Bible Commentaries

Romans 15:1

"There's a text wants no candle to show"t; it shines by its own light It's plain enough you get into the wrong road in this life if you run after this and that only for the sake o" making things easy and pleasant to yourself. A pig may poke his nose into the trough, and think o" nothing outside it; but if you"ve got a man's heart and soul in you, you can"t be easy a-making your own bed an" leaving the rest to lie on the stones. Nay, I"ll never slip my neck out of the yoke, an" leave the load to be drawn by the weak uns."

—Adam Bede, in George Eliot's Adam Bede.

All men need to have near them, allied in close association with them, either a force to strengthen their weakness or else a weakness which insists upon some demonstration of their strength.

—John Oliver Hobbes, in Robert Orange.

References.—XV:1.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. xii. p271. XV:1-3.—R. W. Church, Village Sermons (2Series), p263. J. Martineau, Endeavours After the Christian Life (2Series), p84. XV:2.—W. H. Stephenson, A Book of Lay Sermons, p191. F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlv. p337. Llewelyn, Davies, The Purpose of God, p116. XV:3.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. xi. p47. XV:4.—H. H. Henson, The Value of the Bible, p39. F. St. John Corbett, The Preacher's Year, p4. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlvii. No2753. F. Bourdillon, Plain Sermons for Family Reading, pp11,22. R. Boyne, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xiv. p976. H. S. Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p353. H. Hensley Henson, ibid. vol. lxxviii. p371. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. iii. p17. G. Body, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. p406. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p5. R. W. Church, Village Sermons, p1. F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons (2Series), p11. C. Parsons Reichel, Sermons, p193. R. C. Trench, Sermons New and Old, p267. H. D. Rawnsley, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xv. p1104. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Notes of Sermons for the Year, pt. i. p7.

Romans 15:5

Nature never hurries: atom by atom, little by little she achieves her work. The lesson one learns in fishing, yachting, hunting, or planting, is the manners of Nature; patience with the delays of wind and sun, delays of the seasons, bad weather, excess or lack of water—patience with the slowness of our feet, with the parsimony of our strength, with the largeness of sea and land are must traverse, etc.

—Emerson.

References.—XV:5 , 6.—J. M. Gibbon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p187. XV:5 , 15 , 33.—A. Maclaren, After the Resurrection, p229. XV:7.—A. P. Stanley, Canterbury Sermons, p172. XV:8.—Exspositor (6th Series), vol. ii. p411; ibid. (7th Series), vol. v. p361. XV:11.—Ibid. (4th Series), vol. iii. p117.

An Old Testament Portraiture of the Saviour

Romans 15:12

How infinite is Jesus! And with what almost infinite variety of depiction He is set forth in Holy Scripture! Here are four views rich in suggestion and most uplifting to the contemplator.

I. The Scriptural Jesus.—It is eminently characteristic of Paul that he delighted in the Jesus of the Old Testament. And it is very congenial to him—that ardent lover of the Bible—to say, as here he says, "Isaiah saith". Paul revelled in the prophetic delineation of the Saviour. The Christ of prophecy evoked all his intellectual and spiritual passion.

The Old Testament and Jesus mutually enhance each other. It glorifies Him. How stately, pathetic, tender, winsome, is the Jesus of the Old Testament! And truly He glorifies it. I think little of the Old Testament when the Saviour is ejected from it. But when I see my Saviour there it becomes an astral book: old, yet ever new; remote, yet sweetly near.

II. The Human Jesus.—The primary allusion of Isaiah which Paul quotes is mysteriously profound. "There shall be the root of Jesse" (R.V.). Some have explained this as meaning the branch which grows out of Jesse's root. But the Bible has a marked capacity for saying what it means, and meaning what it says. Otherwhere it declares Jesus to be a branch of Jesse. But here it says "the root" and not the branch. And this is not the only place in which our Incarnate Lord is called the root of Jesse. You may always trust Scripture to differentiate between a root and a branch.

"There shall be the root of Jesse." The origin of Jesse shall be historically originated. The Creator of Jesse shall be born in the latter days. But Jesse lived and died long spaces back. How can his "root" come to "be" in after years? Can the father of David's father be a descendant of David? This is indeed a great mystery—the Creator described as He who "shall be"!

If any object to this view of the human Jesus as insuperably mysterious, I would urge that it is infinitely more helpful on the practical side than any merely humanitarian view of Jesus can be. I far prefer Isaiah's mysterious concept to the Unitarian Jesus. If I cannot comprehend it I feel it meets my needs. Only a Saviour-God can cope with my guilt and sin. If I am to have a human Redeemer He must also be Divine. A Jesus whose personality and birth I could readily understand would be a Jesus to whom I dared not believingly commit myself. Oh let us adoringly receive this so mysterious and so merciful Saviour, who is "the Root of Jesse". A darkness to the intellect, He is the Light of Life to the heart.

Bengel aptly says, "Divine worship is implied here as due to Christ even in His human nature". Most truly it is. His human nature is Divinely miraculous. Late in time he cometh, but it is "the root of Jesse "who is born of the Virgin Mary.

III. The Kingly Jesus.— Romans 15:13

It is a question that we ought seriously to ask ourselves, at the approach of a Communion season, if we are in possession of the joy and peace which form the benediction of our text Can we truly say that we know in our own hearts what the Apostle calls joy and peace in believing? Is this the deepest result of that religion which we profess and in which we have been bred? And is it Romans 15:13

In today's Epistle we have a concise summary of the purposes of Christ's first Advent.

I. To bring Hope.—By "patience and comfort" of the Scriptures which speak of Him. In what the Sermon on the Mount says of Him is all our hope. To Jew and Gentile alike.

II. To bring Unity.—To make us by His Spirit and example "like-minded one to another".

a. Unity of thought—("like-minded ").

b. Unity of feeling—("with one mind and one mouth").

c. Unity of purpose—("the glory of God ").

III. To bring Joy and Peace in Believing.—"As this passage begins, so it ends, with Hope. Christ bring it: the Holy Ghost gives it, with joy and peace in believing.

Romans 15:13

Principal Rainy quoted this text in his Moderator's address at the Union Assembly of the Scottish Churches in1900. He said: "Let us hope continually. We have been brought to this point remarkably; why should the Church of Christ stint her expectations? Without this gracious dispensation we cannot thrive. Not earnestness, not diligence, not sacrifices will supply the want of it. The whole New Testament is full of hope, as a disposition without which prosperity and progress are not to be expected. The very God of Hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost!"

Romans 15:13

We continually hear of the trials, sometimes of the victories, of faith—but scarcely ever of its pleasures.... Set to any work you have in hand with the sifted and purified resolution that ambition shall not mix with it, nor love of gain, nor desire of pleasure more than is appointed for you; and that no anxiety shall touch you as to its issue, nor any impatience nor regret if it fail.... Resolve also with steady industry to do what you can for the help of your country and its honour, and the honour of its God; and that you will not join hands in its iniquity, nor turn aside from its misery; and that in all you do and feel you will look frankly for the immediate help and direction, and to your own consciences, expressed approval, of God. Live then and believe, and with singleness of answer proportioned to the frankness of the trust, most surely the God of peace will fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

—From Ruskin's Pleasures of England, 2

"Since Saturday last," writes Boston in his Memoirs, "I have had most sensible experience of the solid joy and peace in believing God to be my God in Christ. I find it is a blessed means of sanctification. It strengthens to duty; for I have been helped in my work of visiting since that time. It nourishes love to the Lord; and consequently love to and desire of the thriving of His work in people's souls. It creates a sweet calm, and quiet of mind, in doubtful events;... it sweetens other enjoyments, and carries above things which at other times are irritating and create disgust. I have compared flashes of affection with a calm, sedate, tender love to the Lord; and I prefer the latter to the former, and have been, and Romans 15:14

If a reverent ignorance is to be the last word of thought about religion, not only will Christ have died in vain, but science will have toiled to little real purpose.

—C. H. Pearson.

Sanctification

Romans 15:16

There are some who preach a salvation from sin's consequences; but you and I want to be delivered from sin's tyranny; that is much more than being delivered from hell, from the consequences of sin. Some people look upon salvation as a kind of lifebuoy by whose aid they may enter safely into the harbour of heaven; but salvation is far more than that. The salvation which God offers you and me is not only to free us from the penalty of sin—the consequences of sin—but also from the power of sin. "He shall save His people, His redeemed ones, from their sins." When we put our faith in Christ and Him crucified, we are saved eternally and completely, because "He hath redeemed us with an eternal redemption". But I want to live for Christ. I do not only want to die a Christian death, but to live for Christ here, to show forth in my life the power of Christ; I want Christ to be formed in me. This is sanctification, and the work of God the Holy Ghost The cross means for us not only deliverance from sin, but it means the gift of the Holy Ghost.

I. The first work of the Holy Spirit in the redeemed soul is the work of cleansing, of purifying. It is the mission of God the Holy Ghost to come into the heart of the believer and purify the very "springs of being" that have been poisoned by sin, so that out of us shall flow pure and life-giving streams, and we shall be a blessing to others because of the outflow of the Holy Ghost that dwelleth within us.

II. But there is not only the thought of cleansing, there is the thought of strengthening. He is the Comforter. The word "comforter" means one who stands by your side to strengthen you (the Paraclete) to help you. In the margin of the Revised Version the word "helper" is used—one ever at our side to help us in living the Christian life. We not only want inward cleansing, we want comforting, cheering; we want a champion—some one has translated the word "Paraclete "as "champion"—one who stands for our defence.

III. Again, there is not only the cleansing of the Holy Ghost, and the comforting of the Holy Ghost, but there is the gift of courage to witness for God. This is a special gift of the blessed Spirit. Think of what happened at Pentecost. Think of the cowardly nature of Peter, then look at him after the baptism of fire, after the cleansing fire had gone through his soul and burned out all the fear. It is no good talking religion unless you are living true.

—T. J. Madden, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xv. p244.

References.—XV:16.—L. D. Bevan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxx. p326. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p79. XV:19.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii. No1332. Expositor (6th Series), vol. viii. pp231 , 236. XV:20.—R. C. Cowell, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xix. p516. XV:21.—Expositor (4th Series), vol. vii. p365. XV:22-28.—H. S. Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p65.

Romans 15:26

"The great problem of human life," says Mr. P. G. Hamerton, "is the reconciliation of poverty and the soul."

Macchiavelli once said that "the kingdom of the clergy had been long before at an end, if the reputation and reverence towards the poverty of friars had not borne out the scandal of the superfluities and excesses of bishops and prelates". Bacon, who quotes this in The Advancement of Learning, adds: "So a man might say that the felicity and delicacy of princes and great persons had long since turned to rudeness and barbarism, if the poverty of learning had not kept up civility and honour of life.

References.—XV:26.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. viii. p390. XV:27.—Ibid. (4th Series), vol. viii. p332. XV:28 , 29.—Bishop Cabrera, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. p77. XV:29.—J. W. Houchin, The Vision of God, p119.

The Holy Spirit's Love

Romans 15:30

The phrase employed by St. Paul in the text is to be understood as denoting, not the love which we bear to the Spirit, nor yet the love which is produced in us by the agency of the Spirit and which is called the fruit of the Spirit, but the love which the Holy Spirit manifests towards us. We shall limit ourselves on this occasion to four aspects of His love.

I. His Restraining Love.—Everywhere sinful men are acting under the dominion of base selfish passions; but men everywhere are conscious that those passions are not allowed to work their evil ways unchecked or unrestrained. In heathen as well as in Christian countries, the universal consciousness testifies that there are mysterious, mighty, persistent forces in active operation on the hearts of men, curbing, restraining, suppressing their malignant passions. Explain it as you please, ascribe to whatever agency you think fit, the fact is undeniable: for every man is a living witness of it. To deliver man from the thraldom of these usurping forces of evil we must have a spiritual agency of authority and power. The economy of redemption supplies such an agency in the Person of the Holy Spirit whose office it is to subdue and expel these ruling powers of evil.

II. His Convicting Love.—The gracious provision made by Christ Jesus is ample and adequate to meet the exigencies of a lost world; but when we proclaim its all-sufficiency, a formidable difficulty meets us at the very outset—man does not feel his need of it. Blind to his peril, he fondly imagines that he can do without redemption. Logic can never lodge in any heart that conviction of sin which issues in genuine repentance. The economy of redemption provides for this difficulty by the appointment of the Holy Spirit as an abiding active Personality, to work upon conscience, heart, and will a conviction of sin.

III. The Forbearing Love of the Spirit.—Why is the sinner pursued in his wanderings, reasoned with in his rebellion, striven with in his obstinacy for years together? The only reason in the universe is the forbearing love of the Spirit, who is long-suffering usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

IV. The Condescending Love of the Spirit.—The condescending love of the Spirit is revealed in His selection of the human heart with all its vileness as the material on which to show forth the might of His grace.

—Richard Roberts, My Jewels, p187.

References.—XV:30.—Bishop Wilberforce, Sermons, p79. W. P. Balfern, Lessons from Jesus, p157. XV:30-33. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii. No1887.

Romans 15:33

When Horace Bushnell was dying, he murmured one day slowly, and in great weakness, to those around his bed, "Well now, we are all going home together; and I say, the Lord be with you—and in grace—and peace—and love—and that is the way I have come along home".

Reference.—XV:33.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i. No49.