Bible Studies

Chapter Twelve of Romans

by Lawrence Walkup 
10/20/14
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CHAPTER TWELVE OF ROMANS

By

Lawrence Walkup

Verses 1-3: The 'therefore' is referring to what the Apostle was talking about in the previous chapter. And what he was talking about was the mercy that has been granted to the Gentiles and to Israel. Paul ends chapter eleven praising God for the depth of the riches of His wisdom and knowledge in His application of granting mercy to the Gentiles and to Israel. The word 'mercy' is mentioned four times from verses 30-32. In order for a perfect God to have anything to do with imperfect man, the imperfect has to be corrected or fixed in some way. Because of what man has inherited from Adam, even at the point of his physical birth, it is too late for man. He is already condemned. Mercy is all there is in order for the situation to be remedied. God can justifiably grant us mercy because of what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us. At the moment of receiving the life of Christ, we also receive mercy. Therefore, in view of, in light of, and because of this mercy, we are urged by the Apostle to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is our spiritual act of worship.

In these first three verses of Romans twelve there is a ton of information. I hope everybody is getting this definition of the word 'worship.' The first clue we get from verse one that worship to God is referring to faith in God is the phrase 'well pleasing to God'. We know from Hebrews chapter eleven (the faith chapter) that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). Worship is not going to church. Going to church is a time of celebration. It is a social experience. The unregenerate like to go to church. If you are a social person, you will like going to church. Worship is exercising faith in God. Worship is walking in the Spirit. As it plainly tells us in Galatians 5:17: 'the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.' The question is: which one is going to be sacrificed by you through your choice? You the living sacrifice, are to choose one over the other. And if you haven't noticed, the choosing is constant, because the two are in constant opposition to one another. Here is another way to look at it: There are two people who live inside of you. Jesus lives inside of you, and you (who is strongly influenced by a sinful nature embedded in your flesh) live inside of you. The choice is up to you who does the living through your body. Which one are you going to sacrifice?

Faith in God is worship to God. Faith is not needed at church. Faith is needed in the world, where we live most of the time; where all the temptaions are; where we are as the light of the world...for the world. Faith in God is a very big deal with God because not only is it our worship to God, but it is also our love for God (1 John 5:3; 1 John 3:23). The Apostle has to tell us in verse two not to conform to the pattern of the world, because as Christians, that is exactly what our flesh wants to do. He tells us this because he wants us to be aware of what is happening to us when we feel pulled to go back to that old life style. We don't want to go back again to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life (1 John 2:16). To the unbeliever all he knows is being a slave to the world, even though he is not aware of his condition, until after becoming born again.

Instead of conforming to the world, be transformed, or be changed, by the renewing of your mind. Instead of your mind thinking the old way, it is going to start thinking a new way. This is extremely important because the way we think is what determines how we behave (Pro. 23:7). This is the way God made us. From our thinking comes feelings; and from our feelings comes the actions. If I think about anxiety long enough, I will start to become anxious, and when those anxious feelings overwhelm me, I can go into a panic attack. Feelings are simply responders to what our mind is thinking. They have no intellect. If I go to a movie theater and watch a scary movie I will get scared even though I am safe sitting in the chair. I get scared because my emotions or feelings are responding to what is going on in my mind as I watch the movie. The key to not letting your emotions affect you is to choose what influences your mind. I had a panic attack because I chose to spend a lot of time thinking about anxiety. One of my favorite verses is Isa. 26:3. 'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in the.'

We have all heard that truth sets us free (John 8:32). Jesus said the Word of God is truth (John 17:17). The Word of God is what sets us free from our old way of thinking. When we believe and internalize the Word of God we start thinking in a new way. When we start thinking in a new way, then we start acting in a new way. God is ultimately after getting us to the action of love. The more renewing of our mind takes place, the more love is coming out of us. Where are you at in your growth? After all, if God lives inside of us and we surrender to that life, then we are going to start acting like God. The will of God for us is to act like God; a will that is good and acceptable and perfect.

Similar to the admonition of not conforming to the world, Paul also has to admonish us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought, but rather think so as to have sound judgment, as God has alloted to each a measure of faith. Again, in this particular case the boastful pride of life is so easily triggered into making us think of ourselves as big deals for God. Yea, God has given more faith to some over others for His purposes. But the minute we start to think that we had something to do with getting more faith, the minute we start to think that we are more special than someone else...that is the minute we have gone back into our old way of thinking. This is something that we have to especially be on guard against because it happens so easily and so frequently. This happens with such subtle ease that you can't even recognize it when it happens. I think a good illustration of what I'm talking about here is Christian Television and what it has come to be. However, it is just not exclusive to Christian Television. The history of the Church has always been more of the will of man than the will of God. In the mean time, I don't know what is more embarrassing to watch...Christian Television or the Jerry Springer Show.

The two key words here in verse three are 'grace' and 'given'. Grace means unmerited favor. It is because of God's mercy that we have been given the gift of unearned favor. When we think of ourselves more highly than we ought, we make judgments that are unsound. When we think of ourselves as big deals, we make judgments that are unsound; not based on what is real. Sound judgments about ourselves and others are only going to come from what is true about ourselves and others. Without having to read the entire Bible, to find out the truth about man, we can read the condensed version about man in the book of Romans. To learn what real is for a human being...saved or unsaved...read chapters 5,6,7,and 8 in particular...the heart of the Gospel. In light of what is stated in these four chapters is the bases from which our judgments should be coming.

Have you ever noticed about yourself when you approach everything from a perspective of humility, how much more effective you are; how it puts you at an advantage? And of course when you do the converse of that, which is what most peole do, you end up with the result of putting your foot in your mouth over and over again. For all lessons in the Bible, who do we look to? We look to our example...Jesus. Think of the lengths he went to in his process of starting as God and then becoming man, and then staying as man because he relinquished his diety, in order to be a legitimate example of a man. He was a demonstration to us of what a man is to be like in his relationship to God. Look at me people and do what I do. Walk in faith and God will live his life through you.

This was all done because Jesus made the decision to do it. He walked in an attitude of humility. I mean think about it! Who can even fathom God becoming a man? In our own personal humbling process, what have we done in our lives as Christians that even compares to the lenghts he went to? And yet we are told to take on the same attitude that he had. Philippians 2:5-8: 'Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 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.' Wow! Wow! Wow! What a Savior! What a Savior!

Verses 4-8: God has given more faith and gace to some than others because more faith and grace is needed in the different functions from others. However, I'm really not sure if Paul is telling us here that one Christian has more faith and grace than another or if he is telling us that God uses that faith and grace in a person more than another. You see, we who are Christians have the life of Christ in us. And it is from that life that comes faith and grace. We all have the same amount of Jesus in us. And Jesus is full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Therefore we too are full of grace and truth. The issue is: all this fullness of grace and truth that is in our heart has not yet completely made it up to our mind where we carry on our functions, where we make our decisions, where we do our thinking. It comes up in bits and pieces when God determines we are ready to take on more for whatever His purposes may be. We prophecy, according to the proportion of our faith and the same goes for all the other gifts that Paul has listed here in verses seven and eight.

Verses 9-21: Paul goes on to talk about love. Here is the point: When you read through these next thirteen verses, you are reading what only Jesus can accomplish. And the only way we can accomplish this is to let him do it through us. Remember...the Christian life is not hard to live. It is impossible to live. Only he can live it. And the way we let him do that is to sacrifice the self. We surrender to his life instead of our life. We remain as a branch, attached to a vine, that does all the work, so the branch can bear the fruit.