Romans 15:7-13

7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews [b] on behalf of God's truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed 9 and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written:
"Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;
I will sing the praises of your name." [c]
10 Again, it says,
"Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people." [d]
11 And again,
"Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;
let all the peoples extol him." [e]
12 And again, Isaiah says,
"The Root of Jesse will spring up,
one who will arise to rule over the nations;
in him the Gentiles will hope." [f]
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.


Dig Deeper
I recently watched a movie that quite frankly confused me. It was confusing, fascinating, and entertaining all at the same time. It was one of those movies that had all of these different threads that alternately seemed quite independent from one another but then would be woven back together again at times. Perhaps you’ve seen a movie like that. You think you have things all figured out and then something else pops up. It seems like it’s completely out of left field but as things move along, you realize that there must be a reason for all of these little details and teasers. Then comes some final climatic scene and you realize that all of those little streams and details did in fact flow together. In fact as I was watching this particular movie, I realized that some seemingly basic introductory events at the very beginning of the movie were monumentally important to the plot. I had, by that time, all but forgotten that the movie had opened with a night time scene of someone jumping out of a window of a burning building while two police officers raced up to the scene and jumped out of the car. The movie had so quickly switched to a sunny scene of a young woman driving and singing to the radio in her car, that those opening flashes seemed a distant memory. In fact, I had to stop the movie and go back to watch the opening scene to realize just how pivotal it was. It had set the stage for everything that was happening, if I had only followed the clues more carefully and put everything together. Only in the end, when everything came back to that fire and that window did I realize just how connected every single detail in that movie had been. It was really incredibly clever.

The writers of that movie no doubt wanted to confuse and befuddle their watchers a bit only to bring everything to a “oh, now I get it” moment. Paul certainly did not set out to write his letter to the Romans in the same mysterious way but there are still many helpful comparisons to the previous analogy. Paul began his letter with a declaration of his gospel. He boldly stated that his gospel was the declaration that Jesus was “a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 1:3-4). This was his gospel of which he was not ashamed (1:16-17). So much has passed between that opening statement and our current passage that it’s easy to forget this statement, let alone see the significance of it throughout Paul’s letter. He so quickly moved on to different threads of thought and argument including the faithfulness of God, the identity of the one covenant family, God’s plan for the Jews and Gentiles, and how the people of God should live based on the reality of them being God’s true family. He has dealt with so many themes that sometimes seemed to be only loosely related that it can be difficult to see just how they all have been woven together. Surely if any book of the Bible is worth reading many times through (and they are), Romans is chief among them. But as we come to this passage, Paul brings us back to where he started. It’s not quite the end of the letter, but Paul is bringing the bulk of his arguments to an end before he moves on to his closing and personal greetings. As he brings us back to the beginning, we can finally look back upon all that Paul has written and have our own “oh, now I get it” moment. Everything Paul has said really did tie together on a very simple, common thread. It was all right there the whole time if we had simply put everything together (and just like a good mystery movie that demands that we go back and watch for a second time to catch all of the details we missed, so does the greatest of all Paul’s letters).

In a long letter full of twists and turns, Paul has answered all kinds of questions and concerns, not the least of those being has God been faithful to his covenant promises in redefining the people of God in the shape of the Messiah and how, then, those people should live out their new covenant status. But it would be easy by this point to forget in all this discussion of how the resurrection people should live practically in a world still ruled by death, what the motivating factor is. Why should Christians embrace one another, love one another, treat one another’s interests above their own, and in short, become family with one another? It is precisely because they are family, having been accepted into the Messiah’s family when they died to self and were baptized into his life (1 Cor. 12:13). Jesus humbled himself to taking on the flesh of a human being, and more specifically he was the faithful servant that Isaiah pointed in Isaiah 40-55. He was the humble servant who would represent the entire nation of Israel and take all suffering and sin onto himself. He did this “so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed.” Thus, Paul has returned to where he started. The gospel, said Paul in Romans 1, was the declaration that Jesus was a descendant of David, he was the Jewish Messiah in other words, and he was raised from the dead demonstrating him to be the son of God. God has acted to fulfill his promises that were always about all nations having the opportunity to be part of God’s family. This is the point that Paul has been making throughout his letter. Christ fulfilled the role as the Jewish Messiah and died on the cross so that God’s promises of one true covenant family who would have their sins dealt with might finally be fulfilled.

As is his normal style, however, Paul won’t just make statements like that without demonstrating that it’s larger truth had been pointed to in the Scriptures all along. To make his point he, once again, turns to Isaiah, Deuteronomy and the Psalms to demonstrate that God’s plan was always to bring Gentiles with his chosen people into equal fellowship and membership in his one family. The first quote in verse 9 comes from Psalm 18:49, where the Psalmist celebrates the great victory that God has given and declares that God’s name will be praised not only among the Jews but the Gentiles as well. All will know the greatness of God.

The second quote comes in verse 10 and is taken from Deuteronomy 32:43, where Moses after celebrating God’s victory and judgment over both Israel and the pagan nations alike, calls for the nations to rejoice and praise God right alongside God’s people. Moses promises that God will vindicate his people and exalt them over their enemies. The fact that he calls the nations to share in this rejoicing seems to indicate to Paul a hint of these nations joining faithful Jews under the umbrella of the family of God.

In verse 11 Paul returns to the Psalms. This time he quotes from Psalm 117, the shortest of Psalms, which declares “Praise the LORD, all you nations [Gentiles]; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD.” It is likely that this Psalm caught Paul’s attention as it urges the Gentiles to praise the Lord because of his love and faithfulness. It is this same love and faithfulness to the covenant, after all, that Paul has shown has opened the door to bring the Gentiles into the family of God. Surely his faithfulness that has been displayed in the death and resurrection of the Messiah are worthy of praise from all the Gentiles.

Paul’s final quote, in verse 12, comes from Isaiah 11:10, a passage which was written about the Messiah and the age to come. Isaiah declared that the root of Jesse will “spring up” to rule over the nations, Gentiles included. It is of no small importance that the word “amad” which is translated in the TNIV as “spring up” was one of the primary words that the early Christians used for resurrection. If this is the way that Paul took this prophecy, then he no doubt chose this passage from Isaiah because it holds precisely the same elements that he introduced in 1:3-4 as the heart of his gospel declaration. There Paul demonstrated that the Messiah, a descendant of David was powerfully declared to be God’s Son and his Messiah through the resurrection. This is exactly what Isaiah expressed. The Messiah has sprung up, or resurrected, in a way that no one expected and has proven himself to be the true ruler of the world. He is the rightful king of the nations who has been given all authority (Matt. 28:18).

Paul rounds off this section with a final prayer and expression of his own hope. Now that the Gentiles have set their hope on the Messiah and have joined God’s family, Paul prays that the God who is faithful to his covenant will fill them “with all joy and peace” as they learn to trust in him. Paul likely has in mind both the weak and the strong that he has just concluded addressing. His point being that the very different conclusions and convictions that they take away from believing in Christ should not detract in any way from the peace and joy that they should be experiencing as equal and joint members in the covenant family of God’s kingdom. As they are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, only then will they overflow with hope and become the community of hope that they have been formed in the Messiah to be. It is through the power of the Spirit working in their lives that they will be truly able to accept one another and show the unity of the one family of God to which he has called us in the family of the Messiah.



Devotional Thought
Do you truly build your acceptance and commitment to other Christians, especially those in your local church, on the fact that Jesus is the resurrected Messiah and has called us into his family? Or do you tend to base your commitment on how they act and how much they correctly meet your needs? Spend some time thinking about what your commitment to God’s people is really based on.