24    In Defense of Boldness (15:14-21)

And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another. But I have written very boldly to you on some points, so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, that my offering of the Gentiles might become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build upon another man’s foundation; but as it is written, “They who had no news of Him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand.” (15:14–21)

After completing the major doctrinal treatise of this letter (1:18–15:13), Paul now begins what amounts to an epilogue, which comprises comments about his ministry (15:14–21), his plans for future service (vv. 22–33), personal greetings from himself and others (16:1–24), and a closing benediction (vv. 25–27).

In the present text, Paul gives a defense of his ministry, especially of his boldness in writing this letter to a church he did not found and had never visited. Except for a few individuals he had met elsewhere, he did not know the Christians in Rome. Yet he addresses them both warmly and forthrightly, as if they were close friends. He confronts them with boldness on many crucial issues, including that of the relationship of stronger and weaker believers, which he has dealt with in the long section (14:1–15:13) just concluded. Having set forth his divinely-revealed doctrine, he now once again (see 1:8–16) bares his own heart and soul.

Because he has spoken so forcefully, Paul did not want to jeopardize his relationship with the church at Rome by seeming insensitive, presumptuous, or unloving. He had long hoped to visit them in person, in order to minister to them and to share mutual encouragement, “each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine” (see 1:10–15). Now, at last, it seemed this desire soon would be fulfilled, during his expected stay in Rome on the way to Spain (15:24).

PAUL THE PARTNER IN FAITH

And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another. But I have written very boldly to you on some points, so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, (15:14–15)

Paul wrote this letter with full apostolic authority (1:1). But, as just noted above in regard to 1:10–15, he also knew that, in himself, he had the same personal needs and limitations that are common to all Christians.

In this context, Paul’s addressing his readers as my brethren not only indicates his recognition of their salvation but also their maturity. At the beginning of the letter, he thanked God for their faithfulness, which was “being proclaimed throughout the whole world” (1:8).

The apostle now acknowledges again that, completely apart from his influence, the Roman believers are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to admonish one another. He is saying, in effect: “In spite of all that I have written to you in this letter—with strong reminders that you were saved solely by God’s grace, made effective by your faith in His Son, with the admonitions for obedience to the Lord, for mortifying the flesh, for holy living, for exercising your spiritual gifts, for serving each other in love and humility, and all the other teachings—I am fully aware of your spiritual maturity and moral virtue, and I commend you for it.” The only other church he praised so highly was the one in Thessalonica (see 1 Thess. 1:2–10).

The first commendation was for their goodness, their high moral character and living. As Paul makes clear in Galatians 5:22–23, all virtue is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. But the Spirit can bear fruit only in the lives of believers, such as those in Rome, who are submissive to His divine will and power. They were not perfect, but neither were they spiritually deficient. In this letter Paul makes no reference to particular problems in the church, either individual or corporate. Those believers genuinely hated evil and loved righteousness, and they lived accordingly. They were obedient to the Lord and were kind, generous, and humble. By their moral goodness, they gave abundant evidence of their spiritual transformation and of the good works in which God ordains all believers to walk (Eph. 2:10). The apostle could say of them what he said of the Colossians:

Second, Paul commended the church at Rome for being filled with knowledge. He is not, of course, speaking of broad human knowledge but of the deep knowledge of God’s truth in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Believers in this church were doctrinally sound. They were well on their way to “attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:2–3).

Virtue and truth, here referred to as goodness and knowledge, are inseparable. Paul could have described those believers as having “a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5; cf. v. 19). They knew God, they knew His truth, and, by the power of His Spirit, they were committed to living holy lives.

Such goodness and knowledge are possible for all believers to possess and live by. The Holy Spirit, who indwells every believer, also works to teach and purify every believer. As Paul has already declared, “From [Christ] and through Him and to Him are all things” (Rom. 11:36). It is by the Lord’s doing that we “are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30; cf. Eph. 1:8–9).

The third virtue for which Paul commends believers in Rome is a product of the first two. Christians who are full of goodness and filled with all knowledge are able also to admonish one another.

Noutheteō (to admonish) carries the ideas of encouraging, warning, and advising. It is a comprehensive term for counseling. In this context, it refers to coming alongside other Christians for spiritual and moral counseling. Paul is not referring to a special gift of counseling, but of the duty and responsibility that every believer has for encouraging and strengthening other believers.

Tragically, many Christians today have been convinced that competent counseling can only be accomplished by a person who is trained in the principles of secular psychology—despite the fact that the various schools of psychology are, for the most part, at extreme odds with God’s Word and frequently with each other. Although they may profess that “all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16), many evangelicals—both those who give and those who receive counseling—do not rely on the full sufficiency of God’s Word.

There is no such thing as a psychological problem. All personal problems are either spiritual or physical. Anyone who suggests that so-called psychological problems can exist apart from or between those two realms of human existence does not understand either the nature of man and the power of sin or the nature and power of God’s Word and Spirit.

It is obvious that some Christians are uniquely gifted for giving encouraging counsel, just as some have special gifts and abilities in other areas of ministry. Paul has earlier made clear that, “since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, [we should] each exercise them accordingly” (Rom. 12:6). His broader point in 15:14c is that, through His Word and His Holy Spirit, God had provided the church at Rome—and will provide every godly congregation of believers—with everything needed to live faithfully, effectively, and joyfully for Him. His specific point is that, apart from particular gifts of the Spirit, all faithful Christians are divinely equipped to admonish one another as needs and opportunities arise among them. The Romans had set an example for others in this.

Paul emphasized the same general truth in his letter to Colossae, of which J. B. Phillips’s paraphrase is especially helpful.

When God’s Word rules our hearts, His Holy Spirit makes us “rich in the true wisdom” and prepares us to admonish one another, to “teach and help one another along the right road.”

The place for Christians to counsel and be counseled is in the church. That is not, of course, to say that it must be done in a church building, but that it be Christian counseling Christian. That principle applies to general admonitions among fellow believers, as Paul mentions in this text, as well as to counseling regarding more serious and prolonged problems confronted by a biblically oriented and spiritually gifted Christian minister.

After that brief but touching commendation, Paul begins the defense of his boldness in writing the letter, which some readers might have considered to be presumptuous. I have written very boldly to you on some points, he explains, so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God.

Paul was characterized by boldness and courage. Luke reports that, “at Damascus,” Paul “had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus” (Acts 9:27), as he also did in the cities of Galatia (13:46; 14:3) and in the synagogue at Ephesus, “reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God” (19:8).

As already noted, unlike some of Paul’s other letters, the book of Romans contains no rebukes or reprimands. But it does include some serious cautions. He admonished believers in Rome to “consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” and not to “let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (6:11–13). He reminded them, “You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (8:9). He cautioned Gentiles in the church against being proud because they were now fully accepted into God’s New Covenant:

Paul warned every believer in the church “not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think” (12:3), to “be in subjection to the government authorities,” all of whom “are established by God” (13:1), to pay taxes and customs that are assessed, and to have proper respect for those to whom it is due (v. 8).

He gave the church many other commands and admonitions too numerous to repeat here, but all of them were given in a spirit of love as well as boldness, so as to remind them again. He was not teaching them things they had never heard but was reminding them of truths they did know. He did not speak forcefully because those believers were untaught and immature but, to the contrary, because they were spiritually strong and well-equipped. He was not bold because they were carnal and vacillating but because they were uncompromising and steadfast.

A good teacher must keep in mind the opposing problems of familiarity and forgetfulness. Even for the best of minds with the sincerest devotion, that which is not kept familiar eventually will be forgotten.

Paul instructed his beloved Timothy to keep reminding the brethren under his care of the truths of the gospel, in order that Timothy himself, as well as those fellow believers, would be “constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following” (1 Tim. 4:6). In his second letter to this young protégé, Paul again admonished him to continually remind his flock of the central truths of the gospel (2 Tim. 2:8–14). He advised Titus to remind those under his care “to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed (Titus 3:1). In his second letter, Peter assured his readers that he would always be ready to remind them of the important truths of the gospel that they already knew (2 Pet. 1:12) and explained that the very purpose of that epistle was to stir up their sincere minds “by way of reminder” (3:1). A major responsibility of every pastor is to keep teaching his people truths they already know in ways that refresh and reinforce.

Because of the grace that was given to him by God enabling him to do so, Paul boldly reminded the Roman Christians of truths they had long known and accepted. He was not speaking of God’s saving or sustaining grace, but of the grace of his divinely-bestowed apostolic mandate and authority to proclaim the Word. He did not write this epistle to express his own beliefs and wisdom or to fulfill a personal desire or plan. He wrote under divine orders to teach divine truths. Paul was “a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,” from whom and for whom he had “received grace and apostleship” (Rom. 1:1, 5). He explained to the church at Corinth that, although he considered himself to be “the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle,” he nevertheless could say that “by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain” (1 Cor. 15:9–10).

In less specific ways but just as certainly, every believer, whatever his spiritual gifts may be, is under divine compulsion to obey and serve the Lord “according to the grace given to [him]” (Rom. 12:6).

Having reintroduced, as it were, the subject of his divine calling as an apostle, Paul now defines his three-fold role in fulfilling that office—as priest (v. 16), as preacher (vv. 17–19), and as pioneer (vv. 20–21).

PAUL THE PRIEST

to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, that my offering of the Gentiles might become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. (15:16)

Under the New Covenant, Jesus Christ is our perfect and eternal High Priest (Heb. 2:17; 3:1), and there no longer is a human, earthly institution of priesthood as under the Old Covenant. There is but “one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).

Yet all believers are priests. “As living stones, [we] are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5). We “are a chosen race,” Peter later adds, “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called [us] out of darkness into His marvelous light” (v. 9). Christ “has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father” (Rev. 1:6). Those who have “a part in the first resurrection,” that is, believers, “will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years” (Rev. 20:6). In that sense, the entire church is a priesthood of believers. We do not have to go through a human mediator to reach God. He is our own heavenly Father, with whom we are able to have direct fellowship and communion. And we engage in a priestly role by bringing others into God’s presence.

Paul did not inherit a priestly office by birth. He was a priest in the same way that all Christians are priests, except in a larger way. During his missionary travels, Paul typically began his ministry in a city or town by preaching and teaching in a synagogue or among an informal group of Jews, such as the women who were praying by a riverside (Acts 16:13). He would be used by God to bring some of them to Christ. But his special calling was to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in a priestly way.

Leitourgos (minister) was a general Greek term used of public officials. Earlier in this letter, Paul used it of government officials in general, who are, whether they realize it or not, “servants [leitourgos] of God” (13:6). But in the New Testament, the word is used most often of those who serve God in some form of public worship. It is used of the levitical priest Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, and is translated “priestly service” in Luke 1:23. It is used in the same sense of worship ministry in Philippians 2:17 (cf. Heb. 9:21; 10:11). It is used of ministering angels (Heb. 1:7, 14), and even of Christ’s heavenly ministry as our eternal High Priest (Heb. 8:1–2, 6).

As Paul ministered figuratively as a priest the gospel of God to the Gentiles, he did so in order that his offering of believing Gentiles to God, as it were, might become acceptable to Him, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In faithful fulfillment of his unique apostolic calling, Paul’s supreme offering to God was a multitude of Gentiles, who by virtue of the Holy Spirit’s power had been sanctified and thus made acceptable for fellowship with the Father.

Like Paul, every believer who is instrumental in winning a soul to Jesus Christ presents that convert, whether Jew or Gentile, as a priestly offering to the Lord.

PAUL THE PREACHER

Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. (15:17–19)

Although Paul was a priest only in a figurative sense, he was a preacher in the most literal sense. He was constrained by the love of God to minister God’s Word (2 Cor. 5:14). “I am under compulsion,” he declared in his first letter to Corinth; “for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:16).

It was in regard to his preaching that he could declare with both boldness and humility: Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God.

In the next two verses Paul explains the nature of that boasting, and in doing so reveals five features of a faithful preacher.

First, Paul took no credit for himself. Lest he be misunderstood, he immediately explained, I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me. In other words, he was not boasting in what he had accomplished as an apostle but only in what Christ had accomplished through him.

In both of his letters to the church at Corinth, Paul admonished the immature and proud believers there: “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Cor. 1:31; 2 Cor. 10:17). We have no right to take credit for any spiritual effect we have had, but every right to boast in what God has done through us, though we are weak vessels.

From what we find in the New Testament, Paul would seem to have had more reason to boast than any of the other apostles, including Peter and John. He was used by God to reveal more of the New Testament than any other human writer, and the greater part of the book of Acts focuses on his ministry. But Paul discounted his own merits, both before and after his salvation. He referred to his eminent religious life before he was converted as “rubbish” (Phil. 3:8). He wrote Timothy, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service; even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. And yet I was shown mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant” (1 Tim. 1:12–14). He considered himself still to be the foremost of all sinners, and testified that it was for that very reason that he “found mercy, in order that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience, as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life” (vv. 15–16).

On his “own behalf,” however, Paul would “not boast, except in regard to [his] weaknesses. … Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me” (2 Cor. 12:5, 9). “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise,” he wrote in his previous letter to Corinth, “and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God” (1 Cor. 1:27–29). Therefore, Paul declared, “May it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14).

He commended the Thessalonian believers, saying that “we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God’s message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs work in you who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13). They knew they had been saved not by Paul’s word or power but by the word and power of the God he faithfully preached.

Paul’s boast was never in himself. His boast was in the cross of Christ, in the grace and mercy of God to save unworthy sinners such as himself, and in the power of God to use him to bring other unworthy sinners to the Savior. Yet his was not a false humility that denied the great things God had clearly done through him. “We proclaim [Christ],” he said, “admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ. And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me” (Col. 1:28–29).

When Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, where they had been commissioned and sent out (Acts 13:2–3), “they began to report all things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles” (14:27). At the council in Jerusalem, “all the multitude kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles” (Acts 15:12; cf. 21:19). In both instances those men made clear that they were not recounting what they themselves had accomplished but “what God had done through them.”

Paul explained to the church at Corinth,

But even his boasting “within the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us” was not self-boasting, as Paul goes on to make clear. “But he who boasts, let him boast in the Lord. For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends” (vv. 17–18).

The people God uses to accomplish His will are His instruments, and no Christian should take personal credit for what God does through him. No brush takes credit for a masterpiece it was used to paint. No violin takes credit for the beautiful music the musician makes with it. Neither should a Christian deny or belittle what God has done through him, because that would be to deny and belittle God’s own work.

The second feature of a faithful preacher is emphasizing obedience to the Lord. Paul’s preaching resulted in the obedience of the Gentiles. The gospel not only calls men to faith in Christ as Savior but to obedience to Him as Lord. At the beginning of this epistle Paul states clearly that “we have received grace and apostleship to bring the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, for His name’s sake” (Rom. 1:5). He never preached a gospel that did not include a call to obedience, because that call was integral to his apostolic mandate from God. Later in the letter he reminds believers in Rome “that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed” (6:17). In that context, obedience from the heart is a synonym for saving faith.

The third feature of a faithful preacher is personal integrity. Paul preached to the Gentiles by word and deed. His life was totally consistent with his message, without hypocrisy or self-righteousness. There is no greater deterrent to the work of God than a disparity in the life of a preacher between the message he proclaims and the life he lives.

The fourth mark of a faithful preacher is divine affirmation of his ministry. For Paul, that affirmation often was made evident in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit. Divine affirmation does not require miracles. Much, perhaps most, of Paul’s own ministry was not affirmed in such dramatic ways. But the power of the Spirit is always evidenced in some way when the gospel is rightly proclaimed, even by the simplest and most uneducated preacher who proclaims and glorifies Christ.

Before the full gospel message was recorded in what we now call the New Testament, God often used signs and wonders to authenticate true preaching and teaching. The ministry of the apostles, especially in the earliest days of the church, was accompanied by authenticating miracles.

Paul reminded the Corinthians that “the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles” (2 Cor. 12:12). Although some dispute the genuineness of the last half of Mark 16, the truths it contains are consistent with the rest of the New Testament. It is therefore perfectly fitting to acknowledge that the apostles “went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed” (Mark 16:20).

But even in the days of the apostles, the most miraculous authentication of the gospel was not through physical signs and wonders. The greatest miracle of miracles has always been the regeneration of a human soul from sinner to saint, from being an enemy of God to being a child of God, of being transformed from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. The greatest divine affirmation of ministry has always been the spiritual transformation of souls. The truth of the gospel today is authenticated by God’s completed Word in the New Testament, but the power of the gospel is demonstrated by the lives that are transformed.

The fifth feature of the faithful preacher is that his work is thorough. He completes what God has called him to do. Paul could claim that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

From Jerusalem, in the far southeast, Paul travelled through Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, and even to Illyricum, the region roughly corresponding to the former eastern European country of Yugoslavia—a span of some 1,400 miles. The book of Acts does not record his going to Illyricum, but he probably visited that remote place during one of his stays in Macedonia.

The phrase fully preached can mean two things. It can refer to preaching the full gospel message (cf. Acts 20:27) or to preaching throughout the full geographical area in which he was called to minister. Paul obviously had the first meaning in mind when he told the Colossian believers, “Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God” (Col. 1:25).

Both meanings appropriately describe Paul’s ministry, but the context seems to indicate that the apostle here had the second meaning in mind. He was affirming that he faithfully and fully ministered in every place to which the Lord sent him. He permitted nothing to deter his selfless, bold, and fervent ministry. He informed the Corinthians that, beyond any other person who ministered among them, he had been involved in

Paul was the ideal master preacher. He was humble, faithful, genuine, divinely blessed, thorough, and unswerving. Near the end of his life he could truthfully tell his beloved Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7).

PAUL THE PIONEER

And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build upon another man’s foundation; but as it is written, “They who had no news of Him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand.” (15:20–21)

Even a superficial reading of the book of Acts reveals that Paul was a pioneer missionary, evangelist, and church planter. He preached the gospel where no one else had ministered, where Christ was not already named. Judging from the New Testament record, Paul ministered in more previously unevangelized areas than any other apostle or preacher. More than any other, he reached the unreached, because his calling and his desire were to not build upon another man’s foundation. Such was surely the primary function of a New Testament evangelist.

It was not that it is wrong to build on another minister’s foundation, because that process is part of God’s plan for establishing and maintaining His church. Paul explained to the factious church at Corinth that he “planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth” (1 Cor. 3:6). In that instance, Apollos had built on Paul’s foundation, which was perfectly in accord with the calling of both men. It is still God’s plan that some believers lay the foundation by bringing unbelievers to saving faith in Christ (evangelists) and that others build up those converts by ministering God’s Word to them (pastors).

Quoting Isaiah 52:15 from the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, Paul declares that, as it is written, “They who had no news of Him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand.” The context of that passage in Isaiah indicates that its primary reference is to Christ’s second coming. But in its broadest application it refers to the process of evangelism that began in Paul’s day and will continue throughout church history until its ultimate fulfillment at Christ’s return.

People who have had no news of Christ, who have not heard the gospel, are found everywhere. They can be found in every country, every city and town, and in every community and neighborhood. God does not call every believer to be an evangelist, but He calls every believer to be a witness. It therefore should be the desire and prayer of all believers that the unsaved will be given spiritual sight to see Christ as their only hope of salvation and that they will be given spiritual hearing in order to understand the gospel and turn to Him to be saved.