_GOOD REPORT OF THE ROMAN CHURCH: PAUL NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL_
ROMANS i. 8-17
He has blessed the Roman Christians in the name of the Lord. Now he
hastens to tell them how he blesses God for them, and how full his
heart is of them. The Gospel is warm all through with life and love;
this great message of doctrine and precept is poured from a fountain
full of personal affection.
[Sidenote: Ver. 8.] =Now first I thank my God, through Jesus Christ,
about you all.= It is his delight to give thanks for all the good he
knows of in his brethren. Seven of his Epistles open with such
thanksgivings, which at once convey the commendations which love
rejoices to give, wherever possible, and trace all spiritual virtue
straight to its Source, the Lord. Nor only here to "the Lord," but to
"_my_ God"; a phrase used, in the New Testament, only by St Paul,
except that one utterance of ELI, ELI, by his dying Saviour. It is the
expression of an indescribable appropriation and reverent intimacy.
The believer grudges his God to none; he rejoices with great joy over
every soul that finds its wealth in Him. But at the centre of all joy
and love is this--"_my_ God"; "Christ Jesus _my_ Lord"; "who loved
_me_ and gave Himself for _me_." Is it selfish? Nay, it is the
language of a personality where Christ has dethroned self in His own
favour, but in which therefore reigns now the highest happiness, the
happiness which animates and maintains a self-forgetful love of all.
And this holy intimacy, with its action in thanks and petition, is all
the while "_through Jesus Christ_" the Mediator and Brother. The man
knows God as "_my_ God," and deals with Him as such, never out of that
Beloved SON who is equally One with the believer and with the Father,
no alien medium, but the living point of unity.
What moves his thanksgivings? =Because your faith is spoken of,= more
literally, =is carried as tidings, over the whole world.= Go where he
will, in Asia, in Macedonia, in Achaia, in Illyricum, he meets
believing "strangers from Rome," with spiritual news from the Capital,
announcing, with a glad solemnity, that at the great Centre of this
world the things eternal are proving their power, and that the Roman
mission is remarkable for its strength and simplicity of "_faith_,"
its humble reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ, and loving allegiance to
Him. Such news, wafted from point to point of that early Christendom,
was frequent then; we see another beautiful example of it where he
tells the Thessalonians (1 Thess. i. 8-10) how everywhere in his Greek
tour he found the news of their conversion running in advance of him,
to greet him at each arrival. What special importance would such
intelligence bear when it was good news from Rome!
Still in our day over the world of Missions similar tidings travel.
Only a few years ago "the saints" of Indian Tinnevelly heard of the
distress of their brethren of African Uganda, and sent with loving
eagerness "to their necessity." Only last year (1892) an English
visitor to the Missions of Labrador found the disciples of the
Moravian Brethren there full of the wonders of grace manifested in
those same African believers.
This constant good tidings from the City makes him the more glad
because of its correspondence with his incessant thought, prayer, and
yearning over them.
[Sidenote: Ver. 9.] =For God is my record, my witness,[6]= of this;
the God =whom I serve,= at once, so the Greek (λατρεύω) implies,
with adoration and obedience, =in my spirit, in the Gospel of His
Son.= The "_for_" gives the connexion we have just indicated; he
rejoices to hear of their faith, _for_ the Lord knows how much they
are in his prayers. The divine Witness is the more instinctively
appealed to, because these thoughts and prayers are for a
mission-Church, and the relations between St Paul and his God are
above all missionary relations. He "_serves Him in the Gospel of His
Son_" the Gospel of the God who is known and believed in His Christ.
He "serves Him in _the Gospel_"; that is, in _the propagation_ of it.
So he often means, where he speaks of "the Gospel"; take for example
ver. 1 above; xv. 16, 19 below; Phil. i. 5, 12; ii. 22. "He serves
Him," in that great branch of ministry, "_in his spirit_" with his
whole love, will, and mind, working in communion with his Lord. And
now to this eternal Friend and Witness he appeals to seal his
assurance of incessant intercessions for them; =how without ceasing,=
as a habit constantly in action, =I make mention of you,= calling them
up by name, specifying before the Father Rome, and Aquila, and
Andronicus, and Junias, and Persis, and Mary, and the whole circle,
personally known or not, =in my prayers;= literally, =on occasion of
my prayers;= whenever he found himself at prayer, statedly or as it
were casually remembering and beseeching.
The prayers of St Paul are a study by themselves. See his own accounts
of them, to the Corinthians, the Ephesians, the Philippians, the
Colossians, the Thessalonians, and Philemon. Observe their topic; it
is almost always the growth of grace in the saints, to their Master's
glory. Observe now still more their manner; the frequency, the
diligence, the resolution which grapples, wrestles, with the
difficulties of prayer, so that in Col. ii. 1 he calls his prayer
simply "_a great wrestling_." Learn here how to deal with God for
those for whom you work, shepherd of souls, messenger of the Word,
Christian man or woman who in any way are called to help other hearts
in Christ.
In this case his prayers have a very definite direction;
[Sidenote: Ver. 10.] he is =requesting, if somehow, now at length, my
way shall be opened, in the will of God, to come to you.= It is a
quite simple, quite natural petition. His inward harmony with the
Lord's will never excludes the formation and expression of such
requests, with the reverent "_if_" of submissive reserve. The
"indifference" of mystic pietism, which at least discourages
articulate contingent petitions, is unknown to the Apostles; "in
everything, with thanksgiving, they make their requests known unto
God." And they find such expression harmonized, in a holy experience,
with a profound rest "_within_ this will," this "sweet beloved will of
God." Little did he here foresee _how_ his way would be opened; that
it would lie through the tumult in the Temple, the prisons of
Jerusalem and Cæsarea, and the cyclone of the Adrian sea. He had in
view a missionary journey to Spain, in which Rome was to be taken by
the way.
"So God grants prayer, but in His love
Makes ways and times His own."
His heart yearns for this Roman visit. We may almost render the Greek
of the next clause, [Sidenote: Ver. 11.] =For I am homesick for a
sight of you;= he uses the word by which elsewhere he describes
Philippian Epaphroditus' longing to be back at Philippi (Phil.
ii. 26), and again his own longing to see the son of his heart,
Timotheus (2 Tim. i. 4). Such is the Gospel, that its family affection
throws the light of home on even unknown regions where dwell "the
brethren." In this case the longing love however has a purpose most
practical; =that I may impart to you some spiritual gift of grace,
with a view to your establishment.= The word rendered "_gift of
grace_" (χάρισμα) is used in some places (see especially 1 Cor.
xii. 4, 9, 28, 30, 31) with a certain special reference to the
mysterious "Tongues," "Interpretations," and "Prophecies," given in
the primeval Churches. And we gather from the Acts and the Epistles
that these grants were not ordinarily made where an Apostle was not
there to lay on his hands. But it is not likely that this is the
import of this present passage. Elsewhere in the Epistle[7] the word
_charisma_ is used with its largest and deepest reference; God's gift
of blessing in Christ. Here then, so we take it, he means that he
pines to convey to them, as his Lord's messenger, some new development
of spiritual light and joy; to expound "the Way" to them more
perfectly; to open up to them such fuller and deeper insights into the
riches of Christ that they, better using their possession of the Lord,
might as it were gain new possessions in Him, and might stand more
boldly on the glorious certainties they held. And this was to be done
ministerially, not magisterially. For he goes on to say that the longed
for visit would be his gain as well as theirs; [Sidenote: Ver. 12.]
=that is, with a view to my concurrent encouragement among you, by our
mutual faith, yours and mine together.= Shall we call this a sentence
of fine tact; beautifully conciliatory and endearing? Yes, but it is
also perfectly sincere. True tact is only the skill of sympathetic
love, not the less genuine in its thought because that thought seeks
to please and win. He is glad to shew himself as his disciples'
brotherly friend; but then he first _is_ such, and enjoys the
character, and has continually found and felt his own soul made glad
and strong by the witness to the Lord which far less gifted believers
bore, as he and they talked together. Does not every true teacher know
this in his own experience? If we are not merely lecturers on
Christianity but witnesses for Christ, we know what it is to hail with
deep thanksgivings the "_encouragement_" we have had from the lips of
those who perhaps believed long after we did, and have been far less
advantaged outwardly than we have been. We have known and blessed the
"_encouragement_" carried to us by little believing children, and
young men in their first faith, and poor old people on their
comfortless beds, ignorant in this world, illuminated in the Lord.
"_Mutual faith_," the pregnant phrase of the Apostle, faith residing
in each of both parties, and owned by each to the other, is a mighty
power for Christian "_encouragement_" still.[8]
[Sidenote: Ver. 13.] =But I would not have you ignorant, brethren.=
This is a characteristic term of expression with him.[9] He delights
in confidence and information, and not least about his own plans
bearing on his friends. =That often I purposed= (or better, in our
English idiom, =have purposed=) =to come to you, (but I have been
hindered up till now,) that I might have some fruit among you too, as
actually among the other Nations.= He cannot help giving more and yet
more intimation of his loving _gravitation_ towards them; nor yet of
his gracious avarice for "_fruit,_" result, harvest and vintage for
Christ, in the way of helping on Romans, as well as Asiatics, and
Macedonians, and Achaians, to live a fuller life in Him. This, we may
infer from the whole Epistle, would be the chief kind of "fruit" in
his view at Rome; but not this only. For we shall see him at once go
on to anticipate an evangelistic work at Rome, a speaking of the
Gospel message where there would be a temptation to be "ashamed" of
it. Edification of believers may be his main aim. But conversion of
pagan souls to God cannot possibly be dissociated from it.
In passing we see, with instruction, that St Paul made many plans
which came to nothing; he tells us this here without apology or
misgiving. He claims accordingly no such practical omniscience, actual
or possible, as would make his resolutions and forecasts infallible.
Tacitly, at least, he wrote "_If the Lord will_," across them all,
unless indeed there came a case where, as when he was guided out of
Asia to Macedonia (Acts xvi. 6-10), direct intimation was given him,
abnormal, supernatural, quite _ab extra_, that such and not such was
to be his path.
But now, he is not only "_homesick_" for Rome, with a yearning love;
he feels his obligation to Rome, with a wakeful conscience.
[Sidenote: Ver. 14.] =Alike to Greeks and to Barbarians, to wise men
and to unthinking, I am in debt.= Mankind is on his heart, in the
sorts and differences of its culture. On the one hand were "_the
Greeks_"; that is to say, in the then popular meaning of the word, the
peoples possessed of what we now call "classical" civilization, Greek
and Roman; an inner circle of these were "_the wise_," the literati,
the readers, writers, thinkers, in the curriculum of those literatures
and philosophies. On the other hand were "_the Barbarians_," the
tongues and tribes outside the Hellenic pale, Pisidian, Pamphylian,
Galatian, Illyrian, and we know not who besides; and then, among them,
or anywhere, "_the unthinking_," the numberless masses whom the
educated would despise or forget as utterly untrained in the schools,
unversed in the great topics of man and the world; the people of the
field, the market, and the kitchen. To the Apostle, because to his
Lord, all these were now impartially his claimants, his creditors; he
"_owed them_" the Gospel which had been trusted to him for them.
Naturally, his will might be repelled alike by the frown or smile of
the Greek, and by the coarse earthliness of the Barbarian. But
supernaturally, in Christ, he loved both, and scrupulously remembered
his _duty_ to both. Such is the true missionary spirit still, in
whatever region, under whatever conditions. The Christian man, and the
Christian Church, delivered from the world, is yet its debtor. "Woe is
to him, to it, if" that debt is not paid, if that Gospel is "hidden in
a napkin."
Thus he is ready, and more than ready, to pay his debt to Rome.
[Sidenote: Ver. 15.] =So= (to render literally) =what relates to me is
eager, to you too, to the men in Rome, to preach the Gospel.= "_What
relates to_ me"; there is an emphasis on "_me_," as if to say that the
hindrance, whatever it is, is not in him, but around him. The doors
have been shut, but the man stands behind them, in act to pass in when
he may.
His eagerness is no light-heartedness, no carelessness of when or
where. This wonderful missionary is too sensitive to facts and ideas,
too rich in imagination, not to feel the peculiar, nay the awful
greatness, of a summons to Rome. He understands culture too well not
to feel its possible obstacles. He has seen too much of both the real
grandeur and the harsh force of the imperial power in its extension
not to feel a genuine awe as he thinks of meeting that power at its
gigantic Centre. There is that in him which fears Rome. But he is
therefore the very man to go there, for he understands the magnitude
of the occasion, and he will the more deeply retire upon his Lord for
peace and power.
Thus with a pointed fitness he tells himself and his friends, just
here, that he is "_not ashamed of the Gospel_." [Sidenote: Ver. 16.]
=For I am not ashamed;= I am ready even for Rome, for this terrible
Rome. I have a message which, though Rome looks as if she must despise
it, I know is not to be despised. =For I am not ashamed of the
Gospel;[10] for it is God's power to salvation, for every one who
believes, alike for Jew, (first,) and for Greek.= [Sidenote: Ver. 17.]
=For God's righteousness is in it unveiled, from faith on to faith; as
it stands written, But the just man on faith shall live.=
These words give out the great theme of the Epistle. The Epistle,
therefore, is infinitely the best commentary on them, as we follow out
its argument and hear its message. Here it shall suffice us to note
only a point or two, and so pass on.
First, we recollect that this Gospel, this Glad Tidings, is, in its
essence, Jesus Christ. It is, supremely, "He, not it"; Person, not
theory. Or rather, it is authentic and eternal theory in vital and
eternal connexion everywhere with a Person. As such it is truly
"_power_," in a sense as profoundly natural as it is divine. It is
power, not only in the cogency of perfect principle, but in the energy
of an eternal Life, an almighty Will, an infinite Love.
Then, we observe that this message of power, which is, in its burthen,
the Christ of God, unfolds first, at its foundation, in its front,
"_the Righteousness of God_"; not first His Love, but "His
Righteousness." Seven times elsewhere in the Epistle comes this
phrase[11]; rich materials for ascertaining its meaning in the
spiritual dialect of St Paul. Out of these passages, iii. 26 gives us
the key. There "the righteousness of God," seen as it were in action,
ascertained by its effects, is that which secures "_that He shall be
just, and the Justifier of the man who belongs to faith in Jesus_." It
is that which makes wonderfully possible the mighty paradox that the
Holy One, eternally truthful, eternally rightful, infinitely
"law-abiding" in His jealousy for that Law which is in fact His Nature
expressing itself in precept, nevertheless can and does say to man, in
his guilt and forfeit, "I, thy Judge, lawfully acquit thee, lawfully
accept thee, lawfully embrace thee." In such a context we need not
fear to explain this great phrase, in this its first occurrence, to
mean the Acceptance accorded by the Holy Judge to sinful man. Thus it
stands practically equivalent to--God's way of justifying the ungodly,
His method for liberating His love while He magnifies His law. In
effect, not as a translation but as an explanation, God's
Righteousness is God's Justification.
Then again, we note the emphasis and the repetition here of the
thought of _faith_. "_To every one that believeth_"; "_From faith on
to faith_"; "_The just man on faith shall live_." Here, if anywhere,
we shall find ample commentary in the Epistle. Only let us remember
from the first that in the Roman Epistle, as everywhere in the New
Testament, we shall see "_faith_" used in its natural and human sense;
we shall find that it means personal reliance. _Fides est fiducia_,
"Faith is trust," say the masters of Reformation theology. _Refellitur
inanis hæreticorum fiducia_, "We refute the heretics' empty 'trust,'"
says the Council of Trent[12] against them; but in vain. Faith is
trust. It is in this sense that our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Gospels,
invariably uses the word. For this is its human sense, its sense in
the street and market; and the Lord, the Man of men, uses the dialect
of His race. Faith, infinitely wonderful and mysterious from some
points of view, is the simplest thing in the world from others. That
sinners, conscious of their guilt, should be brought so to see their
Judge's heart as to take His word of peace to mean what it says, is
miracle. But that they should trust His word, having seen His heart,
is nature, illuminated and led by grace, but nature still. The
"_faith_" of Jesus Christ and the Apostles is trust. It is not a
faculty for mystical intuitions. It is our taking the Trustworthy at
His word. It is the opening of a mendicant hand to receive the gold of
Heaven; the opening of dying lips to receive the water of life. It is
that which makes a void place for Jesus Christ to fill, that He may be
man's Merit, man's Peace, and man's Power.
Hence the overwhelming prominence of faith in the Gospel. It is the
correlative of the overwhelming, the absolute, prominence of Jesus
Christ. Christ is all. Faith is man's acceptance of Him as such.
"Justification by Faith" is not acceptance because faith is a valuable
thing, a merit, a recommendation, a virtue.[13] It is acceptance
because of Jesus Christ, whom man, dropping all other hopes, receives.
It is, let us repeat it, the sinner's empty hand and parted lips. It
has absolutely nothing to do with earning the gift of God, the water
and the bread of God; it has all to do with taking it. This we shall
see open out before us as we proceed.
So the Gospel "_unveils God's righteousness_"; it draws the curtains
from His glorious secret. And as each fold is lifted, the glad
beholder looks on "_from faith to faith_." He finds that this reliance
is to be _his_ part; first, last, midst, and without end. He takes
Jesus Christ by faith; he holds Him by faith; he uses Him by faith; he
lives, he dies, in Him by faith; that is to say, always by Him, by Him
received, held, used.
Then lastly, we mark the quotation from the Prophet, who, for the
Apostle, is the organ of the Holy Ghost. What Habakkuk wrote is, for
Paul, what God says, God's Word. The Prophet, as we refer to his brief
pages, manifestly finds his occasion and his first significance in the
then state of his country and his people. If we please, we may explain
the words as a patriot's contribution to the politics of Jerusalem,
and pass on. But if so, we pass on upon a road unknown to our Lord and
His Apostles. To Him, to them, the prophecies had more in them than
the Prophets knew; and Habakkuk's appeal to Judah to retain the Lord
Jehovah among them in all His peace and power, by trusting Him, is
known by St Paul to be for all time an oracle about the work of faith.
So he sees it in a message straight to the soul which asks how, if
Christ is God's Righteousness, shall I, a sinner, win Christ for me.
"Wouldst thou indeed be _just_ with God, right with Him as Judge,
accepted by the Holy One? Take His Son in the empty arms of mere
trust, and He is thine for this need, and for all."
"_I am not ashamed of the Gospel._" So the Apostle affirms, as he
looks toward Rome. What is it about this Gospel of God, and of His
Son, which gives occasion for such a word? Why do we find, not here
only, but elsewhere in the New Testament, this contemplated
possibility that the Christian may be ashamed of his creed, and of his
Lord? "Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me, and of My words, of him shall
the Son of Man be ashamed" (Luke ix. 26); "Be not thou ashamed of the
testimony of our Lord"; "Nevertheless, I am not ashamed" (2 Tim. i. 8,
12). This is paradoxical, as we come to think upon it. There is much
about the purity of the Gospel which might occasion, and does too
often occasion, an awe and dread of it, seemingly reasonable. There is
much about its attendant mysteries which might seem to excuse an
attitude, however mistaken, of reverent suspense. But what is there
about this revelation of the heart of Eternal Love, this record of a
Life equally divine and human, of a Death as majestic as it is
infinitely pathetic, and then of a Resurrection out of death, to
occasion shame? Why, in view of this, should man be shy to avow his
faith, and to let it be known that this is all in all to him, his
life, his peace, his strength, his surpassing interest and occupation?
More than one analysis of the phenomenon, which we all know to be
fact, may be suggested. But for our part we believe that the true
solution lies near the words sin, pardon, self-surrender. The Gospel
reveals the eternal Love, but under conditions which remind man that
he has done his worst to forfeit it. It tells him of a peace and
strength sublime and heavenly; but it asks him, in order to receive
them, to kneel down in the dust and take them, unmerited, for nothing.
And it reminds them that he, thus delivered and endowed, is by the
same act the property of his Deliverer; that not only the highest
benefit of his nature is secured by his giving himself over to God,
but the most inexorable obligation lies on him to do so. He is not his
own, but bought with a price.
Such views of the actual relation between man and God, even when
attended, as they are in the Gospel, with such indications of man's
true greatness as are found nowhere else, are deeply repellent to the
soul that has not yet seen itself and God in the light of truth. And
the human being who _has_ got that sight, and has submitted himself
indeed, yet, the moment he looks outside the blessed shrine of his own
union with his Lord, is tempted to be reticent about a creed which he
knows once repelled and angered him. Well did Paul remember his old
hatred and contempt; and he felt the temptations of that memory, when
he presented Christ either to the Pharisee or to the Stoic, and now
particularly when he thought of "bearing witness of Him at Rome" (Acts
xxiii. 11), imperial, overwhelming Rome. But then he looked again from
them to Jesus Christ, and the temptation was beneath his feet, and the
Gospel, everywhere, was upon his lips.
[6] The word "_record_" in this sense came into English from Old
French. (Skeat: _Etymological Dictionary_.)
[7] See verses 15, 16, 23, xi. 29. xii. 6 is the only passage which at
all looks the other way, and that passage implies that the Romans
_already_ possessed the wonder-working gifts.
[8] The word "_comfort_" in the English Version here, as commonly
elsewhere, represents παρακαλεῖν, παράκλησις, which commonly denote
not so much the consolation of grief as the encouragement which
banishes depression.
[9] xi. 25; 1 Cor. x. 1, xii. 1; 2 Cor. i. 8; 1 Thess. iv. 13.
[10] The words "_of Christ_" must be omitted from the text here.
[11] iii. 5, 21, 22, 23, 26; x. 3 twice.
[12] Session VI., ch. ix.
[13] See this admirably explained by Hooker, _Discourse of
Justification_, § 31.