Romans 15 Study Notes

15:14-16 Paul was convinced that the Roman Christians were gifted by God for effective service and healthy church life. God does not build his church without seeing to these needs. Yet Paul also knew that God had uniquely called and equipped him as an apostle to the Gentiles. So what he wrote was sure to be useful in helping the Roman house churches grow to maturity. He served as a priest offering the Gentiles to God and wanted this offering to be holy, acceptable, and pleasing to God (12:1-2).

15:17-19 Paul wanted to boast in Christ Jesus to the Roman believers about how God had used him to spread the good news all the way from Jerusalem to the Roman province of Illyricum (modern Albania). God had approved of his ministry by authenticating signs and wonders and many conversions. The Roman believers would have been comforted by this testimony, for it illustrated the secure basis on which they had rested their hopes for salvation.

15:20-21 In ten years, God had used Paul as a pioneer church planter in the eastern section of the Roman Empire. Paul felt his ministry was in keeping with OT messianic prophecy (Is 52:15). He was the planter; others would come water the soil, and God would give growth (1Co 3:3-9).

15:22-24 God’s work for Paul in the eastern half of the Roman Empire had kept him from going to Rome sooner, but now the work was completed and he planned to pass through Rome on a mission trip to the western part of the Roman Empire (Spain). Scholars are divided on whether Paul ever made it to Spain. The Bible does not record a Spanish mission for Paul.

15:25-29 Paul was on his way to Jerusalem to bring a gift from the Gentile churches for the poor of the Jewish church in that city. He planned to come to Rome next. Little did he know he would be taken to Rome in custody (Ac 25:11-28:14,30-31).

15:30-33 Paul made three specific prayer requests: (1) for deliverance from unbelieving Jews in Judea, (2) that the gift from Gentile Christians would be welcomed by Jewish Christians, and (3) that he might come to Rome. All three were answered; see Ac 23:10; 21:17-20a; 25:11-12, respectively.