John Chapter Three: The road to salvation – we study Paul's letter to the Romans: Romans Chapter 12

Documentation Published on 25 September 2024

The Road to Salvation – We Study Paul's Letter to the Romans, Chapter 12

Now that Paul has explained the gospel to both the Gentiles and the Jews, he ends in chapter 11 with a hymn. It is easy to just quickly read this passage, Romans 11:33-36, but it focuses on one of the unique character traits of God - his omniscience. He knows everything and knows us beforehand (Job 41:11; Isaiah 40:13; and Jeremiah 28:18).

Romans 1 to 11 deals with doctrine – sin, punishment, death, justification, and sanctification. Romans 12 to 16 are about the practical living out of our faith and our actions towards others. How I behave towards others shows how I behave towards God. With that in mind, let us see what Paul addresses in the next chapter.

Romans 12 gives hints about the life of the New Testament believer and how our actions should be. First, he exhorts us. This is not just a recommendation, but a call to seriously focus on what follows. He explains that we must offer our bodies, therefore our total selves, as a sacrifice. The body also contains the soul and the spirit, and so the complete trichotomous composition of man is implied here. See 1 Thessalonians 5:23 where he fully explains the threefold composition of man to the congregation in Thessalonica. He mentions that this is our reasonable religion. The word "reasonable" is taken from the Greek, λογικὴν, (logikēn). What he is saying here is that our faith must be the logical consequence of our conviction.

Verse 2 is the highlight of the chapter for me. We must learn to think differently about the world. We must not think and act in the same way as worldly people, but with the mind of Christ. See Philippians 2:5 about the attitude of Jesus. In our time we see how what was once wrong is now seen as right and what was right is now wrong. Isaiah wrote about this a long time ago. See Isaiah 5:20. We need to get the way we think about things in line with the Word of God.

What stands out clearly in this verse are the three ways God's will is expressed for our lives:

The good will of God;
The pleasing (acceptable) will of God; and
The perfect (pure) will of God.

Think a little about your own life. Which one of the above explanations of God's will operates in your life? Maybe it is not number three, maybe not even number two, maybe just number one. The worst one of the three is still good. Even if you often made choices that were not God's pleasing or perfect will, but only his good will that He allowed, it was still good. God is good, always. See Psalm 34:8; and 100:5. What must we do to discern God's perfect will for our lives, simply based on this passage?

We must first present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice. It is not just the sexual aspect of our lives, but all aspects. Everything I do must be holy.
We should not pursue the standards of the world and act like the world, but God's standards. The standards of the world are not necessarily his acceptable will.
We must change our mind (thinking, thoughts, and attitude) and how we think about things, especially in light of how the world thinks. We must learn to think as God thinks. Then we move in the direction of his perfect will.

Another aspect in this verse that is very important is the word "change". The Greek is μεταμορφοῦσθε (metamorphousthe) and it means a change that cannot be changed back to what it was before. Think about your Biology class at school and the life cycle of a butterfly – egg, larva, pupa, butterfly – in each phase the previous one is changed for the better and it cannot return to the previous state, only move on to the next phase. The process is called metamorphosis. In our lives as believers, we cannot go back to the old way of things. This is impossible if we walk in faith.

Paul mentions in verse 3 that we must be just what God created us to be, nothing more and nothing less. The word "quiet" means that we will look at something fairly. It is here where Paul shifts his focus to how we should behave in the congregation, as part of the Church. We do not possess the same skills, but each one's unique skills are critically important to make the whole function. God does not work with each of us in the same way. If He were to do that, we would not be the individuals we are today. He mentions a few gifts of grace – prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, advancement, and mercy. There are more graces that he explains in other letters, but for our purposes now these will suffice. Each of us should be able to benefit from the special gifts of grace as they have been given to certain individuals.

From verse 9, Paul gives advice on practical Christianity, which applies to everyone, and how we should behave towards each other. This advice continues until Romans 15:13. We could take time focusing on each of what he mentions, but I highlight a few here as they appear in this chapter. The Ten Commandments consist of five commandments that indicate our vertical relationship with God, and five commandments that indicate our horizontal relationship with others. Do you see how relevant the law is in the grace dispensation? Let us see how we fare with each of the requirements below:

Verse 9: The love towards each other must be sincere. We must not only ignore what is bad but see it as disgusting. We must do the good.
Verse 10: We must be cordial (honest) to one another. Are you upset with someone today?
Verse 11: We must keep doing good. Did I do something good for someone else today?
Verse 12: The verse mentions that we should rejoice in hope. See Titus 2:13. What is our blessed hope?
Paul exhorts us to persevere in prayer. He also gives this message in other letters. See 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Do we pray enough?
Verse 13: Don't just look after yourself but be ready to help others. Be hospitable. What did I do today to help someone else?
Verse 14: How should we behave towards those with whom we do not get along?
Verse 15: Share in the good and ways of others. Do we really care about others, or is it just to be seen as doing the "right thing"?
Verse 16: Maintain unity of mind. Don't always try to be better than others. Don't be a Mr/Mrs Know All. Do you sometimes let someone else win the argument?
Verse 17: Do not seek retribution, even if you are right. It's easy to seek retribution when you were right, but what if you might have been wrong?
Verse 18: Live in peace with one another. If you don't get along with the person involved, that's perfectly fine. However, it is not right to act ugly on purpose towards them.
Verse 19: Do not seek revenge. In verse 19 he quotes from Deuteronomy. See chapter 32:35.
Verse 20: Do good to people regardless of the relationship you have with them. We are not always going to like everyone, but they are watching you as a so-called Christian. Act as one.
Verse 21: Self-control is important. Do not do the wrong thing but counter the thought by doing the good.

Summary

Whether we are Church or Israel, chapter 12 to 15 are God's guidelines and requirements for our lives. We can count that our vertical relationship with God is right, but if it is not seen in the horizontal relationship and our interaction with other people, the vertical relationship means nothing.

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The Road to Salvation – We study Paul's letter to the Romans

Summary

Chapters