Romans 16:25-27 - Strength For The Waiting

Introduction

I have a good friend who likes to post pictures on Facebook every week as he heads off to church, and he always ends his post the same way: “I’m off to hear the Gospel”. That is a wonderful way to talk about what church is, and what worship is—it is hearing the Gospel. I like that way of saying it because it challenges one of the unspoken assumptions that can slip into our thinking about our life together as a church, and our Christian walk.

Sometimes we get into the habit of thinking that “the Gospel” (from the Old English, “godspell”, meaning “good news”—the good news that Jesus Christ, the righteous one, died for our sins and rose again, eternally triumphant over all his enemies, so that there is now no condemnation, but everlasting joy, for those who trust him—we get into the habit of thinking that that message is a sort of “entry-level” truth. That you enter the Christian life by hearing and believing “the Gospel”, and then as you grow in your spiritual life you move on to other, more advanced theological truths. You “hear the Gospel” in an evangelistic meeting for unsaved people so they can get saved, and then once they’ve “believed the Gospel”they move on from it to studying deeper things in the Christian life.

But my friend is right—every time you go to church, you are going (or you should be going) to a place where you will hear this Gospel. This is backed up by what Paul writes here in our verses—he has just spent sixteen glorious, weighty, complex and densely-packed chapters in the book of Romans delving into the depths and heights of what “the Gospel” is and what it means for the world. And as he sums all of it up here at the end, he says that it is this Gospel that God uses to strengthen His people: “Now to Him who is able to strengthen you according to my Gospel...”

The fact is, Christian, you never outgrow the Gospel! Everything that you learn in your Christian life, every piece of theology that you study, every pastoral application of the Scriptures to your life, everything that is taught from the nursery up through the adult class in Sunday School—all of it—comes back to this Good News of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ to save sinners by faith from the penalty and power of their sin. Everything in the life and learning and worship of a Christian flows back to the Good News of Jesus Christ. So going to church every Sunday is, at its essence, going to “hear the Gospel!”

Verse 25 points out a particular benefit that we receive from “hearing the Gospel”—God is able to strengthen us according to the Gospel. The word for “strengthen” here is translated “establish” in other versions—the sense behind the word is to “fix” or “make fast” or “set”. Think of setting a post in the ground, where you dig down below the frost line and set a good thick stone at the bottom and pour in concrete so that the post will stay put no matter what.

Now, let me ask you—look around at the storms that are brewing around you right now in our nation and in our cultural attitudes towards God’s Word and God’s people. Do you want to be strengthened like that? Do you want to be established so that when (not if) those storms break on your life they won’t knock you over? Do you want to have the strength to stand up to threats against your livelihood, your social standing, your religious liberties? When the day comes when this church is targeted for discrimination lawsuits or accused of bigotry in the press, when we have to organize a work party to clean graffiti off the walls, or when you come out and find your car has been keyed because it’s parked at this church—where are you going to find the strength to stand as a Christian?

In our Advent series this year we have been considering what Jesus’ first Advent teaches us about how to wait for His second Advent—His Second Coming. And so what I want us to see this morning from these verses is that

The GOSPEL of Jesus Christ is the source of your STRENGTH as you wait for His RETURN

I want us to see that there are at least three ways that we are strengthened by the Gospel in these verses. First, we see at the beginning of verse 25 that we are strengthened

I. As the Gospel is PREACHED to you (Romans 16:25a)

Look again at the first part of verse 25—Paul says that God is “able to strengthen you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ”. Now, at first glance it sounds like Paul is saying that there are two separate things that strengthen us—”the Gospel”, and “the preaching of Jesus Christ”. But the Greek word here can be translated “and”, “even” or “also”—in this context I think the best reading is to say that “God is able to strengthen you according to my Gospel, even the preaching of Jesus Christ”.

In other words, God strengthens us according to the Gospel, which is the preaching of Christ. The proclamation of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins is the Gospel, and it strengthens the ones who hear that proclamation. As this Gospel is preached to you, Christian, it strengthens you because it reminds you that

You live GUILTLESS in a world that runs on GUILT (1 Timothy 1:15; Romans 8:33-34)

More than ever before, we are living in a time when the primary weapon our society wields against each other is guilt. A group of Spanish teachers decide to wear sombreros for their faculty picture in a high school yearbook and are excoriated for being culturally insensitive. A celebrity puts out a tweet about how the transgender movement is destroying women’s sports and all her books get burned and she is buried under death threats. The world runs on assigning guilt and then destroying the guilty.

But what does the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ remind you, Christian?

Romans 8:1 ESV

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Because as Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:

1 Timothy 1:15 ESV

15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

You are strengthened in the preaching of the Gospel to withstand all of the accusations hurled against you for your faith—they can call you a bigot and a homophobe and a racist and an ignorant religious extremist, but none of it can stick because you stand guiltless before God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The Gospel is at the very core of our freedom from guilt:

Romans 8:33–34 ESV

33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

You stand strengthened in the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached to you because it reminds you that you live guiltless in a world that runs on guilt. And

You live as IMMORTAL in a world that is DYING (1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 50-53)

You are strengthened, Christian, by the knowledge that death no longer has any sting for you because Jesus Christ came to conquer death once and for all!

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 ESV

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

And because He died and rose again, we will rise again:

1 Corinthians 15:53–57 ESV

53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Again—do you see how the Gospel runs through the very core of your hope? I remember seeing an article a while back from some government agency complaining to the effect that evangelical Christians are a problem in fighting the pandemic because they were insufficiently afraid of the virus! That they were more likely to spend time in close contact with people and take “risks” because of their (ridiculous) belief in life after death! Well… yes, as a matter of fact! In 1854, just as Charles Spurgeon began his pulpit ministry in London, a deadly cholera outbreak ravaged the neighborhood of Broad Street just across the River Thames. Spurgeon said,

“[A Christian] can walk through the cholera and the pestilence, and feel that should the arrow smite him, death would be the entrance of life; he can lie down and grieve but little a the approach of dissolution, for he has all his salvation; his jewels are in his breast, gems which shall shine in Heaven”.

Christian, you are strengthened by the preaching of Christ in the Gospel—you live immortal in a world that is dying, you live guiltless in a world that runs on guilt!

The Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is your strength, Christian, while you wait for His return. It strengthens you as it is preached to you, and you are strengthened

II. As the Gospel is REVEALED to the nations (Romans 16:25b-26)

Look at the next part of our text—Paul goes on to say that we are strengthened “according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed” (vv. 25b-26a). The mystery of salvation through Jesus Christ was “wrapped up in silence from all eternity” (Matthew Henry). It was the grand mystery of the Old Testament—how could God simultaneously be righteous (punishing all sin) and merciful (forgiving sin)? How could guilty sinners be given a right standing before God? Throughout the Old Testament there are glimpses of what God would do, but they were just that—glimpses, hints, allusions to some great plan of redemption that none of the Old Testament saints could ever see clearly.

Even in the Gospels we see Jesus explicitly telling His disciples that He was going to die on the cross for the forgiveness of sins—but they simply couldn’t get it! In Mark’s Gospel, for instance, Jesus said,

Mark 8:31–32 ESV

31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But now, Paul says, after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Gospel has been disclosed—the mystery has been revealed. And surely part of the strength that gives you Christian, is that now that the Gospel has been revealed

It cannot be COVERED UP by the WORLD (Malachi 4:2)

Do you get that? If God Himself has revealed this Gospel, this Good News of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation by faith of all who come to Him, then no amount of opposition by this world can hide it again! The Gospel can no more be pushed back down into hiding any more than the Sun can be stopped from rising! The Old Testament prophet Malachi wrote of Christ’s coming,

Malachi 4:2 ESV

2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

And Paul says in Ephesians 3:9-10 that he was given grace to preach the Gospel

Ephesians 3:9–10 ESV

9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

The message of the Gospel is the message of the brilliant sunlight that streams through the bedroom window making it impossible to stay asleep:

Ephesians 5:13–14 ESV

13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

You are strengthened in this, Christian: You live in a world where Jesus Christ has risen again from the dead and now reigns in the power of that resurrection over all the world! And the world cannot go back to a time when Christ has not risen! The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the fundamental reality of this world, and the world cannot cover it up!

Paul goes on to say that this revelation was disclosed and “through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations”—the Gospel cannot be covered up by the world and

It cannot be CLEARER in the SCRIPTURES (Isaiah 53)

This Gospel of Jesus Christ was a mystery hidden from eternity past—the Old Testament Scriptures were full of dark hints, allusions, dim glimpses of a salvation that was to come. But now, Paul says, with the light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ shining on them, the fulness of the Gospel message pours out from every page of the Old Testament prophecies about Christ! One scholar, Alfred Edersheim, once stated that there were over 450 Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus!

Earlier this fall when our friend Mottel Baleston visited, he talked about how he will often read Isaiah 53 to one of his Jewish friends and ask them what it is talking about—invariably they will answer that it is part of the Christian Scriptures that talks about Jesus Christ! This is what Paul is saying here in Romans 16—that the ancient prophecies about the coming of salvation through Jesus Christ used to be difficult and hard to grasp, but now they clearly reveal Jesus to the world! Christian, you have immense power to make this Gospel known—not just to one people, but to all peoples everywhere—because you have this Book! These prophetic writings are the means by which God will make the Gospel known, and when you use this Book, you have immense power to reveal Jesus Christ!

The Good News of Jesus Christ is your source of strength as you wait for His return—as it is preached to you, as it is revealed to the nations, and

III. As the Gospel TRIUMPHS throughout the world (Romans 16:26b-27)

Look at how Paul finishes in these verses—that the Gospel has been revealed through the Scriptures to all nations “according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of the faith...” You are strengthened in this Gospel, Christian, when you see that it

Brings about FAITHFUL OBEDIENCE to God (Romans 16:26b)

God has commanded the Gospel to go forth so that the result would be faithful obedience from the nations—and what God commands always takes place. As Matthew Henry puts it, “The Gospel is revealed, not to be talked of and disputed about, but to be submitted to!” Jesus told His disciples at the end of Matthew’s Gospel to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19)—to “teach them to observe (obey) all that I have commanded”. God has not set the Gospel out before the world in order for it to be ignored or disregarded or disputed—He has sent it out to be obeyed, and the eternal God over all Creation will have His way!

Take strength from this, Christian—you may look around you and see a world that is raging and screaming and lashing out in hatred and rejection of this Gospel, but it is the raging of a Beast that knows its time is short (Rev. 12:12)! The eternal God has commanded the obedience of faith—and that means that there will be the obedience of faith! Some will rage, some will hate, some will lash out—but many will repent! You can stand strong in these days, Christian, because the God who strengthens you by His Gospel is the God who brings about obedience to His Gospel! So don’t flinch before the threats and curses of a world order that is passing away, that will someday be swept away once and for all—because the Gospel that strengthens you is the Gospel that will bring about faithful obedience according to the command of God!

Be strengthened as the Gospel triumphs throughout the world—as it brings about faithful obedience here in this world, and as it

Brings about ETERNAL GLORY through Jesus Christ (Romans 16:27)

In the last verse of our passage (and of the Book of Romans), Paul brings it all down to the main point of these verses—the glory of God:

Romans 16:27 ESV

27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

These verses of our text taken together are what is usually referred to as a “doxology”—literally, a “word of glory”. When we sing the “Doxology” as part of our worship service, we are singing to the glory of God: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise Him all creatures here below; praise Him above ye heavenly host; praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Amen.” We sing that doxology just before the sermon as a way of setting off the preaching of the Gospel of Christ as a distinctly glorious part of our worship service. This is the way “doxologies” are used in the Bible—often at the end of a book, and sometimes (as in Romans 11:36; Ephesians 3:20-21) as a way of marking a climactic expression of God’s glory in the middle of a book.

So here at the end of Romans, Paul is saying that the God who planned this revelation of the mystery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for salvation for the whole world is all wise, and eternally worthy of praise. This Gospel, Christian, does not only strengthen you to stand firm in this present life, but will also be the source of your eternal praise and glory and worship of God throughout the life to come! The Gospel strengthens you to wait for the return of Christ, and this same Gospel will be your eternal strength to glorify Him forever in Heaven!

Christian, do you want to have the strength to stand firm, to be established and set for the storms that are coming your way? Then put yourself under the hearing of the Gospel! God has ordained that the preaching of Jesus Christ, the declaration of His death, burial and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins by faith is what will strengthen you to stand in the days to come. Take in the proclamation of this Gospel reminding you that you are guiltless in a world that runs on guilt, that you are immortal in a world that is dying.

This Gospel cannot be covered up by the world—this world cannot go back to a time when Christ has not risen from the dead, and that Son Rise will continue until the full Day has dawned and the knowledge of the Glory of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). The Scriptures that you hold in your hand are powerful to reveal the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ to everyone you meet, and there is no argument or lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God that will not be destroyed by the power of God’s Spirit working through His Word to “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

God has set this Gospel loose on this world to bring about the obedience of faith—He will have the obedience of this world through the Gospel, and He will have eternal glory through Jesus Christ! The trials and afflictions and ridicule and mockery and threats that come your way may be the cross that you are being called to bear in these days—but

A cross inside the heart is one of the sweetest cures for a cross on the back. If you have a cross in your heart—Christ crucified in you—all the cross of this world’s troubles will seem to you light enough, and you will easily be able to sustain it (Charles Spurgeon)

So be strengthened by this Gospel as you wait—be strengthened to share it, be strengthened to stand firm in it, be strengthened as you see it triumph in the lives of the people who hear it, be strengthened to glorify God throughout this life and for eternity in the life to come through your Savior Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Romans 16:25–27 ESV

25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

How does the Gospel strengthen you to stand against the accusations of guilt that this world tries to throw at Christians? Read Romans 8:1 again—how does this Gospel-truth give you strength to stand against so-called “cancel culture”?

Look at Romans 16:25-26. Paul says over and over that the Gospel was revealed and disclosed and made known. If God has so decisively revealed the Gospel, how successful can the world be in pretending that Jesus never rose from the dead? How does this truth strengthen you to stand for the Gospel in your world?

Think of someone you know who does not know Christ as Savior. How do these verses encourage you to pray that God will “bring about the obedience of faith” in their life? Take some time to pray for them by name this week.