Romans 16:19-20

Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Paul encourages the believers in Rome to exercise spiritual discernment. And for us, we need to know what we are learning and from whom we are learning it and test it against the Word of God. That’s spiritual discernment. And Paul tells them that they are doing a good job in obedience. Unlike the church at Corinth, where Paul is based as he writes Romans, the Roman church is obeying and avoiding false teachers (Romans 1:8). The Corinthian church struggled with this repeatedly. But here, Paul is full of joy at the Roman believers’ obedience. Yet, he reminds them to be on-guard. The Roman church was of strategic importance; it was at the center of the political empire. Tragically, we know that the Roman church did struggle down the road; the result was the Roman Catholic Church. So we, as Christians in America, must never drop the guard of spiritual discernment.

Finally, Paul assures the believers in Rome of the victory over Satan. The God of peace is our sure and settled hope. He will crush Satan under their feet. Notice that the God of “peace” will “crush” Satan. The point is that, ironically, peace requires war. In v19, Paul told us to exercise spiritual discernment, “to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.” See 1 Corinthians 14:20 and Philippians 2:15. Think of Jesus’ words in Matthew 10:16: “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” And think of Genesis 3 when Eve was tempted. She showed herself to be the opposite of what Paul asks of us. Eve was unwise about what is good and naive and deceived about what is evil. Paul is saying to the Romans and to us, “Don’t make the same mistake. Be discerning about those flattering words that sound good, because in the core, they are death.” And the prophecy of God regarding Satan was that the seed of the woman would crush Satan’s head (Genesis 3:15). So Paul is taking us back to Adam and Eve and showing us that we must not be like them, because the victory is won. It has already happened. But Paul says it will happen soon. It’s an already but not yet…

Lastly here, notice that when Paul says, “The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you,” he’s announcing that Jesus is the source of grace. Now, every good Jew knew that all grace and favor came from God alone. So, Paul, by making Jesus the source of grace, is claiming Jesus’ divinity. Colossians 2:9 says, “In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” Paul is worshipping Christ as the divine and gracious Lord.