Sermon XVII. The divine power of the gospel.1
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” — Rom. i. 16.
The preceding verses of this chapterThe contain a declaration of the person who wrote this epistle, the apostolical authority wherewith it was wrote, and a gracious salutation of them to whom it was wrote. This verse makes an entrance upon the main subject-matter designed to be treated on in the whole epistle; so that it is the centre of this glorious part of the Scripture, wherein the first general part of it doth issue, and whereon the remaining part depends.
The church at Rome was planted some while before; but it is altogether uncertain by whom. The wisdom of God foreseeing what abuses would be made of the foundation of that church, hath hid it quite from us. There is nothing in Scripture, nothing in antiquity to intimate by whom the faith was there first preached. Probably it was by some believers of the Circumcision; whence those disputes arose and contentions about the observation of Judaical ceremonies, which the apostle handles and determines, chap. xiv., xv. of this epistle. Hearing of their faith, our apostle — upon whom, as he saith, “was the care of all the churches,” and to whom “the ministry of the Uncircumcision was in an especial manner committed,” Gal. ii. 7, 8 — writes this epistle to them, to instruct them in the mystery of the gospel, and confirm them in the faith thereof, and in the worship of God required therein.
To give weight to what he wrote, and commend it to their consideration, he acquaints them with that love and care he had for them, answerable to his duty, from whence it did proceed; telling them, verses 14, 15, that “he was debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So that as much as in him was, he was ready to preach the gospel to them that were at Rome also.” And hereby he prevented a prejudice and jealousy that might possess their minds, and answers an objection they might make to him about his writing. For they might say in themselves, “What makes him, a stranger, at so great a distance, interpose in our concerns? Doth he not ‘stretch himself beyond his measure,’ or ‘boast himself in another man’s line?’ ” — which he affirms in another place he did not; for he was charged with such things. His zeal carrying him out to act for the gospel in a peculiar manner, he was charged to “exceed his measure,” and “boast in another man’s line.” To obviate this, he tells them, “No; I do nothing but what becomes an honest man, discharging a debt the Lord Jesus Christ hath laid upon me by virtue of my call to my office, and my susception of it. ‘I am debtor to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; to the wise, and to the unwise.’ I am called,” saith he, “to preach the gospel to all sorts of people under heaven; my commission is to ‘go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,’ ” Mark xvi. 15, — that is, as expounded, Matt. xxviii. 19, “to all nations,” persons of all nations, — “as I have opportunity.” Our Lord Jesus Christ, out of his love and care unto them whom he had redeemed with his blood, that they might be saved, had given the apostles to be theirs, — “All things are yours; Paul is yours, Apollos is yours,” — and charged them to preach the gospel to them; so that, Acts xx. 26, 27, he saith, “Now I am free from the blood of all men.” How doth he prove it? “I have not shunned to declare to them the whole counsel of God.” He frees himself from any surmise that they might have that he had a design of his own, and sought some advantage to himself in thus interposing in the concerns of the gospel, by telling them he doth but discharge a debt. “I am a debtor,” saith he. And it is truly and really the wisdom of those who, in their several spheres, have the dispensation of the gospel committed unto them, to let the people know that they need not absolutely, whatsoever they do consequentially, count themselves beholden to them for preaching the word; but that, indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ hath engaged us in a debt: which if in his name we pay and discharge, we are sure of a reward; if not, he will require it at our hands. We owe the preaching of the gospel to them that are willing to hear it; and if, upon any account, we withhold it from them, we do defraud them. “I am debtor,” saith the apostle. And every one that receiveth the gift and call from Christ is a debtor, and so should esteem himself. “I have done nothing,” saith he, “but engaged in the discharge of the debt which I owe to the souls of men.”