The Goal was a Self-Producing Church
I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome Romans 1:14,15
In his letters to the Corinthians Paul gives insights into his evangelism ministry. In 1 Corinthians 3 and 4 he describes his dedication to this ministry, a task that brought him much personal hardship (4:8-13). He concludes with a call for the Corinthians to imitate him (4:16). In 2 Corinthians Paul writes of two practical motivations to share Christ – the fear of the Lord (5:11) and the love of Christ (5:14). A desire to please God in obedience and a desire to bless people with all we have found in Christ should continually impel us.
But another motivation surfaces in Romans as well as in Paul’s other writings (2 Corinthians 4:15) – God’s name and glory. The great apostle saw his apostolic work was ‘for his [Jesus Christ’s] names sake’ (Romans 1:5). In a climactic section of Romans, Paul announces that the inclusion of the Gentiles within the people of God is so that they ‘may glorify God for his mercy’ (15:9). So Paul is persuaded to evangelise out of a sense of obligation derived from what God has done for him and commissioned him to do for others, from an overarching sense to both please God and share His glorious salvation, and from a deep desire that God will be glorified by as great a number of people as possible.
This passage closes with Paul telling the church he is ‘eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome’ (1:15). What does he mean? By definition the church in Rome was composed of Christians so why would he be ‘eager to preach the gospel’ to them? Paul modelled a broad concern throughout his ministry. His initial evangelistic work in towns was usually followed by teaching, exhortation and later visits. Only when a church had reached the point of sufficient maturity (shown in some sense by its ‘self-producing’ nature) did the apostle feel he could move on to other fields. He could well have felt the church was not at that place yet.
The gospel encompasses God’s total provision in Christ for the believer. How many of us even know and understand that total provision, let alone are living in it? We need to constantly come back to the gospel. Like a diamond it shines with magnificent changing hues as we see it from different angles. The Scripture explains our inheritance gained by Christ’s obedience. Read your Bible with a sense of anticipation to understand all that is yours in Christ. Be willing to mark passages that outline the fruits of salvation. Before long your Bible will colour up and so will you.