Thoughts on Romans 12

Narrator: Chris Genthree
Duration: 5min
Romans 12  •  5 min. read  •  grade level: 7
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If the Gentile Christians at Rome were justified, and saved, it was through the mercy of God (see chap. 11:30). It was so likewise with any Jews there. It was all the mercy of God. The nation would finally be received back again on the ground of mercy, after Gentile apostasy. It is on account of the tender mercies of God that our bodies are to be given up a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service. What different morality from that under law! Under the former, man in the flesh had to obey given commands, and so give righteousness to God: here the flesh is given up. I am laid on the altar of God, and my body is presented a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God (compare 2 Cor. 4:1010Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:10)). It is as we bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus will be manifest in our mortal bodies. The ministry of righteousness has written Christ on our hearts, and it is as the death has power over the old nature that the life will flow out. Christ has given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. (Eph. 5:1, 21Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 2And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor. (Ephesians 5:1‑2).) We are called to be imitators of God as dear children. We are identified with Christ, dead and risen: let our walk be worthy of this position and flowing from it. This is Christian morality. But if I am dead and risen, what have I to do with the world? Conformity to the world is a shame for a Christian. It is linked with the flesh, on which the ministry of the Spirit writes, Death.1 If I let the Spirit work, I am transformed by the renewing of my mind; I am practically now learning what good and evil is. I prove daily what is the will of God. Thus the body presented a living sacrifice to God, non-conformity to the world, and transformation by the renewing of the mind, fill up the Christian morality in this passage. When we are thus devoted to the Lord, we find ourselves amongst a new set of people, unknown before, but now known to us. They are members of the body of Christ. Are we to seek high things for ourselves here, as we did when in the world? No; just the contrary. We are not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.
The truth of the body of Christ is here practically brought in to show the relative bearing of Christians one to another. All members have not the same office. We are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. The members of our bodies, though many, do not interfere with one another: so it is in the church of God. There are different gifts; let each one use his gift according to his faith, in responsibility to the Lord. Here perfect liberty of ministry is brought out. There is no such thing mentioned here as setting apart by man.2 Every one, if he has a gift, is responsible to the Lord to use it. This is not the license of the flesh, but the liberty of the Spirit. Notice also, these gifts flow throughout the one body, and not many bodies: “We being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” Exhortations follow, which enter into the minutest concerns of daily life. Do I really love a person? let not shyness, conventional usages, or selfishness, hinder me from sheaving it: Do I love my brother? let me in honor prefer him. Have I an honest earthly calling? I am not to be slothful in it, serving the Lord in it all, for He is my Master. Is a saint in need? help him. Is a saint passing by the road? open thy house to him. Are you persecuted? bless them that curse you. Do any rejoice? rejoice with them; do any weep? weep with them. Do you love the company of the rich? walk with men of low estate. Everything is summed up in the little verse— “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” If I am insulted, trampled upon, spit upon, like the Lord, what matters it? He gives His power. “When he was reviled, he reviled not again, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.” He overcame evil with good in life; He overcame it in death, and rose Conqueror out of it all. Let us be followers of Him.
 
1. With Israel in the flesh there was no world, except the nations outside, with whom they were forbidden to have intercourse. Godly and ungodly were all mixed up together, and no separation was there. They had an outward religion suitable to the flesh, of which godly and ungodly all partook. The sin of Christendom is, going back to this state of things.
2. Only local charges, such as elders and deacons, were thus appointed by apostles or men like Titus commissioned by them for this purpose. Alas! Christendom no longer believes in the gifts of the Lord's grace and does not permit the free communications of the Holy Spirit by the various members in the assembly, while it pretends to exercise apostolic or quasiapostolic authority without the smallest warrant in scripture for its continuance. Even so, all is palpable confusion; for “the” minister is as spurious an office as the pope and is invested with functions which no apostle ever sanctioned in any man or in all the elders together—a title to hinder all gifts save his own in the assembly. Every honest denominationalist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, or Congregationalist, is bound to hold and act on this awful assumption, which therefore drives out every Christian whose conscience is in this respect enlightened of God.—Lu.