Listen to the study here: Romans 15

Read here: Romans 15

Review

• Calvin on the theme of Romans: “Man’s only righteousness is the mercy of God in Christ, when it is offered by the Gospel and received by faith.” Romans 1:17 and elsewhere.
• IMPORTANT: Paul wrote the letter to the saints (1:7), and the letter is about the gospel, which is a reminder we need to preach the gospel to ourselves daily. 
• Luther: Simul iustus et peccator = At the same time, righteous and a sinner! Romans 3:23-25
• In Ch. 1-3 Paul shows us our unrighteousness, and God’s wrath against that, and then switches to Christ’s righteousness as our covering, the propitiation of our sins (Romans 3:25) as the final sacrifice for sin, fulfilling the promise to Abraham, who had faith before any works
• Faith being “counted” or “credited to our account” as righteousness is mentioned 11 times in Chapter 4! If “none are righteous” as Paul wrote in Romans 3:10, then this saving faith must be a gift from God.
• Ch. 5, We now have peace with God, access to God, and hope, because of what Christ did for us while we were weak(v. 6), sinners (v. 8), and enemies (v. 10). Christ did this “at the right time,” (v. 6), connecting Christ’s work on the cross and God’s plan of redemption to real history (not just a myth or legend).
  • Atonement(5:6-11): Jesus satisfying God’s wrath for us through His sacrificial death on the cross.
• Ch. 5 and 6 describe federalism, this idea of one man making a difference, for righteousness (Jesus) or wickedness (Adam). 
• Ch 6 ended with lots of words pointing to the new road we are now on with Christ, the sanctification road.
  • Service is the key word, “slaves” used 8 times
  • “Present yourselves”(5), “Leads to”(5)
• Sproul: “our regeneration, our rebirth was the work of one Person, God. It was not a joint venture; but from the moment we take our first breath of regenerated spiritual life, it  becomes a joint effort.” the work of one Person is what salvation is about. The joint venture is what sanctification is about. Ch.6 ends and we continue into Ch.7 describing what this “sanctification road” looks like to walk down. We were on the sin road that leads to death, but now we are on the grace road that leads to eternal life.
• Chapter 8 is describing the assurance we have as Christians in salvation. Deus pro nobis – God for us. It is a reminder of God’s sovereignty over our salvation, and God’s infinite wisdom, in the creation, fall, redemption plan he has for not just us, but the whole world. Ultimately, God, not us, foreknows, predestines, calls, justifies and glorifies. There are many verses (Romans 2:4, John 3:16, etc) that point to God’s patience with everyone, His love for everyone, that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9), so I believe there is some free will in there somewhere, perhaps an ability to answer the call, or not. But, even if we answer the call, it is God who initiated. Even if we are crying out for God, “feeling our way to Him” like Acts 17:27 says, we are only doing this because He has already called. We are MORE THAN CONQUERORS, not on our own of course, but “through Him who loved us” from before time began. 
• Chapter 9 continues on the point of election, which, if you think about it, Paul has been discussing since Romans 1:1 when he said he was “set apart”. Paul continues to hammer the point that it is God’s free will, not ours, that matters most. It’s good to keep in mind the complexity of God, as he is not just electing, but he is doing a bunch of things simultaneously and eternally. He is electing, foreknowing, predestining, calling, justifying, glorifying, answering prayer, “giving them over to a debased mind” (Romans 1:28-32) while also being kind as a means to lead people to repentance (Romans 2:4), showing mercy to some and hardening others (9:18). It’s like God is working on an eternal and therefore infinite scale, but also an instantaneous and therefore infinitesimal scale. Pastor John Macarthur described this as a parallelism, God’s sovereign election running alongside the “whoever believes in Him will have eternal life” of John 3:16. It is Euler’s “every instant,” of God initiating, so the saved are always indebted to Him. And it’s also Paul’s “unceasing anguish” for the lost in 9:2, something we should ask God to give us, too. And something that clearly shows that God predestines us to a team, His team, and we are working with Him to save sinners. He’s just team captain and MVP. He gets all the glory!
  • Also remember that Paul references almost 50 OT verses in Chapter 9 alone. He is retelling Israel’s story in many places to serve as a reminder of God’s sovereign will over nations, but also individuals like Pharoah, Moses, Jacob and Esau, etc. Some want to say election is only about nations, or only individuals, but this is another both/and. 
  • Romans 9:6 is key (I think) to understanding a lot of Ch. 9-11. We need to keep going back to this, that “not all Israel belongs to Israel.” What Paul is getting at here is that true Israel are believers, regardless of nation or ancestry.
• Chapter 10 also discusses election, as well as Macarthur’s “parallelism”, or even the “3 strands are not easily broken” analogy in Ecclesiastes 4:12. Chapter 10 reminds that God could just yell the gospel down from heaven if wanted, but he chooses to use us, weak on our own but strong in Him. Ch. 10 describes a deep, personal bond God has with believers. Paul also describes Israel’s history of disobedience, how they did not hear the gospel, but in Ch. 11 again reminds that God preserves a remnant.
• Chapter 11, there is one tree, with branches being broken off and grafted in. One body of covenant believers, and broken branches are those who had the outward signs like circumcision (OT) or baptism (NT) but no belief, no Holy Spirit-given gift of faith, no imputation of Christ’s righteousness. Chapter 11 hints that God works through individuals of course, but also nations, and that He is not done with ethnic Israel. He used Israel’s “stumbling” to lead the gentiles to salvation, and these verses say he will eventually use the gentiles to lead Israel to salvation. Paul also reiterates that salvation is by grace, not works, that God is merciful in spite of man’s disobedience. Paul ends Ch. 11 with what Calvin called “finitum non capax infinitum,” meaning, “the finite cannot grasp the fullness of the infinite.” Stay humble, don’t think you have to figure everything out about God because you can’t! It’s also important to note that all Paul is saying in Ch. 11 is that God still has a plan for Israel. The only emphasis Paul makes in Ch. 9-11 is on their salvation, on a mission mindset, which is something modern evangelical churches should refocus on. Getting away from blind political support for Israel, and instead praying for Jews and getting the gospel to Jew and Gentile in the region. 
• Chapter 12 saw a switch from mostly describing God and his character, to application for believers. To discipleship. Verses 1-2 describe the importance for Christians to turn from the world, the “spirit of the age” and present themselves to Christ. With the Holy Spirit in you now as a Christian, He WILL renew your mind, whether you like it or not, but it is a joint effort, it is clear it is not robotic, you have choices to make, to turn and present (v. 1), or not, to think with sober judgment (v. 3), or not, to do everything in verses 9-21 that you can as a Christian, or not. Verses 3-8 focused on spiritual gifts, which make us unique in the body, while verses 9-21 describe things that all Christians can be, regardless of gifts. Ch. 12 ended with a Proverbs 25:21-22 reference to smother evil with good, and a judicial system that upholds 10 Commandment based laws is one way. All three spheres (family, church, civil government) executing justice and mercy in accordance with their positions is a good thing.
• Chapter 13 was about responding biblically to government and what ideal, godly government should look like. It ended by describing how we should treat our neighbors, which means both Christians and non-Christians, in agape love, which is a fulfillment of the law. 
• Chapter 14 focused on how to behave as a church body. We are dead in our sins but alive in Christ. We are not alive in our personal rules and regulations. We are not alive in gluten free eating or essential oil use or being “reformed” or “prosperity gospel followers,” etc. We are alive in Christ alone, because of Christ alone. As we walk the Christian walk in a church, there are clearly stronger arguments (meaning more supported by Scripture) and weaker ones, and we should model stronger believers and build up weaker believers in peace, joy and righteousness. We should avoid destroying the weaker in faith over non-salvation matters like food. We should judge outright sins though, like drunkenness and gluttony. Judge in all humility on matters of sin in the body, but don’t judge on matters of opinion.
• Intro
  • Key words: God/Lord/Christ/Jesus/Spirit (18); Gentiles/nations, you/your/yourselves (8); hope (5); brothers, faith/believe, glory/glorify (4).
    • Unlike other studies that mostly reference Sproul and Shreiner, this Ch. 15 study will mostly reference Charles Spurgeon.
    • Since Chapter 15 is a summary, it brings back in an emphasis on our vertical relationship with God, while also continuing Paul’s “strong man” argument from Ch. 14, and how to best glorify God in our horizontal relationships.
• Verse 1
  • While not specifically addressing food, Paul begins Chapter 15 with a similar argument to Romans 14:19, except there he described mutual upbuilding. Here he is wrapping up the letter, concluding that the strong should build up the weak in a sacrificial way, not for personal gain or self-flattery.
    • I think one thing Paul has in mind here is pride. It is SUPER hard not to have pride when you have the stronger argument. Living in unity and peace and joy with other Christians is not about winning at all costs when you have the stronger argument.
      • Philippians 2:3, do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself, EVEN IF they have the weaker argument.
    • Ch. 15 begins with We who are strong…, but, who is strong? How do you define that?
      • The blessed one of 14:22, having a clear conscience.
      • The one who knows they are weak without Christ (2 Cor. 12:9, His power perfected in weakness). They know true fearlessness is from Christ (Romans 8:15, 2 Tim 1:7, power, love, self control (sound mind))
      • The one who does not despise a brother in Christ for having a weaker argument (14:3, 14:10).
      • The one who reads God’s word and believes it (14:23), who gets his encouragement and hope from reading the Bible (15:4). Faith in God and His word is ultimately what defines the “strong man”. The “strong man” (or woman) knows God’s word, trains daily in prayer, Bible reading, and Scripture memory.
        • This is not complicated, it is a super simple physical fitness analogy. I must exercise in order to go hunting and be able to haul heavy meat-laden packs two or more times daily. I’ve also got to prepare properly, make sure I have everything I need. Test myself and my equipment by going to the shooting range before the hunt. All of that in preparation for that moment, when the deer is spotted, and all those hours of preparation are condensed into 30 seconds. Or less. And then you have to commit. Boom! Or like my first deer, stare at its eyes looking back at me and just watch it run off.
          • I’ve felt that same feeling with gospel opportunities, too, that “I should have said something” feeling. All that Bible reading, prayer, church attendance, and then I just stare at it instead of shooting. Like that first deer, I had ZERO experience actually firing the gun. The next day though, I fired, going from 0 to 1, then 2, now it’s dozens. I applied all that practice and study and committed to action. 
          • With sharing the gospel, God is going to use you to change the entire course of a person’s eternal destiny. So prepare, study, train. But don’t stop there. Weak men stop there. Strong men fire. Sometimes they miss. But they regroup and fire again. 
        • This is life with brothers in Christ and unbelieving neighbors. We need to train, practice, repeat. We don’t just do over 4 dozen Bible stuidies on Romans and then walk away bragging about how we put more time into Romans than most seminary students and pastors ever have (true, they may study Romans for a semester, 15 weeks, if that). The weak man might do that. The strong man walks away with more joy and peace and humility, knowing that he’s just getting started, that all of this needs to be reviewed, committed to memory again. So when that opportunity comes, to share the Gospel or to build up a weaker brother, we are ready to do that in a Christ-exalting way. To bear with the failings of the weak requires loving kindness, and real love points to Christ. Kindness directs others to truth. True kindness is God’s version of kindness in Romans 2:4, a kindness that leads to repentance. A kindness that leads to a renewed mind (12:2).
• Verses 2-3
  • Jesus took the hardest place in the battlefield, not the protected place, and he did it for others. Psalm 69:9, He took everything the enemy could throw at Him, and us! He took it all on himself, and won.
• Verse 4
  • The OT was written for our instruction, to give us hope in the gospel, and endurance during a trial, referencing Psalm 119:50, that Christ is “my comfort in my affliction.” 
• Verse 5
  • Spurgeon writes: “we shall be likeminded with one another when we become likeminded with Christ, but not till then.” Living in harmony should be something we work and pray towards, within our churches, and between believers.
• Verses 6-7
  • Christ has welcomed all of us. Certainly, we can welcome one another, weaknesses and all? Christ covered our faults, filled our unrighteous hearts with His righteousness. If Christ covered us in these ways, surely we can receive one another in a similar way. 
• Verse 8
  • Christ came as a Jew to be a servant to the Jews. This is a reminder not to despise the Jews but to pray for their salvation. His service was to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs. In other words, He came to fulfill the gospel message given to Abraham, given to Adam.
    • Paul is referencing what he wrote in 4:16, reminding that the promise is not about works but faith, that it’s not for lawkeepers but believers. 
• Verses 9-12
  • Paul includes a long string of OT references, serving as more reminders that the promise was for Gentiles, too.
    • Verse 9: 2 Samuel 22:50, Psalm 18:49
    • Verse 10: Deuteronomy 32:43
    • Verse 11: Psalm 117:1
    • Verse 12: Isaiah 11:1, 11:10 
• Verse 13
  • Hope is by the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ in us.
    • Our God is a God of hope through the Scriptures (v. 4), a God of endurance and encouragement when in harmony with Jesus (v. 5), and by the Holy Spirit we may abound in hope (v. 13). The Trinity is very evident in Ch. 15.
• Verses 14-16
  • Spurgeon says this would have been the time for Paul to describe the offering as the Catholic mass and their unbloody re-sacrificing of Christ ritual, or the Catholic’s daily sacrifice. But instead, people are the offering, the Gentiles in particular, which Isaiah 66:20 alludes to. Phil. 2:17 describes this as an “offering of faith.” Paul is describing here, to Jewish believers, using symbols of priests and offerings, where he describes sharing the gospel as priestly action that leads Gentiles to salvation through faith alone. Belief and trust in Christ and His word is true sacrifice, true surrender, true repentance, and it only happens because of a work the Holy Spirit initiated FIRST.
    • Sanctified by the Holy Spirit (v. 16). The will of God for believers is our sanctification, I Thes. 4:3. Sanctification is by the Holy Spirit, Christ in us. It is impossible to be on the sanctification road without the Holy Spirit. 
• Verses 17-21
  • In these verses Paul describes his mission to the Gentiles, mentioning he is careful not to build on the foundation of others but to go to new places, referencing Isaiah 52:15. This was particularly important back then, when most of the world had not heard the gospel. Today though, with 2,000 years of history between us and Paul, we can see how weaker arguments can end up prevailing, requiring reformation and renovation. The structure is there, but it can weaken over time. Truth can get watered down.
    • Look at Germany and how strong churches started waving Nazi flags. 
    • Look at America and how strong churches started waving rainbow flags.
    • This is why we need things like the Protestant Reformation and strong yet imperfect men like Martin Luther.
    • Over 650 years ago, Oxford professor John Wycliffe wrote an English version of the Bible, and said “radical” things like the Bible, not the Catholic Church, was authoritative. He spoke out against works-based ideas like indulgences and papal wealth. He died naturally, but the Catholic church so despised him that they dug up his bones, burned them and scattered them. The same council that did this also burned Jan Hus, and his ally, Jerome of Prague.
      • Scholars estimate that between 1520 and the 1600s, tens of thousands of Protestant believers — reformers, pastors, and laypeople — were killed by Catholic or Catholic‑aligned authorities through trials, inquisitions, and religious wars. 
      • To be fair, Protestant reformers took part in a few executions, like a handful (not 10s of thousands), including Michael Servetus for rejecting Trinitarian doctrine.
        • Felix Manz was drowned in 1527 by the Zurich City Council, which had switched from Catholic to Reformed in 1523, led by Huldrych Zwingli. They drowned him on the charges of adult baptism (he was Anabaptist), and for insisting on separation of church and state.
          • In Switzerland, the state church was Catholic until Reformers led by Zwingli changed that. Zwingli was eventually killed in a battle with Catholic forces, and like Wycliffe, his bones were burned and scattered, as if God couldn’t find all those parts and reform his body at the 2nd coming. Doing stuff like that also shows how reformers like Zwingli had mostly stronger arguments. The weaker argument is the one that thinks they have more authority than God and His word. The weaker argument thinks they can just scatter bones and martyr people as if they are the authority over life, not God. Their methods are a false representation of Romans 13.
            • Regarding Manz, he probably had the stronger arguments, since adults were baptized in Acts. America has separation of church and state to keep the government out of the church, and sees those as different spheres of influence, which Romans 13 also suggests.
            • I wonder what people like Zwingli and Manz would think of my church, or your church? I wonder if we would have the stronger arguments?
      • In discussing church history, it is important to note that true reformation comes from the Bible. Beware of “new revelations”, of having “itching ears,” as Paul warned about in 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
        • I think of Joseph Smith’s “new revelations” and Mormonism, or Jehovah’s Witness, or the New Apostolic Reformation and their false hierarchy of apostles and prophets, ignoring that apostles were people who saw and met with Jesus, or the fact that OT prophets were stoned to death if they uttered one false prophecy. 
      • Note also Paul mentions his pride in v. 17, but it is pride in Christ Jesus, in what Christ has accomplished through me. He is proud of what Christ did through his work. 
• Verses 22-29
  • Reveal more about missions. Paul reveals his mindset as a missionary, to not go where others already are establishing a solid foundation (verse 20), but simply passing through Rome on his way to Spain.
  • Paul’s mindset for missions
    • Focused, Paul has a plan for Spain.
    • Reach as many as possible on the way
      • Hopes to stop in Rome.
      • Helping the poor among the saints in Jerusalem (Spurgeon said the contribution that what was collected was money).
    • Sees that meeting material needs is also important, and even connects spiritual and material blessings. If someone feeds you spiritually, like Christians in Jerusalem had to Macedonians and Achaians, if someone is Romans 10:15 “beautiful feet” to you, then showing your gratitude with a material blessing is appropriate. 
    • When Paul mentions he hopes to be helped on my journey to Spain, he means spiritually and materially. This is not “give so you can get” material-for-material prosperity gospel nonsense. Look at it, it’s the Macedonians giving materially because they received spiritually, it’s the church in Rome giving materially because they received spiritually from Paul, etc. It’s a Holy Spirit-driven response to action for those who are all-in on the beautiful feet-walking. It is a rational response, that “hey, travel costs money, support them.” If the Holy Spirit is in you, then you open your wallet because the Holy Spirit directs you towards that “emptying yourself” mindset of Philippians 2:5-7. This is not a dysfunctional emptying of course, to the point of destitution, but it’s not about hoarding everything either. It’s about ignoring most of the ads you see to give to this or that, and looking at what is happening in your own church, in your own community.
    • Paul is describing another ideal situation. If the world’s richest human gets saved and wants to be a missionary to Nigeria, that person is already wealthy. They don’t need to expect a material response to support their mission. Even so, supporting missions is a natural, Holy Spirit in you response, to give to those who need it. And that includes your own church, which is also “on mission.”
    • Another thing to note is that the giving described is to believers. To the missionary, to the new Christians in Macedonia and Achaia. It is not describing a modern social gospel kind of thing. It IS describing Hands of Hope at my church, where the gospel is presented each Tuesday along with food distribution. It isn’t describing the Hawaii Food bank, a secular program. 
    • After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, we filled up my boat and truck with material goods and headed into the heart of the hurricane-devastated area. It was pure chaos, and we did everything from give fuel to a rural police station to administer tetanus vaccines in rural Mississippi. One day, we found ourselves in Lakeshore, MS, where a 32’ storm surge had absolutely flattened the little town. But we saw a pulpit standing up on a concrete slab. The church was completely shredded, but the pulpit survived and someone had put it back in place. We couldn’t even tell what church it was, but we knew they were a hopeful church, and later found out it was Lakeshore Baptist Church, who in 2026 still has the same blind pastor, Don Elbourne. When we returned to Texas, we contacted the church and asked how we could help. We returned in mid-October to help rebuild the home of an elderly man, who had a thriving letter-writing ministry to prisoners. That church became a hub in the area of all kinds of missionary work to rebuild the church and the town.
      • What I wanted to share in that story is that the most fulfilling part of that work was once we started helping through a local church. And that is because it was more in line with what Paul was describing here in Romans 15, which honestly was probably something none of us had actually considered at the time. To work through churches to build up believers first, so they could continue their ministries. That was the best way to go.
  • Paul finishes this section by confidently stating that if he is able to come to Rome it will be because of the blessing of Christ. He had no idea how he would come, but if he came it was God’s will. And just how did he come to Rome? As a prisoner. Probably not the way he expected “Christ’s blessing” to play out.
    • John 16:33 says to take heart amidst tribulation. THAT is your Christian journey. Acts 19-28 describes in more detail Paul’s arrest and time in Rome. 
• Verses 30-33
  • Paul ends with an emphasis on prayer, asking the saints (remember, this whole letter is to believers, to the saints (1:7)) to pray for deliverance from evil in Judea, just like Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6(Lord’s prayer).
  • Paul saw missionary work as spiritual warfare, that sharing the gospel would face evil opposition from the non-elect.
  • He ends with a prayer request for unity, asking for prayers that his visit to Jerusalem before he gets to Rome would be God-glorifying and acceptable to the saints there.
  • Spurgeon says there were some very narrow-minded Christians in Jerusalem, converted Jews who found Gentile Christians a completely unacceptable concept. I think a big part of what Paul is saying here is that discipleship IS the strong man argument. That’s the whole point of discipleship, right, making the weaker in faith stronger through Christ-led relationship?
    • So he asks for prayers for his journey, for before he gets to Rome and after he leaves. 
    • By God’s will he hopes to bring to Rome a joyful message of how good things went in Jerusalem. Who wouldn’t want that? Note also how Paul asks for specific prayer, for the saints in Rome to strive together with him in prayer to deliver him from evil. Paul is asking them to pray with him like Jesus taught us to pray “deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6). And why is Paul asking them to pray? So that his plans are aligned with God’s will. God is not a rich uncle that we can ask for anything and he gives it to us. God wants us to spend time with Him, to be the deepest relationship we ever have. And concerted, fervent prayer is the best way to do that.
      • Even though God used Paul to write His own words, He didn’t give Paul perfect knowledge of the future. Paul still had to pray and ask others to pray for him. Prayer is such a crucial part of a family, a church, a community, uniting one another together with the common goal of fulfilling God’s will, not our own wills, during our short time on Earth.
• Up next, we end with Romans 16!