As we enter into 2025, we are finishing the book of Romans! What a wonderful way to begin the new year. The study of Romans has been an incredible journey for our church and we hope that you have grown closer to Christ through the unfolding of a beautiful and sometimes difficult book!

What Romans does for us, is that it magnifies the glory of God through the gospel. Paul condenses the gospel down to one phrase in phrase in Romans 1:16 and then spends the next 16 chapters of the book unpacking what that means. The book covers faith, belief, the Jews’ and Gentiles' place in salvation, and a wide range of other theological concepts necessary for glorying in the gospel of Christ!

What does it mean to glory in the gospel? It means to stand in awe of the magnificence of God’s plan to save us and to show us our need for righteousness (Romans 1-3) . It also means to rejoice in what God has accomplished through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ and His sacrifice for us (Romans 3-5). It is also to worship God for reconciling sinful humanity to himself through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit (Romans 6-8). To glory in the gospel is to stand in awe of the way God has chosen to use Israel as a light to the Gentiles (Romans 9-11). To glory in the gospel is to behold God’s glory in the daily application of Christ's righteousness to ourselves (Romans 12-15). Finally, to glory in the gospel means to center our lives on what God is doing rather than on our accomplishment (Romans 16).

From beginning to end, Romans is about glorying in the gospel of God. Paul was writing to a church that was divided. Here in chapter 16, Paul draws it all together to remind the church in Rome that it is not about them! Paul presents three themes to his readers in this last portion of his letter to the Romans.

I. Glorying in Gospel Partnership (v. 21-23)

The gospel is not just a message we have to proclaim once and then we can move on. It is not something that we mature beyond needing. The gospel is the power of God, not JUST for salvation but also it is the power that works relationaly day in and day out in the life of the believer to transform them into the image of Christ. 

 One of the most glorious things about the gospel is how it unites believers together in a shared work. Paul mentions Timothy and others as fellow workers or co-laborers in the gospel with him.These men strove together to spread the gospel. We, like Paul and Timothy, share in the work of the gospel with those believers around us. 1 Corinthians 3 is a powerful illustration of the way we work, not only with other believers, but with God to bring the gospel to the world. We are God’s co-workers in the gospel! We are saved by the gospel and then brought in to share that same gospel with God. What an incredible grace!

Partnership reflects God’s design from the beginning. God created us as relational beings. He created animals with pairs and God fulfilled His plan of creating a mate for Adam. Through that match for Adam, He was able to show the relational nature of the Trinity in the way that He created humanity in His image.

The irony of social media is that rather than bringing the world together as it claims to do, it creates and foments divides among people. God created us to be relational beings and He gave us a goal towards which we should all work, the spread of the gospel. God also designed us to grow in our understanding of Him through relation with others. You learn different attributes of God through relationships with others who are also created in God’s image.

God the Father and Jesus had a relationship before the beginning of time. That relationship is built on love and love is central to the Trinity. Love necessitates relationality, you have to know someone to love them. As we grow to know God, we can do nothing but grow in love for Him because of who He is. Jeremiah 9:24 highlights this idea when Jeremiah rejoices that God knows him! Not intellectually, not as a fact, but experientially. God essentially says to Jeremiah, if you are going to boast in anything, boast in the fact that you have known and experienced me! What a glorious expression of God’s goodness that we can know God intimately and relationally! 

This is why ministry and especially gospel ministry is a shared endeavour. God created us to be intentionally relational. In this communal effort, it mirrors the trinitarian nature, as shown in John 17. We need to be wrapped up together with others so we can experience more deeply the way the trinity functions. Jesus exemplifies and emphasizes this idea by establishing that all His labor was a product of co-working within the trinity. We are brought into the work of the trinity and then sent out. Jesus could have come to earth and performed His ministry on His own but that is not God’s intention for Christ, nor for us. 

An excellent example of this is seen in the miracle of the 5 loaves and 2 fish in John 6. The Greek word used in the text to describe the distribution of the fish and the bread is a word that means a deliberate handing over of responsibility. By allowing the disciples and others to work in the distribution of the food to the crowd they got to experience God in a new way. Jesus modeled the relational aspect of the Trinity by including the disciples in the miracle. Another way this was illustrated was in the sending out of the 72 disciples in Luke 10. Jesus brought people in, discipled them, and sent them out in pairs so that these men could be co-workers together in their gospel work. 

If you’ve ever worked with another person, in any capacity, you understand that it can be difficult. There are things that you struggle with that your co-worker may not. There are things that rub you wrong in the personality of the people God has called you to labor with. These are all opportunities to experience a different aspect of God’s character that is reflected in the life of a believer. 

Paul in his relationship with Timothy took a father figure role. Not to fill a void in his life but because God has called us to intimate relationships with the people we are ministry alongside. Timothy was shaped first by the ministry of his mother and grandmother and then by his relationships and ministry with Paul. Timothy then was able to go and influence and minister with those over whom he was a shepherd. It is important to realize in our lives that we have and will make “young” decisions. Use those poor decisions to minister to a fellow believer, help them to learn and grow from your less than wise actions so that they can avoid those same pitfalls and grow even more like Christ! What is your role in gospel partnership? Who are you partnering with? Who is the Timothy in your life and who is the Paul in your life?

The opposite of this relational gospel ministry is pride. When a person refuses to work with others, takes pride in their own work, or seeks out their own benefits that is the exact opposite of how God calls us to work for the gospel. Pride actually stifles the gospel! This is how we get so many false teachers. Men rise up who want the focus to be on themselves rather than on the work of the gospel. 

True gospel focused ministry requires at its core humility. The book of Romans is an incredible example of this. While the book was dictated and authored by Paul, its physical writer was Tertius. Paul, who dealt with various physical ailments was not able to write down what the Holy Spirit was inspiring in him. He partnered with Tertius who was content to stay entirely behind the scenes in this book. It could have been called a letter from Paul AND Tertius to the Romans but Tertius was pleased to be only the ghost writer so that the focus would remain on the work God would do through it. According to Christian tradition, Tertius was one of the 70 sent out by God and he was possibly martyred for his faith. Unseen and seemingly minor contributions matter in the economy of God, 1 Corinthians 15:8. When all parts of the body work together, there is so much more room for rejoicing because of the humble thankfulness that comes from God working through so many individuals.

The final way that we can see that our gospel ministry must be a shared ministry is through the fact that our gospel reach is greatly expanded through generosity as shown by the examples of Gaius and Erastus in Romans 16:23. Gaius, a well-to-do member of the church took care of the church and of Paul in a personally costly way. Gaius went out of his way to care for Paul and God honored that! Central to that kindness Gaius showed was hospitality.  We are to embrace our fellow believers and support their portion of the gospel ministry so that they can be strengthened in their work. This is a way to embody the gospel in our lives.

Similarly, Erastus, a prominent public figure, used his influence as a civil servant to aid in the ministry of the gospel. He used his position to further the gospel by caring for those at home and supporting the ministry of those spread abroad. This was a dangerous choice in a time where Christians were becoming martyrs for their faith. All throughout scripture, we see people who realized that there was no difference in their secular and spiritual work and used all the opportunities God placed in front of them to further the gospel. We see this in the lives of Joseph, Daniel, Peter, Paul, and so many more. Are you using your vocation and gifts for the spreading of the gospel? God expects and requires you to use whatever situation He has placed you in to further the gospel. His message will always go out, are you working to be a part of spreading that message?

II. Glorying in the Power and Purpose of the Gospel (v.25–26)

In this final section of Romans 16 we see Paul going full circle in his doxology by highlighting the glory of God. Paul declared in the beginning of the book of Romans that the gospel is the power of God for salvation. The gospel that Paul was a steward of in this verse is not just about God’s power, its not a source of power we can tap into. The gospel ITSELF is the power of God unto salvation because it saves people. When we apply this gospel to our daily lives we then have the same power that was able to save us flowing through our lives.

Oftentimes, we deny that power in our lives by shrinking back from  opportunities to share that gospel power in our lives. We forget that God will sustain us in our efforts to share His message. Once God has saved you, He will set you up in a way that you cannot be knocked over by any forces, even those who seek to destroy the gospel. There will still be struggles and sins we wrestle with but the gospel will sustain us and keep us steadfast in the labor. We preach the gospel to the unbelievers so that they will hear and be saved and we preach to ourselves to remind our hearts that awe have been justified and are being sanctified. The gospel is not a one off message but something that we must embody every day. 

Paul’s doxology then is a call to glory in the  way that the gospel’s power will continue to sustain us all the way to the end! Romans has taught us that the mysterious power of the gospel should amaze us! The mystery now revealed is that God himself became human for us so that we can be made to be relationally right with Him! That God would tabernacle with us, both Jew and Gentile! Israel stood in awe that God chose to work in the hearts of the Gentiles so that the nations of the world could come to life in and through Him!

The coming together of gospel partnership with the glory of the gospel ties the whole book of Romans together. The point of the gospel is to bring people into obedience to God. Through our partnership with others in the gospel, we get to work with God to bring more people into His kingdom and therefore bring Him more glory. What a most wonderful, joyous task we GET to be a part of alongside our brothers and sisters, co-laborers, in Christ!