Rome At Last!
ROME AT LAST!
ACTS 28:17-30
We leave Paul speaking to those who would listen, awaiting his trial and making Christ known to everyone.
Rome at last! The narrative moves to its zenith, as Bengel observed in his commentary written in the mid-eighteenth century: “The victory of the Word of God: Paul at Rome, the climax of the Gospel, the conclusion of Acts.” Paul’s attempt to put himself in the clear with Jewish leaders at Rome failed, although he was able to:
As on so many previous occasions, his preaching divided men into two camps (28:24; cf: 1 Corinthians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 2:15-16). As the unconvinced Jews left in total disarray (28:25,29, RSV margin), Paul clinched his point with a quotation from the Old Testament and with a hint of his teaching, amplified and worked out in Romans 9:11, that the Gentiles have received mercy because of the disobedience of Israel (Romans 11:30)—another leading motif in the preceding record of how the gospel was brought from Jerusalem to Rome.
“They will listen” (28:28): this is the final thrust of the Pauline testimony. Israel’s salvation, rejected by her national representatives and leaders, is now offered to the Gentiles, and nothing can stop the onward march of God’s truth to the “uttermost part of the earth” (1:8, KJV). Paul’s “free custody” (as the Romans called it, 28:30-31) gave him opportunity to do the work of an evangelist among an audience which had free access to his hired room, which was his prison-cell, and the closing words “quite openly and unhindered” stress both his personal confidence (cf. Philippians 1:20 for the same expression, “with full courage”) and the unrestricted scope he enjoyed to proclaim the message of Christ.
These two elements—the preacher’s boldness and an all-embracing proclamation—are interwoven in the fabric of the history of Acts as it speaks of the good news: “it began at Jerusalem; it finishes at Rome. Here, O Church, is your model. It is your duty to keep it and to guard your deposit” (Bengel).
Trace the way (a) Israel refused the gospel offer in Luke’s story; and (b) the Gentiles received it.