Romans 15:12

Romans 15:12

Romans 15:12 says, "And again, Isaiah said, There shall be a root out of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; and in him shall the Gentiles trust."

In Romans 15:12 Paul quoted the Jewish prophet Isaiah who lived 500 years before Jesus and said three things about the Messiah. He said that the Messiah would be a root of Jesse, He would reign over the Gentiles, and that in Him would the Gentiles trust. Jesse was the father of David, one of the great Kings of Israel. From this and other prophecies, we know that the Messiah would have to be in the lineage of David. Jesus was in the lineage of King David, both through His mother Mary and through His stepfather, Joseph. The New Testament opens in Matthew 1:1 with the phrase, "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David."

Jesus is the King of Kings. Not only will He reign over the Jews, but He will also reign over the Gentiles. We look forward to the day when Jesus returns, because we look forward to the coronation. It will be a wonderful day for the believers in Jesus, because we will be with Him and He shall be the King. Then will be the ultimate fulfillment of the promise that Jesus gave in the Sermon on the Mount when He said, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

Romans 15:12 also said that in the Messiah would the Gentiles trust. In other words, the ancient Jewish prophesies about the Messiah made it clear that the Jewish Messiah was to come for the benefit of the Gentiles as well as the Jews. That is why God told Mary to call His name Jesus. Jesus means Savior, and He is the Savior of the entire world: Jews and Gentiles.

It says that the Gentiles will trust in Jesus, and it does not say that they will trust in Jesus plus something else. They will trust in Jesus alone for their salvation. They will not trust in Jesus plus their own efforts: they will only trust in Jesus. They will trust in Jesus to save them from their sins, they will trust in Jesus to guide them, they will trust in Jesus to protect them, and they will trust in Jesus for anything in life in which they find themselves needing assistance.

How can a Jew or a Gentile come to trust in Jesus and only in Jesus for their salvation? Because once an individual realizes the greatness of his own sins, it becomes very easy for that person to also realize that they need Jesus as their Savior. Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God". Once a person understands this verse and realizes that it applies to them, they also can realize the truthfulness of Romans 10:13 that says, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." In order to be saved, Jesus must be the one in whom you are trusting. You must not trust in yourself or your own efforts, but only in Jesus.

Romans 15:13 says, "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13 mentions joy and peace and hope, and it mentions them in connection with believing. There is a direct relationship between joy and peace and hope, and how much you believe and what you believe. If you do not have the right quantity of joy and peace and hope, then you might want to question what you believe or how much you believe it. This verse says that we should "abound in hope." We should abound in a positive attitude about the future and what the future holds.

This verse also says that joy and peace and hope come from the power of the Holy Spirit. You might believe the right things, but the Holy Spirit might not have free access to work in your heart. What are the requirements to have such fruit of the Spirit as hope, joy, and peace? Part of the answer comes from looking at the name given to the Spirit of God. In the world sometimes we say that names are not really so important, and that is a valid thing to say. What is in a name? A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. But the names given to individuals in the Bible are sometimes very important. The meaning behind the name sometimes teaches a lesson. That certainly is true in the case of the Holy Spirit.

He is called a Spirit. Jesus said God is a Spirit, and they that worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. There is that which is physical and material, and there is that which is spiritual. There is a material realm and there is a spiritual realm of existence. In order to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit, you must be spiritually connected to God. This does not come through a religion, it comes through a relationship. The Holy Spirit will bear upon your conscience that there is a God and He will point you to Jesus. You will then be one of those who have trusted in the Messiah, as it is mentioned in Romans 15:12. One of the greatest works of the Holy Spirit is to reveal the spiritual message that Jesus exists. The Holy Spirit will not speak of Himself, but He will speak of Jesus. Spiritual truth can only be understood spiritually, and it’s the Holy Spirit who does this work in the hearts and minds of humans.

He is called the Holy Spirit. He is spirit, and He is also holy. The emphasis is on His holiness. He is separate from sin. The spiritual message of the Spirit of God has to do with the sin problem. Because the Spirit is holy but man is sinful, the sin problem must be dealt with for a human to be in proper connection with the Great Holy Spirit. At the moment of initial belief in Jesus, the sin problem is dealt with in the most profound manner. All sins become forgiven in regards to the future judgment and a connection is made with God that will last forever.

After this spiritual birth in Christ, the believer is given the Holy Spirit as an indwelling companion. The challenge of life will then become to listen to the Spirit and to go the way of the Spirit, instead of the way of selfishness. And one of the things that will be ongoing in the life of the believer, will be God trying to teach the believer what it means to walk in the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit, and to bear the fruits of the Spirit. As the believer learns to walk in the spirit, he shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. As the believer learns more and more to be dead to self but alive unto God; he will the more bear the fruits of the Spirit. With the weaknesses that you and I have, and with the crazy things that go on in this world, we will not be able to find hope or joy or peace except as it says in Romans 15:13, "through the power of the Holy Spirit."

In Romans 15:14 Paul says, "And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brothers, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another." In Romans 14:14 Paul said that he had been persuaded by the Lord Jesus. Now he says that, he has been persuaded by his brothers in Christ. We should desire to learn from God, but at the same time recognize that God will use other things to teach us. Wisdom cries out in the streets. Open your eyes and you can learn about what is true, and when you are learning more about what is true you will be learning more about God and more about what God wants you to know.

Paul learned from the Lord Jesus, but he also learned from other people. You can learn something from everyone in the world. You can learn from their failures as well as their successes. You can learn from their experiences, as well as from the things that they have studied. You can learn about life from everyone around you and the more that you understand life, the more that you will understand God: because God created life. That which is seen is a reflection of that which is not seen, because it came from Him who is invisible. Jesus was the best at understanding the true nature of things, and that is why He was the best at taking the simple and common things of life and teaching spiritual lessons from them.

Paul understood a few things, and one of the things that he understood was that even he could learn from other believers. All believers in Jesus have a great equality because of their common sinfulness and common faith in Jesus. The ground is level at the cross. Each believer has Jesus within them and the Holy Spirit within them, and therefore Paul could write to these believers in Rome and say with confidence, "you are full of goodness and filled with all knowledge." Look on the good side. Everyone has some good within them because they were created in the image of God, and especially Christians have good within them because they have Christ within. For the Christian, Christ is our goodness.

Paul also said that the believers in Rome were able to admonish one another. Once you hear something that is true, you can then remind yourself of that true thing as time goes by, and you can also remind other believers. That is one of the abilities that you have as a believer. No one has a monopoly on truth: not even the apostle Paul. It is good that true things be said, and when they are said, they have an impact on the hearers. We are able to admonish one another. One of the essential elements of Christian fellowship is the give and take between Christians as they discuss spiritual truths. God uses such discussions for the building up of faith. Believers are able to do this because of an enabling that has been given to them by God.

In Romans 15:14 the word that is translated "able" is the same word that is translated as "power" in Romans 15:12. Power is an ability to do something. The capability of the Christian to do what God has for them to do comes from the power or the enabling of the Holy Spirit.

In Romans 15:15 Paul said, "Nevertheless, brothers, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God." Paul knew that he could learn from other Christians, but he also knew that they could learn from him. There is a time to listen to others and learn from them, and there is a time to speak to others and for them to learn from you. Paul knew that this was true because of the grace that was given to him from God. When we receive the grace of God, not only do we receive the forgiveness of sins and eternal life as a gift, we also receive spiritual gifts whereby we are able to serve God and do the things for Him for which He has equipped us.

Paul knew the work for which he was equipped. He said in Romans 15:16, "That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the Gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit." Paul was a Jew, but he says that he was especially called to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Romans 15:9-12 quoted several passages from the Jewish scriptures that told of the truth about God being spread to the Gentiles. Paul was one of the first and perhaps the most important individual to take the gospel to the Gentiles. In a way, we are all called to build upon the work that Paul started. His work, of course, was based upon the command that Jesus gave: "Go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."

In the next few verses Paul is going to say that he cannot speak about others or what they did to fulfill the commands of Christ, but he can speak about himself. He knew what he did, or rather what God did through him. It was not bragging; it was the statement of fact. Paul said in Romans 15:17-19, "I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ." You probably know where Jerusalem is. Illyricum was the region to the north and west of Greece, probably in what is today known as Bosnia. It is a distance of many hundreds of miles that Paul criss-crossed by boat and by foot. He did it because it was the will of God for him. He had the dedication and the spiritual wisdom to keep doing it as long as God wanted him to, which turned out to be for the rest of his life.

Paul said that he did what he did, and he accomplished what he accomplished in being a witness for Christ by "the power of the spirit of God." The same phrase was used in Romans 15:13 to point out the means for believers to acquire hope, joy, and peace: the power or the enabling of the Spirit of God. If we have the power of the Spirit, we will have hope, joy, and peace; and we will have boldness to speak the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul did not have radio or television. He did not have an advertising or fund-raising campaign. He did not have the means of transportation that we have today. But he did have the Spirit of God. Some people make a mistake of thinking that they need to copy Paul’s methods; but what they need to copy is his message, and his means. His message was the gospel of Christ: as it is explained in detail in the book of Romans. And his means was the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul had the enabling of the Spirit of God. If you believe in Jesus, you have the same Spirit that Paul had, and therefore the same enabling to do what God wants you to do in spreading the gospel.

It was not Paul’s speaking ability. It was not his intellectual capacity. It was not the amount of money that he had or the way that he dressed. It was the power of the spirit. That was the means. The message was the gospel of Christ. We know that the word "gospel" means "good news". The gospel is a positive message of good news and of hope to those who sit in the shadow of darkness. It is important to remember that the gospel means "good news". It is too easy to become negative. Some people make the mistake of talking too much about the things that they are against, or of talking about the problems in the world. If you talk about what you are in favor of, then people will know what you are against. And if you help to spread the good news in a positive way, then you will be doing the best that can be done to solve the problems of the world.

The Bible translates in Romans 15:19 that Paul said, "I have fully preached the gospel of Christ." Literally it means that he abounded in the gospel of Christ. Paul made a complete fulfillment in his life of doing what he ought to have done and doing what he could have done to spread the gospel of Christ. If you believe in Jesus, you also have been commissioned by God to be a witness for your Savior. Paul forever stands out as a great example of a believer in Jesus, who was not disobedient to the heavenly calling. Some day you will give an answer to God for the things done in your body. You still have time. Will you be able to say that you abounded in the spread of the Gospel of Christ? You can do it by the enabling of His Spirit.

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