×

A final doxology

Many of us grew up singing a doxology. A doxology means a praise saying. So Paul uses a praise saying in Romans 16:25-27. The word of God is filled with many doxologies. It is those times when the writers of scripture contemplate what they wrote and stop and lift their hearts in praise to God.

Allow me to give you a good illustration. The book of Psalms is basically a hymn book for the Hebrews. It includes 150 separate psalms which they recited and read and sung. It is divided into five books which speak about the attributes of God. The work of God, the power of God and the wisdom of God. At the conclusion of each book there is a doxology. Book one ends at Psalm 41 and in v.13 you have a doxology. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting and to everlasting amen and amen. Book two ends at Psalm 72 and in v.18-19 you have a doxology. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel who only does wonderful things. And blessed be his name forever and let the whole earth be filled with His glory amen and amen. The third book begins in Psalm 73 and runs through Psalm 89. In v.52 is another doxology. Blessed be the Lord forever more, amen and amen. Book four ends with Psalm 106 and in v.48, it says, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and let all the people say amen, praise ye the Lord. Book five ends with Psalm 150 and the whole psalm is a doxology. So doxologies were a very important part of the life of the people of God.

When you come to the N.T., you find at the birth of Jesus, the angels sang a doxology in Luke 2:13, “Glory to God on the highest and on earth peace to men of good will. In Luke 19 Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem and all the people sang a doxology in v.38, “Blessed be the King who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” Even the prayer Jesus taught his disciples in Matthew 6:13 ends with a doxology, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen.“The epistles also have doxologies. In Eph. 3:30 we read, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all the ages, world without end, amen.”

The epistle of Hebrews ends with a doxology, “Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and forever, Amen.” When you get to the book of Revelation chapter 5:13; 19:1-2 have the same kind of doxologies. So it is only appropriate when we come to the end of the epistle to the Romans we come to another praise saying. This specific doxology captures the three major themes of Romans. Romans 1-3 deal with the problem of man’s sin; 3-8 deal with the matter of salvation, and 9-16 you have matters related to Christian life and ministry and relationships. So in this doxology there are three main truths for which Paul praises God. First, it is a gospel to establish man. Secondly, it is a gospel concerning Jesus Christ. Thirdly, it is a gospel-revealing mystery.

First of all, Paul praises God for the gospel, which establishes men v.25. Paul praises God for the fact that the saving gospel of Jesus establishes men. What does he mean by that? To establish means to be able. God is able to establish. That is to say God is powerful enough, wise enough, and mighty enough to establish men. The word establish means to “set steadfastly in an immovable position.” To settle something. To confirm someone. To root somebody, to plant their feet. It is the idea of being mentally settled.

There is an unsettled attitude in the world today. I mean that in the sense of the struggle for truth on the inside. Men and women are not mentally settled. But the gospel is able to settle the mind on what is truth. To settle the mind on a course of action in life, to settle the mind on the right path. It establishes us. It grounds us solidly in the mind as to what we believe and how we behave. No one in the world is more settled than a Christian. We know what we believe and we thank God for that. Paul calls it my gospel. That is the gospel he preached. The gospel that was given to him. Paul did not learn the gospel by hearing someone preach it, or by reading about it, he learned it because Jesus gave it to him. In the book of Galatians he said, no man gave me this. So the gospel which was given to Paul by Christ is able to establish men. God has the power and wisdom to take a vacillating, fallen, drifting, shiftless, misunderstanding, chaotic mind and settle it once and for all on the truth so that we can say, “I know what I believe and I know in whom I believed. Without the gospel man is unsure, insecure, unsettled, and crushed under the weight of sin. He is ignorant of the truth. He has no footing. He is ever learning but never able to come to the truth. So he grabs at every moment to squeeze out any joy and meaning and fulfillment and satisfaction he can get. It is as in Arthur Miller’s play, “After the Fall” when the husband looks at his wife across the breakfast table and says, “Frankly, dear, life has deteriorated to how many miles we put on our Volkswagen“. To which his wife replies, “Life must go on, but I forget why”. So man tries to drown himself in activities, his work, sex, drugs, booze or materialism. God is able to take that fallen man, lift him up and set him on his feet. How was man before he could stand before God by the saving grace of Christ? How were you and how was I? Chapter 1 says we were under the wrath of God. We rejected God and did not glorify God nor be thankful. Our foolish hearts were darkened. We thought we were wise but we were fools. We were also involved in that inevitable sensuality because God gave us over to the lust of the heart. Some fell into vile affections, women exchanging the natural use for that which is against nature, and men leaving the natural use of women to lust for one another. That sensuality leads to a total disregard for the commands of God. That was our predicament before we were established in the truth. No wonder Paul praises God that he alone is able to establish us. It was the power of God that did it, not some special favor for special people, not special forgiveness because we were ignorant, not some special religious rite to perform, but the righteousness of God that comes through faith in Christ. It is the good news from God through Christ that there is power to transform us and establish us.

Secondly, Paul praises God for a gospel that cannot only establish us but that it is good news concerning Christ. v.25 It was the message Paul preached about Christ. I Cor. 1:23 says He preached Christ crucified. That was his message and faith comes by hearing a message about Christ. We are justified by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Christ came, went to the cross, died for our sin, and provided salvation for us. That is why he praises God. Because of Christ we can have peace with God. Because of Christ we can stand in grace. Because of Christ we can rejoice in hope. In fact, when we put our faith in Christ we died with him. What does that mean? Sin can no longer punish us. Sin can no longer condemn us. Why? Because Christ took our condemnation and we died in Him and we rose in Him and we walk in newness of life. We were once the servants of sin and not the servants of God. We are now free from the law because the law can no longer condemn us. We have a new nature that makes our hearts hunger to obey God. We also have the indwelling Holy Spirit. We walk in the Spirit and possess the Spirit, have life in the Spirit, have power in the Spirit and that Spirit testifies that we are children of God. On top of all that the Spirit guarantees that someday we will go to heaven. Why? Because there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. All of that flows out of the preaching of Christ. Is it any wonder that Paul says now unto him who is able to establish you, to lift us up from our fallenness and set us firmly down by the preaching of Christ?

Thirdly, Paul praises God not only that the Gospel establishes us, that the Gospel is the preaching of Christ, but that it is a Gospel revealing a mystery v.25. It was according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began but now is made manifest. What does he mean by that? He means when Jesus came and brought the saving gospel, something that had never been seen was seen, something that had never been known was known. It had been predicted. The prophets had talked about it. They had written about it. Ezekiel said someday God would come and save his people and take away their stony heart and give them His Spirit and would wash them with water. They said a Savior would come, a deliverer. But it was always hidden, always veiled. A mystery is something that is hidden in the O.T. and revealed in the N.T. It had been kept secret since the world began. Peter says the O.T. prophets searched diligently to see what manner of person and time these things came true that they wrote about. What is the mystery specifically? Here it is: That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of His promise in Christ Jesus by the gospel. Eph. 3:6. The wonderful mystery that was revealed is that Jew and Gentile possess the Savior and are one in him. The sacred secret is the union of all believers in one body. Oh he says, I praise God, I sing, I give my doxology because we have a gospel that lifted us up and established us based on the transforming work of Christ and that it was a mystery revealed that God wanted the salvation to be made known to all the nations. Is it any wonder that Paul cries out in conclusion, to the only wise God? Only an infinite mind could ever have designed such a plan, only God could be wise enough to accomplish such a saving work. To Him be glory through Jesus Christ forever, amen. What does this doxology say to you and me? If you are an unbeliever and do not know Christ as your personal Savior it says you have never been established. You have never been lifted out of your sin. You are alienated from God and heading for judgment. So turn your eyes upon Jesus and look at what he did for you and believe so you can enter into the fellowship of love. To the believer it should cause us to remember that Christ didn’t do this wonderful thing so that we could live in sin but to make a renewed commitment to holiness. He didn’t do all that for me so I could serve him with half of a heart. We are part of the unveiling of the mystery hidden from the ages past and now revealed. Can you now praise God that you are part of what he has done? Say it with me, “To the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ, amen

•••

The Rev. Dr. James Barnes is currently the pastor of White Memorial Church in Milroy.

Starting at $2.99/week.

Subscribe Today