‘Therefore, when I have finished this…I will go on by way of you to Spain. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.” –Romans 15.28-29
Paul was a man like all men. He was bound by the laws of space and time, subject to physical and emotional frustrations, and plagued by those universal desires – for purpose and meaningful work – which are common to all.
In an attempt to live out his calling to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, Paul developed a precise set of strategies and goals - hopes, if you will - for his ministry and future.
In his letter to the Romans Paul does not attempt to conceal these hopes but rather shares them openly. Having “fully preached the gospel of Christ…from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum” (15.19), his ultimate desire was to “go to Spain” and “to be helped on [his] way there by [the Romans]” (15.24).
It is conceivable, then, that Paul viewed a potential voyage to Rome as part of his long term vision to preach the Gospel throughout the West.
Paul is not impartial or detached but filled with a relentless sense of urgency to carry out God’s plan as he then understood it. “God is my witness,” he says, “as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you”(italics mine, 9-10). Understood thus, it is not surprising that his letter is filled with such ardor, almost like a lover separated from his beloved.
But although his plans to visit the Romans had been thwarted in the past, Paul is insistent about his desire to visit them in the future. His expressions are effusive – “For I long to see you” (vs. 11) - and sincere - “I have often planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far)” (vs. 13).
Moreover, his goals for such a visit are manifold. In addition to “enjoying [their] company for a while” (15.24), Paul hopes to (1) “impart some spiritual gift” (vs. 11); (2) “be encouraged together with [them]…each…by the other’s faith” (vs. 12); (3) “obtain some fruit among [them]” (vs. 13); and (4) “preach the gospel to [them]” (vs. 15).
But Paul’s visions are never realized, at least not as he imagined them. He not only fails to travel to Spain (at least there is no evidence to suggest he did), but he never lives to experience this long-hoped for visit to the Roman church.
What actually happens is far more complicated. During his 3rd missionary journey (while on his way to Rome) Paul is falsely accused and imprisoned, first in Jerusalem, and later Caesarea. After languishing in a Caesarean prison for 2 years, he claims his right as a Roman citizen to be tried in Rome. Traveling by boat he is first shipwrecked on the isle of Malta; and later proceeds to Rome by way of Syracuse. When he does finally arrive, in chains, at the Eternal City, he lives under house arrest for two more years until, in approximately 64 AD, he is brought to trial under the Emperor Nero and executed, it is thought, by beheading, just outside the city's gates.
On a cursory level it may seem that only a cruel God would create Paul with such hopes, and allow Him both to nurture and express them, if such was his end. But then we forget that Paul identifies himself first as a “bond-servant of Christ”– a slave bound to service without temporal wage.
As “an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God” (1.1), Paul was a marked man; and his ultimate goal was not to do his own will but the will of God. This understanding of himself as a slave unto Christ did not inhibit Paul from developing and articulating a set of goals for his ministry; but at no time did he fail to submit these goals to Christ. He set about upon a certain action, upholding it in prayer, and if and when it was not realized, he recognized this not as a failure on his own part but as evidence that it must not have been God’s will.
If we are to learn anything about the true character of God we must look beyond the roughly seventy or so years, at most, that marked Paul’s earthly life. We know Paul’s greatest ambition: “And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation; but as it is written, ‘They who had no news of Him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand’” (15.20-21).
Ironically, we need look no further than the book of Romans to find evidence of its achievement. For while it is true that Paul authored at least twelve New Testament books, Romans is “by common consent his masterpiece…an Alpine peak towering over hills and villages” (N.T. Wright). Coleridge once called it “the most profound work in existence;” and it is, indeed, considered the most theologically important and influential work of the Christian faith.
It was the epistle to the Romans which Augustine, sitting under his pear tree, took and read at random, thus catalyzing his conversion. Martin Luther’s study of the book of Romans fundamentally influenced his development of the 95 theses in 1517 and of it he wrote, "“It is well worth a Christian's while not only to memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul". More than two hundred years later, in 1738, John Wesley, after reading Luther’s introduction to Romans and feeling his heart “strangely warmed,” subsequently became one of the earliest leaders in the Evangelical Awakening; and in 1919, Swiss theologian Karl Barth’s commentary on Romans inspired the beginning of neo-orthodoxy.
In this light it may be concluded without question that God not only granted Paul’s desire to preach the Gospel - both to the Romans and the world at large - but that he did so more powerfully, and to greater profit, than Paul’s poor mind could have ever conceived. That He did so in His way and time, with more pain to Paul, is also true.
God’s activity in Paul's life confirms that He does not vainly or arbitrarily instill us with desires to do this or that, or go here or there. Though we may never know, this side of eternity, precisely why he has made us who and what we are, we can rest assured that He has done so for a purpose. Thus we need never despair as we wrestle with Him over the why nor insist upon our own way. Instead we must rely on Him entirely for the how and when. In His perfect way and time, He will do it.
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