Romans 12:4

Romans 12:4 says, For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:  I believe that Paul was continuing with the thought of why we shouldn't think more highly of ourselves than we should. We might tend to think that what we do for God is more important than what others do, but Paul tells us that we don't all serve the same purpose in God's kingdom.  We are all given certain gifts by God, and all are necessary for the advancement of His kingdom.  Verse five adds, So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.  I believe Paul is continuing to tell us why we should humbly accept whatever role God calls us for.  We should never aspire to do what someone else is called to do, and should certainly never be jealous of their calling. Everyone is needed to carry out their calling for God's kingdom to function properly.  Though there are many members of the body of Christ, we are to be one in purpose.  All the members, functioning according to their purpose, makes for the strongest body of Christ.  Verse six continues, Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;  Paul begins to give examples of the calling a person may have.  Paul tells us that we have different gifts, but they are all given to us by God's grace.  He says that if we have the gift of prophecy, the we are to prophesy according to the faith God gives us.  I don't believe that prophecy here means fortelling the future, except to the extent that the gospel tells us of everlasting life, but means proclaiming the gospel and the effect it should have on our lives. There is nothing new to add to the gospel.  Verse seven says, Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;  Paul is still pointing out that we all have a different calling. He is also telling us that is our responsibility to fulfill that calling, so the kingdom of God might grow and our faith might expand. Anytime we are fulfilling God's call for our lives, we are growing in faith.  We need some to minister and some to teach, but not all.  Verse eight adds, Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.  We certainly need people to exhort the word of God, but how often do we think of giving as a calling?  If God's kingdom is to expand, funds are required since God chooses to work through His people.  We are to give, not for show, but with simplicity. We certainly need people today to rule with diligence.  As with giving, ruling should not be self-serving, but for the good of all people, especially the poorest and least powerful.  When we show mercy, it should be with cheerfulness.  Since God has shown mercy on us, we should likewise be cheerful in showing mercy on others, and not do so grudgingly.  Verse nine continues, Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. I believe Paul is telling us that God wants us to share His love with everyone.  We cannot decide that certain people are unworthy of God's love.  We are to hold on to God's will for us, which is the good, and abhor that which is not His will, or the bad.  When we as followers of Christ all function together as one body, we can accomplish so much more than if we try to do things our way.

Romans 12:1

Romans 12:1 says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  This has always been the passage that I come back to when life is seemingly out of control.  God, through Paul, is asking us to give ourselves to God.  It is by the mercy of God that this is even possible, so it is certainly not an unreasonable request.  We are to be a living sacrifice.  Once we accept Christ and become His followers, we are to daily sacrifice ourselves to His service.  We are not called to death, but to life everlasting.  Too often we live as though once we accept Christ we have to sacrifice so much, but we are not called to sacrifice anything that we really need.  We are to live by God's plan for our lives.  Paul says this is a reasonable service.  God gives us everlasting life, so it is only reasonable that we would want to live our lives for Him.  Verse two adds, And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.  Paul says that we are not to be conformed to the world.  I believe this is more than in the way we look and talk, though those are certainly aspects of not conforming. When we want to look and act like everyone else in the world so that people will not think we are different, this is not what God says to us.  We are to be different, and not just in outward appearances, but in an inward change.  We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  We are no longer to think as the world thinks, but are to follow God's leadership in all things.  A transformer can take something small and make it larger, or it can take something large and make it smaller.  I believe too often we feel that when we accept Christ that our lives have somehow been made smaller.  We dwell on what we have given up for God, instead of seeing how much He has improved our lives.  We cannot be His followers without being transformed into something better. Our very thought processes are to be changed.  We need to remember that God looks to the reason for actions and not just the actions themselves.  Verse three continues, For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.  Paul was speaking to them through the grace God had shown him, not through the status he had achieved by birth and education. He called on us to do the same, relating to people through the grace God has bestowed on us.  When we do, we cannot think to highly of ourselves.  Instead of being boastful, we are to be sober, because we owe everything to God through faith. Since God has freely provided salvation for all, it is a small thing that He calls on us to do to willing submit to Him through faith.

Romans 11:28

Romans 11:28 says, As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.  I believe that Paul was still attempting to tell the Gentiles that they had no reason to feel superior to the Jews or anyone else because they were saved by Christ.  The fact that the Jews had rejected Christ brought the gospel to the Gentiles.  Had the Jews not rejected the gospel, they would have been the ones bringing the gospel to the Gentiles.  The Jews were and are still loved by God. I believe this special relationship has nothing to do with anything that the Jews, or Israel ever did, but simply has to do with the fact that God chose them to work through to reveal Himself to the world.  The same can be said of anyone.  We as followers of Christ do not have a special relationship with God because of anything we did of our own merit.  Verse twenty-nine adds, For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.  I believe that Paul is saying that the call of God to all people goes out even before we repent.  I do not believe that this means repentance is not necessary when we accept God's call, but that He calls and equips us even before we acknowledge Him.  Verse thirty continues, For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: The Gentiles in the past had not believed God, and there are certainly many, many today who still do not.  Still, through the gospel of Christ, we are called to be God's people in the world today by accepting Christ as our Savior and Lord.  We have obtained the mercy of God, even though His chosen people do not accept Christ.  Verse thirty-one, states, Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.  We, as followers of Christ, now have the responsibility of reaching out to the Jews, wherever they may be, with the gospel.  They failed to follow God's leadership, but He still reaches out to them.  Verse thirty-two adds, For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.  I believe that Paul was saying that that the failure of the Jews to follow God's leadership showed the need for the mercy of God, not the law or heritage, to bring salvation to everyone, including those who were called His people. Verse thirty-three continues, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! This tells us where we stand in relationship to God's knowledge.  His knowledge and wisdom are so deep that we cannot understand them even if we try.  I believe this is why the gospel is so simple even a child can understand it.  We do not have to have all the answers about why everything happens.  We only have to put our faith in one thing that did happen, the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Verse thirty-four states, For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counseller?  When we continually ask God why something did or did not occur that we wanted, we are attempting to God counsel God.  We cannot always know the why of everything, but we can know God is with us if we are His followers.  That should be enough no matter what happens in life.  Verse thirty-five adds, Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?  I believe that Paul is asking what can we give God that wasn't already His.  We can offer nothing but obedience to Him through faith in Christ. Everything we have already belongs to God.  Verse thirty-six continues, For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.  Once more, we must acknowledge first and foremost that everything is God's today and forevermore.

Romans 11:22

Romans 11:22 says, Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.  I believe that Paul was again telling us that God is a God of mercy and goodness, but that He is also a God of justice.  God could simply condemn all people due to their sins, but He chose to make a way to redemption due to His mercy.  To those who reject that way to salvation, which is faith in Christ alone, this gospel becomes a severity, as it separates those who reject it from God for all time.  Verse twenty-three adds, And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. Paul was still referring to the unbelieving Jews in his day.  He did not say if they believed that they would be a branch again, but they would also be grafted in to the Root, which is Christ.  They would not suddenly be made whole by their own merit.  We can never become a part of the family of God, followers of Christ, by any physical factor. Once we accept the fact that we are simply sinners saved by grace, we can never feel superior to anyone else.  We, as followers of Christ, are to live to bring glory to God and never to ourselves.  Verse twenty-four continues, For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?  The Gentiles were a wild olive tree, going there own way without any direction from God, but they were grafted into the good olive tree, or the family of God.  If God could and would bring them into His family, then He could certainly graft the Jews, the descendants of Abraham, into the true vine if they believed in Christ.  We need to acknowledge that the Jews had to come to God through Christ.  Physical birth could not save them, and only a spiritual rebirth, a grating in to the root of Christ could. Verse twenty-five concludes, For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Paul always wanted to educate those he witnessed to about the truth of Christ and the kingdom of God.  I believe here he was warning the Gentiles not to become conceited because of their salvation through Christ.  The Jews might be blinded to the gospel, but they were still the people that God had chosen to work through first, and He had not and will not give up on them.  In verse twenty six, Paul states this saying, And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:  I believe that Paul is speaking of the true Israel, those who do accept Christ as Savior and Lord.  The Deliverer, Christ, shall turn them from their ungodliness.  Verse twenty seven states, For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.  The covenant that God had with Israel was based on their obedience to His will, and when they come to Him by faith in the covenant of Christ, He will take away their sins. That is the only way anyone can come to God, but it is also the way that all can come to God.  We must never think that the gospel is only for a select few.

Romans 11:15

Romans 11:15 says, For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?  Paul was still speaking of the Jews receiving salvation.  They were the people God had chosen to work through to bring knowledge of Him to the world.  The Israelites, or Jews, were not chosen because of any moral superiority to the rest of the world, but because they were a weak and insignificant group of people.  We never find in the Bible where God chose people because they were morally superior to others of their own merit. What made them morally better was accepting God's call and following His purpose for their lives.  Paul was still calling on the Jews to receive Christ as their Savior and Lord, that they could truly be God's people.  Verse sixteen adds, For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.  Paul was again referring to the Jews.  They were the firstfruit, the ones God had chosen to work through.  I believe that Paul was saying that had they been holy, in the right relationship with God, the world could have been reached, or brought into the right relationship with God, through them.  This was God's plan, but the overwhelming majority of those who called themselves His people rejected it.  They wanted to rulers over the Gentiles, and not servants of God to reach them.  We who profess to be followers of Christ today must be careful that we do not start to feel that we are better than the lost of the world and more worthy of salvation of our own merit.  We are called to serve God humbly that we might reach the lost and dying world, and not to sit in judgment praying for their destruction.  Verse seventeen continues, And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou,being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;  Paul was speaking to the Gentiles.  They, and we, were grafted into the family of God through the root, Jesus Christ.  Many of the existing branches, the Jews, were broken off, because they rejected that root. Verse eighteen states, Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.  I believe Paul was warning the Gentiles against beginning to feel superior to the Jews.  Just because the Jews had rejected Christ did not mean that God had stopped calling to them.  Verse nineteen adds, Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.  This I believe is a continuation of Paul's telling the Gentiles and us that due to the Jews rejecting Christ and their role in spreading the gospel, the task went to the Gentiles, which means us.  The Jewish nation today still rejects Christ.  Verse twenty continues, Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:   They were broken off due to disbelief in God's salvation plan, which can only be received through faith.  Since we stand reconciled by faith, we can never be high minded in our relationship to other people.  Verse twenty-one concludes, For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.  Paul issued a warning. If God did not spare the Jews, the physical descendants of Abraham, then we need never believe that He will save us for any reason but faith in Christ. For this reason, we must never feel superior to other people based on where we were born or what family or social standing we were born into.  God still calls all people.

Romans 11:7

Romans 11:7 says, What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.  I believe Paul was telling the Jews that they had allowed themselves to become blinded to the truth of God.  Only a few accepted that Christ is the Messiah they were waiting for, and that was by faith and not their birth into the nation of Israel.  Many people today know what the gospel of Christ teaches, especially those who have grown up in the church, but they refuse to accept that Christ is the only way to salvation.  They want to believe that there are other ways to reconcile themselves to God, but just like the overwhelming majority of Jews in Paul's day, they are blinded to the truth.  Verse eight adds, (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.  Once more, we can see this as God causing them to not be able to accept Christ, but I believe that it means that He allowed them to reject Christ because they refused to see the truth.  To me, in the context of what the whole Bible teaches about God, He wants all to come to Him.  He may choose to work through a particular group, but He does it to reach the whole world.  Verse nine continues, And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:  I believe Paul is saying that those things that were to set the nation of Israel apart as God's people had become a hindrance, a stumbling block, to their following the will of God.  This was not some new thought that Paul had, but went back to the days of David.  We need to be careful today that rituals do not get in the way of our relationship to God. We certainly do not need to be a stumbling block to others, and the Jews in Paul's day had.  Verse ten states, Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.  God did allow the eyes of the Jews to be blinded to the truth of Jesus as the Messiah, just as He does with people today. God does not cause this spiritual blindness, but He does allow it.  If God chose before hand who will and will of not be saved, then faith has no meaning. Verse eleven adds, I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.  I believe that Paul was saying that the Jews not accepting Christ was intended to show that they had fallen out of their relationship with God.  God had not rejected them, but they had rejected God.  Through their disbelief, the gospel went to the Gentiles.  Verse twelve continues, Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?  I believe Paul was asking if the fall of the Jews brought a richness, the gospel of Christ, to the Gentiles, then how much greater would it be for the Jews to reach the Gentiles through belief in Christ themselves.  This is what Paul was doing.  He did not cease to be a Jew but became one both physically and spiritually. Verses thirteen states, For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: Verse fourteen adds, If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.  Paul said that he was an apostle to the Gentiles, but he still hoped to reach the Jews, those of his flesh, with the gospel of Christ. As we today reach out to the lost world, we need to never forget those born to God's people, the Jews.  They too need to hear and accept the gospel.

Romans 11:1

Romans 11:1 says, I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.  Paul was clarifying that God had not cast away the Jews, His chosen people to bring His message to the world.  Paul told them that God should forbid that such a thought would even exist. Then, Paul reminded them that he was an Israelite, born a seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.  These facts neither brought him salvation nor prevented him from receiving salvation.  Our earthly heritage today is the same.  There is no one today who is saved nor denied salvation by who they were born to or where they were born.  Verse two adds, God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,   Paul was speaking to the Jews, God's chosen people, and once again he asked if they knew the scripture.  We today, as followers of Christ, need to ensure that whatever we teach is based on the scripture, God's written word to us.  When we search the scripture, the Holy Spirit will guide us to its truth.  Paul reminded them of a time in their history when Elijah made intercession against the Israelites with God. Verse three continues, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.  Paul was reminding them that this was not the first time they had rebelled against God.  Elijah, in his day, said that he alone was faithful to God. There were many people born physically into the nation of Israel, but they were not spiritually Israelites, which was the key.  They were killing the prophets of God and tearing down His altars, His places of worship.  If they were somehow saved simply by being born physically as a defendant of Abraham, this would not have mattered. Elijah said he alone was left to serve God and they sought his life. My brother recently reminded me that this is what today is called the Elijah complex.  We start to feel that we alone are serving God and the world is out to silence us.  Verse four states, But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.  Paul reminded them that God told Elijah that he was not alone. God had preserved a remnant of seven thousand.  I do not believe that this means God picked seven thousand at random and made them faithful, but instead that he knew the hearts of seven thousand were still true to Him.  Even though I live in what is called a Christian nation, and everything that is happening seems to work against God's will, there will always be a remnant as long as we await Christ's return.  We don't need an Elijah complex, either as an individual or a nation.  Verse five adds, Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.  Paul said there was a remnant then, and we can be sure that is true today, by the grace of God.   Verse six continues, And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.  Here I believe Paul is telling us that salvation cannot be by works and grace at the same time.  If we can earn our salvation by our own actions, then grace, salvation through Christ, would not be necessary.  Since we cannot earn salvation by our works, by God's grace, He provided the only way to salvation.