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RomansSurvey of the New Testament:
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Previous: Part V - The Future of Israel
Having demonstrated that justification comes through faith, not obedience to the Law, Paul gives us practical principles of Christian morality. (Romans 12:1-15:13)
Chapter 12 marks a major transition in the book of Romans. The first eleven chapters are theoretical while the final five chapters are more practical. As one commentator states it, chapter 12 is the transition from the “indicative” to the “imperative. [1]” The first eleven chapters demonstrate that we are justified, sanctified and glorified by grace through faith. The final chapters of the book lives out that life of faith in real life situations.
Paul's first imperative is an urging to present our bodies as a sacrifice to God. Our sacrifice, however is a response to God's mercy. This is different from paganism, where sacrifice is the means to God's mercy. We don't sacrifice ourselves to find God's mercy, but because we have received it. Sacrifice is a response to our justification.
Our sacrifice has three qualities to it:
The sacrifice of our bodies is our spiritual service of worship. In fact, worship requires sacrifice. Too often, when we think of worship, we equate that with singing, sermons and Sunday morning gatherings. But there is usually very little sacrifice that takes place on Sunday mornings. Therefore there is usually very little worship taking place on Sunday mornings.
On Sunday we come and hear live music, hear a motivational speaker, and maybe go through some emotional experience. But people routinely pay money to hear live music, listen to a motivational speaker, and experience emotional highs. Too often Sunday mornings aren't a sacrifice—it's free entertainment!
True worship doesn't happen by attending a church service. Instead true worship happens:
These things require that we make a sacrifice, and therefore, is true worship.
Paul's second imperative is to not be conformed to the world, but be transformed. This is a continual process of resisting the call of the world and instead experience the transformation that comes through our sanctification. The is accomplished through the renewing of our minds.
Paul does not tell us to renew our hearts. That is not necessary. When we were justified, we received a new heart. We became a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:12). Instead, it is a renewal of the mind, causing our minds to understand and accept our new nature. This reminds us of Romans 6:11-13, where Paul tells us to consider ourselves dead to sin, but to consider ourselves alive to God. We are to begin thinking of ourselves as God sees us. We are dead to sin and the things of this world, and we are alive to God and His will. We renew the mind by realizing that we are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves of righteousness, obedient to his good, acceptable and perfect will.
The process of mind renewal proves or demonstrates the will of God. Often the term “will of God” seems nebulous and elusive. We “seek” God's will for our lives. We look at major life decisions and wonder what God's will might be. But God's will is not something for which we need to search. God's will is easily discovered. God's will is clearly laid out for us. All we need to do is obey what we already know is God's will.
What is God's will? That we would present our bodies as a sacrifice.
That is God's will for you and me.
Our first spiritual service should be to our fellow members of the body of Christ. We are one body, but many members, and each member serves a different function (12:4-5). Paul tells us that we need to realistically look at ourselves (12:3) and exercise the gift which God has given us (12:6). Paul then provides us with a list of some of those gifts (12:6b-8):
Evidently there were some in the Roman church who were trying to serve in ways in which they were not gifted. So Paul's primary instruction is to not think more highly of ourselves, but to assess our gifting with “sound judgment,” and to exercise the gift we have received rather than try to fake some other gifting.
If we are serving outside of our gifting, it is most likely because we are serving not to meet the needs of others, but to build ourselves up rather than build up the body. But Paul tells us our love should be without hypocrisy (12:9). Our motivation in serving should be our devotion to one another (12:10). Instead of seeking to promote our own interests within the body of Christ, we should be giving preference to one another in honor (12:10), and meeting each others needs in practical ways (12:13).
Loving one another means sharing in the emotional highs and lows, rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep (12:15). Loving one another means not thinking more of ourselves than we should, and associating with those who are lowly (12:16).
However, our love should not stop with the body of Christ. We also should be blessing those who curse us (12:14). When our enemies hurt us with evil deeds, we are not to repay with evil (12:17), but instead, as far as it depends on us, we are to live at peace with everyone (12:18). We never should take revenge, but leave vengeance to God (12:19-20). We are not to overcome evil with evil, but with good (12:21).
Today, many Christians feel that we are seeing the beginning of systematic persecution of the church. We become concerned that our civil rights are being violated. Our first response as a church should not be to fight back, asserting our rights with diligence. Instead, our first response should be to bless our enemies, repaying evil with good.
Paul is writing this to a church who would soon face active and aggressive persecution by their own society. Christians would be executed in inhumane ways. The church would soon be run underground. Yet Paul calls on them not to fight back, but to instead love those who persecute us and to respond by doing good.
To the Roman church, the government itself was an enemy of the church. Yet Paul, without reservation reminds the Christians that there duty is to submit to the government (13:1). The ruling authorities have been placed in power by God as his agents, and to disobey the government is to disobey God (13:2). God has created government as a means to promote good and restrain evil (12:3b, 4b). Therefore if we rebel against the government, we promote evil and restrain good, and we disobey a minister and servant of God (12:3-4). Therefore, we are to pay our taxes, pay our import duties, and show respect and honor to our ruling leaders (12:7).
In the 1990s, Christians were often on the forefront of “Clinton-bashing.” We told disrespectful jokes and expressed our open hostility to the President. We did not show the respect and honor due our President. This was justified because his policies and personal behavior were considered antithetical to Christian behavior. But in Paul's day, the Roman emperor had policies that were antithetical to Christian values. The Roman emperor's personal behavior was filled with hedonistic excesses. Yet Paul still says that respect and honor are due our governing authorities.
Some Christians regularly cheat on their taxes, justifying it by showing all the waste in government spending, or by showing all the ways in which our tax dollars are used to promote values opposed to Christianity. But in Paul's day, taxes paid to the Romans would be used to brutally oppress believers. Taxes would be used to build-up an army that would soon invade Judea and destroy Jerusalem and the holy temple. Yet, Paul still says that we are to pay our taxes and our import duties.
Obedience and respect for the government are not based upon the righteousness of that government, but based on our righteousness as those justified by God. That does not mean Christians should not be involved in the political process, but if we are involved, we should be perceived as the most respectful and loving of all those in politics. Unfortunately, such is not the case today.
Instead of owing taxes, we should owe nothing to anyone except the debt of love (13:8). In fulfilling love for our neighbor, be they fellow believers or the Roman emperor, we fulfill the entire Law. We need not worry about the details of the Law if our motivation is one of loving our neighbor, for love is the fulfillment of the Law (13:10).
Paul tells us it is imperative that we live according to the law of love, for the times demand action (13:11). Our salvation is near (13:11b), meaning the fulfillment of our salvation in our glorification. The night is almost gone and Jesus will be returning soon. Therefore, we do not want to be caught by our Lord in the midst of drunken parties, sexual immorality and jealous strife within the body. We don't have time for that kind of behavior. Instead we want to be caught living well, having “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Because the church was a mix of Gentile and Jew, the religious heritages of these two groups would often come into conflict. Jews would be very concerned about the dietary rules found in the Mosaic Law (14:2). Gentiles believers rightly would believe that because of Christ, all things are clean (14:20). The Jewish believers in the Roman church would be very concerned about keeping the Sabbath (14:5). Gentile believers would be convinced that all days are equally holy (14:5b).
As the days grow closer to the return of Christ, one of the things we don't have time for is arguing over petty matters of religious practices. Instead of arguing over matters of preference, we need to be busy loving each other and loving the world around us.
Therefore, Paul tells us to stop passing judgment on those who are “weak in faith” (14:1). God will judge us all (14:10-12), and it is not our place to pass judgment on God's servants (14:4). Instead of judging each other and concentrating on the differences in our religious practices, we need to remember that we all have the same goal and the same motive. That is, we all seek to honor and gratitude to the Lord (14:5-9).
Therefore, since we all are motivated out of love and gratitude, rather than judge each other, we will defer to the judgment of our fellow believers. We may be right in our theology. Paul is convinced that all foods are now clean (14:14, 20). But if he would hurt a brother by eating food which violates another's conscience, because he is motivated by love, he will refrain from eating (14:15, 21). It doesn't matter if our belief and action is scriptural. We are to refrain from things which cause our fellow believers to struggle.
The Christian life is not about being “right.” It is not about pleasing ourselves. It is about tolerance and bearing with the weakness of others (15:1). Our goal is not to flaunt the freedoms we have in Christ. The goal is to please and edify our neighbor (15:2). Jesus Christ had freedom and power to do whatever he wanted. But He did not come to please himself, but to bear our guilt (15:3). Paul's prayer was that the Romans would have this same attitude as Christ (15:5), so that all the believers together, regardless of their ethnic and religious backgrounds might in unity come together and glorify God with one voice (15:6)
Paul calls on the Jews and the Gentile to accept each other just as they accept Christ (15:7). To accept Christ is to accept all those who are in the body of Christ. Indeed, the very purpose of Christ's coming to the Jews is so that the Gentiles might be saved (15:8). To prove this, especially to the Jews, Paul quotes several Old Testament prophets to show that the inclusion of the Gentiles had been part of God's plan all along.
The unity of the church is of paramount importance to Paul, and only when the church gets over its petty differences will God's hope and joy and peace fill us through the power of the Holy Spirit (15:13).
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