Now to him that is able to establish you, according to my glad tidings and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to [the] revelation of [the] mystery, as to which silence has been kept in [the] times of the ages,
Paul ends the letter to the Romans with praise instead of more argument. He points his readers to the One who can make it all stand firm in them — through his gospel, the preaching of Jesus Christ, and a secret kept silent since the world began.
Older translations read "establish" here where the ESV reads "strengthen." Paul opened this letter longing to establish the believers in Rome. At the close he admits the power to do that is not in what he has written.
At the beginning of the letter the apostle tells us that he writes to establish the saints in their relationships with God (1:11). Now, at the close, he admits that the power to establish the saints is not in his letter. It is in the God who alone can apply the truths of the gospel to the soul. So he takes no glory to himself as the writer of the letter. He gives all glory to "Him who is able to establish" according to his gospel.
God establishes a believer by working the gospel into them until it shapes daily life.
You have received the gospel, and you are reminded that God has power to establish you according to it. Every part of it should be worked into your souls in a living way. Then you would really know the deliverance it speaks of, the deliverance God has worked for you. Then you would have a practical, powerful entrance into all the blessing it speaks of.
Romans opens with "the gospel of God" and closes with "my gospel." The two phrases do different work.
"The gospel of God" (Rom. 1:1-17) clearly points to the source of the gospel. "My gospel" (Rom. 16:25) comes in a burst of praise to God. It speaks of a blessed revelation, not developed here, which set the apostle's teaching apart from that of the other apostles. It would be hard to measure our loss if we fail to grasp these two important truths.
Paul names the mystery here but does not explain it.
He does not bring out the mystery in Romans. After finishing the great subject of the righteousness of God, he adds a little word at the close: "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." The revelation of the mystery — he had not brought this in. But he maintains that this gospel of his was according to it. It was not the revelation of it; but it did not clash with it. There was no contradiction; that revelation of the mystery was left for other letters, Ephesians and Colossians in particular.
The mystery reaches far past one person's standing before God.
His preaching of Jesus Christ was according to the revelation of the mystery. That mystery set Christ at the head of all things. It also brought Jews and Gentiles together as one body, with all distinction lost, into union with Him in heaven as Head. This truth left the system of the law entirely aside, though it confirmed the law's authority in its own place. God had kept this secret since the world began, but it was in His counsels before the world was.
The verse says the mystery was "kept secret for long ages." The greatest names of the past knew nothing of it.
It was a very great secret, and the Old Testament neither revealed it nor hid it. God did not disclose it to Abraham, His friend. He did not reveal it to Moses, to whom He made known His ways. David did not know it, and neither did Isaiah or any of the wise men or prophets of ancient days. But "now," says the apostle, it "has been disclosed."
The silence has an end date. Events ended it, not human discovery.
Christ has been crucified, raised, and exalted, and the Holy Spirit has come down from heaven. So the silence of the ages is broken. God has revealed His secret and secured a fit companion for His Son.
The verse names the gospel first and the mystery second. One writer takes that order as the path of growth.
The gospel is preparatory to the mystery. Unless we are established in the truth of the gospel, we cannot rightly go on to the truth of the mystery. Romans 12:5 teaches us that we "are one body in Christ."
The mystery is not optional extra reading:
Romans 16:25 states that two things are necessary for the establishing of Christians: Paul's Gospel; and the truth of the Mystery. Without the knowledge of the Mystery we cannot therefore be established according to God.
- Establish — The power to settle a believer is God's, not the preacher's. Paul ends by handing the glory back to the One who applies truth to the soul.
- Gospel — "My gospel" marks the revelation given to Paul. To be established is to have every part of it worked into daily life.
- Mystery — Christ set as Head over all things, with Jew and Gentile joined to Him as one body — a purpose held in God before the world existed.
- Silence — Abraham, Moses, David and Isaiah were never told it. The silence broke only after the cross, the resurrection, the exaltation of Christ, and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
- Order — Gospel first, then the mystery. Romans establishes the soul; Ephesians and Colossians unfold what Paul here only names.
but [which] has now been made manifest, and by prophetic scriptures, according to commandment of the eternal God, made known for obedience of faith to all the nations --
Paul ends Romans by pointing to something he has hardly touched in the whole letter. A secret was kept quiet through long ages. Now God has brought it into the open and sent it to every nation by His own command.
In this verse, "mystery" means a secret. One writer insists it was not tucked away between the lines of the older Scriptures either. It simply was not there.
In Romans 16 we read that the Mystery was "kept secret since the world began." It was a very great secret, which was neither revealed nor hidden in the Old Testament. God did not disclose it to Abraham, His friend. He did not reveal it to Moses, to whom He made known His ways. David did not know it. Neither did Isaiah, nor any of the wise men or prophets of ancient days.
The letter's opening speaks of a promise God made long before. This verse speaks of something else.
Romans 1:2 does prove that the gospel was promised before by God's prophets; but the difference of phrasing answers to the difference of subject-matter in Romans 16:26. The mystery was hidden, not promised, though now manifested by prophetic scriptures.
So which writings are meant? One commentator points to the letters being written in his own day.
Here he carefully defines the mystery — the secret kept in silence in times of old. It is now made manifest by prophetic scriptures, such as he and the other inspired men of the New Testament were writing. Prophetic scriptures here mean, above all, the New Testament epistles. In them God chose to reveal the mystery of Christ and the church. This stands in sharp contrast with the law and the prophets, the time when the mystery was hidden.
Another writer names the same books and gives his reason. A secret kept until now cannot come to light through books written centuries earlier.
I say the New Testament — for we are told the mystery was kept secret since the world began, and is made manifest now. God had revealed other things before, as we have seen. But the doctrine of the Church, the breaking down of the dividing wall, and the Gentiles being fellow-heirs and of one body — all this was hidden in God (see Eph. 3). It needed a direct revelation, and a new one.
One writer reads Paul's brief mention as a way of stirring up hunger for a truth he only hints at here. He quotes the verse in an older translation.
In this way he would awaken a holy curiosity about what this further truth might be. The reference is brief, but it carries the strongest assertion of authority that I know of in scripture: "According to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith." It was bound to stir in their souls an eager search after this truth.
The verse calls God eternal. One commentator marks a matching change of scope.
The temporal ways of God were bound up with Israel and the earth. The mystery attaches to heaven and eternity, though the message of it is sent out to all the nations.
The revelation has a target. One commentator explains what "obedience of faith" means, and what it does not mean.
Take the soul's submission to the righteousness of God. The Epistle to the Romans calls this "obedience of faith." It does not mean the practical obedience which faith produces in daily life. It means the first act of believing God's word. This is the heart's obedience. It is the person's obeying the truth, the soul's acceptance of God's testimony to His Son. The man who was ungodly until now truly owns it, bows to the word of God, accepts the truth of Christ's person and work, and is justified. So the gospel is preached to all nations — not, as with Israel, for obedience to law, but for the obedience of faith.
The same demand frames the whole letter, first page and last.
It is worth noting how the epistle to the Romans begins and ends. Its opening verses call for obedience to the Gospel when it is preached. Its close says that the "mystery," which concerns Christ and the church, also calls for "the obedience of faith." God reveals all His truth for a purpose. It is not to give us philosophical ideas to entertain our minds. It enters mind and conscience, and leads us into happy obedience.
- Silence. God kept the mystery back. Abraham, Moses, David and Isaiah never knew it. It was hidden, not foretold.
- Speech. God broke the silence through "prophetic writings." Commentators here read these as the New Testament letters. Older books could not publish a secret kept until now.
- Command. God's own command stands behind the disclosure. One writer calls it the strongest claim of authority in Scripture. This truth is not optional reading.
- Reach. God's earlier ways were bound up with Israel and the earth. The mystery belongs to heaven and eternity. Its message goes out to all the nations.
- Response. It all aims at the obedience of faith. The heart first bows to God's testimony about His Son. Then the truth enters mind and conscience and leads into happy obedience.