Romans 12 Why This Chapter Is So Important

[HKHaugan]

Romans 12 Why This Chapter is So Important

I had a rabbi ask me once, “Why can't Gentiles have Jesus as their Christian Messiah?” Fair question I thought. Then the answer came to me, “Because Jesus was a Jew.” But not only that, see what Paul says. He states strongly that for those who do evil there will be wrath and for those who do good there will be glory, “first for the Jew, then for the Gentile (Rom.2:8-10).” Also, through Jesus, our Jewish Messiah, we have been grafted onto the vine and are nourished by it (John 15, Rom.11:17-18). Think of the Scripture before Jesus and the Scripture that came after Him. They have been grafted and through Jesus, the nourishment flows from both.

There is no question as we move into Ch.12 that Chs. 9-11 have presented us with the mystery of God's choice of the Jewish people as central to His plan of salvation. How many times haven't you heard people say, or thought to yourself, “Why can't the Jews see Jesus as the Messiah what with the Resurrection, the growth of Christian faith around the world and specifically after you read Isaiah 53 describing the persecuted Jesus?” What we have to grasp is the spiritual reality of God's choice so eloquently described by Paul:
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen (Rom.11:33-36).”

Sounds like Paul was very aware of Job's futile attempt to understand the mind of God, “Then Job replied to the Lord: “You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:1-6).”

The 'Messiah-still-to-come' attitude of present Judaism as well as its continued existence indicate and prove the need for keeping the people of Israel foremost in our prayers. It's consistent with Scripture as Paul points out. Without Israel, its patriarchs and its Scripture, we would have no Messiah Savior for all mankind. It is this continuing mystery that prompted Paul to write what he did, that is to maintain an open attitude for Israel and to keep on praying for them.

Again, note how Chs.9-11 form a transition between the past and the future. The place of the Jews, their attitude and continual resistance to seeing Jesus as Messiah, presents us with Paul's concluding thought about God's thoughts and ways always going beyond our understanding. The issue is really about faith in God. Who can tell God what to do? The more we try the more distant we will move away from Him. Our attitude toward Israel is always going to be a present concern until the Lord comes back. Israel's existence keeps us honest with our Messianic heritage and the foundational Scriptures preparing for the coming of the Messiah. We have to remember the Scripture for Jesus was the Old Testament. Faith in Jesus is always the foundation for our thinking. Think of the Psalms and how they move us. In the darkest of circumstance, the aloneness we feel in suffering, broken relationships, unfulfilled dreams, disillusionment and disappointment, when it seems there is nothing but hopelessness, Jesus is always there for us.

Now just a momentary summary so we can look forward to Chs.12-16, the new lifestyle:

Chapters 1-8 deals with the past. They are historic realities to show faith to be the groundwork for spiritual, personal and relational living through what Jesus accomplished by His Cross and Resurrection.

Chapters 9-11 keep us focused on the present by maintaining the heritage of our Jewish consciousness and conscience. That consciousness involves the existence of the Jewish State, Israel and its biblical significance. That conscience asks “Who could possibly deny the 10 Commandments, the Adam and Eve lessons, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and the Prophets as events directly foreshadowing Messiah Jesus?” Both the consciousness and the conscience point to everything that happened in the first 39 books of the Bible. They always have a present meaning and application. They are foundational for every next moment with Jesus present not only in them but in us as we apply their principles.

Chapters 12-16 are all about being transformed, how we take what we have been given in the past, keeping our scriptural mindset in the present and looking forward to every next moment by faith in Jesus. It's a reshaping of our heart's attitude from looking backward to looking forward in expectation of what the Lord is going to do next.

Specifically, Ch.12 has its own overview:

Vs.1-2 introduce a new mindset, spiritual thinking based on Scripture---belief---mind
Vs.3-8 introduce a new family, operating through shared spiritual gifts---trust---heart
Vs.9-21 introduce a new lifestyle, replacing pride in self with humility before God---faith---spirit

So let's start with 12:1-2, the new mindset.

These two verses are the theme for the rest of Paul's letter to Roman believers. There are five transitional objectives in these two verses: being a living sacrifice, rejecting conformity, building transformity, testing the results and seeing it all as worship. They begin with 'therefore.' The 'therefore' points to the total trust in God that every next moment demands. There are three things demanded, your mind believing, your heart trusting and your spirit motivated by faith. That is your spiritual body, the image of God, at work. The work we are called to do is offering all of it for the Holy Spirit's use in both the spiritual family and the secular world. That's what a 'good, pleasing and perfect (vs.2)' sacrifice is and that sacrifice is the nature of 'spiritual worship.' What happens is up to the Lord.

Now we have a whole new insight into worship. True worship starts when we finally understand that God's mind and plans are far beyond our understanding and our focus by necessity becomes taking up our cross which is faith in Jesus for our every next moment. It is those momentary faith choices, the momentary faith decisions,--- in them is where God is calling us to experience Him. When we are acting in faith, we are saying God is the only worth there is---worth-ship. He is the only value there is which means that spiritual value precedes and defines the value and worth of everything else. Jesus is the 'worth' and 'value' we carry into every next moment. Paul puts it this way,”But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him...(Php.3:8-9).”

So when we come together in a worship service we are not there as though that is the only time we worship. No, no, no! A worship service is the summarizing of all the moments we chose to let His value and worth be our motivation for what we did. He is worthy to be 'worth-shiped', sharing our praise in singing, prayer, testimony and fellowship. All of this is worshiping the Father in Spirit and in truth (Jn.4:23-24). A worship service is only a drop in the bucket when you consider what real worship is. It's all those moments we valued the Holy Spirit's reminder that every thing we do is to please the Lord. That's what it means for us humans to be holy; to give ourselves to the Lord for His use in every next moment. Holiness is not how good we are but how good God is when we let Him use us in every next moment.

If there was ever a point to be made, a principle to stand upon, a way to live, it is this: We don't make the choice to be good. We make the choice to let God be good through us. That's what it means to be a living sacrifice (12:1).

You can't 'out-good' God. The temptation comes when we choose a project that looks good so we can feel good and say we did good. Then, when it's been done, we get the glory instead of God. Therefore, we can only offer our mind, heart and spirit to Him who is the only One who is good and let Him work through us. He has already 'out-gooded' us. You can't determine what will happen in every next moment. You can only respond to what you are given in it. Your faith is allowing God to be good through you in the next moment you live not knowing what it will bring. Remember Jesus' words, “Only God is good (Lk.18:19).” So a sacrifice, a good and holy sacrifice happens when you don't know what will happen, nor what you will do, nor will you be in control of the moment. It is the moment of choice and decision depending totally on your belief, trust and faith in Jesus. To make sure we get it, Paul makes this bluntly and conclusively clear, “...and everything that does not proceed from faith is sin (Rom.14:23).”

This brings us to vs.2 which tells us how to sacrifice ourselves when we face very next moment not knowing what it will bring. Eleven chapters have delivered us from the past to the present and now we come into each future moment, event, circumstance and occasion. Think of it like being in a race. As images of the “I AM”, sacrifice of the mind, heart and spirit is at future's starting gate. You're a sprinter ready to explode at the starter's gunshot, your feet are planted firmly against the blocks of Scripture, your belief in Jesus and your heart trusting Him. The starter's shot you are waiting for is the next person you meet, the next demand on your choice and decision, the next opportunity to consciously serve the Lord. When that shot is fired off you go knowing it is a step by step stride by stride race. Sometimes you stumble but regain your feet. Other times you run out of breath but you keep going. The time you are given for those moments will cause both a feeling of inadequacy and fear but you reach within to pray yourself through. The blessing is not in the winning or losing but in the race itself and the opportunities it presents. Each word, each feeling, each challenge are gifts to experience the Spirit, the One who really motivates the race for every next moment.

Of what does that race consist? It's the image of God in us racing against stifling conformity to the world as we strive toward freeing transformity in the Spirit. That means displacing religion and replacing it with relationship, leaving fear behind and moving forward in faith, dying to sin's aloneness conscious of Jesus' presence and the Spirit's leading. You're running with Christ in the Spirit loving and living the new life.

As vs.2 stirs our hope, it is the immediate awareness that our first response is not to conform to what the world thinks and expects which is playing to the attitudes and opinions of others. These are the subnormal demands of the culture in which we live---the pattern of this world. The world’s principles are motivated by fear for both physical and social survival. Fear is what drives the pattern of this world. Our spiritual race is motivated by the Holy Spirit who pours spiritual strength and resolve into each step. Each step is part of the sacrifice consciously rejecting fear for self and acting in love for the Lord toward others as we press forward into each next encounter with the world.

But what about when we are down, our emotions are sadness and the old self interferes? What then? Count it all an opportunity and part of the growth in the Spirit, relying on the Word and others in the spiritual family whose wisdom and counsel are always there of us. This is where we shift into the rest of Ch.12.

Vs.3-8 the new family

The new family is the Body of Christ, the new brothers and sisters with whom we are called to grow spiritually. When we receive Jesus as Lord there are four major spiritual anointings that equip us to move out of the past and into every next future moment---worship, discipleship, ministry and mission.

First, having become aware of the amazing gift of God's personal relationship with us in Jesus Christ we recognize our need to worship Him as we have already elaborated on. He becomes the primary value and worth that gives everything its meaning and purpose. We were created with the need to worship Him and it begins in the heart. So every next moment becomes a moment beginning with pleasing the Lord God.

Second, we learn to be spiritual brothers and sisters and disciples in a spiritual family called the Body of Christ. We are identified not by skills, talents, appearance, social or economic standing but by spiritual gifts. When we receive Christ we are each given, as Paul says, a measure of the Spirit (Eph.4:7), a piece of grace, so to speak. These gifts are called grace gifts (Grk.---charismata). They are our new identity. So the study of Scripture and the practice of spiritual gifts, they are what make us disciples. These gifts enable us to worship not only vertically but horizontally. It's about discipleship. See the Cross here?

Third, with the gift comes the Holy Spirit who makes the gift work, who inspires its use and who shows the Lord living His relationship within us and through us as His family. Spiritual gifts are the means by which we relate and minister to one another in the family. Spiritual gifts not identify us but help us to grow spiritually and the family is where we learn and practice being spiritual images of God. Spiritual gifts build us as worshiping disciples.

Fourth, ministering and being ministered to prepares us for our mission as individuals and as a family for mission. Ministry is what we do inside the Body, Mission is what we do outside the Body. Jesus told us we are to go into the world and make disciples for Him (Mt.28:18-20). Mission is our worship in the secular world. Mission is showing how worthy God is, how much He loves us when He sent Jesus into our world to bring new life, a new love, a new family, a new faith and a new destiny.

Vs.9-21 the new lifestyle

Vs.9, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” Vs.21, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Vs.9 and 21 are basic principles between which 22 responses are shown as the way to show sincere love. Sincere love distinguishes us being transformed by our relationship with Jesus and not being a lonely conformed victim of this fear-driven world.

Love is the key to the new lifestyle and in between verses 9 and 21 are specific ways to spot evil and cling to what is good. The new lifestyle, Jesus' love as opposed to man's love, is the heart's attitude for living the transforming spiritual life. Chapter 8's teaching on the Spirit is our reference point here. The moment of an event or encounter is when the Holy Spirit will signal the difference between good and evil and the choice is ours. Since vs.9 says it must be sincere then it is striving on our part to let the Spirit love through us. Striving in faith is the cross we take up. It's beating sin to the punch. Sincerity keeps us on our toes so that we do just that. Then we can hate the evil and cling to the good. Vs.21 will conclude that what comes in between are the means of overcoming evil with good which is the work of the Spirit. Again, it is not how good I am but how good God is. That's the test of sincerity.

With sincere love as the theme, the 21 responses allowing the love of Jesus to work through us are:

1.Be devoted to one another in brotherly love
2.Honor one another above ourselves
3.Be never lacking in zeal
4.Keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord
5.Be joyful in hopelessness
6.Patient in affliction
7.Faithful in prayer
8.Share with God's people who are in need
9.Practice hospitality
10.Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse
11.Rejoice with those who rejoice
12.Mourn with those who mourn
13.Live in harmony with one another
14.Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position
15.Do not be conceited
16.Do not repay anyone evil for evil
17.Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody
18.If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with everyone
19.Do not take revenge...leave room for God's wrath...It's mine to avenge, says the Lord.
20.If your enemy is hungry, feed him
21.If he is thirsty, give him something to drink

Love is the relational good life into eternity, evil is the lonely cul de sac “I did it my way”, so, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

In all 21 responses be aware of this amazing three-fold reality---

First, all people are created to be good. Goodness is the presence of God in whose image everyone is created, but sin has separated them from their Creator.

Second, every person in the world is living an every-next-moment lifestyle. Each one anticipates a future relational event, an evaluation of that event and a response to that event. The mind perceives it, the heart reacts and the spirit responds. But who do they trust to live in every next moment?

Third, an image of God who is a disciple of Jesus is a forgiven sinner in a relationship with Him to bring His presence into every next moment. That's spiritual reality. The mind believes Jesus is Savior and Lord in the moment, the disciple's heart trusts Jesus' forgiving presence through the Holy Spirit and the disciple's spirit responds by faith to be a witness to Jesus in the moment.