Romans 15:7 - Meaning and Application

The apostle returns here to his appeal to Christians. What he says in Romans 15:7 says the same thing as before, but he repeats it because it mattered so much to him. “Receive one another” means welcome one another into your affection, your fellowship, and your everyday life, as needs arise. He had urged the strong to receive the weak (Romans 14:1), and here he says the same to everyone, because weak Christians can be shy of the strong, just as proud Christians can be shy of the weak. Neither attitude should be allowed.

Christians should welcome one another with real brotherly love. If we have received Christ by faith, then we should receive all Christians in love, even if they are poor, mistreated, or despised. We should do this even when it may bring reproach or danger, or when they differ from us in less important matters of the law. Even if there have been personal irritations, those things must be set aside. The call is simple: receive one another.

Paul gives the reason for this. Christ has already received us, and his gentle welcome is our example. Has Christ been so kind to us, and should we be unkind to his people? Has he been so ready to welcome us, and should we be slow to welcome our brothers and sisters? Christ has brought us into the closest and dearest bond with himself. He has taken us into his flock, his family, the adoption of sons, a covenant of friendship, even a marriage covenant with himself. Though we were strangers, enemies, and prodigals, he has brought us into fellowship with him.

The words “to the glory of God” may refer both to Christ’s receiving us and to our receiving one another. First, Christ received us to the glory of God. The purpose of his welcome is that we might glorify God in this world and be glorified with him in the world to come. When Christ received us, he had God’s glory in view, along with our own eternal good. He called us to eternal glory through Jesus Christ (John 17:24). Think of what he received us for, a joy beyond measure, and why he did it, for his Father’s glory.

Second, we must receive one another to the glory of God. That should be the main goal in all we do, and nothing helps it more than the love and kindness of those who profess faith. Paul had just said that with one mind and one voice they should glorify God (Romans 15:6). Their disagreement was over food and drink, which came from the division between Jews and Gentiles. To heal that split, Paul shows that Jesus Christ has welcomed both Jews and Gentiles. In Christ they are one, one new humanity (Ephesians 2:14-16). Things that agree in a third thing agree with one another, and those who agree in Christ, the great center of unity, should be able to agree among themselves.

Paul is especially moved by this union of Jews and Gentiles in Christ, so he expands on it. Christ received the Jews (Romans 15:8). No one should look down on those who were first Jews and still, from weakness, keep some of their old Jewish habits. Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision, meaning a servant to the Jews. That showed great humility, and it also honored his ministry. He was himself circumcised and came under the law, and in his own person he preached the gospel to the Jews. He moved among them, blessed them, and saw himself as sent first to the lost sheep of Israel. He took hold of the seed of Abraham (Hebrews 2:16, margin), and through them reached out, as it were, to the whole human race.

He did this for the truth of God. What he preached to them was true, because he came to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37), and he himself is the truth (John 14:6). It was also to confirm the promises made to the fathers. The surest proof of a promise is when it is kept. God had promised that in Abraham’s seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed, that Shiloh would come from Judah, that a ruler would come from Israel, and that the law would go out from Zion. Many events between those promises and Christ seemed to weaken them, and some even seemed to threaten that people’s survival. But when Messiah the Prince appeared in the fullness of time as a minister of the circumcision, those promises were confirmed and shown to be true. In Christ all God’s promises, both in the Old Testament and the New, are “yes” and “amen.”

If we take the promises made to the fathers to mean the whole covenant of grace, which was dimly given in the Old Testament and made clearer under the gospel, then Christ came to confirm that covenant (Daniel 9:27). He confirmed it by shedding the blood of the covenant.

Christ also received the Gentiles. Paul explains this in Romans 15:9-12. Christ’s favor to the Gentiles is seen in his bringing them in to praise God, which is the work of the church on earth and its reward in heaven. Christ’s purpose was that the Gentiles too would be converted and joined with the Jews in his spiritual body, the church. That is a strong reason not to think less of any Christian because he was once a Gentile, since Christ has received him. Christ invites the Gentiles and welcomes them.

Paul describes their conversion this way: they glorify God for his mercy. This is a way of speaking about conversion. They now have a reason to praise God, namely his mercy. When we remember the sad and helpless condition of the Gentile world, their receiving seems even more clearly to be an act of mercy than the receiving of the Jews.

Those who were once Lo-ammi, meaning “not my people,” were also Lo-ruhamah, meaning “not shown mercy” (Hosea 1:6, Hosea 1:9; Hosea 2:23). The greatest mercy God can show any people is to bring them into covenant with himself. It is good to remember God’s mercy when he receives us.

They will also have hearts that praise. They will glorify God for his mercy. Unconverted sinners do nothing to bring glory to God, but converting grace, God’s grace that turns a sinner to him, gives the soul a desire to speak and act for his glory. God meant to gather glory from the Gentiles, who had so long turned his glory into shame.

The same thing is also the fulfillment of Scripture. God’s favor to the Gentiles was not only mercy, but truth. The promises were not given directly to them as they were to the Jewish fathers, but many prophecies spoke about them, about their call into the church and their being joined to God’s people. Paul mentions some of them because many Jews found this hard to believe. By sending them back to the Old Testament, he tries to soften their dislike of the Gentiles and bring the two sides together.

First, it was foretold that the Gentiles would hear the gospel. “I will give thanks to you among the Gentiles” (Romans 15:9), meaning that God’s name would be known and honored in the Gentile world, and gospel grace and love would be celebrated there. This comes from Psalm 18:49: “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the nations.” A thankful explanation of God’s name and a public remembrance of it are excellent ways to lead others to know and praise God. Christ, through his apostles and ministers, whom he sent to disciple all nations, did confess God among the Gentiles. Christ’s exaltation, as well as sinners’ conversion, is shown in the praise of God.

Christ declaring God’s name to his brothers is called his praising God in the middle of the congregation (Psalm 22:22). If these words are taken as David’s words, they were spoken when he was old and dying, so he was not likely to confess God among the Gentiles in person. But when David’s psalms are read and sung among the Gentiles for God’s praise and glory, it can be said that David is confessing God among the Gentiles and singing to his name. He was the sweet psalmist of the Gentiles. Converting grace makes people love David’s psalms deeply.

If these words are taken as Christ’s words, the Son of David, they can be understood as his spiritual presence by faith in the hearts of all praising believers. If anyone confesses God among the Gentiles and sings to his name, it is not really they alone, but Christ and his grace in them. “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). In the same way, “I praise, yet not I, but Christ in me.”

Second, the Gentiles should rejoice with God’s people (Romans 15:10). This comes from the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32:43. Notice that those brought into God’s people are said to rejoice with his people. No greater joy can come to any people than the gospel coming among them with power. Some Jews still keep a prejudice against the Gentiles and will not let them share in their joyful gatherings, because, they say, “a stranger does not share in their joy” (Proverbs 14:10). But since the barrier has been torn down, the Gentiles are welcome to rejoice with his people. Since they are brought into the church, they share its sufferings and are companions in patience and trouble, and in return they share its joy.

Third, they should praise God (Romans 15:11). “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles” comes from Psalm 117:1. Converting grace sets people to praising God, gives them the richest reasons for praise, and gives them hearts that want to do it. For many ages the Gentiles had praised their idols of wood and stone, but now they are brought to praise the Lord. David, speaking by the Spirit, foretold this. When all nations are called to praise the Lord, it also shows that they will come to know him.

Fourth, they should believe in Christ (Romans 15:12), quoted from Isaiah 11:10. First, Christ is revealed as the Gentiles’ king. He is called the root of Jesse, meaning the one who comes from David’s family and gives that family its life and strength. Compare Isaiah 11:1. Christ was David’s Lord, and yet also David’s son (Matthew 22:45), because he was both the root and the offspring of David (Revelation 22:16). As God, Christ was David’s root. As man, Christ was David’s offspring. He is also the one who rises to rule over the Gentiles. This explains the prophet’s picture of him standing as an ensign, or banner, for the people. When Christ rose from the dead and ascended on high, it was to reign over the Gentiles.

Second, the Gentiles come to him. “In him shall the Gentiles trust.” Faith is the soul’s confidence in Christ and dependence on him. The prophet says, “To him shall the Gentiles seek.” The way of faith is to seek Christ first, as the Savior offered to us, and then, finding him able and willing to save, to trust in him. Those who know him will trust him. Or, this seeking is the result of trusting him, seeking him in prayer and in faithful effort. We will never truly seek Christ until we trust him. Trust comes first, and careful use of the means comes after.

Since Jews and Gentiles are united in Christ’s love, why should they not also be united in love for one another?