26-0823sc - Detailed Summary

Steve opens the class on Romans chapter 12 by leading the group in prayer. He asks the most gracious Heavenly Father to bless those present with wisdom, understanding, and insight so they can better appreciate the depth of Paul’s writings. He notes that Paul is a very deep thinker whose writings reflect that quality, and he prays that the Holy Spirit will help the class comprehend what Paul is trying to convey. Steve also asks for blessings on the congregation, praying that it will continue to grow both numerically and spiritually. He closes the prayer in the name of Jesus Christ.

Steve briefly notes that he does not intend to rehash the previous week’s lesson and then reads the entire twelfth chapter of Romans from the New International Version. The passage begins with Paul’s urgent appeal that, by the mercies of God, the brothers and sisters present their bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is their spiritual service of worship. They are not to be conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of their minds so they may prove what the will of God is—that which is good, acceptable, and perfect.

Paul continues by instructing each person not to think more highly of himself than he ought, but to think with sound judgment according to the measure of faith God has allotted. Just as the body has many parts with different functions, so those who are many form one body in Christ and are individually members of one another. Because the gifts differ according to the grace given, each person is to use his gift properly: prophecy in proportion to faith, service in serving, teaching in teaching, exhortation in exhorting, giving with generosity, leadership with diligence, and showing mercy with cheerfulness.

Love must be free of hypocrisy. Believers are to detest what is evil and cling to what is good, be devoted to one another in brotherly love, give preference to one another in honor, not lag in diligence, be fervent in spirit while serving the Lord, rejoice in hope, persevere in tribulation, and remain devoted to prayer. They are to contribute to the needs of the saints and practice hospitality. They are to bless those who persecute them and not curse, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, be of the same mind toward one another, not be haughty but associate with the lowly, and not be wise in their own estimation.

Never repay evil for evil. As far as it depends on them, they are to be at peace with all people. They are never to take their own revenge but to leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written that vengeance belongs to the Lord and He will repay. If an enemy is hungry they are to feed him; if thirsty, give him a drink, for in doing so they will heap burning coals on his head. Finally, they are not to be overcome by evil but to overcome evil with good. Steve concludes the reading by stating that this is the reading of the Scriptures.

Steve turns the class’s attention back to the opening paragraph of the chapter and rereads the call to present bodies as a living and holy sacrifice and to be transformed rather than conformed. He asks what Paul is urging the believers to do. Class members respond that they are to be changed, transformed by the renewing of their minds, continually thinking about what God wants them to do, living according to His will, and refusing to be conformed to the world. Steve affirms the answers and then presses for a more practical understanding of what it actually means not to be conformed to this world.

Discussion continues on the practical meaning of non-conformity. One response is that believers are to dedicate themselves to God and, in doing so, avoid the things of the world that are offensive to Him. Steve invites further thoughts and specifically calls on Scott. Scott observes that the most obvious sacrifices involve sexual immorality and any other immorality contrary to God’s will, as well as the pleasures of the body. Steve agrees and expands the point: presenting the members of the body as a living and holy sacrifice involves both the physical offering of oneself and a mental process of transforming the way one thinks so that it no longer conforms to the world’s thinking, which is contrary to God.

Steve introduces the concept of righteousness as the standard God seeks. He frequently uses Job as an example because, in the conversation with Satan, God asks whether Satan has considered His servant Job. Steve notes that the King James wording describes Job as one who “escheweth evil,” which he paraphrases in the moment as choosing against evil. Job is presented as a man who wanted to behave exactly as God desired. Steve asks whether the Ten Commandments can serve as a practical summary of the kind of behavior God wants, and the class affirms that they can. The world, by contrast, takes the Lord’s name in vain, gambles, drinks, lies, and cheats. Paul is calling believers to stop acting according to those former patterns.

To illustrate what Paul means by worldliness, Steve turns to Ephesians 4, beginning at verse 17. Paul affirms in the Lord that believers are no longer to walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds, darkened in understanding, excluded from the life of God because of ignorance and hardness of heart. Having become callous, they give themselves over to indecent behavior and every kind of impurity with greediness. Believers did not learn Christ that way. They are to rid themselves of the old self, which is being corrupted by deceitful lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of their minds, putting on the new self created in the likeness of God in righteousness. Practical applications follow: put away falsehood and speak truth, be angry yet do not sin, do not let the sun go down on anger, no longer steal but labor with one’s own hands, let no unwholesome word come from the mouth but only what builds up, do not grieve the Holy Spirit, put away all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander along with all malice, and instead be kind, compassionate, and forgiving just as God in Christ has forgiven. Steve notes that this is the worldly knowledge and behavior the class will confront the moment they leave the building. Paul is therefore asking them to present themselves as a living sacrifice by living righteously rather than concerning themselves with keeping up with the Joneses.

Steve returns to the idea of the living sacrifice and again points to Job as a concrete example. Job lived as a saint. When his friends insisted that his suffering must be punishment for some hidden sin, Job defended the integrity of his life. God was not punishing Job; He was allowing a test proposed by Satan, who claimed that if all of God’s blessings were removed Job would curse God and die. God accepted the challenge, knowing His man. Job later described how he had actively sought out people in need and cared for them, and God had blessed him. Steve sees this same pattern of righteous, other-oriented living as what Paul is urging in Romans 12.

Steve applies the living-sacrifice language to the ordinary morning. The first act of the day should be gratitude to God and a conscious dedication of that day’s life to Him. The believer has no intention of killing, telling dirty jokes, or engaging in sexual immorality; the intention is to live the day for God. A person becomes the servant of whichever master he dedicates himself to—whether cursing, drunkenness, and the ways of Satan, or loving neighbors and looking after one another in the service of God. Baptism for the remission of sins marks the point at which a person dies to the old life and chooses to serve God. Therefore the spiritual service of worship includes refusing to accept the world’s standards and instead living by God’s standard. The will of God is that His people be righteous, and He has made clear how that righteousness is to be lived. When a believer walks out the door the primary purpose is to glorify God and make others conscious of Him. Steve asserts that those who encounter the class members can sense the aura of someone who is pure before God.

A class member raises Jesus’ command to pick up one’s cross and follow Him daily. Steve explains that this means denying oneself and bearing the cross just as Jesus did. Jesus was in the world yet the world did not recognize Him as its Creator; He lived exactly as God required and was persecuted for it. Believers likewise will face persecution for living as Christians and must continue regardless. Bearing the cross is a daily dying to self—refusing to live according to the ways of the world and allowing the pleasures of earth to pass by without dipping a finger or a toe into them. The believer holds only one thing before him: the life God has called him to live.

Steve continues by pointing to the Colossian letter, where Paul explains in the first chapter why people are becoming Christians and coming into the Lord: for the hope of heaven. Christianity holds out the hope of heaven, and people realize that in order to reach heaven they need to be in the church. That is where the hope is found. Therefore Paul urges believers not to dip any part of their body into the pleasures of earth. Those who pursue drunkenness, revelries, and gambling experience only short-lived excitement; when they win they celebrate briefly, then wonder why Christians will not join them in that kind of happiness. The call is to refuse participation in those temporary earthly pleasures.

A class member offers a careful disclaimer, stating he is not criticizing and hopes his words will not be taken that way. He affirms that God wants believers to be righteous and to do what He desires from their own free will, motivated by love for Him. That is the goal. Yet even if someone lives righteously all day, the central point of Romans is that righteousness does not come from those actions. A person is not made righteous simply because he avoided sexual immorality or denied himself certain pleasures. The problem with the Jews was that they tried to establish righteousness from their own perspective and became self-righteous. Chapters 3 through 8 of Romans teach that righteousness is a gift from God, because all have sinned and none is righteous, not even one. A believer can strive to be the best person God wants him to be and can do right things, yet those efforts do not produce righteousness. God credits righteousness as a gift. Baptism itself did not make anyone righteous; God made the person righteous, and the believer obeyed because he wanted to please God, just as Jesus did what pleased the Father. The actions do not create the standing; it is a vital nuance. Otherwise people will think that any failure leaves them lost until they ask forgiveness and suddenly become saved again. That is not what those chapters teach. Blessed is the man whose sins God takes away and never counts against him. The Christian will still sin, yet God does not count those sins against him; the person is credited as righteous. That truth removes the burden of feeling unworthy and allows the believer to approach God with confidence, because God has given His own righteousness. Because of that gift the believer then wants to do what pleases Him. Steve fully endorses the comment and affirms that Paul wants believers to continue walking in the light as He is in the light.

Steve explains that for believers to be considered righteous they must behave righteously, and Paul can now make that appeal because he has already shown how righteousness works. Believers have been saved, God has paid the debt they owed, He has justified them, and they have been sanctified. Sanctified for what purpose? They are no longer of the world. Sanctification means to be set aside. Steve illustrates with a collection plate: the plate has been sanctified for one particular purpose—to collect money—and will not be used as an ordinary dinner plate at a buffet. In the same way, each believer has been sanctified and is therefore set apart to behave the way God wants him to behave. Paul is asking the church to allow themselves to be sanctified, to refuse participation in the world’s activities, to come out of the world, and to live as those who have been set apart. He then moves to the next instruction: do not think more highly of yourself than you ought.

Steve returns to the question of what it means to be righteous. A person is righteous only because he is looking for how God wants him to behave and then behaves that way; God considers him righteous on that basis. God does not simply declare someone righteous apart from that orientation. That is what happened with Abraham, who dedicated himself to doing what God wanted. God looks for righteous people—Job was such a person, Abraham was such a person—and He can look into the room and say the same of those present. What made them righteous? God cleansed them, helped them be sanctified, and they conveyed and behaved themselves in the way God desires. Therefore believers must first walk in the light as He is in the light. As long as they are walking in the light they can make mistakes, because Jesus continues to cleanse them.

A class member notes the wording of the verse in John’s letter about walking in the light and observes that 1 John 3 states that the one who does what is right is righteous. Once a person is up and running, out of love and appreciation for God he does the righteous works that God prepared beforehand for him to walk in. Paul reminds the readers that they did not learn the ways of the world from Christ; Christ is bringing them out of those ways. Romans itself begins with the plight of the world that is not God-conscious and is actively doing everything to remain un-God-conscious. Believers, by contrast, need to be God-conscious in all they do. That is one of the purposes of Steve’s sermon that day. The world dedicates itself to fun and to Satan’s way of living. Paul therefore urges the church to put off the way of the world—exactly as they had just read in Ephesians—and to accept the way God wants them to live. He rereads Romans 12:1-2: by the mercies of God present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship; do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Steve asks what the will of God is. It is simply what God wants, and Paul describes it as perfect, acceptable, and good. In Ephesians Paul shows that when God created the world He had a purpose—His will is for people to return to Him and be with Him eternally in heaven by means of the gospel and the salvation offered through Jesus. His will is that people come to Him through Jesus. Peter confirms the same will: God does not desire that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Those who enter heaven will praise Him for the gift given through Jesus—the offer of justification and sanctification that allows them to come into heaven and glorify Him. Another aspect of His will is that people acknowledge Him as God. Paul’s opening chapter shows that God’s wrath is against those who refused to recognize Him as God. Paul’s own view of God is remarkable: he is willing to do whatever is necessary to be pleasing to God because God reached out, saved him, and set him on a different course. Instead of persecuting the church he now builds it up. Paul believes in divine intervention, providence, and the preservation of God, and he gives God credit in everything. He is encouraging the church to adopt the same concept of God.

Does Paul himself present his body as a living sacrifice? He does so every day of his life. That is exactly what he is asking the believers to do—present themselves as a living and wholly acceptable sacrifice to God. Steve notes that he has rehashed material from the last three classes because the subject is so important; that is why his lesson that day is titled “For His Name’s Sake.” He then turns to verse 3: through the grace given to him Paul says to everyone not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think with sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. No one should think more highly of himself than Paul does; Paul would not be doing what he is doing if he regarded himself as above others or untouchable. The striking truth is that believers have differing measures of faith.

Steve turns to Ephesians 4:7 and following. Grace was given to each one according to the measure of Christ’s gift. When Christ ascended He gave gifts to people. The expression “He ascended” implies that He had also descended into the lower parts of the earth; the One who descended is the same One who ascended far above all the heavens so that He might fill all things. He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers. The purpose is the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, until all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, believers are no longer children tossed to and fro by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human trickery and craftiness in deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, they grow up in every way into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, fitted and held together by every joint’s supply according to the proper working of each part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Jesus therefore gave various leadership gifts for the purpose of building up the church by helping one another in their faith and Christian walk so that no one is tossed about by the many winds of doctrine that exist in the world. Joe had mentioned several such winds of doctrine he had encountered; those examples illustrate why solid teaching and mutual help are necessary.

Steve observes that his time is up. One of the things that must be recognized from Romans 12 is that believers have been given particular gifts. Paul reiterates the theme of gifts in several letters, but 1 Corinthians 12 stands out, where he describes the body and its members, each given a particular gift. If a person recognizes the gift he has been given, he should take advantage of it rather than sit back and wait to be asked; he should reach out and use it. Steve sees that happening among those present in the class—they know their gifts and are doing what they are supposed to do. He thanks everyone for their attention and states that they will pick up Romans 12 again the following week.

While teaching Romans 12 he also brought in:

The class was primarily an exposition and application of Romans 12:1–3, with the rest of the chapter read and the gifts briefly introduced.