CHAPTER 15

(A.D. 60)

UNITY IN CHRIST

¹We then who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak (has the end result in mind of these weaker Brethren also becoming strong in Faith and knowledge of the Lord), and not to please ourselves (pleasing self ruins our Christian fellowship).

²Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification (refers to the Believer foregoing a legitimate act because a weaker Christian thinks it to be wrong).

³For even Christ pleased not Himself (the entirety of the Life and Ministry of Christ was to do the Will of the Father); but, as it is written (Ps. 69:9), The reproaches of them who reproached You fell on Me (Christ suffered this reproach for our sakes, and surely not to please Himself; this should be our example).

⁴For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning (refers to the whole of Old Testament Scriptures), that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope (the Word of God must always be our criteria, and not our own self-will).

⁵Now the God of Patience and Consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another (presents God as the Author of the Patience and Consolation lodged in the Scriptures, which nourish the Hope of Believers) according to Christ Jesus (once again, if we place our Faith exclusively in Christ and the Cross, these admonitions will not be difficult to obey):

⁶That you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God (proclaims the Christlikeness of the previous Verse as the only manner in which differences can be correctly settled), even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (contains the rendering of Christ pleasing the Father, Whom we must desire to please accordingly).

⁷Wherefore receive ye one another (to take into friendship and fellowship), as Christ also received us to the Glory of God (Us covers all parties in the Church, however they may be distinguished; if Christ receives both, we are bound to receive each other).

ONE IN CHRIST

⁸Now I say that Jesus Christ was a Minister of the Circumcision for the Truth of God (proclaims the fact that Jesus was obligated first of all to the Jews, and for particular reasons), to confirm the Promises made unto the Fathers (proclaims the fulfillment of the Messianic Promises to Israel):

⁹And that the Gentiles might Glorify God for His Mercy (we Gentiles are grafted in, not because of any merit on our part, but strictly because of Mercy on His Part); as it is written (Ps. 18:49), For this cause I will confess to You (to God) among the Gentiles, and sing unto Your Name (Christ is assumed here to be the Speaker, even as He is in all the Psalms; He gives thanks to God among the Gentiles, when the Gentiles give thanks to God through Him [Heb. 2:12]).

¹⁰And again He says, Rejoice, you Gentiles, with His people (by joining Gentiles with Israel, His People, Moses predicts the grafting of the wild olive tree into the good olive tree [Rom. 11:17-24]).

¹¹And again (Ps. 117:1), Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; and laud Him, all you people (this predicted the day about a thousand years in the future that the Gentiles would Praise the Lord and Laud Him, meaning to extol His Grace and Virtue).

¹²And again (Isa. 11:1), Isaiah said, There shall be a root of Jesse (concerns Jesus coming from the family of David, regarding the Incarnation), and He Who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles (this Passage predicts that Jesus will ultimately reign as King over the entirety of the Earth); in Him shall the Gentiles trust (the Church is almost entirely made up of Gentiles).

MINISTRY

¹³Now the God of Hope fill you with all Joy and Peace in believing (that which the Lord imparts to Believers rests on Faith), that you may abound in Hope, through the Power of the Holy Spirit (the Holy Spirit will help us have all these things if we place our Faith exclusively in Christ and the Cross [I Cor. 1:18]).

¹⁴And I myself also am persuaded of you, my Brethren (has faith in these Believers), that you also are full of goodness (means that they had such because of Christ), filled with all knowledge (knowledge of the Word), able also to admonish one another (they could correct each other if need be, because of their knowledge of the Word).

¹⁵Nevertheless, Brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort (with greater confidence than otherwise), as putting you in mind, because of the Grace that is given to me of God (his peculiar Mission as Apostle to the Gentiles gave him the right to admonish them),

¹⁶That I should be the Minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles (Paul presents his Calling as an Apostle to the Church), Ministering the Gospel of God (the word Ministering is used in the sense of the Priests and Levites of old, who were busied with the Sacred Rites in the Tabernacle and Temple), that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable (presents Paul perceiving himself as presenting to God the Gentile Church as an Offering), being Sanctified by the Holy Spirit (the Holy Spirit, through Paul, pictures the Apostle offering up the Gentiles as a pure Sacrifice acceptable to God, because they were washed in the Blood and Sanctified by the Holy Spirit).

¹⁷I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ (everything is through Christ, and what Christ has done at the Cross) in those things which pertain to God (the idea is that all of Pauls Ministry, and in whatever capacity, is ordered and directed by the Holy Spirit, signifying the Divine Order).

¹⁸For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not wrought by me (as the Apostle, in fact, the first Apostle, to the Gentiles, he is here claiming inspiration in the writing of this Epistle, and rightly so), to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed (it is not on his own impulse that he write this Epistle, but in Christ that he does it; the Romans as Gentiles, lie within this sphere in which Christ works through him),

¹⁹Through mighty signs and wonders, by the Power of the Spirit of God (proclaims the Mighty Power of God in operation); so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully Preached the Gospel of Christ (he preached all the Gospel, compromising it not at all).

²⁰Yes, so have I strived to Preach the Gospel (speaks of his earnest zeal), not where Christ was named (means that Paul never sought to Evangelize where Christianity was already established), lest I should build upon another mans foundation (Jesus, as the Head of the Church, gives direction through and by the Holy Spirit to particular workers; that direction, must not be impugned by others):

²¹But as it is written (Isa. 52:15), To whom He was not spoken of, they shall see: and they who have not heard shall understand (refers to the Message of Redemption going to the Gentiles, as is obvious).

ROME

²²For which cause also (refers to Paul preaching these number of years in areas that did not have the Gospel) I have been much hindered from coming to you (his desire to minister in Rome was not born out of personal ambition, but was directed by the Holy Spirit concerning his Apostleship).

²³But now having no more place in these parts (meaning he had finished his work in the places mentioned), and having a great desire these many years to come unto you (proclaims that which had been strong within his heart, and placed there by the Holy Spirit);

²⁴Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you (there is no record in Scripture or history that Paul ever fulfilled this proposed journey to Spain): for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you (implies that he hoped to take a select number from the Church in Rome to Spain with him), if first I be somewhat filled with your company(refers to his proposed stop in the Imperial City on his way to Spain).

²⁵But now I go unto Jerusalem to Minister unto the Saints (to take offerings from the Gentile Churches to Jerusalem to minister to many Saints who were in dire need).

²⁶For it has pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor Saints which are at Jerusalem (had to do with the persecution leveled at the Church in Jerusalem by the Jewish Sanhedrin).

²⁷It has pleased them verily; and their debtors they are (refers to the Jews of Antiquity being the bearers of Salvation, which was a great Blessing to the Gentile world). For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things (this goes for the entirety of the Gospel, and for all time; if we are ministered to spiritually, we should in turn minister back in material things).

²⁸When therefore I have performed this (to take the Offerings to Jerusalem), and have sealed to them this fruit (everything the Believer does for the Lord is looked at by the Holy Spirit as fruit), I will come by you into Spain (there is a tradition that Paul did ultimately go to Spain; but as stated, there is no historical or Scriptural proof).

²⁹And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the Blessing of the Gospel of Christ (proclaims the fact of great Truths held by Paul, actually given to him by Christ [Gal. 1:11-12], which he wished to give to the Roman Church).

PRAYER

³⁰Now I beseech you, Brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christs sake (refers to the Work of God; even though the Lord has paid the price on the Cross for mans Redemption, it is up to us to take the Message to the world), and for the Love of the Spirit (that he would always be led by the Spirit), that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me (proclaims the humility of this man, and the Power of Prayer);

³¹That I may be delivered from them who do not believe in Judaea (the Nation of Israel, which had rejected Christ); and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the Saints (concerns the Offering for the poor Saints in Jerusalem who were in desperate need);

³²That I may come unto you with joy by the Will of God (refers to the fact that it definitely was the Will of God for Paul to go to Rome), and may with you be refreshed (reveals that Paul had many friends in Rome, hence, the warmness of his statements).

³³Now the God of Peace be with you all. Amen.