Romans: Theology for Everybody (12-16)Sample

Jesus is the most significant person who has lived in world history. The Bible is the most significant document in world history. So, when Jesus was asked what the most significant portion of the Bible was, His answer must be incredibly significant. Mark 12:28-31 reports that one day, Jesus was asked “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

Jesus answered, ‘The most important is, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’”

Love God.

Love people.

According to Jesus Christ, when these two things happen in this order, the rest of our life with God and one another tends to get sorted out by God’s grace thanks to the Holy Spirit. It seems that the Apostle Paul may have had the priorities of Jesus in mind when he sat down to pen his masterpiece, the epistle to the Romans, it divides into exactly two sections about loving God and loving people. Paul gave us a clue that this would be his outline for Romans in 1:17 where he said that righteousness comes down from God to us in relationship and flows out from us in relationship with others saying, “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”

Romans 1-11 is largely vertically focused on how we can have a healthy, loving relationship with God as Christians. Romans 12-16 is largely horizontally focused on how we can have a healthy loving relationship with one another as the church.

The transition from our relationship with God to our relationship with others is denoted by the simple little word “therefore” in 12:1.

Sadly, some theologians have treated Romans 12-16 as something of an addendum or afterthought rather than a crucial and vital application of everything Paul has taught in Romans 1-11. This is often because those who are brilliant scholars are not usually the warmest and most relational people. This is not a criticism, but rather an honest evaluation. To spend your life mastering ancient languages alone in a library requires the kind of personality that will probably not get you voted as “Most Huggable” in high school. Romans 1-11 is some of the most dense and intense theology in all of the Bible, which explains why interpreting it was at the heart of the battle for the entire Protestant Reformation. Therefore, rightly understanding the great doctrinal truths of Romans 1-11 is absolutely critical for a right understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ and a healthy, loving, grace-based Spirit empowered Jesus’ relationship with God the Father.

What is equally important, however, is the application of these doctrines to our relationships with one another in the church. Life in our fallen and sinful world is difficult, and the church has a unique opportunity to be a life-giving and burden-lifting place unlike anywhere else. Furthermore, in our culture where family relationships are often broken due to pain or distance due to relocation, it is more vital than ever for the church to be a place where there is emotional and spiritual life in the Spirit as God’s family. Simply stated, sound doctrine should lead to loving healthy relationships because a personal is not truly biblical unless they are relational.

Some Christians are very relational and practical. They tend not to read or study much because they are busy with people and projects. Conversely, other Christians are very theological and conceptual. They tend to read and study a lot and don’t have as much emotion and energy for people and projects. Just like most people have a dominant hand, so too most Christians are strong on one hand and weak on the other. The model of Paul and his letter to the Romans is that God wants us to learn from one another and seek to be strong with both hands.

A healthy, loving relationship with God vertically is the only hope we have for a healthy loving relationship with others horizontally for two reasons. One, our relationship with God gives us the template for a healthy relationship as He wants us to treat others like He treats us. Two, our relationship with God gives us the resources for healthy relationships as things like grace, forgiveness, and love come from God through the Spirit for us to share with others.

One theologian says this well, “Romans has the reputation—well deserved—of being one of the most theological books in the Bible. Unfortunately, this reputation has led many Christians and even some commentators to wonder why Paul bothers with all the practical stuff at the end of the letter. He has finished the theology section at the end of chapter 11. Why say any more? Such an attitude betrays a basic misunderstanding of theology and its significance. All theology is practical, and all practice, if it is truly Christian, is theological. Paul’s gospel is deeply theological, but it is also eminently practical. The good news of Jesus Christ is intended to transform a person’s life. Until individual Christians own and live out the theology, the gospel has not accomplished its purpose.”3

For the Christian, salvation is something that God alone does. This is the big idea driving throughout Romans 1-11. In these chapters, the focus is on what to believe as a Christian.

What Paul is talking about in Romans 12-16 are often referred to by theologians as “cooperative commands” where God invites the Christian to work out the new life of the Spirit in them. In these chapters, the focus is on how to behave as a Christian. The choice every Christian must make every day is between being “conformed to this world” which is living hell up, or being “transformed” to God, which is living Heaven down. Indeed, the gospel of Jesus Christ is about getting us to Heaven, but until we arrive there, it is also about God bringing a little bit of Heaven into the world through His people.

Questions:

1. Do you think you have a stronger relationship with God or people? Why is it important to have both?

2. How can you love God first? How can you love others as yourself?