Living by Faith - Romans

The Man of God’s Ordination

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Living by Faith

Lesson: 60-64

Genre: Talk

Track: 060

Dictation Name: RR311ZE60

Location/Venue:

Year: ?

Let us worship God. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Oh come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker; let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be acceptable in Thy sight, oh Lord our strength and our Redeemer. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, who art all holy, all wise, and all gracious; we come before Thee mindful of all Thy blessings and the certainty of Thy grace and government. We commit ourselves unto Thy word and Thy Spirit; work in us, empower us, and use us to the end that Thy kingdom may come and Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Grant us this we beseech Thee in Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture is Romans 15:14-33, The Man of God’s Ordination. Romans 15:14-33.

“14 And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.

15 Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God,

16 That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.

17 I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God.

18 For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed,

19 Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

20 Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation:

21 But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand.

22 For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you.

23 But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come unto you;

24 Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company.

25 But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.

26 For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.

27 It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.

28 When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.

29 And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.

30 Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me;

31 That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints;

32 That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed.

33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.”

We come now to the concluding sections of Paul’s letter to the Romans. In all that precedes this passage and the next chapter, Paul has made his point. The just can only live by faith. He will bring in points of important doctrine in what follows, but basically he is concluding his letter with some final comments. Again, as in Romans 1:1-6, Paul speaks of his intention to visit the Roman believers. In particular in these verses, Romans 15:14-29, he deal with this subject.

One reason for Paul’s eagerness to visit Rome is his high opinion of Christians there. This comes out in verse 14. He is persuaded, he says, that: ‘ye are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.’

Thus Paul’s letter to the Romans is one of his more happy letters. He does deal with a problem, the problem of the weak and the strong; but the problem is not dealt with as bluntly as in some of his other letters. Paul has a high opinion of the Christians in Rome. In most of his letters he has to spend a great deal of time defending himself against slander. And ironic fact, the greatest of the apostles, and the most brutally attacked.

Paul in writing to the Roman church recognizes the centrality of Rome; it is at the center of a great world empire. He recognizes also that this strategic importance has another factor that makes the church there very important: the believers are more mature. Romans was written in answer to questions by the people there of Paul. The questions revealed the maturity of their faith. They were concerned about important things, and so Paul in writing to them could deal with the heart of the faith. The subsequent importance of the church in Rome had many roots, Paul here deals with two of them: The centrality of Rome, and the maturity of the believers. They are, despite their conflict, friendly one toward another, counseling, helping one another.

In verse 15 he writes even more boldly because of their maturity, he says they will understand what he writes: “Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God.”

Rome appreciated his authority, his God-given place. IT was not a church he himself had founded, he had not yet ever been to Rome. But he feels akin to them because of their faith. And so he can speak rather plainly about his own importance, he says that “grace that is given to me of God,”

And in verse 16: “That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.”

And then he says in verse 17: “I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God.”

Paul says: I have something to boast about. Now Paul is not liked by the world at large, in fact a great deal of animosity has been directed against Paul by non-Christian writers, as though he perverted something that was beautiful and simple. Of course, when they write about our Lord they show no less animosity. But when they write about Paul, they act as though he were a perverter of the faith, as though he were every kind of man we should dislike; and least of all do they like this kind of passage. Paul says: ‘I am important, the work I have been called to is important. My place in the plan of God is important.’ There is no false modesty, no false humility on Paul’s part. He is the minister of Jesus Christ to the gentiles, the minister par excellence, the one called above all others to be the ambassador of Christ to the non-Hebrew world, and he is now offering up the Gentiles to God, an offering sanctified by the Holy Ghost.

The word for ‘offering’ is ‘prosphora’, prosphora. It means a bringing, a sacrifice; it is a thanks, a dedication sacrifice. And the word translated as ‘minister’ is unique in the New Testament, it is ‘leitourgon,’ a public servant, normally a public servant who at his own expense served in a temple in a priestly function; and Paul was serving not at the expense of the churches, but at his own expense, working his way, in order to avoid drawing any money from the Israelite believers, many of whom were offended and would have made trouble if he had drawn funds for his missionary work.

The public priestly service that he is doing is to offer up the Gentiles, of which Isaiah 66:20 speaks, speaking of the nations being an offering to the Lord. This is the only reference in the New Testament to the apostles as priests.

In verse 17 in his boasting, Paul also goes on to say that his work as he tells us subsequently, has not been on any other man’s foundation. He has always worked in virgin territory, where no one has worked before.

And in verses 18 following, Paul elaborates on this: “For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed,”

Paul says that he is not boasting about anything that he has done on his own, it is what God has worked through him, and he is saying: “God has used me. There is no way you can get around that fact; I am not boasting about what I am, in and of myself.” Paul could remind them what he had been before his conversion, a Pharisee of the Pharisee’s, a leader in Israel. And the work of various scholars, Christian and Jewish, have shown that Paul came from a very distinguished family, born citizens of Rome, multi millionaires, a very powerful family; and Paul in breaking with his family had broken with a great deal.

But Paul says: ‘God has been working in me, and he has confirmed His work in me by signs and wonders.’ “Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.”

Paul, in another context, 1 Corinthians 3:10-11 speaks of himself again, and says: “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

Paul, in declaring himself a wise master builder who builds on Christ, warns against anyone putting any false construction on his sure foundation. Today, false humility and false modesty are so popular, it is easy to see why Paul is unpopular. He calls attention to what God has done through him, from Jerusalem to Illyricum, which includes today much of Yugoslavia and Albania, as well as throughout Asia Minor. He says ‘I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.’ Where Paul went he established congregations in the cities, and gave them the duty then to go out and evangelize their areas. And as he tells us in the twentieth verse: “Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation:”

Who then had done the work in Rome? Rome obviously had a number of Christians. Some believe that there were as many as thirteen churches in Rome, meeting in homes, but constituting a fairly sizeable body of believers; and yet Paul refers to no one having gone there to work, as he does in other instances. The simple fact probably was that because Rome was the world center, there were people traveling to and from Rome, people who in terms of work associated with Rome or business, went out to the provinces, became converted, and returned. Or men who moved in from the provinces and were there for a season. And so the faith had been brought in by a variety of individuals. Many may have been called converts. It is clear, as we shall see in the next chapter, that he knew many of them personally.

Now we come to a very important verse, the 21’st. “But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand.”

This is a prophecy, Isaiah 52:15, concerning the conversion of the gentile nations. And what Paul is saying when he cites this verse as saying: ‘I have done this work’ He is saying: ‘I have done it, and I represent the fulfillment of God’s prophecy, the beginning of the conversion of the gentiles; I am the man of God’s ordination from centuries back.’ This is a bold statement, and a very true one. Paul is an important part of God’s predestined purpose. What he has been saying earlier as he speaks of predestination is that all of us have a place in God’s plan, and should move in this confidence in the face of all opposition. We are the persons of God’s ordination, and whatever problems we face, it is because of that fact.

Because, as Paul goes on to say in verse 22: ‘because I am the man of God’s ordination, the one through whom the prophecy of Isaiah begins its fulfillment’ “For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you.” ‘all the hostility of the fallen world converges on us, most of all when we do God’s work.’

Paul, thus, speaks of his desire to go to Rome, and in verse 23 he adds: “But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come unto you; Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company.”

Paul says: ‘for some years now I have been eager to come to Rome, but I have had other things to do. But I have no more place in these parts, I am finished with my work here; and so I am eager to come to see you, and I expect to be furthered on my journey to Spain by you, that you will help me financially with that journey. But first I want to be filled with your company.’

“But,” he adds in verse 25: “I go now unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.”

And in verses 25-28 he says that ‘I have a duty. I must go to Jerusalem because I have been collecting funds for the relief of the poor saints in Jerusalem.’ There was a famine, there were problems, and as a result Paul collected from the Gentile believers and Israelite believers wherever he was, for the relief of the Christians in Jerusalem.

Because as he says to the Gentiles: ‘You are in debt to those in Jerusalem. It is through them that the faith is being spread abroad, by their commissioning. And so they have made you partakers of their spiritual things, and now it is your duty to minister to them in carnal, in physical matters such as food.’

“When therefore I have performed this,” He says in verse 28: “and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.”

The word ‘seal’ is an interesting word, it is an official word for something that is confirmed, registered, like a registered letter. And he says: ‘When I take this offering from the Gentiles to the Jewish believers, it is going to make clear to them that these Gentiles are not rice Christians, not easy believers, that they mean business by their faith, and they feel a responsibility to you who have made possible my mission.’

Paul indeed after going to Jerusalem went to Rome, but as a prisoner in chains.

“And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.”

Then in verse 30, verses 29-32, he asks for their prayers. Because he says, he faces problems in Jerusalem and Judea. Those that do not believe, the unbelieving Jews, are very hostile. Their hatred of Paul was intense, he was one of their great leaders, and he had defected; and he was instrumental in the conversion of great numbers of Jews to Christianity throughout the empire. By the close of the New Testament canon, in one generation, the number of believers are estimated to have been half a million, five hundred thousand, and Paul was responsible for a very large percentage of those conversions.

And so with reason he prays that he be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea, and also: “that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints;” by the believers, “That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed.”

Then Paul, who was rightfully fearful of the dangers of a visit to Jerusalem, but even more certain of the necessity for the troop and the meeting with the church leaders, concludes with a benediction: “Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen”

He moves, thus, not in terms of his will, but is governed by the calling committed unto him by Christ. His benediction is thus for the Roman believers; he wants their prayers. But whatever happens, Paul knows that he moves under God’s purpose and benediction, he is God’s man, and the Lord is his shield and defender.

Paul tells us he has his place in Isaiah’s prophecies, and supremely in his place in God’s plan. Paul mature assurance in Christ governs him now in another great testing. He is a man of God’s ordination. He will therefore go to Rome in God’s time and God’s way.

This passage is important, because it is a part of the whole of Paul’s letter to the Romans, an essential part. He has dealt with predestination. Predestination which includes every one of us. He says that we all have our place in God’s plan, an essential one. He says with no false modesty, no false humility: “I am the man of God’s ordination spoken of by Isaiah.” And he wants us to see our place in God’s plan, so that we may say in the face of all problems and oppositions, that: ‘the Lord is my helper, I shall not fear what men may do unto me, because God is with me. He will never leave me, nor forsake me.’

Today, we not only depersonalize life but we want people to be meek and mousy in an ungodly way, to be afraid to talk with confidence of their place in God’s purpose. God has made every one of us, God has called us, and we who are His, like Paul, must see ourselves, whatever our place and function in life is, as a person of God’s ordination. The very hairs of our head all numbered by Him. He has a purpose for us in time and in eternity, and all the problems we face, we face because the world begins to recognize what we are, and our place in God’s purposes. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, Thou hast made us, and Thy work shall not decay, but shall stand and prosper in the thing whereunto Thou hast sent us. We give thanks unto Thee oh Lord that Thou art He who didst ordain Paul, all the apostles, and the great saints of history, and has also ordained us; has known us from before the foundation of the world, and has ordained us to the thing whereunto Thou hast sent us. Give us joy in our calling, joy in our work, confidence that because we are Thine, nothing can overthrow us nor overwhelm us, for Thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us. How great and marvelous are Thy ways oh Lord, and we thank Thee. In Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

[Audience Member] A lot of the history that you read of the first century, there is a great deal of controversy over how many journey’s Paul made to Rome; two, three, four, whatever. I think that the text of the New Testament, just taken at its face value, it is clear that he probably only made one journey, his last and only journey, as after the events with Jerusalem, which occurred in Jerusalem, that he went to Rome and in Rome he figured out that he was going to die there, which accounts for that last rush of feverish activity on his part, in terms of writing to all the churches and various individuals and what have you. It seems like the simplest reading of the text makes the simplest, makes the best understanding.

[Rushdoony] Yes, a good many of the commentators as they write about Romans 15 spend more time debating how many journeys to Rome, and did he make it to Spain. Well, we know he made one journey to Rome, according to Acts. It is possible that if he were set free at that time and executed at a later date, as there is some slight belief and evidence, he might have made two. But that is not the important fact, the important fact is what he says, and the commentaries don’t deal with the fact that Paul here is saying: ‘I was ordained of God, and Isaiah spoke of me,’ and that this was tied in with everything he said about predestination, and about the fact that all of us are in the total purposes of God. That is the great fact.

[Audience Member] Well, if they dealt with that fact as it lays, that would undercut a lot of the other theories, eschatology, what have you.

[Rushdoony] Well, it is interesting that men who have had that faith have had a strength. I can never forget the fact that John Knox, according to Ridley, not a Christian biographer, says that when he was a galley slave in the French galleys, one of the most unspeakable kinds of existence one can talk about, really unspeakable in polite company, and yet he said in his accounts of his experiences, you never feel sorry for him; you feel sorry for his captors; because they never broke his spirit, and he ran at least one of the men who was in charge off the galley ship, they couldn’t take the strength of that man.

Now, Knox knew that God had a purpose for him there, and he was going to accomplish God’s purpose; it was a training school. And that is why whereas other galley slaves give heart-rending accounts of their experiences, and I have a volume of these accounts of ex-galley slaves, Knox’s experience is not there, because he never touches on the horrors of it, not a word. He knew he was a man of God’s ordination, and everything that befell him had a place in that purpose, and he was going to accomplish it; and he did. Yes?

[Otto Scott] Well, Paul was a lawyer, and he talks like a lawyer.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Otto Scott] And it is hard to like lawyers. (laughter)

[Rushdoony] Well, a lot of lawyers wives do… (laughter)

Well, in particular, a Christian lawyer like Paul is very offensive to the ungodly. Any other questions or comments?

Well, if not let us bow our heads now in prayer. Our Lord and our God, we give thanks unto Thee for Paul, and men of law over the centuries whom Thou hast raised up to do Thy work; and we thank Thee for the men of love who in the courts today are waging a battle for Thy kingdom, for the defense of Thy people. Increase their number we beseech Thee, and make them mighty and effectual to the establishing of the things of Thy kingdom. Bless us all in our several ways, that we might serve Thee with joy and thanksgiving, and victoriously.

And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, amen.