Religion Scripture Readings

Romans 7

The Weakness of the Law Exposed
A. Dead to the Law.

1. (1-3) The law has authority only over the living.

Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.

a. In Romans 6:14, Paul told us that sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. After the discussion in Romans 6:15-23 regarding practical implications of this, he now explains more completely how it is that we are no longer under the dominion of the law.

b. That the law has dominion over a man: The ancient Greek wording here has no the before law. This means that Paul speaks of a principle broader than the Mosaic Law. The law that has dominion over us includes the Law of Moses, but there is a broader principle of law communicated by creation and conscience, and these also have dominion over a man.

c. The law has dominion over a man as long as he lives: Paul makes the point that death ends all obligations and contracts. A wife is no longer bound to her husband if he dies because death ends that contract. If her husband dies, she is free from that law.

2. (4) Our death with Jesus sets us free from the law.

Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another; to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.

a. You also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ: In Romans 6:3-8, Paul carefully explained that we died with Jesus and we also rose with Him, although Paul there only spoke of our death to sin. Now he explains that we also died to the law.

i. Some might think, "Yes, we were saved by grace, but we must live by law to please God." Here Paul makes it plain that believers are dead to the law as far as it represents a principle of living or a place of right standing before God.

ii. "Believers are through with the law. It is not for them an option as a way of salvation. They do not seek to be right with God by obeying some form of law, as the adherents of almost all religions have done." (Morris)

b. That you may be married to another: However, we are not free from the law so we can live unto ourselves; we are free so that we can be "married" to Jesus and so that we can bear fruit to God.

3. (5) The problem with the law.

For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.

a. When we were in the flesh: Under the law, we did not bear fruit to God. Instead we bore fruit to death, because the law aroused the passions of sins within us.

b. Paul will explain this problem of the law more fully in Romans 7:7-14. But now we see his point - that we only come fully to the place of bearing fruit for God when we are free from the law.

4. (6) Delivered from the law.

But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

a. But now we have been delivered from the law: The theme of Romans 7:1-5 is summarized. Because we died with Jesus at Calvary, we are dead to the law and delivered from its dominion over us as a principle of justification or of sanctification.

i. The law does not justify us; it does not make us right with God. The law does not sanctify us; it does not take us deeper with God and make us more holy before Him.

b. So that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit: Our freedom is given not so we can stop serving God; but so that we can serve Him better, under the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

c. How well do you serve in the newness of the Spirit? It is a shame that many serve sin or legalism with more devotion than those who should serve God out of the newness of the Spirit. It's too bad when fear motivates us more than love.

B. Our problem with God's perfect law.

1. (7a) Paul asks: Is the law (equal to) sin?

What shall we say then? Is the law sin?

a. Is the law sin? If we follow his train of thought we can understand how someone could infer this. Paul insisted that we must die to the law if we will bear fruit to God. Someone must think, "Surely there is something wrong with the law!"

2. (7b) No, the law is good because it reveals sin to us.

Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet."

a. I would not have known sin except through the law: The law is like an x-ray machine; it reveals plainly what might have always been there, but was hidden before. You can't blame an x-ray for what it exposes.

b. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." The law sets the "speed limit" so we know exactly if we are going too fast. We might never know that we are sinning in many areas (such as covetousness) if the law did not spell this out to us specifically.

3. (8) Sin corrupts the commandment (law).

But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.

a. But sin, taking opportunity by the commandments: Paul describes the dynamic where the warning "don't do that" may become a call to action because of our sinful, rebellious hearts. It isn't the fault of the commandment, but it is our fault.

i. In his book Confessions, the great theologian of the ancient church Augustine described how this dynamic worked in his life as a young man: "There was a pear tree near our vineyard, laden with fruit. One stormy night we rascally youths set out to rob it and carry our spoils away. We took off a huge load of pears - not to feast upon ourselves, but to throw them to the pigs, though we ate just enough to have the pleasure of forbidden fruit. They were nice pears, but it was not the pears that my wretched soul coveted, for I had plenty better at home. I picked them simply in order to become a thief. The only feast I got was a feast of iniquity, and that I enjoyed to the full. What was it that I loved in the theft? Was it the pleasure of acting against the law? The desire to steal was awakened simply by the prohibition of stealing."

ii. In American history, we know that the Prohibition Act didn't stop drinking. In many ways it made drinking more attractive to people, because of our desire to break boundaries set by the commandment.

iii. Once God draws a boundary for us, we are immediately enticed to cross that boundary - which is no fault of God or His boundary, but the fault of our sinful hearts.

b. Sin, taking opportunity by the commandment: The weakness of the law isn't in the law - it is in us. Our hearts are so wicked that they can find opportunity for all manner of evil desire from something good like the law of God.

i. "The word opportunity in the original is a military term meaning a base of operations. Prohibition furnishes a springboard from which sin is all too ready to take off." (Harrison)

ii. A waterfront hotel in Florida was concerned that people might try to fish from the balconies, so they put up signs saying, "NO FISHING FROM THE BALCONY." They had constant problems with people fishing from the balconies, with lines and sinker weights breaking windows and bothering people in rooms below. They finally solved the problem by simply taking down the signs - and no one thought to fish from the balconies. Because of our hearts, the law can actually work like an invitation to sin.

c. Apart from the law, sin was dead: This shows how great the evil of sin is - it can take something good and holy like the law and twist it to promote evil. Sin warps love into lust, an honest desire to provide into greed, and law into a promoter of sin.

4. (9) Paul's state of innocence before he knew the law.

I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

a. I was alive once without the law: Children can be innocent before they know or understand what law requires. This is what Paul refers to when he says I was alive once without the law.

i. "He is not alive with the life that the New Testament writers so often speak about. He is alive in the sense that he has never been put to death as a result of confrontation with the law." (Morris)

ii. "He was quite secure amid all his sin and sinfulness. He lived in the sense that the deathblow had not yet killed him. He sat secure in the house of his ignorance like a man living on a volcano and thought that all was well." (Lenski)

b. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died: But when we do know the law, the law shows us our guilt and it excites our rebellion, bringing forth more sin and death.

5. (10-12) Sin corrupts the law and defeats its purpose of giving life; once law is corrupted by sin, it brings death.

And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

a. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death: Sin does this by deception. Sin deceives us:

- Because sin falsely promises satisfaction
- Because sin falsely claims an adequate excuse
- Because sin falsely promises an escape from punishment
b. For sin … deceived me: It isn't the law that deceives us, but it is sin that uses the law as an occasion for rebellion. This is why Jesus said you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32) The truth makes us free from the deceptions of sin.

c. And by it killed me: Sin, when followed, leads to death - not life. One of Satan's greatest deceptions is to get us to think of sin as something good that an unpleasant God wants to deprive us of. When God warns us away from sin, He warns us away from something that will kill us.

d. Therefore the law is holy: Paul understands how someone might take him as saying that he is against the law - but he isn't at all. It is true that we must die to sin (Romans 6:2) and we must die to the law (Romans 7:4). But that should not be taken to say that Paul believes that sin and law are in the same basket. The problem is in us, not in the law. Nevertheless, sin corrupts the work or effect of the law, so we must die to both.

C. The purpose and character of the law.

1. (13) The law exposes and magnifies sin.

Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

a. Sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good: Though the law provokes our sin nature, this can be used for good because it more dramatically exposes our deep sinfulness. After all, if sin can use something as good as the law to its advantage in promoting evil, it shows how evil sin is.

i. We need sin to appear sin, because it always wants to hide in us and conceal its true depths and strength. "This is one of the most deplorable results of sin. It injures us most by taking from us the capacity to know how much we are injured. It undermines the man's constitution, and yet leads him to boast of unfailing health; it beggars him, and tells him he is rich; it strips him, and makes him glory in his fancied robes." (Spurgeon)

ii. "Those who preach only the Gospel to sinners, at best only heal the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly. The law, therefore, is the grand instrument in the hands of a faithful minister, to alarm and awaken sinners." (Clarke)

b. So that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful: Sin "becomes more sinful" in light of the law in two ways. First, sin becomes exceedingly sinful through contrast with the law. Second, sin becomes exceedingly sinful because the law provokes its evil nature.

i. "Instead of being a dynamo that gives us power to overcome, the Law is a magnet that draws out of us all kinds of sin and corruption." (Wiersbe)

ii. Exceedingly sinful: "Why didn't he say, 'exceeding black,' or 'exceeding horrible,' or 'exceedingly deadly'? Why, because there is nothing in the world so bad as sin. When he wanted to use the very worst word he could find: to call sin by, he called it by its own name, and reiterated it: 'sin,' 'exceeding sinful.' " (Spurgeon)

2. (14) The spiritual law cannot restrain a carnal man.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

a. But I am carnal: The word carnal simply means "of the flesh." Paul recognizes that a spiritual law cannot help a carnal man.

i. Carnal uses the ancient Greek word sarkikos, which means, "characterized by the flesh." It speaks of the person who can and should do differently but does not. Paul sees this carnality in himself, and knows that the law, though it is spiritual, has no answer for his carnal nature.

b. Sold under sin: Paul is in bondage under sin and the law can't help him out. He is like a man arrested for a crime and thrown in jail. The law will only help him if he is innocent, but Paul knows that he is guilty and that the law argues against him, not for him.

c. Even though Paul says that he is carnal, it doesn't mean that he is not a Christian. His awareness of his carnality is evidence that God has done a work in him.

i. Luther on but I am carnal, sold under sin: "That is the proof of the spiritual and wise man. He knows that he is carnal, and he is displeased with himself; indeed, he hates himself and praises the Law of God, which he recognizes because he is spiritual. But the proof of a foolish, carnal man is this, that he regards himself as spiritual and is pleased with himself."

D. The struggle of obedience in our own strength.

1. (15-19) Paul describes his sense of helplessness.

For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.

a. For what I am doing, I do not understand: Paul's problem isn't desire - he wants to do what is right (what I will to do, that I do not practice). His problem isn't knowledge - he knows what the right thing is. His problem is a lack of power: how to perform what is good I do not find. He lacks power because the law gives no power.

i. The law says: "Here are the rules and you had better keep them." But it gives us no power for keeping the law.

b. It is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me: Is Paul denying his responsibility as a sinner? No. He recognizes that as he sins, he acts against his nature as a new man in Jesus Christ. A Christian must own up to his sin, yet realize that the impulse to sin does not come from who we really are in Jesus Christ.

i. "To be saved from sin, a man must at the same time own it and disown it; it is this practical paradox which is reflected in this verse. A true saint may say it in a moment of passion, but a sinner had better not make it a principle." (Wuest)

2. (20-23) The battle between two selves.

Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

a. I find then a law, that evil is present with me: Anyone who has tried to do good is aware of this struggle. We never know how hard it is to stop sinning until we try. "No man knows how bad he is until he has tried to be good." (C.S. Lewis)

b. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man: Paul knows that his real inward man has a delight in the law of God. He understands that the impulse to sin comes from another law in my members. Paul knows that the "real self" is the one who does delight in the law of God.

i. The old man is not the real Paul; the old man is dead. The flesh is not the real Paul; the flesh is destined to pass away and be resurrected. The new man is the real Paul; now Paul's challenge is to live like God has made him.

ii. There is a debate among Christians as to if Paul was a Christian during the experience he describes. Some look at his struggle with sin and believe that it must have been before he was born again. Others believe that he is just a Christian struggling with sin. In a sense this is an irrelevant question, for this is the struggle of anyone who tries to obey God in their own strength. This is something that a Christian may do, but something that a non-Christian can only do.

iii. Morris quoting Griffith Thomas: "The one point of the passages is that it describes a man who is trying to be good and holy by his own efforts and is beaten back every time by the power of indwelling sin; it thus refers to anyone, regenerate or unregenerate."

c. Warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin: Sin is able to war within Paul and win because there is no power within himself, other than himself, to stop sinning. Paul is caught in the desperate powerlessness of trying to battle sin in the power of self.

E. The victory found in Jesus Christ.

1. (24) Paul's desperation and perspective.

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

a. O wretched man that I am! The ancient Greek word wretched is more literally, "Wretched through the exhaustion of hard labor." Paul is completely worn out and wretched because of his unsuccessful effort to please God under the principle of Law.

i. "It is worth bearing in mind that the great saints through the ages do not commonly say, 'How good I am!' Rather, they are apt to bewail their sinfulness." (Morris)

ii. Legalism always brings a person face to face with their own wretchedness, and if they continue in legalism, they will react in one of two ways. Either they will deny their wretchedness and become self-righteous Pharisees, or they will despair because of their wretchedness and give up following after God.

b. O wretched man that I am! The entire tone of the statement shows that Paul is desperate for deliverance. He is overwhelmed with a sense of his own powerlessness and sinfulness. We must come to the same place of desperation to find victory.

i. Your desire must go beyond a vague hope to be better. You must cry out against yourself and cry out unto God with the same desperation Paul did.

c. Who will deliver me: Paul's perspective finally turns to something (actually, someone) outside of himself. Paul has referred to himself some 40 times since Romans 7:13. In the pit of Paul's unsuccessful struggle against sin, he became entirely self-focused and self-obsessed. This is the place of any believer living under law, who looks to self and personal performance rather than looking first to Jesus.

i. The words "Who will deliver me" show that Paul has given up on himself, and asks "Who will deliver me?" Instead of "How will I deliver myself?"

ii. "It is not the voice of one desponding or doubting, but of one breathing and panting after deliverance." (Poole)

d. Who will deliver me from this body of death? When Paul describes this body of death, some commentators see a reference to ancient kings who tormented their prisoners by shackling them to decomposing corpses. Paul longs to be cut free from the wretched body of death clinging to him.

i. "It was the custom of ancient tyrants, when they wished to put men to the most fearful punishments, to tie a dead body to them, placing the two back to back; and there was the living man, with a dead body closely strapped to him, rotting, putrid, corrupting, and this he must drag with him wherever he went. Now, this is just what the Christian has to do. He has within him the new life; he has a living and undying principle, which the Holy Spirit has put within him, but he feels that every day he has to drag about with him this dead body, this body of death, a thing as loathsome, as hideous, as abominable to his new life, as a dead stinking carcass would be to a living man." (Spurgeon)

ii. Others see a reference to sin in general, such as Murray: "Body has been taken to means mass and body of death the whole mass of sin. Hence what Paul longs to be delivered from is sin in all its aspects and consequences."

iii. "By the body of death he means the whole mass of sin, or those ingredients of which the whole man is composed; except that in him there remained only relics, by the captive bonds of which he was held." (Calvin)

2. (25) Paul finally looks outside of himself to Jesus.

I thank God; through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

a. I thank God; through Jesus Christ our Lord! Finally, Paul looks outside of himself and unto Jesus. As soon as he looks to Jesus, he has something to thank God for - and he thanks God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

i. Through means that Paul sees Jesus standing between himself and God, bridging the gap and providing the way to God. Lord means that Paul has put Jesus in the right place - as Lord and master of his life.

b. So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin: He acknowledges the state of struggle, but thanks God for the victory in Jesus. Paul doesn't pretend that looking to Jesus takes away the struggle - Jesus works through us, not instead of us in the battle against sin.

i. The glorious truth remains: there is victory in Jesus! Jesus didn't come and die just to give us more or better rules, but to live out victory through those who believe. The message of the gospel is that there is victory over sin, hate, death, and all evil as we surrender out lives to Jesus and let Him live out victory through us.

ii. Calvin calls Romans 7:25: "A short epilogue, in which he teaches us, that the faithful never reach the goal of righteousness as long as they dwell in the flesh, but that they are running their course, until they put off the body."

c. Paul shows that even though the law is glorious and good, it can't save us - and we need a Savior. Paul never found any peace, any praising God until he looked outside of himself and beyond the law to his Savior, Jesus Christ.

i. You thought the problem was that you didn't know what to do to save yourself - but the came as a teacher, taught you all what to do and you couldn't do it. You don't need a teacher, you need a Savior.

ii. You thought the problem was that you weren't motivated enough, but the law came in like a coach to encourage you on to do what you need to do and you still didn't do it. You don't need a coach or a motivational speaker, you need a Savior.

iii. You thought the problem was that you didn't know yourself enough - but the law came in like a doctor and perfectly diagnosed your sin problem - but it couldn't heal you. You don't need a doctor, you need a Savior.

 

Romans 8

A New and Wonderful Life in the Spirit
A. Life in the Spirit contrasted with life in the flesh.

1. (1) No condemnation.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

a. There is therefore now no condemnation: The simple declaration of no condemnation comes to those who are in Christ Jesus. Since the Father does not condemn Jesus, neither can He condemn those are in Him. They are not condemned, they will not be condemned, and they cannot be condemned.

i. Paul's therefore is important. It means that what he says comes from a logical argument. It's as if Paul begins, "I can prove what I say here." This is what he proves: if we are one with Jesus and He is our head, we can't be condemned. You can't acquit the head and condemn the hand. You can't drown the foot as long as the head is out of water. Joined to Him, we hear the verdict: "no condemnation."

ii. In Christ: "This phrase imports, that there is a mystical and spiritual union betwixt Christ and believers. This is sometimes expressed by Christ being in them … and here by their being in Christ. Christ is in believers by His Spirit, and believers are in Christ by faith." (Poole)

iii. The verdict is not "less condemnation." That's where many of us are at - we think that our standing has improved in Jesus. It hasn't improved, it's been completely transformed, changed to no condemnation.

iv. We perhaps need to consider the flip side: If you are not in Jesus Christ, there is condemnation for you. "It is no pleasant task to us to have to speak of this matter; but who are we that we should ask for pleasant tasks? What God hath witnessed in Scripture is the sum and substance of what the Lord's servants are to testify to the people. If you are not in Christ Jesus, and are walking after the flesh, you have not escaped from condemnation." (Spurgeon)

b. No condemnation: This place of confidence and peace comes after the confusion and conflict that marked Romans 7. Now Paul looks to Jesus and he finds his standing in Him. But this chapter is more than just the answer to Romans 7; it ties together thoughts from the very beginning of the book.

i. Romans 8 begins with no condemnation; it ends with no separation, and in between there is no defeat.

c. Who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit: These words are not found in the earliest ancient manuscripts of the Book of Romans and they do not agree with the flow of Paul's context here. There were probably added by a copyist who either made a mistake or thought he could "help" Paul by bringing in these words from Romans 8:4.

i. While it is true that those who are in Christ should not and do not consistently walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, this is not a condition for their status of no condemnation. Their position in Jesus is the reason for the standing of no condemnation.

ii. "The most learned men assure us that it is no part of the original text. I cannot just now go into the reasons for this conclusion, but they are very good and solid. The oldest copies are without it, the versions do not sustain it, and the fathers who quoted abundance of Scripture do not quote this sentence." (Spurgeon)

d. We receive this glorious declaration from God's court: "no condemnation." We don't receive it because we don't deserve condemnation; we certainly do deserve condemnation. We receive it because Jesus bore the condemnation we deserved, and our identity is now found in Him. As He is condemned no more, neither are we.

2. (2-4) The contrast between life in the Spirit and life in the flesh.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

a. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death: The law of the sin and death was a strong and seemingly absolute law. Every sin we commit and every cemetery we see proves it. But the law of the Spirit of life in Christ is stronger still, and the law of the Spirit frees us from the law of sin and death.

i. We are free from the law of sin. Though he inevitably does, the Christian does not have to sin, because he is freed from sin's dominion. We are free from the law of death; death no longer has any lasting power against the believer.

ii. Romans 8:1 tells us we are free from the guilt of sin. Romans 8:2 tells us we are free from the power of sin.

b. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh: The law can do many things. It can guide us, teach us, and tell us about God's character. But the law cannot give energy to our flesh; it can give us the standard, but it cannot give us the power to live pleasing to God.

i. Morris, quoting Manson: "Moses' law has right but not might; Sin's law has might but not right; the law of the Spirit has both right and might."

ii. "The law is weak to us, because we are weak to it: the sun cannot give light to blind eye, not from any impotency in itself, but merely from the incapacity of the subject it shines upon." (Poole)

c. In that it was weak through the flesh: The law is weak because it speaks to our flesh. It comes to fleshly men and speaks to them as fleshly men. But the work of the Spirit transforms us by the crucifixion of the old man and it imparts the new man - a principle higher than the flesh.

i. "A vine does not produce grapes by Act of Parliament; they are the fruit of the vine's own life; so the conduct which conforms to the standard of the Kingdom is not produced by any demand, not even God's, but is the fruit of that divine nature which God gives as the result of what he has done in and by Christ." (Hooke)

d. What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son: The law could not defeat sin; it could only detect sin. Only Jesus can defeat sin, and He did just that through His work on the cross.

i. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh: In order to defeat sin, Jesus had to identify with those bound by it, by coming in the likeness of sinful flesh. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul carefully chose his words here, indicating that Jesus was not sinful flesh, but He identified with it entirely.

ii. We could not say that Jesus came in sinful flesh, because He was sinless. We could not say that Jesus came in the likeness of flesh, because He really was human, not just like a human. But we can say that Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh because although He was human, He was not sinful in Himself.

iii. He condemned sin in the flesh: Sin was condemned in the flesh of Jesus as He bore the condemnation we deserved. Since we are in Christ, we have already had that condemnation come and pass us over.

e. That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us: Because Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law, and because we are in Christ, we fulfill the law. The law is fulfilled in us in regard to obedience, because Jesus righteousness stands for ours. The law is fulfilled in us in regard to punishment, because any punishment demanded by the law was poured out upon Jesus.

i. Paul does not say that we fulfill the righteous requirement of the law. He carefully says that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us. It isn't fulfilled by us, but in us.

ii. Simply put, Jesus is our substitute. Jesus was treated as a sinner so we can be treated as righteous.

f. In us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit: The people who enjoy this are those who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Their life is marked by obedience to the Holy Spirit, not by obedience to the flesh.

i. God wants the Spirit to rule over our flesh. When we allow the flesh to reign over the Spirit, we find ourselves bound by the sinful patterns and desperation that marked Paul's life in his "Romans 7" struggle. Our walk - the pattern of our life - must be according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh.

ii. Walking in the Spirit means that the course, the direction, the progress of one's life is directed by the Holy Spirit. It is a continued and progressive motion.

iii. "Observe carefully that the flesh is there: he does not walk after it, but it is there. It is there, striving and warring, vexing and grieving, and it will be there till he is taken up into heaven. It is there as an alien and detested force, and not there so as to have dominion over him. He does not walk after it, nor practically obey it. He does not accept it as his guide, nor allow it to drive him into rebellion." (Spurgeon)

3. (5-8) The futility of trying to please God in the flesh.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

a. Set their minds on the things of the flesh: Paul gives an easy way for us to determine if we walk in the Spirit or walk in the flesh - to simply see where our mind is set. The mind is the strategic battleground where the flesh and the Spirit fight.

i. We shouldn't think of those who set their minds on the things of the flesh are the notorious sinners. They may be noble people who have good intentions. Peter meant well when he told Jesus to avoid the cross. Jesus responded to Peter with these strong words: you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. (Matthew 16:23)

b. For to be carnally minded is death: When our minds are set on the things of the flesh (carnally minded) we bring death into our lives. But walking in the Spirit brings life and peace.

i. We must, however, guard against a false spirituality and see that Paul is talking about the flesh insofar as it is an instrument in our rebellion against God. Paul is not talking about normal physical and emotional needs that we may think about, only the sinful gratification of those needs.

c. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: The flesh battles against God, because it does not want to be crucified and surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. It does not want to live out Galatians 5:24: those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. In this battle to tame the flesh, the law is powerless.

i. Paul didn't say that the carnal mind was at enmity with God - he put it even stronger than that. The carnal mind is enmity against God. "It is not black, but blackness; it is not at enmity, but enmity itself; it is not corrupt, but corruption; it is not rebellious, it is rebellion: it is not wicked, it is wickedness itself. The heart, though it be deceitful, is positively deceit; it is evil in the concrete, sin in the essence, it is the distillation, the quintessence of all things that are vile; it is not envious against God, it is envy; it is not at enmity, it is actual enmity." (Spurgeon)

d. It is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be: We can try to do good in life without being subject to the law of God. We may hope to put God "in debt" to us through the doing of good works, putting God under obligation to us. But it doesn't work. In the flesh we cannot please God, even if the flesh is doing religious things that are admired by men.

i. Newell on Romans 8:7: "Perhaps no one text of Scripture more completely sets forth the hideously lost state of man after the flesh."

4. (9-11) Christians are empowered to live in the Spirit.

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

a. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you: Because the Holy Spirit is given to each believer when they are born again, every Christian has within themselves a principle higher and more powerful than the flesh.

i. "Many sincere people are yet spiritually under John the Baptist's ministry of repentance. Their state is practically that of the struggle of Romans Seven, where neither Christ nor the Holy Spirit is mentioned, but only a quickened but undelivered soul in struggle under a sense of 'duty,' not a sense of full acceptance in Christ and sealing by the Holy Spirit." (Newell)

b. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His: This means that every believer has the Holy Spirit. It is a misnomer to divide Christians among the "Spirit-filled" and the "non-Spirit-filled." If a person is not filled with the Holy Spirit, they are not a Christian at all.

i. However, many do miss out on living the Christian life in the constant fullness of the Spirit because they are not constantly being filled with the Holy Spirit as Paul commanded in Ephesians 5:18. They have no experience of what Jesus spoke about when He described rivers of living water flowing from the believer (John 7:37-39).

ii. How do I know that I have the Spirit? Ask these questions:

- Has the Spirit led you to Jesus?
- Has the Spirit put in you the desire to honor Jesus?
- Is the Spirit leading you to be more like Jesus?
- Is the Spirit at work in your heart?
c. And if the Spirit of Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin: Because Jesus lives in us, the old man (body) is dead, but the Spirit lives and reigns, and will live out His salvation even through our mortal bodies through resurrection.

i. Not only are we in Christ (Romans 8:1), but He also is in you, and because God cannot abide a sinful home, the body (old man) had to die when Jesus came in.

B. Our obligation: to live in the Spirit.

1. (12-13) Our debt is to the Spirit, not to the flesh.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors; not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

a. We are debtors - to the flesh, to live according to the flesh: The flesh (again, in the narrow sense of sinful flesh in rebellion against God) gave us nothing good. So we have no obligation to oblige or pamper it. Our debt is to the Lord, not to the flesh.

b. For if you live according to the flesh you will die: Paul constantly reminds us that living after the flesh ends in death and we need the reminder because we are often deceived into thinking that the flesh offers us life.

c. By the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body: When we put to death the deeds of the body (force the sinful flesh to submit to the Spirit), we must do it by the Spirit. Otherwise we will become Pharisees and spiritually proud.

i. Paul tells us that not only are we saved by the work of the Spirit, but also we must walk by the Spirit if want to grow and pursue holiness in the Lord. We cannot be like some among the Galatians who thought they could begin in the Spirit but then find spiritual perfection through the flesh (Galatians 3:3).

2. (14-15) Living in the Spirit means living as a child of God.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."

a. It is only fitting that the sons of God should be led by the Spirit of God. However, we should not think that being led by the Spirit is a pre-condition to being a son of God. Instead, we become sons first and then the Spirit of God leads us.

i. Paul didn't say, "As many as go to church, these are the sons of God." He didn't say, "As many as read their Bibles, these are the sons of God." He didn't say, "As many as are patriotic Americans, these are the sons of God." He didn't say, "As many as take communion, these are the sons of God." In this text, the test for sonship is whether or not a person is led by the Spirit of God.

ii. How does the Holy Spirit lead us?

- We are led by guidance
- We are led by drawing
- We are led by governing authority
- We are led as we cooperate with the leading. "It does not say, 'As many as are driven by the Spirit of God.' No, the devil is a driver, and when he enters either into men or into hogs he drives them furiously. Remember how the whole herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea. Whenever you see a man fanatical and wild, whatever spirit is in him it is not the Spirit of Christ." (Spurgeon)
iii. Where does the Holy Spirit lead us?

- He leads us to repentance
- He leads us to think little of self and much of Jesus
- He leads us into truth
- He leads us into love
- He leads us into holiness
- He leads us into usefulness
b. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption: Living as a child of God means an intimate, joyful relationship with God, not like the bondage and fear demonstrated by the law. A child of God can have a relationship with God so close that they may cry out, Abba, Father! (Daddy!)

c. We cry out, "Abba, Father." It is easy for us to see Jesus relating to the Father with this joyful confidence, but we may see ourselves as disqualified for it. However, remember that we are in Christ - we have the privilege of relating to the Father even as Jesus Christ does.

i. "In the Roman world of the first century A.D. an adopted son was a son deliberately chosen by his adoptive father to perpetuate his name and inherit his estate; he was no whit inferior in status to a son born in the ordinary course of nature." (Bruce)

ii. Under Roman adoption, the life and standing of the adopted child changed completely. The adopted son lost all rights in his old family and gained all new rights in his new family; the old life of the adopted son was completely wiped out, with all debts being canceled, with nothing from his past counting against him any more.

3. (16) The evidence we are children of God: the testimony of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

a. The Spirit Himself bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God: Plainly put, Paul says that those who are God's children, born again by the Spirit of God, know their status because the Holy Spirit testifies to our spirit that this is so.

i. This is not to say that there are not those who wrongly think or assume they are God's children apart from the Spirit's testimony. There are also Christians whose heads are so foggy from spiritual attack that they begin to believe the lie that they are not God's children after all. Nevertheless the witness of the Spirit is still there.

b. We are children of God: We don't have to wonder if we are really Christians or not. God's children know who they are.

i. Jewish law stated that at the mouth of two or three witnesses everything had to be established (Deuteronomy 17:6). There are two witnesses to our salvation: our own witness and the witness of the Holy Spirit.

4. (17) The benefits and responsibilities of being God's children.

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

a. And if children, there heirs: Because we are in Christ, we have the privilege of relating to the Father as Jesus does - therefore, we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

i. Being a child of God also means having an inheritance. In Luke 18:18 the rich young ruler asked Jesus, what must I do to inherit? But the rich young ruler missed the point because inheritance is not a matter of doing it is a matter of being - of being in the right family.

b. If indeed we suffer with Him: Because we are in Christ, we are also called to share in His suffering. God's children are not immune from suffering.

c. If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together: In fact, our sharing in present suffering is a condition of our future glorification. As far as God is concerned, it is all part of the same package of sonship, no matter how our flesh may want to have the inheritance and the glory without the suffering.

C. Life in the Spirit enables us to understand and endure suffering.

1. (18) Paul's analysis of the present suffering and our future glory: they cannot be compared to each other.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

a. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared: Paul was not ignorant or blind to the sufferings of human existence; he experienced more of them than most any of us today. Yet he still considered that the future glory far outweighed the present sufferings.

b. The glory which shall be revealed in us: Without a heavenly hope, Paul considered the Christian life foolish and tragic (1 Corinthians 15:19). Yet in light of eternity it is the wisest and best choice anyone can make.

c. Revealed in us: This coming glory will not only be revealed to us, but it will actually be revealed in us.

i. God has put this glory into the believer right now. When we are in heaven, the glory will simply be revealed. "The glory will be revealed, not created. The implication is that it is already existent, but not apparent." (Morris)

2. (19-22) All of creation is awaiting and anticipating this coming glory.

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

a. The earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits: Paul considers that creation itself is eagerly awaiting the revealing of the sons of God; because the creation was subjected to futility because of man's sin, and will benefit from the ultimate redemption of men.

i. Isaiah 11:6-9 describes this redemption of creation in that day: The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

b. Him who subjected it in hope: Only God could subject creation in hope. This was not ultimately the work of either man or Satan.

c. The promised glorious liberty of the children of God benefits not only the children of God themselves, but also all of creation. Until that day, creation groans and labors with birth pangs.

d. The revealing of the sons of God: Certain groups with a "super-Christian" mentality have taken the idea of the revealing of the sons of God to say that all creation is waiting for their particular group of super-spiritual Christians to be revealed in incredibly powerful fashion. This is a purely egotistical fantasy.

e. The whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now: "Creation is not undergoing death pangs … but birth pangs." (Morris)

3. (23-25) We also groan and wait with perseverance for the coming glory.

Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

a. We, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, have been given a taste of that glory to come. Can we be faulted if we long for the fulfillment of what we have received in the firstfruits?

b. Eagerly waiting for the adoption: We are waiting for our adoption; though there is definitely a sense in which we are already adopted (Romans 8:15), there is also a sense in which we wait for the consummation of that adoption - the redemption of our body.

i. God does not ignore our physical bodies in His plan of redemption. His plan for these bodies is called resurrection, when this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:53)

ii. God's concern about our physical bodies in the here and now is reflected in passages like 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

c. We eagerly wait for it with perseverance: The fulfillment of our redemption is something still distant, yet we hope for it in faith and perseverance, trusting that God is faithful to His word and the promised glory will be a reality.

i. Morris on perseverance: "It is the attitude of the soldier who in the thick of battle is not dismayed but fights on stoutly whatever the difficulties."

4. (26-27) God's help through the Spirit is available to us now.

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

a. Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses: When we are weak, and do not know exactly how we should pray, God Himself (through the Holy Spirit) helps by making intercession for us.

b. The help that the Holy Spirit brings to express our groanings which cannot be uttered may include praying in the spiritual gift of tongues (1 Corinthians 14:2, 14-15), but it is certainly not limited to praying in an unknown tongue.

i. The idea is simply of communication beyond our ability to express - deep groanings within us, which cannot be articulated apart from the interceding work of the Holy Spirit.

ii. This, of course, is the purpose of the gift of tongues - to enable us to communicate with God in a manner that is not limited to our own knowledge or ability to articulate our heart before God. The purpose of tongues is not to prove that we are "filled with the Spirit" or especially spiritual.

c. The Holy Spirit's help in intercession is perfect, because He searches the hearts of those whom He helps, and He is able to guide our prayers according to the will of God.

5. (28-30) God's help is an enduring promise; He has the ability to work all things for good and to see us through to glorification.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

a. And we know that all things work together for good: God's sovereignty and ability to manage every aspect of our lives is demonstrated in the fact that all things work together for good to those who love God, though we must face the sufferings of this present time (Romans 8:18). God is able to even make those sufferings work together for our good and His good.

b. God is able to work all things, not some things. He works them for good together, not in isolation. This promise is for those who love God in the Biblical understanding of love, and God manages the affairs of our life because we are called according to His purpose.

c. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son: The eternal chain of God's working is seen in the connection between foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. God didn't begin a work in the Romans simply to abandon them in the midst of their present suffering.

i. "Paul is saying that God is the author of our salvation, and that from beginning to end. We are not to think that God can take action only when we graciously give him permission." (Morris)

ii. "Of course I believe in predestination, since it's plainly taught in the Scriptures. The doctrine could be assumed, even if the word was never explicitly used. It's a thrilling truth that doesn't upset me at all. The fact that He chose me and began a good work in me proves that He'll continue to perform it. He wouldn't bring me this far and them dump me." (Smith)

d. To be conformed to the image of His Son: However, our participation in this eternal plan is essential, reflected in its goal: that we might be conformed to the image of His Son; and this is a process that God does with our cooperation, not something He just "does" to us.

e. The reason for this plan is expressed in that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. God has adopted us into His family (Romans 8:15) for the purpose of making us like Jesus Christ, similar to Him in the perfection of His humanity.

D. The triumphant victory of the life in the Spirit.

1. (31) Paul begins his conclusion to this section: If God be for us, who can be against us?

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

a. If God is for us, who can be against us? If all we had were the first few chapters of Romans some might believe that God was against us. Now that Paul has shown the lengths that God went to save man from His wrath and equip him for victory over sin and death, who can doubt that God is for us?

i. "Our weak hearts, prone to legalism and unbelief, receive these words with great difficulty: God is for us …They have failed Him; but He is for them. They are ignorant; but He is for them. They have not yet brought forth much fruit; but He is for them." (Newell)

ii. Most all men say or think that God is for them - terrorists commit horrible crimes thinking that God is for them. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit guards this statement with an "if," so we may know that just because a man thinks God is with him does not make it so. God is only for us if we are reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ.

b. Who can be against us? Likewise, despite the suffering Christians face, if God is for them, what does it matter if others are against them? One person plus God makes an unconquerable majority.

c. We certainly can be deceived into thinking that God is for us when He actually is not (as do cultists and those like them). Yet it cannot be denied that for those who are in Jesus Christ, God is for them!

2. (32) Evidence that God is for us: the gift of Jesus Christ.

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

a. He who did not spare His own Son: If the Father already gave His ultimate gift, how can we think that He won't give us the smaller gifts?

3. (33-39) The security of the believer in God's love.

Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

a. Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? We are secure from every charge against us. If we are declared "not guilty" by the highest Judge, who can bring an additional charge?

b. Who is he who condemns? We are secure from all condemnation. If Jesus Himself is our advocate, promoting our benefit, then who can condemn us?

c. In fact, none of the sufferings of this present time can separate us from the love of God. No matter what the circumstance, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

i. Newell on loved us: "It is this past tense gospel the devil hates … Let a preacher be continually saying, 'God loves you, Christ loves you,' and he and his congregation will by and by be losing sight of both their sinnerhood and of the substitutionary atonement of the cross, where the love of God and of Christ was once for all and supremely set forth."

ii. Earle on nakedness: "This term today suggests indecency on parade. Then it meant a lack of clothes simply because one had no ways or means of getting any."

iii. Sword: This word implies execution. It is the only item on the list that Paul had not yet personally experienced in the course of living for Jesus and preaching the gospel (1 Corinthians 4:11 and 15:30).

d. More than conquerors: How is the Christian more than a conqueror?

- He overcomes with a greater power, the power of Jesus
- He overcomes with a greater motive, the glory of Jesus
- He overcomes with a greater victory, losing nothing even in the battle
- He overcomes with a greater love, conquering enemies with love and converting persecutors with patience
e. Nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord: Nothing which appears to be good or nothing which appears to be evil can separate us from the love of God.

i. Spurgeon speaks of the confidence great men and women of God had in God's love in ages past: "They did not speak of Christ's love as though it were a myth to be respected, a tradition to be reverenced; they viewed it as a blessed reality, and they cast their whole confidence upon it, being persuaded that it would bear them up as upon eagles' wings, and carry them all their days; resting assured that it would be to them a foundation of rock, against which the waves might beat, and the winds blow, but their soul's habitation would stand securely if founded upon it

 

Matthew 11:28-30


"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. "For My yoke is easy, and My load is light."

 

Ha! The day after Thanksgiving. Twenty seven people over to the house. Forty five pounds of turkey, one ham, and so many side dishes, people had to stay for two meals. Many will return for several visits over this weekend to feast again and again. I really am a blessed man.

With all of the hubbub of the holiday season, the important things I hold dear is family and friends. The many I enjoy visiting with and those that are no longer with us are the influences that humble me.

I read this post in another thread and did not want to reply with any religious content and offend those that do not believe in a God, so I will just this once make reply to the post here, and try to give the poster as much respect as is deserved.

The post.

ov 2013
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Default Re: RIP MGB
i am not really a fan, i just registered to reply to this thread. i am michael's cousin and one of his best friends. even at the end he asked me how the blazers were doing and i googled the score. the team and all of you meant so much to him. it warms my heart to read all of your posts, thank you all so much for being such great friends.

Thank you for posting. As you can see he will be missed by those who knew him well and those like myself that only knew him through this nut house. I like to think he is in heaven with Gods own devo, skipping the blow outs watching the close ones and celebrating all the while. I hope he looks down and laughs at us all here as we muddle through our lives, placing so much emphasis from game to game, and drawing the ire of others with trollish political posts.

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

1 Corinthians 1:4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus

 

Romans 9

Has God Rejected Israel?
A. Paul's heart for Israel.

1. Chapter 9 brings a slight shift in focus to the Book of Romans.

a. In Romans chapters one through eight, Paul thoroughly convinced us about man's need and God's glorious provision in Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit.

b. Now, in Romans 9 through 11, Paul deals with the problem associated with the condition of Israel. What does it mean that Israel has missed its Messiah? What does this say about God? What does it say about Israel? What does it say about our present position in God?

i. The question goes something like this: How can I be secure in God's love and salvation to me when it seems that Israel was once loved and saved, but now seems to be rejected and cursed? Will God also reject and curse me one day?

ii. "If God cannot bring his ancient people into salvation, how do Christians know that he can save them? Paul is not here proceeding to a new and unrelated subject. These three chapters are part of the way he makes plain how God in fact saves people." (Morris)

2. (1-2) Paul's sorrow.

I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.

a. I have great sorrow and continued grief in my heart: In Romans eight, Paul left us at the summit of glory, assuring us that nothing can separate us from the loved of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So why has Paul now become so somber in his tone?

b. Paul has sorrow and continual grief because now he considers a people who seem to be separated from God's love: unbelieving Israel, who rejected God's Messiah.

c. I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit: Paul uses every possible assurance to declare his great sorrow over Israel. This is something that really bothered Paul and was on his heart.

3. (3-5) The source of Paul's sorrow.

For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.

a. Paul's great love and sorrow for his brethren is dramatically displayed in his declaration "I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren." Paul says he himself is willing to be separated from Jesus if that could somehow accomplish the salvation of Israel.

i. We should not think that Paul merely uses a dramatic metaphor here. The solemn assurances he gave in Romans 9:1 remind us he is being completely truthful.

ii. This great passion for souls gave Paul perspective. Lesser things did not trouble him because he was troubled by a great thing - the souls of men. "Get love for the souls of men - then you will not be whining about a dead dog, or a sick cat, or about the crotchets of a family, and the little disturbances that John and Mary may make by their idle talk. You will be delivered from petty worries (I need not further describe them) if you are concerned about the souls of men … Get your soul full of a great grief, and your little griefs will be driven out." (Spurgeon)

b. I could wish that I myself were accursed: Paul reflects the same heart Moses had in Exodus 32:31-32: Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! Yet now, if You will forgive their sin; but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written."

i. Of course Paul also shows the heart of Jesus, who was willing to be accursed on behalf of others that they might be saved. (Galatians 3:13)

ii. We should remember that when it came to ministry, the Jews were Paul's worst enemies. They had harassed and persecuted him from town to town, stirring up lies and violence against him. Yet he still loved them this passionately.

iii. "It is not easy to estimate the measure of love in a Moses and a Paul. For our limited reason does not grasp it, as the child cannot comprehend the courage of warriors!" (Bengel)

iv. This is a love that seems beyond us - or beyond me, at least. Yet God can build it in us as we pursue the heart of Jesus for His people.

c. The adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the services of God, and the promises: The pain Paul feels for his lost brethren is all the more severe when he considers how God has blessed them with all the privileges of being His own special people.

i. The glory speaks of God's Shekinah glory, the visible "cloud of glory" showing God's presence among His people.

d. Of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came: Paul also considers the human legacy of being God's chosen people. Israel not only gave us the great fathers of the Old Testament, but Jesus Himself came from Israel. This entire spiritual legacy makes Israel's unbelief all the more problematic.

e. Christ … who is over all, the eternally blessed God, Amen: This is one of Paul's clear statements that Jesus is God. Those who prefer a punctuation that says otherwise impose their pre-conceived views on the text. "The grammatical arguments almost all favor the first position [that it says that Christ is God], but most recent scholars accept the second [that God here refers to the Father] on the grounds that Paul nowhere else says explicitly that Christ is God." (Morris)

i. Wuest, quoting Robertson: [This is a] "clear statement of the deity of Christ following the remark about His humanity. This is the natural and obvious way of punctuating the sentence. To make a full stop after flesh and start a new sentence for the doxology is very abrupt and awkward."

B. Why Israel is in its present condition from God's perspective: Israel missed the Messiah because it was according to God's sovereign plan.

1. (6-9) Has God failed with His plan regarding Israel? No; God has not failed His children of promise.

But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, "In Isaac your seed shall be called." That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise: "At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son."

a. It is not that the word of God has taken no effect: Paul thinks of someone looking at Israel and saying, "God's word didn't come through for them. He didn't fulfill His promise for them because they missed their Messiah and now seem cursed. How do I know that He will come through for me?" Paul answers the question by asserting that it is not that the word of God has taken no effect.

b. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel: One meaning of the name Israel is "governed by God." Paul says here that not all Israel is really "governed by God." Did God's word fail? No; instead, they are not all governed by God who are of Israel.

i. "Paul tells us that no one is truly Israel unless he is governed by God. We have a parallel situation with the word 'Christian.' Not everyone who is called a Christian is truly a follower of Christ." (Smith)

c. The children of the promise are counted as the seed: God's word didn't fail, because God still reaches His children of the promise, which may or may not be the same as physical Israel.

d. Paul demonstrates this by pointing out that merely being the descendant of Abraham saves no one. It is not being children of the flesh that works something before God, but only being children of the promise.

e. For example, Ishmael was just as much a son of Abraham as Isaac was; but Ishmael was a son according to the flesh, and Isaac was a son according to the promise (At this time I will come and Sarah will have a son). One was the heir of God's covenant of salvation, and one was not.

2. (10-13) Another example of the fact that promise is more important than natural relation: Jacob and Esau.

And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, "The older shall serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated."

a. Our father Isaac: God's choice between Ishmael and Isaac seems somewhat logical to us. It's a lot harder to understand why God chose Jacob to be the heir of God's covenant of salvation instead of Esau. We might not understand it as easily, but God's choice is just as valid.

b. Not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil: Paul points out that God's choice was not based on the performance of Jacob or Esau. The choice was made before they were born.

c. That the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls: So we do not think that God chose Jacob over Esau because He knew their works in advance, Paul points out that it was not of works. Instead, the reason for choosing was found in Him who calls.

d. The older shall serve the younger: God announced these intentions to Rebecca before the children were born, and He repeated His verdict long after Jacob and Esau had both passed from the earth (Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated).

i. We should regard the love and the hate God speaks of here as having to do with His purpose in choosing one to become the heir of the covenant of Abraham. In that regard, God's preference could rightly be regarded as a display of love towards Jacob and hate towards Esau.

ii. Morris cites examples where hate clearly seems to mean something like "loved less" (Genesis 29:31, 33; Deuteronomy 21:15; Matthew 6:24; Luke 14:26; John 12:25). Yet he agrees with Calvin's idea that the real thought here is much more like "accepted" and "rejected" more than our understanding of the terms "loved" and "hated."

iii. All in all, we see that Esau was a blessed man (Genesis 33:8-16, Genesis 36). God hated Esau in regard to inheriting the covenant, not in regard to blessing in this life or the next.

iv. "A woman once said to Mr. Spurgeon, 'I cannot understand why God should say that He hated Esau.' 'That,' Spurgeon replied, 'is not my difficulty, madam. My trouble is to understand how God could love Jacob.'" (Newell)

e. Our greatest error in considering the choices of God is to think that God chooses for arbitrary reasons, as if He chooses in an "eeny-meeny-miny-moe" way. We may not be able to fathom God's reasons for choosing, and they are reasons He alone knows and answers to, but God's choices are not capricious. He has a plan and a reason.

3. (14-16) Does God's choosing one over another make God unrighteous?

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion." So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

a. Is there unrighteousness with God? Paul answers this question strongly: Certainly not! God clearly explains His right to give mercy to whomever He pleases in Exodus 33:19.

b. I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy: Remember what mercy is. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. God is never less than fair with anyone, but fully reserves the right to be more than fair with individuals as He chooses.

i. Jesus spoke of this right of God in the parable of the landowner in Matthew 20:1-16.

ii. We are in a dangerous place when we regard God's mercy towards us as our right. If God is obliged to show mercy, then it is not mercy - it is obligation. No one is ever unfair for not giving mercy.

c. So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy: God's mercy is not given to us because of what we wish to do (him who wills), or because of what we actually do (him who runs), but simply out of His desire to show mercy.

4. (17-18) The example of Pharaoh.

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth." Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

a. The Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up: God allowed the Pharaoh of Moses' day to rise to power so that God could show the strength of His judgment against him, and thereby glorify Himself.

b. Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens: Sometimes God will glorify Himself through showing mercy; sometimes God will glorify Himself through a man's hardness.

i. We should not think that God persuaded an unwilling, kind-hearted Pharaoh to be hard towards God and His people. In hardening the heart of Pharaoh, God simply allowed his heart to pursue its natural inclination.

c. We know that Pharaoh did harden his own heart, according to Exodus 7:13, 7:22, 8:15, 8:19, 8:32, 9:7, and 9:34. But "He does not so much as bother to indicate that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, an evidence of unbelief and rebellion, because he is emphasizing the freedom of God's action in all cases." (Harrison)

5. (19-21) Does the sovereign right of God to choose relieve man of responsibility?

You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?" Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

a. You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" Paul imagines someone asking, "If it is all a matter of God's choice, then how can God find fault with me? How can anyone go against God's choice?"

b. Indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Paul replies by showing how disrespectful such a question is. If God says He chooses, and if God also says that we are responsible before Him, who are we to question Him?

c. Does not the potter have power over the clay: Does not God have the same right that any Creator has over his creation? Therefore, if God also declares that we have an eternal responsibility before Him, then it is so.

6. (22-24) Doesn't God have the right to glorify Himself as He sees fit?

What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

a. What if God: Again, the same principle from God's dealing with Pharaoh is repeated. If God chooses to glorify Himself through letting people go their own way and letting them righteously receive His wrath so as to make His power known, who can oppose Him?

b. He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy: As well, if God desires to be more than fair with others, showing them His mercy, who can oppose Him?

c. But also of the Gentiles: And if God wants to show mercy to the Gentiles as well as the Jews (of course, never being less than fair to either), who can oppose Him?

i. "The Jews were inclined to think that God could not make them anything other than vessels of honor. Paul rejects this view and points out that God does what he wills." (Morris)

d. When Paul says that there are vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, we should not think that God has prepared them so. Those vessels do an adequate job on their own.

7. (25-26) The prophet Hosea (in Hosea 2:23 and 1:10) declares God's right to choose, calling those who previously were not called His people.

As He says also in Hosea: "I will call them My people, who were not My people, and her beloved, who was not beloved." And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' there they shall be called sons of the living God."

a. You are not My people: These passages from Hosea 2:23 and 1:10 shows how merciful God is. God told the prophet Hosea to name one of his children Lo-Ammi, meaning "Not My People." Yet God also promised that this judgment would not last forever. One day Israel would be restored and once again be called sons of the living God.

8. (27-29) Isaiah (in Isaiah 10:23 and 1:9) declares God's right to choose a remnant among Israel for salvation.

Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth." And as Isaiah said before: "Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah."

a. The remnant will be saved: The passage quoted from Isaiah 10:23 speaks first to God's work in saving a remnant from the coming Assyrian destruction. The suffering of God's people at the hands of the Assyrians and others would make them feel as if they would certainly be destroyed. God assures them that this is not the case. He will always preserve His remnant.

i. God has always dealt with a remnant. "It was stupid to think that, since the whole nation had not entered the blessing, the promise of God had failed. The promise had not been made to the whole nation and had never been intended to apply to the whole nation." (Morris)

b. We would have become like Sodom: Sodom and Gomorrah were completely destroyed in judgment. This quotation from Isaiah 1:9 shows that as bad as Judah's state was because of their sin, it could have been worse. It was only by the mercy of God that they survived at all. Sodom and Gomorrah were both totally destroyed, with not even a very small remnant to carry on. Even in the midst of judgment, God showed His mercy to Judah.

i. The merciful promise is clear: "But if only a remnant will survive, at least a remnant will survive, and constitute the hope of restoration." (Bruce)

C. Why Israel is in its present condition from man's perspective: Israel missed the Messiah because they refuse to come by faith.

1. (30-31) Analyzing the present situation of Israel and the Gentiles according to a human perspective.

What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.

a. Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness: By all present appearance, the Gentiles found righteousness even though it did not seem that they really looked for it.

b. But Israel … has not attained to the law of righteousness: By all present appearance, Israel seemed to work for the righteousness of God with everything it had, but did not find it.

c. What was the difference? Why did the unlikely Gentiles find righteousness, when the likely Jews did not? Because the Gentiles pursued the righteousness of faith, and the Jews pursued the law of righteousness. The Gentiles who were saved came to God through faith, receiving His righteousness. The Jews who seem to be cast off from God tried to justify themselves before God by performing works according to the law of righteousness.

2. (32-33) Paul emphasizes the reason why Israel seems cast off from God's goodness and righteousness: Because they did not seek it by faith.

Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."

a. Because they did not seek it by faith: We might expect Paul to answer the question "Why?" again from God's perspective, and simply throw the matter back on the sovereign choosing of God. Instead, he places the responsibility with Israel: Because they did not seek it by faith … they stumbled at that stumbling stone.

i. Paul has already shown in Romans that the only possible way to be saved is through faith, not the works of the law; and that this salvation comes only through the work of a crucified Savior - which was a stumbling block to Israel (1 Corinthians 1:22-23).

b. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone: So, Paul shows that Israel is responsible for their present condition. Has Paul contradicted everything he has previously said, which emphasized God's sovereign plan? Of course not, he simply presents the problem from the other side of the coin - the side of human responsibility, instead of the side of God's sovereign choice

 

Romans 10

Israel's Present Rejection of God
A. Israel's rejection of the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ.

1. (1-3) Israel's refusal to submit to the righteousness of God.

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

a. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel: Paul again feels compelled to relate his heart regarding his fellow Jews. Paul does not rejoice that they have stumbled at that stumbling stone (Romans 9:32).

i. Paul's heart's desire also translated into concrete action: prayer to God for Israel. Paul didn't just "care," he prayed.

b. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God: Paul will readily recognize that Israel has a zeal for God but he also sees that it is zeal not according to knowledge.

i. This is where so many religious people - even sincere Christians - go astray. They have plenty of zeal but little knowledge.

ii. Zeal for God, but not according to knowledge is a perfect description of Paul himself before his conversion. Saul of Tarsus was a notorious persecutor of Christians before Jesus confronted him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-20).

iii. It's remarkable that Paul found something good to say about these Jewish people who persecuted him so mercilessly. "At least they have a zeal for God," Paul says.

c. Their lack of knowledge is reflected in the fact that they are ignorant of God's righteousness, and want to establish their own righteousness.

i. Paul has ably demonstrated in the first several chapters of Romans how futile this is. Plainly put, by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified. (Romans 3:20)

d. Seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God: Israel had a lack of knowledge. But that wasn't their only problem. They also had a moral problem: they have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

i. People cannot come to Jesus without the right information about the gospel but information alone is not enough to save anyone. There must be a radical submission to the righteousness of God, putting away our own righteousness.

e. Again, we cannot neglect the emphasis on personal responsibility. All Paul's teaching of God's election and right to sovereign choice has not diminished man's responsibility.

2. (4-8) The contrast between God's righteousness and our attempts at righteousness.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, "The man who does those things shall live by them." But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' " (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, " 'Who will descend into the abyss?' " (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach):

a. Jesus is the end of the law for those believe. The law ends for the believer in the sense that our obedience to the law is no longer the basis for our relationship with God. The law has not come to an end in the sense of no longer reflecting God's standard or no longer showing us our need for a Savior.

i. "Christ did not come to make the law milder, or to render it possible for our cracked and battered obedience to be accepted as a sort of compromise. The law is not compelled to lower its terms, as though it had originally asked too much; it is holy and just and good, and ought not to be altered in one jot or little, nor can it be. Our Lord gives the law all it requires, not a part, for that would be an admission that it might justly have been content with less at first." (Spurgeon)

b. The man who does those things shall live by them: The Law of Moses makes the path to righteousness through the law plain. If you want to live by the law (find life through the law), you must do the law - and do it completely and perfectly.

c. But the righteousness of faith is based on Jesus, and we don't have to "work" to get Jesus. It is not as if we have to ascend into heaven or descend into the abyss to gain Jesus. We believe and receive.

i. "Unbelief really puts a sad slur upon Christ. She talks about going up to heaven: but suppose it were needed that somebody should ascend to heaven, that would imply that Jesus had never come down from thence to reveal the Father. She talks of descending into the abyss, as if Christ had never come up from the dead. The fact is, all that can be done has been done. Why do you want to do what is already done? All that can be felt has been felt; why do you want to feel it? 'It is finished,' said Christ, why do you strive to do it over again?" (Spurgeon)

d. But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart." Instead of having to go to great lengths to achieve righteousness by the law, we can immediately receive righteousness by faith, by trusting in the word of the gospel.

3. (9-13) How God's righteousness is gained by faith.

That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."

a. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved: God's righteousness is not gained by works (as Paul made plain in Romans 10:4-8). Instead, we gain it by confessing and believing in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

b. Confess with your mouth: Confession has the idea of agreeing with. When we confess … the Lord Jesus, we agree with what God said about Jesus, and with what Jesus said about Himself. It means we recognize that Jesus is God, that He is the Messiah, and that His work on the cross is the only way of salvation for mankind.

i. Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus: We can never forget all that it meant to say that Jesus Christ is Lord. "If a man called Jesus kurios he was ranking him with the Emperor and with God; he was giving him the supreme place in his life; he was pledging him implicit obedience and reverent worship." (Barclay)

ii. Wuest, quoting Robertson on Jesus Christ is Lord: "No Jew would do this who had not really trusted Christ, for Kurios in the LXX is used of God. No Gentile would do it who had not ceased worshipping the emperor as Kurios. The word Kurios was and is the touchstone of faith."

c. We must also believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead. Some wonder why Paul does not mention the cross or the crucifixion in this passage. But when Paul emphasizes the need to believe that God has raised him from the dead, it is not that we believe the resurrection as opposed to the cross, but as encompassing the work of Jesus on the cross.

d. Believe in your heart: Mere intellectual agreement with the facts of the cross and the resurrection is not enough. You must believe in your heart; and even that belief is not enough with accompanying action: confess with your mouth.

i. "We believe everything which the Lord Jesus has taught, but we must go a step further, and trust him. It is not even enough to believe in him, as being the Son of God, and the anointed of the Lord; but we must believe on him … The faith that saves is not believing certain truths, nor even believing that Jesus is a Savior; but it is resting on him, depending on him, lying with all your weight on Christ as the foundation of your hope. Believe that he can save you; believe that he will save you; at any rate leave the whole matter of your salvation with him in unquestioning confidence. Depend upon him without fear as to your present and eternal salvation. This is the faith which saves the soul." (Spurgeon)

e. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation: These two together (belief and confession) result in righteousness and salvation. We should not ignore how scandalously simple this is (whoever calls upon the name of the LORD shall be saved) and what an affront this is to every attempt of the flesh to be justified, or any attempt to find salvation based on national or ethnic foundation.

i. Both Jew and Greek were quick to give some credit to national or ethnic origin, as if being saved were a matter of being born into the right family. But Paul makes it clear: There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.

f. For the Scripture says: "Paul, in saying here, 'For the Scripture saith,' is referring, I think, to the general sense of Scripture, rather than to any one passage. There are several texts from which it may be gathered that believers shall not be put to shame." (Spurgeon)

g. All who call upon Him: Again, note the emphasis on human responsibility. From Romans 9 alone we might think that salvation is God's doing alone, but from Romans 10 we might think that salvation is man's doing alone - together we see the matter from each perspective.

4. (14-15) The necessity of the preaching of the gospel.

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!"

a. How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Paul rightly observes that it all goes back to the preaching of the gospel, and preachers must be sent - both by God and the Christian community at large.

b. How shall they hear without a preacher? Conceivably, God could have chosen any means for the message of salvation to come, such as angelic messengers or directly working without a human preacher. Nevertheless God's "normal" way of bringing people to Jesus Christ is through the preaching of the gospel.

c. No wonder those who preach the gospel of peace have beautiful feet - they partner with God for the salvation of men. The feet speak of activity, motion, and progress, and those who are active and moving in the work of preaching the gospel have beautiful feet!

d. Obviously, the salvation Isaiah prophesied about could not be salvation through works or the law. To say "You can be right before God if you work hard enough" is not a gospel of peace, and that message does not bring glad tidings of good news.

B. The prophets foretold this rejection of the gospel by Israel.

1. (16-17) Isaiah foretold Israel's rejection of the gospel in Isaiah 53:10.

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?" So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

a. But they have not all obeyed the gospel: If salvation is so simple, available to all who trust in the person and work of Jesus, then why does Israel seem to be cast off from God? Because many among them had not believed his report - because they have not trusted in God's Word through Isaiah and other messengers of the gospel, they are not saved.

b. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God: Saving faith comes through hearing by the word of God. Although Israel heard, they did not exercise saving faith in Christ - making them (and us) all the more responsible.

i. "Hearing is a reflection of first-century life. Paul does not raise the possibility of the message being read. While there were people who could read, the ordinary first-century citizen depended rather on being able to hear something." (Morris)

2. (18) Psalm 19:4 testifies to the fact that the word has gone forth, and Israel has heard it, making them more accountable.

But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: "Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world."

a. Their sound has gone out to all the earth: "This might seem an exaggeration: the gospel had not been carried throughout all the earth, not even to all the lands that were known to the inhabitants of the Graeco-Roman world. Paul was well aware of that; at this very time he was planning the evangelization of Spain, a province where the name of Christ was not yet known (c.f. 15:18-24). But by now the gospel had been carried to most parts of the Mediterranean area where Jews were to be found; and that is all the argument requires." (Bruce)

b. "There is not a part of the promised land in which these glad tidings have not been preached; and there is scarcely a place in the Roman empire in which the doctrine of Christ crucified has not been heard: if, therefore, the Jews have not believed, the fault is entirely their own; as God has amply furnished them with the means of faith of salvation." (Clarke)

3. (19) Deuteronomy 32:21 told Israel that God would use other nations to provoke them to jealousy, because the other nations were brought closer to God than Israel. Yet they ignored this word also, making them more accountable.

But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: "I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation."

4. (20) Isaiah 65:1 also told Israel that God would be found by those who did not seek Him; this prediction of the gospel going out to the Gentiles and its fulfillment again makes Israel more accountable.

But Isaiah is very bold and says: "I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me."

a. The testimony of these prophets help us to understand that we should not be so amazed that Israel, for the most part, has rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ; this too was foretold.

5. (21) Isaiah 65:2 tells God's assessment of disobedient, Messiah-rejecting Israel: they are a disobedient and contrary people, and all the more so because of their great responsibility to God.

But to Israel he says: "All day long I have stretched out My hands To a disobedient and contrary people."

 

Romans 11

The Restoration of Israel
A. Israel and the remnant of grace.

1. (1a) Has God cast away (rejected) His people Israel?

I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not!

a. Has God cast away His people? Paul's question makes sense as at this point in Romans. If Israel's rejection of the gospel was somehow both consistent with God's eternal plan (Romans 9:1-29) and Israel's own choosing (Romans 9:30-10:21), then does this mean that Israel's fate is settled, and there is no possibility of restoration?

b. Certainly not! Despite their present state, Israel is not permanently cast away. Now Paul will explain this answer.

2. (1b) Evidence that God has not cast away His people: Paul himself.

For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

a. I also am an Israelite: The fact that Paul has come to faith in Jesus as Messiah proves there are some Jews who have been chosen by God and who have embraced the gospel.

b. I also: Whenever we want evidence of God's work, we could and should look to our own life first. This is what Paul did and what we should do.

3. (2-5) The principle of a remnant.

God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, "LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life"? But what does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

a. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew … at this present time there is a remnant: Paul knows that as a whole Israel had rejected their Messiah. Yet a substantial remnant embraces the gospel of Jesus Christ, and God has often worked in Israel through a faithful remnant (as He did in the time of Elijah).

i. "It is just possible that Paul, likewise persecuted by his own countrymen, felt a special kinship with Elijah." (Harrison)

b. Notice that Elijah prayed to God against Israel. Things were so bad that Elijah prayed against his own people!

c. Lord, they have killed Your prophets: Elijah thought that God had cast off the nation and he was the only one left serving the Lord. But God showed him that there was in fact a substantial remnant - though it was only a remnant, it was actually there.

d. At this present time there is a remnant: We often think that God needs a lot of people to do a great work, but He often works through a small group, or through a group that starts out small. Though not many Jews in Paul's day embraced Jesus as Messiah, a remnant did and God will use that small group in a big way.

i. "It was not the number as much as the permanence of God's plan for Israel that mattered in the time of Elijah … He put his trust in God's grace, not in numbers" (Morris)

4. (6-10) God's right to choose a remnant according to grace.

And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Just as it is written: "God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day." And David says: "Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, and bow down their back always."

a. If by grace, then it is no longer of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace: Paul left the previous verse noting that the remnant was chosen according to the election of grace. Now he reminds us what grace is, by definition: the free gift of God, not given with any eye to the performance or potential in the one receiving, but only given out of the kindness of the giver.

b. If it is of works, it is no longer grace: As principles, grace and works don't go together. If giving is of grace, it cannot be of works, and if it is of works, it cannot be of grace.

c. The elect have obtained it, and the rest were hardened: Therefore, God's saving mercy has been extended not to Israel as a whole, but to the elect among Israel, who have received it - the rest are hardened by their rejection.

d. The quotations from Isaiah 29 and Psalm 69 tell us that God can give a spirit of stupor and eyes that they should not see and He can say let their eyes be darkened as He pleases. If God is pleased to enlighten only a remnant of Israel at the present time, He may do so as He pleases.

i. Morris calls a spirit of stupor "an attitude of deadness towards spiritual things."

ii. "The idea is that men are sitting feasting comfortably at their banquet; and their very sense of safety has become their ruin. They are so secure in the fancied safety that the enemy can come upon them unaware." (Barclay) The Jews were so secure in their idea of being the chose people that the very idea had become the thing that ruined them.

B. God's plan in saving only a remnant at the present time.

1. (11a) Does Israel's stumbling as predicted by Psalm 69 mean that they have fallen away permanently?

I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall?

a. Stumbled … fall: As Paul presents it here, there is a difference between stumbling and falling. Israel had stumbled, but they would not fall - in the sense of being removed from God's purpose and plan. You can recover from a stumble, but if you fall you're down.

2. (11b-14) No, God had a specific purpose to fulfill in allowing Israel to stumble - so that salvation would come to the Gentiles.

Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.

a. Certainly not! Paul has shown that God is still working through a remnant of Israel today, but wants to make it clear that the sinning majority of Israel is not lost forever.

b. Through their fall … salvation has come to the Gentiles: We should not forget that in many instances the gospel only went out to the Gentiles after the Jewish people rejected it (Acts 13:46, 18:5-6, 28:25-28). In this sense, the rejection of the gospel by the Jews was riches for the Gentiles.

i. It wasn't that the Jewish rejection of Jesus was Messiah caused Gentiles to be saved. It merely gave more opportunity for the gospel to go to the Gentiles, and many Gentiles took advantage of this opportunity.

c. If by any means I may provoke to jealousy: Yet, Paul's desire isn't only that these riches would be enjoyed by the Gentiles only, but that the Jews would be provoked to a good kind of jealousy, motivating them to receive some of the blessings the Gentiles enjoyed.

i. "It is a matter for profound regret that just as Israel refused to accept this salvation when it was offered to them, so the Gentiles have all too often refused to make Israel envious. Instead of showing to God's ancient people the attractiveness of the Christian way Christians have characteristically treated the Jews with hatred, prejudice, persecution, malice, and all uncharitableness. Christians should not take this passage calmly." (Morris)

3. (15-21) To the Gentiles: yes, Jewish rejection of Jesus was made into a blessing for you; but consider how great a blessing their acceptance of Jesus will be.

For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in." Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.

a. If the firstfruit is holy: The firstfruit probably represents the first Christians, who were Jewish. Their conversion was something holy and good for the church; all the apostles and most of the human authors of Scripture were Jewish. If the conversion of this firstfruit was good for the Gentiles, how much better will it be when the full harvest is brought in!

i. Many commentators take the firstfruit here as the patriarchs, but it fits better to see it as the original core group of Christians.

b. Some of the branches … a wild olive tree: With the picture of the tree and the branches, Paul reminds the Gentile Christians that it is only by God's grace that they can be grafted into the "tree" of God - the "root" of which is Israel.

i. "When an old olive tree had lost its vigor, it seems that one remedy in antiquity was to cut away the failing branches and graft in some wild olive shoots. The result was said to be the invigoration of the failing tree." (Morris)

ii. In the Talmud, it speaks of Ruth the Moabitess as a "godly shoot" engrafted into Israel. (Cited in Morris)

c. Do not boast against the branches … you do not support the root, but the root supports you: Lest Gentiles think of themselves as superior to Jews, Paul also reminds them that the root supports the branches - not the other way around.

d. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith: In addition, any Gentile standing in the "tree" of God is there by faith only, not by works or merits. If Gentiles are unbelieving, they will be "cut off" just as much as unbelieving Israel was.

4. (22-24) Application of God's purpose in Israel's rejection that the Gentiles might be reached.

Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

a. Consider the goodness and severity of God: Paul stresses the need to continue in His goodness; not in the sense of a salvation by works, but continuing in God's grace and goodness to us - a relationship of continual abiding.

i. The idea of a continual abiding in the "tree" is also expressed in John 15:1-8.

ii. "The conditional clause in this verse, if you continue in His goodness, is a reminder that there is no security in the bond of the gospel apart from perseverance. There is no such thing as continuance in the favour of God in spite of apostasy; God's saving embrace and endurance are correlative." (Murray)

b. God is able to graft them in again: And, if Israel has been "cut off" because of their unbelief, they can be grafted in again if they do not continue in unbelief.

i. "Evidently some Gentile believers were tempted to think that there was no future for Israel. She had rejected the gospel and it had now passed to the Gentiles; Israel was finished, rejected, cast off. God had chosen them instead. It is this kind of pride that Paul is opposing." (Morris)

c. How much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? If the Gentiles seemed to "graft" into God's "tree" easily, we know it won't be hard for God to graft the natural branches back into the tree. We can also assume that the natural branches will have the potential to bear much fruit.

C. God's plan for Israel includes their eventual restoration.

1. (25-27) The promise that all Israel will be saved.

For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins."

a. Paul's warning to us that we should not be wise in your own opinion should remind us to take what he says here soberly. Christians must not be ignorant of this mystery.

b. Blindness in part has happened to Israel: Paul summarizes his point from Romans 11:11-24 is summarized. God's purpose in allowing hardening in part to come upon Israel is so that the fullness of the Gentiles can come in.

i. In part has the idea of "temporary"; Israel's hardness is temporary. "One day the Jews will realize their blindness and folly. They'll accept Jesus Christ, and the glorious national restoration of these people will bring in the Kingdom Age." (Smith)

c. However, when that fullness of the Gentiles has come in, God will once again turn the attention of His plan of the ages specifically on Israel again, so that all Israel will be saved. God's plan of the ages does not set its attention on everyone equally through all ages.

d. All Israel will be saved: This all Israel is not spiritual Israel. It isn't "spiritual Israel" in Romans 11:25, because that Israel is spiritually blind. Therefore, we shouldn't regard it as spiritual Israel in Romans 11:26.

i. There is a distinction between national or ethnic Israel and spiritual Israel. Paul makes this clear in Galatians 3:7 and other passages. Nevertheless, God still has a purpose and a plan for ethnic Israel, and will bring salvation to them.

ii. Another proof that this is not spiritual Israel is because Paul says this is a mystery - and it is no mystery that spiritual Israel will be saved.

iii. Harrison on all Israel: "It was the view of Calvin, for example, that the entire company of the redeemed, both Jew and Gentile, is intended. But Israel has not been used of Gentiles in these chapters, and it is doubtful that such is the case in any of Paul's writings."

iv. "It is impossible to entertain an exegesis which understands Israel here in a different sense from Israel in verse 25." (Bruce)

e. Will be saved: This states clearly for us that God is not finished with Israel as a nation or a distinct ethnic group. Though God has turned the focus of His saving mercies away from Israel on to the Gentiles, He will turn it back again.

i. This simple passage refutes those who insist that God is forever done with Israel as Israel, and that the Church is the New Israel and inherits every promise ever made to national and ethnic Israel of the Old Testament.

ii. We are reminded of the enduring character of the promises made to national and ethnic Israel (Genesis 13:15 and 17:7-8). God is not "finished" with Israel, and Israel is not "spiritualized" as the church.

iii. While we do see and rejoice in a continuity of God's work throughout all His people through all generations, we still see a distinction between Israel and the Church - a distinction that Paul is sensitive to here.

f. All Israel will be saved: This does not mean there will be a time when every last person of Jewish descent will be saved. Instead, this is a time when Israel as a whole will be a saved people, and when the nation as a whole (especially its leadership) embraces Jesus Christ as Messiah.

i. Even as the apostasy of Israel did not extend to every last Jew, so the salvation of Israel will not extend to every last Jew; Paul is speak of the "mass" of Jews when he says all Israel. "All Israel is a recurring expression in Jewish literature, where it need not mean 'every Jew without a single exception', but 'Israel as a whole.' " (Bruce)

ii. And, when all Israel will be saved, they will be saved through embracing Jesus Christ as Messiah - as unlikely as this seems. They are not saved with some peculiar "Jewish" salvation.

iii. The Bible indicates this is a necessary condition for the return of Jesus Christ (Matthew 23:39, Zechariah 12:10-11). Jesus will not return again until God turns the focus of His saving mercies on Israel again, and Israel responds to God through Jesus Christ.

g. The Deliverer will come out of Zion: The quotations from Isaiah show that God still has a redeeming work to accomplish with Israel, and that it will not be left undone.

2. (28-29) God's love and calling for Israel still endures.

Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

a. Concerning the gospel … concerning the election: Even though it seemed that in Paul's generation the Jews were enemies of God and were against the person and work of Jesus, they are still beloved - if for no other reason, then for the sake of the fathers (the patriarchs of the Old Testament).

i. Of course, they are loved for more than the sake of the fathers, but that by itself would be enough.

b. The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable: This is another reason why God hasn't given up on national and ethnic Israel. This principle, stated by Paul, comforts us far beyond its direct relevance to Israel. It means that God will not give up on us, and He leaves the path to restoration open.

3. (30-32) Paul cautions the Gentile Christians to remember where they came from and where God has promised to take the Jewish people.

For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.

a. You were once disobedient to God: The Gentile Christians came from disobedience; yet God showed them mercy, in part through the disobedience of Israel.

b. Obtained mercy through their disobedience: If God could use the disobedience of Israel for the good of Gentiles, He could also use the mercy shown to Gentiles for the mercy of Israel.

c. God has committed them all to disobedience: The idea is that God has shut up both Jew and Gentile into custody as lawbreakers. God offers mercy to these prisoners, based on the person and work of Jesus.

4. (33-36) Praise to God for His plan and the progress of the plan.

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! "For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?" For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

a. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! As Paul considers God's great plan of the ages, he breaks into spontaneous praise. Paul realizes that God's ways are past finding out, and God's wisdom and knowledge is beyond him.

i. "The Romans dedicated a certain lake, the depth whereof they knew not, to Victory; so should we admire the unsearchable counsels of God." (Trapp)

ii. Who would have planned the whole scenario with Israel, the Gentiles and the Church as God has planned it? Yet, we can see the great wisdom and compassion in His plan.

iii. "It is strange that, with such a scripture as this before their eyes, men should sit down coolly and positively write about counsels and decrees of God formed from all eternity, of which they speak with as much confidence and decision as if they had formed a part of the council of the Most High, and had been with him in the beginning of his ways!" (Clarke)

b. For who has known the mind of the LORD? The quotations from Isaiah 40:13 and Job 41:11 emphasize both God's wisdom and sovereign conduct; no one can make God their debtor.

i. Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him? You can try all you want - but you will never make God a debtor to you. You can't out-give God. He will never need to repay a debt to anyone.

c. Of Him and through Him and to Him are all things: "All these words are monosyllables. A child just learning to read could easily spell them out. But who shall exhaust their meaning?" (Meyer)

i. It is all of Him: This plan came from God. It wasn't man's idea. We didn't say, "I've offended God and have to find a way back to Him. Let's work on a plan to come back to God." In our spiritual indifference and death we didn't care about a plan, and even if we did care we aren't smart enough or wise enough to make one. It is all of Him.

ii. It is all through Him: Even if we had the plan, we couldn't make it happen. We couldn't free ourselves from this prison of sin and self. It could only happen through Him, and the great work of Jesus on our behalf is the through Him that brings salvation.

iii. It is all to Him: It's not for me, it's not for you, it's all to Him. It is to the praise of the glory of His grace (Ephesians 1:6). It's for His pleasure that we are created, and we find our fulfillment in bringing Him glory and honor.

d. To whom be glory forever: The fact that Paul can't figure out God makes him glorify God all the more. When we understand some of the greatness of God, we worship Him all the more passionately

 

Romans 12

Living the Christian Life
A. The foundation for Christian living.

J.B. Phillips has an outstanding and memorable translation of Romans 12:1-2:

With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give Him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to Him and acceptable by Him. Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the Plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

1. (1) The living sacrifice.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

a. I beseech you: This reminds us that Paul appeals to our will. God calls us to make a choice about the way that we live for Him.

b. Therefore brethren: It is Paul's pattern to begin a letter with a strong doctrinal section and follow with exhortations to Christian living. Paul begs Christians to live a certain way in light of what God did for them.

i. "When he uses this pattern Paul is saying that the Christian life is dependent on the great Christian doctrines." (Morris)

c. By the mercies of God reminds us that we do this because of the mercy shown to us by God (described well in Romans 1-11), and that we are only able to offer ourselves to God as He works His mercy in us. God commanded us to do this, and He makes it possible for us to do it.

i. "Whereas the heathen are prone to sacrifice in order to obtain mercy, biblical faith teaches that the divine mercy provides the basis of sacrifice as the fitting response." (Harrison)

ii. Think of all the mercies of God Paul has explained to us thus far:

- Justification
- Adoption in Jesus and identification with Christ
- Set under grace not law
- The gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit
- Help in all affliction
- Standing in God's election
- The certainty of coming glory
- The confidence of no separation from the love of God
- Total confidence in God's continued faithfulness
iii. In light of all this mercy - past, present, and future - Paul begs us to present your bodies a living sacrifice. "We must believe that these Divine mercies have persuasive powers over our wills." (Newell)

d. Present your bodies: Connected with the idea of a living sacrifice, this calls to mind priestly service. Spiritually speaking, our bodies are brought to God's altar.

i. It is best to see the body here as a reference to our entire being. Whatever we say about our spirit, soul, flesh and mind, we know that they each live in our bodies. When we give the body to God, the soul and spirit go with it. Present your bodies means that God wants you, not just your work. You may do all kinds of work for God, but never give Him your self.

ii. The previous appeal to the will (I beseech you) means that the will is to be the master over the body. The thinking of our age says that our body must tell the will what to do; but the Bible says that our will must bring the body as a living sacrifice to God. The body is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. Keeping it at God's altar as a living sacrifice keeps the body where it should be.

iii. A Greek would never think of presenting his body to God. They thought that the body was so unspiritual that God was unconcerned about it. Paul shows here that God is concerned about our bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:20 reminds us that God has bought our bodies with a price.

e. A living sacrifice: First century people, both Jews and pagans, knew first hand what sacrifice was all about. To beg that they make themselves a living sacrifice was a striking image.

- The sacrifice is living because it is brought alive to the altar
- The sacrifice is living because it stays alive at the altar; it is ongoing
f. Holy, acceptable to God: When we offer our body, God intends it to be a holy and acceptable sacrifice. The standard for sacrifices made to God under the New Covenant are not any less than the standard under the Old Covenant.

i. In the Old Testament, sacrifice had to be holy and acceptable to God

- He shall bring a male without blemish (Leviticus 1:10)

- But if there is a defect in it, if it is lame or blind or has any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God (Deuteronomy 15:21)

- An offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD. (Leviticus 1:9)

ii. The idea of a sweet aroma to the LORD is almost always linked to the idea of an offering made by fire. There is a "burning" in this matter of a living sacrifice. It also shows that Paul has in mind the burnt offering, in which the entire sacrifice was given to the Lord. In some sacrifices, the one offering the sacrifice and the priest shared in the some of the meat; but never in the burnt offering.

iii. The holiness we bring to the altar is a decision for holiness, and yielding to the work of holiness in our life. As we present our bodies a living sacrifice, God makes our life holy by burning away impurities

g. Reasonable service: The ancient Greek word for reasonable (logikos) can also be translated "of the word" (as it is in 1 Peter 2:2). Reasonable service is a life of worship according to God's Word.

i. The sacrifice of an animal was reasonable service, but only for the one bringing the sacrifice - not for the sacrifice itself. Under the New Covenant we have far greater mercies, so it is reasonable to offer a far greater sacrifice.

2. (2) Resisting conformity to the world and embracing the transformation that comes in Jesus Christ.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

a. Do not be conformed to this world warns us that the "world system" - the popular culture and manner of thinking that is in rebellion against God - will try to conform us to its ungodly pattern, and that process must be resisted.

b. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind: This is the opposite of being conformed to this world. The battle ground between conforming to the world and being transformed is within the mind of the believer. Christians must think differently.

i. "I don't want to be conformed to this world. I want to be transformed. How do I do it?" By the renewing of your mind. The problem with many Christians is they live based on feeling, or they are only concerned about doing.

ii. The life based on feeling says, "How do I feel today? How do I feel about my job? How do I feel about my wife? How do I feel about worship? How do I feel about the preacher?" This life by feeling will never know the transforming power of God, because it ignores the renewing of the mind.

iii. The life based on doing says, "Don't give me your theology. Just tell me what to do. Give me the four points for this and the seven keys for that." This life of doing will never know the transforming power of God, because it ignores the renewing of the mind.

iv. God is never against feeling and doing. He is a God of powerful and passionate feeling, and He commands us to be doers. Yet feelings and doing are completely insufficient foundations for the Christian life. The first questions cannot be "How do I feel?" or "What do I do?" Rather, it must be "What is true here? What does God's Word say?"

c. Transformed: This is the ancient Greek word metamorphoo - describing a metamorphosis. The same word is used to describe Jesus in His transfiguration (Mark 9:2-3). This is a glorious transformation!

i. The only other place Paul uses this word for transformed is in 2 Corinthians 3:18: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. For Paul, this transformation and renewing of our minds takes place as we behold the face of God, spending time in His glory.

d. Prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God: As we are transformed on the inside, the proof is evident on the outside, as others can see what the good and acceptable and perfect will of God is through our life.

i. Paul here explains how to live out the will of God:

- Keep in mind the rich mercy of God to you - past, present, and future (by the mercies of God)

- As an act of intelligent worship, decide to yield your entire self to Him (present your bodies a living sacrifice)

- Resist conformity to the thoughts and actions of this world (do not be conformed)

- By focus on God's Word and fellowship with Him, be transformed by the renewing of your mind

ii. Then, your life will be in the will of God. Your life will prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

iii. You may know what the good and acceptable and perfect will of God is, but you can't prove it in your life apart from the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.

B. Living out the spiritual gifts God has given.

1. (3) A warning to live in humility.

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

a. To everyone among you: Paul will soon speak about how we should exercise spiritual gifts in the body of Christ; but a preface warning about humility is in order, given the inordinate pride that often arises from those who regard themselves as spiritually gifted.

i. We should remember that spiritual giftedness does not equal spiritual maturity; just because a person has substantial spiritual gifts does not mean that they are necessarily spiritually mature or a worthy example to imitate.

b. Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think: Paul does not advise any kind of masochistic attitude, but rather he tells us to see the truth about ourselves. When we see ourselves as we really are, it is impossible to be given over to pride.

c. The idea of as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith is probably that we should see even our saving faith as a gift from God, and that we have no basis for pride or a superior opinion of ourselves.

2. (4-5) Unity and diversity in the body of Christ.

For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

a. Many members in one body: The church is a unified whole (one body), yet we are distinct within that one body (individually members). In the body of Christ there is unity but not uniformity.

b. We err when we neglect either aspect; unity should never be promoted at the expense of individuality, and individuality should never diminish the church's essential unity in Christ; He is our common ground, we are one body in Christ.

3. (6-8) An exhortation to use (and how to use) the gifts God has granted to the individual members of the church.

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

a. Having then gifts: The difference and distribution of gifts is all due to the grace that is given to us. Spiritual gifts are not given on the basis of merit, but because God chooses to give them.

i. This idea is related in the ancient Greek word for "spiritual gifts": charismata, which means a gift of grace. This term was apparently coined by Paul to emphasize that the giving of these spiritual gifts was all of grace.

ii. Spiritual gifts are given at the discretion of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:11 says, But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

iii. Knowing this should be an insurmountable barrier to pride in the exercise spiritual gifts. However man, in the depravity of his heart, finds a way to be proud about spiritual gifts and insists on exalting men for how God has gifted them.

b. If prophecy: Prophecy must be practiced in proportion to our faith. God may give us something to say to an individual or church body that stretches our faith. If we can't prophecy in faith and trust that God has really spoken to us, we shouldn't do it at all.

i. We are reminded that prophecy, in the Biblical understanding, isn't necessarily "fore-telling" in a strictly predictive sense. It is more accurately "forth-telling" the heart and mind of God, which may or may not include a predictive aspect.

ii. This warns us against flippant, "stream of consciousness" prophecy that has no difficulty saying, "Thus says the Lord" at the drop of a hat.

iii. In proportion to our faith actually has the before faith. Paul may be cautioning that prophecy must be according to the faith, in accord with the accepted body of doctrine among believers.

iv. Some take the proportion of faith to be the proportion of the faith of the audience of the prophecy; this has truth also.

v. Prophecy does not have to be practiced in an ostentatious, "heavy" manner, but it does need to be taken seriously by those who prophesy if it is ever to be taken seriously by those who hear.

c. Ministry has in view the broader picture of simply serving in practical ways. Paul sees this as important ministry from the Holy Spirit as well.

d. Teaching has in mind instruction, while exhortation encourages people to practice what they have been taught; both are necessary for a healthy Christian life.

i. Those who are taught but not exhorted become "fat sheep" that only take in and never live the Christian life. Those who are exhorted but not taught become excited and active, but have no depth or understanding to what they do and will burn out quickly or work in wrong ways.

e. He who gives refers to someone who is a channel through whom God provides resources for His body. This is an important spiritual gift that must be exercised with liberality. When someone who is called and gifted to be a giver stops giving Iiberally, they will often see their resources dry up - having forgotten why God has blessed them.

f. He who leads must show diligence. It is easy for leaders to become discouraged and feel like giving up, but they must persevere if they will please God by their leadership.

g. He who shows mercy must have cheerfulness. It can be hard enough to show mercy, but even harder to be cheerful about it. This reminds us that the gift of showing mercy is a supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit.

C. A series of brief instructions on living like a Christian with others.

This section shows one thing clearly: Paul knew the teaching of Jesus, especially the Sermon on the Mount

1. (9-13) Relating to those in the Christian family.

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

a. Let love be without hypocrisy: Of course, love withhypocrisy isn't real love at all; but much of what masquerades as "love" in the Christian community is laced with hypocrisy, and must be demonstrated against.

b. In some ways, it is often easier for us to either abhor what is evil or cling to what is good rather than doing both. The godly person knows how to practice both.

c. Be kindly affectionate to one another: This is a command, that Christians should not have a cold, stand-offish attitude. In honor giving preference to one another shows that the displays of affection are genuine.

i. We should see in this, as much as anything, a call to simple good manners among Christians.

d. Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord: If we are called to warm relations and good manners, we also know that we are called to hard work. The church is no place for laziness.

i. Fervent in spirit could be translated, "with respect to the spirit, boiling."

e. Rejoicing in hope: The call to hope usually has in mind our ultimate reward with Jesus. Paul says we serve God rejoicing in hope, not rejoicing in results. This shows how we are commanded to do all these things with an eye towards heaven. This how we fulfill the command for hope, patience and steadfast character described here.

f. Patient in tribulation: Difficult times do not excuse us when we abandon hope or patience or continuing steadfastly in prayer. Trials do not excuse a lack of love in the body of Christ or a lack of willingness to do His work.

i. Patience "denotes not a passive putting up with things, but an active, steadfast endurance." Tribulation "denotes not some minor pinprick, but deep and serious trouble." (Morris)

g. Our care and concern will demonstrate itself in practical deeds done for others, either going to them (distributing to the needs of the saints) or inviting them to come to us (given to hospitality)

i. The ancient Greek word for hospitality is literally translated "love for strangers." In addition, "given" is a strong word, sometimes translated "persecute" (as in Romans 12:14). The idea is to "pursue" people you don't know with hospitality. This is love in action, not just feelings.

2. (14) Relating to those outside of the Christian family.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

a. Bless those who persecute you: We are not to have a hateful attitude towards anyone, not even towards those who persecute us.

b. Jesus spoke of this same heart in Matthew 5:46: For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? The surpassing greatness of the love of Jesus in us is shown in that it can be extended to our enemies.

c. Who persecute you: Of course, not all persecution comes from outside the church. Jesus told us the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. (John 16:2)

3. (15-21) How to get along with people both inside and outside the church.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. Therefore "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

a. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep: This is how we can fulfill the command to be of the same mind toward one another. It is a simple command to be considerate of the feelings of others instead of waiting for them to be considerate of your feelings.

b. Paul also cautions us to have a humble mind-set. In refusing to set our mind on high things and in associating with the humble, we simply imitate Jesus. Do not be wise in your own opinion reminds us of how far we still have to go in actually being like Jesus.

c. Repay no one evil for evil recalls Jesus' command in Matthew 5:38-45. We are to love our enemies and treat well those who treat us badly.

d. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men is a way to live out the idea of praising what is good. People should be able to see what is good and what is not based on our conduct.

e. Live peaceably with all men reminds us that though we are in contrast to the world, we do not seek out contention. If it is possible, we will be at peace with all men.

i. "If it be possible indicates that it may not always be possible." (Murray)

f. Do not avenge yourselves: The one who trusts in God will not think it necessary to avenge themselves. They will leave the issue of vengeance to God, and give place to wrath - giving no place to their own wrath, and a wide place to God's wrath.

g. With this mind-set, we will do good to our enemies, looking for the most practical ways we can help them. This is the way we are not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

i. Is the heaping coals of fire on his head something good in the eyes of our enemy or is it something bad? It most likely refers to a "burning conviction" that our kindness places on our enemy. Or, some think it refers to the practice of lending coals from a fire to help a neighbor start their own - an act of kindness that would be appreciated.

ii. Nevertheless, we see that we can destroy our enemy by making him our friend.

 

Romans 13

A Christian's Obligation to Government
A. The Christian and government.

1. (1-2) Government's legitimate authority and the Christian's response.

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.

a. Subject to the governing authorities: The connection between Romans 12 and Romans 13 is clear. If the Christian is not to seek personal vengeance, it does not take away the government's authority to punish wrongdoers.

b. Every soul certainly includes Christians. Paul simply says that we should be subject to the governing authorities. This was in contrast to groups of zealous Jews in that day who recognized no king but God and paid taxes to no one but God.

c. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God: We subject ourselves to governing authorities because they are appointed by God and serve a purpose in His plan.

i. No authority except from God: God appoints a nation's leaders, but not always to bless the people. Sometimes it is to judge the people or to ripen the nation for judgment.

ii. We remember that Paul wrote this during the reign of the Roman Empire. It was no democracy, and no special friend to Christians - yet he still saw their legitimate authority.

iii. "Remember your Savior suffered under Pontius Pilate, one of the worst Roman governors Judea ever had; and Paul under Nero, the worst Roman Emperor. And neither our Lord nor His Apostle denied or reviled the 'authority!'" (Newell)

d. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God: Since governments have authority from God, we are bound to obey them - unless, of course, they order us to do something in contradiction to God's law. Then, we are commanded to obey God before man (as in Acts 4:19).

e. Those who resist will bring judgment on themselves: God uses governing authorities as a check upon man's sinful desires and tendencies. Government can be an effective tool in resisting the effects of man's fallenness.

2. (3-4) The job of government: to punish and deter evildoers.

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

a. Do what is good, and you will have praise: Paul's idea is that Christians should be the best citizens of all. Even though they are loyal to God before they are loyal to the state Christians are good citizens because they are honest, give no trouble to the state, pay their taxes, and - most importantly - pray for the state and the rulers.

b. He is God's minister: Paul describes government officials as God's minister. They have a ministry in the plan and administration of God, just as much as church leaders do.

i. If the state's rulers are God's minister (servant), they should remember that they are only servants, and not gods themselves.

c. An avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil: It is through the just punishment of evil that government serves its function in God's plan of holding man's sinful tendencies in check. When a government fails to do this consistently, it opens itself up to God's judgment and correction.

d. He does not bear the sword in vain: The sword is a reference to capital punishment. In the Roman Empire, criminals were typically executed by beheading with a sword (crucifixion was reserved for the worst criminals of the lowest classes). Paul, speaking by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has no doubt that the state has the legitimate authority to execute criminals.

3. (5-7) The Christian's responsibility towards government.

Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

a. Therefore you must be subject: We must be subject to government; not only because we fear punishment, but because we know it is right before God to do so.

i. For conscience sake: Christian obedience to the state is never blind - it obeys with the eyes of conscience wide open.

b. You also pay taxes … Render therefore to all their due: We are also to pay the taxes due from us, because there is a sense in which we support God's work when we do so.

i. By implication, Romans 13:6 also says that the taxes collected are to be used by government to get the job done of restraining evil and keeping an orderly society - not to enrich the government officials themselves.

c. Taxes … customs … fear … honor: We are to give to the state the money, honor, and proper reverence which are due to the state, all the while reserving our right to give to God that which is due to God alone. (Matthew 22:21)

d. In light of this, is rebellion against government ever justified? If a citizen has a choice between two governments, it is right to choose and to promote the one that is most legitimate in God's eyes - the one which will best fulfill God's purpose for governments.

i. As well, in a democracy, we must understand that there is a sense in which we are the government, and should not hesitate to help "govern" our democracy through our participation in the democratic process.

B. The Christian's obligation to his neighbors.

1. (8-10) The obligation to love.

Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

a. Owe no one anything except to love one another: On a personal level, the only "debt" we are to carry is the "debt" to love one another - this is a perpetual obligation we carry both before God and each other.

i. Some take this as a command to never borrow, but Jesus permitted borrowing in passages like Matthew 5:42. That isn't the sense of what Paul is saying here, though the Scriptures do remind us of the danger and obligations of borrowing (Proverbs 22:7).

ii. "We may pay our taxes and be quit. We may give respect and honor where they are due and have no further obligation. But we can never say, 'I have done all the loving I need to do.' Love then is a permanent obligation, a debt impossible to discharge." (Morris)

b. You shall love your neighbor as yourself: Paul echoes Jesus' words as recorded in Matthew 22:36-40. This is one of the two commands upon which hang all the Law and the Prophets.

i. Love your neighbor means to love the people you actually meet with and deal with every day. It is easy for us to love in the theoretical and the abstract, but God demands that we love real people.

ii. "No man can compass the ends of life by drawing a little line around himself upon the ground. No man can fulfill his calling as a Christian by seeking the welfare of his wife and family only, for these are only a sort of greater self." (Spurgeon)

c. Love is the fulfillment of the law: It is easy to do all the right religious "things" but to neglect love. Our love is the true measure of our obedience to God.

2. (11-14) The urgency to love and walk right with God.

And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

a. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: Because we know the danger of the times and we anticipate the soon return of Jesus, we should be all the more energetic and committed to a right walk with God instead of a sleep-walk with God.

i. How important it is to awake out of sleep! We can do many Christian things and essentially be asleep towards God. What a difference it makes when we are awake!

- We can speak when we are awake
- We can hear when we are awake
- We can walk when we are awake
- We can sing when we are awake
- We can think when we are awake
b. Cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light: The illustration is from taking off and putting on clothes. When you get dressed every day, you dress appropriately to who you are and what you plan to do. Therefore, everyday, put on the Lord Jesus Christ!

i. We must cast off before we can put on. "The rags of sin must come off if we put on the robe of Christ. There must be a taking away of the love of sin, there must be a renouncing of the practices and habits of sin, or else a man cannot be a, Christian. It will be an idle attempt to try and wear religion as a sort of celestial overall over the top of old sins." (Spurgeon)

c. The works of darkness are characterized as revelry and drunkenness, licentiousness and lewdness, strife and envy. These are not appropriate for Christians who have come out of the night into God's light.

i. The idea behind the word for licentiousness is "the desire for a forbidden bed." It describes the person who sets no value on sexual purity and fidelity.

ii. Lewdness has the idea of a man who is lost to shame. They no longer care what people think and flaunt their sin openly, even proudly.

d. The armor of light is related to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. When we put on Christ, we put on all the armor of God and are equipped to both defend and attack.

i. "Putting on Christ is a strong and vivid metaphor. It means more than put on the character of the Lord Jesus Christ, signifying rather Let Jesus Christ Himself be the armor that you wear." (Morris)

e. Yet, we are still called to make no provision for the flesh. We have a work to do in walking properly, as in the day - it isn't as if Jesus does it for us as we sit back; instead, He does it through us as we willingly and actively partner with Him.

f. God used this passage to show Augustine, the great theologian of the early church, that he really could live the Christian life as empowered by the Holy Spirit - he just had to do it. And so do we.

 

Romans 14

Helping a Weaker Brother
A. Don't judge each other in doubtful things.

1. (1-2) Receiving the weaker brother.

Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.

a. We must receive (accept) the one who is weak in the faith; but we are not to receive them for the sake of carrying on a debate with them regarding doubtful things.

i. Receive the one who is weak in the faith: These are words to take seriously. Paul warns us to not make spiritual maturity a requirement for fellowship. We should distinguish between someone who is weak and someone who is rebellious.

ii. There are many reasons why a Christian might be weak.

- They may be a babe in Christ (babies are weak)
- They may be sick or diseased (by legalism)
- They may be malnourished (by lack of good teaching)
- They may lack exercise (needing exhortation)
b. Eats only vegetables: As an example of a doubtful thing, Paul looks at those who refuse to eat meat for a spiritual reason. Perhaps they refused it because they feared it was meat sacrificed to a pagan god (as in 1 Corinthians 8). Perhaps they refused the meat because it wasn't kosher, and they stuck to Jewish dietary regulations and traditions.

i. Because some Christian saw nothing wrong in this meat and others saw much wrong in it, this was a burning issue among believers in Paul's day. While the issue of not eating meat for spiritual reasons is no longer directly relevant to most Christians today, there are plenty of issues where some believers believe one way and others believe differently.

c. He who is weak eats only vegetables: In Paul's mind, the weak brother is the stricter one. It wasn't that they were weaker in their Christian life because of what they ate or didn't eat, but they were weaker because of their legalistic attitudes and lack of love towards others.

i. Undoubtedly these weak ones did not see themselves as weaker. It's likely they thought they were the strong ones, and the meat-eaters were the weak ones. Legalism has a way of making us think that we are strong and those who don't keep the rules the way we do are weak.

2. (3-4) Judging our brother is inappropriate because we are not their masters.

Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.

a. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat: It would be easy for a Christian who felt free to eat meat to despise those who did not feel free as hopeless legalists. It would also be easy for those who did not eat such meat to judge those who did - but God has received those Christians who eat meat.

b. Who are you to judge another's servant? Paul reminds us that it isn't our place to pass judgment on any fellow Christian. They stand or fall before their own Master, God - and God is able to make those "meat eaters" stand.

i. There is a lot of useless, harmful division among Christians over silly, bigoted things. Paul isn't telling these Christians to erase their differences; he tells them to rise above them as Christian brothers and sisters.

3. (5-6) Judging our brother is inappropriate because these are matters of conscience.

One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.

a. One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike: By bringing in the aspect of observing certain days, Paul lets us know that he is talking more about principles than specific issues. What he says has application to more than just eating meat.

b. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind: In such issues, Paul is willing to leave it up to the conscience of the individual. But whatever we do, we must be able to do it to the Lord, not using "conscience" as an excuse for obviously sinful behavior.

4. (7-9) We live and die to the Lord.

For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

a. For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself: We must understand that from beginning to end our life is connected to other lives. Paul reminds the Roman Christians that "No man is an island."

b. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's: From beginning to end, our lives are to be dedicated to God. Therefore, whatever we do, we do it to the Lord - because Jesus is our Lord (that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living).

5. (10-12) Judging our brother is inappropriate because we will all face judgment before Jesus.

But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: "As I live, says the LORD, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God." So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.

a. But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? Probably, the use of both judge and show contempt is meant to have application to both the "strict" and the "free" individuals. In either case, the attitude is wrong because we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

i. The strict Christian found it easy to judge his brother, writing him off as an unspiritual meat-eater-compromiser. The free Christian found it easy to show contempt against his brother, regarding him as a uptight-legalistic-goody-good. Essentially, Paul's answer is "Stop worrying about your brother. You have enough to answer for before Jesus."

ii. The judgment seat of Christ: "This is the bema seat, equivalent to the judge's seat in the Olympic Games. After each game, the winners came before the judge's seat to receive crowns for first, second and third places. Likewise, the Christian's works will be tested by fire, and he'll be rewarded for those which remain … The judgment seat of Christ is only concerned with a Christian's rewards and position in the kingdom, not with his salvation." (Smith)

b. Every knee shall bow: The quotation from Isaiah 45:23 emphasizes the fact that all will have to appear before God in humility, and give account of himself before God. If this is the case, we should let God deal with our brother.

6. (13) Summary: don't make it an issue of judging, but don't use your liberty to stumble another brother.

Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way.

a. Let us not judge one another: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus helped us to understand what this means - it means judging others according to a standard that we would not want to have applied to our self.

i. This does not take away the need and the responsibility for admonishment (Romans 15:14) or rebuke (2 Timothy 4:2). When we admonish or rebuke, we do it over clear Scriptural principles, not over doubtful things. We may offer advice to others about doubtful things, but should never judge them.

b. Not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way: We might stumble or cause our brother to fall in two ways. We can discourage or beat them down through our legalism against them, or we can do it by enticing them to sin through an unwise use of our liberty.

B. Don't stumble each other over doubtful things.

1. (14-15) Destroying a brother makes a privilege wrong.

I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.

a. I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself: Paul knew that there was nothing intrinsically unclean about meat that was not kosher or sacrificed to an idol. Yet there was nothing that could justify the destruction of a Christian brother over food.

i. Trapp on I know and am convinced: "Many, on the contrary, are persuaded before they know; and such will not be persuaded to know."

b. The issue now is not my personal liberty; it is walking in love towards a brother that Jesus loves and died for.

c. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died: If Jesus was willing to give up His life for the sake of that brother, I can certainly give up my steak dinner!

2. (16-18) Pursuing the higher call of the Kingdom of God.

Therefore do not let your good 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. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.

a. Do not let your good be spoken of as evil: Our liberty in Jesus and freedom from the law is good, but not if we use it to destroy another brother in Christ. If we do that, then it could rightly be spoken of as evil.

b. If we place food and drink before righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, then we are hopelessly out of touch with God's priorities and His heart.

c. Serving God with a heart for His righteousness and peace and joy is the kind of service that is acceptable in His sight, and will be approved by men.

3. (19-21) Use your liberty to build each other up, not to tear each other down.

Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.

a. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food: If eating or drinking something will stumble another brother, then we are not free to do so. Even if we have the personal liberty, we do not have the liberty to stumble, offend, or weaken a brother.

b. All things indeed are pure: Paul will concede the point that there is nothing impure in the food itself; but he likewise insists that there is nothing pure in causing a brother to stumble.

c. Nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak: However, we shouldn't think that Paul would permit this kind of heart to cater to someone's legalism. Paul speaks about the stumbling of a sincere heart, not catering to the whims of someone's legalism.

i. For example, when some Christians from a Jewish background were offended that Gentile believers were not circumcised, Paul didn't cater to their legalistic demands.

4. (22-23) The concluding principle of faith.

Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.

a. Do you have faith? If you have [strong] faith, and feel liberty to partake of certain things, praise God! But have your strong faith before God, not before a brother who will stumble.

b. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves: Not every Christian knows this happiness. There are things God may challenge us to give up, but we go on approving them in our life - thus we condemn ourselves. It may not be that they thing itself is clearly good or bad, but it is enough that God has spoken to us about this matter.

i. Each of us must ask: "God what is there in my life hindering a closer walk with You? I want to know the happiness that comes from not condemning myself by what I approve in my life." This takes faith, because we often cling to hindering things because we think they make us happy. Real happiness is found being closer and closer to Jesus, and by not being condemned by what we approve.

c. Whatever is not from faith is sin: Paul concludes with another principle by which we can judge "gray areas" - if we can't do it in faith, then it is sin.

i. This is a wonderful check on our tendency to justify ourselves in the things we permit. If we are troubled by something, it likely isn't of faith and likely is sin for us.

 

Romans 15

Living to Bless Your Brother
A. Being filled in the Christian life.

1. (1-2) Filled with care and concern for others.

We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.

a. We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves: If you consider yourself strong in comparison to your brother, use your strength to serve your brothers in Christ - instead of using your "strength" just to please yourself.

i. Bear with: The idea isn't really bearing with, but bearing up the weaker brother - supporting him with your superior strength.

ii. This goes against the whole tenor of our times, which counsels people to "look out for number 1" and despises those who live lives of real sacrifice for the sake of others. Yet, undeniably Paul points the way to true happiness and fulfillment in life - get your eyes off of yourself, start building up others and you will find yourself built up.

b. Let each of us please his neighbor: It is a simple, yet challenging call to simply put our neighbor first. Paul later wrote much the same thing in Philippians 2:3-4: Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

i. This does not mean that the church is ruled by the whims of the weak. "A genuine concern for the weak will mean an attempt to make them strong by leading them out of their irrational scruples so that they, too, can be strong." (Morris)

c. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good: This shows that Paul does not mean being a "man-pleaser." Such a person may want to please his neighbor, but not for his good.

d. Leading to edification: All too often, Christians find it easier to tear each other down instead of building each other up; this is a classic strategy of Satan against the church that must be resisted.

2. (3-4) Filled with the example of Jesus, who always put others first.

For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me." For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

a. For even Christ did not please Himself: Jesus is the ultimate example of one who did not please Himself, but put others first. Paul's classic development of this idea is in Philippians 2:5-11.

b. As it is written: As Jesus took abuse and suffered wrong for God's glory, He fulfilled what was written in God's word. Jesus showed by example that for the most part we are entirely too quick to vindicate ourselves, instead of letting God vindicate us. Jesus showed how the Father is well able to vindicate us.

c. The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me: The commandment Jesus fulfilled from Psalm 69:7 applies to us as well. It was written for our learning, that we might have hope, knowing we are doing what is right even when it is difficult.

i. When we respond rightly to the reproaches the world casts against us for Jesus' sake, it bothers them even more. It makes them know there isn't anything they can do against a child of God whose eyes are really on Jesus.

ii. An old Christian song goes, "I've got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart" and then goes on to other verses like "I've got the peace that passes understanding down in my heart" and "I got the wonderful love of my Blessed Redeemer down in my heart." One of great verses in that song goes, "I've got the happy hope that heckles heathens down in my heart." The hope we receive even when reproached shows that God is really real to us.

3. (5-6) A prayer for the fulfillment of this attitude in the Romans.

Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

a. Now may the God: The fact that Paul puts these words into the form of a prayer demonstrates that he recognizes that this is a work that the Holy Spirit must do inside us.

b. The God of patience: Our God is a God of patience. We are often in so much of a hurry, and God often seems to work too slowly for us. Often the purposes of God seem to be delayed but they always are fulfilled. God's delays are not His denials, and He has a loving purpose in every delay.

i. We love God's patience with His people - we need Him to be patient with us! Yet we often resent God's patience with His plan - we think He should hurry up. Nevertheless, God is patient both with His people and in His plan.

c. That you may: The goal is to glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We accomplish that goal by having one mind and one mouth - by unity in our thinking and speech.

4. (7-13) Filled with love for others and joy and peace by the Holy Spirit.

Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God. Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written: "For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles, and sing to Your name." And again he says: "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!" And again: "Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!" And again, Isaiah says: "There shall be a root of Jesse; and He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in Him the Gentiles shall hope." Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

a. Therefore receive one another: Instead of letting these issues about disputable things divide the body of Christ (especially making a division between Jew and Gentile), we should receive one another just as Christ received us - in the terms of pure grace, knowing yet bearing with our faults.

i. Spurgeon on just as Christ also received us: "Christ did not receive us because we were perfect, because he could see no fault in us, or because he hoped to gain somewhat at our hands. Ah, no! But, in loving condescension covering our faults, and seeking our good, he welcomed us to his heart; so, in the same way, and with the same purpose, let us receive one another."

b. As it is written: Paul quotes a series of passages from the Old Testament demonstrating that God intends that the Gentiles to praise Him. Instead of dividing of disputable matters, Jews and Gentiles should unite in Jesus over the common ground of praise.

i. I will confess to You among the Gentiles: The quotation from Psalm 18 describes Jesus Himself giving praise among the Gentiles.

c. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace: The prayer and blessing concluding the section is appropriate. As God fills us with the blessings of His joy and peace in believing, we are equipped to live in this common bond of unity God calls us to.

B. Paul's burden in ministry.

1. (14-16) Paul's reason for writing.

Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

a. Able also to admonish one another: Paul didn't write because he felt the Roman Christians couldn't discern what was right before God or admonish each other to do right. Rather, he wrote to remind them, encouraging them to do what they knew was right.

b. That I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles: This is consistent with Paul's calling to be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. In fulfilling this call, he didn't just preach the gospel of salvation but also instructed believers how to live before God.

c. That the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable: When the Gentiles live glorifying God, then their offering to God is acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit - the necessity of such a sacrifice makes Paul's writing necessary.

d. Romans 15:16 is filled with the language of priesthood. Paul says he serves as a "ministering priest" of Jesus Christ presenting the gospel as a "priestly service" so Gentile converts would be an acceptable sacrifice to God.

i. "When he defines his ministry as ministering the gospel of God the apostle uses a word occurring nowhere else in the New Testament which may properly be rendered 'acting as a priest.' So the ministry of the gospel is conceived of after the pattern of priestly offering." (Murray)

2. (17-19) Paul glories in the work God has done through him.

Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient; in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

a. Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus: As he considers his call to be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, Paul can glory in God that he received such a call - speaking only of the things God did through him to bring salvation to the Gentiles.

i. "Paul will glory only in what Christ has done through him. He is sure that Christ has done great things through him, and he is glad that he can draw attention to those things. But he is not trying to attract adulation. It is what Christ has done that is his theme." (Morris)

b. In word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient: God used mighty signs and wonders and the broader power of the Spirit of God to help Paul fully preach the gospel of Christ everywhere he went - from Jerusalem to Illyricum.

i. I fully preached the gospel of Christ: We sense that Paul would consider "bare" preaching, without the active and sometimes miraculous work of the Holy Spirit evident, to be less than fully preaching the gospel.

c. From Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel: Illyricum is modern Yugoslavia and Albania. This means that Paul's ministry spread from Illyricum in the west to Jerusalem in the East.

d. Paul effortlessly weaves references to each member of the Trinity in Romans 15:16-19. Paul can't talk about God without recognizing His three Persons.

3. (20-21) Paul's desire to preach the gospel in new places.

And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation, but as it is written: "To whom He was not announced, they shall see; and those who have not heard shall understand."

a. Not where Christ was named: Paul did not want to build on another man's foundation. Rather he wanted to do pioneer work for the Lord - not because it was wrong or bad to continue the work begun through another man, but because there was so much to do on the frontiers.

b. But as it is written: Paul saw his pioneering heart as obedience to the Scriptures, fulfilling the passage he quotes from the Old Testament.

C. Paul's desire to come to Rome.

1. (22-24) Why Paul hasn't visited the Christians in Rome yet.

For this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you. But now no longer having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you, whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while.

a. For this reason I also have been much hindered: It was his great desire to do pioneer work that hindered him from coming to the Romans, though he did desire to see them.

b. Whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you: Therefore, Paul supposes that he will visit the Romans on a future trip to Spain, where Paul will preach the gospel on the frontiers. Stopping off in Rome on the way, Paul anticipates that he can enjoy the support and fellowship of the Romans before he goes to preach the gospel in the regions beyond.

i. Paul probably wanted Rome to be his base of operations for the western part of the empire, even as Antioch was his base for the eastern part.

c. For I hope to see you on my journey: Paul had these plans; yet things did not work out according to his plans. He did go to Rome, yet not as a missionary on his way to Spain. He went to Rome as a prisoner awaiting trial before Caesar, where he would preach the gospel on a different kind of frontier.

i. God had unexpected frontiers for the Gospel in Paul's life, giving him unexpected access to preach to the emperor of Rome himself.

ii. After his release from the Roman imprisonment at the end of the Book of Acts, we have reason to believe that Paul did in fact make it to Spain and preached the gospel there.

2. (25-29) Paul's present plans.

But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.

a. But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints: Paul would stop in Corinth on his way to Jerusalem, bringing with him a collection from Christians in Macedonia and Achaia (Acts 20:1-3).

b. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things: Paul's observation is appropriate: the Gentile Christians of the broader Roman empire had received so much spiritually from the community of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, it was only right that they help the Jerusalem Christians in their need.

c. I shall go by way of you to Spain: Paul would indeed head for Rome after his time in Jerusalem, but not in the way he planned!

3. (30-33) Paul's plea for prayer.

Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

a. Strive together with me in prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe: Sensing that danger awaited him in Jerusalem (having been warned several times as recorded in Acts 20:22-23 and Acts 21:10-14), Paul knew he needed the prayers of God's people to see him through the difficulty promised him.

i. Strive together with me: The idea is that Paul wants the Romans to partner with him in ministry through their prayers. The New English Bible translates this, be my allies in the fight. The New Living Bible translates the phrase like this: join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.

ii. "Ministers need the prayers of their flocks. With Paul I urge you to strive in your prayers for your pastors. We need your prayers and we thank God for them. Pastors are sustained by the power of the Spirit through the support of their congregations." (Smith)

iii. The ancient Greek word translated strive together is sunagonizomai - literally meaning, "agonize together." To emphasize the importance and intensity, Paul repeats the word twice: sunagonizomai sunagonizomai.

iv. This same root word for agony is used of the anguished prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus asked His disciples to agonize with Him in prayer. They failed at that critical moment and left Jesus to struggle alone. We must not leave our ministers and leaders to struggle alone. "It reminds us of Carey, who says, when he goes to India, 'I will go down into the pit, but brother Fuller and the rest of you must hold the rope.' Can we refuse the request? Would it not be treachery?" (Spurgeon)

v. "Does it astonish you that a man so rich in grace as Paul should be asking prayers of these unknown saints? It need not astonish you; for it is the rule with the truly great to think most highly of others. In proportion as a man grows in grace he feels his dependence upon God, and, in a certain sense, his dependence upon God's people." (Spurgeon)

b. That I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe: Paul knew that his danger in Jerusalem would come from those who did not believe. This was the case, as demonstrated in Acts 21:27-28 and 22:22.

c. And that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints: Paul knew that the church in Jerusalem was very conservative, and sometimes regarded men like Paul as dangerous innovators; for this reason, he asks the Romans to pray that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints.

d. That I may come to you with joy: The prayers of Paul and the Romans were answered, though not in the manner they expected. Acts 28:15 describes Paul's "triumphal entry" into Rome, so that he did come to them with joy - though also in chains!

e. Paul here concludes the letter except for personal greetings in Romans 16

 

Romans 15

Greetings to the Christians in Rome
A. Greetings to many different Christians.

1. (1-2) A recommendation of Phoebe.

I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever business she has need of you; for indeed she has been a helper of many and of myself also.

a. I commend to you Phoebe our sister: Paul certainly knew the value of what women could do in serving the church. Apparently Phoebe was on her way to Rome (probably entrusted with this precious letter!) and Paul sends an advance recommendation of this sister in Christ so the Romans will receive her and support her during her stay in Rome.

b. I commend to you: Such recommendations were important, because there was both great legitimate need for this kind of assistance, and many deceivers who wanted to take advantage of the generosity of Christians.

c. Servant is the same word translated deacon in other places. Phoebe seems to be a female deacon in the church, either through formal recognition or through her general service.

i. Bible translators have a habit of translating the ancient Greek word diakonon as "deacon" when it speaks of men and "servant" when it speaks of women.

d. She has been a helper of many and of myself also: Paul gives Phoebe one of the best compliments anyone can give. This sort of practical help is essential in doing the business of the gospel.

e. Phoebe: This name is the feminine form of a title given to the pagan god Apollo, the title meaning "the bright one." Christians, on their conversion, seemed to feel no need to change their names even if there was some pagan significance to their name.

2. (3-5a) Greetings to Priscilla and Aquilla.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise greet the church that is in their house.

a. Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned in Acts 18:2, 18:18 and 18:26 as associates of Paul and helpers to Apollos. Apparently they were now back in the city of Rome.

i. Spurgeon on Priscilla and Aquila: "When two loving hearts pull together they accomplish wonders. What different associations cluster around the names of 'Priscilla and Aquila' from those which are awakened by the words 'Ananias and Sapphira'! There we have a husband and a wife conspiring in hypocrisy, and here a wife and a husband united in sincere devotion."

b. The church that is in their house: This phrase gives us a clue to the organization of the early church. In a city with a Christian community of any size, there would be several "congregations" meeting in different houses, since there were no "church" buildings at this time. Each house church probably had its own "pastor."

3. (5b-16) Various greetings.

Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia to Christ. Greet Mary, who labored much for us. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my countrymen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Greet Amplias, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved. Greet Apelles, approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus. Greet Herodion, my countryman. Greet those who are of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord. Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, who have labored in the Lord. Greet the beloved Persis, who labored much in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren who are with them. Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you.

a. Epaenetus is of note because he was apparently among the very first converts of Achaia (the region where Corinth was, where Paul wrote this letter from). Epaenetus was also apparently dear to Paul; beloved isn't a term Paul used cheaply.

b. Andronicus and Junia are apparently both Jews (my kinsmen) and had been imprisoned for the sake of the gospel (my fellow prisoners). They were well regarded among the apostles, having become Christians even before Paul did (sometime in the first three or four years after Pentecost).

i. Of note among the apostles has the idea that Andronicus and Junia are apostles themselves (though not of the twelve), and notable among other apostles. If there ever were women recognized as apostles - in the sense of being special emissaries of God, not in the sense of being of the twelve - this is the strongest Scriptural evidence. It isn't very strong.

c. Amplias: There is a tomb dating from the late first or early second century in the earliest Christian catacomb of Rome which bears the name AMPLIAS. Some suggest that this is the same person mentioned in Romans 16:8.

d. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus: The fact that the household of Aristobulus is greeted, but not Aristobulus himself, made Spurgeon think that he himself was not converted but many in his household were. It made Spurgeon think of the unconverted who live with believers in their house.

i. "Where are you, Aristobulus? That is not your name, perhaps, but your character is the same as that of this unregenerate Roman, whose family knew the Lord. I might speak in God's name good words and comfortable words to your wife and to your children, but I could not so speak to you, Aristobulus! The Lord sends a message of grace to your dear child, to your beloved wife, but not to you; for you have not given your heart to him."

e. Rufus may be the same man mentioned as a son of Simon the Cyrene in Mark 15:21. This is possible, but Rufus was a common name - so it may have been someone else.

i. Chosen in the Lord has the idea that Rufus had some eminence among the Christians of Rome. It doesn't really refer to his election in Jesus.

f. Nereus: In 95 A.D. two distinguished Romans were condemned for being Christians. The husband was executed and the wife was banished. The name of their chief servant was Nereus - this may be the same Nereus mentioned here and he may be the one who brought the gospel to them.

g. Of the rest of these names, Paul finds something wonderful to say about almost every one of them - noting their labor, his special regard for them (beloved), their standing in the Lord (approved in Christ … in the Lord … chosen in the Lord).

i. What a tremendous pattern this is - it shows Paul's way of casting about uplifting words in a way meant to build up God's people. He was generous in paying compliments that were both sincere and wonderful.

h. Greet one another with a holy kiss: This might sound strange to us, but Luke 7:45 shows how common a greeting a kiss was. Jesus rebukes a Pharisee because he had not given Jesus a kiss when He came into his house.

i. It seems that this practice was later abused. Clement of Alexandria complained about churches where people made the church resound with kissing, and says that "the shameless use of a kiss occasions foul suspicions the evil reports."

4. The value of Paul's extensive greetings to the Roman church.

a. Morris explains that this section demonstrates that the Letter to the Romans "was a letter to real people and, as far as we can see, ordinary people; it was not written to professional theologians."

i. "They were like the most of us, commonplace individuals; but they loved the Lord, and therefore as Paul recollected their names he sent them a message of love which has become embalmed in the Holy Scriptures. Do not let us think of the distinguished Christians exclusively so as to forget the rank and file of the Lord's army. Do not let the eye rest exclusively upon the front rank, but let us love all whom Christ loves; let us value all Christ's servants. It is better to be God's dog than to be the devil's darling." (Spurgeon)

b. Notice the women mentioned in this chapter: Phoebe, Priscilla, Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa, the mother of Rufus, and Julia. These women are said to have worked for the Lord.

i. "Ministry in the Spirit by a woman is different altogether from her taking over authority, or infringing upon the order of the assembly of God." (Newell)

c. Notice their work for the Lord: some, like Tryphena and Tryphosa, labored in the Lord. Others, like Persis, labored much for the Lord. "So there are distinctions and degrees in honor among believers, and these are graduated by the scale of service done. It is an honor to labor for Christ, it is a still greater honor to labor much. If, then, any, in joining the Christian church, desire place or position, honor or respect, the way to it is this - labor, and labor much." (Spurgeon)

d. Of the 24 names here, 13 occur in inscriptions or documents connected with the Emperor's palace in Rome. We know that there were Christians among Caesar's household (Philippians 4:22), so Paul may be addressing many of the servants who worked for Caesar who became Christians.

B. Concluding words and warnings.

1. (17-20) A word of warning regarding dividers and deceivers.

Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

a. Note those who cause divisions and offenses: This has in mind both those who would divide the God's people (cause divisions) and those who would deceive God's people (offenses … contrary to the doctrine you have learned). Once these have been noted (marked), they are to be avoided.

i. This is essential to God's purpose for the church. Truth without unity leads to pride; unity without truth leads to a departure from the true gospel itself. Each of these must be guarded against.

ii. Now I urge you, brethren: The tone here suggests how important this was to Paul; "It may well be that Paul took the pen and wrote these words himself … It is quite possible that Paul wrote these words, then passed the pen back to Tertius for a postscript. Something unusual happened at the end of this letter, and this is a very possible understanding of it." (Morris)

iii. "Mad dogs are shot; infectious diseases are quarantined; but evil teachers who would divide to their destruction and draw away the saints with teaching contrary to the doctrine of Christ and His Apostles are everywhere tolerated!" (Newell)

b. By smooth words and flattering speech deceive: The warning is necessary because these dividers and deceivers do not announce themselves. They use smooth words and flattering speech and always target the simple - usually those who are young in the faith.

i. Deceive the hearts of the simple: This reminds us that dividers and deceivers don't affect everyone. We don't have to wait until everyone is scattered or deceived until we are concerned with dividers and deceivers.

c. Do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly: Dividers and deceivers never want to appear selfish. Typically they perceive themselves as noble crusaders for a great cause. Nevertheless, however they may appear on the outside, their motives are essentially selfish and fleshly.

d. Your obedience has become known to all: This means that when it comes to dividers and deceivers, it isn't that the Romans must correct a bad situation. They are already dealing with these situations well, and Paul is glad about it. Yet they must remain diligent against the attacks of the dividers and the deceivers.

e. Be wise in what is good: This is the best defense against dividers and deceivers. It is of far more use to know the good than it is to know the evil, to learn about the genuine rather than the counterfeit.

f. The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly: Any church with the well-deserved reputation of the Romans, who stays on guard against both dividers and deceivers, will see God crush Satan under your feet shortly.

i. We see that God does the crushing, but Satan ends up under the feet of believers.

ii. Of course, this will not ultimately happen until Satan is bound and cast into the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:1-3); but every victory God wins for us right now is a preview of that event.

2. (21-24) Greetings from those in Corinth with Paul.

Timothy, my fellow worker, and Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my countrymen, greet you. I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, my host and the host of the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you, and Quartus, a brother. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

a. Timothy rightly rates a first mention, being one of Paul's closest and most trusted associates.

b. I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle: Tertius was Paul's writer as the apostle dictated the letter. This was Paul's normal practice in writing letters to churches, but this is the only letter where Paul's secretary is mentioned by name.

c. Gaius had such a reputation for hospitality that Paul can say he was regarded as the host of the whole church.

3. (25-27) Conclusion to the letter: praise to God.

Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now has been made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures has been made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith; to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.

a. With all the dangers facing the Romans - and every church - Paul fittingly concludes by commending them to Him who is able to establish you. Paul also knows that this will be done according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ.

b. According to the revelation of the mystery: Paul means this as the whole plan of redemption through Jesus Christ. Though God announced much of the plan previously through prophecy, its final outworking wasn't evident until revealed by God through Jesus.

i. Now that the mystery has been revealed through the preaching of the gospel, God calls all nations to obedience to the faith.

c. When Paul concludes with to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever, he is reflecting on both the wisdom of God's plan in the gospel and the fact that such wisdom is beyond man. God had a plan no man would come up with, but the wisdom and glory of the plan is evident.

i. If there is anything Roman explains from beginning to end it is the greatness and glory of this plan of God that Paul preached as a gospel - as good news. It's entirely fitting that Paul concludes this letter praising the God of such a gospel.

ii. God has also, in the gospel Paul preaches, chosen to glorify Himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ, and to glorify Himself that way forever. Amen!

 

1 Corinthians 1

Jesus, the Wisdom of God
A. Greeting and giving of thanks.

1. (1) Whom the letter is from: Paul, a called apostle.

Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother.

a. Paul: The apostle Paul follows the normal pattern for writing a letter in ancient times. We write a letter by saying who the letter is to first, and we conclude with writing who the letter is from. In the ancient culture of Paul, a letter began with writing who the letter is from, and then stating who the letter is to.

i. Paul had an extensive history of contact with the city of Corinth, beginning with when he established the church in Corinth, coming there after Athens and staying a year and a half (Acts 18).

ii. He wrote a letter to the Christians in Corinth from the city of Ephesus (Acts 19), which is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5:9. This "previous letter" is lost.

iii. Paul then received reports from people in Chloe's household about disturbances in Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:11); and he may have received a delegation from Corinth (1 Corinthians 16:7) who brought him questions from the congregation (1 Corinthians 7:1).

iv. Then Paul wrote 1 Corinthians to respond to these reports. But because of all the time Paul spent in Corinth, and all the letters he wrote them, we know more about the Christians at Corinth than we know about any other church in the New Testament.

b. Called to be an apostle: At the outset of the letter - indeed, the very first few words - show Paul fearlessly declaring his apostolic credentials. As is evident from 1 and 2 Corinthians, Paul's standing and authority as an apostle were not appreciated among the Christians of Corinth.

i. Called to be an apostle is literally a called apostle; Paul is letting them know just what kind of apostle he is. "Paul knows that he is not one of the twelve apostles, but he is a par with them because, like them, he is chosen by God." (Robertson)

ii. To emphasize the point, Paul writes: an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. Paul has already begun contending with the Christians of Corinth. It is as if he is saying, "You all may not recognize my apostolic credentials. That is of little importance to me, because I am not an apostle because of a popular election. I am not an apostle through the appointment of the other apostles. I am an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, not the will of any man."

iii. What is an apostle of Jesus Christ? In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul will deal more fully with what makes a person an apostle. However, we learn something just from the meaning of the Greek word apostolos, which has the idea of "a special ambassador." Paul was a "special ambassador" of Jesus Christ to the world and to the church.

iv. Even in his introduction, Paul is thinking about the critical issues he needs to communicate to the Corinthian Christians. This is a letter Paul has thought carefully about.

c. Sosthenes our brother: This man Sosthenes is perhaps mentioned in Acts 18:17, as the head of a Corinthian synagogue who was beaten because he persecuted Paul.

i. When Paul first came to Corinth, the ruler of the synagogue was a man named Crispus. Crispus believed on the Lord with all his household (Acts 18:8), and was saved. So he was fired from - or quit - his job as ruler of the synagogue!

ii. His replacement was a man named Sosthenes, who was beaten by the Roman officials in a bit of anti-Semitic backlash against the Jews who tried to persecute Paul. Perhaps this same Sosthenes in Acts 18:17 is now with Paul, so Paul calls attention to the man with him whom the Corinthian Christians would know: Sosthenes our brother.

iii. It was common in the ancient world to dictate a letter to a scribe who would write it all down. Probably, Sosthenes was Paul's scribe (or, more technically, his amanuensis).

2. (2) To: The church of God at Corinth.

To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.

a. To the church of God: Most people today associate the word church with a building where Christians meet. But the Greek word for church (ekklesiai) was a non-religious word for an "assembly" of people, typically gathered together for a specific purpose.

i. "The Greek word has both a Gentile and a Jewish background. In its Gentile sense it denotes chiefly the citizen-assembly of a Greek city … but it is its Jewish usage that underlies its use to denote the community of believers in Jesus. In the Septuagint it is one of the words used to denote the people of Israel in their religious character as Yahweh's 'assembly.'" (Bruce in his Acts commentary)

ii. The term church of God has Old Testament associations, especially in the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament). See passages such as Numbers 16:3, Numbers 20:4, Deuteronomy 23:1, and 1 Chronicles 28:8.

iii. Because church was a secular term also (referring to "the gatherings of the citizenry in a city-state to discuss and decide on matters of public interest" [Mare]), Paul calls the gathering of Christians in Corinth as the church of God. This isn't the gathering of the world, but of God.

iv. Paul doesn't only consider these believers in Corinth to be the church of God; believers in Palestine are also mentioned in this way (1 Corinthians 15:9), as well as the church at large (1 Corinthians 10:31-32).

b. Which is at Corinth: Corinth was one of the great cities of the ancient world, and a community very much like Southern California. It was prosperous, busy, and growing; it had a deserved reputation for the reckless pursuit of pleasure. Corinth had a rich ethnic mix, and it was a center for sports, government, military, and business.

i. When Paul came to Corinth in 50 A.D. the city had been famous for hundreds of years before he was born. Ancient writers considered Corinth "rich, prosperous … always great and wealthy" (Mare). The Romans destroyed Corinth in 146 B.C. but Julius Caesar rebuilt the city a hundred years later.

ii. Many things made Corinth famous. Pottery and "Corinthian brass" (a mixture of gold, sliver and copper) from the city were world famous. Famous athletic contests known as the Isthmian Games - second only to the Olympian Games - were held at the temple of Poseidon in Corinth every two years. Athena, Apollo, Poseidon, Hermes, Isis, Serapis, and Asclepius, among others, had temples to their honor in Corinth. But most prominent was the worship of the Corinthian Aphrodite, who had more than 1,000 hierodouloi (female prostitutes and priestesses) in her service.

iii. Corinth was a major city of business, especially because of its location. It was on a four-and-one-half mile wide isthmus of land. "At its narrowest part the isthmus was crossed by a level track called the diolcus, over which vessels were dragged on rollers from one port to the other. This was in constant use, because seamen were thus enabled to avoid sailing round the dangerous promontory of Malea." (Vincent) Sailors wanted to avoid the danger of sailing around Malea, which was indicated by two popular proverbs: "Let him who sails round Malea forget his home," and "Let him who sails round Malea first make his will." If the ship was too large to be dragged, the cargo was unloaded and loaded onto another ship on the other side of the isthmus.

iv. The Corinthian people were also world known: for partying, drunkenness, and loose sexual morals. The term Korinthiazomai was well known in the Roman Empire and it meant literally "to live like a Corinthian." But everyone knew it really meant "to be sexually out of control." "Aelian, the late Greek writer, tells us that if ever a Corinthian was shown upon the stage in a Greek play he was shown drunk." (Barclay)

v. Fee comments on Corinth's sexual immorality: "The Asclepius room in the present museum in Corinth provides mute evidence to this facet of city life; here on one wall are a large number of clay votives of human genitals that had been offered to the god for healing of that part of the body, apparently ravaged by venereal disease." Fee sums up his analysis of Corinth by writing: "All of this evidence together suggests that Paul's Corinth was at once the New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas of the ancient world." Leon Morris describes Corinth as "Intellectually alert, materially prosperous, but morally corrupt."

c. Notice the contrast: The church of God (good), which is at Corinth (bad). Understanding the tension between the church and the city is important to understanding the letter of 1 Corinthians. The bottom line is this: is the church influencing the city, or is the city influencing the church?

i. Morgan says well in his introduction to 1 Corinthians: "The measure of failure on the part of the Church is the measure in which she has allowed herself to be influenced by the spirit of the age... We are sometimes told to-day that what the Church supremely needs is that she should catch the spirit of the age. A thousand times no. What the Church supremely needs is to correct the spirit of the age."

d. Paul continues his description of the Corinthian Christians: Those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. The words sanctified and saints communicate the same idea, of being set apart from the world and unto God.

i. Notice the words to be are inserted by translators. The Corinthians were called saints, not called to be saints.

ii. There is much in 1 Corinthians that is unflattering to the Christians of Corinth. They are shown to have, at times, morality problems, doctrine problems, church government problems, spiritual gift problems, church service problems, and authority problems. It might be easy for us to think they weren't even saved! But they were. They were called saints.

iii. We might also think saying called saints is mere flattery, Paul's way preparing them for coming rebuke. It isn't. The Corinthian Christians are called saints, but this was not based on the outward performance of the Corinthians. It was founded a promise of God, when He said for I have many people in this city (Acts 18:10).

e. Both theirs and ours: In his first few words, Paul lays the foundation for a fundamental issue he will address in this letter: Christian unity, based on the common Lordship of Jesus Christ. The Corinthian Christians are called … saints, but this isn't exclusive to them. They are saints together with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus is both their Lord and our Lord, and because they share a common Lord, they share an essential unity.

3. (3) Greeting: Grace to you and peace.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

a. The greeting including grace and peace is typical of Paul's letters, and draws from both Greek and Jewish customs. Paul uses the exact phrase of verse three five other times in the New Testament.

i. "Grace is always first, peace always second. This is due to the fact that grace is the source of peace. Without grace there is and can be no peace, but when grace is ours, peace must of necessity follow." (Lenski)

b. Paul will often (more than seventeen times in the letter) refer to Jesus as the Lord Jesus Christ; it is well to recall what the title means.

i. Lord: A title designating not only master and boss, but also the Lord revealed in the Old Testament (known as Yahweh or Jehovah). "This term could be no more than a polite form of address like our 'Sir.' But it could also be used of the deity one worships. The really significant background, though, is its use in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to render the divine name, Yahweh... Christians who used this as their Bible would be familiar with the term as equivalent to deity." (Morris, in Romans)

ii. Jesus: The given name of the son of Mary, and adopted son of Joseph, which is the Greek pronunciation of Joshua. The name Joshua means, "Yahweh is salvation."

iii. Christ: This is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew word for Messiah, or "Anointed One." This is the One prophesied by the Old Testament Scriptures, sent by the Father to save and deliver us.

4. (4-9) A prayer of thanksgiving.

I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

a. I thank my God always: Paul will later spend most the letter rebuking sin and correcting error; yet he is still sincerely thankful for God's work in them.

i. Those who feel called to rebuke sin and correct error in the church today should follow Paul's example. Unfortunately, many of them never communicate any encouragement with their correction and advice.

b. Specifically, Paul thanks God for the grace which was given to you by Jesus Christ. Everything good the Corinthian Christians have from God has come to them by grace. God has given freely, for His own reasons.

c. The effect of grace in the life of the Corinthian Christians was to make them enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and in all knowledge. The Corinthians were a "rich" church, not only materially, bit also in their speaking and knowing about Jesus (all utterance and in all knowledge … the testimony of Christ), in their abounding in the gifts (come short in no gift), and they live in anticipation of Jesus' coming (eagerly waiting).

i. The work of God in the Corinthians could be seen by what they were saying, by what they were learning, by a supernatural element in their lives, and by their expectant anticipation of Jesus' return.

ii. When Paul looked at the Corinthian church, he could say: "These people proclaim Jesus, they know about Jesus, there are the supernatural gifts of God among them, and they are excited about Jesus' return." Whatever problems they had, these are some pretty impressive strong points! Can even this much be said about many churches today? We may pride ourselves on not having the Corinthian's problems, but do we have their positives?

iii. Yet, these positives were no great credit to the Corinthian Christians themselves. They were not the spiritual achievements of the Corinthians, but the work of the grace of God in them.

d. You come short in no gift: Paul thanks God for the gifts among the Corinthians, even though they were causing some trouble. He recognizes that the gifts were not the problem, but wrong attitudes and beliefs about the gifts.

i. The Corinthian Christians were indeed gifted, yet carnal. "Should it not show us that gifts are nothing, unless they are laid on the altar of God; that it is nothing to have the gift of oratory; that it is nothing to have the power of eloquence; that it is nothing to have learning; that it is nothing to have influence, unless they all be dedicated to God, and consecrated to his service?" (Spurgeon)

e. Confirm you to the end: The Corinthian Christians had their strong points, and they had their weak points. Paul praises God for their positives, and expresses confidence that God will take care of their weak points, and confirm them to the end, so that they would be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

i. How can Paul be confident of this when the Corinthian church has so many problems? He can be confident because God is faithful. He is the One who has called them into the fellowship of His Son, so He is the One who will confirm them to the end and present them blameless.

f. In these first ten verses, Paul refers to Jesus in every verse, for a total of eleven times. In this emphasis on Jesus, Paul is promoting the sure cure for the problems of the Corinthians: getting your eyes off self and on Jesus.

B. The problem of divisions.

1. (10) Initial plea: don't be torn apart, but joined.

Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

a. I plead with you, brethren: Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ. He had authority in the church. He had the right, and the authority, to command the Corinthian Christians in these matters. Instead, with loving heart, he begs them - he pleads with them - to be unified as believers.

i. "Now, after preparing their minds for rebuke, acting like a good, experienced surgeon, who touches the wound gently when a painful remedy must be used, Paul begins to handle them more severely." (Calvin)

b. That there be no divisions among you: The ancient Greek word for divisions is schismata. Although we derive our English word "schism" from this Greek word, it does not really mean a "party" or a "faction"; it properly means "tear, or rend." Paul's plea is that they stop ripping each other apart, tearing up the body of Christ.

c. The contrast to divisions is to be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Instead of being torn apart, Paul pleads that they would be joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

i. Barclay on joined together: "A medical word used of knitting together bones that have been fractured, or joining together a joint that has been dislocated. The disunion is unnatural and must be cured."

2. (11-13) Paul exposes the foolishness of their divisions.

For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, "I am of Paul," or "I am of Apollos," or "I am of Cephas," or "I am of Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

a. Those of Chloe's household: Chloe was a woman (probably a Christian) whose business interests caused her representatives (those in her household) to travel between Ephesus and Corinth. Paul is writing this letter from Ephesus, where these people from Chloe's household have visited him and told him about what is happening in the Corinthian church.

i. Clarke on Chloe: "This was doubtless some very religious matron at Corinth, whose family were converted to the Lord; some of whom were probably sent to the apostle to inform him of the dissensions which then prevailed in the Church at that place."

b. Contentions among you: The Corinthian church suffered under quarreling and conflict. This conflict had made them divide up into "parties" or "cliques," each party having its own "leader."

i. "I am of Paul": There was the "Paul Party," who declared "We are following in the footsteps of the man who founded our church, the apostle Paul. We're the ones really right with God!"

ii. "I am of Apollos": There was the "Apollos Party," who declared "We are following in the footsteps of a man who is great in power and spiritual gifts, and an impressive man. We're the ones really right with God!" (Acts 18:24-25)

iii. "I am of Cephas": There was the "Peter Party," who declared "We are following in the footsteps of the man who is first among all the apostles. Jesus gave him the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and he's our man. We're the ones really right with God!"

iv. "I am of Christ": There was the "Jesus Party," who declared "You all are so carnal, following after mere men. We are following in the footsteps of no one less than Jesus Himself. We're the ones really right with God!"

v. It is possible there was not an actual "Paul Party" or "Apollos Party" or "Peter Party" or "Jesus Party" at Corinth. Later in this letter, Paul writes that he transferred to himself and Apollos what was applicable to others (1 Corinthians 4:6). The actual Corinthian factions may have been centered around people in the congregation, not the different apostles who ministered to them. Even if this is the case, the picture fits. Paul may be "changing the names to protect the innocent," or to show mercy to the guilty!

vi. The Corinthians' boasting about their "party leaders" was really boasting about themselves. It wasn't so much that they thought Apollos was great, but that they were great for following him.

c. Though division is ungodly, it is not wrong to make distinctions between churches and ministers. God has made different churches and different ministries with different callings and characters, because the job of preaching the gospel is too big for any one group.

i. "I bless God that there are so many denominations. If there were not men who differed a little in their creeds, we should never get as much gospel as we do … God has sent different men to defend different kinds of truth; but Christ defended and preached all … Christ's testimony was perfect." (Spurgeon)

ii. It is one thing to prefer one minister to another, but we cannot divide into cliques behind one minister or another. "One minister of Christ may be justly preferred to another. We ought to honour those most whom God most honoureth, either by a more plentiful giving out of his Spirit, or by a more plentiful success upon their labours; but we ought not so far to appropriate any ministers to ourselves, as for them to despise others. We are not bound to make every minister our pastor, but we are bound to have a just respect for every minister, who by his doctrine and holy life answereth his profession and holy calling." (Poole)

d. Is Christ divided? Jesus does not belong to any one "party." These cliques ignore the truth of unity over all diversity in the church, even if they were all in the name of spirituality.

i. Spiritual elitism is abhorrent, no matter whose name it is practiced in.

ii. There was an old, contentious Quaker who went from one meeting to another, never finding the "true" church. Someone once said to him, "Well, what church are you in now?" He said, "I am in the true church at last." "How many belong to it?" "Just my wife and myself, and I am not sure about her sometimes."

e. Even more foolish than "dividing Jesus" is to center parties in the church around men: Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? When Paul puts it like this, it shows how foolish it is to focus on anyone but Jesus.

3. (14-17) Paul is grateful he did not happen to baptize more people in Corinth and thereby add more fuel to the partisan debate.

I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.

a. Apparently, some of the Corinthian Christians (probably those of the "Paul Party") made a big deal of the fact that they had been baptized by Paul. Because it was becoming a divisive issue, Paul was therefore grateful that he had not baptized very many in Corinth (lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name).

i. Of course, Paul did baptize a few in Corinth. Crispus is likely mentioned in Acts 8:8, Gaius in Romans 16:23.

b. I thank God … Christ did not send me to baptize: For Paul, preaching was more important than baptizing, though he was certainly not opposed to baptism. Yet, we can see by this that baptism is not essential to salvation. If it were - if the teaching of baptismal regeneration were true - then Paul could never thank God that he baptized so few in Corinth, and he, as an evangelist, could never say Christ did not send me to baptize.

i. That Paul did not regard baptism as essential to salvation is also seen by the fact that he did not keep careful track of whom he had baptized: Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. Surely, Paul remembered his converts, but the issue of baptism, though important, was not as important to Paul.

ii. In light of I thank God that I baptized none of you, it is impossible to claim that Paul was a sacramentalist. "He clearly denies here that he considers baptism essential to the remission of sin or the means of obtaining forgiveness." (Robertson)

iii. "While therefore it is unscriptural to make baptism essential to salvation or a certain means of regeneration, it is nevertheless a dangerous act of disobedience to undervalue or neglect it." (Hodge)

iv. This passage also makes it clear that the individual doing the baptizing doesn't really affect the validity of the baptism. Those baptized by the great apostle Paul had no advantage over those baptized by some unknown believer. The power of baptism is in the spiritual reality it represents.

c. How did Paul preach in Corinth? Not with the wisdom of words (cleverness of speaking). Paul came speaking plainly, without any attempt to dazzle with eloquence or intellect.

i. Paul came to Corinth from Athens, where he contended with the great philosophers of the day in terms they could understand (Acts 17:16-34). Some people think that Paul was disappointed by the results in Athens, and resolved to preach differently in Corinth.

ii. It's wrong to say that Paul preached a watered-down gospel in Athens; "Like the biblical revelation itself, his argument begins with God the creator of all and ends with God the judge of all … The speech as it stands admirably summarizes an introductory lesson in Christianity for cultured pagans." (Bruce, in his commentary on Acts) At the same time, it is not unreasonable to think that Paul came from the intellectual environment of Athens, to the open wickedness of Corinth, with a renewed passion to preach the gospel plainly and without compromise.

iii. There is another significant difference between Paul's ministry in Athens and his work in Corinth. Paul was in Athens a day or two; he stayed in Corinth for a year and a half.

d. Lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect: Paul makes it clear that it is possible to preach the gospel in a way that makes it of no effect. If one preaches the word with a reliance on wisdom of words, they can make the gospel of no effect.

i. How sobering this is! The great gospel of Jesus Christ, the very power of God unto salvation - made empty and of no effect through the pride and cleverness of men! This danger was constantly on the mind of the apostle Paul, and should be constantly on the mind of any preacher or teacher.

C. The power of the cross and the wisdom of men.

1. (18) The central point: How the perishing see the cross, and how the saved see the cross.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

a. In 1 Corinthians 1:17, Paul has just declared the idea that the cross could be made of no effect if it were presented with the wisdom of words. Paul now will show why this is true of the cross and the message of the gospel.

b. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing: To those who reject the salvation of the cross, the idea of being saved through the work of a crucified man is foolish.

i. The words message of the cross sound kind of noble and religious to our twentieth-century ears. But in the first century, saying message of the cross was about the same as saying message of the electric chair - except worse! What message does a cruel, humiliating, unrelenting instrument of death have? No wonder it is foolishness to those who are perishing!

c. To us who are being saved it is the power of God: Though it is a strange message, and regarded as foolish by the perishing, to those who trust in it and are being saved, this message of the cross becomes to them the actual power of God.

i. There is inherent power in the preaching of the true gospel, when it is received with faith. The hearing and trusting of the true gospel will bring the power of God into your life!

ii. Though the word gospel isn't in this verse, it is in the previous verse. For Paul, the message of the cross was the gospel. It was impossible for the Apostle to preach the gospel without presenting the message of the cross. So, preaching a high moral standard is not preaching the gospel, preaching the universal fatherhood of God is not preaching the gospel, and preaching the universal brotherhood of man is not preaching the gospel. The gospel is the message of the cross.

d. The verb tenses of are perishing and are being saved are significant. They both describe a work in progress. Each of us is definitely moving in one of those two directions.

2. (19-21) The wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God.

For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

a. For it is written: In this quotation from Isaiah 29:14, Paul shows that in spiritual matters, God opposes the wisdom of man. He will destroy the wisdom of the wise, not bow down before it.

b. Where is the wise? Paul is saying, "In light of what God says in Isaiah 29:14, now where is your 'wise' man? Where is your scribe? Where is your disputer of this age? God has made them all foolish through His wisdom. He has destroyed the wisdom of the wise, just as He said He would."

i. The disputer of this age "was the man who wanted to dispute every issue and solve it by human reason." (Mare)

ii. The point is plain: There is no wise man, no scribe, and no debater who can do what Jesus Christ has done.

c. The world through wisdom did not know God: There is a constant tendency to think that the smartest and wisest humans will know the most about God. But God cannot be found through human wisdom, but only through the message of the cross. The pursuit of human wisdom may bring an earthly contentment or happiness (though this is rare), but in itself, it can never bring the true knowledge of the true God.

i. It is significant that often the most educated people have the least regard for God. This is not always the case; some of the most brilliant men of history have been Christians (such as Isaac Newton). But largely, the "smarter" one sees themselves as, the less regard they have for God. Human "wisdom" is constantly rejecting God and opposing Him, and ultimately showing itself foolish and perishing in doing so!

ii. One day, students in one of Albert Einstein's classes were saying they had decided that there was no God. Einstein asked them, how much of all the knowledge in the world they had among themselves collectively, as a class. The students discussed it for a while and decided they had 5% of all human knowledge among themselves. Einstein thought that their estimate was a little generous, but he replied: "It is possible that God exists in the 95% that you don't know?"

d. Through the foolishness of the message: The Corinthians wanted to believe that the gospel itself was a sublime form of wisdom, as the Greeks considered wisdom (sophia). Paul replies, 'how foolish can you get? What is there 'wise' (in the Greek sense of wisdom) about a crucified Messiah?"

i. The phrases foolishness of the message and foolishness of God do not mean Paul actually considered the message and God foolish. He is describing them as they appear to the perishing man, the "wise" man of this age.

ii. God's wisdom is not man's wisdom multiplied to the highest degree; it wisdom of a different order altogether. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

iii. Paul isn't condemning all learning or education here; he is merely saying that they are, in themselves, useless for obtaining spiritual wisdom.

iv. "It is certain that a blind man is no judge of colours, a deaf man is no judge of sound, and a man who has never been quickened into spiritual life can have no judgment as to spiritual things." (Spurgeon)

e. It pleased God: God takes pleasure in accomplishing our salvation in a way no one would have expected. He is happy to do it in this way which offends the height of human wisdom.

3. (22-25) The wisdom of God, though foolish to the world, triumphs.

For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

a. For Jews request a sign: In Paul's day, the Jewish world was looking for a sign. Specifically, they wanted the sign of a miraculous Messianic deliverance. They were not looking for the message of the cross. Their desire for deliverance was not bad, but their rejection of God's way of deliverance was.

i. "Their idolatry was that they now had God completely figured out; he would simply repeat the Exodus, in still greater splendor." (Fee)

b. Greeks seek after wisdom: The Greek culture valued the pursuit of wisdom, usually expressed in high, academic, philosophical terms. They did not value the wisdom expressed in the message of the cross. Their desire for wisdom was not bad, but their rejection of God's wisdom was.

i. "Their idolatry was to conceive of God as ultimate Reason, meaning of course what we deem to be reasonable." (Fee)

c. We preach Christ crucified: Instead of giving the Jews and Greeks what they demanded in deliverance and wisdom, God gives them something unexpected: a crucified Messiah.

i. Christ (Messiah) meant power, splendor, and triumph. Crucified meant weakness, defeat, and humiliation. Christ crucified was the ultimate oxymoron, and this was what Paul preached!

ii. If the cross doesn't seem strange to you, then you either don't understand how the cross was seen in Jesus' day, or you don't understand who Jesus is. You don't understand the tension between Christ and crucified.

iii. The great Roman statesman Cicero said: "The cross, it speaks of that which is so shameful, so horrible, it should never be mentioned in polite society." If we were witnesses to the trial of Jesus - when the crowd was shouting out "Crucify him! Crucify him!" - if we had our wits about us, we would have shouted back, "Don't crucify Him! If you must execute this man, do it honorably. Let him die the death of a dignified man. But don't expose Him to the horror and the humiliation of hanging on a cross." But God wanted Christ crucified, and if we don't embrace the cross, even with all its strange contradictions and demands, then we are lost.

iv. Let every pulpit rightly say, "we preach Christ crucified!" A strong church once inscribed these words on an archway leading to the churchyard. Over time, two things happened: the church lost its passion for Jesus and His gospel, and ivy began to grow on the archway. The growth of the ivy, covering the message, showed the spiritual decline. Originally it said strongly, we preach Christ crucified. But as the ivy grew, one could only read we preach Christ, and the church also started preaching "Jesus the Great Man" and "Jesus the Moral Example" instead of Christ crucified. The ivy kept growing, and one could soon only read, we preach. The church also had even lost Jesus in the message, preaching religious platitudes and social graces. Finally, one could only read we, and the church also just became another social gathering place, all about we and not about God.

d. The Jews regarded Christ crucified as a stumbling block; perhaps this is better understood as an offense or a scandal. The Greeks regarded Christ crucified as foolishness. But God did not respond to the polling data. He kept to His gospel, because for those who believed it (both Jews and Greeks), Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

i. If the cross and its message seem weak, they are not; they are powerful and wise. But our expectations of what God should do keep us from receiving that power and wisdom.

ii. Paul knew this by experience. He was once scandalized by a crucified Christ; it infuriated him that one obviously cursed by God (according to Deuteronomy 21:23) should be honored as Messiah and Lord. So, he persecuted the church before being confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9).

iii. As much as Paul was once offended by a crucified Messiah, so the Greeks thought a message of salvation through a humiliating instrument of death foolish. A well know piece of graffiti in Rome shows a worshipper standing next to a crucified figure with the body of a man and the head of an ass, and it says "Alexamenos worships his god." This is how foolish the Greeks saw the cross.

iv. Those who insist that we must change the emphasis of the gospel because people can't relate to it today must realize that the people of Paul's day couldn't relate to his preaching either, yet he kept it up, and with great results.

v. "Those who thus veil an unwelcome truth imagine that they make disciples, whereas they are only paying homage to unbelief, and comforting men in their rejection of divine propitiation for sin. Whatever the preacher may mean in his heart, he will be guilty of the blood of souls if he does not clearly proclaim a real sacrifice for sin." (Spurgeon)

vi. "Certain divines tell us that they must adapt truth to the advance of the age, which means that they must murder it and fling its dead body to the dogs … which simply means that a popular lie shall take the place of an offensive truth." (Spurgeon)

e. The foolishness of God is wiser than men: God was at His most "foolish" and very "weakest" at the cross; but it was infinitely wiser and stronger than anything man could do.

f. Salvation is not the achievement of human wisdom; it is the embrace of God's dramatic, unexpected act of love at Calvary.

4. (26-29) God's "foolish wisdom" is also displayed by whom He has chosen for salvation.

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

a. You see your calling, brethren: Paul says to the Corinthians, "Look at yourselves. You're no great bargain." There were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble among the Christians at Corinth.

i. Lady Huntington, the rich and influential friend of Whitfield and Wesley, said she was going to heaven by an "m": it isn't any noble that are called; instead it is not many noble.

b. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world: Looking again at the Corinthians, Paul can say "you aren't wise according to the world, you aren't mighty, you aren't noble - but you are among the foolish things of the world."

i. No doubt, many of the Corinthian Christians were beginning to think of themselves in high terms because of God's work in them. Paul will not allow this. They have not been chosen because they are so great, but because God is so great.

c. To put to shame the wise: This explains part of the pleasure of God described in 1 Corinthians 1:21. God loves to rebuke the idolatry of human wisdom, and He often does it by choosing and using the foolish things of the world.

i. God isn't saying that it is better to be foolish or uneducated. Rather, He is saying that the world's wisdom and education does not bring us salvation in Jesus Christ. "In putting the strong and wise and great to shame, God does not exalt the weak and uneducated and worthless, but brings all of them down to one common level." (Calvin)

ii. God has called the weak and ignorant first, but not exclusively; shepherds first, then wise men; fishermen first, then the educated (like Paul, who was himself an educated man).

iii. "The ancient Christians were for the most part slaves and men of low station; the whole history of the expansion of the church is in reality a progressive victory of the ignorant over the learned, the lowly over the lofty, until the emperor himself laid down his crown before the cross of Christ." (Alford, quoting Olshausen)

d. The end result is plain: That no flesh should glory in His presence. No one will stand before God and declare, "I figured You out" or "You did it just like I thought You should." God's ways are greater and higher, and nothing of the flesh will glory in His presence.

5. (30-31) True wisdom belongs to the believing.

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God; and righteousness and sanctification and redemption; that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the LORD."

a. Jesus, who became for us wisdom: Jesus perfectly shows us, in His teaching and life, God's wisdom. This wisdom is often in contradiction to man's expectation.

i. True wisdom doesn't have to do with "getting smart"; God's wisdom is received in and through the person of Jesus.

b. Jesus is not only wisdom for us; He is also righteousness and sanctification and redemption. In His work, He communicates three things to those who are in Christ Jesus.

i. Righteousness means that we are legally declared not only "not guilty," but to have a positive righteousness. It means that the righteous deeds and character of Jesus are accounted to us. We don't become righteous by focusing on ourselves, because Jesus became for us … righteousness!

ii. Sanctification speaks of our behavior, and how the believers is to be separate from the world and unto God. We don't grow in sanctification by focusing on ourselves, but on Jesus, because Jesus became for us … sanctification!

iii. Redemption is a word from the slave trade. The idea is that we have been purchased to permanent freedom. We don't find freedom by focusing on ourselves, because Jesus became for us … redemption!

c. He who glories, let him glory in the LORD: Paul uses this reference to Jeremiah 9:23-24 to show that God did it all this way so that God would get the glory. The path for God's glory is Christ crucified; the evidence of God's glory is His choice of the lowly.

 

1 Corinthians 2

Real Wisdom from God
A. Paul's reliance on God's wisdom.

1. (1-4) How Paul preached to the Corinthians.

And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

a. When I came to you: Paul's arrival in Corinth is described in Acts 18. He came and met a Christian couple named Aquila and Priscilla, who were tentmakers by trade, like Paul. He ministered in Corinth for more than a year and a half, supporting himself by tent making.

b. Did not come with excellence of speech: Paul didn't come as a philosopher or a salesman; he came as a witness (declaring to you the testimony of God).

i. Paul was certainly a man who could reason and debate persuasively, but he didn't use that approach in preaching of gospel. He made a conscious decision (I determined) to put the emphasis on Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul was an ambassador, not a salesman.

ii. In taking this approach, Paul understood he was not catering to what his audience wanted. "Corinth put a premium on the veneer of false rhetoric and thin thinking" (Barclay). He already knew the Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:22), but he does not seem to care. He will preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

iii. If a preacher is not careful, he will get in the way of the gospel instead of being a servant of the gospel. They can obscure Jesus by their preaching, either in the presentation or the message. Like the little girl, who when a smaller man was guest speaking could finally see the stained glass window of Jesus behind the pulpit said, "Where's the man who usually stands there so we can't see Jesus?"

c. Not to know anything "does not mean that he left all other knowledge aside, but rather that he had the gospel, with its crucified Messiah, as his singular focus and passion while he was among them." (Fee)

d. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling: Paul was not brimming with self-confidence. Knowing the need and his own limitations made him weak and afraid. Yet it kept him from the poison of self-reliance, all let God's strength flow.

i. Vincent says the implication of verse three is that his condition grew out of the circumstances in which he found himself in Corinth. Paul's weakness, fear, and trembling could have been the result of an illness he suffered under while in Corinth, or some (like Calvin) believe it was because of the threat of persecution.

ii. Whatever the exact cause, "So great was his sense of weakness and fear, and so profound his lack of trust in himself that he quaked, he trembled. Those are the secrets of strength in all preaching." (Morgan)

e. Not with persuasive words: Paul is not rejecting preaching, even persuasive preaching (his sermon before Agrippa in Acts 26 is a remarkable example of persuasive preaching). Paul is rejecting any reliance on the preacher's ability to persuade with human wisdom.

i. "It is ours to speak the truth boldly, and in every case we shall be a sweet savour unto God; but to temporise in the hope of making converts is to do evil that good may come, and this is never to be thought of for an instant." (Spurgeon)

f. But in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: Paul knew it is the preacher's job to preach; it is the Holy Spirit's job to demonstrate. Paul's preaching may not have been impressive or persuasive on a human level, but on a spiritual level it had power.

2. (5) The reason for reliance on the Spirit instead of human wisdom.

That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

a. Preaching strategies centered around the wisdom of men - around emotion, entertainment and human personality - may yield response, but not results for the kingdom of God.

i. Many people use slick, entertaining, or even deceptive means to "lure" people into the church, and justify it by saying, "we're drawing them in and then winning them to Jesus." But the principle stands: with you draw them with is what you draw them to.

b. If someone's faith is in the wisdom of men, and not the power of God; if someone can be persuaded into the kingdom by human wisdom, they can be persuaded out of the kingdom by human wisdom also.

B. Paul preaches real wisdom, not the wisdom of men.

1. (6-8) God's wisdom is not recognized by this age.

However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

a. However, we speak wisdom: Just because Paul would not cater to the Corinthian love of human wisdom does not mean that his message had no wisdom; in fact, there is a vast wealth of wisdom sealed off to everyone except the Christian.

b. Among those who are mature: Who are the mature Paul could speak this wisdom to? Some think the line is drawn between saved and unsaved; others between mature and immature believers.

i. Paul does use the word mature for mature believers in passages like Ephesians 4:13, 1 Corinthians 14:20, and Philippians 3:15. An immature person (such as a baby) doesn't have the discernment to know what is good to eat and what isn't. A baby will stick anything into its mouth.

c. The mature recognize God's wisdom, but the rulers of this age do not. Are the rulers of this age men or demonic powers?

i. This debate goes all the way back to the time of Origen and Chrysostom. On the surface, it seems clear that the rulers of this age must refer to human rulers, because only they didn't know what they were doing when they incited the crucifixion of Jesus. "Paul habitually ascribes power to the demonic forces, but not ignorance." (Morris)

ii. However, one could say that demonic powers were ignorant of what would result from the crucifixion of Jesus - the disarming and defeat of demonic powers (Colossians 2:15) - and had they known they were sealing their own doom by inciting the crucifixion, they would not have done it.

iii. No matter who exactly the rulers of this age are, their defeat is certain: who are coming to nothing. Their day is over and the day of Jesus Christ is here!

d. Why did the rulers of this age fail to recognize God's wisdom? Because it came in a mystery; a "sacred secret" that could only be known by revelation. It is the hidden wisdom that is now revealed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which Paul preaches.

e. Lord of glory: Some scholars consider the Lord of glory the loftiest title Paul ever gave to Jesus. It is certain proof that Paul regarded Jesus as God, the Second Person of the Trinity. It is inconceivable that Paul would give us a title to any lesser being.

2. (9-11) God's wisdom is known only by the Holy Spirit.

But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

a. As it is written: Properly speaking, this is not a strict quotation from the Scriptures. Paul is paraphrasing Isaiah 64:4 to remind us that God's wisdom and plan is past our finding out on our own.

i. "As it is written is not, in this case, the form of quotation, but is rather equivalent to saying, 'To use the language of Scripture.'" (Hodge)

b. Eye has not seen: Most people wrongly take the things which God has prepared for those who love Him to mean the things which are waiting for us in heaven. While it is true that we cannot comprehend the greatness of heaven, that isn't what Paul means here, because verse 10 tells us God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. This glorious thing is has been revealed by the gospel.

i. "These words have been applied to the state of glory in a future world; but certainly they belong to the present state, and express merely the wondrous light, life, and liberty which the Gospel communicates to them that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in that way which the Gospel itself requires." (Clarke)

ii. Paul is communicating much the same message as Ephesians 3:1-7, where he writes about the mystery of the church, and how the church in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets. (Ephesians 3:5)

iii. Before the life and ministry of Jesus, God's people had a vague understanding of the glory of His work and what it would do for His people. But they really didn't - they couldn't - fully understand it ahead of time.

c. Through His Spirit reminds Paul that only the Holy Spirit can tell us about God and His wisdom. This knowledge is unattainable by human wisdom or investigation.

i. No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God: Paul argues from the Greek philosophic premise that like is known only by like. You can guess what your dog is thinking, but you really can't know unless he was to tell you. Even so, we could guess what God is thinking, and about His wisdom, but we would never know unless He told us.

e. Yes, the deep things of God: In their love of human wisdom, the Corinthians proudly thought Paul was just dealing in "just basics" like the gospel. Paul insists that his message gets to the heart of the deep things of God.

3. (12-13) How we can receive this wisdom.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

a. That we might know: This wisdom comes by the Spirit who is from God, not from the spirit of this world. Since every believer has received … the Spirit who is from God, every believer has the access to this spiritual wisdom.

i. This does not mean every believer has equal spiritual wisdom. And it does not mean we will understand all spiritual mysteries. It does mean every believer can understand the basics of the Christian message, which is unattainable (and undesirable) by human wisdom.

b. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual: Christians combine spiritual things with spiritual words; they use words and concepts taught only by the Holy Spirit.

i. Or, Paul may be speaking of the way only a spiritual man can receive spiritual things. "The passage therefore should be thus translated: Explaining spiritual things to spiritual persons." (Clarke)

4. (14-16) The natural man and the spiritual man.

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

a. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God: The Greek word for natural man is psuchikos. It describes the materialist, who lives as if there were nothing beyond this physical life. This is the kind of life common to all animals.

i. The natural man is where we all start life; the life inherited from Adam. The natural man is unregenerate man, unsaved man.

ii. We have to deal with the material world, so there is nothing inherently sinful in "natural" life. God is not displeased when you have to eat and sleep and work. But life on this level is without spiritual insight; the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.

iii. Spiritual things seem foolishness to the natural man. Why waste time on "spiritual" things when you could be making money or having fun?

b. The natural man doesn't want the things of God because he regards them as foolishness. What is more, he can't understand the things of God (even if he wanted to) because they are spiritually discerned. It would be wrong to expect the natural man to see and value spiritual things, just as it would be wrong to expect a corpse to see the material world.

i. The natural man is unsaved. Too many Christians still think like natural men, refusing to spiritually discern things. When our only concern is for "what works" or the "bottom line," we are not spiritually discerning, and we are thinking like the natural man, even though we might be saved.

c. He who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one: Paul is not saying that every Christian is above every criticism (after all, much of this letter is criticism). The point is clear: no natural man is equipped to judge a spiritual man.

d. Who has known the mind of the LORD: Isaiah 40:13 refers to the mind of Yahweh (translated here as LORD); but Paul has no trouble inserting mind of Christ for mind of the LORD, because Jesus is Yahweh!

 

1 Corinthians 3

Carnal Christians and Godly Ministers
A. Carnality in the Corinthian church.

1. (1) Paul confronts their condition.

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.

a. These people are part of the family of God (he calls them brethren), and that is the problem. Though they have the Holy Spirit (unlike the natural man of 1 Corinthians 2:14) they are not behaving like spiritual people, but like carnal - that is, fleshly-people, like immature Christians (babes in Christ).

i. There is a significant debate as if there can be such a thing as a carnal Christian. Some say it is a contradiction in terms, that Paul is really saying that these carnal ones are not Christians at all. Yet he clearly calls them brethren, and says they babes in Christ. How could these terms be used of someone who is not a Christian?

ii. These Christians, to some extent, are thinking and acting according to the flesh, not the Spirit. Of course, the flesh does not dominate every aspect of their life, or they would then have no evidence of being born again. But Paul is addressing issues where they clearly are thinking and acting in a carnal - that is, fleshly - manner.

iii. "The carnal Christian is a child of God, born again and on his way to heaven, but he is traveling third class." (Redpath) Romans 7 is a portrait of the carnal Christian; indwelt by the Spirit, but mastered by the flesh.

b. There is a difference between being fleshy (sarkinos, used in 2 Corinthians 3:3) and being fleshly (the Greek word sarkikos, used here in this passage).

i. Fleshy is simply "made of flesh"; it can speak of the weakness that is common to every fallen human.

ii. Fleshly, when used of a person, means "characterized by the flesh." It speaks of the one who can and should do differently but does not. Paul says that the Corinthians weresarkikos.

c. Paul has spoken to us about three categories of men. There is the natural man (1 Corinthians 2:14), who is patterned after Adam and rejects the things of the Spirit. There is the spiritual man (1 Corinthians 2:15), who knows the things of God. And there is the carnal man who knows the things of God, yet in some significant ways is still characterized by the flesh. Which one are you?

2. (2) How Paul treated carnal believers.

I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able.

a. I fed you with milk: Paul kept his teaching on the basics, even though they had an inflated view of their spirituality. They believed they were ready for the "deeper things," but were not living any deeper in the basic things he had already preached to them!

b. The difference between milk and solid food is one of degrees, not kind. Every doctrine that can be taught in seminary can be taught to children, though not in the same words.

i. There are not two gospels, one for the learned and one for the unlearned; there is no part of the gospel that we are authorized to keep back from the people.

c. You were not able to receive it: It wasn't that God was preventing the Corinthians from receiving the solid food Paul had to give them. The real problem was the Corinthian attraction to spiritual "junk food," based on man's wisdom and eloquence. They were so "filled" with this junk food that they were not able to receive the spiritual solid food Paul wanted to give them.

i. Some "spiritual junk food Christians" are greatly blessed when they get a spiritual meal of solid food. But others, when presented with solid food, are not able to receive it, because their spiritual "taste buds" are so conditioned to junk food, that is all they have a taste for.

3. (3-4) Evidence of their carnality.

For you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not carnal?

a. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal: The Corinthian Christians thought of themselves as spiritual, but their divisions show that they are in fact fleshly.

i. The problems they had in human relationships showed there was something wrong in their relationship with God. It was evidence of carnality, of a fleshly way of thinking and living.

ii. Divisions, envy and strife in a body are not the only signs of fleshiness, but they are the ones most evident among the Corinthians.

b. Are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? Paul did not say that they were mere men (that is, not saved), only that they were behaving like mere men. Christians have a higher call than living like the rest of humanity!

i. "Spiritual people are to walk in the Spirit. If they do otherwise, they are "worldly" and are called upon to desist. Remaining worldly is not one of the options." (Fee)

c. When one says, "I am of Paul," … are you not carnal? We might have thought that Paul would be more kind to his own "fan club." Instead of letting their praise stroke his flesh, Paul denounced even his own partisans.

B. How to regard leaders in the church.

1. (5-7) The foolishness of exalting church leaders.

Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

a. Who then is Paul? Paul and Apollos are not the ones you believed on for salvation; they only brought Jesus to you. They are through whom you believed, not on whom you believed.

i. "So what was the use of fighting which of two nothings was the greater?" (Maclaren)

b. I planted, Apollos watered: Christian workers have different jobs, and see different results. But God is the one who gets the work done; God … gives the increase.

i. When a farmer plants a seed, and waters it, he really does not make it grow. The miracle of life does that. All the farmer can do is provide the right environment for growth, and trust in the miracle of life. We do the same thing in ministering Jesus to other people.

ii. Some people are frustrated because they want to water when God has called them to plant, or they want to plant when God has called them to water. Others are frustrated because they want to make the increase happen, when only God can do that. Real fruitfulness in ministry happens when we are peacefully content with what God has called us to do.

c. Planted and watered are in the ancient Greek aorist tense, marking definite acts in the past; gives the increase is in the imperfect tense, marking the continued work of God.

2. (8-9) Christian workers work together, but are rewarded according to their own labor.

Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building.

a. He who plants and he who waters are one: In combating the Corinthian desire to divide among leaders, Paul reminds them they are all on the same team.

i. How silly to say, "Planting is what is really important. Those waterers are really missing the boat." Or to think, "Watering is where it's at. Those planters better get their priorities straight." The fact is planters and waterers are both necessary, both need each other, and both are working towards the same goal.

b. Each one will receive his own reward: All work together, but each is rewarded individually. Reward is not given according to gifts, talents, or even success, but according to their own labor.

i. God knows how to reward properly. On earth, many ministers either receive too much or too little reward.

ii. "The faithful, laborious minister or missionary who labours in obscurity and without apparent fruit, will meet a reward far beyond that of those who, with less self-denial and effort, are made the instruments of great results." (Hodge)

iii. Young preachers used to ask G. Campbell Morgan the secret to his preaching success. He would answer: "I always say to them the same thing: work; hard work; and again, work!"

c. We are God's fellow workers: God has given us the amazing opportunity to work with Him. We cannot work without Him, and He will not work without us (generally speaking). God wants you as His working partner!

i. When you consider all the ways God could have done His work, it is even more amazing to know He wants our participation.

d. You are God's field, you are God's building: The work Paul did with God was to work "on" God's people. They were his "field" (using the picture of a farmer planting and watering), and they were his "building" (using the picture of a builder).

3. (10-15) The church as a building.

According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

a. According to the grace of God: In describing Paul's work among the Corinthians, he begins with a declaration of grace. He knew that his status as a worker in God's field, or on God's building, was based on God's undeserved favor, not on his own deserving or merit.

i. It is an exalted thing to be a fellow worker with God. But God doesn't choose exalted people to do His work. It isn't anything in them that makes them worthy to be His worker, it is according to the grace of God.

b. I have laid the foundation: When Paul founded the church in Corinth (Acts 18), he set the only foundation that can be laid: the person and work of Jesus Christ. Yet he knew that others would come after him and build on the foundation he set.

i. So, let each one take heed how he builds on it. There is only one foundation for the church. If it isn't founded on Jesus Christ, it isn't a church at all. So one can't build on any other foundation; but one can build unworthily on the one foundation.

c. God will test the building work of all His fellow workers, each one's work will become manifest. So some build with precious things like gold, silver, precious stones; others build with unworthy materials like wood, hay, and straw.

i. By using the figures of gold, silver, andprecious stones, Paul seems to have in mind the temple building materials (1 Chronicles 22:14, 16; 29:2). The "building" God is constructing in His people, with His fellow workers is His "temple."

ii. Precious stones doesn't mean jewels, but fine stone materials like marble and granite. Mixing the wisdom of men with the wisdom of God in the work of building the church is like using alternate layers of straw and marble in building. Straw may be fine, it may have a place (in the barn), but it is an inadequate building material. In the same way, human wisdom and fleshly attractions may have a place in life, but not in the building of the church.

d. The fire will test each one's work: When our work is tested by God, it will be revealed what kind of work it was. Just as fire will destroy wood, hay, and straw, but not gold, silver, and precious stones, so the work of some will be revealed as nothing on that Day.

i. Notice that the amount of the work isn't going to be evaluated (though it does have some relevance). Paul says the work will be tested to see what sort it is. If one did a lot of the wrong sort of work, it will be as if he did nothing. His work will be burned and will vanish in eternity. D.L. Moody wisely said that converts ought to be weighed as well as counted.

ii. Paul also referred to this great testing in 2 Corinthians 5:10: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. When our work is tested before the Lord, we will be rewarded according to what remains.

iii. It is a sobering thought: many, many people who believe they are serving God, but are doing it in an unworthy manner or with unworthy "materials" will come to find in eternity that they have, in reality, done nothing for the Lord. Some will be saved, but with a life that was wasted, and receive no crown to give to Jesus, for His glory (as in Revelation 4:10-11). He himself will be saved, yet so as through the fire: Saved, but barely saved, and saved with everything gone.

e. If anyone's work: The fire does not purify the worker, it tests their workmanship. Roman Catholics use this passage to teach purgatory, the idea that when we die, we go to a place where we are purified by fire before we go to heaven. The idea of purgatory has nothing to do with this passage, and nothing to do with any other passage in the Bible. Purgatory is strictly a human invention, and denies the finished work of Jesus for the believer.

f. This passage has first application to Christian leaders, because this is Paul's topic in context. But the application extends to all of our service for God.

4. (16-17) The church as a temple.

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

a. You are the temple of God: Paul will later (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) speak as individual Christians being temples. Here his emphasis is on the church as a whole (though it has application to individuals).

i. When Paul calls the church a temple, don't think he is using a picture. The physical temple was the picture; God's dwelling in us is the reality.

b. What makes the church a temple? The Spirit of God dwells in you. The word used for temple (naos) refers to the actual sanctuary, the place of the deity's dwelling, in contrast to the broader word hieron, which was the temple area in general.

c. If anyone defiles the temple of God: If you defile the church, God will destroy you. God's temple - His church - is holy, and it matters to God how we treat His holy temple.

C. How to glorify God.

1. (18-20) Glorify Him by pursuing real wisdom.

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their own craftiness"; and again, "The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile."

a. If anyone among you seems to be wise: Paul is being a little sarcastic here. Of course the Corinthians considered themselves wise in this age! That was one of their problems, their love of worldly wisdom.

b. What is one to do if they are wise in this age? If they are wise according to a human measure of wisdom? They are to become a fool that he may become wise.

i. Paul asks them to renounce all worldly wisdom, all humanism (man centered philosophy), even if it means being called a fool. If one is not willing to be considered a fool by those who value only human wisdom, they will never be able to truly become wise.

c. God has evaluated the wisdom of this world, and He considers it foolishness, craftiness, and futile. Will we agree with God's evaluation, or not?

2. (21-23) Glorify God by seeing His servants in the right perspective.

Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come; all are yours. And you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

a. Let no one glory in men: How prone we are to glory in men! We are more excited about being with the influential and famous of this world than about being with God. We value the gifts and honors of men more than the gifts and honors God gives. How we need to hear, let no one glory in men!

b. For all things are yours: To say I am of Paul or I am of Apollos is to have a view that is too narrow, too constricted. Both Paul and Apollos belong to you; the whole universe is yours in Christ.

i. Why, even death is "ours"; it is our servant, not our master! Death may be to us as the angel who touched Peter in Acts 12, causing his chains to fall off, and leading him through a gate that opens by itself, into real freedom.

c. All are yours: This is Christian liberty. And you are Christ's: This is Christian responsibility.

 

1 Corinthians 4

Are You Glorified Without Us?
A. How the Corinthians should consider Paul and the apostles.

1. (1-2) Servants and stewards.

Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.

a. Let a man so consider us : Paul asks that he, and the other apostles (us) be regarded by the Corinthians as servants. Paul had a real problem with the Corinthians; they tended to look down on him and not respect his apostolic authority. In carefully chosen words, Paul will show the Corinthians how to have a proper regard - not too exalted, and not too low - of himself and the other apostles.

b. There are several different words in the language of the New Testament to describe a servant. Here, Paul uses the word hyperetas, which describes a subordinate servant functioning as a free man. He does not use the more common New Testament word for a servant (doulos) which designated a common slave.

i. The word hyperetas literally means an "under-rower," in the sense that someone is a rower on a big galley ship. So, though it is not the most lowly word for a servant, it certainly not a prestigious position. Under-rowers serve "Christ the master-pilot, helping forward the ship of the Church toward the haven of heaven." (Trapp)

ii. Morgan describes this "under-rower" as "one who acts under direction, and asks no questions, one who does the thing he is appointed to do without hesitation, and one who reports only to the One Who is over him."

c. And stewards: In addition to a servant, Paul asks to be considered as a steward, who was the manager of a household.

i. In relation to the master of the house, the steward was a slave, but in relation to the other slaves, the steward was a master.

ii. "The steward … was the master's deputy in regulating the concerns of the family, providing food for the household, seeing it served out at proper times and seasons, and in proper quantities. He received all the cash, expended what was necessary for the support of the family, and kept exact accounts, for which he was obliged at certain times to lay before the master." (Clarke)

d. And stewards of the mysteries of God: What did Paul and the other apostles "manage" in the household of God? Among other things, they were stewards of the mysteries of God. They "managed" (in the sense of preserving and protecting) and "dispensed" (in the sense of distributing) the truth of God.

i. Whenever Paul would hear criticism of his style or manner, he could simply ask "Did I give you the truth?" As a good steward, that's all he really cared about.

e. It is required in servants that one be found faithful: For stewards, the important thing was faithfulness. They had to be efficient managers of the master's resources. A steward never owned the property or resource he dealt with; he simply managed them for his master and had to manage them faithfully.

2. (3-5) Being God's servants, we answer only to Him.

But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one's praise will come from God.

a. It is a very small thing that I should be judged by you: Paul insists that their (low) estimation of him really matters little; it is what God judges that is important (he who judges me is the Lord).

i. Can, or should, every Christian today have the same attitude? Should we have no or little regard for what other Christians think about us, and just say he who judges me is the Lord? We can only say this, in the full sense that Paul means it, if we are apostles. If the Corinthians were to claim that Paul could not judge them, and that they would simply wait for God's judgment, Paul would remind them that he is a father to them, and has the right to correct their behavior.

b. In fact, I do not even judge myself: Even our estimation of our self is usually wrong. We are almost always too hard or too easy on ourselves. Paul recognizes this, and so will suspend judgment even upon himself. In the end, he who judges me is the Lord.

c. For I know nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this: Paul also recognizes that he does not stand in a perfect state of justification or innocence just because his conscience was clear. Paul knew his righteousness came from Jesus, not from his own personal life - even though he had a godly walk.

d. Therefore judge nothing before the time: It is as if Paul were saying, "You Corinthians act like judges at athletic events, qualified to give some the trophy and to send others away as losers. But Jesus is the only judge, and you are judging before the events are over."

e. Who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of men's hearts: When Jesus judges, it will be according to the motives of the heart, not only the outward action. This is another reason why human judgment is often wrong, and why Paul feels free to disregard the harsh judgment of the Corinthian Christians towards himself.

f. Each one's praise will come from God: Paul knew he had little praise from the Corinthian Christians, but that did not concern him. He knew there was a day coming when our praise will come from God, not from man.

B. A sarcastic rebuke of Corinthian pride.

1. (6) The broader application of Paul's words.

Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other.

a. I have figuratively transferred: In the first few verses of this chapter, Paul spoken of the apostles being servants and stewards. He does not mean this in a literal way, but in a figurative way, so the Corinthian Christians would learn a more proper way to see the apostles.

b. That you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written: Paul hopes his writing will help the Corinthian Christians learn to keep their thinking Biblically, and to not use standards beyond the Word of God to judge him or the other apostles.

i. Many people today evaluate a pastor or a minister on unbiblical standards. They judge him on the basis of his humor, or entertainment value, his appearance, or his skill at marketing and sales. But this is to think beyond what is written in the sense Paul means it here.

ii. In a broader sense, it is an important lesson: not to think beyond what is written; we must take our every cue from Scripture. It used to be that something was considered Biblical if it came from the Bible; today, people say things are "Biblical" if can't find a verse which specifically condemns it. This is to think beyond what is written.

c. That none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other: When the Corinthian Christians were using unbiblical standards to judge the apostles, they could easily like one and detest another based on bad standards. But if they would learn to not think beyond what is written, they wouldn't have the proud taking of sides behind certain apostles (as in 1 Corinthians 3:4).

2. (7) Three questions to humble the proud.

For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

a. The puffed up state of the Corinthian Christians meant there was a pride problem. Though the pride was evident in the cliques around the different apostles, the cliques weren't the problem as much as pride was the problem. Paul addresses their proud hearts with three questions.

b. Who makes you to differ from another? If there is a difference between us, it is because of what God has done in us. So, there is no reason for pride.

c. And what do you have that you did not receive? Everything we have has come from God, so there is no reason for pride.

d. Why do you glory as if you had not received it? If what you have spiritually is a gift from God, why do you glory in it as if it were your own accomplishment? There is no reason for this self-glorying pride.

e. These three questions should prompt other questions in my heart: do I truly I give God the credit for my salvation? Do I live with a spirit of humble gratitude? Seeing that I have received from God, what can I give to Him?

i. Augustine used this text often in proclaiming the total depravity of man against the Pelagians. He knew that it taught there is nothing good in us except what we have received from God.

3. (8-13) Paul's sarcastic rebuke.

You are already full! You are already rich! You have reigned as kings without us; and indeed I could wish you did reign, that we also might reign with you! For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.

a. You are already full! You are already rich! You have reigned as kings without us: "My, you Corinthians seem to have it all! Isn't it funny that we apostles have nothing!"

i. Though Paul is using strong sarcasm, his purpose isn't to make fun of the Corinthian Christians. His purpose is to shake them out of their proud self-willed thinking. "He was laughing at them with holy laughter, and yet with utter contempt for what they had been doing." (Morgan)

b. Indeed I could wish you did reign: Wouldn't it be great if they really were reigning already? Then Paul also might reign with you!

c. God has displayed us: Instead of being full, and rich, and reigning as royalty, the apostles were on display in a humiliating spectacle to the world. The Corinthian Christians looked at themselves so highly, while God has displayed the apostles so low!

i. The image of verse 9 is either from the coliseum, or the parade of a conquering Roman general, where he displayed his armies first, the booty second, and at the end of the procession, the defeated captives who would be condemned to die in the arena. And, just as before going into the arena, the gladiators would say, morituri salutamus ("we who will die salute you"), so Paul now salutes the Corinthian Christians!

ii. The word spectacle is theatron, from which we get our word "theater." When Paul says we have been made a spectacle to the world, he is speaking of how the apostles have been publicly humiliated. This kind of humiliation was the greatest horror to the pride of the Corinthian Christians.

iii. The Corinthian Christians had two problems: they were proud of their own spirituality, and they were somewhat embarrassed of Paul because of his "weakness" and humble state. Paul is trying to address both of these problems!

d. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ! With contrast after contrast, Paul sarcastically shows how foolish it is for the Corinthians to think that they are more spiritually privileged, or blessed, or endowed, than the apostles were.

e. We both hunger and thirst: Paul's description of his own ministry focuses on deprivation and humiliation. These were things that the Corinthian Christians, in their pride, wanted to avoid at all cost.

i. Today, the church is heavy with this same attitude of the Corinthian Christians. They were concerned about the image of worldly success and power, and many of them despised Paul and the other apostles because they did not display that image. Today, there is no shortage of ministers who want to display the image of worldly success and power, and no shortage of Christians who will value that in their minister.

f. And we labor, working with our own hands: The Corinthians, in their love of Greek wisdom, embraced the Greek idea that manual labor was fit only for slaves. It would offend them that one of God's apostles would actually work with his own hands!

g. Being defamed, we entreat: Paul is saying that when they were slandered, the apostles would reach out in kindness to the one who spoke against them. This also was offensive to the Greek ideal; they thought a man was a wimp if he didn't fight back when slandered.

h. The offscouring of all things: Some ancient Greeks had a custom of casting certain worthless people into the sea during a time of plague or famine, while saying "Be our offscouring!" The victims were called "scrapings" in the belief that they would wipe away the communities' guilt.

i. So Paul may have a double meaning here when using the words filth and offscouring; he may be mean he is both despised and a sacrifice on their behalf.

i. It's a little embarrassing to read Paul's description of his ministry while working on a nice computer and surround by several hundred books. And especially, knowing how much I'd like to have the respect and admiration of the world.

i. After all, think of Paul's resume: bounced from church to church, run out of many towns, accused of starting riots, rarely supported by the ministry, arrested and imprisoned several times--who wants to hire him?

ii. Our problem is we often want a middle road; a little popularity, a little reputation, but still the anointing of God. We want the power without the cost. God help us to choose Paul's way!

C. Paul's warning and a challenge.

1. (14-17) Paul asserts his right to correct as a father.

I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore I urge you, imitate me. For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.

a. Shame you … warn you: With his biting sarcasm, Paul knows the Corinthian Christians might be pretty ashamed. He wants them to know his purpose hasn't been to make them feel ashamed, but to warn them of a significant spiritual danger: pride.

b. You might have ten thousand instructors: The instructor was a paidagogoi, a guardian or "slave-guide," who escorted the boys to and from school, and who supervised their general conduct.

c. The instructor did have legitimate authority, but certainly not like a father. Paul had a unique place of authority and leadership among the Corinthian Christians, not only because he fathered the church itself in Corinth (I have begotten you through the gospel), but also because of his apostolic authority.

i. We don't have apostolic authority like this. Leading someone to Christ does not give you special authority over their lives, but it does give you a special relationship.

c. I urge you, imitate me: The first reaction of many of the Corinthian Christians would probably be horror. "Imitate you, Paul? You are regarded as a fool, as weak, as dishonored; you are hungry and thirsty and poorly clothed, homeless and beaten; you work hard to support yourself with manual labor. People look at you and see filth and the offscouring of all things. And you want us to imitate you?"

i. Paul might reply, "Yes, imitate me. Not because of all these difficulties, but despite them, and often because of them, the glory and power of Jesus Christ shines through me."

ii. Because they didn't have printing back then, Paul couldn't just hand out Bibles. People had to learn the gospel by watching his life. Maybe that wasn't so bad after all!

d. I have sent Timothy: Timothy seemed to be Paul's chief "trouble shooter," often being sent to problem churches.

2. (18-21) How do you want me to come to you?

Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills, and I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power. What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?

a. Some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you: Some Corinthian Christians were so arrogant as to think that Paul was afraid to visit them. When they thought Paul was afraid of them, it made them all the more proud in their hearts.

b. Not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power: Those among the Corinthian Christians who loved high sounding words and the image of success had their words, but Paul had the true power of the gospel. The final test of wisdom is power; the Word of the Cross not only has the power to mentally illumine, but also to morally save.

i. Essentially, Paul threatens to pop the bubble of these puffed up gas-bags.

c. What do you want? Paul leaves the ball in their court. Which Paul did they want to come? The Paul with the rod of correction (used by shepherds to smack disobedient sheep), or the Paul with the spirit of gentleness? There is no doubt Paul would prefer to come in gentleness, but he'll leave that decision up to the Corinthians!

i. Paul is facing some of the real challenges of ministry; how to confront sin without being too harsh, or implying that you are above sin; how to get people to conform their lives to the gospel when they think too highly of themselves. This is tough work in a heart to do, and only a great work by the Holy Spirit can accomplish it!

 

1 Corinthians 5

Below are some preliminary questions to assist in the study of this passage. For a comprehensive study of the passage, download the Study Guide (PDF download).

1. Concerning what sinful conduct does the apostle Paul confront the Corinthians in verse 1 (printed below?)
It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and the kind of fornication that does not even exist among the Gentiles, namely, that someone has his father’s wife. (1 Corinthians 5:1)
In verse 1 the apostle Paul confronts these Corinthian Christians with the fact that he has received the report of immorality being practiced in their midst. Literally, he writes, “it is generally heard;” i.e., it is a matter of public knowledge, everyone is aware of the immoral conduct being practiced by one of the members of the church—the whole community knows about it. Indeed, here was a form of immoral conduct not even practiced among the Gentiles: a certain man “has his father’s wife” (i.e.; he was living in an adulterous relationship with his stepmother). Here was a scandalous blot on the reputation and the witness of Christ’s church, the church that is called to be holy like our Lord.
2. What has been the church’s attitude with regard to this conduct? What should have been their attitude? See verse 2 (printed below)
And you are arrogant! Should you not rather be grieved, so that he who has done this thing might be removed from your fellowship? (1 Corinthians 5:2)
Paul is not only shocked by the immoral conduct of this individual member of the church, he is also appalled by the attitude of the church itself: “you are arrogant!” (verse 2) By tolerating and thereby condoning this immoral conduct and lifestyle, the church was arrogantly holding the law of God in contempt. The apostle explains that the appropriate attitude of the church should have been that of grief: “Should you not rather be grieved…?” There should have been deep sorrow and mourning over the present state of affairs: a grieving that the holy communion of the saints was being violated; and that the honor of Christ was being scandalized; and that the whole purpose of God was being ignored and even defied. Note that Paul expects that the entire church should exhibit a spirit of grief; a spirit of grief that will lead to the necessary action, with the congregation supporting its leaders and expecting them to carry out their responsibility to maintain the purity of Christ’s church.
3. What action has the apostle taken with regard to this matter? What does he call upon the church to do? See verses 3-5 and 13b (printed below)
Though I am not present physically, yet being present by the Spirit, I have already judged him who has done this thing, just as though I were present with you. (4) When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, I exhort you, by the power of our Lord Jesus, (5) to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his sinful nature, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord Jesus…(13) God will judge those who are outside the church. Remove the wicked man from your fellowship. (1 Corinthians 5:3-5,13)
In verses 3-5 the apostle Paul indicates what action he has taken in this present matter—action that the Corinthian church is to carry out. Paul has passed judgment against the offender (there has been a judicial decision based upon the commandments of God). The apostle Paul must render this judgment because the church failed to do so; consequently, this case and the apostle’s judgment becomes a precedent and guideline for future cases. As an apostle of the Lord Jesus, Paul was granted a special ability to spiritually participate in the church’s assembly and render decisions that would set the precedent for the church in the future. This unique spiritual experience and ability granted by Christ to His apostles in this formative stage in the history of the church was no doubt similar in nature to the experience granted by the Lord to the prophet Ezekiel (note Ezekiel 8:1-3).
4. What is the purpose of this disciplinary action with regard to the offender himself? See verse 5 (printed above under question #3)
The offender was to be delivered to Satan. That is to say, the protective covering of God’s grace was removed from the man (this was done by removing his name from the covenant community of the church), allowing him to be exposed to the attacks of the devil in an unprotected state. Up to this point there has been no repentance in the man’s life, thus he is now being given over to the course of life he has adamantly chosen to pursue and is being allowed to face the consequences of his choice. The offender was being delivered unto Satan “for the destruction of his sinful nature:” the awful experience of being released to the clutches of the devil would hopefully have the beneficial effect of producing repentance in the offender. The purpose and the desired goal of this disciplinary action was the final salvation of the offender’s spirit or soul—the hope is that the state of experiencing the tyranny of the devil and being deprived of the blessed presence of the Lord would cause the offender to repent and return to the Lord asking His forgiveness and seeking reconciliation with Him. 2 Corinthians 2:6-8 indicates that in the case of this particular offender the goal of restoration was achieved.
5. Making reference to the unleavened bread of the Old Testament Passover, what command does Paul give the Corinthian church in verses 7-8 (printed below?) What is the meaning behind his symbolic language?
Get rid of the old leaven, so that you may be what you are—a new batch of unleavened dough. Since, indeed, our Passover lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed; (8) let us observe the Feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)
In verses 7c-8 Paul connects this illustration of the unleavened dough to the Passover meal (at which time unleavened bread was eaten), and presents the spiritual significance of that Old Testament sacrament. Paul informs us that our Passover Lamb is Christ, and He has been sacrificed. Therefore, it is now time to partake of the Passover “meal”—that is to say, it is now time to hold spiritual communion with God (the Old Testament Passover meal was eaten immediately after the Passover lamb was slain, and the meal was a spiritual communion between the Lord and His people). How are we to partake of this spiritual “meal;” that is to say, how are we to hold communion with the Lord? We are not to partake of this communion with “the old leaven” (i.e.; there is no place in our new Christian lives for the continued practice of sin, note 1 Peter 4: 3). The only proper and possible way to partake in this sacred spiritual communion with God is with “the unleavened bread of sincerity (or, purity) and truth.” “The old leaven”—the attitude that tolerates sinful conduct and the presence of sin—must be discarded, so that we may become in everyday life what we have become by virtue of being united to Christ by faith; namely, holy unto God.

 

I enjoyed both of these guys, so I decided to share both

1 Corinthians 5 - Confronting Immorality in the Church

A. The problem is addressed.

1. (1) The sin of an unnamed Christian in Corinth.

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles; that a man has his father's wife!

a. The term sexually immorality is the ancient Greek word "porneia." It broadly refers to all types of sexual activity outside of marriage (including homosexuality).

i. Originally, "porneia" just referred to going to prostitutes; but before New Testament times, the Jewish community used the word to refer to any kind of extramarital sex, including homosexuality. This is its sense in the New Testament.

ii. Commentators on the word porneia: "The Scripture by this word comprehends all species of unlawful mixtures." (Poole) It "must be understood in its utmost latitude of meaning, as implying all kinds of impurity." (Clarke)

iii. "Porneia" so often appears first in New Testament "sin lists," but not because the first Christians had a lot of "hang-ups" about sex. Instead, it is because the area of sex was one of the most dramatic places where the ethics of Greek culture clashed with the ethics of Jesus. Sexual immorality was an accepted fact of life for the common person in Greek culture, but it was not to be so among the followers of Jesus.

b. That a man has his father's wife: Apparently, someone was having an on-going sexual relationship (either as married or living together) with his stepmother (his father's wife). The woman involved must not be a Christian, for she isn't even addressed.

i. The verb to have is a euphemism for an enduring sexual relationship, not just a passing fancy or a "one-night stand."

c. And such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles: Paul understood that this kind of incestuous relationship was considered taboo even among the pagans of their culture, yet the Corinthian Christians seem accepting of this behavior.

i. The ancient Roman writer and statesman Cicero said this type of incest was an incredible crime and practically unheard of. Truly, it was not even named among the Gentiles.

ii. It should have been enough that this is declared sin by the Bible (Leviticus 18:8, Deuteronomy 22:30 and 27:20); it should have been enough that the worldly culture itself considered it sin, but the Corinthian Christians didn't seem bothered by it at all.

2. (2) The reaction of the Corinthian church to the sin.

And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.

a. And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned: As bad as the sin itself was, Paul was more concerned that the Corinthian Christians seemed to take the sin lightly, and they were unconcerned (have not rather mourned) about this behavior.

i. Previously in the letter, Paul dealt mainly with the "mental" problems of the Corinthian Christians: their wrong ideas about God's power and work and His servants. Now Paul starts to deal with their "moral" problems. But the two are connected; their moral problems come because they aren't thinking right about God and His world.

b. That he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you: Clearly, this was Paul's solution to the problem - to take this notoriously unrepentant man away from the protection of the fellowship of God's people. Yet, the Corinthian Christians were not doing this. Why not? How could this kind of thing be allowed?

i. Remember that Corinth was a city notorious for sexual immorality, and the pagan religions did not value sexual purity. It wasn't hard for a Corinthian to think you could be religious, yet still act any way you pleased when it came to sex. Greek culture could matter-of-factly say: "Mistresses we keep for the sake of pleasure, concubines for the daily care of the body, but wives to bear us legitimate children."

ii. Wouldn't they know it was wrong through the Old Testament? Though Leviticus 18:8 expressly forbids a man to have sex with his stepmother (The nakedness of your father's wife you shall not uncover), some rabbis, such as Rabbi Akibah, said such a relationship was permissible for a Gentile convert to Judaism, because they were a completely new person, and their old family relationship didn't count at all.

iii. More than anything, the Corinthian Christians probably allowed this in the name of "tolerance." They probably said to themselves, "Look how loving we are. We accept this brother just as he is. Look how open-minded we are!" We should never underestimate what people will allow in the name of "open-mindedness."

c. The Corinthian Christians were proud (you are puffed up) of their acceptance of this man; they thought it said something good about them! But instead of glorying, they should have grieved, both for the man and for what they must do to him (be taken away from among you).

3. (3-5) Paul's prescription.

For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

a. Absent in body but present in spirit: When Paul mentions his spirit being present, he isn't speaking of astral-projection in the early church. He is truly represented in their midst by his letter, which was a valid spiritual extension of his apostolic authority.

i. In other words, Paul didn't have to be there to exercise his authority; distance didn't make him any less an apostle.

ii. Paul pushes his authority hard here (have already judged), but not too much, because he recognizes that it must be done in the name and power of the Lord Jesus (in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ).

b. For I indeed . . . have already judged: Is Paul disobeying what Jesus said in Matthew 7:1-5? After all, "judge not, lest you be judged!"

i. Paul is not being disobedient in the slightest way. Jesus' command in Matthew 7:1-5 forbids hypocritical judgment, and judging others by a standard that we ourselves do not want to be judged by. Paul is perfectly willing to apply the same standards to himself that he is applying to the Corinthian Christians.

ii. Some judgment is permitted, and some is not. "While Christians are not to judge one another's motives or ministries, we are certainly expected to be honest about each other's conduct." (Wiersbe)

c. How could they deliver such a one to Satan? By putting him outside the church, into the world, which is the devil's "domain." The punishment is a removal of spiritual protection and social comfort, not an infliction of evil.

i. God often protects us from the attacks of Satan, even when we never knew about the attacks (Job 1:10 and Luke 22:31-32).

ii. The fact that so many can leave many churches without a second thought shows how weak those churches really are. Shouldn't they be places a person under discipline, put outside the fellowship, would miss? But doesn't it also say something about a Christian if they can willingly neglect the assembling together of the saints - and prefer their isolation?

iii. Paul's command also served the important purpose of removing any false feeling of security the sinning man might have among the fellowship of Christians. They couldn't just ignore his sin, and let him ignore it, pretending it wasn't there. If the man refused to face his sin, the church must face it for him, for his sake and for their sake.

d. The purpose of putting this man outside the spiritual protection and social comfort of the church was the destruction of the flesh, not the body, but his rebellious flesh.

i. This man, though a Christian, was at this time given over to the sins of the flesh. Paul says that as they put him out, the man will be given over to the sinful consequences of his flesh, and the hope is that by wallowing in the results of his sin, the sinful impulse of the flesh in this particular area will be "destroyed."

ii. As Christians, we do continual battle with the flesh, because though the old man is dead, having been crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6), the flesh lives on, having been "educated" in sin by the old man, the devil, and the worldly culture around us. God now calls us, in partnership with Him, to do to the flesh what He did by Himself to the old man: crucify it (Galatians 5:24). Paul hopes that putting this man out of the fellowship of the Corinthian Christians will lead him to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires.

iii. The words deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh were used to justify terrible torture during the Inquisition, but this isn't what Paul means at all. Paul isn't talking about destroying the man's physical body, but addressing the spiritual power of his sinful flesh.

e. That his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus: The goal of the discipline is clear - the salvation, not the destruction, of his spirit. Though this man's conduct was clearly sinful, and needed severe correction, Paul does not write him off as forever lost - the effective use of church discipline may yet see him to salvation.

i. All discipline in the church is to be carried out in this attitude of restoration, not condemnation. As Paul also wrote, And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. (2 Thessalonians 3:14-15)

ii. "Church discipline is not a group of 'pious policemen' out to catch a criminal. Rather, it is a group of brokenhearted brothers and sisters seeking to restore an erring member of the family." (Wiersbe)

f. Paul does not say the church should take away the sinning man's salvation. The church does not grant salvation; it certainly cannot take it away. But there are cases, for the good of the sinner, and for the good of the church, when someone should be put out of the congregation.

i. Some call this "excommunication" or "disfellowshipping" a person. They are to be put outside the congregation until they repent. In today's church culture, this rarely brings a sinner to repentance, because they can so easily just go to another church and pretend that nothing happened at their old church. Or, it is easy for them to play the victim, and act as if their former church was cruel towards them. While it is true that some churches have been cruel towards their members, and have unjustly put some out of the congregation, it does not mean the church should never practice the Biblical principles Paul teaches here. It is to be done, for both the good of the church and the good of the sinner.

g. So, "There was to be a meeting of the church, where Paul, spiritually present, would, in the name of Christ, and in the exercise of the miraculous power with which he was invested, deliver the offender to the power of Satan." (Hodge)

B. The rationale for purity in the church.

1. (6) A little sin influences the entire group.

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

a. Your glorying is not good: Again, the Corinthian Christians were proud and pleased to ignore this man's notorious sin! They thought it showed the whole world how "loving" they were. But you don't show "love" to a body by being kind to a cancer!

i. We can rightly say Paul is more concerned about the sin of the entire church (especially the leadership), than the sin of the individual man. Both are important, but the sin of the church is worse.

b. A little leaven leavens the whole lump: The leaven mentioned isn't merely yeast, but a pinch of dough left over from the previous batch, as in the making of sourdough bread. This is how bread was commonly leavened in the ancient world, and a little pinch of dough from the old lump could make a whole new lump of dough rise and "puff up." In this way the work of leaven was thought to illustrate the work of sin and pride. The presence of a little can corrupt a large amount.

i. In this light, the Passover command to purge the leaven had a health purpose. This method of fermentation, used week after week, increased the danger of infection or food poisoning, so at least once a year, the Israelites started from scratch.

2. (7-8) We are to live a perpetual Passover feast.

Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

a. Purge out the old leaven: At the Passover feast, all leaven was to be removed from the house, and nothing with leaven in it was to be eaten for a whole week. Paul says that just as the Jews were concerned to remove all leaven from their midst, so the church should have a concern to remove such notorious, unrepentant sinners from their midst.

b. Christ, our Passover: Paul's connection between the purity of Passover and the Christian life is not a strange stretch. Jesus is in fact our Passover Lamb, whose blood was shed that the judgment of God might pass over us. So, we are to live in the purity that Passover speaks of.

i. Our Christian lives are to be marked by the same things which characterized Passover: salvation, liberation, joy, plenty, and purity from leaven.

c. Since you truly are unleavened: Paul's point is both clear and dramatic - you must live unleavened because you are unleavened. "Be what you are" is the basic message of the New Testament for Christian living.

i. "Salvation in sin is not possible, it must always be salvation from sin." (Spurgeon)

d. Sincerity and truth: These are two strong guardrails for the way of the Christian life.

C. The principle of Christian separation.

1. (9) Paul told them, in a previous letter, to avoid sexually immoral (porneia) people.

I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.

a. I wrote to you in my epistle: Where is this previous letter from Paul? The apostles wrote many letters to churches which we no longer have. Certainly such letters were inspired to speak to that specific church at that specific time, but not to all the church for all time. So, such letters were not preserved by the Holy Spirit, through the church.

b. Keep company is literally to "mix up together." In the context of social relations it means to "mingle with," or "associate with" in a close way.

2. (10-13) Paul clarifies the principle of separation.

Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore "put away from yourselves the evil person."

a. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world: Paul did not want the Corinthian Christians to expect godly behavior from ungodly people. To disassociate from sinners in a sinful world would mean we would need to go out of the world.

i. Surprisingly, this is exactly the approach many people take to holiness and Christian living - to get as far away from the world as possible. This was the whole spirit behind the monastic movement in the early and medieval church.

b. Instead, without approving the sin of sinners in this world, we should expect that they would be sinners.

i. It should not surprise or offend us that those who do not yet know Jesus are covetous. Literally, the word means those "who must have more."

ii. It should not surprise or offend us that those who do not yet know Jesus yet are extortioners (harpax in the ancient Greek). The word describes those who steal by violence.

iii. It should not surprise or offend us that those who do not yet know Jesus act as a reviler, describing a person who is a character assassin.

c. But the Corinthian Christians were to expect Christian behavior from their fellow Christians, and they were not doing this! Instead, Paul commands that they were not even to eat with such a person.

i. In the culture of that day (and in many cultures today), eating with someone is an expression of friendship and partnership. In some cultures, if a man eats at your table, you are bound to regard him as a friend and a partner. Paul warns the Corinthian Christians they cannot continue in Christian fellowship with a notorious sinner who calls himself a Christian.

d. What have I to do with judging those also who are outside? . . . those who are outside God judges: Unfortunately, too many Christians are busy judging those outside of the church (which is God's job only) and are neglecting purity within the church.

e. Do you not judge those who are inside? . . . Therefore "put away from yourselves the evil person": The Corinthian Christians were failing to judge where they should have made judgment. They should not have "winked" at the notorious sinner among them, and they should not have considered themselves "loving" for doing so.

i. We must remember both reasons why it was important to deal with this sinning man among the Corinthian Christians: not only for the sake of purity in the church, but also for the sake of the man's own salvation (1 Corinthians 5:5).

 

1 Corinthians 6

Lawsuits and Loose Living
A. Instruction regarding lawsuits among Christians.

1. (1) Paul denounces their recourse to the pagan law courts in disputes among Christians.

Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?

a. Dare any of you is strong wording; Paul simply can't believe what these Corinthian Christians are doing.

b. Having a matter against another: Apparently, one Christian believed had been wronged by another, and sought justice in the local courts (go to law before the unrighteous).

i. The local judges sat in what was knows as the bema seat of the civil magistrate, which was located in the heart of the marketplace. Because Greek culture found a good legal battle entertaining, anyone's lawsuit soon became public knowledge.

c. Unrighteous is literally unjust, in the sense of "not justified before God, not saved." Why are the Corinthian Christians trying to find justice from those who aren't justified before God?

i. Paul is using the term unrighteous in a religious sense, not a moral sense. It isn't that Corinthian judges were necessarily bad judges, but they were not Christians.

2. (2-6) Why Christians are fully capable of judging their own matters, and it is wrong to go to heathen law courts in disputes among Christians.

Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers!

a. The saints will judge the world … we shall judge angels: Christians should be fully able to judge their own matters because of our destiny. As we reign with Jesus Christ, we will (in some sense or another) judge the world, and even judge angels.

i. The idea of Christians judging angels is fascinating. It does not mean we will sit in judgment of faithful angels (as if we could penalize them for letting us down or not being there!), but we will have a part in judging evil angels.

ii. How great is God's destiny for redeemed men and women! "Is there any statement in the apostolic writings in certain senses which has more definite and tremendous implication of the union of the saints with their Lord?" (Morgan)

iii. The destiny of redeemed men and women, to one day be higher than the angels, and to even sit in judgment of them, must have been a source of great annoyance to a certain high angel in heaven. He did not want to service an inferior creature now, and did not want to have that inferior creature one day be raised up higher than even he. So, he has rebelled against God, and is determined to keep as much of humanity as possible from even sitting in judgment of himself. We can imagine the perverse, proud pleasure Satan takes over every soul that goes to hell: "They won't sit in judgment over me!"

b. If Christians are being prepared right now for such a glorious destiny, why do the Corinthian Christians allow those least esteemed by the church (that is, the secular judges) to decide disputes among Christians?

c. Is there not a wise man among you: The Corinthian Christians were proud of what they thought was their "wisdom" (1 Corinthians 1:18-31). But their actions are showing that there was not a wise man among them!

d. Brother goes to law against brother: By his actions, Paul showed he was not against all legal action. In Acts 22:25 and 25:10-11, he appealed to Roman courts for his rights. However, Paul knew it was wrong when brother goes to law against brother.

i. It is important for Christians to settle disputes among themselves according to God's principles. This can be done either through the church, or through Christian arbitration. But today, even as in Paul's day, there is no reason for Christians to sue one another.

ii. Does this mean that it is permissible for Christians to sue non-believers who wrong them? This is an important question in our age where people are so ready to sue. Paul certainly does not bring up this specific issue, and he does not say the matter between Christians should be unresolved - only that it should be settled in the proper arena.

iii. Paul is also not saying that Christians should have their own court system to handle criminal law. In Romans 13:3-4, Paul says that it is appropriate for the state to handle criminal cases. Christians should, however, be able to handle civil cases among themselves. "Those in a religious community who will not submit to a proper arbitration, made by persons among themselves, should be expelled from the Church of God." (Clarke)

3. (7) Paul rebukes the man who had been wronged: why not accept wrong?

Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated?

a. The Corinthians were just like modern Americans: addicted to their own "rights." But in clinging to their rights so fiercely, they had already shown utter failure. Just by going to court against your brother, you already lose!

b. It would be better to accept wrong. It would be better to let yourselves be cheated than to defend your "rights" at the expense of God's glory and the higher good of His kingdom.

i. Paul was calling this man to do something hard to do: to give up what he deserved for the higher good of God and His kingdom. But the man who was wronged should not think Paul was asking him to take a loss. No one who accepts wrong for the sake of God's glory will be a loser.

ii. Ideally, the church should have settled the dispute. But if the church failed to do so, Paul was asking the man to trust in God, not in secular judges and lawsuits and courts.

iii. Paul isn't saying "why not suffer wrong instead of confronting the problem?" Instead, he is saying "why not suffer wrong instead of bringing your dispute before unbelievers?"

4. (8-11) Paul rebukes the man who had done the wrong: do you realize how serious your sin is?

No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren! Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

a. You yourselves do wrong and cheat: There is no place for dishonest dealing by Christians, but how much less place is there for dishonest dealing among Christians! How many have rejected the things of God and the fellowship of the saints because of dishonesty and cheating among Christians!

b. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Paul is speaking strongly to the brother who did the wrong. "Don't you realize how serious your sin is? The only thing you may 'gain' from cheating your brother is eternity with the unrighteous!"

i. Paul was not, categorically, denying the man's salvation (Paul says he is among the brethren). However, Paul will not allow a "religious faith" that is separate from our actions. If a Christian can cheat and defraud his brothers without conscience, it may be fairly asked if he is a Christian at all!

c. This man who had wronged his brother is putting himself in bad company - in with fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetous, revilers, and extortioners. And none of those who live characterized by these sins will inherit the kingdom of God.

i. No doubt, the man figured, "Sure, what I'm doing to my brother isn't good. But it isn't that bad." Paul wants him to know just how bad it was.

ii. We shouldn't think that a Christian who has committed an act of fornication or homosexuality (or any of the other listed sins) will be automatically excluded from the kingdom of God. Instead, since Paul describes these people by their sins, he means those who have their lives dominated and characterized by these sins. So then, is an occasional act of fornication or homosexuality no big deal to God? Of course it is; because it goes against everything we have been given in Jesus, and because a lifestyle of sin begins with single acts of sin.

iii. The man who cheated his brother had to see that if his life was dominated and characterized by this sin, as much as any of the other people Paul described, he should be just as concerned for his salvation as any of those other people!

d. Nor homosexuals: Since this is such a clear condemnation of homosexuality, those who would like to justify the practice say Paul is speaking of homosexual prostitution, not a "loving, caring homosexual relationship." But taken in context, there is no doubt God is speaking of homosexual acts of all kinds with the words malakoi (homosexuals, which literally refers to male prostitutes) and arsenokoitai (sodomites, a generic term for all homosexual practice).

i. Paul was not writing in or of a "homophobic" culture. Homosexuality was rampant in Paul's culture; fourteen out of the first fifteen Roman emperors were bisexual or homosexual. At the very time Paul was writing, Nero was emperor. He had taken a boy named Sporus and had him castrated. He then married him (with a full ceremony), brought him to the palace with a great procession, and made the boy his "wife." Later, Nero lived with another man, and Nero was declared to be the other man's "wife."

ii. In this list of sins, homosexuality (not some "special" version of homosexuality) is described. But it is described right along with other sins, many of which those who so strongly denounce homosexuals are themselves guilty of. Can fornicators or adulterers or the covetous or drunkards rightly condemn homosexuals? Of course not.

iii. Christians err when they excuse homosexuality, and deny that it is sin. But they also err just as badly when they single it out as a sin God is uniquely angry with.

e. Paul's point is important: such were some of you. Though these sins characterize those who will not inherit the kingdom of God, Christians can never be unloving or uncaring towards them - because they are right where we used to be!

i. Christians should not, and must not, say such sins in the lives of those who don't know Jesus are of no concern to God. They are. Instead, they must communicate the message of salvation in Jesus Christ: He will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

ii. At the same time, the point is plain for the Corinthian Christians and for us: And such were some of you. Paul clearly puts it in the past tense. These things are never to mark the life of a Christian, and if they do, they must be immediately repented of and forsaken.

iii. "Security in Christ there is, to be sure, but it is a false security that would justify sinners who have never taken seriously 'but such were some of you.'" (Fee)

f. But you were washed … sanctified … justified: God's great work for us in Jesus Christ is described in three terms.

i. You were washed: We are washed clean from sin by the mercy of God (Titus 3:5). We can have our sins washed way by calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 22:16). We are washed by the work of Jesus on the cross for us (Revelation 1:5) and by the Word of God (Ephesians 5:26).

ii. You were sanctified: We are set apart, away from the world and unto God, by the work of Jesus on the cross (Hebrews 10:10), by God's Word (John 17:19), by faith in Jesus (Acts 26:18), and by the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:16).

iii. You were justified: We are declared "just" before the court of God; not merely "not guilty," but declared to be "just" before Him. We are justified by God's grace through the work of Jesus on the cross (Romans 3:24), by faith and not by our own deeds (Romans 3:28).

iv. God can take the kind of people described in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 10 and make them into the kind of people described in 1 Corinthians 6:11! How great is the work of God!

g. In the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God: Without trying to present a doctrine of the Trinity, Paul quite naturally - because he knew it to be true of God - lists the three Persons of the Godhead in connection with this great work of God in the life of the believer.

B. Instruction regarding sexual purity.

1. (12) A principle for sexual purity among Christians: what is permitted is not our only guide for behavior.

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

a. In both 1 Corinthians 5 (in the section dealing with the sexual immorality of a certain member of the Corinthian church) and in 1 Corinthians 6 (in the section where certain sinners are described), Paul has brought up the issue of the sexual conduct of Christians. Now, he will address some of the questions and problems the Corinthian Christians had in regard to understanding and doing what God wanted them to do in regard to sex.

b. All things are lawful for me: This was probably a phrase Paul had used in teaching the Corinthian Christians about Christian liberty. We could just hear Paul telling the Corinthians exactly what he told the Colossians in Colossians 2:16-17: that when it comes to what we eat or drink or on what day we worship the Lord, all things are lawful for me. I am at liberty, and I should not let anyone put me under bondage, and legalists are prone to do.

c. But all things are not helpful: The Corinthian Christians were taking the idea all things are lawful and applying it to areas Paul, or the Lord, never intended. They were using their "liberty" as a license to sin.

i. Specifically, from the reference to the harlot in 1 Corinthians 6:15, the point seems to be that the Corinthian Christians thought they had the liberty to use the services of prostitutes. This would have been culturally accepted in the city of Corinth, and it would have been accepted in the religious community among the religious pagans - who saw nothing wrong in a "religious" person using prostitutes.

d. I will not be brought under the power of any: In this phrase, Paul uses a verb he uses again only in 1 Corinthians 7:4, in the context of a husband and wife having "authority" over each other's bodies. Paul may be saying I will not be brought under the power of anybody (as in a prostitute).

2. (13-14) A principle for sexual purity among Christians: appetites for food and sex are not the same.

Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.

a. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods: The Corinthian Christians were probably using this motto to justify giving their bodies whatever their bodies wanted. "My body wants food, so I eat. My body wants sex, so I hire a prostitute. What's the problem?"

b. But Paul will not let them take that slogan, which applies to irrelevant food restrictions, and apply it to sexual immorality, because the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

i. Because of our lustful sexual appetites, it may seem that God did make our bodies for sexual immorality. But God did not make our bodies that way; sinful Adam did. We see the wisdom in God's design for the body and for sexual purity when we look at the problems of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. These are the price one pays in the body for using the body in a way the Lord never intended - the body is not for sexual immorality.

c. One day God will destroy our stomachs, in the sense of being dependent on food and affected by hunger (though, there will be food and eating in heaven). Yet, our bodies themselves - in their moral character, relevant to our sexual conduct - will be raised up by the Lord at the resurrection. So, what we do with our bodies in regard to food does not affect us in the same way what we do with our bodies in regard to sex.

3. (15-17) A principle for sexual purity among Christians: our bodies are part of the body of Christ, and so should never be joined to a prostitute.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For "the two," He says, "shall become one flesh." But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

a. Do you not know: Apparently, many of the Corinthian Christians did not know, and thought their sexual conduct with prostitutes was not connected with their relationship with Jesus.

b. Your bodies are members of Christ: When an individual Christians commits sexual immorality, it disgraces the entire body of Christ, linking the body of Christ to immorality.

c. He who is joined to a harlot is one body with her … one flesh: In their sexual relationship, a husband and wife become "one flesh" in a way that is under God's blessing. In sex outside of marriage, the partners become "one flesh" in a way that is under God's curse.

i. A person desiring a casual sexual encounter may not want to become one flesh with their partner; but in some spiritual sense, they do. Part of their being is given to that person, and it means there is less to give to the Lord and to the partner God intends for them. In the Biblical understanding of sex, there is no such thing as "casual sex."

ii. Since we belong to Jesus - body, soul, and spirit - we have no right to give any part of ourselves away to an "unauthorized" person! "By being joined to her [a prostitute] in porneia the believer constitutes someone else, outside of Christ, as the unlawful lord over one's own body." (Fee)

iii. "Sex outside of marriage is like a man robbing a bank: he gets something, but it is not his and he will one day pay for it. Sex within marriage can be like a person putting money into a bank: there is safety, security, and he will collect dividends." (Wiersbe)

d. He who is joined to the Lord: In the heat of lustful passion, spiritual things may seem far away. Yet, at the root of most lustful passion is the desire for love, acceptance, and adventure - all of which is far better, and more completely, satisfied in a one spirit relationship with the Lord instead of with sexual immorality.

4. (18) A command for sexual purity among Christians: Flee sexual immorality.

Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

a. Flee: Paul doesn't tell us to be brave and resist the lustful passion of sexual immorality, but to flee from its very presence. Many have fallen because they underestimated the power of lustful passion, or thought they would "test" themselves and see how much they could "take."

i. Instead, we should follow the example of Joseph, who fled from sexual immorality - even when it cost him something to do so (Genesis 39:7-21).

ii. "Some sins, or solicitations to sin, may be reasoned with; in the above cases, if you parley you are undone; reason not, but FLY!" (Clarke)

b. Flee sexual immorality: Paul does not say that Christians should flee sex, only sexual immorality. God gave sex as a precious gift to mankind, and uses it powerfully to bond husband and wife together in a true one-flesh relationship. So as Hebrews 13:4 says, the marriage bed is undefiled - the sexual relationship between husband and wife is pure, holy, and good before God.

i. But sexual immorality works against God's good purpose for sex, working against a true, godly one-flesh relationship. Sex outside of marriage can be exciting, but it can't be enriching.

c. Sexual immorality: We are reminded Paul uses the Greek word porneia, which refers to a broad range of sexual sin. To flee sexual immorality means more than just to not have sexual intercourse with someone we are not married to.

i. It means to flee sexual gratification short of, or apart from, intercourse with someone we are not married to.

ii. It means to flee sexual gratification or thrills one might find from pornographic videos, movies, magazines, books, or Internet materials.

d. Sins against his own body: Paul isn't saying sexual immorality is worse than any other sin; but he does teach that sexual sin has a unique effect on the body; not only in a physical way, but also in a moral and spiritual ways.

e. Augustine was a Christian who had a lot of trouble with keeping sexually pure. For a long time, it kept him from really following God. He used to pray: "God, make me pure - but not just yet." But there came a point where he really turned everything over to God. He stopped hanging around with his companions in sexual immorality, and stopped going to the neighborhood where he used to meet them. But once, he had to go there on business, and on the street he met an old flame. She was glad to see him, and started running to him with arms outstretched, saying "Augustine! Where have you been for so long? We have missed you so!" Augustine did the only thing he could do: he started running the other way. She called out to him: "Augustine, why are you running? Its only me!" He looked back, while still running, and said "I'm running because I'm not me!" He was a different man because of Jesus, living a different way. If we have had our lives changed by Jesus, it will show in the desire to flee sexual immorality.

5. (19-20) A principle and a command for sexual purity among Christians: glorify God in your body.

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

a. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit: A temple is a place sacred to God, and pure from immorality. If it is true we are filled with the Spirit, it must influence our sexual behavior. And if we commit sexual immorality as Christians, we are polluting God's temple.

i. Earlier, in 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul had said the church as a whole was the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now, he says the same is true, in a spiritual sense, of individual Christians.

b. Because our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, our bodies belong to God, and not to ourselves: You are not your own … for you were bought with a price.

i. Any honest person will take better care of something that doesn't belong to them. Our bodies belong to God. They are His purchased possession. We don't have the right to pollute and abuse God's property!

ii. This principle applies to more than our sexual conduct. If our bodies belong to Jesus, we also have no right to be idle with, or wasteful of, what belongs to Him. Our bodies should be put to use glorifying God! (Therefore glorify God in your body). "Your body was a willing horse when it was in the service of the devil, let it not be a sluggish hack now that it draws the chariot of Christ." (Spurgeon)

c. Because our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, we have God Himself living within us. This means we have a strength, a power, living within us to give us power over the sins of the flesh. We should expect sexual purity from Christians more than from those who are not, because they do not have God living within them as we do.

d. Some Christians think that the devil cannot possess a Christian's spirit or soul, but that a Christian's body can be filled with demons, so that the Christian must have those demons cast out by another person. But Paul makes it clear that our bodies belong to Jesus just as much as our spirits. He is the owner of my body, and He is not sub-letting to demons!

e. Many old manuscripts end this chapter with the words glorify God in your body; the words and in your spirit may have been added by a scribe who thought it wasn't "spiritual" enough to end the chapter talking about our bodies glorifying God.

i. But Ironside was right when he said, "Glorify God in your body and the spiritual side will take care of itself.

 

Have you read "Killing Jesus" yet? I thought it was done quite well