December 7, 2025
"Jesus Is the Savior of All People"
Romans 15:4-13
As we can see, this letter is addressed to the church in Rome. Rome was the capitol of the Roman Empire. Estimates put the population of Rome at that time at one million or more people. It was an extremely large city, even by today’s standards.
By the time Paul had written this letter, the city was already around 800 years old. The official date of the founding of Rome is 753 B.C., that’s about 2,800 years ago. But the city was already old during Paul’s day.
As we might suspect, the vast majority of the city’s inhabitants was pagan. The people worshipped idols and false gods. Pagan temples had been erected in honor of these gods and to provide the people with a place to worship them. Rome was certainly not a Christian city. It was pagan through and through.
But despite the city’s devotion to paganism, a Christian church had formed there. Amidst all the darkness, a light had appeared. In response to Jesus’ command to bring the Gospel to all the nations, a seed had been planted in Rome. It was God’s intention to bring the unenlightened pagan people of Rome into the light of the true living God. God didn’t desire for them to remain in darkness forever. And so it was God’s will to establish a church in the capitol of the Roman Empire.
It’s not exactly known who founded the church in Rome. Tradition has it that Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, had brought the Gospel to Rome and established the church there. Others believe that it might have been someone from those who had received the gift of the Holy Spirit while in the city of Jerusalem on Pentecost. If we remember, the Holy Spirit had caused them to speak in different languages. It could have been that one from that group went to Rome and preached the Gospel in the Roman language, and from that the church was established.
What is certain, however, is that the church was in existence when Paul wrote this letter, probably around the year 57. It was Paul’s desire to visit the church sometime. The letter might have been Paul’s way of preparing the church for his visit, which did happen.
It appears that there were more non-Jews in the church than there were Jews. Does this mean that there was friction in the church between these groups? I’m sure they had their disagreements, but not to the extent that the church would break apart. In our text for today, we see that Paul emphasizes how both groups were included in God’s plan of salvation. Salvation wasn’t for the Jews only but for the Gentiles, or non-Jews, as well. And the Jews were the people whom God had chosen to bring the Savior, Jesus Christ, into the world. Both Jews and non-Jews in the Roman church should then appreciate each other and consider each other equally precious in God’s eyes. One group wasn’t more favored or blessed than the other. It’s clear that God’s plan of salvation is for all people, which means He is the Savior of all people. There is no other. God decided to save the world through Jesus Christ, who is the Root of Jesse in verse 12 of our text.
Some mistakenly insinuate that this verse is for non-Jews only. They argue that God has chosen Jesus to be the Savior of non-Jews. Jesus isn’t the Savior of the Jews. God has a different path in mind for them. To this day, many Jews have rejected God’s path to salvation through Jesus Christ. They have done this to their detriment.
My guess is most of us don’t give this much thought. This letter to the Romans was written a long time ago. The composition of the Roman church didn’t resemble ours. So, what is there to think about?
Our salvation is brought closer to home when we know more about it. It means more to us—at least I hope it does. Just about everything we do in the church relates to God’s salvation. The colors on the altar, the seasons of the church year, the order of worship, and so on, are connected to the theme of salvation. It’s all connected to God’s promise to save us in Jesus Christ.
Right now we are in the season of Advent. During this season, we focus on Jesus’ first and second comings. I’ve said this many times before. But maybe some of us have forgotten this. Anyway, this is the focus. Advent celebrates God’s fulfilling His promise in verse 12 of our text. “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope in him.” This promise was fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus is a descendant of Jesse, according to his human nature. Today, we Gentiles hope in Jesus. Isn’t He the one we believe in for eternal life? He certainly is. Advent is a celebration of God’s fulfilling His promise to save us from our sins.
Verse 12, which Isaiah prophesied 2,750 years ago has come true and has us in mind. We are the Gentiles who hope in the Root of Jesse, Jesus Christ. This is the reason we celebrate. God has made good on His word.
When it comes to trust, God can be fully trusted. I find this especially comforting in our day and age. Why? Because there is so much that can’t be trusted. We don’t always know what is true and isn’t true in our world, what can be trusted and what can’t. It’s as if our guard constantly has to be up. We can’t always take things at face value.
We can’t always trust the words of people. They may say one thing and do another. They may have a hidden agenda. We don’t always know. This is our reality. Things aren’t always what they appear to be. Maybe we’ve gotten used to the way things are that we don’t think much about it. We’ve learned to cope with our environment.
But with God it is different. We can count on His word. When we read His promises, we can be sure that they will come true. There doesn’t have to be any doubt in our mind. God will make good on His word. We don’t have to be on our guard. God doesn’t have a hidden agenda. He wants us to know what He has in store for us. He doesn’t play games with us.
He made it very clear that Jesus, the Savior of the world, would come from the line of Jesse, as we see in our text. If we read the genealogies in Matthew and Luke, we see that Jesus did indeed descend from Jesse. God did not lie. His word came true.
When it comes to our salvation, we can be sure that God is telling us the truth. He has a proven track record. He does what He says He is going to do. What would be the point of His deceiving us? Why would God promise something that He had no intention of keeping? God doesn’t play that kind of game with us. Why give us a false hope? Again, that is not how God relates to us. God keeps His word.
The church at Rome was sure of this. It had formed around God’s promise to save the world by Jesus Christ. If God wasn’t going to keep this promise, why would the church continue to exist? But the believers in Rome trusted God and His promise, and continued to exist as His witness in the pagan culture of Rome.
Some years later, the church there would face intense persecution. Emperor Nero unleashed a wave of persecution against the church, accusing Christians of starting a fire that destroyed about a third of the city. But this didn’t crush the church. It continued to exist, held together by God’s promise of eternal life for those who believed in Him. The believers in the church at Rome knew that God’s word could be trusted. He would make good on His promises.
Our congregation continues to exist because it believes in the promises of God. We know that God won’t let us down. He has given us the hope of eternal life, which we will obtain once we leave this life. It’s our strong belief in God’s promise of salvation that keeps us together and going in life.
During Advent, we celebrate God’s having fulfilled His promise to send Jesus. I realize we are getting ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus, God making good on His promise to send Jesus the first time. I pray that our preparation and celebration of Jesus’ first coming doesn’t get lost in the secularism of our time. I pray that we remain committed to an Advent and Christmas centered on Christ.
Both Jews and Gentiles have reason to rejoice over Jesus’ first coming. God fulfilled His promise of long ago to send a Savior to save all of mankind. Jesus isn’t only for non-Jews. He is for all people.
I pray that our congregation will remain united around this truth as we continue to preach and proclaim it in our church.