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In Acts 21: 15-21 we see the Apostle arriving at Jerusalem with the gift of the
churches, but there is not a single word recorded about this love-gift of the Gentile
churches. Whether the church accepted, rejected, tolerated or ignored it we are left to
surmise. What is written is that it involved the Apostle in defending himself so that he
was found in the temple accused of sacrilege, and taken prisoner.
He had written to the Roman church:
"When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come
by you into Spain, and I am sure that when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of
the blessing of the gospel of Christ" (Rom. 15: 28, 29).
But whether the Apostle ever reached Spain is a moot point. Some think there is
sufficient testimony for the belief after his liberation at the close of the Acts, he did.
Others are equally convinced that he never reached Spain. However that may be, in one
thing he was not disappointed. He did go to Rome in the fulness of the blessing of the
gospel of Christ, for though he went a prisoner and not as he expected, a free man, in that
Roman prison such fulness of blessing was made known as to eclipse all that had gone
before.
The Apostle ends this section with a reference to the God of Peace. The structure
throws three similar references into correspondence.
C1 | 15: 13. THE GOD OF HOPE.
C2 | 15: 33. THE GOD OF PEACE.
C3 | 16: 20. THE GOD OF PEACE.
A common hope bound Jew and Gentile believers together, for the presence of the
God of Peace demanded actual acceptance. Whatever failure might result from human
weakness, the Apostle could and did rest in that perfect accomplishment that existed
already in "Christ". He desired and prayed and worked for its manifestation, but did not
despair when over and over again the "creature" failed. As we shall presently read, this
same God of Peace shall shortly bruise Satan under the feet of the saints and then, if not
before, acceptance and unity will be perfect and complete.