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context in chapter 15: The Apostle brings forward 4 O.T. Scriptures to prove that
Gentile blessing was in the purpose of God (Psa. 18: 49; 117: 1; Deut. 32: 43;
Isa. 11: 10) but always the Gentiles is seen in his relationship to Israel. The Gentile was
to be blessed in, through, and with Israel, but never independently of Israel.
It is a pity that the A.V. in quoting Isa. 11: 10 uses the word `trust' in Rom. 15: 12
and `hope' in the next verse; it is the same word expressed as a verb and then as a noun
and should be rendered "hope" in both cases, thus linking the two together and showing
that the hope of the believer at this time was related to the millennial hope of Isa. 11:,
looking forward to Messiah's reign on earth at His Coming.
Here, in Rom. 15:, the Lord Jesus is brought forward as the "minister of the
circumcision (the Jew) to confirm the promises made to the fathers" (verse 8), that is
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He Himself declared to a Gentile woman in need that He
was only sent to Israel (Matt. 15: 24), and moreover He restricted the ministry of the
Twelve to Israel (Matt. 10: 5, 6). All this is incomprehensible to those who have no
Scriptural insight into the earthly kingdom purposes of God in which Israel is at the
centre from the human standpoint. But the message was not to Israel exclusively. It
was rather that through Israel all the Gentile world would finally be blessed. As we have
seen when considering chapters 9:-11:, Israel had not been laid aside by God and
Acts.iii.19-26 was still possible of fulfillment, and the hope at this time was that it would
be fulfilled, that the Lord would return and set up His kingdom of righteousness and
peace. Then Deut. 32: 43, as quoted here by Paul would become true, "Rejoice ye
Gentiles (nations) with His people (Israel)". This would be specially so when at last "all
families of the earth" would be blessed through Abraham's posterity (Gen. 12:).
The Apostle now contemplates the plan of God as it affected himself:
"I have written to you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again,
because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the
priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an
offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore I glory in Christ
Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ
has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said
and done--by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from
Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. It
has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I
would not be building on someone else's foundation. Rather as it is written:
`Those who were not told about Him will see,
and those who have not heard will understand (Isa. 52: 15, LXX)'."
(Rom. 15: 15-21, N.I.V.).
It was in his Christ-given capacity as the Apostle of the Gentiles that he had written to
the believers at Rome. The other apostles, led by Peter, had been sent by Christ to the
circumcision, Israel (Gal. 2:). Paul had faithfully discharged his Gentile ministry for well
over 20 years. The words that he used (such as leitourgos and leitourgei) always denote
religious service in the N.T. How many professing Christians realize that Christ-directed
service is worship? The sphere his gospel ministry had covered began at Antioch and
taken him round the eastern end of the Mediterranean to the Adriatic sea. The Acts does