Day #344

Sermon - Audio
Romans 11-13 - Reading
Romans 11-13 - Audio

Daily Insights - Please Comment

• 11.1-6: Paul heads back to the Old Testament to show that no matter how bad things are that God never rejects his people Israel. He always keeps a remnant of faithful people alive. In the Old Testament it was a group like the 7000. In the New Testament is Paul and his fellow Jewish believers. But no matter what it is by God’s grace that this saving happens.
• 11.7: The hardening that Paul refers to needs to be held in the context of both Romans
  1.18ff and the early verses of chapter 2. The hardening is not God’s first action, rather it is in response to persistent unbelief.
• 11.12: “Fullness” This word marks the first picture of a turn for the people if Israel. Fullness here is in comparison to “remnant” at the beginning of chapter 11. When the Jewish people come in fullness in following Jesus it will bring a huge level of richness with it.
• 11.17-21: There can be a temptation on the part of gentile believers to be arrogant because they have been included. Such arrogance is foolishness since we are included by grace. Not only so, but we are not the root -- rather as wild shoots we’ve been grafted in.
• 11.26-27: “all Israel” To understand these words it is useful to reflect back on Romans 5 where we found that “as in Adam all died, so in Christ all will be made alive”. There we found that the testimony of scripture is that there are those who will not be made alive (see Revelation 20). The idea there and here seems to be the same--all will be saved, except those the scriptures say will not be. So “all Israel” means every Jewish personexcept those the Bible reveals will not be saved.
• 12.1: Paul concludes his teaching on the wonders of God’s good news which is the power of salvation for every person who believes. He now turns his attention to our response to the good news. He tells us that we need to be living sacrifices. Paul has a specific sacrifice in mind, we know this from the Greek word he uses, thusian, a thusian sacrifice was a sacrifice given in thanksgiving for something God had done. Just like all sacrifices it was to be one where a person gave the best that they had, the best animal, the best grain, the best wheat. So when Paul tells us that we are to be living sacrifices he’s telling us that we are to give our best to God.
• 12.2: "renewing” Greek is “anakainosis” it means “a complete change for the better.” God is not looking for just a few small changes in the way we see the world, he’s not looking for us to just get rid of a few of our sins. God’s goal is nothing less than to make us into a totally new kind of people, who are not only transformed, but who in turn transform a world away from its idols and to God because they see that he is worthy of honor and praise.
• 12.2: “Test” means to examine something to see if it is genuine. When we have been renewed so that we basically think God’s thoughts after him, then we can test whatever comes our way and determine if it from God or if it is false.
• 12.8: “leadership” means to so influence others as to cause them to follow a recommended course of action — ‘to guide, to direct, to lead.’
• 12.9-21: Throughout these verses there a multiple connections to the words of Christ, other writings of Paul and other New Testament writers plus Old Testament references.
  
• 12.11: We are to be fervent in all of this (the idea is of a pot that is boiling over)--for in loving others we are serving Christ. This connects with Jesus’ words about the sheep and goats in Matthew 25.
  
• 12.15: These familiar words come with an unexpected twist: the context is those who persecute us. Could Paul mean that we are to rejoice when things go well for our enemies and weep when they do not. Indeed, he seems to be saying that we are to be with them in these times.
  
• 13.1ff: “governing authorities” It is worth noting the context that these words flow out of. Paul has just told the Roman Church two things: 1. God will avenge, he will repay. 2. We are to overcome evil with good. For a church that has suffered under Roman oppression Paul seems to be saying before he tells them to obey, “I know they messed with your lives, but leave it up to God to settle the score (see the book of Revelation where we see God doing just that). He also seems to be saying, “We are better than they are, we will overcome evil with good. The good we will do is to submit to the authorities, honor them, pay taxes to them as God’s servants--even though they consistently have caused us pain.
  
• 13.2-4: Paul’s words leave unspoken a reality: The ruler is to be God’s servant for doing good. When he/she does not do good he/she is resists God’s purpose for him/her. It is at this point that the Christian is in a quandary. The ruler is not doing what he is appointed by God to do. Does the Christian then stop doing what he is appointed by God to do as well?
  
• 13.13: These words recall the commandments from 13.9. It is worth seeing that Paul sees orgies, drunkenness, quarreling etc., not only as sin, but as a failure to love others.