Bible Commentaries
Romans 12

Verses 1-27

XX

THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION BY GRACE APPLIED TO PRACTICAL LIFE

Romans 12:1-16:27.

The prevalent characteristic of all Paul’s teachings concerning the gospel is the unfailing observance of the order and relation of doctrine and morals. He never "puts the cart before the horse," and never drives the horse without the cart attached and following after. He was neither able to conceive of morals not based on antecedent doctrine, nor to conceive of doctrine not fruiting in holy living. He rigidly adhered to the Christ-idea, "First make the tree good, and then the fruit will be good." His clear mind never confounded cause and effect. To his logical and philosophical mind it was a reversal of all natural and spiritual law to expect good trees as a result of good fruit, but rather good fruit evidencing a good tree. So he conceived of justification through faith, and regeneration through the Spirit as obligating to holy living. If he fired up his doctrinal engine it was not to exhaust its steam in whistling, but in sawing logs, or grinding grist, or drawing trains.

The modern cry, "Give us morals and away with dogma," would have been to him a philosophical absurdity, just as the antinomian cry, "faith makes void the law – let us sin the more that grace may abound," was abhorrent and blasphemous to him.

A justification of a sinner through grace that delivered from the guilt of sin was unthinkable to him if unaccompanied by a regeneration that delivered from the love of sin, and a sanctification that delivered from the dominion of sin.

He expected no good works from the dead, but insisted that those made alive were created unto good works. His philosophy of salvation, in the order and relation of doctrine and morals, is expressed thus in his letter to Titus: "For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men instructing us to the intent that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works." "But when the kindness of God our Saviour, and his love toward man appeared, not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Faithful is the saying, and concerning these things I desire that thou affirm confidently, to the end that they who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men" (Titus 2:11-15; Titus 3:4-8).

So in every letter there is first the doctrinal foundation, and then the application to morals. But as in this letter we have the most complete and systematic statement of the doctrines of grace as a foundation (Romans 9-11) so in this, the following section (Romans 12-15), we have the moat elaborate superstructure of morals.

The analysis and order of thought in this great section are –

1. Salvation by grace through faith obligates the observance of all duties toward God the Father on account of what he does for us in the gift of his Son, in election, predestination, justification, and adoption (Romans 12:1).

2. It obligates the observance of all duties toward God the Holy Spirit for what he does in us in regeneration and sanctification (Romans 12:2).

3. It obligates the observance of all duties toward the church, with its diversity of gifts in unity of body (Romans 12:3-13).

4. It obligates the observance of all duties toward the individual neighbor in the outside world (Romans 12:14-21).

5. It obligates the observance of all duties to the neighbors, organized as society or state (Romans 13:1-13).

6. It obligates the observance of all duties arising from the Christian’s individual relation to Christ the Saviour (Romans 13:14; Romans 14:7-12).

7. It obligates the observance of all duties toward the individual brother in Christ (Romans 14:1-15:7).

8. The last obligation holds regardless of the race distinctions, Jew and Gentile (Romans 15:8-24), and includes the welcome of the apostle to the Gentiles, prayer for the welcome and success of his service toward the Jewish Christians in their need (Romans 15:25-29) and prayer for his deliverance from unbelieving Jews (Romans 15:30-33).

As to the sum of these obligations –

1. They cover the whole scope of morals, whether in the decalogue, as given to the Jews, or the enlarged Christian code arising from grace.

2. They conform to relative proportions, making first and paramount morals toward God, whether Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, not counting morals at all which leave out God in either his unity of nature, or trinity of persons, and making that second, subordinate and correlative which is morals toward men.

The duty toward God the Father, in view of what he has done for us in grace and mercy, is to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God (Romans 12:1) and respect his prerogative (Romans 12:19) which is illustrated by Paul elsewhere. He says, "I die daily," meaning that though alive his members were on the rack of death all the time. He says, "I mortify my members," and, "I keep my body under," i.e., he kept his redeemed soul on top, dominating his body. He made his body as "Prometheus bound" on the cold rock of Caucasus, vultures devouring his vitals every day as they were renewed every night, a living death.

Our duty toward God, the Holy Spirit, in view of what he graciously does in us is found in Romans 12:2: Negatively – Let not the regenerate soul be conformed with the spirit and course of this evil world, whether in the lust of the eye or pride of life. Positively – Be transformed in continual sanctification in the renewing of the mind. That is, working out the salvation which the Spirit works in us, as he, having commenced a good work in us (regeneration) continues it (through sanctification) until the day of Jesus Christ. Or, as this apostle says elsewhere, Christ, having been formed in us the hope of glory, we are changed into that image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The duties toward the church are found in Romans 12:3-13:

1. Not to think more highly of one’s self in view of -the other members of the church. Here are a lot of people in one church; now let not one member put himself too high in view of the other members of that church.

2. To think only according to the proportion of faith given to him for the performance of some duty. If I am going to put an estimate upon myself in the relation to my church members, a standard or estimate should be, What is the proportion of faith given to me? Say A has so much, C has so much, D has so much, and E has least of all; then E ought not to think himself the biggest of all. The standard of judgment is the proportion of faith given to each member.

3. He must respect the unity of the church as a body. In that illustration used the church is compared to a body having many members. The hand must not say, "I am everything," and the eye of the body must not say, "I am everything," nor the ear, "I am everything," nor the foot, "I am everything." In estimating we have to estimate the function of each part, the proportion of power given to that part and it is always not as a sole thing, but in its relation to every other part – that is a duty that a church member must perform. Sometimes a man easily forgets that he is just one of many in the organism.

4. He must respect its diversity of gifts. That is one part of it that I comply with. If there is anything that rejoices my heart, it is the diversity of gifts that God puts in the church. I never saw a Christian in my life that could not do some things better than anybody else in the world. I would feel meaner than a dog if I didn’t rejoice in the special gifts of any other member in the church. What a pity it would be if we had just one kind of a mold, and everybody was run through like tallow so as to make every candle alike. The duty of the church is to respect the unity of the body, and its diversity of gifts.

5. Each gift is to be exercised with its appropriate corresponding limitation.

The duties to the individual neighbor of the outside world, even though hostile to us, are found in Romans 12:14-21:

1. To bless him when he persecutes.

2. To be sympathetic toward him, rejoicing in his joy) and weeping in his sorrow.

3. Several Christians should not be of different mind toward him. The expression in the text is to be like-minded. What is the point of that? We are dealing now with individuals outside. Here is A, a Christian; B, a Christian; G, a Christian; and the outsider is watching. A makes one impression on his mind, B makes a different one, and G makes still a different one. The influence from these several Christians does not harmonize; it is not like-minded; but if he says that A, B, G, all in different measures perhaps, be every one of the same mind, then he sees that there is a unifying power in Christians. How often do we hear it said, "If every Christian were like you, I would want to be one, but look yonder at that deacon, or at that sister." We should be like-minded to those outside so that every Christian that comes in may make a similar impression for Christ’s sake.

4. We should not, in dealing with him, respect big outsiders only, but condescend to the lowly – to men of low-estate. Some of them are very rich, some of them are influential socially, some of them are what we call poor, country folk. We should not be high-minded in our dealings with these sinners, but condescend to men of low estate. Let them feel that we are willing to go and help them.

5. We should not let our wisdom toward him be self-conceit, i.e., let it not seem to him that way.

6. When he does evil to us, we should not repay in kind.

7. We should let him see that we are honest men. Ah me, how many outsiders are repelled because all Christians do not provide things honest in the sight of the outside world!

8. So far as it lieth in us we should be peaceable with him. That means that it is absolutely impossible to be peaceable with a man that has no peace in him. He wants to fuss anyhow, and goes around with a chip on his shoulder. He goes around snarling and showing his teeth. There are some people that are not peaceable, but so far as our life is concerned, we should be peaceable with them.

9. We should not avenge on him wrongs done us by him. Vengeance belongs to God; we should give place to God’s wrath.

10. We should feed him if hungry, and give him drink if thirsty.

11. We should not allow ourselves to be overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. We should not get off when we come in contact with evil people, but just hang on and overcome evil with good.

The duties to the state are as follows:

1. Be subject to higher powers, and do not resist them, for (1) God ordained them. (2) Makes them a terror to evil works. (3) God’s minister for good. (4) And for conscience sake we must respect the state.

2. Pay our taxes.

3. Whatever is due to each office: "Render honor to whom honor is due."

4. Keep out of debt: "Owe no man anything but good will."

5. Keep the moral code: "Do not steal; do not commit adultery; do not covet anything that is thy neighbor’s, and thus love thy neighbor."

6. Avoid the world’s excesses, revels, and such like.

The duties toward God the Son, in view of what he has done for us and in view of our vital union with him, are set forth in Romans 14:7-12:

1. Negatively: Live not unto self.

2. Positively: Live unto Jesus, respecting his prerogatives and servants.

Let us now look at the duties to individual Christians. We have considered the Christians as a body. What are the duties to individual Christians? Romans 14:1-15:7 contains the duty to individual Christians. Let us enumerate these duties somewhat:

1. Receive the weak in faith. We have a duty to every weak brother; receive him, but not to doubtful disputations. If we must have our abstract, metaphysical, hair-splitting distinctions, let us not spring them on the poor Christian that is Just alive.

2. We should not judge him censoriously, instituting a comparison between us and him; we should not say to him, "Just look at me."

3. We should not hurt him by doing things, though lawful to us, that will cause him to stumble. The explanation there is in reference to a heathen custom. The heathen offered sacrifices to their gods, and after the sacrifice they would hang up the parts not consumed and sell as any other butchered meat. Could we stand up like Paul and say, "It won’t hurt me to eat that meat, but there is a poor fellow just born into the kingdom, and he is weak in the faith. He sees me eating this meat that has been offered in sacrifice to idols, and he stumbles, therefore I will not eat meat"? He draws the conclusion that if a big fellow can do that he can too, and he goes and worships the idols. The strong) through the exercise of his liberty that he could have done without, caused his fall into idolatry. That is what he meant when he wrote, "Do not hurt him; do not cause him to stumble." He gives two reasons why we must not cause him to stumble on account of a little meat. He says, (a) "Because the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. (b) If we consider this weak brother, our consideration will be acceptable to Christ, and approved of men, but if we trample on the poor fellow that is weak in the faith, Christ won’t approve of it, and men won’t approve of it."

4. Follow the things that make for peace. It is individual Christians that we are talking about, and we come in contact with them where we have A, B, G, D, and E, and the first thing we know a little root of bitterness springs up among them and stirs up a disagreement. The point is that we should follow the things that make for peace, just as far as we can, and sometimes that will take us a good ways. He gives this illustration where he says, "If my eating meat offered to idols causes my brother to stumble, then I am willing to take a total abstinence pledge." Then he extends it: "Nor drink wine, nor do anything whereby my brother is caused to stumble." There is meat other than that which is offered to idols.

5. Bear his infirmities. One man said, "There is much of human nature in the mule, but more of the mule in human nature." The best man I ever knew had some infirmities, and I can see some of mine with my eyes shut, and I believe better with them shut than with them open. We all have infirmities in some direction or another,

6. We should seek to please him rather than to please ourselves. We are not to sacrifice a principle, but if we can please him without sacrificing a principle, rather than please ourselves, why not do it? Let us make him feel good if we can. This is the duty to the individual Christian.

The duties of Christian Jews to Gentile neighbors are found in Romans 15:8-24. There they are all elaborated. Even in the Jew’s Bible, all through its parts, it is shown that God intended to save the Gentiles. The duty of Gentile Christians to the Jews is found in Romans 15:27, showing that there is a debt and that it ought to be paid.

QUESTIONS

1. What are the prevalent characteristics of all Paul’s teachings concerning the gospel? Illustrate.

2. What is Paul’s attitude toward the modern cry, "Give us morals and away with dogma," and how does he express his conviction on this subject elsewhere?

3. How is this thought especially emphasized in this letter?

4. What is the analysis and order of thought in this letter in Romans 12-15?

5. What may we say as to the sum of these obligations?

6. What is the duty toward God the Father, in view of what he has done for us in grace and mercy?

7. What is the meaning of "living sacrifice"? Illustrate.

8. What are our duty toward God the Holy Spirit, in view of what he graciously does in us?

9. What are our duties toward the church?

10. What are our duties to the individual neighbor of the outside world, even though hostile to us?

11. What are our duties to the state?

12. What are our duties toward God the Son, in view of what he has done for us and in view of our vital union with him?

13. What are the duties to individual Christians?

14. What are the duties of Christian Jews to Gentile neighbors?