Romans 15.13a-Paul Desires That The Spirit Will Cause The Romans To Be Filled With All Joy And Peace By Exercising Faith
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday May 26, 2010
Romans: Romans 15:13a-Paul Desires That The Spirit Cause The Romans To Be Filled With All Joy And Peace By Exercising Faith
Lesson # 509
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 15:13.
This evening we will begin to note Romans 15:13 and in this passage Paul completes the argument of the epistle.
In this passage he shares with his readers the prayer he makes to the Father on their behalf that the Spirit will cause them all to be filled with all joy and peace by believing so that they would abound in confidence by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
So in Romans 15:13 completes not only the discussion in Romans 14:1-15:13 but also the sixth major section of the epistle in Romans 12:1-15:13 and the main argument of the epistle that began in Romans 1:16, expressing Paul’s Spirit inspired desire for the Roman believers as a corporate unit.
“The God” is the articular nominative masculine singular form of the noun theos (θεός) (thay-oce), which does not refer to the Father or the Son but the Spirit.
As was the case in Romans 15:5, this statement in Romans 15:13 is technically not a prayer since it is not addressed specifically to the Father.
Further indicating that the noun theos, “God” refers to the Holy Spirit is that in this statement in Romans 15:13, Paul expresses his desire that the God of hope fill them with all joy and peace and Romans 14:17 teaches that peace and joy is manifested among believers by means of fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
Paul’s statement in Galatians 5:22-23 further supports the fact that the noun theos, “God” in Romans 15:13 is referring to the Spirit and not the Father or the Son since it teaches that joy and peace are the production of the Holy Spirit.
Also, further indicating that the noun theos in Romans 15:13 is referring to the Spirit and not the Father or the Son is Paul’s statement in Romans 15:4.
In Romans 15:4, Paul teaches that through the Scriptures the believer can experience confidence in his relationship with God in that he has been blessed in the past, is being blessed in the present and will in the future be blessed and of course 2 Peter 1:20-21 teaches that the Spirit inspired the Scriptures.
Therefore, theos in Romans 15:13 could not possibly be referring to the Father but rather the Spirit since He is the member of the Trinity whose function is to produce peace and joy in the believer through fellowship with Him, which is accomplished by obeying his voice, which is heard through the teaching of the Word.
Consequently, the statement in Romans 15:13 is technically not a prayer.
However, it is an intercessory prayer that Paul prayed and he is revealing the content of this prayer to encourage the Roman believers.
So Paul is revealing his Spirit inspired desire for the Roman church as an indirect means of encouraging the Roman believers to go forward in the Father’s plan.
Romans 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
“Of hope” is the articular genitive feminine singular form of the noun elpis (ἐλπίς) (el-peace), which means “confidence” in one’s relationship with God.
It denotes a confidence that one has been blessed in the past and is being blessed in the present and will be blessed in the future.
The noun elpis functions as a genitive of product meaning that confidence in one’s relationship with God in that one is confident that one has been blessed by God in the past, is being blessed in the present and will be blessed in the future is “produced by” the Holy Spirit.
The articular construction of the abstract noun elpis is emphasizing that this confidence is divine in quality and character because it is produced by the Holy Spirit when the believer obeys the Scriptures, which the Spirit inspired according to 2 Peter 1:20-21.
“May fill with” is the third person singular aorist active optative form of the verb pleroo (πληρόω) (plea-row), which means “to cause someone to become filled with something” and is used with God the Holy Spirit as its subject and the souls of the Roman believers are its object.
This indicates that Paul desires that the Holy Spirit, who produces a confidence, which is divine in quality and character, “would cause” the souls of the Romans “to be filled” with joy and peace by trusting in what He says in the Scriptures.
“You” is the accusative second person singular personal pronoun su (σύ) (see), which is used in a distributive sense meaning “each and every one of you” and refers to “each and every” member of the body of Christ in Rome without exception regardless of race, gender or social status.
“Joy” is the genitive feminine singular form of the noun chara (χαρά) (ha-rah), which means “joy” and refers to the each and every one of the Roman believers experiencing the joy of the Lord by means of fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
“Peace” is the genitive feminine singular form of the noun eirene (εἰρήνη) (ear-ree-nee), which means “peace” and refers to the believer experiencing the peace of God by means of fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
“In believing” is composed of the preposition en (ἐν), “in” and the dative neuter singular form of the definite article ho (ὁ() (owe), and present active infinitive form of the verb pisteuo (πιστεύω) (pea-stev-owe), “believing.”
The verb pisteuo is used with the Roman believers as its subject thus the word does not refer to trusting in Jesus Christ as one’s Savior resulting in being declared justified by God since the Romans are already saved.
Therefore, the verb refers to exercising faith in the Spirit’s teaching in the Old Testament Scriptures and apostles’ teaching, which is now recorded in the Greek New Testament since the object of the believer’s faith after his conversion is the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God.
The verb functions as an infinitive of means indicating that the Holy Spirit will cause the Roman believers to be filled with all joy and peace “by” exercising faith in the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God.
Therefore up to this point in our study of this passage, we can see that in order to encourage his readers Paul is sharing with them a prayer that he offered up to the Father on their behalf.
In this prayer, Paul desires that the Holy Spirit would cause each and every one of the Roman believers without exception to be filled with all joy and peace by exercising faith in the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God.
Tomorrow evening, we will note the purpose for desiring this to take place among the Roman believers.