Pax Christi

“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” -Romans 16:20

Paul concludes his exhortation concerning their unity—to be wise concerning those thing that are good and innocent toward those things that are evil—with a promise and a pray.

He reassures them with the promise that the God of peace would soon make them victorious. Paul refers to God as the God of peace because unity and division seems to be, by all accounts, the biggest challenge the church at Rome was needing to overcome. 

Satan, who is the author of confusion, and a liar and murderer from the beginning, would soon be crushed by their obedience to the gospel (Gen. 3:15 Cf. Luke 10:17–19; Rev. 12:11). The God who saves lawless, contentious sinners is a God of peace. To be saved from lawlessness is to be made peaceful. And by living out the gospel that saved them, God would soon crush Satan under their feet.

Further, those who dwelt in Rome would be utterly familiar with the Pax Romana (peace of Rome) mantra. Rome, violent as it was, brought peace to the civilized world in a way never before seen in the ancient world through force. But there was a peace more glorious than what Rome could achieve. God, through Christ, had established a new humanity whose chief attribute was peace, just as Jesus had told his disciples: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”” -John 13:35 

But they would need the unmerited assistance of the Holy Spirit, the gift (or grace) of our Lord Jesus. To this end, Paul prays for his friends and fellow believers in Rome. Pax Christi sit super vos.