Romans Commentary

Ver. 24. — The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

This important prayer is repeated from ver. 20, which shows us that all repetition is not vain repetition, but that it may mark a thing of peculiar importance. Three times did our Lord employ the same words in His prayer in Gethsemane. And the Apostle, from the abundance of his heart, and his great concern for the Christians at Rome, here within a short compass twice prays that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ might be with them. Indeed, there is great need of such earnest petitions, for without the constant supply of the grace of Christ we could not abide in Him. Dr.

Macknight observes that in the Syriac version this benediction is omitted at the 24th verse, and added at the end of the Epistle. But this has the appearance of human wisdom correcting the language of the Holy Ghost.

Ver. 25. — Now to Him that is of power to establish you according to my Gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.

Now to Him that is of power to establish you. — From this we learn that establishment in the faith is not of ourselves, but of God. It requires the power of Jehovah to establish His people in the truth. So far from being able to bring themselves into the faith of the Gospel, they are not able to continue in it without God. What blindness, then, is it to boast of the power of man to believe and to keep himself in the truth! Power to do anything in the service of God must be communicated from above. According to my Gospel. — Here we see in what a Christian is to be established, namely, in the faith according to the Gospel. Men may be established in error, they may die for human traditions, and have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge; but this is of no value. Paul calls the Gospel his Gospel, to intimate that different doctrines would be preached by false teachers as the Gospel. But all other gospels, except that of Paul and the other Apostles, are false. Believers must be established in Paul’s Gospel. How many other gospels are now preached as the Gospel of Christ! yet none of them can avail for the salvation of the soul. And the preaching of Jesus Christ — This phrase is not the mere repetition of the same thing. It is indeed the same truth, but in a different point of view. In the one it is considered as the Gospel or good news, and this according to the doctrine of Paul. In the other it is considered as the publication of the truth about Jesus Christ. We are to be established according to what the Apostles preached concerning Jesus Christ. Believers have nothing to do with the vain speculations and opinions of men about the way of salvation. They must believe, and ought to be confirmed, in the truth, according as it was originally preached by the Apostles. The preaching of the Gospel is called preaching Jesus Christ, Acts 5:42, who is the subject of the Gospel. According to the revelation of the mystery . — This is another view of the same truth, but not a mere synonymous expression. The Gospel is here considered as the revelation of a mystery. It was couched in dark figures under the Old Testament dispensation, but is now developed by the Apostles of the Lord. It is first considered as the Gospel, or good news, characterized as the Gospel of Paul; secondly as the doctrine preached concerning Jesus Christ by those whom He had inspired to reveal and publish it; and, lastly, it is considered as a mystery revealed. In this there is no tautology. It is designed to present the same thing in several different aspects. The word mystery here refers, not, as Dr. Macknight and many others suppose, to the calling of the Gentiles, but to the Gospel itself, which was obscurely revealed in the Old Testament. Calvin, without sufficient ground, states this as a difficulty but in reality there is no difficulty in it. ‘In what sense,’ he says, ‘Paul calls the Gospel a hidden mystery in this passage, in Ephesians 3:9, and Colossians 1:26, is not fully determined even among the learned. The opinion of those who refer it to the calling in of the Gentiles, is the most forcible, to which Paul himself expressly alludes in his Epistle to the Colossians. I grant this to be one, but not the sole cause; for I think there is a greater probability in supposing Paul to have regarded other points of difference between the Old and New Testament.’ All these passages use the word mystery with the same reference: none of them represent the calling of the Gentiles to be the mystery, or the reason why the Gospel was called a mystery. It is the Gospel itself which is called a mystery in Ephesians 3:9. The thing hid in God from the beginning of the world, was the plan of salvation through the death of His Son; and the revelation of it by Christ and His Apostles, was making known the manifold wisdom of God in the redemption of His people. In Colossians 1:26, it is the Gospel as the word of God that is the mystery. In ver. 27, this mystery is said, by the preaching of the Gospel, to be made known among the Gentiles, just as in the verse before us. The calling of the Gentiles is not called a mystery. Kept secret since the world began, or, in eternal times; that is, in all preceding eternity. — The common version very well expresses the meaning. The translation of Dr. Macknight, ‘the times of the ages,’ is an uncouth expression, and founded on views which, as stated by him, are quite fanciful. The mystery kept secret was the hidden sense of the Old Testament dispensation, which all pointed to the kingdom of God, but still left it concealed under various historical, prophetical, and typical representations The whole of the Old Testament, indicating the truth which is revealed in the New, may properly be termed a parable, the meaning of which is, that it conveys information embodied in an action designed to represent some truth called the moral, or mystery. This method of parabolical instruction, Jesus Christ Himself, as had been predicted, Psalm 78:2, Matthew 13:35, adopted towards the multitude, concealing under it the mysteries to which He referred. When ‘His disciples asked Him, saying, What might this parable be?’ ‘He said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables, that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.’ Thus the mystery, or concealed sense of what He said, was kept secret from them. It is to the Old Testament, taken as a whole, that our Lord seems to refer when He says, ‘Know ye not this parable, and how then will ye know all parables?’ Ver. 26. — But now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God , made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.

But now is made manifest. — Mr. Stuart construes the words translated ‘the scriptures of the Prophets’ with ‘made manifest,’ and translates thus: ‘But is now revealed by the scriptures of the Prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God.’ But these words, ‘the scriptures of the Prophets,’ are evidently to be construed with ‘made known.’ He observes that ‘the Apostle refers to the most ancient times, before any revelation was given, as the cro >noi aijw >nioi next to the Messianic prophecies contained in the Old Testament.’ But this is a forced view. In the text there is no appearance of dividing the times of the Old Testament dispensation from ancient times. All the times preceding Christ are included in the words translated in our version, ‘since the world began,’ and by Mr. Stuart, ‘ancient ages.’ The revelation of the Messiah in the Old Testament could not be spoken of as now revealed. There was now a new revelation. In the time of the Old Testament, the mystery of the Messiah was couched in figure and in prophecy. The Messiah, indeed, was in a certain degree discovered by Moses and the Prophets, but He was not made manifest. This was done when He Himself appeared. The mystery of Christ and of the Gospel is always spoken of in the New Testament as being manifested then, and not in the former dispensation. In the same manner, although the bringing in of the ‘everlasting righteousness,’ namely, the righteousness of God, Romans 1:17, was predicted by the Prophet Daniel 9:24, and so often made mention of by Isaiah, yet Isaiah speaks of it as not yet revealed or made manifest but as shortly to be so. ‘Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed,’ Isaiah 56:50: And in accordance with this, Paul, in this Epistle, ch. 1:17, and 3:21, declares that now it is revealed. ‘But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the Prophets.’ This corresponds with what the Apostle here announces respecting the manifestation of the mystery of the Gospel. Until the Sun of Righteousness arose, all the testimonies of the Prophets were as ‘a light that shineth in a dark place,’ 2 Peter 1:19; but they came to be plainly confirmed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. And by the scriptures of the Prophets made known to all nations. — Dr.

Macknight justly construes these words, not with the words ‘made manifest,’ like Mr. Stuart, but with ‘made known.’ But as, probably, it did not appear to him obvious how the mystery was now made known by the scriptures of the Prophets, he uses violence to evade this sense of the expression. He makes a transposition in translating the words which is not justifiable, and renders the passage thus: ‘But is now made manifest, and by the command of the eternal God, in the prophetic writings, is made known to all the Gentiles, in order to the obedience of faith.’ This not only deranges the order of the Apostle’s words, but also gives a translation that is not warrant able. He renders the phrase not through or by the Scriptures, but ‘in the Scriptures.’ This bends the words of the Apostle to a supposed meaning. But whatever difficulty may appear in the affirmation that the mystery is now made known by the writings of the Prophets, yet as this is what the Apostle has said, our duty is to search for its signification, and not arbitrarily to force out the words a translation which is unnatural. The meaning appears to be, that by the fulfillment of the prophetical writings which had now taken place, such a light was thrown on these writings, that by them the mystery, which was in perfect consistency with their representations, was made known. In the same way the Apostle Peter, besides referring to the voice from heaven, which was heard by him and the other Apostles on the holy mount, appeals to the word of prophecy, not as ‘more sure,’ — a sense which would be degrading to the apostolic testimony, than which nothing can be more sure, — but as made more firm, or confirmed by its accomplishment. The revelation now made of the mystery of Christ and of the Gospel, by the Apostle, was through the prophetical writings, inasmuch as, though he was as fully inspired as the Prophets themselves, he proved his doctrines by the Scriptures, and pointed to them as containing in prediction what was now accomplished. This is a characteristic feature in the teaching of the Apostles — a feature which to many has appeared strange. In the same way as Paul here declares that the mystery was made known by the scriptures of the Prophets, Peter affirms that the Prophets prophesied of the- grace that should come to us. According to the commandment. — The publication of the Gospel was by God’s special command, and by the injunction of God it was to be made known to all nations. Thus the interest of the Gentiles in the salvation of the Gospel is made to rest on the direct authority of God. The Jews were prone to consider the blessings of the Messiah as confined to themselves; but they had no warrant, or even plausible pretext, for this error, in their own Scriptures. Of the everlasting God, or eternal God. — God is distinguished from all besides as eternal. All other objects that have been worshipped, and all other beings, had a beginning. God is without beginning as well as without end. For the obedience of faith. — That is, to be believed; for to believe is to obey the Gospel. The command of the Gospel is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every one who believes in Him obeys the Gospel.

Ver. 27. — To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen.

To God only wise. — There are three different ways in which the words in the original are translated. God only wise, according to our version; or, the only wise God; or, the wise God alone. Between the first and the second there is only this difference, that the one represents God as the only wise being, and the other as the only wise God. Dr. Macknight’s objections to the common version, and his reasons for the adoption of the third translation, do not seem convincing. When God is called the only wise God, it may not imply, as he alleges, that there are some gods who are not wise, but that the character of God, as exhibited in the Scriptures, is the only character that ascribes wisdom in proportion to God. The gods of the heathen are not wise. The God of the Deist is not wise. The God of the Arian is not wise. No view ever given of the Divine character exhibits the infinite wisdom of God in redemption, but that which is found it the Gospel. The expression, ‘God only wise,’ does not imply, as Dr.

Macknight again alleges, that God possesses no perfection but wisdom. It means that God is the only wise being. Yet John, 17:3, where the word rendered God is similarly situated, seems to favor the second mode of translating the words, as in 1 Timothy 1:17; Jude 25. Be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen. — All the glory that will redound to God through the ages of eternity, from the salvation of sinners, proceeds through Jesus Christ. Through Him it is manifested. It is through Jesus Christ that we ought to ascribe to God the glory. In Jesus Christ all things are united which are in heaven and which are on earth, — not only saints, but angels. Christ is ‘the power of God, and the wisdom of God.’ ‘God hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’ All this shows that Jesus Christ is God, for Christ’s work is the glory of the Father, because He is one with Him. In the same way Jude concludes his Epistle — ’To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and powerful both now and ever. Amen.’