Romans 15:7-13, “Christian Unity Rejoices in Hope!”

Romans 15:7... We are to accept one another just as Christ accepted us. The

word translated accept means to receive or welcome someone to yourself by showing them special care, concern and kindness.

In Acts 28:2, Paul had shipwrecked near Malta, where he says, “The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed [accepted] us all because it was raining and cold.”

Paul wrote his dear friend Philemon (v. 17), asking him to receive [accept] back his runaway slave Onesimus, as if it were Paul himself being welcomed.

In Romans 14:1 Paul exhorts us to accept one another without passing judgement on each other’s personal opinions, individual freedoms, or religious liberties.

Paul does not designate here (v. 7), if he is talking about the strong and weak, or Jew and Gentile believers; but that we ought to welcome each other with love and kindness, just as Christ accepted us. Jesus is our example, the purpose is to bring praise and glory to God.

Jesus showed no partiality but instead said (Matthew 11:28), “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Remember when He was raised up on the cross (Luke 23:34), Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” He was speaking on behalf of both Jew and Gentile for the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus accepts sinners, all sinners who repent, and He does so while we are still sinners (Romans 5:8), that is the reason He came, as Paul declared in 1Timothy 1:15, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”

In Matthew 9, Jesus is having dinner at Matthew’s house with both tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees were put off by this and asked Jesus’ disciples why He did such a thing. Jesus overheard and answered (vv. 12-13), “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick... I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Peter finally learned this sovereign truth and expressed it in Acts 10:34-35, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right.”

All this is done for the glory of God, and although Jesus Christ was fully man, He was also fully God, and so He receives us unto Himself for His own glory, as well as for the glory of the Father (Philippians 2:9-11), “Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Romans 15:8-12... Do you see? It has always been God’s plan for both Jew and Gentile, for people from all nations, to come to salvation, be born into God’s family, and spend eternity in heaven with Him.

So far, in the Book of Romans, we have seen this repeatedly made clear (Romans 1:1-5; 13-16; 3:29-30; 10:12-13; 11:11-14). God’s plan all along was to save both Jew and Gentile, without favoritism.

Jesus was born a Jew, He came not only to testify to the truth of the OT Scriptures (Matthew 5:17),”but to fulfill them,” all that is written in the Law and the Prophets; for He is the Lord of both Jew and Gentile.

All believers, Jew and Gentile alike, will praise God for His sovereign and eternal Truth, which has come to us through Christ, who is the Truth - and has been revealed in God’s Word, which is the Word of Truth - by way of God’s Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth - so that we might, as children of God (children of the Truth), continue to speak, live by, and proclaim the Truth of God in Christ.

God foretold His plan to the Prophets - that He would save the Gentiles. In verse 9, Paul quotes Psalm 18:49; 2Samuel 22:50; in verse 10 he quotes Deuteronomy 32:43; in verse 11 he quotes Psalm 117:1, and in verse 12 he quotes Isaiah 11:10 (which is clearly talking about the Messiah, who existed before the time of David’s father Jesse, yet He would come after the time of David, in the future; and He will rule over all the nations (David’s family was from Bethlehem (city of David, Christ’s ancestry from Abraham>David>Joseph & Mary, Micah 5:2, “out of you (Bethlehem) will come for Me One who will be ruler over Israel, Whose origins are from of old, from ancient times (from the days of eternity).

This One who will come as KING of Kings, and LORD of Lords, will be Ruler over the whole world; both the Jews and the Gentiles will find their hope in Him, as has already been testified in the Scriptures by David, Samuel, Moses, and Isaiah.

Ephesians 4:4-6 proclaims the glorious unity that we have as Christians, for “there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
1Peter 1:3-5, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”

In chapters 14 and 15 of Romans Paul speaks of unity within the fellowship of believers - among the strong and weak, the Jew and the Gentile - for there is an internal and external unity among those who belong to God, all those who hope in Christ are unified in Him.

Romans 15:13... Paul’s benediction is a prayer for God to fill us with His divine joy and peace, that as one people we might overflow with the hope that we have in Christ, which is made effectual by the Holy Spirit.

Christians are the only people who have a reason to rejoice, and this is solely because of the blessed hope we have in Christ the Lord: crucified, resurrected, and coming again to take us to be with Him in heaven forever.

Pastor Mike <‘(((><