If I ever had the chance to ask the Apostle Paul what the will of God for his purpose was, I would have expected him to begin with his Damascus Road experience—you know, the one where he literally met Jesus. If Jesus showed up in a blaze of glory and said something directly to you, isn’t that where you’d start? “Man, it was crazy. I was on my way to class one day, and Jesus appeared to me and knocked me off my skateboard …”(That’s right, skateboard. What else would you suggest is a 21st century equivalent of getting knocked off a horse?) But here’s the thing: Paul doesn’t start with Damascus Road. When Paul states his purpose in Romans 15, he instead grounds his understanding of his calling in God’s purposes on earth. He wants to find the will of God for himself:
“My aim is to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named … but, as it is written, ‘Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.’”
– Romans 15:20–21 CSB
I think he did this so he could be an example to us because, while most of us will not have a Damascus Road experience, all of us have the Scriptures—and that’s the place we are supposed to begin to find the will of God.
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The Bible makes it clear. In Romans 15:10–13, Paul does something no one else does in the New Testament: He stacks passages from all three major parts of the Old Testament, one after another—from the Law, the Prophets, and the Wisdom writings. It’s as if Paul is saying, “All of the Old Testament is organized around this truth: God will make his name and salvation known among all nations.”
