The Means of Grace and Peace: Romans 1:8-15

In John chapter 4, Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. He is desperately thirsty after hours of walking in the midday heat. The well is more than a hundred feet deep, and there is a vast, inexhaustible supply of life-giving water at the bottom. But Jesus needs some means of getting the water out of the well and into his mouth—he needs a bucket and a very long rope. The water is not going to leap up by itself like some kind of fountain.

Here in Romans 1, Paul has just pronounced grace and peace upon the Roman Christians in verse 7. Grace is God’s undeserved blessing; peace is spiritual health, strength, and wholeness. There is an infinite reservoir of these things available to every Christian through Jesus Christ. But how do we get them? Does God simply zap us mysteriously in the middle of the night so that we wake up filled with spiritual strength? God could do that, and there may be times when he does something very like it. But that is not his normal way of working. The Bible teaches us that grace and peace normally come through what theologians call the means of grace—different channels, different conduits through which God pours his blessing into our lives.

Think of the water that comes out of your tap at home. It originates in a reservoir in the countryside outside Galway, but it reaches your kettle through a network of pipes with a tap at the end. Or think of electricity: generated miles away in a power station, it reaches your sockets through a complex network of cables, wires, and substations. That is a good way to think about the means of grace. And the more we use them, and the better we use them, the more grace and peace we receive.

Christian Ministry: Prayer and Preaching

Paul is an apostle, but he is also a pastor. And in these verses he talks about the pastoral work he plans to do when he comes to Rome. His priorities are the same as those of the apostles in Acts 6:4: prayer and the ministry of the Word.

Prayer (vv. 9–10)

Like any good pastor, Paul prays for the people he is responsible for. And this is no little two-minute ritual—“God bless everybody in Rome”—at the start or end of each day. He says, “How constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times” (v. 9), and he emphasises this in the most solemn terms possible, calling God as his witness. Paul has never even visited this church. He does not know most of these people. Yet they are continually in his prayers.

This is a huge challenge—first and foremost to pastors. If you were to look at a log of how I spend my time in a typical week, would it show that I am constantly remembering my congregation in my prayers at all times? Could I call God as my witness? Paul’s example is humbling and challenging. One of the reasons God gives full-time pastors to the church is so that they can pray for their people, for grace and peace to be given to them.

But this is not just for pastors. All Christians are to pray. God’s grace and peace come to us as we ask for them. Remember what Jesus said: “Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). James says, “You do not have because you do not ask God” (James 4:2). If you are not praying every day for God to fill you with his grace and peace, do not expect it—and do not be surprised when you do not have it. How many mighty revivals that transformed nations began with small handfuls of people praying for God’s grace and God’s peace?

Preaching (vv. 11, 13–15)

God’s grace and peace come through the preaching of the gospel. As God’s people hear God’s word preached, they are edified—built up, strengthened. God speaks to you whenever you read the Bible, but he speaks especially when the Bible is preached, because preaching by those God has called and equipped makes God’s word clearer and therefore more effective.

Think of it this way: a good pastor studies the Bible full-time, reads the insights of the best thinkers God has given to the church down through the ages, prays over the passage, and thinks about his congregation—each individual person. He produces a sermon that is tailor-made for his congregation, like a suit that has been tailored to fit you. Anyone else puts it on and it does not feel quite right, because it has been tailored for the contours of your body.

Preaching does more than increase knowledge. It presses God’s truth upon the conscience. It has a note of authority and command. Paul says in verse 5 that he received apostleship “to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.” That means it is a weighty thing to listen to a sermon. We come with joy and anticipation, but there ought to be a sense of reverence too, because God is going to speak to us. If you harden your heart and ignore the message, you are not just ignoring the preacher—you are ignoring the voice of God himself. But if you respond in repentance and faith, God lavishes his grace and peace upon you.

Paul hopes that when he comes to Rome, his preaching will make these Christians strong (v. 11) and fruitful (v. 13). That is exactly what every Christian and every congregation ought to want to be. But it does not happen automatically. It happens as we use the means of grace God has given us, especially sitting under the faithful preaching of God’s word and responding to it.

Christian Fellowship (v. 12)

Grace does not come only through a Christian minister. Paul describes in verse 12 the “mutual encouragement” of one another’s faith. He emphasises the mutuality: he is going to preach, but he will also learn and be blessed through the believers in Rome. The church is not a place where one man at the front dispenses all the grace. It is a place where we strengthen one another.

Paul writes about this balance in Ephesians 4: the risen, ascended Christ gave pastors and teachers to build up the body (v. 11), but at the same time, “the whole body builds itself up in love as each part does its work” (v. 16). Every church needs all its members to do their part—and that is especially true of a smaller church like ours here in Galway. We cannot afford to leave any gaps in the supply chain of God’s grace to the body.

The members of Covenant Fellowship are really good at talking to one another—standing around for ages after church in conversation. That is a great sign. But whatever else we talk about, let us talk about spiritual things too. Think of good questions to ask one another: “What challenged you in the sermon today?” “How has God encouraged you this week?” “Is there anything I can pray about for you?” It can feel unnatural at first if you are not used to it, but the more you do it, the easier it gets. Let us foster even more of a climate of mutually encouraging one another by our faith.

One of your most important responsibilities as a member of the church is not to get encouragement, but to give encouragement. How can you encourage your pastor and elders? How can you encourage young parents, students, single people, visitors? All of that and more is involved in Christian fellowship.

It is striking that these are the very things the church devoted themselves to after Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit had been poured out: “the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). And the result? “Awe came upon every soul and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:43, 47). May God help us to give ourselves to these means of grace so that we can see these things happening here in Galway more and more.

This sermon is the third in our Romans series. It follows The Recipients of the Letter (Romans 1:6–7) and continues with Not Ashamed of the Gospel (Romans 1:16–17).