Starting in chapter 12, Paul has basically been giving a series of admonitions regarding life in the church.  The church is not a building nor an organization, per se.  It is an organism, a living, breathing community of believers who are connected in spirit, soul and body.  The church is the temple of God, of which  indwelled by the Spirit of God. 1Peter 2:5 says, “you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” And beginning in chapter 12, Paul has been teaching practical ways in which the church is to minister as the body of Christ in the world.  And the primary way that the church will be manifested in the world is by our love for one another, and by our love for our neighbor, and even by our love for our enemies.

Then in chapter 14 and the first half of 15, Paul has been trying to instruct us in practical terms how as members of Christ’s church we are to fulfill the second commandment, which is to love one another in the church.  As I have emphasized so often in the past, Christian love is not based on attraction, it is not based on emotion or sentimentality. Christian love is not based on the principle of  reciprocality.  In other words, Christian love is not based on how others respond to you.  Christian love does not say, “I will love him or her as a long as they treat me the way I want them to treat me.”  Or, “I can’t love that person because they don’t treat me right.”  That’s not Christian love.  That may be the world’s perspective of love, but it is not God’s perspective on love.

Christian love is by definition a sacrificial love. It is interested in the benefit of others MORE than your own benefit. Christian love seeks for the benefit of the other person, without considering how you can benefit from it, or how they might make you feel.  Christian love is the kind of love that Christ had for the church, as He laid down his life for her.  His sacrifice was not based on our ability to reciprocate, but based on His love for us.  And that type of sacrificial love is what we are to have for one another in the church.

But in the church, Paul recognized that there were varying backgrounds and traditions and convictions on the part of it’s members.  These factions could be categorized by two characterizations, what he calls the  strong and the weak.  The strong, for the most part were comprised of the Gentile Christians in the church.  And the weak were more than likely the Jewish component of the church.  And yet Paul, speaking through the Holy Spirit, wants both factions to be united as one.

This goal for the church is stated in vs 5 “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus,  so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  The goal is that they have the same mind, connected to one another, with one accord, and with one voice glorify God.  That unity is essential to the goal of the church.  The church could not glorify God if they were dishonoring one another, if they were fighting among themselves, if they were separating over non essential issues.

So their differing backgrounds, their differing traditions, their different nationalities, different races, different convictions about certain non moral issues about Christian life, threatened that unity.  And so he has been trying to show them what they need to do and how they needed to act towards one another so that the church could have the unity that it was designed to have.

We preached two messages about chapter 14 which covered all the ways that the church is to consider others needs, and if necessary to restrict your own liberties for the sake of edifying the other, and to keep from putting a stumbling block in front of someone else.  And to be truthful, I don’t know why the Holy Spirit has made such an issue out of this principle. It seems to me that it could have been stated in 3 or 4 verses.  But instead, He has spent one and half chapters talking about this issue. I can only imagine that unity in the church is very important to the Lord.  And also I believe God is very concerned over the possibility that a believer could be discouraged and possibly be caused to stumble or even fall because of discord in the church, or a bad example being set before a weaker believer by a stronger believer, which may cause the weaker believer to have a shipwreck in his faith.  

But I don’t want to spend our time today reviewing what we have already said in our previous messages, and besides, they are available online if you need to be reminded of what we covered so far. But even better than that, in vs 1 Paul gives a two verse summary of what has been said up to this point concerning this matter.  Notice vs. 1and 2, “Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves.  Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.”

So there are two rules of thumb for when you have to decide whether you should exercise your liberty in a certain area, or restrict your liberty for the sake of someone else’s convictions or different perspective on a non moral issue.  And let’s be sure we are clear about this.  Paul is not addressing sinful areas which the Bible makes clear are sinful.  He is not saying that there can be differences in perspectives on what is sinful and what is not, say in the matter of adultery, or coveting, or lying and so forth. Those areas are well defined in scripture.  He is speaking of believers who are sincerely attempting to live the Christian life in a way that honors God through the observance of certain restrictions in their diet, in their observance of certain days, or in their liberty or restraint in regards to traditions and ceremonial aspects of worship, that have been influenced perhaps by their upbringing or certain teaching that they have received, but which are not clearly stated in the Bible, or yet fully understood in regards to their Christian liberty.  And though with the Jews and the Gentiles it basically had to do with eating certain foods and observing certain religious holidays, in our culture, the principle can be applied to a whole host of potential areas of Christian life in the church.  The key principle which I think is at the heart of this argument, is not to let anything in your life be a stumbling block to others, but to sacrifice what you think may be fine for you,  for the benefit of others.  That’s really the point of this whole passage.

So when we are faced with any potential point of disagreement in the church, the first rule of thumb for maintaining Christian love and unity is to make the decision to please your neighbor rather than yourself. Don’t insist on your way of doing things; be quick to do what is best for them. This is what love does. Love does not insist on its own rights.  1 Cor. 15: 5 says “love does not seek it’s own.” Therefore, if you let love guide your approach to disagreements, you will adjust and adapt to others views so that you may encourage them and not hinder them.  Notice again vs 2, “Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.”  Seek the other one’s good rather than your own.  That is love.

The other rule of thumb is found in the first verse, which is that the strong is to bear the weaknesses of the weak and not just please ourselves.   That doesn’t mean that we bear with people, as in put up with people with a kind of disdain because we think they are weak, or they haven’t gotten as far along in their walk as you have.  But it may be correlated to Galatians 6:2, which says “Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ.”  We are to help them in their weakness.  To bear their burden with them so as to relieve them, even if it means we are burdened with them.

Now to encourage us to love one another in this way, giving preference to the other rather than yourself, he gives us three factors that can help us when we encounter these problems. The first one is the encouragement of example that comes to us from the past.

Vs 3,4: “For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “THE REPROACHES OF THOSE WHO REPROACHED YOU FELL ON ME.”  For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

The first example that Paul gives to us is that of Jesus himself. Jesus encountered these kinds of problem even though he was perfect. Even though he never on any occasion conducted himself in a way that was in the slightest degree displeasing to God the Father, nevertheless, he ran into these kinds of difficulties. And Paul says that Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures that predicted that those who did not like God’s methods would take it out on him. Paul quotes Psalm 69:9, saying, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”  The Lord Jesus bore the insults intended towards God.  And in the same way, we should follow Christ’s example, and bear the weaknesses of our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Love requires that we suffer with them, rather than cause them to suffer, so that they might receive benefit.

Not only do we have Jesus’s life as our example, but as vs 4 tells us, the Old Testament also provides many examples of yielding up our privilege for the sake of another. Remember when Abraham and Lot were to divide the land among them, and Abraham, who was the older of the two, and the one who, by rights, should have had the first choice, gave that choice to Lot?  Lot chose first, and he chose the beautiful, well watered areas of the Jordan valley, leaving Abraham the barren hills. Abraham is an example of love in action; he gave up his privilege to benefit his nephew.

Then there is the story of Moses who gave up his place as a prince in the household of Pharaoh for the sake of his people. As Hebrews 11:25 says, he gave up his position as a prince of Egypt in order that he might “suffer reproach with the people of God for a season.” Also remember David and Jonathan who were such close friends? We see Jonathan yielding his right to the throne to David, because he knew God had chosen him. Jonathan was willing to give up his privilege for David’s benefit. And yet none of these men who gave up their rights ever lost anything. God was glorified, and they themselves ultimately gained an eternal benefit, because, in giving up, they achieved the goal that God was after. 

So we get encouragement from the past, in the example of Jesus and in the examples from the Old Testament figures. But not only do we get encouragement from the past, but Paul goes on to show us there is encouragement now in the present. 

Vs 5,6: “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus,  so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

What that verse teaches is that God is able to help us work these sort of disagreements out if we are His church.  Paul is expressing a prayer for unity in the church.  And our prayers are also to be for this unity. Our prayer is that God would grant us to be of the same mind with each other.  And when we pray for this unity, God can and will grant it to us.

Notice that he says the same mind is according to Christ Jesus.  What he means in that is that as we are in agreement with Christ, we can be in agreement with one another.  As both sides adopt the mind of Christ, then we will find we are both on the same page.  This shows us that we need to be under the sound teaching of the whole gospel of Jesus Christ.  We find unity in the truth.  Not unity at the expense of truth.  But as we study the gospel, we are conformed to the mind of Christ, and as we are conformed to the mind of Christ, then we become of the same mind with one another.

Jesus as He prayed in the Upper Room on the night before His crucifixion, prayed for unity, and said that unity would be the factor by which the world would come to know the gospel. John 17:22-23  “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;  I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”

The second thing Paul says is that we find unity in the exercise our faith together in the community of the church, praising God with one another. We are a new family, a new community, bound together by the Spirit of God.  We are brothers and sisters in Christ.  And when we come together to worship the Lord we confess the truth of the gospel and we offer praise to God.  We become united in the truth as we proclaim it in the church.

The point is this, when we come together as a church, to praise and glorify God in worship, we are united in one accord, in one voice.  Rather than focus on the things that divide us, we focus on the things that unite us.  And coming together physically is much to be preferred over separating physically.  How can you love one another if you are not together? If we go off on our own and lick our wounds, we don’t heal our relationships, we don’t grow in our relationships with one another, but we allow those wounds to fester, to become entrenched in our attitudes.  Separation doesn’t repair relationships.  Coming together in Christ repairs relationships.  So the church corporate is a present means that we have of securing peace with one another. 

So we are given encouragement from the past, and encouragement from the present, and now Paul tells us to be encouraged by what the future holds. 

Vs 7-12 “Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises [given] to the fathers, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, “THEREFORE I WILL GIVE PRAISE TO YOU AMONG THE GENTILES, AND I WILL SING TO YOUR NAME.”  Again he says, “REJOICE, O GENTILES, WITH HIS PEOPLE.”  And again, “PRAISE THE LORD ALL YOU GENTILES, AND LET ALL THE PEOPLES PRAISE HIM.”  Again Isaiah says, “THERE SHALL COME THE ROOT OF JESSE, AND HE WHO ARISES TO RULE OVER THE GENTILES, IN HIM SHALL THE GENTILES HOPE.”

What Paul is saying here is that God is already working out a great program of redemption that involves reconciling the Jews and the Gentiles. God has promised that he is going to do that, and he will bring it to pass. It has already started. It started when Christ accepted both Jews and Gentiles on the basis of faith, regardless of the great differences between them.

The Jews traditionally held the Gentiles in contempt; they called them dogs. They would have nothing to do with them. The Jews even regarded it as sinful to go into a Gentile’s house and they would never dream of eating with a Gentile. Of course, the Gentiles retaliated with the same kind of disdain for the Jews. They hated the Jews. They called them all kinds of names; they looked down on them. These were opposing factions who hated one another, and would have nothing to do with one another, Yet, Paul says, as bad as that is, that kind of division God can heal by the work of Jesus. 

Vs 8 says that Jesus began that work of reconciliation by becoming a servant, or minister of circumcision.  Most modern versions translate that text as having become a servant of the circumcision, which was another way of speaking of the Jews.  They had so identified with the rite of circumcision that it was used as a euphemism for the Jews.  But some commentators point out that the “the” is not in the original text, and  what Paul is talking about here is the customs and rituals and ceremonies of the Jews.

So what Paul is saying is that the Lord healed this division between the Jews and the Gentiles by taking on the burden of the Jews and limiting his own liberty. He is the Creator, He is Lord.  He was not subject to the laws of Moses.  The rituals and ceremonies spoke of Him.  He was not under compulsion to them.  But because of His love for the Jews, and because of His desire to bring Gentiles to salvation, He subjected Himself to the laws and customs of the Jews, even the rite circumcision.  He was without sin, and yet He subjected Himself to the baptism of repentance for our sakes.  

Philippians tells us what Christ gave up so that He could win both Jews and Gentiles. Phil. 2:6-8, “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Vs 8 says that Christ became a servant of the circumcised for the sake of God’s truth.  The truth of God is the gospel of salvation, which was made possible by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, so that all men might receive mercy.  Salvation is by faith in Him and the work that He has done in paying the penalty for sin, that men might receive mercy not in accordance with keeping the law, but according to faith in Him.

Paul then gives a series of quotations from the Psalms,  from Deuteronomy, and from Isaiah, all intended to show that God can through Christ create a new body of believers that are unified in Him. So you have the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings all agreeing that God can eliminate even these endemic kinds of differences between Jews and Gentiles in order to create His unified church.  It is a promise that God has made and that He will fulfill.  Jesus said “I will build My church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.”  God is creating the bride of Christ, and one day Christ will return to consummate that marriage at the marriage supper of the Lamb, which will be populated with a vast multitude from every tribe and tongue and nation.

So no matter how great the disparity, no matter how deep the divide, the disagreements, God is able to bring them together in unity as His body, and we have encouragement from the past, the present and the future that gives us hope.

So Paul concludes with a great benediction of hope for the church in vs 13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  All the great promises of the Christian faith appear here: hope, joy, peace, and faith, and finally, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God working in us change us and mold us into the image of Jesus Christ, that we might be one, and with one accord, and one voice, enable us to glorify God by the testimony of our lives and our love for one another.  

Romans 12:1-2  “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. … 9 [Let] love [be] without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 [Be] devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; 11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, 13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. 17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

I believe that in chapters 12 through 14 of Romans what we have is Paul addressing some practical considerations for how the church is to show love towards one another.  It is one thing to say that you should love one another, and that you should love your neighbor, and you should even love your enemies.  But it is another thing to work out how we do that in real life.  In each of these aspects of love, Paul is explaining the way love is worked out in the church and through the church.  Even in chapter 13, when Paul dealt with the church’s submission to governing authorities, the ultimate issue is still love, even sacrificial love towards others.

In chapter 14 then Paul is addressing how some practical considerations in the way the church acts in love towards one another.  In the historical context, there were some problems that presented themselves in the church which threatened to destroy their unity, to cause strife between various factions, and to ultimately cause the church to not to love as it should.

The two major ethnic distinctions in the church in Rome were the Jews and the Gentiles.  It seems that for a while the Jews had been expelled from the capital of Rome by Claudius, and in their absence the Gentiles in the church had become comfortable in living out their freedoms in Christ without having to consider the Jews tradition.  But at the time of this writing, the Jews had come back to Rome and were active again in the church.  This was a transitionary time in the church when Jewish conversion to Christianity was happening, but they were used to certain regulations in Judaism in regards to worshipping God,  and it was difficult for them to forsake some of those things such as certain foods and certain holidays that had been a standard of their lives for so long.

So Paul writes this section with this conflict in mind between the Jews and the Gentiles in the church.  It was important for them to be unified and act in love towards one another and this aspect of traditions and culture from their past threatened the church from within.  Now it might be easy for us to disregard such a passage today because we don’t have most of these particular issues in the church anymore, at least not to the degree that they did. But nevertheless, we can learn certain principles which should be applicable to other areas in our lives, which are important if we are going to get along with each other and be able to act in unity as the body of Christ.  

In this passage it would seem that in a general way Paul classifies the Jew as the weak brother, and the Gentile as the strong brother.  The weak brother, or the Jew, was still convicted by his conscience about holy days and certain foods and drink.  The stronger brother, the Gentile, embraced freedom in regards to food and drink and holy days. The result was that each group looked with disdain upon the other group.

So Paul admonishes them in vs 1, to “accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.”  Last time when we looked at the first section following this opening verse, we saw that there were four reasons he gave why they should accept the weak, or accept the strong.  First, because the Lord accepts us, 2, because the Lord sustains us, 3, because the Lord is sovereign to each of us, and 4th, because the Lord alone is the judge, not us. 

Then starting in vs 13 Paul makes the point that rather than judge one another, we are to edify one another.  We are to build up one another.  Not only are we to accept each other in the sense that we tolerate our differences, but we are to do that which constructively edifies each other, strengthening and building up each other.  There will be differences in spiritual maturity among Christians in the church.  There will be various ethnic traditions and cultures that exist in the church among it’s members.  There will be members of the church which have different convictions and standards which are different from others.  Not sinful issues, not issues which the Bible clearly states are sin, but attitudes and behaviors and convictions which are non-moral, but nevertheless important to each person.  And what Paul is saying is that we are not to tear down one another over such things, but build one another up.  Looking out for what the other person needs rather than flexing my liberty at the expense of everyone else.

Paul’s concern, as we come to verse 13 and all the way through the section, is not encourage the strong to stand up for their rights and exercise their liberty.  His point is not to have the strong flaunting their liberty, defining and demanding their rights, but it is to teach the strong to restrain their liberty for love’s sake.

And the key to the whole section is found in vs 15, where Paul says if you exercise your liberty and your brother is hurt, you are not walking in love. The point there is really the point of the whole passage.  What you want to do is be sure that your conduct in the exercise of your liberty is not unloving, is not insensitive to other believers.  If we can just  boil this down to a principle, we would say that the objective of Christian living in the church, the goal of a strong believer is to conduct himself in love toward a weaker brother.  

In that regard, Paul shows us six ways in which we can avoid offending and build up each other.  The first one is in verse 13 which is, “not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way.”  The picture here is of a brother or a sister walking through their Christian life and somebody putting an obstacle in their path to cause them to fall.  We don’t want to be the source of stopping them in their onward progress, causing them to trip up and fall.

In 1 Cor. 8:9 Paul says, “But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.”  What may not be an issue for you, might be an issue for someone else.  But the fact that you, as a strong Christian, are doing a certain thing that is a real temptation or a problem for the weak one, may be all the incentive that they need to do the same thing, and in so doing, cause them to fall back into sin.  I can tell you from years of experience that weak Christians look to other Christians who they may think are mature, as an example of how they are to act. I’ve seen many young or weak Christians stop coming to Bible study, for example, because so and so, the strong Christian, stopped coming to Bible study.  Leaders lead by example, and the weaker ones will follow your example.  

Jesus warned of a severe punishment for those that put a stumbling block in front of others. He calls the others little ones, but He could just as easily say weak ones.  He’s not just talking about children, but about people who are weak or young in the faith.  He said in Mat 18:6-7 “but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of [its] stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!” So we need to make a serious commitment that we will never do anything which could be a stumbling block to others who are weaker in that area.

Next, Paul says not only are we not to cause our brother to stumble, but secondly, we are not to grieve our brother. vs 14,15  “I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.  For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.”

Now Paul is talking about food here.  We need to make that clear. He is not giving us permission to arbitrarily decide what is sinful or not. He is talking about food, which in itself is not sinful.  But certain foods were originally prescribed by God in the Mosaic law as either clean or unclean.  However, in the NT all foods were declared clean and available for food.  Last week I told you the story of Peter on the rooftop and how he saw a vision with all sorts of animals coming down out of heaven in a sheet.  And the Lord said, “Arise Peter kill and eat.”  And Peter answered, “Not so Lord, for I have never eaten anything unclean.”  And the Lord said, ““What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”

Also we have the testimony of Paul in 1 Tim. 4:4 “Everything God created is excellent and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.”  So Paul says in our text that no food is unclean in itself. But if your conscience tells you that it’s unclean, and then you eat it because your stronger brother encourages you, or you follow his example, then your conscience will be hurt.  And the stronger brother who encouraged you to go against your conscience has not acted in love.

The Lord wants us to have a clear conscience.  You never want to train anybody to violate conscience.  We looked at that last week.  You don’t want to learn to violate your conscience.  By following your instruction or your example, he does what he believes is wrong and then has to live with the remorse and the guilt of his conscience.  He not only forfeits the peace and joy of his Christian walk but he also risks searing his conscience which is a tool that the Holy Spirit uses to lead us and guide us in righteousness.  So we don’t want to do something which may cause a brother to grieve his conscience.

The third point is also in vs 15, “Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.” Don’t make him stumble, don’t grieve him, and by all means, don’t destroy him over something like food.  Christ was willing to die for that person.  Shouldn’t you be willing to limit your liberty to keep from destroying someone?  Sin is a destroyer.  And it doesn’t have to be some major sin that causes destruction.  I’ve seen someone’s Christian walk destroyed over what seemed to be a trivial issue to me.  But obviously it wasn’t a trivial matter to them.  Once they took a step in a particular direction, the next steps followed in quick succession.  Once you go against your conscience in one area, you’re more easily tempted in other areas and you no longer seem to have the spiritual resistance to stop the downhill slide.

Fourthly, don’t allow your liberty to cause you to forfeit your testimony. It is possible to so abuse our liberty among ourselves that we create such conflict between the weak and the strong that the world in general is turned off to Christianity because of what they see.  

Vs 16, “Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Paul is talking about the world watching the church.  When a church falls, or has a falling out of it’s people, the world is watching and using that as an excuse to reject the gospel.  It’s important that if necessary we set aside our liberties for the sake of our testimony to a watching world. 

The Jews were accused of causing the world to blaspheme God because of the way they conducted themselves in the world.  And I’m afraid that the majority of Christians are guilty of the same kind of thing.  So that the world says they have no use for church, in fact, they would prefer hell over church, because the church is so full of hypocrites.  Why do they say that?  Because we are too consumed with our rights, our liberties, our freedoms, and in so doing we ruin so many that are hurt by our actions.

Furthermore, Paul says that the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  In other words, the evidence of your Christianity is not found in a strict list of do’s and don’ts. The evidence of our salvation is not food and drink.  Fighting over non-essential, non-moral convictions is all too common in the church and probably a key reason so many people reject the gospel.  I’ve seen churches split over things like the Sunday School budget or the color of the cushions on the pews. 

The Kingdom is not about what we do or don’t do as Christians.  The Kingdom is righteousness and peace and joy in Christ.  Righteousness means I live in such a way as to honor God, and peace means I live in harmony with my brother.  And joy comes to the one who is right with God and at peace with his brother.  Joy is knowing God, experiencing forgiveness, grace and mercy and love.  And that kind of environment is created a by self-sacrificing love that does not exercise its liberty at the expense of offending somebody else.

Peter confirms this principle in 1Peter 2:15-16 “For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.  Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but [use it] as bond slaves of God.”  Our actions, by the limitation of our freedoms, by the avoidance of all things unseemly, serves to shut the mouths of our critics.   

Back to vs18 of our text in Romans 14, “For he who in this [way] serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.”  Our love for others, which is evidenced by our willingness to sacrifice our liberty for the sake of others, is actually serving Christ, and it brings approval from men.  Isn’t that what Romans 12:1 and 2 says?  “Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  God is pleased when we sacrificially restrict our freedom for the sake of serving others in the church.  And such sacrificial service also finds approval from men.

Paul said in 1Cor. 9:19-22 “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more.  To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law;  to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law.  To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.”  That’s the goal, the furtherance of the gospel, that I would not do anything to hinder someone from coming to the saving knowledge of the gospel.  If we truly loved our neighbor, we would do everything possible to see them come to salvation, even sacrificing our freedom or our liberty for their sake.

Then in verse 19 of our text, he says, “Therefore, let us pursue the things which lead to peace and the building up of one another.”  Let us pursue  two things; one, the things that make for peace.  You know what leads to peace?  A desire to see my brother’s needs met, thats more important than having my rights protected. That takes humility.  It takes a sacrificial love for one another.

And secondly, we are to pursue the things which build each other up. So I consider doing whatever it takes to build them up, not to satisfy my ego, or to exercise my rights, or to fill my appetite.  But I want to see them strengthened.  I want to see them edified, even more than I want edification for myself. In 1 Corinthians 14:12 Paul says, “So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church.”  Rather than exercising your liberty which may cause them to stumble or be hurt, or to be destroyed, or which may cause a loss of testimony, seek to build them up.

Fifth, don’t tear down the work of God.  Vs. 20: “Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense.”

When you cause a brother to be offended, you’re tearing down the work of God.  Food is symbolic of any discretionary thing that you might think you have a right to do. It can apply to many things besides food.  But here he has the idea of the offending the Jew with food that wasn’t kosher or offending a Gentile with food that had been offered to idols.  But food is symbolic of anything that might cause offense.  Don’t let your liberty destroy the work of God.

That person in church you think is weak, who is hung up on legalism, who is offended by what you’re doing is a work of God. Ephesians 2:10: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.”  God is at work in every Christian, even the weaker brother is a work of God. it is the work of God you’re tearing down for the sake of enjoying your liberty. 

Verse 20 reminds us all food is clean.  All things refers to food, that’s evident from the rest of the sentence.  But it can apply to anything that is not sin in and of itself.  Things that are not immoral are clean, they are permissible for us.  But it can become sin for us if we eat and it causes the weaker brother to be offended. We have caused him to stumble, and to cause a stumbling block to others is sinful. 

So he says in verse 21, “it’s good neither to eat meat, nor drink wine, nor anything by which thy brother stumbles.”  None of those things may be sinful in themselves, but when I do something which causes my brother to stumble it is sin.  And so I must avoid it.   Notice also that now the apostle identifies wine as the source of the problem with drinking. He is not saying wine is sinful, but it becomes sinful when it causes someone else to stumble. Your weaker brother may have come out of alcoholism.  And you should be willing to restrict your liberty for the sake of a brother.  I read a statistic the other day which said that 14.4 million people in America has a drinking disorder. You may think you’re ok, but you need to consider others.

I remember not long after I quit drinking my wife and I were invited over to dinner at the pastor’s house of a church we were attending. And they served wine with dinner.  It was a temptation for me.  After all, the pastor was drinking and offered me some.  But I am the type of person that isn’t going to drink a glass once in a  blue moon and that’s it.  I’ll drink that glass, and then I’ll take the bottle.  Thank God I haven’t had a sip of alcohol in over 25 years.  And I didn’t fall that night either, but I shudder to think what my life might be like today if I had decided that night I would just have one little drink. “It’s better neither to eat meat, nor drink wine, nor anything by which thy brother stumbles.”

Then the last point, don’t flaunt your liberty.  Do you have faith that you can eat or drink or do something that you see as Christian liberty?  Great!  Just keep it to yourself before God. Vs22 “The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.”  I used to misunderstand that verse.  I used to think it meant that whatever I approved of, whatever my convictions were, that was fine.  As long as I am happy.  Different strokes for different folks. 

But it doesn’t mean that.  It means my convictions are between me and God. I don’t insist on my freedoms at the expense of others. Paul says, “You should keep between God and yourself that conviction that you have.” And then he adds, “Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.”  Meaning; inwardly happy is that person, the strong believer, who avoids bringing God’s judgment upon himself by insisting on the exercise of his freedom at the expense of harming a weaker believer. 

Let your liberty be between you and God.  That’s vertical.  But horizontally only allow yourself freedom which does not offend your brother, does not put a stumbling block in front of another person.  

On the other hand, verse 23, “He that doubts,” that’s a weak Christian, “he’s going to be condemned if he eats,” his conscience is going to condemn him, because he doesn’t believe he should eat.  “And whatever is not of faith to him is sin.”  So, to the weak Christians, don’t try to emulate the strong until you have come to understand your freedom or you’ll be condemned by your own conscience.  Don’t go against your conscience.

The bottom line is that we are to love one another with a sacrificial love.  And when we serve one another and build up one another in the church we are serving God.  He is pleased.  That is our acceptable service to God.  And it also commends us to men.  The watching world sees that Christians are different.  They will know we are Christians by our love.   Love does no wrong to a brother.  Let us love one another as Christ loved the church, and laid down his life for her.

That’s the law of God.  Love your neighbor as yourself.  And I will just conclude with a quote from Paul in another passage, 1Cor. 10:23-24 “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.  Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.”

Beginning in chapter 12, Paul has been writing a series of practical exhortations to the church.  He started off in ch.12 vs 1 saying that as Christians we have a responsibility to present our bodies to the church as a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service of worship. Now as we have learned, the church is not a building, nor a denomination, but a people.  The church is the eklesia, the called out ones, the assembly of believers who make up Christ’s body in local community.  So we are to physically present ourselves to be a part of that assembly, and give ourselves to that congregation, and render service to the church as our worship to God.

Then Paul spent the next few verses of ch.12  describing the church’s responsibility to each other through the use of our spiritual gifts.  Spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit to individual members of the body for the building up of others in the body.  Not for your own edification, but the purpose of gifts is the edification of the church.

And then Paul adds that the motivation for utilizing our gifts is our love for one another.  Jesus said “they will know that you are my disciples by your love for one another.”  Christians love one another in the church in very practical ways; in hospitality, in service, in giving, in sharing, in perseverance.  Again, the emphasis is not on you feeling loved, not on reciprocation for our love,  but on you showing sacrificial love to others in the church.

Then at the end of chapter 12, we learned about the church’s responsibility to the world.  Never take revenge, but if your enemy is hungry, feed him.  If he is thirsty, give him a drink. Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.

Chapter 13, which we began last week, is concerned with the church’s responsibility to government. And particularly in these days of government oversight and overstepping of their authority, that is a very pertinent section of scripture.  We could summarize the teaching of that passage by quoting the statement by Jesus, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and render unto God the things that are God’s. “

Today we come to the final part of chapter 13, in which Paul tells us what should be the church’s responsibility towards everybody.  In a sense, it’s a summary of all the principles that have been said on the subject of church responsibility starting in chapter 12.  

Now I have used this term “responsibility” purposely as I have summarized these two chapters because that is really what Paul is getting at.  A responsibility is an obligation.  And the church is obligated to respond as Paul has indicated.  We are obligated because of what Christ has done for us.  Our response to our salvation should be one of gratitude for what Christ did for us, when we were the offenders, when we were enemies of God,  When we were unmerciful He was merciful to us.  When we were unloving, He was loving towards us.  When we were unforgiving, He forgave us. When we were unrighteous, His righteousness was counted to us.

So then, having been saved by grace, we have been changed in our hearts, we have received the Spirit of Christ to dwell in us.  And as a result of that transformation, we want to serve the Lord.  We love the Lord.  We want to please the Lord. And Jesus said that the way He wants us to serve Him is by serving one another.  Jesus speaking in a parable about Himself said in Matt. 25:37-40  “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You [something] to drink?  ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?  ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, [even] the least [of them,] you did it to Me.’”

Now that obligation to serve others as a means of serving Christ is the basis for Paul’s statement in vs 8, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled [the] law.”  Now Paul isn’t saying here that as a Christian you should never borrow.  Dave Ramsey may think that is always a bad thing, and he may have some valid points on that subject.  But Jesus indicated in Matt.5:42, and Luke 6:35 that borrowing or lending is permissible if done the right way.

What the apostle is saying though is that we have an obligation to love one another, not to take from one another.  Jesus said, It is better to give than to receive.  The world’s attitude is take all that you can get from life. Take  from anyone that can benefit you. But if that’s how you operate, then you owe all those people that you stepped on and took advantage of, that you used for your own purposes, in order to get where you wanted to get in life.

But the Christian is not to be like that.  Rather than being takers, we are to be givers.  The only thing we should owe anyone is love. We are obligated to love.  We must love because He first loved us. Notice that it is a love to anyone. Not love just to people I like.  Nor even love to people in the church.  But love to anyone who crosses my path.  Now this is difficult.  I will grant you that. It’s not natural. And it can only be done when we are in agreement with chapter 12 vs 2, “And be not conformed to this world, (don’t think like the world thinks, don’t think this is just the way the world is) but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Renewing there is present tense.  It’s continual.  It’s being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ first of all in our mind, so that we have the mind of Christ.  That comes from meditating on His word.  As we study the word of God His thoughts become our thoughts, so that our mind is renewed.  We have a different way of thinking.  We have a new heart, so that we have new desires.

And so as God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to die on the cross for them, so that sinners might be saved, the unrighteous may be made righteous, the dead might be given life, so we learn to love everyone as Christ loves everyone. Now I have made this point previously, but let me reaffirm it for a moment; Just because God loved the world does not mean that God condones the sin of the world.  No, God loved the world so that even though they were sinners, Christ died for their sin so that they might be saved.  Love does not mean condoning nor disregarding sin.  But the penalty for sin had to be paid, and God paid our penalty on the cross. We love the sinner but hate the sin. Because sin destroys.  And so because we love the sinner we show them the way that their sin can be forgiven.

So our obligation is to love anyone whom we come into contact with.  Showing Christian love is how the world might be saved, and if they are saved, love is how we build them up in their faith.  Love spoken of here is a sacrificial love.  We present our bodies as a living sacrifice to love the church, to love God and to love one another. We sacrifice what’s important to us for what is important for them.  Love doesn’t mean we have to approve of them, or even like them, or like their behavior, but we are to do for them that which is most beneficial for them.  We show love to them by sharing the good news of the gospel so that they can know salvation for their soul, and we share with them whatever earthly needs that they may have.

Paul says in vs 8 “he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”  Jesus said in Matt. 5:17  “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”  As Christians, we are not under the penalty of the law.  Jesus paid that penalty on the cross.  But we are obligated to keep His commandments.  We are not saved by keeping the law, we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ.  But once justified by faith, out of gratitude we should be motivated to do what God wants us to do, to live as He wants us to live.  We should live as Christ lived.  And Christ kept the law perfectly.  The law is God’s standard of righteousness.

So how do we fulfill the law by loving one another as Paul said?  The short answer is in vs 10, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of [the] law.”  Love does no harm to a neighbor.

Now let’s pause for a moment and consider this word neighbor for a moment.  I’m sure you are all familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan.  What you may have forgotten was that Jesus told that parable in response to a lawyer’s question; “Who is my neighbor?”  The lawyer asked that question because he had first asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life.  And Jesus turned him to the law, the man’s specialty.  Jesus said what does the law say?

Luke 10:27-28 tells us the lawyer answered, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” And Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE.”  So to justify himself the man said, “who is my neighbor?”  He wanted to limit the concept of a neighbor as much as possible.

So Jesus gave this parable to illustrate who is his neighbor.  He said, ”A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead.  And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.  But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion,  and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on [them;] and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him.  On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’  “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ [hands?]”  And the lawyer said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

So your neighbor is anyone who you might come in contact with.  And we should consider how that Samaritan showed love towards his neighbor.  He interrupted his trip to take care of this man. He used his own resources to supply what the man needed, even to paying for future costs to the innkeeper.  He said he would come back that way and check on him and supply whatever more was needed.  He showed compassion for a stranger.  He showed mercy towards his neighbor.  That is what love looks like.

Now I skipped over a verse, vs 9, in which Paul says what love is not.  And to illustrate what love is not, he quotes from the 10 commandments.  He says in vs9, “For this, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

What that illustrates is that if you love your neighbor, you will not break the law, you will not commit adultery with his wife.  If you love your neighbor, you cannot murder him. If you love your neighbor, you cannot steal from him. And if you love your neighbor, you will not covet his possessions. But rather you will rejoice with him as we saw back in 12:17. 

But as Jesus said, all the law pertaining to man’s relationship with man is summed up in the saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  At the very least what he means by the phrase “as yourself” is the natural tendency towards self preservation.  That tendency means that everything I do is filtered by how it may hurt me, or how it may benefit me.  And both Paul and Jesus are indicating that same metric should be used for how we love our neighbor.  How we may benefit him, how we may avoid hurting him.  So that vs 10 concludes then that love does no harm to the neighbor.  He benefits his neighbor and he does no harm to his neighbor.  That is love.  And love is the fulfillment of the law.  Love is not based on how much you like someone, or how attracted you may be to them, or how you think they might reciprocate towards you.  But love is acting purely for their benefit.

Let me assure you that this is not our natural behavior.  This is learned behavior. This is consciously patterning ourselves after Jesus Christ and deliberately being transformed by the renewing of the mind.  I would suggest that this kind of love  is like the maturation process of  raising a child.  A child is naturally selfish and self centered.  “Mine!” is probably one of the first words a child learns.  So learning to share is a result of maturity, but it’s a learned behavior, it’s not natural.  And I would suggest that Christian love is a discipline that has to be learned as well.  Christian love is not an automatic response, an overwhelming emotion, but love is a commitment.

Then in vs 11, Paul says that there is needs to be an urgency to our love.  He says time is of the essence.  There is a natural tendency on the part of human nature to procrastinate, to put off for another day.  And the degree of commitment to love that Paul is talking about is the sort of thing it is very easy to put off until tomorrow.  

I had a friend that I knew from surfing.  We weren’t that close, but we knew each other for many years.  We surfed together from time to time.  And occasionally he would call me just to talk about surfing.  The other day he called and during the conversation  he revealed that his cancer had returned with a vengeance and he was getting very high doses of radiation and chemotherapy to treat the cancer.  I tried to speak with him about his relationship to  the Lord, but I must confess that what I said was kind of generic.  I didn’t feel comfortable really taking the opportunity to drive home the message of the gospel.  He was kind of weeping at one point, and I just hesitated to push the question of his spiritual condition too far.  So as we finished the conversation I said  that I would be praying that God would help him recover and that I hoped we would be surfing together again soon.  

Later on, I was really convicted that I did not say all that I could have said at that time.  And so a few days later I was driving by one of his stores in Salisbury and I stopped in to ask one of the clerks for his address.   I thought perhaps I could send him a card and write some things to him about his salvation.  But the clerk apologized and said I’m sorry to be the one to tell you,  but  my friend had passed away just a couple of days after our call.  My opportunity to love him the way Christ loved him was gone.

And I think that’s what Paul is getting at here in these closing verses of this chapter.  He says, in vs 11, “Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.”  Do this… do what?  Love your neighbor as yourself. Do that. Love your neighbor, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from your sleep.

I’m afraid that a lot of Christians in the church can be related to a person who is sleeping on the job. We may be present in body, but we are asleep spiritually.  We have an obligation to God, we owe our neighbors, we owe the congregation of the church our love but we too occupied with our own needs. But if we loved our neighbors we would tell them the good news.  We would tell them that whoever believes in Christ will have eternal life, they will never die.  But we  are tired.  We’ve turned off the lights and zoned out.  We are too busy taking care of our deal to think about others.  I’ve often said, the sign of an immature Christian is that they come to church for themselves, when they feel like it, when it’s not inconvenient for them.  The sign of maturity is you come for others, to serve others, to encourage others, to love others.  Paul says the time is critical.  It’s urgent.  Wake up.  

What does Paul mean though when he says we need to wake up because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed? Notice he says our salvation.  Not others salvation, but ours.  We were justified by grace through faith. The penalty for sin has been dealt with. Thats the first phase of our salvation.  The second phase of our salvation is sanctification.  Sanctification is when we are freed from the power of sin.  Sin no longer controls us.  We are transformed, renewed, walking in the power of the Spirit.  It’s the phase when we are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Now that’s a process.  And Paul says in that process we are further along than we were.  

And the final phase of our salvation is glorification.  Glorification is the phase when sin’s presence is done away with.  Glorification comes at the consummation of the age, when Christ returns, and we will be like Him, and sin will be done away with.  So as we progress in our salvation, looking for the day when we shall be with Christ, that day is nearer than when we first believed.  Time for us is short, and growing shorter every day. We don’t know how much time we have left to do what God commanded us to do, but it’s less than we had yesterday.

 Paul says the time is  like the sunrise after a long night. vs12, “The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”

Morning is coming. Jesus Christ the light of the world is going to return soon.  Paul says that the world is in darkness. And the world has been living in darkness since the Light of the world was taken up into heaven.  The world does the deeds of darkness.  That speaks of the sin of the world, the ignorance of the world.  But we that are saved are to be lights in the darkness.  Notice Paul says put on the armor of light.  This is spiritual warfare, and the way to defeat the kingdom of darkness which holds men and women captive is by putting on the armor of light which God has given us.  That light is the truth of the gospel.  It is the knowledge of salvation.  That is the armor of light.  Put it on.  Wear it.

Paul said in Phil. 2:15 that we were to act “so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.”  We are to bear the light, shine the light of the gospel to a world in darkness.  That is love.  That is loving your neighbor.

Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.  Now Paul describes the deeds of darkness; “Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.”  

Do we even need to expound on those examples of the deeds of darkness? I don’t think we need to explain them.  But what needs to be said is that far too often the saint still hasn’t put off the sin.  Notice the admonition to put off the deeds of darkness is given to us.  He says “let us behave properly, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.”  All those deeds of darkness are  things that the Christian still has to deal with in his own life, has to guard against.  We live in a society today that makes such things seem normal, seem legitimate, and certainly seem desirable.  

But as Peter says concerning those things in 1Peter 4:1-5 “Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,  so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.  For the time already past is sufficient [for you] to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.  In [all] this, they are surprised that you do not run with [them] into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign [you;]  but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”  That judgment will happen on the day which Paul said was at hand.  Morning is coming.  Jesus is coming back.  Put off the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

And finally, we see that the armor of light is Jesus Christ Himself. vs14, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”  Clothe yourselves with Jesus Christ. Put on the attitude of Christ.  Be dressed in the righteousness of Christ.  Put on the gospel of Christ. Put on the love of Christ. Put on the word of Christ. And do not put on any part of that old nature which fulfills the lusts of the flesh.  Don’t put on the attitude of the world.  Don’t put on the clothes of the world.  Don’t put on the deeds of darkness.  As you put on Jesus, the things of this world will fade into the darkness of the past.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.  Cleanse yourself of all ungodliness and unrighteousness and let your light shine before men, that they might see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

If you were here for the last few weeks in our study of Romans 12, then you will remember that chapter 12 deals with the practical application of the doctrine espoused in the first eleven chapters.  And practically speaking, chapter 12 is focused on the life of the church.  Paul says how we are live out the doctrines of justification and sanctification and glorification is by presenting our bodies physically to the church body, as a living sacrifice which is our worship to the Lord.  

And the dominate focus of the chapter deals with how we live out our Christianity in the church in community with one another.  Paul delineates how we are to exercise our spiritual gifts in the church not for our own benefit, but for the benefit of one another.  How we are to exercise humility in our relationship with one another, and most importantly, how we are to love one another.  And in that context he talks about contributing to one another’s needs as the church.  

So it’s all about the church.  The church is Christ’s body, a corporate, communal, and local assembly of believers who are connected as a family, born of the same Father, filled with the same spirit.  So that as Jesus said; they will know that you are my disciples by your love for one another.  Who will know?  The watching world will know.

It’s interesting to notice that in the first NT church, they were all living together in Solomon’s portico which was in the temple compound in Jerusalem, and they had adapted that spot as the site of their church.  They had about 5000 people assembled there and they had all things in common. And though I don’t think the point of that is to teach that communal living is God’s plan for the church, I do think there were a lot of things that we can take away from that.  One is they were studying the word of God at the apostle’s feet daily. 

It says of this church in Acts 2:46-47 that they were “Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,  praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”  And the point I want emphasize this morning is that it says they had favor with all the people.  I think that is speaking of the people outside of the church – all the Jews that visited the temple, that were witnesses to this great revival that was going on in their midst.  As they saw this church living together, they saw the love that Jesus spoke of, they saw the way they conducted themselves in the community, they saw a new type of person that was no longer conformed to the world, but transformed, and this church was viewed favorably by the world. And as a result, it says that there were added to their number day by day those that were being saved.  In other words, the church’s daily testimony of life caused the world to want to be saved, caused the world to want what they had.

Now that is appropriate to what Paul is saying in this chapter.  He has urged the church to be transformed, to no longer be conformed to the standard of the world.  He has told them how to live together and love one another. And now Paul tells the church how they are to deal with outsiders.  Those that are outside the church.  How we are to live in the world as transformed Christians. And the point is that we might be like Christ to the world.  We might win the world to Christ by the way we communicate, by the way we respond, by our compassion and by our condescension to the world.  Paul uses that word condescension, but not in the way we think of, which is to look down upon someone, but in the sense of coming down off your high horse and having compassion for the people who are outside of the church. And the goal is that the way we respond to the world is the means by which the world may come to know the gospel and be saved.

Paul then gives a series of exhortations or encouragements in how we are to act towards outsiders, people in the world.  Now the key in this series of exhortations is the same as it was in the Sermon on the Mount.  Paul is talking to, as Jesus also was referencing, a people who have a new nature, who have been born again and are operating in the power of the Spirit.  An indication of that is found back in the first part of the chapter when Paul talks about spiritual gifts.  In order for the church to be able to fulfill this kind of behavior, there must have first been a change of heart, a new nature, having received the power of the Holy Spirit.  Otherwise, the admonitions Paul gives are no better or more effective than the teachings of Socrates or Confucius or any number of other secular and religious leaders throughout history that have taught on the subject of ethical behavior.  And men and women through the ages have attempted to follow such teachings, but for the most part have found it unattainable, and perhaps really only see it as an ideal that cannot be maintained.

It’s possible to have that sort of attitude as a Christian as well. We hear Paul in this passage or Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, and we say that such behavior is impossible to maintain and so we claim God’s grace and mercy and don’t even really try to do it.  But these attitudes and behaviors are not given as an unattainable ideology, but they are intended to be a reality in the life of the believer.  And they can be a reality when we do what Paul says in the first verse; to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.  When we die to self and walk in the Spirit. 

But that doesn’t mean that such behavior comes naturally, that it will happen instinctively, that we don’t have to work on these things.  That’s why in regards to the spiritual gifts listed earlier in the passage the indication is that we are to exercise them.  It takes a deliberate, conscious effort to make what we know to be true, a reality in our life.  To do what Jesus commands us to do takes commitment, resolve, dedication, perseverance, even a sense of duty.  And so we listen to this list, but we also must receive it, we must apply it, we must practice it, so that it eventually becomes a part of our nature.  But don’t be deceived into thinking that it’s just going to happen naturally.  This behavior that Paul is talking about is completely alien to human nature.  But it must be learned behavior of our spirit.

Now the first principle in this list of seven sets the standard for all which follow: vs 14, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”  What Paul says here is an echo of what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount; Matt. 5:44  “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Anyone that thinks this is easily done simply isn’t living in the real world or they are living in an ivory tower.  Paul is not simply saying to not take revenge.  He will say that later in vs 19.  But this is even more difficult than that.  This is talking about praying a blessing on those who persecute you.  This is praying for God to bless someone that has just stolen from you, or beat you, or persecuted you, or in the example of Christ, someone who just drove nails into your hands. Jesus prayed on that occasion; “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”

Paul adds, “Bless and do not curse.” We should have not even the slightest desire for vengeance to those who do us harm, not on my part or even desiring God to exact revenge for us.  This is so contrary to our nature that such behavior can only come as a result of a transformed, renewed mind, that has been made new by the power of the Spirit working in us.

He’s not just saying don’t call the offending person a bad name, though using foul language should certainly not be a characteristic of us, but not even wishing ill upon them.  And then even taking it a step beyond that; bless them, pray for them.  

The next principle of how we are to deal with outsiders is in vs 15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”  This is not only to be true with other believers, but with our neighbors, with unbelievers, with those of the world with whom we come in contact with.  I think this is speaking of compassion.  Compassion for the unbeliever not only includes concern about their soul, but concern for their person.  To identify with them, to feel sympathy for them, and then also to be happy for them when things go well for them.  Perhaps that aspect is easier to understand by saying don’t be envious of them when things go well for them.  

I know that it’s easier to be sympathetic with an unbeliever when they are going through hard times than it is to be happy for them when things are going well for them.  When your neighbor who lives a life without a care for God or the things of God, gets a windfall and buys a brand new Mercedes, it’s hard to be really happy for him, isn’t it?  It’s easier to be a little envious of the fact that he was able to live the way he wanted and yet gets to have this great new toy.  Now maybe that illustration is a little too crass for most of you to identify with.  I hope so.  But I believe that if it’s hard to have sincere sympathy and compassion for the unbeliever in hard times, it’s just as hard to be able to rejoice with them when they rejoice.  But real Christian love for the world must have a compassion that is not hypocritical or insincere. 

The third exhortation to love the outsiders of the church is found in vs 16; “Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.”  Now at first glance this seems contrary to the earlier exhortation we were given in vs 2 to not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.  We were told there not to think like the world, and now Paul says have the same mind as those outside the church.  So what are we make of this?

Well, the answer might be in translation. Some of the words in the original might be better understood in one of the other translations.  For instance, in the RSV it reads; “Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; never be conceited.”  Living in harmony with your neighbor is more in keeping with the general context of Paul’s list here, especially in light of vs 18 which says be at peace with all men.  

How can you be a witness to your neighbor if you are in a war with him?  I have been in a turf war with a neighbor before.  It was long ago, right after my wife and I were married.  We bought our first house and found out later that our neighbor was a stark raving mad lunatic.  I really think that they were the ones who were wrong and the offender.  But I will tell you that regardless of who was right, it was a terrible thing.  After a week or so, it became impossible to even speak to them. 

But had I truly applied this principle right at the very beginning, I think things might have gone differently.  My neighbor would still have been a crazy person, but things might not have progressed to the point that they did.  And it hurt me when I tried to sell my house a couple of years later.  She had put signs and fences up all around my property that rivaled a federal maximum security prison.  No one would buy my house. 

Now the key to living in harmony is found in the remainder of the text; don’t be haughty.  Don’t act out of pride.  Humble yourself in your relationship with others.  Associate with the lowly.  The lowly can mean those that are depressed, or humble, but also those who are of low estate.  That may include those that don’t have very high standards of conduct. They may not be the nicest people, the most refined people.  They may even be a stark raving mad lunatic.  But as one translation says, condescend to such people.  It doesn’t mean look down on them, but yield to them.  Get along with them.  Don’t act like you’re better than them.  If you have a humble attitude towards them, it is much more likely that you can live in harmony with them.

The fourth principle for loving your neighbor is in vs 17, “Do not return evil for evil to anyone.”  What Paul is speaking of here is a desire to get even – vindictiveness.  This is a principle that is often spoken of in scripture.  For instance, in 1Thess. 5:15 it says, “See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.” Notice it says for all people.  Not just fellow believers but all people. 

Peter says something similar in 1 Peter 3:9, “not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.”  Peter says that when you bless the one who insulted you, you receive a blessing as well. 

Some might say well the OT says there is to be retribution, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  But that was in reference to the public administration of criminal law and it was issued as such in order to discourage the practice of personal revenge. 

Going back to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explained this principle saying,  “You have heard that it was said, ‘AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’  “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” 

There is no place for vindictiveness in Christian behavior, whether in the church or to outsiders, not even to your enemies.  So tagged on to that principle of never returning evil for evil is the thought that  we must “Respect, or take thought for what is right in the sight of all men.” Here is the principle behind what I said was the characterization of the church in Acts 2, that they were having favor with all the people.  Our attitudes, or conduct and behavior should be right before men, that by living right before men, they might be drawn to  Christ.

It’s telling that the common complaint of most unbelievers about church is that it is full of hypocrites.  People that pretend to be righteous on Sunday morning, but live unrighteously in sight of the community the rest of the week.  Our business dealings should be right, our interactions with the community should be right.  They should see us dealing fairly and right with all that we come in contact with.  Never should it be said that we were vindictive, that we took advantage, nor even that we took revenge.  Never could that be said about Christ, and we are ambassadors for Him and so we should model His behavior.

Along that same line of reasoning is the fifth principle in vs 18 which we have already alluded to; “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”  I am grateful for the practicality of this exhortation.  “If possible, so far as it depends on you.”  There are times when you have done all you can to treat your neighbor or your enemy as God has told you to.  You have tried to be compassionate, you have tried to conciliate, to humble yourself, to do the right thing.  And yet they insist on hating you.  They insist on persecuting you or even making war with you.  

But Paul says as far as it is possible with you,  be at peace with all men.  Do all you can to be at peace, to not give offense, to not be the cause of trouble.  If they insist in attacking you, then so be it, but don’t let it be because of you. The goal is to live in peace with the world. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the sons of God.  Once again we see the world’s witness to our peace as a means by which they will  know we are Christians.

The sixth principle for how we should love others is found in vs19 and 20: “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath [of God,] for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.  “BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.”

This principle has already been alluded to in vs 14, 17, and now 19 and then again in vs 21. Different applications, but the same underlying principle.  It must be considered then to be of utmost importance.  It is fundamental to Christian living.  

So we should be familiar with this principle, to never take our own revenge, and to that Paul adds, but leave room for the wrath of God.  In other words, we must not play God or take the place of God by usurping what should be HIs prerogative alone.  Paul quotes from the OT here as evidence that in exacting our own revenge we are usurping God’s place.  He quotes from Deut. 32:35, 41, saying, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.  God sees all, and He will bring every act, every thought to judgment.  That is the prerogative of the Lord, and we must not take from Him what is His alone to render to every man according to his deeds.

Once again we see Jesus as our example, who according to 1 Peter 2:23  “while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting [Himself] to Him who judges righteously.”  God is the only One able to judge righteously.  That why we are told to judge not, lest we be judged.  God is the judge. 

For our part, we must remember James 2:3 which says that mercy triumphs over judgment. Our part is mercy, by which we hope to save some. Failing that, every man will stand before the judgement seat of God and receive the penalty due for his actions.  And also we, if it were not for the mercy of God, would be condemned with the rest.  But Christ suffered in our place, in our place He stood condemned and suffered and died, so that we might be shown mercy.  So must we show mercy.

And so rather than taking revenge, Paul says, “on the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.”  Show mercy rather than judgment.  Show kindness.  Go with him the extra mile even though he asks too much of you.

“For by so doing you will heap coals of fire upon his head.”  I always thought that this meant that if you treated someone nice who was treating you badly, you were in a backhanded sort of way making hell a whole lot hotter for him.  Now maybe there is a little bit of truth in that, but that probably isn’t the way this should be interpreted. 

The interpretation that I recently came across I must confess I did not care for initially.  But what that interpretation said was it was a reference to a neighbor coming to ask for fire.  In that day they carried live coals with them as a means of starting a fire later. They did not have matches or lighters and so it was a troublesome thing to make a fire.  So the response should be to that person who asks for fire coals, to heap them upon their head.  To fill up a jar full of hot coals which they would then carry on their head back to their home.  

Now I liked my interpretation better.  I liked getting revenge, even if it meant that it had to wait for  hell to do it for me.  But that goes against the admonition to never take revenge.  So I am warming up to the interpretation that it is actually speaking of an act of benevolence, giving live coals to someone in need that is being spoken of here.

Let’s conclude then with the the seventh exhortation, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good.” Don’t let the enemy get you down, don’t let persecution or trials get you to sin, to return evil for evil, But overcome evil with good. 

To over evil by good mean to continue living a life of faith in God and have love for everyone, so that when you do good to that person who meant it as evil, they end up becoming your brother.  God did good for us when we did evil towards Him, didn’t He?  How then can we do any less? We can win over our neighbors, and win over even our enemies, by our love for them, doing good to them, even when they meant it for evil. That should be our goal, and the ultimate expression of sacrificial love, that we do good for their benefit, that they might be drawn to Christ, that they might be saved.   Oh, to lead a lost person to Christ so that they might be saved is the ultimate act of love that we can show the world.  Let’s live in such a way with the world that they will want what we have; a new nature, a new way of living by the strength of the Spirit of Christ working in us.

Jesus told His disciples in John 13:34-35 that “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” So in the church we are commanded to love one another, and we will be characterized by our love for one another.

Now Paul is talking to the church in this chapter, giving them practical exhortation on how to live out their salvation. And Paul is saying in this passage that a primary characteristics of the church will be their love for one another. Love is a primary component of this new life in Christ because even though our salvation is inherently spiritual, yet as indicated in vs 1, Paul tells us that the spiritual life will be manifested by our physical life.

For instance, in vs one if we are to offer spiritual service to God, we will do so by physically presenting our bodies to God as a living sacrifice in the assembly of believers, the church. He goes on to say that if we are being spiritually conformed to Christ then it will be manifested by a transformation in our thinking and in our actions. And our actions in the church are made possible by the spiritual gifts that God has given us so that we may serve the body of Christ, which is the church. So that our spiritual gifts result in physical benefits to the church.

But before Paul even talked about spiritual gifts in the church he spoke of the necessity for humility. If we are Christians, then we must be humble, because Christ was humble. In Phil. 2:5 we are told to have the same mind that Christ Jesus had, who although He was equal with God He did not hold onto that, but for our sakes He humbled Himself. And so Paul says back in vs 3 as a precursor to how we act and what we do in the church that we must not think of ourselves more highly than we ought. We should model our thinking after the humility of Christ so that what we do is truly for the benefit of others and not to benefit ourselves, either directly or indirectly.

So then in that context, Paul says in vs9, “Let love be without hypocrisy.” So as we exercise our gifts to the church, we do so without selfish motives, without insincerity, but because of sincere love for the brethren. A hypocrite, according to the meaning of the original Greek word, means an actor on a stage. It’s someone who does something to be seen of men, to win their applause. It’s an act for show. Paul says don’t let your love be for show. Don’t let your spiritual gifts which are given for service to the church be for show to bring attention to yourself but let it be from sincere love.

Now as I said last week and so many times before, love has come to meaning something in our modern society that’s almost totally different than what was intended in the scriptures. In Greek language there were three words that were primarily used to speak of love. In modern English, we use only one to cover every possible meaning. In the Greek there is eros, which means erotic love, phileo which means brotherly love, and agape which means sacrificial love. Paul is using here agape love, which is the type of love that Christ had for the church, and the type of love we are to have for one another. But in English we just have one word -love- which covers any of the various meanings.

But there is a word in archaic English for agape love, sacrificial love, and that is the word charity. If some of you are using the KJV this morning then you will notice that it says charity, rather than love. And I think that is a pretty good word for love, because charity emphasizes the recipient of love, a benevolent love for others. But irregardless of the word that is used, the point Paul is making is that Christian love must be free from pretension, free from selfish motives. It is a sacrificial love which is geared towards other’s needs, and not your own benefit.

I would also say that this type of love is not rooted in emotion, or sentimentality or feelings. We can and we must love regardless of whether or not we find the recipient attractive to us. Agape love is a commitment, not an emotional or sentimental response to attraction. Christian love is similar to the type of love that is sometimes expressed for our country. Sadly, this kind of love is quickly becoming something of the past. But irregardless, it’s a noble love, an honorable love which commands a willingness to serve, perhaps even a willingness to lay down your life in service to your country because you love your country. So this love which is spoken of here is on another level than that which we commonly associate with love based on attraction or feelings.

And Paul says that love must not be hypocritical. It must not be self serving or for show or to get people to notice how nice of a person you are or how spiritual your are but love must be genuinely concerned for others even to the expense of your own needs.

Now in the rest of this section then Paul will tell us what that kind of love looks like. And it’s interesting to notice that juxtaposed against this noble love, Paul says that the Christian must hate. That’s sounds antithetical to Christianity, doesn’t it? It makes sense that Christians should love, but they must also hate?

Yes, if you love, then the flip side of love is hate. Paul says in vs1, “Abhor what is evil.” Some of the most popular Bible translations use the word hate instead of abhor. They mean virtually the same thing. Hate what is evil. You know the Bible talks a lot about hate. The Apostle John says in his epistle, if you hate your brother you are guilty of murder. So what are we to make of this?

Well, notice that our text does not say we are to hate people, but to hate what is evil and cling to what is good. We are to hate sin. We aren’t to hate the sinner, but we hate the sin. Jude distinguishes it this way in Jude 1:22, “And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.” So we are not told to hate the person who is sinful, but hate the sin because of it’s polluting, corrupting influence which destroys people.

Listen, hating sin is the key to overcoming addiction. And all sin is addictive, incidentally. You know, I love ice cream. So consequently I eat a big bowl of ice cream every night. I know that’s not healthy. I know that’s bad for me. But I can’t seem to give it up because by about 7:30 on a hot summer night, I just start thinking about this cold, creamy ice cream that is so satisfying and so delicious, and I don’t even think twice. I’ll quit tomorrow. But if I could see what ice cream was really doing to me and how bad it was for me to eat all that cream and sugar every night, then I would hate it. And though I can’t imagine hating ice cream, I can imagine hating dill pickles. I hate dill pickles. You couldn’t force me to eat dill pickles. So what I hate has no hold on me. What I hate cannot control me. But what I love does control me. And that’s the secret to overcoming our addiction to sin. When you start thinking according to the truth of God’s word as we were told in vs 2, when we start seeing sin as God sees it, when we see the pain and suffering that our sin cost Jesus, then we will begin to see the horror of sin, the deadliness of sin, and then we will hate sin, we will abhor sin, and sin will no longer have control of you.

But let’s not lose sight of the context here either. And the context is Christian love in the church. We are to love with a pure heart, but we are to hate sin, and love what is good. We hate the sin, but love the sinner. Now that gives us instruction as to how we are to deal with those whom we love, but who are living in sin. Who are practicing sin. We love the sinner, but we hate the sin. We hate even the garment polluted by the sin. So we cannot condone the sin. Because we love them we must expose the sin. We must call sin, sin. We cannot condone sin because we know that sin destroys, it kills, it pollutes, it corrupts. Sin is corrupting like cancer, a little sin soon metastasises and grows and eventually it completes destroys. A good doctor does not condone cancer or decide not to reveal his prognosis of cancer because he is afraid of losing your friendship. No, but because he cares for you he must expose the cancer and cut out the cancer if there is to be any hope for your future. And so our perspective should be a holy hatred of sin, Paul says, and on the flip side we must have a love of what is good. He says cling to what is good.

God’s word tells us His law is good. Righteousness is good. Holiness is good. Paul says in Phil. 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think on these things.” That reminds us of what Paul said was to be the result of a transformed mind back in vs 2. Not to be conformed to the sinful pattern of the world, not to think like the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of the mind that we might do that which is good, acceptable, and complete in the will of God. We have to guard our affections. Guard what we love. Because as Prov.23:7 tells us, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

John said in 1John 2:15 “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Now the fact that as Christians God is our Father makes us brothers and sisters in the Lord. In the church, we are brothers and sisters. When Jesus was teaching, which at that time His brothers did not believe in Him, He was told that His family was outside the house wanting to see Him. And Matthew 12:48-50 says, “But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, ‘Who is My mother and who are My brothers?’ And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, ‘Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.’”

So with that perspective, Paul says in vs10, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” He is talking about the family of Christ. We are to be devoted to the church, to our brothers and sisters in the Lord. We have a new family, and a responsibility to this new family. There is a sense in which Christians are to love everyone, even our enemies, but there should be a special relationship, a special devotion to the church. Devoted means having a loyalty, a faithfulness to the church. Not to a building, nor a denomination, but to the people in the church, our church family.

This really goes back to this whole purpose of spiritual gifts. In 1 Cor.12, which is another passage dealing with spiritual gifts in the church, Paul concludes the chapter by saying “I will show you a more excellent way.” And the point he makes in the next chapter is that gifts without love for others in the church are like banging a gong. They only serve yourself and to build yourself up. But the more excellent way is the way of love for the brethren, so that all that we do is done because of love for others and for their benefit.

And so likewise in this text, Paul adds, “give preference to one another in honor.” Paul said it this way in Phi.l 2:3-4 “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not [merely] look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” So particularly in the church, give others honor, instead of seeking honor for yourself. Build up one another. Give others the place of honor in the church as James tells us, not according to how much they are worth financially, or according to how you think they might benefit you, but according to the impartial law of love.

How else does Christian love manifest itself in the church? Vs.11 says we are to be, “not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” So if we love one another, if we love the church, then we will serve the Lord and that service will be characterized by diligence. Diligence is doing something whether we feel like it or not, dutifully fulfilling our responsibility. Diligence is love. I think of a mother’s love as being diligent. It’s a diligence in doing the dirty dishes, washing the dirty diapers or clothes, cleaning the house, doing all the things that nobody wants to do. And not doing it because she has to, but because she loves her family. She wants to make things nice for her family and so she works hard, and does the things that need to be done, the unsightly things, the dirty jobs. That’s diligent love. That’s persevering love. It’s love in action.

There is a service to the church that is not found in the glamorous positions. It might be menial service. But in the sight of God it is not menial. Jesus said if you give even a cup of water in His name you will have a reward in heaven. So be diligent in love, fervent in spirit. Fervent in spirit might be better understood to mean in the power of the Holy Spirit. He is the source of our gifts, He is the source of our strength. And so we should be careful not to quench the Spirit, but to yield to His leading and enthusiastically work in His power. We quench the Spirit by yielding to the flesh, yielding to sin, but we are filled with the Spirit when we follow His leading.

Furthermore we see in vs 12,, this Christian love for the church means to be “joyful in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer.” I think a common malady of the church is despondency. We become despondent because we don’t often see the power of God manifested in our lives, and in our circumstances. But Christian love is hopeful, it is joyful, even in the midst of tribulation.

So even when, as the hymn the Solid Rock says, “when all around my soul gives way” we are hopeful and joyful because “He still is all my hope and stay.” Jesus is the anchor of my soul. Jesus is the hope of my prayers. He is my advocate with the Father, and all things, all power in heaven and earth are subject to Him. With God all things are possible. And so in spite of everything, in spite of tribulations, we are persistent in prayer. We pray knowing that God hears, that God cares, and that God has told us to come to Him with our petitions.

Listen, I know what it is like to become despondent. I know what it is like to pray for years and years for something, something that we think that is in God’s will, like the salvation of a loved one. And I know what it’s like to become despondent when we don’t see our prayers answered. But God can answer prayer and God does answer prayer.

I was talking to someone the other day who was despondent because they had been praying for a loved one and it looked like that this person they were praying for was going even further from the Lord. And so I told them a story about how my dad had two girls when he went to Bible college shortly after being saved. My brother and I had not been born yet. And my Dad was so enthusiastic about his salvation and the call of God upon him to be a preacher, that he prayed and asked God to give him two preacher boys. As the years went on, he would talk often about that prayer and he would point to my brother and I as proof that God would answer his prayer.

But as my brother and I reached our late teen years, we both went off into the world about as far as we could go. Both of us really got into drugs and a bad lifestyle. My brother went his way and I went mine. I ended up in California, and my brother ended up in a small college in South Carolina. And if anyone would have looked at us during those years they would have laughed at the idea that my Dad had prayed for two preacher boys. In fact, my Dad had long before stopped talking about it. I’m sure he thought that God wasn’t going to answer that prayer. But after a few years, God worked a miracle and my brother got saved. And a couple of years later I got right with the Lord and moved back East. Long story short, in another few years, God called my brother to the ministry, and a couple of years after that I was called to the ministry. But my Dad never lived to see either one of us become preachers. He died before either of us had answered that call by God. But nevertheless, I believe that he is aware that we both are preaching today. But the point is, that God answers prayers. My dad was a preacher, but he wasn’t a perfect man. However, God answered his prayers, and I believe God will likewise answer your prayer and mine if we are persistent in prayer.

Then in vs 13 we see the last of these characteristics of love for the church. In vs13 he says we are to be “contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.” In Matthew 25: 34 Jesus said concerning Himself, “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me [something] to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me [something] to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You [something] to drink? ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, [even] the least [of them,] you did it to Me.’”

What Jesus is speaking of is what Paul calls practicing hospitality. Years ago, I used to be a manager in the Ritz Carlton Hotels. That field of work is called the hospitality industry. Hospitality then means food and lodging, it means service to those who are in your care for one reason or another. It’s interesting though to note that at it’s root the word hospitality comes from the word hospital. We all know what a hospital is, I’m sure.

I was talking with someone just the other day and I told them that the church should be a hospital, not a showroom. The fact is so many people in the church are hurting in so many ways. We try not to show it. So we put on our church clothes, and our church faces and our church personalities and we come and we go without letting anyone know that we are hurting, and consequently not getting the help that we need. But the church is not a place where we put on a show, or watch a show. The church should be a hospital where people who are hurting find help, where people who are dying find life, where people who are despondent find hope. And God has placed each of us in the church to be His hands and feet in ministering to one another by means of hospitality, contributing to the needs of the saints, of the church.

I don’t always know what you need. I would hope that you would tell me. But maybe there are others in the church that can help you as well. That not only can pray for you but that can come over and work with you or help you with something that you find overwhelming, that can be a friend in time of trouble. God wants the spiritual life to be physically manifested in love for one another. Perhaps there is someone that is financially struggling and could use some help but they don’t want to ask. You might be able to discern that as you minister to that person in Christian love.

You know, the Good Samaritan wasn’t a preacher. He was just an ordinary person on the road, perhaps on a business trip. But he showed hospitality. He helped this stranger that was hurting out of his own expenses. And you shouldn’t need me to tell you that there are a lot of hurting people in the world. There are a lot of hurting people in the church. And God would like you to reach out to your neighbor and love them with a Christian love, a sacrificial love that seeks to honor them, to build them up, to encourage them, to give them hope, and as you do so, you will in fact be found to be ministering to Christ, and serving the Lord.

Listen, this is how we worship the Lord, by sacrificially serving one another, loving one another, we serve the Lord. Remember the exhortation which was given to us at the beginning of this chapter in vs 1, with which we will close; “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.”

When I look at what a lot of other preachers and teachers and commentators have said about this chapter before us, I think in some respects that many of them are guilty of dealing with  these passages out in a piecemeal sort of way.  What I mean by that is, they take them completely out of context with one another. 

For instance, they look at vs1 and 2 separately from the rest of the chapter and see it as some sort of post conversion consecration of the individual believer.  Then in vs 3-8 they tend to disregard the previous verses and combine these with other passages about spiritual gifts and just focus on what are spiritual gifts.  And the rest of the chapter kind of follows that type of exegesis without the benefit of contextualism.

Now I don’t want to pretend that I am more knowledgeable than most of these other commentators.  But perhaps my ignorance is a benefit in this case.  Because in my ignorance I read through the chapter and I see a principle that ties everything together.  And the principle  that provides the cohesiveness of the chapter is the essentiality of life in the church.

If you were here last week you may remember that I tied verses 1 and 2 to the essentiality of the church in the life of a Christian.  Paul says we are to present our bodies to God.  And I think that he means physically presenting yourself in church to God. Notice he says, present your bodies as a living sacrifice.  I think we need to see that as literally presenting our bodies to God in the assembly.  In the OT, the Jews on numerous occasions had to bodily present themselves to the temple. In many instances they had to literally present a sacrifice to the priests. In their festivals they were required to physically present themselves to the temple at the appointed time.  And so there were many requirements for the Jew to physically present themselves to God by means of the temple.

And I think Paul uses that language purposefully to draw that correlation to our worship. Notice that he says this physical, bodily presentation will culminate in our spiritual service of worship.  That is one of the  primary things we claim to do in church, isn’t it? Now corporate worship doesn’t preclude us worshipping God the other six days of the week as we go about our daily lives, and in fact I think it includes that, but our worship of God on the Lord’s Day, physically in the church serves as a first fruit, or a tithe if you will, of the rest of my time during the week.

So I think that this chapter is really about the church and it’s essentiality to our spiritual life now that we are Christians.  In chapter 12 Paul is no longer concerned with telling us how to be saved. He is now dealing with how we are to live now that we are saved.  And how we are to live spiritually is to be connected with the church which is the body of Christ.  It’s to be in communion with other believers as the church of God. In Acts 2 the first church was doing that literally, day by day in Solomons’ Portico in the temple, listening to the word of God which was being taught by the apostles and having their meals together and having all things in common with one another.  And that continued until the persecution started in Jerusalem which either  drove out or drove them underground.  But the church was not a one hour addendum to the weekend such as we have today, but a communion with other believers which orchestrated the rest of their lives.

That’s part of the problem with the whole public perception of the church’s viability in the midst of this pandemic.  The government for the most part has historically recognized something the contemporary society seems to have forgotten.  And even the church seems to have lost sight of.  And that is the essentiality of the church.  In the plan of God, spiritual life has precedence over physical life.  Spiritual well being has precedence over physical well being. And historically, I think that the founding fathers realized that and so they incorporated certain laws into our Constitution which guaranteed that our religious exercise should not be limited or infringed upon, regardless of whatever situation or even crisis should fall upon us.  Because they recognized that the church was essential to life.

But it’s ironic that the US government, and most state governments said on their closings and restrictions regulations that the church was an essential business,  yet in practice they restricted their operations to the point of virtually shutting down any physical presence at the church. Now my intent today is not to deal with that issue, per se, but to merely point out that in the view of the scriptures, the physical, bodily presence of the individuals together in communion is what constitutes the church and it’s not a debatable quotient, nor a disposable quotient, and in fact the bodily attendance of the believers in assembly together is non negotiable.  You cannot have an assembly without an assembly of bodies.

Dr. John MacArthur released a statement last week regarding this issue which I would urge you to find online and read or you can contact me later and I will send it to you.  But he said this concerning the assembly and I quote; “The church by definition is an assembly. That is the literal meaning of the Greek word for “church”— ekklesia—the assembly of the called-out ones. A non-assembling assembly is a contradiction in terms. Christians are therefore commanded not to forsake the practice of meeting together (Hebrews 10:25)— and no earthly state has a right to restrict, delimit, or forbid the assembling of believers.”

Ephesians 4:12 says the church is the body of Christ. And in Col.2:19 Paul says that Christ is the head of the body, “from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”  So the church is Christ’s church, Christ’s body, and together we constitute that body.  And a body is by definition physical.  Together we are physically the body of Christ on the earth. 

Then in vs2, Paul says as the church we are not to be conformed to the mold of the world. The world is not to regulate our conduct, set the standards for our lives.  We do not yield to the authority of the world view, but we are transformed by the renewing of our mind.  This is how we are the church, how we are to live according to God’s standards.  And that happens by renewing our mind which is done primarily through the preaching and hearing of the word of God.  As we physically present ourselves to God, the Spirit works through the preaching of the word of God to transform our minds so that we have the mind of Christ. All activity begins in the mind.  And having the mind of Christ enables us to do the will of God, that which is good, and acceptable and complete. 

Now this transformation results then in a new way of living, because we have a new way of thinking.  Three times in vs 3, Paul says think. There is a new way to think once you have renewed your mind.  And that new way of thinking is going to be patterned after Christ.  Phl 2:5-8 says in  NKJK, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,  but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, [and] coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to [the point of] death, even the death of the cross.”  Notice that the humility of Christ is emphasized as the mind of Christ.

And that humility is what Paul emphasized in vs 3 as well.  That as we have been transformed by the renewing of our mind through the word of God, we have a new way of thinking that will be characterized by humility.  Paul says in vs 3, “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”  

Humility is not thinking more highly of oneself than you ought to think. The mindset of the world is to love themselves first.  So then everything is decided according to how it will affect me. What is best for me. What makes me feel good. How it will benefit me.  But the renewed mind puts Christ at the center of my thinking. How I may serve Him, how I may please Him.  I sacrifice my priorities for His sake. That attitude of humility is going to be the foundational in how we are to act in the church and our attitude towards others.  As Christ came to serve, so we are to serve, and the people we are to serve is the church which is Christ’s body. All the gifts, all the offices, and ministries of the church are effective only when the participants are humbly and sacrificially serving the church and not themselves.  

There is a present preoccupation in the church today which is unhealthy; and that is the mindset that the church exists to serve me.  It’s almost a perversion of God’s love and grace  towards us to make it all about ourselves.  It’s how the church meets my needs. It’s whether or not I feel like I am getting any thing out of the church.  Or whether or not the church fits my schedule or my priorities right now. It’s all about how much God loves me, but very little about how much I love God.  But that’s why Paul started off with this admonition to present your body as a living sacrifice. The church is not just about you.  When you are immature in your faith, then maybe like a baby has no capacity to help others but must be helped, then so in the church at first it may be all about you being fed and learning and growing.  But maturity is the goal, and when we are mature our focus should be on benefiting the other members of the body, not just ourselves.  So the first thing changed in our thinking should be that we think of others more than we think of ourselves.  We have a love for Christ and a love for others, rather than consumed with loving ourselves.

So out of this new way of thinking comes a new way of functioning. Vs4, “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function,  so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”  Here is the point: we don’t operate like free agents any more.  When our thinking gets right, our independence is exchanged for interdependence. 

Notice in these verses Paul repeats the phrase one body, one body, and then one another. Paul uses repetition to help us learn. The emphasis is on the body, not the individual members of the body. Individual parts of the body contribute to the overall effectiveness of the body when they are working together.  Paul wants to emphasize not the independence of the believer, but their interdependence upon one another.

The human anatomy is a frequent illustration used in scripture to show how many different members working together  make the body whole and complete and functional.  In the human body none of the members of our body can work independently of one another.  They depend upon each other, and the body depends upon the individual members.  And each of the individual members of the body is essential to the well being of the body.  In our human body we cannot survive without a heart, without lungs, and we are severely handicapped when we are missing legs or hands.  And so it is with the church.

In 1Co 12:12, 14 Paul using the same analogy says, “For even as the body is one and [yet] has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.”  14 “For the body is not one member, but many.” So the church, Christ’s body, is made up of many members, but they must work together to constitute the body.

It’s noteworthy that both in 1 Cor. 12 and Romans 12, Paul uses the analogy of the body with many members to illustrate the diversity of spiritual gifts which are given to  the church. Spiritual gifts are a tool box not a toy box so that the work of the body might be carried out. 

Gifts are to be exercised for the good of the body.  And in vs 6 that application is clear.  It says in vs 6, “Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, [each of us is to exercise them accordingly:] if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;  if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching;  or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.” 

Now as Paul gives instruction concerning spiritual gifts we must make sure first of all that we keep it in context with what he has been saying so far. And in that regard I think the point should be made that the gifts are given for the building up of the church, not the building up of the individual believer.  In the parallel passage about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians, Paul says in chapter 14:12 “So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual [gifts,] seek to abound for the edification of the church.”  And in chapter 12:7 “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

So spiritual gifts are given not for the edification of the believer, but for the edification of the church.  Spiritual gifts are given to build up other members of the body, not to build your own ego or self esteem, or even as evidence of your spirituality. And we are to exercise them or use them for the benefit of the church.

Another thing that must be realized is that this list in Romans 12 is not meant to be exhaustive. It is  generally agreed that there are four lists given in the New Testament of spiritual gifts.  One is here in Romans 12 which shows seven gifts, one in 1 Cor. 12:8-10 which shows nine gifts, then in 1 Cor. 12: 28,29 it gives eight, and finally Ephesians 4:11 it lists four.   And as there is no set number or order, it indicates that there may be more gifts, and Paul said that some gifts will cease from operation which means that there may be less gifts operational today than there were then.

But rather than spend a lot of time discussing the differences in the gifts themselves, I think the context indicates that we should emphasize the fact that the gifts are given on the basis of grace so that we would not be prideful because we think we have some sort of merit or special ability.  Notice that to start with Paul says we have different gifts according to the grace given us.  Grace means undeserved favor.  If you give someone a gift of a car, it would be possible for such a person to think that he is special because you gave him this nice car, but the fact is that if it is s a gift then he did nothing to earn it and so there shouldn’t be any pride in it.

So God gives us gifts not to satisfy our ego, or even to validate our Christianity but to enable us to serve the body’s needs and to equip the body.  Notice this list that we are given here; prophesying, rendering practical service, teaching, exhorting, contributing to the needs of people, leadership, and showing mercy.  There are no gifts in this list that are intended for selfish purposes.  Every gift there depends upon others being benefitted in order to be valid.

And notice that is exactly the point that Paul makes when expressing this list.  In each case, he shows how the application towards others must be done in order to be effective.  Let’s just look at them briefly. He says if you have the gift of prophesying then let him exercise it in accordance with the standard of faith.  To prophesy, if you want the briefest of definitions, means that you say, “thus says the Lord.”  It’s to proclaim the word of the Lord.  In the early church before the New Testament was complete, the written word was very scarce.  1 Corinthians and Romans were written years before many of the other epistles and there were only a couple of other epistles that had been written by that time.  The church mostly depended on the Old Testament scriptures and the verbal traditions of Christ’s teaching handed down through the apostles.  And so there was a real need for prophets who were given the word of the Lord to speak to the church. 

So the benefit to the church would be obvious if in fact such a prophet was speaking the word of the Lord.  Then as now, there were false prophets as well, and so in 1 Cor. 12 Paul lists another gift which is the distinguishing of spirits because there were some false prophets among them.  But Paul doesn’t address this here, but what he does say is let the prophets speak in accordance with the standard of faith.  The standard of faith would be the accepted standard of faith handed down by the apostles which was the foundation of the church.  So their prophecy was to be checked against the standard of faith established by the apostles.

Second on the list was rendering practical service. He says let him serve. It’s a gift to serve others. Then the gift of teaching, let him exercise teaching. You are not given the gift of teaching for your own sake, but for the sake of others whom you are to teach.  And that principle is expressed for each of the gifts on this list.  Each of the gifts he says let him exercise it. Let him put it to work.   It’s not for personal use, it’s for the general good of the church, for others.

Now let me say something else about this list in Romans and that is this is not the popular list. The gift of serving is not a popular gift is it?  Neither is the gift of giving.  The gift of showing mercy is definitely not on the cool list.  When people talk about spiritual gifts they always want to go to the list found in 1 Corinthians 12 because that’s the cool list, the list with the showy gifts.  That’s the list with tongues and healing and so forth which are gifts that can easily be misused to ascribe spirituality or giftedness on the one using it, rather than edification towards others.  

But if you notice in the 1 Corinthian list, Paul interrupts his discussion on spiritual gifts to say that there is something better.  He says, I will show you a more excellent way.  And what is this way that he is speaking of?  He says it is the way of love.  And as I have said previously many times, love would be better translated as it is in the KJV which is charity.  The word love, as used in our modern world has become so misused that in the Christian context it is almost a completely inappropriate translation.  Charity, on the other hand, always has the context of others in it’s application. 

So in 1 Cor.13 then in the KJV Paul says concerning this more excellent way, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become [as] sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.  And though I have [the gift of] prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed [the poor], and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing. Charity suffers long, [and] is kind; charity envies not; charity vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil;  Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;  Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

And in our passage here in Romans 12 as well, Paul segues from spiritual gifts in vs 8 to the necessity for love, or charity in vs 9. “Let love be without hypocrisy.”  Do you know what hypocrite means?  It comes from a Greek word which means an actor on a stage who performs for the applause of men. Paul says let your love, let your charity be without hypocrisy.  Jesus said when you give, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.  In other words, don’t broadcast your good works to be noticed of men.  

The motivation for all the gifts which the individual members of the church are to use for one another should be love.  Jesus said they will know that you are my disciples by your love for one another.  Love as used in this text is the Greek word agape.  Agape is a sacrificial love.  It’s the kind of love Christ had for the church.  And it’s a love we are to have that sacrifices my best interests for the best interests of others.  He says in vs 10 concerning love to “[Be] devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.”  It comes full circle to the humility that Paul started out by saying we must have back in vs 3 if the church is going to be effective and work as God designed it to.  Real Christian love seeks for the good of others, even to the point of sacrificing your own needs.

We are going to talk further about what that kind of love looks like next week as we continue this passage.  But I must stop here for now.  But I hope that you have come to recognize the essentiality of the church and the participation in it which God desires for you. I trust you will seek to employ your spiritual gifts for the mutual benefit of the church, so that the church will be the body of Christ to a watching world.  I pray that all that you do will be done in charity for the edification of the other members of the body. And  I hope that you will come to know that life in Christ’s body is the real life, the abundant life that He laid down His life to provide for us. 

Now [may] the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, [even] Jesus our Lord,  equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom [be] the glory forever and ever. Amen.  (Hebrews 13:20,21)

Last week I went through the entire chapter 11 in one sermon.  Something I normally don’t attempt to do.  Today I am only going to be looking at two verses.  Oddly enough, the sermon length should be exactly the same.

I think that the two verses we are looking at today are some of the most important in Romans. They serve as the culmination of Paul’s entire epistle and his argument up to this point.  Up through chapter 11 he has examined and explained the theology of our salvation; particularly the grace and mercies of God in producing and procuring salvation for those who are unable to achieve it on their own merits.  And now in the opening verses of chapter 12 he transitions to the results of our salvation; in other words, the practical applications of our salvation. 

Salvation is not just theoretical.  But it is also practical. It is not only spiritual, but it is also physical.  It is not just intellectual, but it is transformational.  What Paul introduces in these next passages is an exposition of the admonition found in Phil.2:2, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”  How our salvation is worked out in us and through us is now the focus of Paul’s epistle.   Paul has given us his exposition in chapters 1-11, and now comes his exhortation in chapters 12-16.  

True salvation includes both doctrine and application.  As James said, “faith without works is dead.”  Saving faith will produce righteousness living.  Righteousness imputed will generate righteousness produced. To use theological terms, justification produces sanctification.

So there is an urgency in Paul’s admonition, that our faith be not merely cerebral, or intellectual, or even just spiritual, but practical, physically manifested through our bodies.  He says I urge you.  Or I exhort you.  It is with the strongest sense of urgency to take action.  Faith without works is dead.  We have a living faith that must be worked out.  It is a faith that puts love to work, a love for God, a love for others that must not be just in word, but in deed.  

I urge you brethren. Notice that Paul is speaking to fellow Christians here.  This is not an exhortation to become saved, it is an exhortation to those who are saved. Brethren is a term of affection used for the church.  So the following is not an exhortation on the method of salvation, but the effect of salvation on those who are saved.

I urge you brethren by the mercies of God. On the basis of the mercies of God which he has been explaining for the last 11 chapters in regards to our salvation.  Particularly the sovereign mercies of his salvation which He poured out upon the undeserving, His patience towards those that were running from Him, His love in seeking us and choosing us to be His own, and His grace to a people that are by nature in rebellion against Him.  

Because of these tremendous mercies of God which have resulted in such a great salvation, Paul says, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to God which is your spiritual service of worship. By bodies, Paul of course is referring to the fleshly body, but not only the body. John Calvin said that “by bodies he means not only our skin and bones but the totality of which we are composed.”  In other words, he is referring to our full being.  Our bodies are the house in which also dwell our soul and spirit.  So we offer to God our spiritual house.

Those of you who own a home at the beach might be able to imagine a situation in which you offer your house to some relatives to use for their vacation. You give them the keys to the house.  And consequently they have full access to all the rooms in the house to use for their pleasure.  Or perhaps you parents have at some point given the keys to the car to your teenager.  He then has full use of your car.  He gets to use it and drive it where he wills.

Those are poor metaphors of what Paul is getting at here.  Offer to God your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship. I’ll give you another option though, and one that I think is true yet does not negate the other.  And that is to use the translation which says “present your bodies.”  I like present.   When I was a little kid in grade school, the teacher would call the roll at the beginning of class in the morning.  And we were supposed to answer in a loud voice “present.” In other words, I am here.  I am presenting myself to instruction.  

I’’m not a military man but I think it even has military implications. To present yourself to your company, to your commander for duty.  I think we are to present ourselves to God.  I think we can even go so far as to say we present ourselves to the church.  This is our spiritual service of worship.  Is that not what we claim to do on Sunday mornings, is to present ourselves to worship God? Is that not a means of our sanctification, that we regularly, faithfully present ourselves in body to the church?  We have recently had to explore the possibilities of virtual church because of the government restrictions on worship due to the virus epidemic.  And I for one found out how inadequate such a worship is without being physically present together.  

Hebrews 10:24 instructs us to  “let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,  not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging [one another;] and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”  I think that is at least part of what Paul is getting at here.  Spiritual worship must be physical.  Present your bodies.  Church is an assembly of bodies assembled together to worship the Lord and receive instruction from the Lord and to love and encourage one another.  It’s important that if we are to worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth, then we must worship Him in body, in communion with one another with Christ in the midst of us.  According to Ephesians 4:12 the church is Christ’s body on earth and we must present ourselves to that body for the work of service.

Now this exhortation is not strictly limited to corporate worship within the confines of the church by any means but the worship service is the first fruits of our labor.  So I believe to present our bodies to God starts with worship in assembly on the first day of the week and then we carry out the ministry of Christ in our lives as we go on throughout the week.

“I urge you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”  A living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God… A living sacrifice.  That’s a paradoxical statement.  Sacrifices were slain. God wants us alive, our lives to be offered to Him for His use, His purposes.

In the old covenantal system, sacrifices were offered for worship and as an atonement for sin.  But in the new covenant we recognize that Jesus is the ultimate and final sacrifice for sin, and by trusting in HIs sacrifice we have atonement once for all.

So we are not saved by the sacrifice of our life, but the sacrifice of Christ’s life on our behalf.  But our response to His sacrifice is to offer our own life in gratitude as a sacrifice to God to be used for His purposes.  

The hermeneutical principle of first mention is a principle by which we can determine the proper interpretation of a word by looking at the first time a word is used in scripture.  And if you look at the word “worship” you will find that the first mention is in the passage in Genesis when Abraham takes Isaac his son to be offered as a sacrifice on the mountain.  Abraham knows that God has asked him to sacrifice his son on the altar.  And yet when Abraham speaks to his servants who traveled with him, I want you to notice how he speaks of it. 

Genesis 22:5 “Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.’” Notice how Abraham, as he is taking his son to the mountain to slay him before the Lord, refers to this sacrifice as worship.  Worshipping God requires a sacrifice.  David said on one occasion, I will not offer to God that which cost me nothing.   Sacrifice has a cost.

Paul says the sacrifice we are to offer is our life.  A living sacrifice. He is speaking of the new life that comes as a result of our salvation.  A sacrifice of our will for His will. A sacrifice of our priorities for His priorities.  Listen, that kind of life requires a sacrifice. It is a living sacrifice born out of gratitude for the sacrificial death that Christ died on our behalf.

Notice how Paul further describes this sacrificial life; holy and acceptable or well pleasing to God. Holiness is the product of the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit.  It is being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ in our attitudes, in our words and in our deeds.  Holiness is being consecrated for service to God.  Our bodies, our vessel is set apart for service to God.  No longer consumed by temporal things, by material things, by earthly things, but consecrated as holy to the Lord, to be used for the things of God.

And to holiness Paul adds, acceptable or well pleasing. Not just accepted by God, but living in such a way that  we are acceptable to God.  Doing things which are pleasing to God. To be well pleasing is to consider how we may please the Lord.  And that is simply to obey His word, to follow His instructions.  It would be the same response that we would hope a child would respond to his parents, to please them, to follow their teaching and instruction.  The apostle John said of the church he was writing to in 3Jo 1:4  “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.”  To walk in the truth sums up I think perfectly how we may be well pleasing to the Lord by our lives.

So then Paul urges us, by the mercies of God, to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual service of worship.  Some translations substitute reasonable service of worship.  And it is certainly reasonable or logical that we should worship God for His many mercies toward us.

But I think the better translation is spiritual service of worship. Jesus said that God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.  So worship must be spiritual. You must be reborn in your spirit and you life must be in accordance with the truth of God. So worship must be service.  It is rendering to God the things that are God’s, your life, your resources, your all.  It must be sacrificial. It costs something.  It means putting God first and sacrificing your priorities for God’s priorities.

And in the context of corporate worship as the church, that means at the very least setting aside Sunday as a day when we worship the Lord with His church, in body, presenting ourselves to the Lord and to one another.  Worship is not just clapping your hands watching a band onstage.  Worship is bowing your will to the Lord and listening to His word, being holy as He is holy, consecrating yourself in service to God, doing  the things which are pleasing to Him in obedience to HIs commands  out of a spirit of gratitude and thankfulness to Him. 

Now in vs 2, we see that Paul not only urges us to  sacrificial worship, but he also shows us how to achieve holiness and acceptableness. To do that he shows us first what should be shunned, and secondly, what should be done if we are to worship as we ought. First let’s look at what must be shunned; “And do not be conformed to this world.” Another way of saying that is stop allowing yourselves to be fashioned after the pattern of this world.  

In Rom 8:29 Paul said, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined [to become] conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.” So sanctification is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  Thus contrarily, we can not be conformed to the world.  Jesus said “You cannot serve God and mammon.” And James 4:4 says, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

1Cor. 15:33 which we studied last Wednesday night in our Bible study says, “Bad company corrupts good morals.”  You hang around the world, you are going to have a lot of the world rub off on you.  Unless we are on guard, we are in danger of falling prey to the pattern of this world.

I remember the dress patterns that my mother used to buy to make my sister’s clothes.  They grew up in the 60’s and 70’s when not a lot of dresses were being worn, but my mother wanted her daughters to wear proper dresses.  So she would buy these patterns and cut out fabric to sew together to make dresses for them. A pattern then produces the same thing, again and again. And Satan has so designed this world as to press people into the pattern or mold of this world, so that they become conformed to this world.  They look like the world, they dress like the world, they act like the world.  I know that sounds old fashioned and out of touch. But the fact is that bad company corrupts good morals.  If you hang out in a bar long enough, sooner or later you’re going to drink, and if you drink long enough, sooner of later you’re going to get drunk.  And that’s simply the principle of conformity.

Contrarily, we become like Christ by hanging out with Christ.  By being in communion with HIs body, the church.  Or we become like the world by hanging out with the world.  It’s that simple.  Stay out of church for any length of time and you will soon find yourself immersed so deep in the world that the things of God no longer have an interest to you. When you immerse yourself in the culture of the world’s movies, television shows, music, entertainment and media,  you will soon find yourself  disinterested in the things of God.

Last week I talked about how the devil makes sin like a lure we may use to go fishing.  He makes it so attractive looking that we don’t notice that there is a hook hidden underneath. And that’s the devil’s strategy for our lives.  To get us so enamored by the world that we waste our days chasing after the mighty dollar or fame or power, whatever things that this world sees as desirable. Ephesians 2 talks of that being a strategy of the devil to get us to walk according to the course of this world, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind by which he is able to take us captive.

This allure of the world is kind of like travelers in a desert who see in the distance a shimmering oasis. They eagerly quicken their steps in hope as they imagine in their minds how great it will be to sit under the palm trees and drink some refreshing water.  But when they arrive they discover that it was all a mirage, and what they thought they saw was only an illusion that faded away. The devil’s strategy is to use the allure of the world to waste our lives in pursuit of things that do not satisfy. 1John 2:17 warns us that “the world and it’s desires are fading away, but the person who does the will of God lives forever.”   Whatever treasures we hope to lay up for ourselves here on earth will not endure. Only what is done for Christ will last.

So the things are things of the world are to be shunned, then what is to be done? “But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”   What is needed is not following the fashion and trends of the world, but a transformation, an inner change, a renewing of the mind, or the heart. The idea in the original language is to continue to be transformed.  It’s a day to day experience.  It’s continually being transformed.  The first church which started at Pentecost is reported in Acts 2 as “Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.”

Furthermore, we are not told to transform ourselves, to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. But to be transformed.  To allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, transforming our minds.  Sanctification is progressive.  It’s a continual process until we get to heaven.

So how are we transformed by the renewing of our mind?  I believe it is in the reading and study of the word of God.  As we read and study the scriptures, the word changes our mind so that God’s thoughts become our thoughts.  We start thinking like He thinks.  Once again, I think that is accomplished at least to some extent by meeting together as a church and listening to the reading of scripture and the preaching of God’s word.

Psalm 19:7-8 speaking of the effect of the scriptures on the mind says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.  The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.”

And 2Tim. 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;  so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”  Scripture, inspired by the Holy Spirit, renews our mind, from being conformed to the world to be transformed in the image of Jesus Christ.  As we study His word, our minds are renewed and as our minds are renewed, our lives are transformed. As a man thinks in his heart so is he.

So scripture renews us and transforms us and equips us to do the works of God.  And what is it that God wants us to be and to do?  The answer Paul gives in vs 2 is “that which is good, and acceptable and perfect.”  Notice the parallel in this statement from vs 2 with that in vs 1, “a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

So here is how we offer that sacrifice that is a holy and acceptable service of worship.  We become holy by renewing our mind through the reading and teaching of His word.  We learn what is acceptable service through the reading and teaching of the word.  And then there is the word perfect.  In most cases, I find that a better translation would be complete.  So we learn how to complete our sacrificial service of worship to God through the reading and teaching of His word. 

This is how Paul says we are to know what God’s will is, and how we will be able to do His will. If we shun the things of the world and cleave to the things of the Lord, then we will offer to God a holy and acceptable sacrifice of our lives that will be well pleasing to Him and in accordance with His will. I pray that you know the mercies of the Lord in regards to salvation, and that in gratitude you will  consecrate your life to Him.  There is no greater success in life than to walk in fellowship with the Lord and to do His will and be found pleasing to Him.

Romans 12:1-2  “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Song; the wonderful cross

The previous chapter ended with the verse which says, in Rom 10:21 “But as for Israel [God] says, “ALL THE DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE.” And we determined last week that verse emphasizes the patience and mercy of God, in waiting for and calling to a rebellious people that are always resisting His call. It emphasizes that even though Israel as a nation rebelled against God, He is pursuing them even to this day. Yet this rebellion raises the question which Paul asked in vs 1, “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He?” It’s a question that expects a negative answer, and so Paul answers emphatically, “May it never be!” The Israelites may have rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah, but God has not rejected Israel.

And Paul gives evidence of that by saying on the basis of his own salvation that God has not rejected His people wholesale. He is a Jew, in fact, a Jew of Jews, of the tribe of Benjamin and yet he became saved on the road to Damascus by the grace of God. So there remains a remnant in every generation that God will save.

Salvation has always been on an individual basis. The just shall live by faith. Not the nation, not the country, not even a generation, but individuals. God made promises and a covenant with Abraham that from Isaac His seed will be called. But from Isaac came Jacob and Esau. And Jacob He loved and Esau He hated. So right from the beginning, it was evident that God called individuals to salvation, and did not grant entire nations or peoples salvation.

Paul says in vs 2 that God has not cast away his people “whom he foreknew.” So those individuals, that He foreknew, that He elected for salvation, have not been cast away. He is not necessarily talking about a people or a nation, but individuals. And the reverse is true as well. When Paul said that the Gentiles have received the grace of God and the resulting righteousness which Israel rejected (Romans 9:30) does God then mean that all the Gentiles will be saved, or that all the Gentiles were being saved? Of course not. We know that not all Gentiles are saved. Far from it. In fact, it might be argued that only a remnant of the Gentiles are saved out of all the nations of the world. So if not all Gentiles are going to be saved, then it stands to reason that not every Israelite is going to be saved.

Paul uses the illustration of Elijah pleading with God that he was the only one left when Israel as a nation was persecuting him, and had put to death the prophets before him. And yet God’s answer to him was ““I HAVE KEPT for Myself SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL.” So even though the king of Israel was against him, and the nation as a whole was against him, yet God had saved 7000 men out of the nation of Israel even in a time of national apostasy.

Vs5 “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to [God’s] gracious choice.” In the same way refers to the days of Elijah, when God had reserved 7000 men in a nation of apostates, in the same way at the time of Paul’s writing, God had sovereignly chosen a remnant to be saved. And this is not just a principle applicable to the Jews only, but it’s applicable to the world at large. It’s a remnant, a small number of people who will be saved. Remember the words of Jesus who said in the Sermon on the Mount; “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matt. 7:13)

Paul quoting Isaiah says in Rom 9:27 “THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED.”

But notice that Paul says in vs 5 that the remnant are saved by God’s gracious choice. They are saved by grace. This is the real point that Paul is trying to make in this whole chapter, that those that are saved are saved by the grace of God. Grace means God’s unmerited favor. But on the other hand, Paul has made it clear in chapter 10 that we are saved through faith. Faith means we must believe. Rom 10:9-10 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Now how does this work? How does grace save us, and faith save us, both at the same time?

The answer is that our faith is in what Jesus did. And the work that Jesus did is the grace that is given to us. So salvation is not by what we do but what Jesus did for us. Jesus died on the cross for our sins and God accepted His substitutionary atonement on our behalf. He applied our sins to Jesus, and transferred His righteousness to us. That is God’s unmerited favor towards us. That is grace; God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Our faith then is simply believing in who Jesus is, and trusting in His righteousness and His sacrifice as our representative and substitute. Paul says in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” So grace and faith are combined, bringing about salvation, not trusting in my works, but in Christ’s work on my behalf.

So then we must agree with the statement in vs 6 “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” Grace and works are diametrically opposed in salvation. Salvation produces works, but salvation is not gained by works. There must be a divine transaction that procures our salvation, and Jesus paid that by His death. Any attempt on my part to obtain my salvation by my works is simply an exercise in pride and self righteousness. Salvation has always been on the basis of grace. The Israelites were saved by grace through faith, and the Gentiles have been saved by grace through faith. We must believe in the work of God’s favor towards us. In the OT they believed in what Christ would do, in the NT age we believe in what Christ has done, but in both cases it is by grace that we are saved, not by our works.

So what does that mean for Israel? That’s what Paul asks in vs 7; “What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, “GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY.” And David says, “LET THEIR TABLE BECOME A SNARE AND A TRAP, AND A STUMBLING BLOCK AND A RETRIBUTION TO THEM. “LET THEIR EYES BE DARKENED TO SEE NOT, AND BEND THEIR BACKS FOREVER.”

What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained. What Israel was seeking is a right standing before God. They were seeking righteousness on their own merits. They thought that by keeping the law as they interpreted it, they would be accepted by God as righteous. Back in chapter 9 vs 31, Paul said, “but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at [that] law. Why? Because [they did] not [pursue it] by faith, but as though [it were] by works.”

Paul quotes 2 OT passages as illustration of this principle. The first is from Deut. 29:4, and the second is from Psalm 69:22. There was a hardening that occurred in Israel, a dullness, a stupor that prevented them from believing the truth. And he says it was given to them by God. I think that speaks of a judgment that God gives to those who are unbelieving and obstinate in their hearts and the point comes when God gives them over to a reprobate mind.

Paul spoke of this in the very beginning of his epistle; chapter 1 vs 28 saying, “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.” They refused to submit to God’s truth, and in trying to establish their own righteousness they actually rebelled against God, so that He gives them over to a depraved mind or better translation, a reprobate mind. Reprobate mind means a mind that is not approved, it does not function as it ought to. Because they have resisted the Spirit of God, then God takes away that same Spirit which brings understanding, so that they cannot see the truth but believe a lie.

And as such their table becomes a snare and a trap. The thing they were trusting in, their self righteousness based on their interpretation of the law, becomes the very thing that is their captor, and by which they are enslaved. It’s ironic how sin works that way. Sin promises freedom, but produces captivity. Sin promises fun, but it ends in suffering. Sin promises wisdom but it produces foolishness. Sin is a trap by which the devil enslaves and then destroys the human soul. And the first sin was the sin of pride. It is the mother of all sins.

But this hardening, this rebellion, this sin is the very thing that produces grace which brings about salvation. One cannot be saved until he first recognizes that he is lost. Because of the sin of Israel, grace was given to the Gentiles. And if Israel’s sin means the riches of grace were given to the world, how much more will grace be effective for Israel?

Vs11, “I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation [has come] to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!”

Israel did not fall so as to be removed forever from God’s plan to save them. But in God’s view this is a temporary stumbling, which He uses to bring Gentiles to His kingdom, and which He even uses to make the Jews jealous of the Gentiles, so that eventually the promise of Israel’s salvation might be fulfilled. God’s grace towards Israel is still working.

And so Paul speaks to the Gentiles in his audience in vs 13 saying, “But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.” So even though Paul’s main ministry was to the Gentiles, he wants to use that ministry as a tool to make His countrymen jealous so that they too might come to be saved.

Vs15 “For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will [their] acceptance be but life from the dead? If the first piece [of dough] is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too.” Because of Israel’s rejection the world received the gospel. So then, their acceptance by God means that they will receive life from the dead. That which was dead spiritually will come back to life by the gracious act of God in bringing them to salvation.

Now notice in vs 16 Paul uses two analogies; one of a lump of dough, and one of the roots of a tree. In both cases he is referring to the heritage of Israel. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were set apart by God. The Israelites were descended from them. And so God has set apart all Israel to live for God. They were to be His people. They had been given every privilege that God could give any nation because of God’s promises to their forefathers. And having been set apart, or appointed unto salvation, God will bring it to pass.

Now the next passage is one that I am going to read to you in total and hope that you can follow Paul’s logic without having to resort to a lot of commentary on my part. I believe it is self explanatory to some degree. Paul has already introduced the analogy of the root and the branches, and now he is going to take that a step further, and talk about God grafting branches into the tree. The olive tree is a picture of Israel, particularly the roots being the patriarchs, and the trunk the nation that came up from them.

Vs.17 “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, [remember that] it is not you who supports the root, but the root [supports] you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural [branches] be grafted into their own olive tree?”

So to the Jews belonged the promises and the covenants of God. Jesus said in John 4:22, “Salvation is of the Jews.” The rest of the world is pictured as a wild olive branch which is grafted in to the tree. This grafting of the wild branch into the cultivated tree is a picture of the grace of God. Paul warns us in this analogy that we should not be arrogant or prideful then in our position, because it is only by grace we stand. And if God is able to graft us in, then how much more so will He be able to graft in the natural branches, that is the Jews.

And in this analogy we also see two aspects of God’s nature; His mercy and His justice. Paul describes them as the kindness and severity of God. God’s justice rightly falls on those who continue in unbelief by cutting off those branches, but His kindness towards those who believe by grafting them in. The gospel depends upon both the mercy and justice of God being fully operational in salvation. It is a aberration of the gospel to only preach God’s love and mercy and not God’s justice. If there were no justice of God then there would be no need for the cross. God must satisfy His justice before He is able to show mercy.

Now how the mercy of God works is what Paul calls a mystery. The mystery is the plan and purpose of God in salvation and how God is working to bring it all to fulfillment. Paul explains this mystery in vs25 “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery–so that you will not be wise in your own estimation–that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” “THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.”

Paul is saying that Israel’s hardness is temporary. Once God has fulfilled His plan of salvation in regards to the rest of the world, then he says all Israel will be saved. The fulfillment of God’s plan with Israel will result in their believing in Jesus Christ as their Messiah, the Son of God, who came to be their Savior. Salvation is simply God removing their sins by placing them on Jesus Christ who died in their place. And then God transfers to those who believe in Him the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

But notice vs 26 says, “and so ALL Israel will be saved.” How is that possible? The answer is If they do not continue in their unbelief. Vs 23, “And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.” So the principle of individual salvation has not changed, nor has the method of salvation changed. It is by faith, and faith is an individual decision. Exactly how many of Israel will be saved in the last days is the common question that arises out of this statement. But the correct answer is simply that all of the elect will be saved. All that God has worked the wonders of His grace in that they might believe in Jesus Christ.

One thing is clear, and that is that the method of salvation will not change. Salvation is by grace through faith, not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. The same sun that hardens clay softens wax. And God who hardened Israel in their unbelief, will one day soften Israel in their hearts to believe. And just as you cannot say that all Gentiles will be saved, neither can you say that every Israelite will be saved. But what you can bank on is that all who are foreknown and chosen and called of God will be justified, and will be glorified.

The point that needs to be taken from all of this is that as vs 29 says, “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” What God promises He accomplishes. Whom God predestines, comes to Him. Salvation is of the Lord. He is sovereign. But thank God He also merciful.

Vs30 “For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.” That is the principle that we can take away from this; that all are disobedient, both Jews and Gentiles.

Listen, Rom 3:10-12 says “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.” All of us are sinners. All of us are disobedient. But God even uses our disobedience to bring us to recognize our need of a Savior. And God uses our disobedience to display His mercy towards us.

This revelation of the mystery of salvation has such an impact on Paul that he breaks out into a liturgy of praise. He concludes this great argument about the sovereignty of God and His mercy and grace towards those who were undeserving, by declaring this doxology in the final verses.

And we too will conclude by proclaiming this doxology starting with vs 33, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him [be] the glory forever. Amen.”

God is the author and finisher of our salvation and to Him belongs all the glory for our salvation. God has extended the invitation to you today, if you will not harden your heart, believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, who died for your sins, who accomplished our redemption, and who lives to be our King, that you might have life in His name. Trust in Him today and receive forgiveness of your sins, receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ applied to your account, and receive everlasting life.