Romans 15:29

And I know that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.

This verse arouses emotions of sorrow in the heart. Paul did indeed arrive at last in Rome, and none can deny that it was in the fullness of the blessing of Christ; but what dramatic and heartbreaking circumstances marked it! How different the actual experience must have been from what Paul had hoped and intended!

Paul had in mind a great thing. He planned to finish delivery of the money to the poor in Jerusalem, then proceed to Rome, preach there and enjoy the company of the famous Christian community of the great capital for a brief season, and then he planned to be off for Spain where new victories of faith would be won, more churches established, and more territory won for the Master. Paul's plans, as made, were never realized. He was arrested and imprisoned in Jerusalem; there was a diabolical plot to murder him; there were tedious delays, dangerous journeys, confrontations with kings and governors during the years of his imprisonment; then, there was an appeal to Caesar, a shipwreck, a poisonous viper on his hand; and, at last, up the Appian Way he came, wearing a chain, as an animal is chained, and walking between the files of pagan soldiers!

Was he indeed arriving in the fullness of the blessing of Christ? However it might have seemed to the grand apostle, it was true. During the years ahead of him in Rome, Paul would plant the gospel seed in the very heart of the pagan empire; that seed would germinate and grow, and at last shatter the mighty empire of the Caesars into fragments. There he would write the letters which, more than those of any other mortal, would define Christianity for all subsequent ages. There he Would indeed teach, not merely Spain, but twenty centuries of the generations of mankind. There he would baptize members of the royal establishment. There he would seal with his blood the truth and sincerity of his matchless life of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The blessing of Christ, indeed, not merely Paul's but that of the world for ever afterward!