18<\/strong>. For I will not dare<\/em>, &c.] This ver. may be paraphrased, “To justify this exultation, I need not presumptuously intrude<\/em> on the work of others, putting in a false claim to credit for that work: I need only speak of what Christ has done through my personal efforts, both of preaching and miracle, in bringing Gentile converts to Him, &c.” The sentence evidently glides from the negative to the positive in the course of this verse.<\/p>\n which Christ hath wrought<\/em> ] St Paul recognizes the Saviour as the personal and present Worker. Cp. Mat 28:20<\/span>, and the suggestive words (Act 1:1<\/span>) “all that Jesus began<\/em> to do and teach” as if His doing and teaching continued in the work of His messengers. Cp. also 1Co 15:10<\/span>; Gal 2:20<\/span>.<\/p>\n me<\/em> ] Emphatic in the Greek.<\/p>\n obedient<\/em> ] To the Gospel. See on Rom 10:3<\/span>.<\/p>\n deed<\/em> ] Specially (see next verse) deeds of miracle. Cp. Act 13:9-12<\/span>; Act 14:8-10<\/span>; Act 15:12<\/span>; Act 16:18<\/span>; Act 19:11-12<\/span>; Act 20:10-12<\/span>; Act 28:3-9<\/span>. St Paul elsewhere distinctly claims miraculous gifts, 1Co 14:18<\/span>; 2Co 12:12<\/span>. In his life and teaching, as in the whole of Scripture, the natural and the supernatural are inextricably interwoven: the strongest reality of practical plans and efforts, and the most vigorous reasonings, stand linked with open references to, and cogent proofs of, the special presence around him of “the powers of the world to come.”<\/p>\n For I will not dare to speak – <\/B>I should be restrained; I should be afraid to speak, if the thing were not as I have stated. I should be afraid to set up a claim beyond what is strictly in accordance with the truth.<\/P> Which Christ hath not wrought by me – <\/B>I confine myself strictly to what I have done. I do not arrogate to myself what Christ has done by others. I do not exaggerate my own success, or claim what others have accomplished.<\/P> To make the Gentiles obedient – <\/B>To bring them to obey God in the gospel.<\/P> By word and deed – <\/B>By preaching, and by all other means; by miracle, by example, etc. The deeds, that is, the lives of Christian ministers are often as efficacious in bringing people to Christ as their public ministry.<\/P><\/p>\n Rom 15:18-19<\/span><\/p>\n For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Pauls success<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Matter of notoriety.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Needed no attempt on the part of the apostle to exaggerate it.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Word.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Deed.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Christs.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Exerted through the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Displayed in signs and wonders. (J<\/em>. Lyth, D<\/em>.D<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The work of missions<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Christ, the Supreme Director, who works in us to will and to do.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Converted men, the instruments by word and deed.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The Spirit of God, the efficient power displayed in signs and wonders.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Commencing at Jerusalem.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Embracing the Gentile world.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Throughout which the gospel must be fully preached. (J. Lyth, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Invincible power<\/strong><\/p>\n One of Satans artifices is to induce men to attempt to reduce the gospel to a mere system within the reach of human intellect; and in this attempt they have gone far to deny and reject everything supernatural. But so long as we have the Book of God <\/em>in our hands, and the power of the Spirit of God to accompany its hallowed truths, we shall dare to insist upon thee gospel being the power of God unto the salvation of every one that believeth. Paul always advocated the old-fashioned doctrine, It is not by might or by power, etc.<\/em> Note–<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>I have fully preached the gospel of Christ (Rom 15:19<\/span>). Then it was a pure gospel (Gal 1:8-9<\/span>). He did not mix law and gospel together (Rom 3:20<\/span>; Eph 2:8<\/span>). In his preaching I mark four things prominent: and a man does not preach a pure gospel who does not preach all four.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> Principles (1Co 3:11<\/span>). What principles? They are summed up in By grace are ye saved (Eph 2:8<\/span>). Well, then, there is nothing for works, as he urges elsewhere (Rom 11:6<\/span>).<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Privileges (Gal 4:6<\/span>; Rom 8:16<\/span>).<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> Promises. Paul dwelt on these with delight, but he never set them forth as dependent upon creature doings, or as subject to contingencies (2Co 1:20<\/span>).<\/p>\n (4)<\/strong> Precepts. In his Epistles, which he commences with doctrine, and proceeds with experimental godliness; but he always closes with the most pressing exhortations to every good word and work.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>His success in the pure preaching of the gospel. He talks about mighty signs and wonders and names one in the preceding verse, viz., that the Gentiles should be made obedient by word and deed. It is one of the greatest miracles when God brings a poor ruined sinner down to obedience to the sceptre of Christ. Pauls success lay in–<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> The rescuing of Satans slaves.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Refreshing and establishing the Churches of the living God, so that they were built up in their most holy faith.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> Thus the glorifying of Jesus name.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Is invincible–it is sure to <\/strong>conquer, and accomplish that for which it was designed. Every other power is found to be conquerable! The power of the Holy Ghost is so invincible, that the most stubborn hearts must yield, and the most confirmed habits of idolatry, or of licentiousness, are vanquished.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Defies all hostility.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Is new creating. All creation, in a spiritual point of view, is a chaos under the fall, until the Spirit calls to a new state of existence the souls that were destitute of it.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The wonders of Gods grace, the miracles accomplished, the triumphs of the Cross, and the extension of the Redeemers kingdom, made Paul rejoice. Here is a criterion by which we are to judge of every faithful minister of Christ.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Moreover, in all his exultations he took care to neutralise and give the negative to the boastings of proud free will. (J<\/em>. Irons<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The power of the gospel<\/strong><\/p>\n So that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.<\/strong>—<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The preaching of the gospel<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>As it reveals the ground of a sinners acceptance with God.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>As it furnishes the only perfect rule of moral conduct, and the only efficient motive, love.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>As it unveils the mysteries of a future state.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Fully. He shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God; he instructed, exhorted, and warned that they might grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ (Act 20:20<\/span>). The gospel should be thus fully preached.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> Because it is connected with the spiritual and eternal interests of the hearers. A physician would be considered in the last degree criminal who trifled with his patient; but the gospel minister is charged with the cure of souls.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Because failure here will contract awful guilt upon the preacher (Eze 3:17-21<\/span>).<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Extensively. Paul carried it from Jerusalem to Illyricum. He was not weary in well-doing, but continued active and diligent to the end. The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. But how many places are there yet destitute of sufficient means of grace! This, then, is a call upon our zealous exertions.<\/p>\n Conclusion: Note–<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>That natural and acquired talents may be efficiently employed in promoting the cause of religion. This is well illustrated in the case of Paul. What are the talents God has entrusted to you? Wealth? Influence? Zeal? Use them all for God.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The gospel is worthy of all acceptation. (D<\/em>. Jones<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The evangelisation of the world a practicable work<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The length of time during which it was done. He began very shortly after his conversion, and carried it on till his martyrdom; a period of about thirty years. From those thirty years the time spent in Arabia and in prison has to be deducted.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The helps by which the work was done.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> His strong faith that the gospel was the power of God to every one who believed.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> His fervent love to Christ.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> His great love to mankind.<\/p>\n (4)<\/strong> His good natural capacity and education.<\/p>\n (5)<\/strong> The gift of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon him so largely.<\/p>\n (6)<\/strong> His companions.<\/p>\n (7)<\/strong> His Roman citizenship.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>His hindrances.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> He was a Jew, and the great contempt in which the Jewish race was held by the Gentiles must have been an immense hindrance to the apostle as he went about preaching salvation through a crucified Jew.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> He was by no means a strong man physically. He suffered much through infirmity of the flesh.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> His speech was not acceptable to some. Not only did the unconverted Athenians ask, What will this babbler say? but there were Christians at Corinth who pronounced his speech contemptible.<\/p>\n (4)<\/strong> His ungenerous critics did acknowledge that his writings were weighty and powerful; but in regard to them he laboured under a very great disadvantage. The art of printing had not been invented, and if he wrote an epistle intended for more Churches than one, well, then, it was slowly passed from one to another. And not only so; those who had the charge of Churches did not always like to read Paul’s epistles to the people (1Th 10:27). Here in the apostolic age is the germ of the evil practice of withholding the Word of God from the laity.<\/p>\n (5)<\/strong> Travelling in those days was very slow, difficult and dangerous, whether by land or sea.<\/p>\n (6)<\/strong> The apostle chose to labour for his own support at his trade as a tent-maker.<\/p>\n (7)<\/strong> He was hindered by Jews and Judaisers wherever he met with them.<\/p>\n (8)<\/strong> The other apostles were not very much in sympathy with him.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>The extent of his work. To say nothing of his preaching at Damascus and neighbourhood, from Jerusalem, substantially through Asia Minor together with Macedonia and Achaia, westward to the shores of the Adriatic, the apostle preached the gospel of Christ. And not only so he could say, I have fully preached it. This work was by no means of a superficial character. As to the results, they were various; sometimes very few were converted, sometimes very many. The power of the gospel was acknowledged by enemies of Christ at Thessalonica and Ephesus. Therefore the apostle really did so evangelise that large tract of country, and if the Churches planted in those regions had done their duty, most certainly all the inhabitants would have been brought to Christ.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Here was a great work done through Gods grace by this one man in a space of thirty years. Sixty periods of thirty years have passed by since. Now, supposing that, during these periods, there had been in <\/strong>each–that is in each generation–just one man like Paul, the world would have been <\/strong>more nearly evangelised than it is.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Compare–Pauls helps with our own.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Whatever Pauls helps might be, his hindrances were greater than ours. Conclusion: Then the evangelisation of the world has not proceeded just because Christians have not done their duty. But for the apathy of our forefathers we should not be held accountable. Let us cheer ourselves with the thought that the work is really practicable. And certainly the results of Christian missionary effort in modern times are such as to encourage the most sanguine hope. The evangelisation of the whole world is quite within the reach of practical religion. It can be done: it ought to be done: let it be done! (H<\/em>. Stowell Brown<\/em>.)<\/p>\n Verse 18. For I will not dare to speak<\/B><\/I>] If the thing were not as I have stated it, I would not dare to arrogate to myself honours which did not belong to me. But God has made me the apostle of the Gentiles; and the conversion of the Gentiles is the fruit of my ministry, Christ having wrought by me<\/I> for this purpose.<\/P> <\/P> By word and deed<\/B><\/I>] . These words may refer to the doctrines<\/I> which he taught and to the miracles<\/I> which he wrought among them. So they became obedient to the doctrines<\/I>, on the evidence of the miracles<\/I> with which they were accompanied.<\/P> <\/p>\n q.d. I dare not speak of more than is true, or of any thing that was not really done by me: or else the meaning is, I dare not speak of any thing that I have done of myself, I acknowledge that, whatever good hath come to the Gentiles by my means, it was wrought by Christ, whose instrument I have only been: see 1Co 3:5<\/span>. <\/P> By word and deed:<\/B> some join these words to the obedience of the Gentiles; by the preaching of the gospel they were made obedient in word and deed. But they are better joined with the former words; Christ wrought in and by the apostle Paul, believed word and deed. By word<\/I> is understood his public preaching, and private instruction; and by deed, <\/I>the example of his good works, or godly life: or else, by deed<\/I> ye may understand the miracles that he wrought, and the labour and travail that he underwent; of which in the following verse. <\/P> <\/p>\n 18-22. For I will not dare to speakof any<\/B>“to speak aught” <\/P> of those things which Christhath not wrought by me<\/B>a modest, though somewhat obscure formof expression, meaning, “I will not dare to go beyond whatChrist hath<\/I> wrought by me”in which form accordinglythe rest of the passage is expressed. Observe here how Paul ascribesall the success of his labors to the activity of the living Redeemer,working in and by him. <\/P> by word and deed<\/B>bypreaching and working; which latter he explains in the next clause.<\/P><\/p>\n For I will not dare to speak of any of those things<\/strong>,…. He suggests that the false teachers did speak of things which were not done by them at all, and much less were what Christ had done by them; and signifies that he was a conscientious man, and could speak nothing but what was truth; his conscience would not suffer him, nor could he allow himself to make mention of anything, that was not done by him, as if it was; nor of anything that was done by himself, nor of anything that was done, as if it was done by himself, but as it was wrought by Christ; nor had he any need to speak of any other things which he had wrought himself, as he could not of what he had not wrought at all; or, as he says,<\/p>\n which Christ hath not wrought by me<\/strong>: signifying that what he had wrought, and which he could with good conscience speak of to the honour of Christ, and the glory of his grace, were not wrought by himself, but what Christ wrought by him; he was only the instrument, Christ was the efficient cause: as a Christian, it was not he that lived, but Christ lived in him; as a minister, it was not he that spoke, but Christ spoke in him; nor was it he that laboured, but the grace of Christ that was with him; much less was it he that converted souls, but Christ did it by him:<\/p>\n to make the Gentiles obedient<\/strong>; the nations of the world, who had been brought up in blindness and ignorance of God, in rebellion and disobedience to him. The Gospel was sent among them, and was blessed unto them, to make them, of disobedient, obedient ones; not to men, but to God; not to magistrates and ministers, though they were taught to be so to both, but to Christ; to him as a priest, by being made willing to be saved by him, and him only, renouncing their own works, and disclaiming all other ways of salvation; and to submit to his righteousness for their justification before God, and acceptance with him; and to deal with his precious blood for pardon and cleansing; to rely on his sacrifice for the atonement of their sins, and to make use of him as the new and living way to the Father, as their one and only mediator, advocate, and intercessor; and to him as a prophet, to the faith of the Gospel, and the doctrines of it; not barely by hearing it, and notionally assenting to it, but by embracing it heartily, and professing it publicly and sincerely; and to him as a King, by owning him as such, and as theirs; and by subjecting to his ordinances, and obeying his commands in faith and fear, and from love to him: the means whereby these persons were brought to the obedience of Christ, and of faith, are<\/p>\n by word and deed<\/strong>; or “deeds”, as the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions read: by the former is meant, the word of the Gospel and the preaching of it, being sent unto them, and coming with power, and not as the word of man, but as the word of God; and by the latter, either the labour of the apostle, the pains he took, the hardships he endured, in ministering: the Gospel to them; or his agreeable life and conversation, which were a means of recommending the word, and of engaging an attention to it; or rather the miraculous works and mighty deeds which were wrought by the apostle, in confirmation of the doctrine he preached, as it seems to be explained in Ro 15:19<\/span>.<\/p>\n Any things save those which Christ wrought through me <\/B> ( ‘ <\/SPAN><\/span>). Rather, “any one of those things which Christ did not work through me.” The antecedent of <\/SPAN><\/span> is the unexpressed <\/SPAN><\/span> and the accusative relative <\/SPAN><\/span> (object of <\/SPAN><\/span>) is attracted into the genitive case of Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>Its extent.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The means.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>The power.<\/p>\n
I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>Its object. To make the Gentiles obedient to the gospel.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Its agencies and means.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Its sphere.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The success of Pauls preaching the gospel<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Its efficiency. It was by the power of the <\/strong>Spirit of God–and truly such mighty signs and wonders are never accomplished by any other power. This power–<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Pauls triumph concerning his success.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Its source, God.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Its medium, the Spirit of God.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Its evidence, Signs and wonders–miraculous, moral and spiritual. (J<\/em>. Lyth, D<\/em>.D<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>In what light is the gospel to be preached by its ministers. Surely in the same in which it was preached by the apostle, viz.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>How the apostle preached the gospel.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Let us estimate Pauls missionary work. Note–<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>From this summary of the apostles work we may learn that the evangelisation of the world is really a practicable thing. This is not universally acknowledged. Of course, a very large proportion of those who do not believe the gospel, utterly deny it, and there are Christian people who do not seem to be very strongly convinced of it, for if they were, surely they would think of it, pray for it, and give towards it more.<\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n