Romans 15.23-Paul Presents Two Reasons Why He Confidently Expects To Visit The Roman Believers
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday June 23, 2010
Romans: Romans 15:23-Paul Presents Two Reasons Why He Confidently Expects To Visit The Roman Believers
Lesson # 524
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 15:22.
This evening we will note Romans 15:23 and in this verse the apostle Paul presents two reasons why he confidently expects to visit his readers in Rome while passing through whenever he is allowed by the Holy Spirit to travel to Spain.
Romans 15:22, “For this reason I have often been prevented from coming to you. 23 But now, with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you. 24 Whenever I go to Spain—for I hope to see you in passing, and to be helped on my way there by you, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while.”
Romans 15:23 presents a contrast with the result clause in Romans 15:19b.
Romans 15:19b, “Consequently, from Jerusalem and circuitously, as far as Illyricum, I have fulfilled the task of proclaiming the gospel about the one and only Christ.” (My translation)
Thus, Romans 15:23 contrasts Paul’s circumstances in the past when he was busy concentrating upon fulfilling this task of proclaiming the gospel from Jerusalem and circuitously as far as Illyricum with his present circumstances in which he has completed this task.
“With…for me” is the nominative masculine singular present active participle form of the verb echo (ἒχω) (eh-ho), which means “to possess” and its object is the noun topos, “place,” and its meaning is negated by the negative adverb meketi, “no longer.”
Thus, Paul is saying “I no longer have or possess an opportunity in these regions” since he stated in Romans 15:19b that “from Jerusalem and circuitously, as far as Illyricum, I have fulfilled the task of proclaiming the gospel about the one and only Christ.”
The present tense of the verb echo is a descriptive present describing a scene in progress indicating that Paul “at the present time” no longer possesses any opportunity of planting a church anywhere from Jerusalem to Illyricum.
The verb echo functions also as a causal participle meaning that it indicates the cause or reason or ground of the finite or main verb elpizo, which appears in Romans 15:24b.
This indicates that “because” Paul had no further opportunity of planting a church from Jerusalem to Illyricum, he in fact confidently expected to visit the Roman believers.
“No further” is the negative adverb of time meketi (μηκέτι) (me-ket-ee), which negates the idea that Paul possessed an opportunity in the regions from Jerusalem to Illyricum in the sense of having to plant a church as a result of fulfilling this task.
“Place” is the accusative masculine singular form of the noun topos (τόπος) (toe-poce), which means “opportunity” and is used with reference to planting churches in Gentile communities from Jerusalem, and circuitously as far as Illyricum.
This indicates that when Paul wrote the Roman epistle, he no longer possessed an “opportunity” of planting a church in those regions since he fulfilled the task of planting churches in these regions according to his statement in Romans 15:19b.
“In these regions” refers to the Roman “provinces” in Paul’s day extending from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum.
The Roman provinces that existed when Paul wrote Romans and resided between Jerusalem and Illyricum would include Italia, Sicilia, Sardina, Corsica, Gallia Cisalpina, Lycia, Pamphylia, Asia Minor, Illyricum, Epirus, Thracia, Macedonia, Achaea, Cilicia, Bithynia, Pontus, Crete, Syria, Galatia, Judaea, Cappadocia, Cyprus, and Arabia Petraea.
Paul’s statement that he no longer possessed an opportunity to proclaim the gospel in the Roman provinces extending from Jerusalem to Illyricum presents the first reason why he is confident that he will visit the Roman believers since the first echo in Romans 15:23 is modifying the verb elpizo in Romans 15:24b.
When Paul says that he no longer possessed an opportunity in the Roman provinces, which extended from Jerusalem to Illyricum, he does not mean he could not teach or proclaim the gospel anymore in these areas.
But rather, he means that there was no opportunity for the specific ministry of planting a church where the gospel had never been proclaimed before.
Romans 15:23, “But now, with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you.”
“Since I have had” is the nominative masculine singular present active participle form of the verb echo (ἒχω) (eh-ho), which means “to possess a particular attitude or feeling.”
“A longing” is the accusative feminine singular form of the noun epipothia (ἐπιποθία) (eh-pee-poe-thee-ah), which refers to a strong emotional or passionate desire expressing Paul’s attitude towards visiting the Roman believers.
The verb echo functions also as a causal participle meaning that it indicates the cause or reason or ground of the finite or main verb elpizo, which appears in Romans 15:24b.
This indicates that “because” Paul possessed a passionate desire to visit the Christians in Rome in addition to no longer having an opportunity to plant a church in the Roman provinces extending from Jerusalem and Illyricum, he in fact confidently expected to visit the Roman believers.
“For many years” indicates that for a period of many years Paul had this passionate desire to visit the Romans.
“To come” is the aorist active infinitive form of the verb erchomai (ἒρχομαι) (air-koe-meh), which means “to enter” since it is used with the prepositional phrase pros humas, which speaks of Paul being “in the company of” the Roman believers.
Thus, Paul is saying that he has possessed a passionate desire “to enter” into the company of the Christians in Rome.
“To you” is composed of the preposition (πρός) (proce), “to” and the accusative second person plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ) (see), “you.”
The personal pronoun su 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.
It functions as the object of the preposition pros, which is used of the Roman believers and speaks of a personal intimate fellowship between them and Paul and denotes his coming “into the company of” or “into the presence of” the Roman believers.
This is not the first time in the Roman epistle that he expresses this desire since he does so in Romans 1:10-15 and his trip to Rome is mentioned in Acts 19:21 and 23:11.
To summarize this verse, we see that it is presenting a contrast between Paul’s circumstances in the past when he was busy concentrating upon fulfilling the task of proclaiming the gospel from Jerusalem, circuitously as far as Illyricum with his present circumstances in which he has completed this task.
The verse presents two reasons why he was confident of visiting Rome.
The first reason is that he no longer had an opportunity to plant a church in the provinces of the Roman Empire that stretched from Jerusalem and circuitously as far as Illyricum since he states in Romans 15:19b that he has fulfilled the task of proclaiming the gospel to the Gentiles in these regions.
The second reason that Paul confidently expected to visit the Christians in Rome was that he possessed a great desire for a period of many years to enter into their company.