A Real Enemy Really Defeated
7/2/25 Bible Thought (Romans 16)
As Paul draws what is popularly held to be his greatest letter to an end, it’s largely filled with greetings and names of those we’ve never heard of. Yet, in the midst of his closing comments, the apostle’s God-breathed pen never ceases to amaze us. As we saw yesterday, God’s Word is our chief source of both instruction and encouragement.
First, Paul warns concerning divisive people, and then moves to a closing instruction:
“For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil” (Rom. 16:19, emphasis added).
Avoid those who cause divisions, they aren’t serving the Lord (Rom. 16:17-18) and as for the Romans they ought to be wise to the good and innocent to that which is evil. Essentially, we must live the Christian life intentionally, living life wisely and innocently. Remember what side you’re on and that your conduct ought to represent heaven and its values, rather than the values of the evil one.
For, at the end of the day, Satan is on the losing side. Paul concludes his final instructions with a grand message of hope,
“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (Rom. 16:20).
While the world is filled with evils and with problems, and with those who seek to divide the body of Christ, the Christian can be encouraged. We serve a God of hope (Rom. 15:13) and also a God of peace (Rom. 16:20).
His peace is brought about through His reign and His reign will be victorious throughout all eternity.
To Roman Christians in the first century, they would have been very familiar with the concept of the pax Romana (Roman peace). Under the reign of Caesar Augustus (27 B.C. to 14 A.D.) the rule of Rome was consolidated and through military might there was official peace throughout the empire. No threats remained.
In his own memoir, Augustus boasted in the grand peace that he accomplished on behalf of Rome.[1] One scholar has likewise said,
“The theme of peace, so apparent in Augustus’s words, became conventional in Roman thought and writings concerning the empire.”[2]
The Roman empire extended across much of the known world, and it was secure.
As such, the people within the empire experienced a sense of peace that had come through conquest. Yet, the world wouldn’t stay at peace forever. For the pax Romana wouldn’t last and ultimately Rome would crumble and since then countless nations have arisen and likewise fallen. Wars never seem to cease, and peace is temporary.
Yet, there is coming a day when the triumph of the Kingdom of God will be final.
The God of peace will crush Satan and his rule and all opposition to the cross will cease. On that day there will be a peace in the Kingdom of God that the Roman peace would pale in comparison too, for that coming peace is eternal.
As the prophet Daniel once declared,
“And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever” (Dan. 2:44).
One day every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess the Lordship of Jesus (Phil. 2:10-11). In that final day of peace and the faithful promise of our God we can hope in the midst of a presently tumultuous world.
[1] James E. Bowley, “Pax Romana,” Dictionary of New Testament Background: A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 772.
[2] Ibid., 772.