Day 30 Paul’s Priestly Ministry
I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. I have written you quite boldly on some points as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God Romans 15:14-17
After the exposition of chapters 1 to 11 and the following exhortation of 12:1 to 15:13, Paul’s first readers might have thought the benedictions of 15:5 and 15:13 were the letter’s conclusion. But the apostle wants to return to his relationship to the Roman church which he began in 1:8-13. He wants them to feel confident in his ministry and understand both why he hasn’t visited them in the past and why he intends to visit them in the future.
But before this can be addressed, another issue needs to be brought to the fore. Paul seems to be experiencing a twinge of apprehension about how his letter has been received. Has he been presumptuous to address a church he neither founded nor has visited? Has he given the impression that he considers their Christianity defective and immature? If so, he would be really hoping what comes next will disarm and reassure them. So he opens his heart about his past, present and future and asks humbly for their prayer covering.
Paul begins expressing his confidence in the Roman Christians. ‘I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another’ (15:14). The word for ‘goodness’ was used for moral goodness of any kind. Paul knows he is not writing to a novice community or to a deeply sinful one, but to one that both knows and practices the faith.
He gives two reasons for writing ‘quite boldly on some points’ (15:15). First, ‘to remind you of (these points) again’ (15:15). The apostles recognised they had been entrusted with the task of ‘formulating’ the gospel and so laying the foundations of the faith. They found themselves often reminding the churches of the original message and calling them back to it (1 Corinthians 15:1ff; Philippians 3:1ff; Hebrews 2:1; 2 Peter 1:12ff; 3:1; 1 John 2:21ff; Jude 3). Secondly, ‘because of the grace God gave me 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles’ (15:5,6). Although he didn’t found the church in Rome, Paul had authority to teach its members because of his special calling, by God’s grace alone, to be the apostle to the Gentiles.
In 15:16-22 Paul will explain the nature of his ministry, highlighting three features. We begin here with the first.
(1) it is a priestly ministry (15:16,17)
He calls himself ‘a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit’ (15:16). Although the word translated ‘minister’ usually meant a public servant (as in 13:6), in biblical literature both the noun and verb are used exclusively of religious, ritual service. In the New Testament they are applied both to the Jewish priesthood (Hebrews 10:11) and of Jesus as the great high priest (Hebrews 8:2). ‘Priestly duty’ was used of those serving as priests, especially in relation to temple sacrifices. The imagery continues with the reference to ‘an offering acceptable to God’ (the common term for sacrifices) and ‘sanctified (used of consecrating sacrifices) by the Holy Spirit.’ Each of these terms, either directly or indirectly, have priestly and sacrificial associations.
Paul sees his missionary work as a priestly ministry because he is able to offer his Gentile converts as living sacrifices to God. Although Gentiles were excluded from the temple in Jerusalem and were not permitted to share in the offering of its sacrifices, through the gospel they themselves become a holy and acceptable offering to God. This significant development fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 66:20 that diaspora Jews (of whom Paul was one), would proclaim God’s glory in distant lands and bring people to Jerusalem from all the nations ‘as an offering to the Lord.’
Because God gave Paul this ministry, he can legitimately ‘glory’ in it (15:17). Glorying or boasting can be wrong when we take credit for any achievement but is a right response when God has done the work (5:2,3,11).
So the first way Paul describes his ministry is as a priestly ministry.