Romans 15:8-13

For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews [or circumcision] on behalf of God's truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs so that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy, as it is written: "Therefore I will praise You among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to Your name" [2 Samuel 22:50; Psalm 18:49]. Again, it says, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people" [Deuteronomy 32:43]. And again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and sing praises to Him, all you peoples" [Psalm 117:1]. And again, Isaiah says, "The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope in Him" [Isaiah 11:10]. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul offers a quick summary of Romans 9-11 in v8-12, and he wraps up his teaching with a prayer in v13.

Christ became a servant of the Jews to confirm God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in order that the Gentiles glorify God for His mercy. Have the promises of God to His people failed? Of course not! Jesus Christ came! He came as a Jew. He came to the Jews. He came to confirm and fulfill the promises of God to them. The promises of God to the Jews were confirmed by Christ’s perfect life of service and His death, burial, and resurrection. The Jews could always appeal to God to keep His promises to them, and now they can glorify God, because He so faithfully kept His promises and honored His covenant commitments. Furthermore, note that the Gentiles could not appeal to God on the basis of His promises. They were not part of God’s covenant with Abraham. They could only cry out for mercy. And Christ’s Incarnation worked all that out to perfection as well. The Gentiles could glorify God because of His mercy in Christ. And this is additional support that Jesus is the only way.

As usual, when Paul offers a difficult truth, he returns to the Old Testament for proof that his teaching is not new. Here he quotes 4 passages to show that the Gentiles were prophesied to be included. These 4 passages come from all of the major sections of the Old Testament – the law, the prophets, and the psalms. He’s proving that this is the central theme - God's eternal plan of redemption! And this teaching is inline with Romans 3:29-30: “Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only One God, Who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.” The point is that to the Jews, God is true to His Word and faithful to His promises, and to the Gentiles God is gracious in abounding and overflowing mercy!

Now Paul has just come to the end of his argumentation in the most important presentation of the Gospel and its effects ever written in the history of man, and he concludes it with prayer – another prayer – that the God of hope would fill His people with all joy and peace in order that His people would overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. God always delights in what He is doing, and we get to experience His delight and His joy as we trust in Jesus and are filled with His Holy Spirit and adopted as sons as co-heirs with Christ. God is never troubled about anything, and we get to share His peace even though we live in a troubled world (John 16:33). It is amazing that we can be abounding and overflowing in hope, even we who were once described as “separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). Hope is the work of God which He performs in us through our faith in the promise that we, the Gentiles, are included in the great salvation of God. “May the God of hope fill you will all joy and peace so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”