Ordinarily, sinners are saved by hearing the Word of God preached in a local church. But what if the sinners who most need the preaching don’t come to church? Paul travelled extensively to bring the good news about Jesus Christ to pagans, but we do not need to travel beyond our own neighbourhoods to find a mission field. Our own local communities include many people whose lifestyle and philosophy of life is increasingly similar to the pagan world Paul inhabited, and who have never meaningfully encountered the truth about Jesus. Distance is now less geographical and more cultural and often literally in our neighbourhoods. Commenting on Paul’s missionary labours, John Brown of Wamphray insists words in the pulpit alone are not enough. On one hand, no outreach attempt will be successful without the Holy Spirit’s blessing. On the other hand, ministers must be visible enough in their own context that even when people are unaware of his labours within the church, the preacher’s whole life and behaviour — including the way he responds to difficulties and suffering — is a living witness to the gospel.

In Romans 15, Paul calls himself “a minister of Jesus Christ unto the Gentiles” (Romans 15:16). The whole employment and work of the servants of God in the ministry is about the glad tidings of salvation through the Mediator, Jesus Christ. All their activity is to unfold and make plain to poor sinners the mystery of the gospel that was hidden from the beginning of the world.

Ministry goals and routes to success

The main thing which the ministers of the gospel ought to be driving at, in all they do in the office of the ministry, is the salvation and reconciliation to God of the people they have responsibility for. It should be their main aim to get the people so wrought on at heart as to be willing to give themselves up and dedicate themselves to the Lord and His service, and that God would be well pleased with them. Paul’s aim was, “that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable” (v.16).

At the same time, no service we can do will be accepted by God from us unless we are renewed, and made new creatures, having the Spirit of holiness dwelling and working in us, putting down the power of sin and corruption, and advancing the work of conformity to the image of God (“sanctified by the Holy Ghost,” v.16). Whatever lengths the ministers of the gospel go to in dealing with people, pressing them to abstain from sins and iniquities and to follow the ways of holiness, yet nothing of this will avail until the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of sanctification, the only worker of holiness in God’s people, puts His hand to the work. They are “sanctified by the Holy Ghost.”

Bringing the disobedient to faith

For the fuller demonstration of the glorious power of Christ working by him in the work of the ministry, Paul shows the effect that was produced (through the concurrence of the Spirit of Christ), which was also the end he was driving at. It was “to make the Gentiles obedient” (v.18), i.e., to bring them into an obedient submission to the gospel.

As people are by nature ignorant of, and unacquainted with, the way of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, which the only wise God has chosen in His wonderful free grace and favour, so they are utterly unwilling to submit to that way, and be brought to like it. The gospel must be sent out, to make them obedient.

The great goal and purpose of the gospel which ministers carry to people is only to bring people into a willingness to submit to God’s way of bringing lost sinners to salvation, i.e., through a mediator, offered in a covenant of free grace.

Bringing a soul in to Christ, and bringing people to be willing to submit to the gospel and the way of salvation which God has carved out, is a work beyond the strength of the arm of flesh. No less power is able to bring this about than the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is He who worked by Paul to “make the Gentiles obedient.”

Outreach methods and their effectiveness

The means how this was brought about are either ordinary or extraordinary.

Ordinary means

The ordinary means are “by word and deed” (v.18). “By word” is by the preaching of the gospel, by debating, by discussion in private and in public. “By deed” is by his labours in travelling from place to place, by his assiduous care and efforts in planting churches, by his labours and sufferings, and in preaching.

Extraordinary means

The extraordinary means were “mighty signs and wonders” (v.19), the wonders that were done by Paul and the other apostles in order to confirm the truth of the doctrine they delivered. These included curing diseases, casting out devils, etc. These signs were in order to convince people of the truth of their doctrine.

It seemed good in the Lord’s eyes, so as to gain His own people, and so as to leave the wicked inexcusable, to stoop down to such an extent that He not only sent men out with power to preach the gospel of life, but He also supplied them with credentials which certify to all that they had a divine commission. That is why He gave them the power of working miracles, which none were able to do without being assisted by the divine Spirit (Acts 2:1–4; 43; 3:6; 4:29–31).

Although the Lord does not continue to work miracles, as He did at the beginning and first introduction of the truth, the historic miracles show that there is no place left for doubting. The doctrine of salvation was confirmed in the time of the apostles by so many signs and wonders, and this is the same doctrine as is preached now.

Whether ordinary or extraordinary, what made any of these means efficacious and effective was “the power of the Spirit of God” (v.18–19). This power went along with the means and made them effectual. Even signs and wonders will not be sufficient to gain the consent of the soul to the truth of the gospel, without the co-working and concurrence of the Spirit of the God who has the hearts of all in His hand. This is how hard a thing it is, to win a soul round to this most desirable way of salvation through Christ. It is “by the power of the Spirit of God.”

The personal witness

Nevertheless, although the work of conversion is only the work and achievement of the powerful Spirit of Christ (without whose influence it will never happen, the iron sinew in all of us by nature will never be broken), yet it has seemed good in the Lord’s eyes to use frail people as His instruments, and to use the apparently feeble and ineffective means of human preaching and proclaiming the news of salvation, i.e., by word of mouth declaring and explaining the nature of the covenant, and the terms on which salvation is had.

Ministers should not only hold out Christ, and the way of salvation through Him, by preaching the word of life, and publishing it as heralds, but all their life and behaviour should also be preaching the gospel. They should be walking, both in their private and public activities, in such a way that they would be winning sinners to Christ. They ought to spare no effort, labour, or risk, but venture on the worst that man can do in order to win souls “by word and deed.” Ministers must not rest on a bare speaking of words, but they must resolve to hold Christ forth in deed also.

Even the hardships, dangers and sufferings that the servants of Christ meet with in faithfully carrying out the duties of their calling, through God’s blessing, do much to convince sinners, and to gain ground with them, and bring them in to the gospel. Even Paul’s deeds, through the blessing of God — his sufferings, perils, hardships and the like — were a means of making the Gentiles believe.

A far-reaching commission

As the apostles and first founders of the Christian church were given extraordinary gifts and qualifications, fitting them for the extraordinary piece of work they were given to do, so, for the further spreading of the gospel, their commission extended far. They had the whole broad world for their charge. They were to preach the gospel to every nation, as God in His providence directed.

Paul shows the extent of his ministry. It was “from Jerusalem to Illyricum” (v.19), a vast area, taking in many provinces and regions in Asia and Europe. He preached the gospel at Jerusalem, afterwards at Damascus, Arabia, Caesarea, Tarsus, Antioch, Seleucia, Cyprus, Pamphylia, Antioch and Pisidia, Lycaonia, Syria and Cilicia, Phrygia, Galatia, Mysia, Troas, Macedonia, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Grecia, Miletus. He went round about these regions and cities of Cilica, Cappadocia, Pisidia, Bythinia, Pontus, Mysia, Macedonia, even to Illyricum.

Now, says he, “I went through all these places, fully preaching the gospel of Christ” (v.19). In the original it says, “fully filling, or replenishing, the gospel.” This is a metaphor taken from a net being filled with fish. “I have filled the gospel with the Gentiles,” he says, or, “In all these places I have declared the whole counsel of God.”

It is much to the commendation of the mighty of God when the gospel is spreading far and near, and doing good in the places where it is preached. The apostle points out all of this so that the glorious power of the Spirit of God would be apparent.

As ministers ought to be faithful, withholding nothing of the good counsel of God wherever providence calls them, so they ought to preach nothing but the glad tidings of salvation through the Mediator. In all their travail and labour among the people they should be aiming at nothing else but drawing poor souls in to Christ, catching them in the net of the gospel, desiring to know nothing amongst them but Christ and Him crucified.

The vastness of the work

The work of gaining souls to Christ by the gospel is so great and profitable, and the reward of those who are instruments in saving sinners is so great, and the danger of those who slight this work is so great, that those who are employed in the work of the ministry should spare no pains, travail, labour, and industry to woo souls to Christ. Paul had infinite labour travelling between Jerusalem and Illyricum, preaching the gospel. He gave up his comfort and other conveniences to do his master service, not holding back from travelling through many countries, often risking his life.

The work of the conversion of souls to Christ is such a work that all the three persons of the Trinity must be involved in it. There must be the working of Christ, and the power of the Spirit, who is the Spirit of God. Though all of them have their hand in this (as they do with all other works external to themselves), yet they have their own order, the Father as the principal, and Christ as the one who whom the work is committed, and the Spirit as the one sent by Christ. What Paul refers to as “the power of Christ,” he also calls “the power of the Spirit of God,” to show that Christ is true God, and that Christ works in the gospel in and by His Spirit.

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