Romans 15: 16-21 the Gospel Spreads Among the Gentiles

Be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation; but as it is written,

“THEY WHO HAD NO NEWS OF HIM SHALL SEE,
AND THEY WHO HAVE NOT HEARD SHALL UNDERSTAND.”

Paul is speaking to his converts in the church to make Christ's name known. These new believers will be as priests to there brothers. The gospel will spread among the gentiles by the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells these Christians. This is not convincing to the cities that Paul visited alone, it is also convincing of the Jews in Jerusalem who are watching the growth of the church and the work of the Holy Spirit with the gentiles. This was hard for some of them to swallow, because they wanted Christ to be for the Jews and even tried to convince Paul to have them accept Judaism as a condition of becoming a Christian. But that is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel says that men can come to him by faith alone, apart from any work of the Law so that whoever believes in the Son shall be saved.

Daily Prayer: Father, the gospel is good news to the hearer. All of our lives, we hear about the bad things we do and the evil in the world. But you did not come to condemn the world, but to save it! For this reason we have every reason to rejoice and to tell all who may not know about the freedom and clear conscience one can have when we identify with Jesus as our means for pleasing God. In your holy name I pray Amen.