04.51. LESSON 51

LESSON 51

"Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem, saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome" (Acts 19:21). Here is a glimpse of the lure distant places held for Paul about the time he wrote Romans, some three years before he went to Rome as a prisoner. Though often seemingly dead, yet three living years packed full of unpredictable pivotal, dramatic adventure, "Passing strange... by flood and field." Were Paul’s Prayers Answered?

Paul besought his brethren in Rome to pray with him for two things: that the Jewish saints might accept the Gentile offering, and that he might be delivered from disobedient men in Judea (Romans 15:31). His visit to Rome is so linked with these petitions that it is virtually a third petition. Were these petitions granted? The narrative in Acts 21:1-40, Acts 22:1-30, Acts 23:1-35 implies that the gift was accepted, and tells the story of Paul’s deliverance from disobedient men and voyage to Rome. Note that the prayer does not contemplate Christian’s exercising their independent wills to shape the future and to direct their own lives, but that all things are referred to the overruling, sovereign "will of God" (James 4:13-15).

After the Jews with murderous intent dragged Paul out of the Temple, the Romans rescued and held him prisoner in Palestine two years. After this delay, Paul despairing of trial there appealed to Caesar, and was taken as a prisoner in chains to Rome, where his imprisonment continued another two years. In his writing during this latter period, Paul interprets these seemingly barren years as follows: "These things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the progress of the gospel; so that my bonds became manifest in Christ throughout the whole Praetorian guard, and to all the rest; and that most of the brethren in the Lord, being confident through my bonds, are more abundantly bold to speak the word of God without fear" (Php 1:12-14) If God’s intervention, though delaying, probably cancelling, his long-cherished plan of evangelizing the West, and though subjecting him to extreme shame and failure, but increase the harvest of souls, Paul, no matter what happens to him personally, is grateful and cooperative. Would not any other reaction mean that he repudiated the fundamental doctrine of God’s infallible providence, and raise the searching question of the reality of his conversion, loyalty and devotion to God at all?

According to the book of Acts, many things occurred during Paul’s imprisonment in Palestine and voyage to Rome that seemed to blast all hope of his prayers ever being answered, or of his ever seeing Rome. But the disobedient, stubborn Jews have been thwarted, and he is in Rome! As be views it all with Christian insight and hindsight, he sees divine purpose and overruling providence threaded through his many perils, sad delays, bitter disappointments, and crushed hopes. The removal of a single woof would spoil the whole tapestry. In his own perfect, inscrutable way, God has answered his prayers, and given him Caesar’s large bodyguard (some 10,000 men) and household, and "all the rest" as an undreamed of, ideal radiating center from which to sound out the gospel to the whole Roman world—the very method of spreading Christianity which he has preferred and used for many years. Foresight? Though his future is very uncertain, Paul feels no foreboding anxiety. If his long-delayed trial results in his death, he will go to be with Christ which is indeed "very far better" (Php 1:23). In this manner, he interprets the, humanly speaking, whole tragic story, and, as Joseph said to his brothers, he says to all apparent opposition, "You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good." Men of God learn to see that the free, eternal, personal God is the prime Cause, central Pivot, and final Arbiter of all history; hence second causes do not upset them. They do not fluctuate with the ups and downs of personal or racial life. Paul never writes about doing the best he can "under the circumstances," for he is always on top of circumstances.

Most probably Paul’s long incarceration ended in his acquittal, and a few more years of freedom. Did he go to Spain? We can never know, at least in this world, but, to his everlasting praise, he started. "Low aim, not failure, is crime." Lack of spiritual vision and Christian purpose in us must grieve God and Christ and the Spirit most deeply. A second arrest and trial ended in Paul’s execution. During an interval between two stages of this trial, apparently, he wrote his "Swan Song:" "I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come... At my first defense, no man took my part, but all forsook me... But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me; that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will save me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be the glory for ever and ever" (2 Timothy 4:1-22). With this, compare what Martin Luther wrote shortly before his death: "Aged, worn out, weary, spiritless, and now almost blind in one eye, I long for a little rest and quietness. I am weary of the world and the world is weary of me." Of all men, surely, Paul best answers Christ’s prayer that his disciples be neither overcome by the world nor taken out of it until their work is done (John 17:15). In Paul, more than in others, do the reality and nearness of the gracious Father, the greatness of life, and the meaning of death stand demonstrated. Who ever got so much out of Christ as did Paul? He took no "trek into the shadows." We can but bless God for moving him to write his Christian autobiography that we and our children may learn to imitate him as he imitated Christ. Christ does not get old and weak, and Christians who live upon him, as they profess to do in the Lord’s Supper, need not. As on each successive floor when one ascends to the top of some lofty building the horizon is wider, the sunlight brighter, and distant objects clearer and nearer, life should be to Christians. To them, life is not a landlocked lake enclosed by a shore line of a few years.

Paul’s prayers were more than answered, because he simply and honestly made his requests to God and left Him really free to make changes which would better enable him to answer according to his own infinite wisdom, power, and goodness. He actually prayed in the name of Christ, for he had no desires and made no prayers that Christ could not countersign. Is it not astounding to see Christians and their families living lives that involve "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life," even as worldlings do, yet saying that they are following God because they have "prayed" for guidance? What does this lack of taking the name of God in vain, and of being blasphemous?

Questions