Romans Part 51 – Romans 16:25-27
Verse 25
• “Now to him that is of power” – Paul is speaking of God, this sentence is a praise to God.
• “to stablish you” – ‘Stablish’ is different than ‘establish’ – Establish means to start something. Stablish means to build up what has already been started.
• “according to my gospel” – The one given to Paul – Gal 1:11-12, 1Cor 9:17, Col 1:25, 1Tim 1:11.
• Notice the personal pronoun – “my gospel” – this is to distinguish it from the gospel that was preached before by the 12 – Gal 2:6-7, 1Cor 15:1-4, Luke 9:1-6, 18:31-34.
• The gospel Paul preached was a mystery – Eph 6:19, Col 4:3, 1Cor 2:7-8, 2Tim 2:8
• If this gospel was first given to Paul, who wasn’t saved until Acts 9, how could the church (body of Christ) have begun before that point if the gospel whereby members of the church are saved was not yet known or being preached?
• “and the preaching of Jesus Christ” – For you to be stablished you have to be founded on Jesus Christ, the Christ of the scriptures – 1Cor 3:10-11
• “according to the revelation of the mystery” – How Christ is preached matters. We preach him today according to the revelation of the mystery, as head of the Body – Eph 1:17-23, 5:23, Col 1:18. He is not ruling on earth today – Matt 4:8-11, Gal 1:4, Eph 2:2. That is still future Rev 21.
• There are other ways to preach Jesus – 2Cor 11:3-4, 1Tim 1:3 - Islam, JW, other religions all preach a Jesus. We not only to preach the right Jesus, but preach Jesus according to what he is doing today – Jesus in his earthly ministry was under the law – Gal 4:4, Luke 2:21, Matt19:16-30, 23:1-3, Rom 15:8 is past – 2Cor 5:16, Rom 6:14, Gal 5:1-3, Col 2:8-10.
• “which was kept secret since the world began” – Compare to what Peter says in Acts 3:19-21, Acts 3 is after Matt 25:34, Luke 1:70, Luke 24:25-27, 44-46. This is why Peter says - 2Peter 3:15-16.
• God had a plan before the foundation of the world that he kept secret until due time – 1Cor 2:7-8, Eph 1:3-6, 3:8-9, Rom 5:6, 1Cor 15:8, 1Tim 2:6, Titus 1:3.
Verse 26
• “but now is made manifest” – Through Paul – Eph 3:1-9, Col 1:25-29, 2Tim 1:8-11.
• “and by the scriptures of the prophets” – Stablished by all scripture – 2Tim 3:16-17. The Jesus of the mystery is the same one in prophecy. It is important to know what God has done, and what he will do. You need all scripture to know this.
• “according to the commandment of the everlasting God” – compare 1Cor 7:6,25, 2Cor 8:8 to 1Tim 1:1, Titus 1:1-3, 2:11-15 – Paul was an ordained apostle of God commanded to preach this gospel to all – 1Cor 9:16, Col 1:5-6, 23, Eph 3:8-9
• “made known to all nations for the obedience of faith” – It is the obedience of faith, not works. In time past works were required and the man of faith did them – Heb 11, James 2:14-26. But now, no works are required, only faith in Christ work. So the man of faith does not try to do works to justify himself – Eph 2:8-9, Rom 4:5
Verse 27
• “to God only wise” – The wisdoms of God to keep his purpose a mystery and then to save the chief persecutor of the Jewish believers and commission him to proclaim this mystery purpose simply showcases the wisdom and power that God has – Rom 11:33-36
• “be glory through Jesus Christ for ever” – There is a plan to do this in Christ through resurrection – Eph 1:10-12, 2Thess 2:13-14.
• “amen” – Truly, so be it
Correction from last week on the “amens” I said there were 4 and I meant by that that there were 4 in the closing verses of the book. However, there are 7 in the whole book – 1:25, 9:5, 11:36, 15:33, 16:20, 16:24, 16:27. This gives even less credibility to the Acts 28ers theory that verses 25-27 were added when Paul was in Rome after the Acts period.
