Romans 16:25 – My Evangel

Now to Him Who is able to establish you { in accord with my Evangel…

Now Paul is going to definitively close his letter by praising the one God, whose glory is central throughout this letter. The shape of this praise is striking. For Paul begins with the praise (:25a) – then interrupts it in a long parenthesis (:25b and 26) – after which he concludes the praise (:27). And in the parenthesis he speaks of a secret that God is revealing in the present interim, which is an interruption in God’s way with Israel. Isn’t that beautiful?! Paul expresses the truth of the present interim stylistically, in a parenthesis.

Paul’s praise begins with the statement that God is able to make us steadfast. That is: to stand firm. And then the parenthesis begins about what Paul calls “my Gospel.” That is the Gospel which he did not receive or learn from a man but through the revelation of Jesus Christ himself (Gal.1:12). In Galatians 2:7 he calls this “the Gospel of the uncircumcised,” in which circumcision (and everything related to it) plays no part. If God makes us stand today (in this meantime), He does so by definition in Paul’s Gospel!

Delen: