Evidently, for some time, Paul had had it in his heart to visit Rome. He had prayed about it, planned for it, and attained a sense of peace that preaching in Rome was part of his calling. Yet, time and again, Providential circumstances had interfered. Pastoral needs had called him to other places; unexpected persecution had resulted in redirection; again and again the tyranny of the urgent had stolen his attention. 

“I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you” (Rom. 1:9 NKJ)

The density of Paul’s writing is part of what makes it so interesting. Each phrase is like a piece of origami. What looks small can be unfolded into something much bigger. This is why preachers like Martin Lloyd-Jones and John Piper have been able to spend years preaching through Romans. Each sentence is an archaeological site. The more you dig, the more you find.

I’m fascinated by Paul’s turn of phrase “find a way in the will of God”. On first reading, it sounds paradoxical. We tend to think of the will of God as something fixed and immovable like a lane in a motorway. You don’t “find a way” in the will of God; you submit to it, surrender to it, resign to it.

But Paul seems to have had a different, more nuanced understanding. For Paul, the will of God does not eliminate the relevance of prayers, means, discerning, attempting, or planning. Somehow God’s Providence can be fixed without such immutability cancelling the weight of human action.

Perhaps we might illustrate this by imagining the will of God to be like a pass through a mountain range rather than a lane on a motorway. A motorway leaves very little room for planning and navigation. You simply stay in the lines and – if you do so – arrive at the appointed destination.

Following a mountain pass is a different experience. In one sense, the pass is fixed. It is immovably there and must be followed to complete a journey. Yet, a pass through a mountain still requires skilfulness, even creativity, from a mountaineer. Planning is required. One looks out and sees multiple potential routes and has to decide which one is best. Likewise, due to flooding or snow, one might discover a path to be unusable. Thus, in the midst of a journey, one might end up retracing his steps and looking for a different way forward.

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