Slanderous Reports Against Grace

As Paul writes the Roman letter to the Gentiles in Rome, he sets forth to them the condition of the entire human race. In other words, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The people Paul writes the Roman letter to are as religious as anyone ever could be. They are Gentiles calling themselves Jews. In other words they are Gentiles who have a standing by faith in what Paul calls the Olive Tree in Romans 11.

Naturally Paul respects that faith, and even thanks God that they have a faith. But they also are not established believers. They are calling themselves Jews and they are boasting in the law. They are exactly like a large part of the religious system today.

Romans 2:17 Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,

Romans 2:18 And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;

Romans 2:19 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,

Romans 2:20 An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.

So the situation of those Gentiles in Rome is very much like the situation of the Galatians. As a matter of fact they are the same type of people, but with one difference. The Galatians have heard Paul's preaching and doctrine, and have become believers of Paul’s grace message. A message of justification by faith alone, from all things from which you could not be justified by the Law. The Romans, on the other hand, have never heard Paul's gospel. Paul has never been to Rome and they have never heard his message. So the purpose of the Roman letter is to bring those Gentiles from where they are, which is having a standing by faith in a grafted in condition in the Olive Tree, by their past association with Israel, to being established in their faith with a full understanding of the doctrine of the gospel of Christ. And in Romans, just like in Galatians, you see Paul talking a lot about the difference between law and grace. The difference between the Galatians and the Romans is that the Galatians were already believers of Paul’s gospel. In other words they had already been called into the grace of Christ. But look what was happening with them:

Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

The other gospel in the verse is the circumcision message, the gospel “of the circumcision committed to Peter,” which had been preached in the past, in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and by Peter in the book of Acts. Judaizers were trying to subvert the Galatians to be back under that doctrine, which was back under the law. The Romans, on the other hand, have never heard Paul preach, they are boasting in the law, while at the same time they have a faith. So we have shown before that the faith that they have is in Jesus Christ. They believe that he is the Son of God, and that he has been raised from the dead. In other words, they believe the Gospel of God. And the purpose of Paul's letter is to bring them from the faith they NOW have, to a full understanding of the gospel of Christ. (Bible terms are very specific. The Gospel of God doesn’t have the same meaning as the Gospel of Christ. Only Paul preaches the Gospel of Christ, and he calls it “my gospel.”)

As he opens the letter, he starts off with his authority:

Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

Romans 1:2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

Romans 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

Romans 1:4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

So he says that he is separated unto the gospel of God, and he acknowledges what the gospel of God is. In verse two it is the testimony of God. It was promised by God through his prophets in the holy scriptures, in other words, in the old testament scriptures. And it concerns His Son, Jesus Christ, and it includes the fact of the resurrection from the dead. The Gospel of God is basically the same truth as John 316, which is about the IDENTITY of God's Son, Jesus Christ. The whole gospel of John is about that, and the identity of Christ was the purpose for which John wrote the book. The reason John wrote the gospel of John was to identify the Messiah. In other words, to identify Jesus Christ. In John chapter twenty, following the account of the resurrection of Christ, John writes:

John 20:30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:

John 20:31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

So the information contained in John 3:16 is very similar to the information in Romans chapter one, verses 1 through 4, which Paul calls the Gospel of God. This is what the Romans have faith IN. But, even though they believe this, this information alone is not enough to establish them. So Paul is giving them more information. He is giving them revelation truth which only he received from the Lord. The gospel of God, is information they already know and believe and have a standing in, but he is giving them the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. (Every indication is that the Gentiles to whom the Roman letter was written most likely had received and had believed some type of Messianic message. There were certainly “proselytes” present to hear Peter’s murder indictment against Israel in Acts chapter two. See Acts 2:5-11.)

Romans 15:29 And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.

So these Gentiles in Rome are Jewish proselytes, they probably are circumcised, and they call themselves Jews. And just like in the book of Galatians, Paul talks a lot about circumcision and uncircumcision, and about Abraham and about the covenants. Circumcision is the token of the covenant God made with Abraham back in the book of Genesis. And the very terminology is Jewish. In other words, Jews called themselves the Circumcision, and they called anyone else the Uncircumcision. And these Gentiles at Rome are familiar with these Jewish terms. So he explains the earthly ministry of Christ:

Romans 15:8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:

And then he explains his own ministry:

Romans 15:16 That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.

So these Gentiles then appear to be in some state of sanctification, he says "sanctified by the Holy Ghost," and we know they have a standing by faith, and Paul says that they are graffed in to the Olive Tree. In other words they are partakers of the root and the fatness of the Olive Tree, which represents Israel, and they in the past have been associated with Israel, and are people who would be IN the covenants of promise. They would not be ALIENS from them, like the Ephesians, or like you and me. Paul refers to the Ephesians as aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, (Ephesians 2:11-12) but the Romans, obviously, are ALLIED with Israel. So Paul says that he is the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles to MINISTER the gospel of God. How does Paul minister? Well, look back at Romans chapter one:

Romans 1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;

So Paul says he serves in what? He serves in the gospel of His Son. So he is ministering the gospel of God by serving in the gospel of His Son. And what is the gospel of His Son? It is the gospel of Christ. It is Paul's gospel. In other words, the revelation of the mystery that God had been silent about in the old testament scriptures.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

These Gentiles have a faith, they have a standing by faith. Their faith, obviously then, is in the gospel of God. But Paul wants to bring them from that standing, from that faith to faith in the gospel of Christ. That what he says and that's the reason for the letter. In other words, from faith IN Christ, which is where they are as Paul writes the letter, to an understanding of what the faith OF Christ accomplished. As he says:

Romans 1:15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

And THE gospel Paul is talking about is MY gospel, that is, Paul's gospel, the gospel of Christ. Paul says that he delivers what he, himself, received, and that he was the first to receive it. As in 1 Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

1 Corinthians 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

So you can see that Paul's gospel, the gospel of Christ, contains more information than just the fact the Christ was raised from the dead. It contains more information than what we saw in the first four verses of the book of Romans, which Paul calls the gospel of God. The gospel of Christ also contains the WHY of the cross, the fact that the reason for the death of Christ on the cross was that he died FOR our sins. You see the old testament scriptures promised the gospel of God. They testified of the coming Messiah, and the old testament prophets prophesied of the sufferings of Christ and they also prophesied of the glory that should follow. But what they did not know was WHY. They did not know WHAT the sufferings of Christ signified. They also didn't know WHAT MANNER, or what amount of time, was involved between the sufferings and the glory. Peter tells you that:

1 Peter 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

So the WHY of the cross, the fact that Christ died for our sins, and that means all of our sins, is the revelation of the mystery which was revealed to Paul. He calls it “my gospel,” and by Paul’s gospel, salvation is the gift of God:

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So Paul is preaching something that is contrary to the works of the law as the means of salvation. It is contrary to what these Gentiles at Rome are boasting in. The same truth that you read in 1 Corinthians is even more fully explained in Romans:

Romans 4:25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

So Paul is preaching justification by faith WITHOUT the works of the law, as he says:

Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Every where that Paul has preached there has been open hostility on the part of the religious system, which at that time was Judaism. Today the hostility is on the part of the fundamental, denominational religious system run by leaders with blinded minds, who can't see the truth of the grace of God and who constantly insist on works for salvation or repentance, water baptism, and good works to maintain salvation. Some type of legalism, in one form or another is always there for the most part, in the religious system today. And today there are slanderous reports against the grace message and against those who teach and stand for the grace message. They call it greasy grace, easy believism, following Paul instead of following the red letters. They even try to take Paul's own words in the book of Galatians, where Paul is obviously explaining the difference in TWO different gospels, the OTHER gospel being a very real message, but a time past message, and claim that if you say there is any such thing as another gospel then you are accursed, or else you are calling Peter accursed. And it goes on and on. What they don't realize is that the accusations are nothing new. It's no new thing. And the grace message is not some new invention as they say. Paul was plagued with the same accusations all his life. It looks like he anticipates the very same thing on the part of some at Rome, because he says:

Romans 3:8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

Isn't that exactly what you hear today? Well, if I believed what you do I would just go out and rob a bank. I'd go commit adultery. I would just do evil since you claim it's greasy grace anyway. Notice what Paul says. Their damnation is just! Paul certainly doesn't teach, "let us do evil so that good may come." We certainly don't teach that just because we are saved by grace and not by works that we should all become bank robbers, and adulterers and crooks. It is foolish talk by blind, ignorant men. Ignorant, religious men hate the message of God's grace. It is the same now as it was then. (By the way, ignorant is not the same a stupid. There are many brilliant theologians in the world today who are totally ignorant of the fact that Paul’s message is different than Peter’s.) Look at what was happening to Paul in Asia:

2 Corinthians 1:8 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:

Now the trouble that Paul is talking about actually started in the synagogue of the Jews:

Acts 19:8 And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.

Acts 19:9 But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.

So Paul had to separate the disciples and generally speaking, and for the most part, you are going to find yourself SEPARATED from the religious system, if you abandon all of it's legalism and ceremonies and rituals and hold to the form of sound words committed to Paul. So Paul expects the slanderous reports. Nothing new to him. Nothing new to us either. Now since these Gentiles in Rome know the legalism of Judaism, that's where Paul starts as he presents doctrine to them. The book of Romans is the longest book Paul wrote, and contains what some call Paul's greatest statement of faith.

Romans 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

Romans 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

So Paul's case is, that there is no difference, both Jews and Gentiles are under sin. There is none righteous, no, not one. Now that flies in the face of men in religion. They pride themselves in being upright, and right, in the eyes of family and religious friends. But Paul quotes an entire passage out of the book of Psalms and the conclusion is that there are none that are good. There are not even any that DO any good. Then he gets right to the point, which is to bring these people to understanding. He wants to establish them. He wants to bring them to faith in Christ alone for salvation, and not faith in the fact that they boast in the law:

Romans 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

In other words, he is telling them that the law says JUST SHUT UP. The law was given to make you see how pitiful your religion and your religious efforts really are. It was given to SHUT YOUR MOUTH and to show you your guilt before God. Now, in chapter two he has already dealt with boasters in the law. Look at what he says:

Romans 2:21 Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?

The law says "Thou shalt not steal." Now I don't really think Paul wanted an answer because he KNEW what the answer was. Have you EVER stolen anything? Have you ever in your life taken just some little something that didn't belong to you? A little pirce of candy in the candy jar at the candy store? Just a nice ball point pen someone left lying somewhere at work. Staples? glue? Duct tape? Borrowed a tool at the company and "forgot" to return it? Paul is asking, and he is dead serious here, did you EVER do anything like that? Ever? So what does that make you? It makes you a thief. The law says "thou shalt NOT steal" and if you have ever done it, you are a thief, just like the thief on the cross. The wages of sin is death. Sin is the transgression of the law. Big sin, little sin, middle sized sin. teenie weenie itsy bitsy little white lies might as well be whoppers, because the LAW says thou shalt not bear false witness. An itsy bitsy teenie weenie little white lie is SIN. Sin is the transgression of the law, and James writes in the book of James that if you keep the WHOLE LAW and fail in just ONE POINT you are GUILTY OF ALL.

Romans 2:22 Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?

I recently heard a man just bashing God's message of grace. Slanderous reports. And he went on and on about adultery. Some people say bank robbery, some say adultery. But they all, without exception say, well if I believed like you do I would just go out an do what I want to do. So you preach against adultery, Paul says. Do you commit adultery? Did you EVER look on somebody and have a consciousness of LUST? The pulpit pounding preacher prepares his sermon, stuffs it in his attaché case, grabs his new translation, hops in his BMW and tools off to preach. He pulls in to his reserved parking space, gets his new translation and his brief case full of pulpit pounding sermons and gets out.....and about that time a pretty girl walks around the corner in a miniskirt! SIN IS THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW.

Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

People who claim that they are keeping the law for righteousness don't know what they are talking about. The law was never given to give life. The law is the "ministry of condemnation" Paul says. For by the law is....NOT RIGHTEOUSNESS...by the law is the knowledge of sin. You CANNOT be justified by the deeds of the law. Why? Because it is weak through the flesh. Now the law is not weak. The law is holy, and just and right. But you are not. You are sinful. Paul said I am carnal, sold unto sin.

Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

So here's the great Apostle Paul. Paul, the greatest Christian to ever live on the face of the earth, other than Jesus Christ, and look at what he says: He admits that he is carnal, sold unto sin. Paul admits that HE lusted. Have you? Have you ever sinned and fell short of the glory of God. The bible says ALL have. All do, continually.

Romans 7:8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

You know, people in religion put you down, and raise those "slanderous reports," and say that you are teaching "let us do evil so that good may come" like they accused Paul of, and they even use Paul's own words to put you down:

1 Timothy 6:3 If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;

And they run back there to the "wholesome red letters" of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and they see that Jesus was born under the law, that he kept the law and that he taught other people to keep the law, and they insist that Jesus came to teach us how to keep the law. They don't even understand WHAT wholesome words Paul is talking about in the passage.

Galatians 1:11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.

Galatians 1:12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Look at what Paul says about keeping the law:

Galatians 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

Galatians 4:5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Now if you are redeemed from being under the law then you are not under the law. Christ is the END of the law, for righteousness, to them that believe. Some people just can't get the picture. Law is ONE thing. GRACE is another.

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

Titus 2:12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Grace is the teacher, not the law. And grace DOES NOT teach people to go out and rob banks. Grace doesn't teach people to go out and rob and rape and pillage and murder. If you are going to be TAUGHT OF GOD today, you are going to be taught by the grace of God, not the works of the law. Grace and law are two totally different and separate things. They do not mix. We ARE consenting to the wholesome words of the Lord Jesus Christ:

Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

See what the verse says? It says BUT NOW. It doesn't say in time past. It says BUT NOW. In time past people were under the law. In time past Jesus was under the law and he kept the law perfectly, but he didn't do it for you, or to teach you how to do it. The Holy Spirit was NOT given to help men keep the law. So it says BUT NOW the righteousness of God is manifested. Notice it says the righteousness of God is manifested WITHOUT THE LAW. It says that the righteousness of God was WITNESSED by the law. It says it was WITNESSED by the prophets. In other words the Law was there, in time past, as a witness. It was there as the standard that God requires. It was there to make men know what sin is. It was there to make men know that they needed a Saviour. So Paul tells you HOW you gain that which is required, the righteousness of God:

Romans 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

So the righteousness of God is manifested. It is revealed. WHERE? It is revealed in the gospel of Christ:

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

From faith IN Jesus Christ, which is where these Gentiles in the Olive Tree are now standing, to the FAITH OF CHRIST, by the gospel of Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation. In other words, Paul’s gospel, the gospel of Christ, is the POWER that will establish you.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

If anything would ever convince anyone that trying to keep the law is condemnation and not justification, it ought to be what Paul has written to these people in Romans one, two and three. Why anybody would want to hold on to the Law and reject grace after this is beyond me:

Romans 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Believers who trust in Christ alone for salvation, and not in their own goodness, or their own good deeds, or in their own ability to do right and to be right and to keep the Law are saved by grace, not works. Believers who do that are justified FREELY by His grace.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Ephesians 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

There is NOTHING to boast about. You didn't do anything to GAIN the grace of God. And once you are saved by grace through faith, there is NOTHING you can do to KEEP that salvation. It is NOT of works. It is by the FINISHED work of Jesus Christ. Well, there must be good works, where are the good works?

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

So there are good works that we SHOULD walk in. Not to gain salvation. Not to maintain salvation but because we SHOULD walk in them and grace, not law, teaches us what we should be doing, and how we should be doing it. We are taught by grace, not by the Law. We are saved by grace and we should also walk in that very same grace, not legalism.

Now all of this, this justification Paul talks about in Romans, is BEFORE Romans 3:25. Anybody in their right mind, if they believe the bible SHOULD get the picture. Salvation is NOT something you can gain for yourself and it is NOT something that you MAINTAIN for yourself. God has not given us a salvation maintenance program. The very people who teach that you can LOSE your salvation also teach that you can GAIN it by your own efforts and MAINTAIN it by your own goodness, and they ALWAYS go outside of the doctrine to the body of Christ, outside of Romans through Philemon to dabble around with the works of the Law in order to try to prove it. They are ignorant men with blinded minds, religiously speaking. Romans 3:25 is a problem for them because of their blindness:

Romans 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

And they jump on that verse with both feet. They totally disregard EVERYTHING that Paul has already said, and everything that he goes on to say, about Abraham, about Adam, about the ONE ACT of two men. The one act of Adam was disobedience unto death. The one act of Christ was obedience unto death. So they claim that this verse, Romans 3:25, proves that only your PAST sins have been forgiven. They just will not clear their minds and THINK. When God SET FORTH Jesus Christ, when did He do it? It was AD 33. In the year AD 33, if the calendar is correct, Christ died on the cross. The bible says that He died for our sins. The bible says that God made him to be sin for us. It says that God was in Christ reconciling us to Himself NOT imputing our sins to us but instead imputing them to Jesus Christ, making him to be sin FOR US. So IN AD 33, when Christ died FOR our sins, how many of YOUR sins were in the past? None of them! All of your sins were in the future. Your whole life and everything that you will ever do or not do, everything was all in the future, over 1900 years in the future, when Christ died FOR our sins. So just how many of your sins do you think that he DIDN'T die for?

How could you possibly go back and change history. How, no matter WHAT you do in the future, no matter WHAT you have done and have not done all of your life, HOW can you unravel time and unwind history and go back and get back there and have Christ NOT to have died for some of your sins. He is not talking about your past sins. He is talking about the sins of the past. He is talking about the sins which were covered by the blood on the mercy seat. He is talking about sins which were passed over because of the blood sacrifice in Israel. He is talking to Gentiles who call themselves Jews and who boast in the law. They know the law. They know what took place with the animal sacrifices by the Levitical priesthood. He is saying that Jesus Christ IS that propitiation. He is the fulfillment of what took place in the temple, behind the veil, at the mercy seat. In other words all those sacrifices under the Law of Moses were a type of and a foreshadowing of what Christ did. That's the very definition of the word:

Propitiation: Strong’s Concordance says:

It is an expiatory place or thing, that is an ATONING victim. Specifically, the lid of the ark in the temple, the mercy seat.

In other words, when the High Priest went behind the veil with the blood of that dead animal he sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat which was on the lid of the ark, in which were the tablets of stone containing the law, and it was a covering, it was an atonement for Israel's sins. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest did that. What Paul is saying to these legalistic Gentiles is that God was JUST in passing over Israel's sins. He was right. He was righteous in doing that. Why? Because Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that. In other words, the Law was OUR (that's Israel's) schoolmaster to lead us to Christ:

Romans 3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

So Jesus Christ, Himself, is the legal and justifiable means whereby God could rightly “pass over” Israel’s sins of the past. He is the propitiation. In other words God could pass over sins, of Israel, in the past andHe is shown to be just in doing that, because He provided the ultimate sacrifice. But more than that, Paul says that by Him we have received THE atonement. Not an atonement. Not a temporary, once a year covering of past sins, starting all over until the next year. But THE ATONEMENT.

Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Romans 5:11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

So I hope by this discussion you understand a little more about the Gentiles called Jews in Rome and how Paul is bringing them out of the Olive Tree. He is bringing them from their standing by faith IN Christ, to an understanding of the faith OF Christ, and giving them the spiritual gift of the gospel of Christ.

Romans 16:25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,

Romans 16:26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:

Romans 16:27 To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.