From verse 8 of chapter 15. to the end of the chapter, Paul resumes the great principles of the epistle and his personal circumstances; then in the concluding chapter, affectionate salutations to the Christians at Rome, whom he knew. It is a sort of peroration. Ver. 8, 9 present to us the two sides of the mission of Christ, the ways of God towards the Jew and the Gentile, accomplished in His advent. “Jesus Christ became a minister of circumcision for the truth of God, in order to confirm the promises of the fathers, and that the Gentiles should glorify God for mercy.” That explains the conduct of the Lord in the gospels. While the mercy shown to the Gentiles might seem inferior to the promises of the Jews, it is at bottom more excellent still; for this mercy is pure grace, the exercise of the free and sovereign grace of God. The Gentiles had no promises made to them; so that, as far as they were concerned, it was not a question of truth but of grace, if God were pleased, as He was, to abound in mercy towards them by Jesus. To prove that this grace to the Gentiles was in the mind of God, the apostle quotes from the Psalms, the law, and the prophets. (9-12.) How decisive to a godly Jew, who might hesitate before the special promises to the fathers! Without disparagement to—nay, fulfilling, or ready to fulfill, all which God had guaranteed of old, Jesus was the vessel of deeper counsels of mercy; and for these the very law itself made room, though it did not reveal them. But therein was their justification when they were revealed.
In ver. 13 the apostle turns to the saints at Rome, the then center or metropolis of the Gentile world, warmly expressing his desires and prayers on their behalf, as well as (ver. 14) his confidence in them through grace. In ver. 15, 16, he speaks with the authority he possessed in virtue of his apostleship, his peculiarly Gentile mission. In an extraordinary sense he was a minister (λειτονργός) of Jesus Christ to the nations or Gentiles. He had a public function in respect of them to discharge, carrying on as a holy rite the glad tidings of God, in order that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. This was not the result of confidence from a ministry exercised in their midst—a special tie which Scripture recognizes; but here the case was different, for Paul had never seen the Roman saints generally. Nevertheless, he speaks figuratively of presenting the nations (i.e., such Gentiles as received Christ) to God, as the priests offered the Levites in Num. 8 It was no longer external birth-holiness, as in Israel, but real separation to God in the power of the Holy Ghost. From Jerusalem, and in circuit as far as Illyricum, Paul had fully set forth the glad tidings of the Christ, and this where He had not been named (18-21.) God had taken care to show that there were saints at Rome before any apostle had arrived there; (23, 24;) and it may be remarked also that his project, as his visit to them, was not realized in the way he had intended or expected. He came as a prisoner to Rome, and whether he visited Spain we know not.
Chap. 16. Paul terminates the epistle by sending to the Roman saints cordial and numerous salutations. (1-16.) It is interesting to see, by this example, the affection which reigns in the relationship of the saints. It is beautiful above all to see Paul, so elevated by the mysteries in which God had initiated him, condescending so far as to put himself on a level with the very least. How touching, too, it is to hear him recall the things which clothed each with honor! “Priscilla and Aquila, my work-fellows in Christ Jesus, who, in behalf of my life, staked their own neck.” “Epenetus, my beloved, who is the first-fruits of Asia for Christ.” &c. &c. Alas! there were those who created divisions and stumblingblocks. Such were to be avoided. (17, 18.) Then in ver. 19 we have a precious rule and useful to follow in the midst of the evil which surrounds us. “I wish you to be wise as to (or for) that which is good, and simple as to evil.” If the man of the world would escape evil, he has need to know it; whilst the Christian walks directly in good, following the pathway God has marked out for him. If he walks with wisdom, following what is good, he has no need to know the evil. But if he knows not the good way he is embarrassed: he is forced to try several routes. A complete deliverance is at hand. “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.”
The last verses are important, for this amongst other reasons, because they insist on the inspiration and authenticity of the New Testament. The meaning of the phrase in ver. 26 is, “by prophetic writings” or “scriptures,” and not “by the scriptures of the prophets.” The epistles addressed to the Gentiles, like that to the Romans, had this character.
The epistle we have been studying lays down the foundations of our relations with God in a manner equally clear and powerful. There is this difference between it and the Epistle to the Ephesians, that the latter begins with the counsels of God, and consequently gives all the extent of God's grace in its own perfection, whether as regards the individual or the Church; whilst in our epistle the apostle begins with the sin of man, and therefore addresses himself more to the conscience, develops individual justification, and shows bow the believer is set free from sin, and what are the character and the bearing of the freedom he enjoys.
Here is the order of the teachings of the epistle to the Romans After the introduction, which shows the glad tidings of grace, the apostle lays bare the sins of the Gentiles and of the Jews, the sin of every man, of the moralists, as well as of men of pleasure; of those who enjoyed a revelation, no less than of the slaves of idolatry. All are shut up under sin. At the end of this demonstration of the sinful state of all men, he presents the sole and sovereign remedy, the blood of Christ, making this difference as to its application, that the patience of God, in view of the efficacy of the death of Jesus, had borne with the sins of the believers who lived before the work of atonement, whilst now the perfect righteousness of God is revealed. The death of Jesus proved the righteousness of God in the longsuffering He had shown in respect of the sins of the faithful in past times, but this divine righteousness formed now the ground on which the believer found himself set before God. What the apostle had already said closed the mouth of the Jew, in respect of his pretensions as the depositary of the law. God would have realities and righteousness, not pretensions founded on the advantages by which they had not profited. But besides the law, there was both Abraham and David, on whom the Jews rested. Now these men bore the same testimony: man is justified by faith and finds his happiness in pardon. But this appeal to Abraham introduces a principle of great importance, namely, the introduction of man into a totally new scene by the resurrection, a scene where sin exists no longer, where man is justified, not only as pardoned, but as agreeable to God in this new state. Abraham had been blessed by his faith in this truth as a principle: he counted on the power and the faithfulness of God to accomplish what was a resurrection. We believe that God has accomplished this act of power in Jesus delivered for our offenses, and risen for our justification. Thus our justification is founded on resurrection, as well as on death; and this connects justification and life. We have the position of the second Adam, of Christ in righteousness, as we had the position of the first Adam. Now, if the law has had the effect of giving the character of multiplied transgressions to all the sins of the Jews, and if these have thus added something more to the difficulty of the work of reconciliation, it is not less evident that the principle on which man is justified, applies to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. Human justice is shut out, because it is by the obedience of One alone that we are made righteous; but a holy life where sin is not found is brought in by our participation in the life of Christ risen.
This doctrine of resurrection is applied to justification in chap. v., to the new life in chap. vi., to deliverance from the law in chap. vii., which gives us at the same time the experience of the renewed soul under the law. Lastly, chap. viii. presents to us the state of the Christian, the liberty founded on the work of Christ, the liberty which one enjoys in sharing His life; and this deliverance is pursued up to its final application to the body. Then it shows us the Spirit Himself as the power of our joy and the consoler of our hearts, during our sojourn in this body, which binds us to the fallen creation. The apostle closes this part of his instructions, and the fundamental doctrine of the epistle, by showing that God ensures to us the enjoyment of the heavenly blessing by His own power, which guarantees the accomplishment of His counsels, so that nothing shall separate us from His love.
There remained one question to clear. The apostle had just shown that the Jew, viewed as set under the law, had nothing to say in his own justification. The law even condemned him. But what is to be said of the promises? God had given promises without condition. This point is treated in chapters ix. x. xi. In chap. ix. it is shown that, Ishmael and Esau having been put aside though they were children of Abraham, and the Jews under Sinai having been spared purely by sovereign compassion of God, the Jews were forced to own God's sovereignty. Now God exercised this sovereignty in favor of the Gentiles, which the prophets, besides, had clearly announced. In chap. x. Paul shows that the Jews, just as the same prophets had predicted, had stumbled against the stumblingstone, and had not submitted to the righteousness of God. Ought one to conclude that they were finally rejected as a people? Not at all: so chap. xi. shows, by presenting these considerations. 1. There was then a remnant. 2. The object of the admission of the Gentiles was to provoke the Jews to jealousy. 3. Finally, the Redeemer should come to Zion.
In chap. xii. the apostle resumes the thread of his general instructions, by bringing out the conduct, which in all respects suited those who were the objects of so great mercy; and in particular he draws clearly out the principles on which the new relations of the Jews and the Gentiles could be founded and maintained. The teaching on this last point gives room for some directions touching on the unity of the body, and forming the sole passage where the church is introduced. The apostle closes with communications relative to his projected voyage to Jerusalem and Rome; he foresaw in part the dangers which awaited him He adds numerous salutations to the Christians at Rome, whom he knew individually, though he had never founded the church at Rome, nor visited this city itself.