_ROMAN CHRISTIANITY: ST PAUL'S COMMISSION: HIS INTENDED ITINERARY:
HE ASKS FOR PRAYER_
ROMANS xv. 14-33
The Epistle hastens to its close. As to its instructions, doctrinal or
moral, they are now practically written. The Way of Salvation lies
extended, in its radiant outline, before the Romans, and ourselves.
The Way of Obedience, in some of its main tracks, has been drawn
firmly on the field of life. Little remains but the Missionary's last
words about persons and plans, and then the great task is done.
He will say a warm, gracious word about the spiritual state of the
Roman believers. He will justify, with a noble courtesy, his own
authoritative attitude as their counsellor. He will talk a little of
his hoped for and now seemingly approaching visit, and matters in
connexion with it. He will greet the individuals whom he knows, and
commend the bearer of the Letter, and add last messages from his
friends. Then Phœbe may receive her charge, and go on her way.
[Sidenote: Ver. 14.] =But I am sure, my brethren, quite on my own part
(καὶ αὐτὸς ἐγώ), about you, that you are, yourselves,= irrespective
of my influence, =brimming with goodness,= with high Christian
qualities in general, =filled with all knowledge, competent in fact
(καὶ) to admonish one another.= Is this flattery, interested and
insincere? Is it weakness, easily persuaded into a false optimism?
Surely not; for the speaker here is the man who has spoken straight to
the souls of these same people about sin, and judgment, and holiness;
about the holiness of these everyday charities which some of them (so
he has said plainly enough) had been violating. But a truly great
heart always loves to praise where it can, and, discerningly, to think
and say the best. He who is Truth itself said of His imperfect, His
disappointing followers, as He spoke of them in their hearing to His
Father, "They have kept Thy word"; "I am glorified in them" (John
xvii. 6, 10). So here his Servant does not indeed give the Romans a
formal certificate of perfection, but he does rejoice to know, and to
say, that their community is Christian in a high degree, and that in a
certain sense they have not needed information about Justification by
Faith, nor about principles of love and liberty in their intercourse.
In essence, all has been in their cognizance already; an assurance
which could not have been entertained in regard of every Mission,
certainly. He has written not as to children, giving them an alphabet,
but as to men, developing facts into science.
[Sidenote: Ver. 15.] =But with a certain boldness (τολμηρότερον) I
have written[250] to you, here and there,[251] just as reminding you;
because of the grace,= the free gift of his commission and of the
equipment for it, =given me by our (τοῦ) God,= given in order to
[Sidenote: Ver. 16.] =my being Christ Jesus' minister= sent =to the
Nations, doing priest-work with the Gospel of God, that the oblation
of the Nations,= the oblation which is in fact the Nations self-laid
upon the spiritual altar, =may be acceptable, consecrated in the Holy
Spirit.= It is a startling and splendid passage of metaphor. Here
once, in all the range of his writings (unless we except the few and
affecting words of Phil. ii. 17), the Apostle presents himself to his
converts as a sacrificial ministrant, a "_priest_" in the sense which
usage (not etymology) has so long stamped on that English word as its
more special sense. Never do the great Founders of the Church,
and never does He who is its Foundation, use the term ἱερεύς,
sacrificing, mediating, priest, as a term to designate the Christian
minister in any of his orders; _never_, if this passage is not to be
reckoned in, with its ἱερουργεῖν, its "_priest-work_," as we have
ventured to translate the Greek. In the distinctively sacerdotal
Epistle, the Hebrews, the word ἱερεὺς comes indeed into the
foreground. But there it is absorbed into THE LORD. It is appropriated
altogether to Him in His self-sacrificial Work once done, and in His
heavenly Work now always doing, the work of mediatorial impartation,
from His throne,[252] of the blessings which His great Offering won.
One other Christian application of the sacrificial title we have in
the Epistles: "Ye are a holy priesthood," "a royal priesthood" (1 Pet.
ii. 5, 9). But who are "_ye_"? Not the consecrated pastorate, but the
consecrated Christian company altogether. And what are the
altar-sacrifices of that company? "Sacrifices _spiritual_"; "_the
praises_ of Him who called them into His wonderful light" (1 Pet.
ii. 5, 9). In the Christian Church, the pre-Levitical ideal of the old
Israel reappears in its sacred reality. He who offered to the Church
of Moses (Exod. xix. 6) to be one great priesthood, "a kingdom of
priests, and a holy nation," found His favoured nation unready for the
privilege, and so Levi representatively took the place alone. But now,
in His new Israel, as all are sons in the Son, so all are priests in
the Priest. And the sacred Ministry of that Israel, the Ministry which
is His own divine institution, the gift (Eph. iv. 11) of the ascended
Lord to His Church, is never once designated, as such, by the term
which would have marked it as the analogue to Levi, or to Aaron.
Is this passage in any degree an exception? No; for it contains its
own full inner evidence of its metaphorical cast. The "_priest-working_"
here has regard, we find, not to a ritual, but to "_the Gospel_."
"_The oblation_" is--the Nations. The hallowing Element, shed as it
were upon the victims, is the Holy Ghost. Not in a material temple,
and serving at no tangible altar, the Apostle brings his multitudinous
_converts_ as his holocaust to the Lord. The Spirit, at his preaching
and on their believing, descends upon them; and they lay themselves "a
living sacrifice" where the fire of love shall consume them, to His
glory.
[Sidenote: Ver. 17.] =I have therefore my= (read τὴν) right to
=exultation, in Christ Jesus,= as His member and implement, =as to
what regards God;= not in any respect as regards myself, apart from
Him. And then he proceeds as if about to say, in evidence of that
assertion, that he always declines to intrude on a brother Apostle's
ground, and to claim as his own experience what was in the least
degree another's; but that indeed through him, in sovereign grace, God
_has_ done great things, far and wide. This he expresses thus, in
energetic compressions of diction:
[Sidenote: Ver. 18.] =For I will not dare to talk at all of things
which Christ did not work out through me,= (there is an emphasis on
"_me_,") =to effect obedience of (the) Nations= to His Gospel, =by
word and deed,= [Sidenote: Ver. 19.] =in power of signs and wonders,
in power of God's Spirit;= a reference, strangely impressive by its
very passingness, to the exercise of miracle-working gifts by the
writer. This man, so strong in thought, so practical in counsel, so
extremely unlikely to have been under an illusion about a large factor
in his adult and intensely conscious experience, speaks direct from
himself of his wonder-works. And the allusion, thus dropped by the way
and left behind, is itself an evidence to the perfect mental balance
of the witness; this was no enthusiast, intoxicated with ambitious
spiritual visions, but a man put in trust with a mysterious yet sober
treasure. =So that from Jerusalem, and round about= it (Acts
xxvi. 20), =as far as the Illyrian= region, the highland seabord which
looks across the Adriatic to the long eastern side of Italy, =I have
fulfilled the Gospel of Christ,= carried it practically everywhere,
_satisfied the idea_ of so distributing it that it shall be accessible
everywhere to the native races.
[Sidenote: Ver. 20.] =But= this I have done =with this ambition, to
preach the Gospel not where Christ was already named, that I might not
build on another man's foundation;= [Sidenote: Ver. 21.] =but= to act
on the divine word, =as it stands written= (Isai. lii. 15), ="They to
whom no news was carried about Him, shall see; and those who have not
heard, shall understand."= Here was an "_ambition_" as far-sighted as
it was noble. Would that the principle of it could have been better
remembered in the history of Christendom, and not least in our own
age; a wasteful over-lapping of effort on effort, system on system,
would not need now to be so much deplored. [Sidenote: Ver. 22.] =Thus
as a fact (καὶ) I was hindered for the most part=--hindrances were
the rule, signals of opportunity the exception--=in coming to you;=
you, whose City is no untrodden ground to messengers of Christ, and
therefore not the ground which had _a first_ claim on me.
[Sidenote: Ver. 23.] =But now, as no longer having place in these
regions,= eastern Roman Europe yielding him no longer an unattempted
and accessible district to enter, =and having a home-sick feeling=
(ἐπιποθίαν: see above, i. 11) =for coming to you, these many years=
[Sidenote: Ver. 24.] =whenever I may be journeying to Spain, [I will
come to you[253]]. For I hope, on my journey through, to see the sight
of you= (θεάσασθαι, as if the view of so important a Church would
be a _spectacle_ indeed), =and by you[254] to be escorted there, if
first I may have my fill of you, however imperfectly (ἀπὸ μέρους).=
As always, in the fine courtesy of pastoral love, he says more, and
thinks more, of his own expected gain of refreshment and encouragement
from them, than even of what he may have to impart to them. So he had
thought, and so spoken, in his opening page (i. 11, 12); it is the
same heart throughout.
How little did he realize the line and details of the destined
fulfilment of that "home-sick feeling"! He was indeed to "see Rome,"
and for no passing "sight of the scene." For two long years of sorrows
and joys, restraints and wonderful occasions, innumerable colloquies,
and the writing of great Scriptures, he was to "dwell in his own hired
lodgings" there. But he did not see what lay between.
For St Paul ordinarily, as always for us, it was true that "we know
not what awaits us." For us, as for him, it is better "to walk with
God in the dark, than to go alone in the light."
Did he ultimately visit Spain? We shall never know until perhaps we
are permitted to ask him hereafter. It is not at all impossible that,
released from his Roman prison, he first went westward and then--as at
some time he certainly did--travelled to the Levant. But no tradition,
however faint, connects St Paul with the great Peninsula which glories
in her legend of St James. Is it irrelevant to remember that _in his
Gospel_ he has notably visited Spain in later ages? It was the Gospel
of St Paul, the simple grandeur of his exposition of Justification by
Faith, which in the sixteenth century laid hold on multitudes of the
noblest of Spanish hearts, till it seemed as if not Germany, not
England, bid fairer to become again a land of "truth in the light."
The terrible Inquisition utterly crushed the springing harvest, at
Valladolid, at Seville, and in that ghastly Quemadero at Madrid,
which, five-and-twenty years ago, was excavated by accident, to reveal
its deep strata of ashes, and charred bones, and all the débris of the
_Autos_. But now again, in the mercy of God, and in happier hours, the
New Testament is read in the towns of Spain, and in her highland
villages, and churches are gathering around the holy light, spiritual
descendants of the true, the primeval, Church of Rome. May "the God of
hope fill them with all peace and joy in believing."
[Sidenote: Ver. 25.] =But now I am journeying to Jerusalem,= the
journey whose course we know so well from Acts xx., xxi., =ministering
to the saints,= serving the poor converts of the holy City as the
collector and conveyer of alms for their necessities. [Sidenote: Ver. 26.]
=For Macedonia and Achaia,= the northern and southern Provinces of
Roman Greece, finely _personified_ in this vivid passage, =thought
good to make something of a (τινὰ) communication,= a certain gift to
be "_shared_" among the recipients, =for the poor of the saints who
live at Jerusalem;= the place where poverty seemed specially, for
whatever reason, to beset the converts. [Sidenote: Ver. 27.] ="For
they thought good!"= yes; but there is a different side to the matter.
Macedonia and Achaia are generous friends, but they have an obligation
too: =And debtors they are to them,= to these poor people of the old
City. =For if in their spiritual things the Nations shared, they,=
these Nations, =are in debt, as a fact, (καί,) in things carnal,=
things belonging to our "life in the flesh," =to minister to them;=
λειτουργῆσαι, to do them public _and religious_ service.
[Sidenote: Ver. 28.] =When I have finished this then, and sealed this
fruit to them,= put them into ratified ownership of this "_proceed_"
(καρπὸν) of Christian love, =I will come away by your road (δι' ὑμῶν)
to Spain.= (He _means_, "if the Lord will"; it is instructive to note
that even St Paul does not make it a duty, with an almost
superstitious iteration, always to _say so_). [Sidenote: Ver. 29.]
=Now I know that, coming to you, in the fulness of Christ's
benediction[255] I shall come.= He will come with his Lord's
"_benediction_" on him, as His messenger to the Roman disciples;
Christ will send him charged with heavenly messages, and attended with
His own prospering presence. And this will be "_in fulness_"; with a
rich overflow of saving truth, and heavenly power, and blissful
fellowship.
Here he pauses, to ask them for that boon of which he is so
covetous--intercessory prayer. He has been speaking with a kind and
even sprightly pleasantry (there is no irreverence in the recognition)
of those Personages, Macedonia and Achaia, and their gift, which is
also their debt. He has spoken also of what we know from elsewhere
(1 Cor. xvi. 1-4) to have been his own scrupulous purpose not only to
collect the alms but to see them punctually delivered, above all
suspicion of misuse. He has talked with cheerful confidence of "the
road by Rome to Spain." But now he realizes what the visit to
Jerusalem involves for himself. He has tasted in many places, and at
many times, the bitter hatred felt for him in unbelieving Israel; a
hatred the more bitter, probably, the more his astonishing activity
and influence were felt in region after region. Now he is going to the
central focus of the enmity; to the City of the Sanhedrin, and of the
Zealots. And St Paul is no Stoic, indifferent to fear, lifted in an
unnatural exaltation above circumstances, though he is ready to walk
through them in the power of Christ. His heart anticipates the
experiences of outrage and revilings, and the possible breaking up of
all his missionary plans. He thinks too of prejudice within the
Church, as well as of hatred from without; he is not at all sure that
his cherished collection will not be coldly received, or even
rejected, by the Judaists of the mother-church; whom yet he must and
will call "saints." So he tells all to the Romans, with a generous and
winning confidence in their sympathy, and begs their prayers, and
above all sets them praying that he may not be disappointed of his
longed-for visit to them.
All was granted. He was welcomed by the Church. He was delivered from
the fanatics, by the strong arm of the Empire. He did reach Rome, and
he had holy joy there. Only, the Lord took His own way, a way they
knew not, to answer Paul and his friends.
[Sidenote: Ver. 30.] =But I appeal to you, brethren,=--the "_but_"
carries an implication that something lay in the way of the happy
prospect just mentioned,--=by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love
of the Spirit,= by that holy family affection inspired by the Holy One
into the hearts which He has regenerated,[256] =to wrestle along with
me in your prayers on my behalf to our (τῷ) God;= [Sidenote: Ver. 31.]
=that I may be rescued from those who disobey= the Gospel =in Judea,
and that my ministration[257] which takes me to Jerusalem (ἡ εἰς
Ἱερουσαλὴμ) may prove acceptable to the saints,= may be taken by the
Christians there without prejudice, and in love; [Sidenote: Ver. 32.]
=that I may with joy come to you, through the will of God,[258] and
may share refreshing rest with you,= the rest of holy fellowship where
the tension of discussion and opposition is intermitted, and the two
parties perfectly "understand one another" in their Lord.
[Sidenote: Ver. 33.] =But the God of our (τῆς) peace be with you
all.= Yes, so be it, whether or no the longed-for "_joy_" and
"_refreshing rest_" is granted in His providence to the Apostle. With
his beloved Romans, anywise, let there be "_peace_"; peace in their
community, and in their souls; peace with God, and peace in Him. And
so it will be, whether their human friend is or is not permitted, to
see them, if only the Eternal Friend is there.
There is a deep and attractive tenderness, as we have seen above, in
this paragraph, where the writer's heart tells the readers quite
freely of its personal misgivings and longings. One of the most
pathetic, sometimes one of the most beautiful, phenomena of human life
is the strong man in his weak hour, or rather in his feeling hour,
when he is glad of the support of those who may be so much his weaker.
There is a sort of strength which prides itself upon never shewing
such symptoms; to which it is a point of honour to act and speak
always as if the man were self-contained and self-sufficient. But this
is a narrow type of strength, not a great one. The strong man truly
great is not afraid, in season, to "let himself go"; he is well able
to recover. An underlying power leaves him at leisure to shew upon the
surface very much of what he feels. The largeness of his insight puts
him into manifold contact with others, and keeps him open to their
sympathies, however humble and inadequate these sympathies may be. The
Lord Himself, "mighty to save," cared more than we can fully know for
human fellow-feeling. "Will ye also go away?" "Ye are they that have
continued with Me in My temptations"; "Tarry ye here, and watch with
Me"; "Lovest thou Me?"
No false spiritual pride suggests it to St Paul to conceal his
anxieties from the Romans. It is a temptation sometimes to those who
have been called to help and strengthen other men, to affect for
themselves a strength which perhaps they do not quite feel. It is well
meant. The man is afraid that if he owns to a burthen he may seem to
belie the Gospel of "perfect peace"; that if he even lets it be
suspected that he is not always in the ideal Christian frame, his
warmest exhortations and testimonies may lose their power. But at all
possible hazards let him, about such things as about all others, tell
the truth. It is a sacred duty in itself; the heavenly Gospel has no
corner in it for the manœuvres of spiritual prevarication. And he
will find assuredly that truthfulness, transparent candour, will not
really discount his witness to the promises of his Lord. It may
humiliate _him_, but it will not discredit Jesus Christ. It will
indicate the imperfection of the recipient, but not any defect in the
thing received. And the fact that the witness has been found quite
candid against himself, where there is occasion, will give a double
weight to his every direct testimony to the possibility of a life
lived in the hourly peace of God.
It is no part of our Christian duty to feel doubts and fears! And the
more we act upon our Lord's promises as they stand, the more we shall
rejoice to find that misgivings tend to vanish where once they were
always thickening upon us. Only, it is our duty always to be
transparently honest.
However, we must not treat this theme here too much as if St Paul had
given us an unmistakable text for it. His words now before us
_express_ no "carking care" about his intended visit to Jerusalem.
They only indicate a deep sense of the gravity of the prospect, and of
its dangers. And we know from elsewhere (see especially Acts xxi. 13)
that that sense did sometimes amount to an agony of feeling, in the
course of the very journey which he now contemplates. And we see him
here quite without the wish to conceal his heart in the matter.
In closing we note, "for our learning," his example as he is a man who
craves to be prayed for. Prayer, that great mystery, that blessed fact
and power, was indeed vital to St Paul. He is always praying himself;
he is always asking other people to pray for him. He "has seen Jesus
Christ our Lord"; he is his Lord's inspired Minister and Delegate; he
has been "caught up into the third heaven"; he has had a thousand
proofs that "all things," infallibly, "work together for his good."
But he is left by this as certain as ever, with a persuasion as simple
as a child's, and also as deep as his own life-worn spirit, that it is
immensely well worth his while to secure the intercessory prayers of
those who know the way to God in Christ.
[250] Ἔγραψα: the epistolary aorist.
[251] Ἀπὸ μέρους "_as regards part_" of his instructions and
cautions. He probably refers particularly to the discussions of ch.
xiv. 1--xv. 13.
[252] He is seen in the Epistle not before the throne, standing, but
_on_ the throne, _seated_.
[253] These words have weak documentary support. But surely the
ellipsis left by their absence is difficult to accept, even in St
Paul's free style.
[254] Or perhaps "_from you_," ἀφ' ὑμῶν.
[255] Omitting the words τοῦ εὐαγγελίου τοῦ.
[256] So we explain, rather than take the reference to be to the Holy
Spirit's _love for us_. In this context, surely, this latter would be
less in point.
[257] Διακονία: another possible reading is δωροφορία, "_gift-bearing_."
[258] Perhaps read, "_through the will of the Lord Jesus_."