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Delivered From Wrath; Crowned with Blessing

Apr 10, 2026 | Uncategorized

Project 2026

By P. Douglas Small
President, PRAYER AT THE HEART

Paul’s Strategic Purpose in Writing the Book of Romans

The backdrop of the book of Romans is wrath. Full stop. Wrath. This should jolt our sensibilities. The wrath of God is being restrained, but only momentarily. We are, as we have previously noted, living downstream of a cracking dam. Yet, for a season, God offers immunity. He is willing to grant a pardon to the repentant.

The offer is salvation by grace, through faith. That’s the hope that we are to offer the world! The gospel, the good news, is the power of God that saves. And we must be saved! Every man must take the step necessary to achieve peace with God. The church speaks hope by the power of the Holy Spirit, out of a disposition of joy and peace.

The book of Romans is then ultimately about mission. Our mission. This is the reason Paul is so thorough in outlining a clear soteriology. The message is the simple gospel – its theology roots are somewhat complex. Over-simplify, and you threaten to unhinge it from its depth and breadth. Load it with complicated theological terms and muddle the message, and the common man cannot grasp it. It’s not conceptual notions that are communicated; it is a person with whom one learns to commune.

From this place, Rome, the gospel will go forth to the nations, and Paul wants the message to be clear, coherent, and compelling. The outline of the book is taken, or at least it reflects the five major sacrifices of Leviticus 1-5. The sin offering (Lev. 4; Romans 2 – 8) and the trespass offering (Lev. 5; Rom. 9-11). The freewill offerings, first, of consecration (Lev. 1; Rom. 12:1-2), and of our service to God (Lev. 2; Rom. 12:5-8), and of our mission of peace and reconciliation (Lev. 3; Rom. 12:9 – 13:10).

So, Paul is gathering the church around the bloody altar, around the slain sacrificial lamb. He is elaborating on true salvation. First, we must all deal with our sin and trespass. Then, we should freely consecrate ourselves, thinking of ourselves as dead, crucified. We must give God the use of our native gifts, the so-called motivational gifts (Romans 12:6-8), those with which we are born. Through them, God will release His grace. Finally, we are to offer the gift of peace as an army of peacemakers. The Roman church was to engage the city at the center of the world and, from there, touch the nations.

Here, at the end of the book, Paul shows them what salvation looks like to a watching world through a healthy church. He pronounces an extraordinary blessing, a benediction, in the form of a pastoral prayer (14:5-13). This is one of the most amazing passages in the book – a mountaintop as high as Romans 5:1 or 8:37. It is Paul’s benediction. Yet blessing is not where Paul begins. He begins, as we must, with the sobering condition of the world. And then, he urges the church, as we must, to be an intercessory-missional community.

The Missional Benediction of Paul

Here is the passage in the New King James version:
Now may the God of patience and comfort [We begin with God, and His character] grant you to be likeminded toward one another [May God, by grace, make us like Him], according to Christ Jesus [As demonstrated by Jesus – a whole church, like the Lord], that you may with one mind and one mouth [We think alike, we speak as one] glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore receive one another [Unity is critical to our mission], just as Christ also received us [A new DNA is at work – Christ received us, and we receive one another – replicating something divine], to the glory of God [The ultimate goal – God’s glory.] Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision [Jews] for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers and that the Gentiles [nations] might glorify God for His mercy [Against the backdrop of deserved wrath], as it is written: “For this reason, I will confess to You among the Gentiles, and sing to Your name.” [We must not be silent]

And again, he says: “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!” [We invite the nations to join us in glorifying God for salvation to the nations].

And again: “Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!” [Our mission is to the nations. The goal is the sound of praise that encircles the earth, rising from the nations].

And again, Isaiah says: “There shall be a root of Jesse [Jesus]; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, In Him, the Gentiles shall hope.”

[He is reigning now, in exile. Acts 2:33-36. This was Peter’s message, as it is our message. The question then and now is the same, “What shall we do?” Acts 2:37. Peter’s response was “Repent.” Acts 2:38].

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing [This is the quality of our witness – it is more than words, it is joy, the noisy fruit, and peace, the ministry of reconciliation, representing the God of hope], that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit [The Spirit’s work, anointing, enabling, imparting hope, abounding, overflowing hope – enabling its articulation, and making it infectious].

The Blessing – Its Implications

1. GOD IS SOVEREIGN – Only God. Note the repeated phrase, at the beginning and end of Paul’s prayer, “Now may the God of…” This bracket for the entire prayer is a reminder that we alone cannot be, we cannot do what we must do, without God’s gracious intervention. “May God do thus and so…” This intercessory, pastoral prayer is a benediction. It is the high call and privilege of pastors – not preaching, not counseling, not planning and leading – but prayer! It is the neglected call. It is the true role of a shepherd that watches, a metaphor for prayer.

2. SOMETHING OF GOD – Not Something from God. It is not patience and comfort that we need; it is “the God of patience and comfort.” What is required is not something from God, but something of God. And that comes from time with God. Prayer! These are not mere notions. They are to be stitched into our nature and that of the church. They are imparted, not acquired. And that demands prayerful dependence on God, a life posture, and time with God, not only as individuals but the investment of time by a congregation to be before God. You can be a good person with self-reform and willpower. But you cannot be a godly person without spending time with God. This starts with modeling, rooted in the prayer discipline of the pastor. It is not what he preaches about that moves and molds the church. It is what he prays about, and what the congregation prays about. He becomes what he prays about and Who he spends time with – and that infects his congregation.

3. A BLESSING MEDIATED BY PRAYER – The Role of Pastoral Prayer. “May the God of patience and comfort grant you…” (Romans 15:5). This prayerful plea. Paul, as a pastoral intercessor, is asking God for intervention into the lives of this Roman congregation that lives dangerously close to unpredictable and often ruthless Roman power. This is the great role of a pastor – prayer for his people and for the city to which he is called. He cannot preach them to this place of transformation; he can only present them before God, as an intercessory advocate. His authority, his position, gives him the right, indeed, the duty to bring them before the Throne. Like a shepherd, he brings his flock before God in prayer. And having done so, he calls on the court of heaven to act, to remember them, to visit them, to empower them. No pastor can do all the praying for his people. Yet, no people, no church, should be without a praying pastor, who represents them before God.

4. A BLESSING FACILITATED BY UNITY – The Focus of Pastoral Prayer. He prays for their unity, their “one mind,” that they would speak with clarity, as with “one voice” (Romans 15:6). This is a plea for conceptual unity and prophetic clarity. This is what we need today. It is evidence of God’s grace at work among us, and it rises out of pastoral-priestly prayer.

5. A BLESSING ACCOMPLISHED BY TRANSFORMATION – The Necessary Work of God – That We Abound. It is an impartation of God’s character that is so needed – notice the terms employed – patience, comfort, hope, joy and peace. May God “fill you with all joy and peace in believing [faith], that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). All of that – joy and peace in believing – can only happen as they abound in hope, and that is by the power of the Holy Spirit, out of prayer.

The word abound, perisseuó, means over and above. It describes a surplus of hope that exceeds the ordinary, that overflows, being ‘leftover’ from some crisis. It means, when the problem passes, we discern that we had more than enough hope. It is a compound word. Its prefix, peri, means around; thus, we are surrounded by hope. It is inescapable. You cannot do anything but hope. Whatever crisis we are going through, we, as the people of God, are hemmed in by hope.

6. A BLESSING THAT ALTERS THE NATURE OF OUR WITNESS – The Resulting
Condition. Joy and peace are the brackets of our life. We live between them. Paul, writing to the Philippians, urges them, in the face of need, to “rejoice in the Lord, always.” For emphasis, he repeats the command, “Again, I say, rejoice.” Then he urges, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7). This is incredible.

We are besieged by need but hemmed in by joy and peace. It is really irrational. It is supernatural. This is “…peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.” It “surpasses all understanding… all comprehension.” That because it is “His peace,” not ours. And it only comes to the surface, as we “live in Christ Jesus.” It is relational.

7. A BLESSING THAT POINTS TO GOD – A Blessing That Engenders Hope. Paul concludes his benediction with a prayer about “the God of hope.” Note how he begins and ends his prayer. He anchors it to the character of God. Good prayer begins and ends with God and His purposes. Not to a felt need. He prays beyond worldly and immediate needs about the destiny and purpose of this church that God has stationed at the intersection of global power.

To offer such a witness to our cities, we need more than words. We need a profound transformation of character. The miracle of salvation and the grace of sanctification.

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“Whenever God determines to do a great work, He first sets His people to pray” (C. Spurgeon). This reliable principle begs the question: “How does God mobilize his people to heartfelt prayer?” Most importantly, how does God move Christian leaders who shepherd His church to unite in fervent, persistent, biblically focused prayer for the fulfillment of His purposes? By two things mainly: 1) distress over the degradation of the church and the surrounding culture and 2) hope that God will pour out His Spirit on his church and fill it with His fulness until it overflows with transformative impact on society. Many believers are distressed at the current state of things. At the same time, there is much reason to hope for God’s divine intervention in response to passionate, biblically guided prayer.

Believers across America now mourn the debility of the church; its vitality is faltering, its impact fading, its mission neglected, and its devotion to God being undercut by love for this world. Right now we are enduring the largest and fastest religious shift in American history. Its scope is greater than every previous spiritual awakening in our history combined, only in the opposite direction. Christians are being confronted by “spiritual forces of evil” (Eph. 6:12) operating from the heavenly realms that boldly infiltrate every aspect of society, even the church. These dark powers aim to 1) frustrate God’s purpose to bless all peoples on earth through Christ with countless benefits, including righteousness, peace, joy, and justice, and 2)
inflict endless varieties of misery on everyone. When spiritual decline and cultural decay prevail, God’s people rise up to seek the Lord in prayer as the fountain of every blessing, asking him to fill the earth with his glory, pour out His Holy Spirit, inspire his church, and deliver people and cultures from innumerable troubles. Now is the time to pray with desperation for spiritual and cultural renewal, for divine intervention, for the fulfillment of God’s purposes for his church and his creation in Northeast Ohio.

Christian leaders, especially pastors, have a heightened responsibility to press into God with prayer for the church. Biblical precedent shows that gathering church leaders together to engage in heartfelt prayer for the welfare of their community often initiates widespread spiritual and social renewal both in church and society (2 Chron. 7:13-14; 15:8-10; 34:29-32). New Testament accounts show that when Christian leaders unite in prayer, often in response to social and/or spiritual crises, spiritual awakening and gospel advance follow (Acts 1:13-14; 2:1-4; 4:23-31; 13:1-3).

Jesus himself instills expectation of an outpouring of God’s Spirit in response to prayer with this promise: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13). Our Father in heaven is especially ready to pour out upon us the blessing we most need and long for, the very Spirit of God who imparts divine life, wisdom, and virtue.

With all this in mind, now is the time for Christian leaders across Northeast Ohio to come together to seek the Lord with biblically grounded, Christ-directed, wholehearted prayer for a God-given spiritual awakening. The trumpet of God is blaring! He is calling us to pray! Join Christian leaders from across our region to humble ourselves, seek the Lord’s face, and be willing to respond through His intervening grace to any changes He calls us to make! (Psalm 110:3)

The Gathering is an extension of the nationwide PATH (Prayer at the Heart) initiative piloted recently in Northeast Ohio. Put The Gathering on your calendar: Sunday, September 24, 6 pm, Calvary Chapel of Cleveland, 709 Brook Park Road, Brooklyn Heights, OH.