

The unreached are not a closed category. They may see and understand when they are told. The verse is a promise big enough to send a church toward people who have not yet heard the name.

Calvin: Isaiah, speaking of Messiah's kingdom, predicts that the knowledge of Christ would be spread among Gentiles who had not heard His name. It was meet that this be done by the apostles. Paul's apostleship is evident in that this prophecy was fulfilled in him. It is absurd to apply the text so as to silence preaching in churches already formed.

The prophet speaks of the commencement of Christ's kingdom among the nations. God had already written the mission. Understanding comes where the name is newly declared; the same Christ must still be preached daily where He is already named.

The pioneer circuit is why Rome has waited. Wesley: therefore he has been long hindered from coming to them, among whom Christ had already been named. The delay is ministry, not neglect.

Holy work in one place can be a hindrance to holy desire in another. The church may believe a delayed apostle without inventing a cooler love. What kept him was the gospel's unfinished edge, not indifference to their names.

Calvin: he applies his apostleship to another point—excusing himself for not having come, though he was destined for them as well as for others. In propagating the gospel from Judea to Illyricum he performed a course enjoined by the Lord; that being accomplished, he purposed not to neglect them. There had long been no want of desire. That he had not come sooner was owing to a just impediment.

Calling explains the calendar. The Lord who sent him around to Illyricum is the same Lord who now opens a way toward Rome. Hindrance can be obedience.

Now there is no longer room for work in these regions—Wesley: where Christ has now been preached in every city—and the longing of many years is free to speak. Desire for Rome is old; the door is new.

Arminian readers hear an affection. Longing is not unspiritual. Paul has wanted their company for years, and he says so. Ministry that has filled a region may, without guilt, turn toward a church long loved.

No more place in these parts does not mean the gospel is finished on earth; it means this apostolic circuit has been filled. The many years' desire testifies that Rome was not an afterthought once Spain appeared on the map.

God times the desire and the opening. What the apostle has longed for, he now names as timely because the assigned work in the East has reached its measure. Providence, not restlessness, turns his face west.

Spain—Wesley: where the gospel had not yet been preached. He hopes to see them in passing, to be helped on his way, once he has enjoyed their company for a while. Wesley: how remarkable is the modesty; they might rather desire to be satisfied with his. Somewhat filled hints the shortness of the stay, or that Christ alone can thoroughly satisfy the soul.

Pioneer plans and ordinary fellowship belong together. He wants their faces, not only their funds. Hope to see you is honest: he plans, he asks, he does not pretend to control the road.

Calvin: he hoped to see them, enjoy intercourse, and make himself known in his office—for by the coming of the apostles the gospel also came. To be brought on his way by them intimates how much he expected from their kindness, the best way of conciliating favor. From this passage only a weak argument is drawn that he actually reached Spain; he speaks of hope, in which faithful men may sometimes be frustrated.

Hope is not a vow God owes us. The apostle lays his itinerary on the table and still leaves room for the Lord's no. Enjoying their company is itself part of the gift, not a delay before the mission.

Spain can wait; Jerusalem cannot. He is going now, bringing aid to the saints. The pioneer does not skip the poor in the mother church on the way to a new map.

Aid is discipleship. Gentile churches that have received spiritual things will not treat Jewish saints as a problem to be postponed. Love has a route, and this week the route runs to Jerusalem.

Calvin: lest they expect his immediate coming and think themselves deceived, he declares the business that prevented him—going to Jerusalem with the alms of Macedonia and Achaia. He also commends that contribution, stirring them by intimation to follow the example.

Lawful occupation can delay even an apostolic visit. The saints in Jerusalem are not a detour from gospel work; they are gospel work. Paul will not use Rome's hunger for him as an excuse to skip the collection.

Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to contribute for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem. Wesley: this does not prove that the community of goods had ceased; only that in a time of dearth some in Jerusalem were in want, the rest barely able to subsist.

Pleased is a moral word. They were not taxed into generosity. Churches at a distance treated the poor in Jerusalem as their own poor because they were saints together. Joyful giving is still the right tone.

Calvin: a rare kindness—Greeks, hearing that brethren in Jerusalem labored under want, did not consider the distance, but esteeming those near whom the bond of faith united, they relieved them from their abundance. Communication well expresses the feeling: a common and mutual regard because of the unity of the body.

The collection is fellowship, not a tip. One body means one purse when saints are hungry. Distance is not a theological argument against mercy.

Pleased, and debtors. Wesley: bound to it in justice as well as mercy. Spiritual things came by the preaching of the gospel; carnal things are needful for the body. Grace received from Jewish saints creates a Gentile duty, not a condescension.

Wesleyan Arminians hear obligation without resentment. Sharing spiritual blessings is the greater gift; material service is the fitting return. The gospel that freed Gentiles from the law did not free them from love's debts.

Calvin: this is said not so much for Corinth as for Rome; they were under the same obligation. The ground is that they had received the gospel from the Jews. It is no unjust compensation to exchange lesser, temporal things for things spiritual. He honors the whole nation from whom the gospel came forth. To minister can mean a kind of sacrifice: the faithful offer to God an acceptable odor when they relieve the brethren.

Debt here is gospel math. Gentiles share in Israel's spiritual things; material service is not charity from a superior. It is worship and justice inside the one people of God.

When the fruit is sealed to them—Wesley: safely delivered as under seal, this fruit of their brethren's love—he will go by them to Spain. Then Wesley's hard honesty: it does not appear that Paul went into Spain. There are often holy purposes in the minds of good men, which are overruled by the providence of God so as never to take effect. And yet they are precious in the sight of God.

You may plan Spain and still be held by Jerusalem's chains. Unfulfilled holy purpose is not proof the purpose was unholy. God can overrule a good itinerary and still smile on the desire.

Calvin disapproves not the thought that sealed alludes to laying up what is to be kept safe: Paul commends his integrity as an honest keeper of money, as if he carried it sealed. Fruit names the produce returning to the Jews from the gospel's propagation.

Complete the collection, then west. The sequence is fidelity. Whether Spain was walked or only hoped, the apostle's next obedience is this delivery. God is not poorer if a holy map is redrawn; the fruit still reaches Jerusalem.

He knows—not the day, but the manner. When he comes, he will come in the fullness of the blessing of the Good News of Christ. The visit is not a celebrity stop. It is Christ blessing a church through a servant.

Confidence here is confidence in Christ, not in a trouble-free road. He can know the quality of the coming while still asking prayer for the coming. Fullness of blessing is what he intends to spend among them, and what he expects Christ to give.

Calvin prefers this: Paul hoped to find the gospel flourishing at Rome, abounding in holiness and every virtue—the blessing of the gospel when it fructifies by good works. Others hear a promise that his coming would make a great accession to the gospel. Either way the blessing is Christ's, not Paul's aura.

He speaks of what he knows because Christ is not stingy. The fullness belongs to the Lord who sends. Rome's hope is not a famous visitor; it is the blessing of Christ arriving with His servant.

He appeals by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit. Wesley: by the love which is the true fruit of the Spirit. Strive together with me in your prayers. He must pray himself who would have others strive with him. Of all the apostles, Paul alone is recorded as asking the faithful to pray for him.

Prayer is a contest, and they can enter it. The Spirit's love is the bond that makes their asking his asking. An apostle still needs the church on its knees. That is not theater; it is how God has been pleased to work.

Calvin: he knew the ill-will in his nation, and the Spirit's testimony that bonds awaited him. The more danger he perceived, the more he commended his safety to the churches. The love of the Spirit is that by which Christ joins us together; it is from His Spirit, the bond of our unity. By strive he alludes to the difficulties that oppressed him: the godly take their brother's person as though placed in the same distress.

Even a choice instrument of God did not neglect the prayers of the faithful. If Paul thought it a favor from God to be helped this way, our neglect of it is stupidity. Prayer is a means God has promised to own, not a lever we work on Him.

Two asks: deliverance from unbelievers in Judea, and a welcome for the collection among the saints. Wesley: he is urgent from a sense of the importance of his life to the church; otherwise he would have rejoiced to depart and be with Christ. And that the service may be acceptable in spite of prejudices, so Jewish and Gentile believers may be knit together in tender love.

Pray for the messenger and for the gift's reception. Prejudice inside the church can stall what persecution outside cannot. He wants to live because the church still needs the knitting, not because he fears death as such.

Calvin: slanderers had so prevailed that he even feared the present would hardly be acceptable from his hands. His meekness is wonderful: he ceased not to labor for those of whose gratitude he was uncertain. He still calls them saints. He knew saints may be led by false slanders into unfavorable opinions, and he still spoke honorably of them.

Ask God to deliver, and ask God to open suspicious hearts. The collection is a ministry; its acceptance is not owed. Prayer covers both the unbeliever's violence and the believer's prejudice, because both can hinder the work.

The prayers have a further end: that by God's will he may come to them with joy and be refreshed in their company. Wesley: coming with joy refers to deliverance; refreshment refers to the service being accepted. The apostle hopes for a glad arrival, not a drained one.

God's will is the gate, and their company is a refreshment, not a flattering aside. Plans for Rome sit under a holy condition. Joy on arrival is something to ask for, because a delivered and accepted servant will have more to give.

Calvin: this prayer would be profitable to them too; it concerned them that he not be killed in Judea. With joy means a cheerful, ungrieved labor among them. Refreshed shows how persuaded he was of their brotherly love. By the will of God reminds us how necessary diligence in prayer is, for God alone directs all our ways by His providence.

Even an apostle's itinerary is by God's will. Refreshment in the church is a providence to be sought, not presumed. The God who sends also times the joy of arriving.

He leaves them with the God of peace—with you all. After weak and strong, Jew and Gentile, collection and Spain, the last word is peace, and it is a Person. Amen is the church's yes.

Peace is not the strong silencing the weak. It is God Himself with the whole church. All is the pastoral edge of the blessing. No faction is omitted from the benediction.

Calvin: from the universal all, he did not simply pray that God would favor the Romans in a general sense, but that He would rule and guide every one of them. Peace refers to their circumstances: that God, the author of peace, would keep them all united together.

The God of peace is the one who makes peace. After so much exhortation, the letter rests on the Author, not on Roman skill at getting along. He with you all is enough for a divided room.