Advent 4: Epistle, Romans 16:25-27                                      

Romans 16:25-27

It’s daunting when the lectionary points us to just a few verses. Why? Full, abounding, even pregnant are words I usually use to describe small nuggets in the lectionary. And I am never disappointed. This week’s  epistle lesson is just such a morsel. 

Paul writes to the Romans a letter that we all know is concerned with the grand doctrines of salvation in Jesus Christ alone. You almost need to take it apart piece by piece because it is SO full. And yet we need to discipline ourselves to read it, as well as other Scripture, in large tracts that we might “get the entire picture.” More damage has been done to believing people through the practice of teaching or lifting passages out of their context than could be measured. So do read whole gospels, whole letters and large passages of the more lengthy books. It will lead to greater and better understanding.

At the very end of this famed letter Paul blesses the readers/hearers with the grace of Jesus and gives praise to God for the footing that receiving his teaching will give the Christians at Rome. It’s a mystery to most. It’s been around and with God’s people since the very beginning, but most have neither seen nor understood and many will need more months and years to grasp its power and scope. But in verse 26 the apostle points his audience to the place they can find that for which the heart always searches. The venerable King James Version puts it this way: “But now is made manifest, (that mystery we referred to) and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith …” 

Two things. The source of the great mystery is the Lord of glory and its target is all nations. The mystery, the gospel of God the Son dying for poor sinners and rising in triumph over sin, death and hell is from God and for all. It seems simple. In some ways it is and yet think of the ink and blood spilled in its proclamation and defense since the days of the Bible. Oh, one more point: its reception is meant to lead those who do receive it to the “obedience of faith.” A beautiful phrase that is strategically set in this final blessing to remind us that the obedience IS faith. The Scriptures are replete with passage after passage where God calls His people to believe, to trust, to have faith. And not some blind “hope-so faith” that can be driven away by Galilee’s wind, but an “on this rock” variety grounded in the Person of Christ Himself.

From God. For all. What a plan!