“In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed,” -Romans 15:17–18
Having previously commended his office as “a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles,” he now glories in the work he has accomplished in that office for the glory of God. The word translated proud here is the Greek word, καύχησιν (kauchesin), which means “to boast or take pride in.”
Perhaps this is worrisome for some who see all boasting as sinful. Let us, however, take his statement in its proper context. Paul could have genuinely boasted of many great things; but he doesn’t. As R.C. Sproul points out in his commentary on this passage,
He penned more of the New Testament than any other writer; he did more, according to Acts, than any other apostle; he unquestionably had the keenest theological mind of any in the early church, and probably all of church history. We can only speculate how many were converted through his ministry in his own day, far less through the ages because of his writings.1
But Paul’s exultation is not self glorification; it is an exultation in which he glories in “what Christ has accomplished through him to bring the Gentiles to obedience.”
Further, it would be irresponsible to take what a person writes in one place and not consider their thoughts on the same issue in other places in order to gain a full perspective of their view. It might benefit us then to consider what Paul says of his ability and right to boast when writing to the Philippian Christians:
“For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” -Philippians 3:3–11
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R. C. Sproul, The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans (Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1994), 244–245.