God is Able to Strengthen You | Romans 16:25-27

25Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— 27to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Romans 16:25-27)

This is it, the end of Romans. Paul ends the way many preachers end their messages, with a prayer-wrapped sermon. Have you ever  heard a preacher hide a sermon in his closing prayer? Here is Biblical precedent for the practice.

If you fold the paragraph just right, the prayer becomes obvious. “Now to him…to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.” Then unfold it and look at the middle part to see the sermon. “…[God]…is able to strengthen you…” Let’s study the sermon first.

God is Able to Strengthen You

This means that God is able to establish you. He is able to solidly plant you and make you secure.

God is able to strengthen the church. The Roman Church was a mix of traditional, Old Testament law following Jewish believers and newly grafted in Gentile believers who used to worship pagan gods through prostitution. Paul wanted them to remember that God was able to strengthen them as a church. God is able to strengthen us as a church too.

God is also able to strengthen individual Christians. Maybe you are experiencing your weakness right now. Maybe you were diagnosed with cancer, lost a loved one or are under extreme stress at work. If you’re feeling strong at the moment, how much would it take to destroy that strength? What if something happens to your beloved grandchild? What if your spouse turns on you? What if you loose your job? The point of this passage is that God is able to establish us so firmly that even if we must face any of these horrible things, we can still stand.

How? According to the Gospel

…[God] is able to strengthen you according to my gospel…

This means that God is able to strengthen you down against the good news of Jesus Christ. Paul explains this good news in Romans 3:21-26:

21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

God justifies (makes innocent), redeems (plucks up out of sin and death) and propitiates for (removes his wrath from) those who trust and follow Jesus.

Many Christians mistakenly think that the gospel is merely the doorway into Christianity; but the gospel is the mansion itself. A believer doesn’t get the gospel and then move beyond it. He gets the gospel and then moves into it. This is the way God strengthens his people.

Let me share a story to help illustrate this. When it came time to sell my house, I hired a handyman to build a railing for my front steps so it would pass inspection. When I pulled up to the house to check on his work, the job was done–but not well. The right railing looked great. The left railing leaned to the side at a 45 degree angle. What happened? Instead of sinking the posts that held the railing into the ground, he bolted the posts to the decades-old, cracked and crumbling brick steps!

The bricks on the right side were still hanging in there, but on the left side, a block of four bricks had broken off from the rest of the steps. So, even though the post was bolted securely to the bricks, the bricks themselves were not secure. When they gave way, so did the railing. This is what God is trying to avoid for us by establishing us in the gospel. When he sinks us deep into the gospel it’s like sinking a post deep into the ground and pouring concrete around it. The gospel doesn’t move. And so those who are firmly planted down against it don’t move either.

Often when we ask God to strengthen us, what we really want is for God to strengthen the movable object we’re clinging to–health, relationships, plans, etc. But all these things will prove movable and temporary. This may be why it seems like God hasn’t answered some of your prayers. God loves us too much to bolt us to such flimsy things for strength. In fact, maybe reading this sermon is God’s answer, because look at what Paul writes next:

…according to the preaching of Jesus Christ…

God is able to strengthen you down against the preaching of Jesus Christ. While the world proclaims false strength and false saviors, I pledge to always preach Jesus Christ.

Jesus is God’s Son.
Jesus is “God with Us.”
Jesus was born miraculously of a virgin.
Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament messianic prophecies.
Jesus lived without sin.
Jesus dies on the cross for our sins.
Jesus arose from the grave conquering Satan, sin and death.
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
Jesus is the only path to the Father.

You who are wobbling and weak. You who are insecure. You who have built your foundation in the shifting sands of leisure, distraction, family, health, church, morality, America or any thing else other than Jesus Christ, know that God is able to strengthen you according to the gospel.

But Paul didn’t write “the” gospel did he? Look in your Bible at verse 25 and you’ll see that he wrote “my” gospel. There is a difference between the gospel and my gospel. There is a difference between knowing that Jesus makes sinners innocent and knowing that Jesus has made you innocent. There is a difference between acknowledging that Jesus redeems sinners and receiving that redemption for yourself. Paul owned the gospel, rather than regarding it as a true proposition hanging out there in the air. Do you own it like this? Gospel ownership is strength.

The Prayer

Now to him…to the only wise God  be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.”

This is a prayer for all people at all times to realize and live in light of God’s worth, value and weight. This is a prayer against taking God lightly as a side item or a vague reality humming in the distant background of our lives. It’s a prayer that all people would see what Paul saw when he wrote, “For from him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:36).

What is the pipeline for this sort of glorification? “Through Jesus Christ!” God is glorified when we trust and follow Jesus Christ. There is no other way of glorifying God except through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

God’s glory is the goal of the gospel. In Monopoly, a “Get Out of Jail Free” card isn’t great because it gets you out of jail. It’s great because it gets you into the game. God’s glory is the game. As John Piper preached while illustrating this point, when a husband wants his wife to forgive him, what does he really want? Not mere forgiveness, but his wife!

All the forgiveness we receive through Jesus is great, but it’s not the best part of the gospel. The best part of the gospel is that we get God himself, the Glorious One. So, to God be the glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! May all glory, value, weight and worth be ascribed to God.

Amen

What is the very last word of Romans? Amen. Amen means ‘this is true and I stand enthusiastically behind it.’

We have studied Romans for 2.25 years. Now, may we say to its message about God’s glory through the gospel of Jesus Christ, AMEN!

Discussion Starters

1. Read 16:25-27 together. Share some times in your life when God strengthened you. Share some ways in which you could use God’s strengthening power right now in your life.
2. What things other than the gospel of Jesus Christ have you been tempted to cling to for stability?
3. How does God use the gospel to strengthen/establish individual Christians?
4. What about Dulin’s Grove as a church? How could we use God’s strengthening power as a church? What are our weaknesses?
5. What things other than the gospel of Jesus Christ do churches often try to cling to for stability?
6. How does god use the gospel to strengthen/establish the church?
7. What does it mean to pray “to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ!”?
8. What have been some of the most helpful insights you’ve gained during our 2.25 year study of Romans?
9. What have been some of the most powerful, helpful or surprising passages?