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“Paul's Plans, God's Will”
Categories: Bulletin Articles, M. W. Bassford
Romans is one of the easiest books to place in the chronology of the New Testament. Paul wrote it during the three months of Acts 20:3, which happened sometime between 55 and 56 AD. We can locate it so precisely because of Paul’s autobiographical commentary in Romans 15:22-32. He has finished collecting the contribution for the needy saints in Macedonia and Greece, and he is about to take it to Jerusalem.
However, there is more than a touch of pathos to Paul’s description of his plans after that. He hopes to leave Jerusalem, travel to Rome, meet the Roman brethren for the first time, and ultimately embark on the first-ever preaching tour of Spain. Throughout his ministry, he prefers to go where others haven’t.
To say the least, things don’t go according to plan. While in Jerusalem, he is nearly lynched by a mob in the temple. He is arrested by the Romans as a troublemaker and is spirited out of Jerusalem before a band of Jewish assassins can kill him. He appears before the Roman governor and is imprisoned for the next two years without a trial.
Another Roman governor appears. When Paul is brought before him, the apostle is forced to appeal to the emperor to keep from being remanded into the custody of the Jewish chief priests, who certainly will execute him. He is put on a ship to Rome, shipwrecked, and rescued. Eventually, he arrives at his destination, years after he had intended to come and a prisoner to boot. So far as we know, Paul never made it to Spain.
At first glance, these events appear to be much more the work of Satan than the work of God. However, we also must reckon with the other things that happened while he was enduring frustration, misery, and danger. For one thing, the prophecy of Acts 9:15 is fulfilled. Paul proclaims the gospel to the Jewish high council, two Roman proconsuls, and the puppet king Agrippa. Throughout his trials, he glorifies Christ.
Perhaps the most important consequence of Paul’s travails, though, is an indirect one. Among his companions on the journey to Jerusalem is the physician Luke, who joins him at Philippi. Luke goes with him to Jerusalem, then, two years later, from Jerusalem to Rome.
The Scriptures do not say what Luke did during those two years, but we can make some inferences. In Luke 1:1-4, Luke claims to have constructed his account after hearing from eyewitnesses and closely investigating things for himself. He was a Gentile from the Aegean, and so far as we know, the only time in his life that he would have been around people like the Twelve was during Paul’s imprisonment. It may well be that without that imprisonment, the foremost historian of our faith would not have been able to do his work.
Today, our plans often don’t go according to plan. When we face trial and suffering, we often wonder what God is doing with us, especially when we are prevented from serving Him in the way we wanted to. At such times, we should remember Paul. God’s plans for us are better than our plans for ourselves, and it may be that the most important thing about our suffering is the impact it has on someone else. We don’t know, any more than Paul did. All we can do is trust.
