Romans 16:20

‘And the God of peace will bruise Satan under your feet shortly.'

He is confident that ‘the God of peace', Who hates division among His people and seeks peace, will in this regard shortly bruise Satan under their feet. In other words he is confident that with God's help they will reject the teaching of these false teachers who are seemingly coming among them, as God through them bruises Satan's head. The reference to ‘bruising Satan under their feet' probably has in mind Genesis 3:15 where God said of the Snake, ‘he will bruise your head, but you will bruise his heel'. That Paul thought in these terms about false teachers comes out in 2Co 11:3; 2 Corinthians 11:13, where he spoke of the Snake beguiling Eve through his subtlety. So he is confident that the menace will be fully dealt with in a short period of time. No doubt he sees his own letter as assisting in this, as he has dealt with such matters in the body of the letter.

But as previously in Romans 15:13; Romans 15:33 the title transcends what has gone before. Thus others are also correct in seeing the reference as referring to the final bruising of Satan at the second coming of Christ, when Satan will be finally dealt with. If it had stood by itself it could well have meant only this. But in view of the previous context it is difficult to avoid connecting it here with the divisions caused by false teachers that he has just had in mind (Romans 16:17), indicating his confidence that the Christians in Rome will not allow them to divide them, especially as they heed his teaching in Romans 14:1 to Romans 15:7. And this would gain support from the fact that the ‘God of peace' has already been referred to in a context where division between Jew and Gentile was in mind (Romans 15:30). But there is no reason for doubting that Paul may have had both in mind, for he believed firmly in the imminence of the second coming and in God's final triumph, and may well have viewed their triumph over Satan in rejecting the false teachers as connected with the imminence of that event. It was all a part of the final bruising.

‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.'

This benediction looks back to Romans 1:7; Romans 3:24; Romans 5:2; etc. as He seeks that the unmerited favour of our LORD Jesus Christ might be with them as He acts on their behalf. This indeed is why Satan will be bruised under their feet. It is because ‘the LORD' is with them, the One Who bound Satan and defeated his minions at the cross and will finally bruise his head (Matthew 12:28; Colossians 2:15; Revelation 20:2; Revelation 20:10; compare Luke 10:18; Luke 22:3; Luke 22:31).