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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Chapter 16 Personal
Greetings (ch. 16:1 – 27) In
chapter 16 we see a number and a variety of different people mentioned.
The names reflect people from various cultural and religious
backgrounds. There are Jewish
names and many types of Gentile names.
This tells us the diversity there was in the community of believers
in Rome. It also speaks to the
message of the book of Romans, and that is, the gospel of Jesus is for
everyone, not just the Jews. That
being said, this book speaks a lot about the Jews, and shows forth the
Scriptural principle that states, "to the Jew first, and then to the
Gentile".
In
verse 1 Paul “commends Phoebe” a sister in the Lord to these Romans.
She lived just north west of Corinth in a place called Cenchrea.
Paul calls her “a servant of God”, and a “helper” to him.
He tells these Romans to receive her and give her any help that she
may need. In 57 AD, in a male
dominated world, this great Letter of the Gospel of Grace was most likely
delivered to the Roman Christians by this lady.
The name Phoebe means “goddess of the moon”. She definitely
grew up in a pagan society with that name, yet she was transformed by
Jesus and became a servant of God. To
deliver this letter must have been a great privilege. It
is interesting to note that there are at least nine women mentioned in
this closing chapter. It
signifies that even in a society run by men that women had a roll to play
in God’s society, that is His Kingdom. Twenty
six people are greeted by Paul in his closing remarks, all from varied
backgrounds. Prisea and Aquila
were Jews. Aristobulus was
Greek. Rufus was a Roman.
There were men, women, mothers, sisters, prisoners, and even
relatives of Paul. (ch. 16:7 + 11) Rufus,
who is mentioned in verse 13 may well have been the son of Simon, the man
who carried Jesus’ cross. All
of these people mentioned by Paul are loved by him and loved by the Lord.
They all had a place in the Body of Christ,
and a job to do. Paul
was always concerned about the people in the church.
He was always praying that his race, his work, what he was doing
for Jesus, would not be in vain, or for nothing.
(Gal. 2:2 and 1 Cor. 15:58)
As a result, in verse 17 Paul urged these people to watch out for
those who would cause division among them, who might “put obstacles in
their way”. He says ”by
smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naïve people” (ch.
16:18) Paul’s words here
show that there are all types of Christians, even naïve Christians.
They were not all articulate and a great thinker as he was.
No matter who they were, or at what level of growth they were at,
Paul had a heart for their spiritual safety. This
final warning at the close of his letter shows Paul’s love and inward
drive to keep these Roman Christians on the right track, for he knew that
men would come in and try to lead them astray.
As he told the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:29, “for I know that
savage wolves will come in and not spare the flock”. Paul certainly did
not spare his words in calling these men “savage wolves”.
It almost seems that Paul spent half of his time preaching the
gospel and the other half warning of false teachers and trying to correct
the wrong they had done to the people of God.
He warns these people of men who would come into their midst and
try to take followers after themselves.
In
verse 20 Paul says that "God will soon crush satan under your
feet." There are various
thoughts to what this might mean. Some
suggest that Paul is speaking of Jesus at the end of this age, and that
might be so, but I'm not convinced. Others
suggest that this might have something to do with the Roman government,
but I don't know that to be so either.
At the moment, I really can say what Paul had in mind.
One thing is true, and that God has the ability to crush everything
and everyone who oppose Him.
In
verse 21 Paul calls Timothy "his fellow worker".
In other passages Paul calls Timothy his son in the Lord.
In this day when I hear preachers teaching that we must search out
fathers in the Lord to submit to, I strongly believe that we must grow up
in our faith. Some people may
have spiritual fathers, as Paul was to Timothy, bet we must grow up to
adulthood. We see here that
Timothy is now seen as a co-worker by Paul.
He is an equal to Paul, an adult believer.
In
verse 22 we see that a man named Turtius was the one who actually wrote
down the letter as Paul dictated it to him.
I wonder if Turtius ever interrupted Paul to ask him questions
about what he was saying. Could
you possibly imagine being Turtius, writing down these great words that
would be read throughout the centuries.
Of course, he only thought that he was writing to the Romans in AD
57. He never conceived that
you or I today, two thousand years later would not only be reading these
words but studying and dissecting them as well.
In
verse 25 Paul closes his letter. He
says, “now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel.”
We note that Paul could not be with these people at all times to
keep them in the faith. He
realized that God Himself by His Spirit would establish and keep these
people going on the right track. This
is an important point, especially for pastors who try their best to keep
people in the faith. So often
a pastor spends lots of time helping, and propping up a brother in the
Lord. He leaves this brother
to help someone else, and soon after he leaves the first brother falls
down. As a pastor, you do your
best, but the final work has to be done by God’s Spirit.
Paul
calls the gospel that he preached “my gospel”.
What does this mean? Is
he suggesting that every apostle has his own gospel?
I don’t think so, although some today say that each apostle does
have “his own gospel”. If
you understand Gal. 1:8, you know that there is only one gospel.
This gospel is God’s gospel.
Paul was preaching God’s gospel. Yes, he did call it “my
gospel”. I think he could
have easily called it, “the gospel that I preach”.
All other apostles and preachers preach Paul’s gospel, which
indeed is the gospel of God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul has got to be set aside as an apostle above all apostles.
He, as Abraham, Moses and others appear to have a special place in
the history of God’s Kingdom. So
any modern day apostle preaches Paul’s gospel.
I don’t feel he can claim the gospel as his own, as Paul did.
Besides, there is no real need to do that anyway.
Modern day apostles only re-speak to us what Paul and the rest of
the Bible writers have already said. Anything
beyond what is in the Bible is not binding on us as Christians.
This is where many groups have become sects, and even cults.
They make non Biblical issues mandatory for Christians, putting an
unfair and unscriptural burden on them.
In
verses 25 and 26 Paul says that the mystery that has been long hidden in
times past has now been revealed through the “prophetic writings”.
Some interpret these prophetic writings to be New Testament
writings such as Paul’s letters to the churches.
This may well be the case, except at the time of the Roman letter
there weren’t too many New Testament writings available.
Paul could have been speaking about the Old Testament prophetic
writings where hints of Jesus and salvation were prophesied.
What was once a hint, and in the shadows of prophecy is now
revealed in the life of Jesus and the gospel that Paul preached.
“So
that all nations might believe and obey Him”, are the words found in
verse 26, the second last verse of Romans.
We see hear that this gospel is for the whole world, for
individuals as well as for nations. I
am sure that Paul preached to and prayed for individuals.
Yet at the same time he saw nations.
He wanted to go to Spain to preach there. The gospel of God’s
Grace can change the life of an individual.
As individuals are changed, so a nation is changed.
I believe there is a place for Christians in government and in high
places who can effect change in a nation, yet the number one way to bring
change in a nation is for individual lives to be changed by the power of
God, through Jesus our Lord. So
we see that God is interested in both the individual and the nation.
A quick reading of the Old Testament proves this as well.
Nations play a big part at the end of the book of Revelation.
Both in the thousand years of Christ's rule on earth, and in the
new earth, nations are set forth as nations who worship Jesus.
Verse
27 ends Paul’s letter to the Romans.
“To the only wise God be glory forever, through Jesus Christ”.
We end the book as we started out.
Within the first few verses we noted that Jesus Christ our Lord is
truly God. We note in this
last sentence that God’s glory is seen in Jesus Christ.
As Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.
No man comes to the Father except through me”. (John 14:6)
With all of the talk of God in our generation, it means nothing
unless you attach the name of Jesus to your words about God.
Jesus is God. Jesus is
both Christ and Lord. Jesus is
the only way to God. There is
no other name given under Heaven whereby you can be saved.
If you struggle over this, and think that there is more than one
way to God in this day of tolerance and multiculturalism, then you will
stumble over Jesus. You will
most likely be offended. Yet
as we have said before, Jesus is a stumbling bock to many and a rock that
offends. We
must give thanks to Jesus for the life of Paul and his willingness to be
the apostle to the Gentiles. Paul’s
influence throughout the Mediterranean region was great and lasted for
centuries. It is sad to see that the northern and eastern shores of the
Mediterranean are now devoted to Islam, except for Italy and parts west.
The Asian and eastern countries where Paul poured out his life has
forsaken the gospel of Christ. Yet
Paul’s life was far from being lived in vain.
His words, his preaching of the Gospel of Grace has spread far
beyond the Mediterranean region. We,
nearly two thousand years later, and half a world away can know and
understand God’s Salvation because of the gospel he preached. Concerning
these churches on the northern shores of the Mediterranean, it is
interesting to note their downfall over the centuries. If you read the
letters to the seven churches in Revelation, you will see that God told
these churches to change in certain respects. If they didn’t, He would
remove their candlestick. (Rev 2:5) I
interpret these words to mean that God would
remove the church from its respective community, and that is what
he did. Personally,
I have learned a lot through this Bible study on the book of Romans.
More than any other study I have undertaken, this study has helped
me most. A verse by verse
study of the Bible gives a good understanding, especially since you are
reading in context, whether the context is a few verses, or the whole
book. Other
than reading Romans from my NIV Bible, I often used Vine’s Expository
Dictionary of New Testament Words to look up the meaning of certain Greek
words. In preparing my notes, from time to time I referred to Alan
Johnson’s two volume book called “Romans, The Freedom Letter” (Moody
Press, 1973). I also referred
to F. F. Bruce’s book entitled “Paul, Apostle Of The Heart Set Free”
to help me with some historical perspective.
(Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1977)
I would highly recommend all three of these books for your own
personal study. In
closing, I thank our Lord Jesus Christ who lived the righteous life on my
behalf, who also took the punishment for my wretchedness, so I will escape
the wrath and anger of God that son awaits an unbelieving world.
By His Holy Spirit I am able to live life as I should and
experience His presence into eternity.
He has done all that is necessary for me to receive Salvation in
all of its various aspects. Jesus
Christ is Lord of all things, visible and invisible, and is the Saviour
for all who trust in Him. I
do trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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