As Paul comes to the final points of Romans, he takes one last opportunity to shower the church with praise. “My brothers and sisters, you are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.” (Romans 15:14) He surveys the foundational DNA of his ministry as “obedience from the gentiles by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, and by the power of the Spirit.” (15:18-19) That is Paul’s ministry to the gentiles. It’s also the ministry of Romans to us.
Paul has a word for all this, an umbrella that covers all these wonderful things that make the church and are true of the church. And it’s not hard to figure out what that word it is. It’s grace. Again. And again. “I have written to you rather boldly because of the grace given me by God.” (15:15) Perhaps I should be bored of grace by the time we get to Romans 15 and Paul has used the word a multitude of times. But I’m not bored with it. In fact, I get more excited every time he says it.
Here’s how Romans is forming us. It is impossible to talk about the church, about faith, about our life in God without talking about grace, a lot. We cannot come to any legitimate understanding of ourselves and our calling without putting it all under a microscope and seeing the DNA within all of it, which is grace. Paul takes no credit for any of his ministry. “In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to boast of my work for God. For I will not be so bold as to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished in me.” (15:17-18) Whatever has been accomplished through Paul is simply an extension of Christ himself. Paul points our attention where it belongs: grace and the Holy Spirit. There is no power that originates within Paul himself. He’s just a conduit with no will of his own, no words of his own. Apart from grace and the Holy Spirit, there is no ministry. Apart from grace, the very muscles in Paul’s mouth have no ability to form words.
This is why Paul sees his ministry having the most value in places where no gospel preacher has yet set foot. He has no desire to “build on someone else’s foundation,” he says (15:20). On the surface, he means he’d rather not compound on another missionary’s work, and keep spreading Jesus where he hasn’t been heard of yet. But in a deeper sense, he wants to leave as much room for pure, uncluttered grace as possible. No need for too many cooks in the kitchen, too many preachers in the mission field. The grace of Jesus is more than sufficient in itself to encounter the human heart and turn it inside out, with or without more preachers and theology and religious practices. The only thing Paul wants is for grace to do what grace does, with or without his participation.
God has filled us with goodness and knowledge, church. God has saturated our life together with his words, his work, his power, his wonders, and his Spirit. And all because it makes him happy to be gracious and generous to us in these ways. Grace is turning us into people that see God in everything with clarity. And grace is dissolving the ego that refuses to see God in anything.
0 Comments