Scripture Daily

Context No. 4180 of 4322 · Romans

Context · Reflection

Romans 15:12-21: in context

12Again, Isaiah says, “There will be the root of Jesse, he who arises to rule over the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles will hope.” 13Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit. 14I myself am also persuaded about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish others. 15But I write the more boldly to you in part as reminding you, because of the grace that was given to me by God, 16that I should be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the Good News of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17I have therefore my boasting in Christ Jesus in things pertaining to God. 18For I will not dare to speak of any things except those which Christ worked through me for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed, 19in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of God’s Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and around as far as to Illyricum, I have fully preached the Good News of Christ; 20yes, making it my aim to preach the Good News, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build on another’s foundation. 21But, as it is written, “They will see, to whom no news of him came. They who haven’t heard will understand.”

Paul, having spoken of Christ as the hope of the nations, breaks into a prayer that is itself a blessing: may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. In one sentence, he names God as the source of our hope and asks that we be filled to overflowing with it.

Notice the rich picture of the Christian life packed into this prayer. God is the God of hope, the source and giver of hope; hope does not finally come from our circumstances or our own optimism, but from him. And he fills his people with joy and peace as they trust him, so that they overflow, abound, in hope. This overflowing hope is the work of the Holy Spirit within us, not a mood we manufacture but a gift God gives. In a world that so easily breeds discouragement and despair, God offers something different: a hope that abounds, filled with joy and peace, grounded not in shifting circumstances but in him.

When my hope runs low, do I turn to the God of hope himself, asking to be filled with joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of his Spirit I might abound in a hope grounded not in my circumstances but in him?

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