Romans 16:25-27

Now to him who is able to establish you according to my Good News and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret through long ages, but now is revealed, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known for obedience of faith to all the nations; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.

The WEB version of the Bible that I am using translates the word “Gospel” as “Good News.” Gospel means “good news” but it is a proper name now so I use the word “Gospel” when I write about it. Here we learn that this Gospel was mysterious until it was given to Paul to “establish.” Looking back at 2000 years of history, we see that this is exactly what happened. Jesus lived the Gospel and He assigned Paul to explain it to the world. In our study of Acts we read that Paul was commissioned by Jesus Himself and given a message from Him directly to share with us. We know that what Paul shares are God’s words that Jesus gave to Paul.

This Gospel is “according to the commandment of the eternal God” and “is made known for the obedience of faith to all the nations.” I always like to spend time to consider the difference between saying “for obedience” and “for the obedience of faith.” Obedience is all that is needed to live a legal lifestyle. We may be tempted to think after reading this quickly that obedience to rules is what Paul is talking about here, but he didn’t say the gospel was just “obedience.” He said it was “obedience of faith.” This commandment of God to the nations is a commandment of faith and this faith produces obedience. The Law pronounced obedience but didn’t provide the ability to keep it. By having faith in Jesus Christ we can now obey God by the power of the Holy Spirit. This letter to the Romans is Jesus Gospel given to Paul so that we can now obey

“God, through Jesus Christ,
to whom be the glory forever! Amen.”