Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

another man’s foundation, but constantly passing the track of his predecessors, into the “regions
beyond.” The Christian Alliance is now doing wonders among the heathen on the same Pauline plan,
refusing to halt on the track of their predecessors, but carrying the message of salvation to the regions
beyond.
THE PAULINE MINISTRY IN WESTERN EUROPE.
22. “Therefore indeed I was frequently hindered from coming unto you,
23. “But now having no longer a place in these regions, and having a desire to come to you for
many years.
24. “As I journey into Spain; for I hope going through to see you and to be sent forth thither by
you if in the first place I may be somewhat refreshed by you.” At the time Paul wrote this letter in
Corinth, in the winter of A.D. 58, his arrangements were all made to go on his great and last tour to
Jerusalem, to bear alms to the poor saints, having already prophetic intimations through the Spirit,
anticipating the troubles that awaited him in the land of his consanguinity, and also glowing
anticipations of his journey thence to Rome, which really transpired, landing him in the world’s
metropolis three years from the date of this writing. The statement, “having no place in these
regions,” simply means no appointments out, as he was going away and could not fill them. We see
from this writing that Paul contemplated an evangelistic tour into Spain. Whether he ever verified
that anticipation we have no record. Suffice it to say, the Anglo-Saxons have a tradition that he
visited and preached in the British Isles, of which there is at least a probability in case he did make
this tour into Spain. He arrived in Rome, Feb. A.D. 61, and spent the first two years in his hired
house with unrestricted liberty, under the protection of Burrus, the commander-in-chief of the
Prætorian army. After the death of this friend and protector at the expiration of two years, he was
taken out of his hired house and placed in the military barracks, where he wrote the Epistle to the
Philippians. The presumption is that he spent but a short time in the barracks till he was tried and
acquitted for want of evidence, as Festus, the pro-consul of Judea, was utterly unable to furnish any
charges against him criminally in Roman law. After the great fire at Rome, it is believed that he was
arrested at Nicapolis, in Macedonia, on charge of the conflagration, not that he was personally guilty
of this, but because he was a leading Christian, and this grave allegation was imputed to them by the
emperor, Nero. The presumption is that his second imprisonment, trial and decapitation took place
in A.D. 68, thus giving an interval of about four years between his two Roman imprisonments,
during which he visited the churches in Greece and Asia and wrote the three pastoral epistles, and,
for ought we know, carried out his plan to visit Spain, and perhaps went on up the coast to the British
Isles, verifying the above mentioned Anglo-Saxon legend, of which we have no record.
25-28. In these verses he specifies his projected tour to Jerusalem, to bear the benefactions of
Macedonia Achaia to the poor saints, and after this his anticipated visit Rome en route to Spain.
PAUL’S TESTIMONY TO SANCTIFICATION.
29. “I know that coming unto you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ,” not, as in
E.V., the “fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ,” “gospel” in this sentence being an