READINGS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS (11)
[p. 139] READINGS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS (11)
Romans 12:1 - 21; Romans 13:1 - 14
JT We have now come to the practical effect of the great doctrines which have been before us in the earlier chapters. Here the believer’s body comes into view.
GWW His body is to be the vehicle in which what precedes is to be displayed.
JD-s In contrast to what we get at the beginning of the epistle when the body is entirely dominated by sin; now it is set free for the service of God.
JT The believer, in that way, has always something to sacrifice — his body.
Rem The believer becomes light in the place where the Lord was light. If we contemplate this chapter, we see that what is exhorted came out in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the days of His flesh, in large measure.
BTF What is the force of “a living sacrifice”?
JT I suppose it is in contrast to the dead ones they offered in Israel under law. In chapter 8 we have: “The body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness”. So the body would be, in that way, the vehicle of the Spirit. It is living.
BTF So much more pleasing to God, inasmuch as it would be the working out of living affection.
JT Intelligence too, I suppose.
JS It is to be a continual thing. Not simply periodically, as in the Jewish economy; it is a service rendered all the time.
ANW All sacrifice is to God, is it not? Whatever we may do may be for one and another, yet the sacrifice is to God.
JT God is rightly the legitimate Object before our souls in our sacrifice.
[p. 140] JD-s The verse says as much — “acceptable to God”.
JT The believer’s body is his own property, as it were, and he has it, as now relieved from the domination of sin, and he is free to sacrifice it; so that things are put on moral ground.
GWW The body having been set free from the domination of sin, it is not now that God says, ‘I demand it’; but it is handed over to the believer that he may yield it as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.
JT The moral element in Romans is an important thing to get hold of, because it suggests that God is not acting arbitrarily — it is a moral question — He is entitled to it, and we are exhorted by the mercies of God to present it.
GWW The believer yields it constantly. It is held at the disposal of the will of God, and in that way it becomes a sacrifice.
Rem It touches chapter 6, “Now, having got your freedom from sin, ye have become bondmen to righteousness”. As you say, it is first liberty and then, What are you going to do with your body?
WLP We must be conscious of the mercies of God so as to acknowledge His rights over us.
JT I think He has creatorial rights over us; but Romans is not on that ground. It is on the ground of His compassion. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice”.
GWW Although He has His rights, it is something He is prepared to accept at our hands.
Rem It is on the ground of intelligence; we are enlightened. It is no longer the ignorance of distance; as brought near you are in the intelligence of what God is.
JB “Ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”.
JT [p. 141] It is not arbitrary — things are worked out; you prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Rem That is what I had in mind as to occupying the place that was the Lord’s, because one can see the fitness of it. As regards His sacrifice, His service, it was good and acceptable and in accord with the perfect will of God. It is a wonderful thing, that endued with light, and in the sense of the grace of God, we can take up that position.
JT It would be helpful to see that christianity is established in this world on moral grounds: that there is that here which has been proved superior to all other things. Religions have been enforced on the ground of theory — mohammedism and the like — but christianity is established here on grounds that are moral.
GWW Even the law was pretty much on that ground — the law laid down a rule to be adhered to.
JT The basis which Romans lays in our souls is that one is consciously superior to everything in the world. You do not feel that you are giving up, or losing anything. Romans impresses upon you that things are morally greater in christianity than in anything existing here; therefore, we have at the end of this chapter: “If therefore thine enemy should hunger, feed him; if he should thirst, give him drink ... Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”.
Rem What religion ever taught us to love our enemies? Nothing but christianity.
JT “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7,8). There is a good deal made of what is being done now in the world, but Romans eclipses [p. 142] that — nothing can come up to the moral greatness of what came out in Christ.
BTF Would you say we get a beautiful picture of kingdom truth here?
JT I think so — the moral superiority of it. This chapter gives us what is worked out in you. In the earlier chapters, up to the fifth, things are worked out through Christ.
JB Last month reference was made to mount Nebo. It was from mount Nebo that Moses beheld the land, and this chapter supposes that we are in the good of the land.
JT Conduct here is based on what God is towards us. It is not like Ephesians, where you are brought into the land. Here it is the result of what God is in Christ in the way of deliverance. It is the compassion of God here.
GWW I suppose what Romans contemplates is the sphere out of which Christ was cast, and in which the believer is set up, the moral traits of Christ coming forth. It is not so much the heavenly position.
JT The point which came before us in a previous reading was that headship is worked out in Romans on moral grounds. He is obviously the Head because of what He has shown Himself to be.
CAM If one gives up one’s life, as is being done in the world today, it is really a forfeited life which is given up.
JT The body of the believer comes into great prominence here. It is what has been divinely accorded to him now, as it were, given back to him.
WB-w Has the believer any other property?
JT He may have; but there can be nothing to compare with his body. It has been released from the dominion of evil, and is the only link we have with this present world.
Rem So that redemption is the great feature in it.
JFC It involves suffering. “He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God” (1 Peter 4:1,2).
GWW What really comes out, in the way the body is held, is the measure in which one has been affected by the light of God. The light is shining, but whether the light of God has really had its effect on the soul is seen in the way the body is held. One desires that we might increase in the apprehension of the light so that we may understand what is suitable to God. The soul is not held by rule, but by the measure in which it has apprehended the light of God.
Rem In other words, the power of your spiritual life is to be relative to the light of God presented to you objectively.
GWW Yes. It is well to bear in mind that the light is shining for everyone and the responsibility of all is to be in the full apprehension of that light.
JS It is a great thing to carry out the will of God in our bodies.
JT It is the beginning of the testimony.
ANW Is that the thought that the Lord brings before us when He speaks of the body and light? “If therefore thy whole body is light, not having any part dark, it shall be all light as when the lamp lights thee with its brightness” (Luke 11:36).
JT The body there is fully under the control of the light. There has been a full apprehension of the mind of God and it is shining out of the body in every direction. “The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light”. The light is received and diffused in the body so that the body becomes luminous. Not only that one has light for oneself, but he emits it.
[p. 144] Rem So this chapter raises the whole issue of what we are left here for. One has often said that if it were a question of fitness for heaven it would not require our being left here. The whole issue of our being left here is sharply raised in this chapter.
JT It is the beginning of testimony. God takes possession of the believer’s body and thus triumphs! That which was once dominated by sin, is now for the will of God.
GWW One is struck with the thought of that which shines out through the believer’s body. It is not what one says, but the way in which light has so completely got possession of the believer that his body is luminous.
JT It is a great triumph for God, that one who before has been governed by his own will, should now be here for God’s will.
GWW “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8).
JS Is not this more than light? It is more active, bringing God in, in a sense. He has a vehicle here for His will.
GWW The light has taken effect in the believer’s soul, and has done its work; one might say it has become life in his soul, and now it is coming out.
JS So we have a “living sacrifice”.
JT God has a vehicle for His will in my body.
WBW He wants us to prove it.
JT He comes in. God comes into the world on moral grounds in the way of testimony. He can come in at the present time, only through believers. Chapter 12 suggests what is the beginning really of witness.
Rem I would like to suggest that we get here in Romans the godly, intelligent believer in the wilderness prepared for Colossians, which will lead him across Jordan and prepare for Ephesians, association [p. 145] in the heavenlies, and that that prepares again for the coming out, as it were, in Philippians — a heavenly man walking — here.
JT I think that is right. Colossians is a step beyond Romans but Corinthians is parallel with it. Romans, first of all, brings in the boards for the tabernacle and in this chapter puts them together. The idea is that the believer is for God’s will. Then Corinthians enlarges on this: that the believer’s body is the Lord’s, that is, He has title to it, and it is God’s temple. This runs parallel with our passage because Corinthians views us as in the wilderness, but in a collective sense. This chapter goes on to show that we are not to think of ourselves unduly; it lays the basis for unity. One has surrendered his own will, and works out in his soul that God’s will is good, acceptable and perfect — that is the attitude. Then, “For I say, through the grace which has been given to me, to every one that is among you, not to have high thoughts above what he [p. 147] should think; but to think so as to be wise, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith. For, as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office; thus we, being many, are one body in Christ”. Not, ‘ye are the body of Christ’ yet; that is Corinthians, but we are “one body in Christ”.
Rem The boards are to be put together.
JT We are set up by the binding influence of Christ. It is not by any man’s regulation, or creed, it is that we are “one body in Christ”.
GWW Romans really prepares the individual for the collective thought that you get in Corinthians.
JT Yes, that is the idea.
GWW The failure at Corinth came in through individuals being bad Romans, if one might so put it. If they had been good Romans, the collective thing would have been in order. The failure was in the apprehension of Romans.
[p. 146] Rem Romans comes in with what is normal — it is not corrective — but Corinthians has in view the breakdown and the failure, and therefore is corrective.
JT Corinthians is distinctly collective. The saints are addressed as “the assembly of God which is in Corinth”, and, whilst it is a corrective epistle, it is also a constructive one.
GWW The Lord’s right over my body is more in connection with the company.
JT Romans brings in the triumph of God, and that triumph is great. The individual is taken hold of, and completely recovered to God in his soul. He does not merely acknowledge that christianity is right and superior to everything else which exists, but the man is now for God. So if you have a number of men like that, you have material for the dwelling place of God. This epistle lays the basis for independence of Jerusalem. Jerusalem previously had been the centre. This epistle lays the basis for independency of all that was earthly. Paul leads up to the thought of believers being put together as “one body in Christ”. The idea of “in Christ” is worthy of attention in this epistle.
GWW This chapter suggests the rings of gold attached to the boards of the tabernacle; it prepares for the collective position. The believer no longer thinks of himself as an individual simply, but begins to take account of his collective position as in the mind of God. This chapter is like the believer having his rings attached.
JT I would like to read again the verse which confirms that: “For I say, through the grace which has been given to me”. Take note, the apostle is not speaking here in an arbitrary way; it is, “through the grace which has been given to me”. He is speaking on that ground. “For I say, through the grace which has been given to me, to every one that is among you, not to have high thoughts above what he should think; but to think so as to be wise, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith”. I think we should note that expression. Each one is to think of himself so as to be wise. He does not say he is a cipher, but as it were, God has taken me up, and suited me for some thing. He has an estimate of himself according to God. As you say, he has a place in the structure and he thinks of himself “so as to be wise, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith”. For the reason that it is all to be living, and we are really only living according to the measure of our faith.
BTF The more you see yourself connected with the structure by the Spirit of God the more lowly it would make one.
JT One cannot be more, and one cannot be less, than what God has made one. God has made each of us something; but it is according to the measure of our faith.
CAM According to this verse there would be a danger of one thinking too much of oneself.
JT Yes, but there is a danger of being too humble minded, in a legal sense, so that the company of the saints is deprived of what God has given to you. Why should there be such long pauses when together? There is often such timidity which is really the outcome of false humility, that it tends to clericalism and as a result things are thrown into the hands of one or two. The idea here is, that each one has a measure of faith (if he has not, he is not a christian at all, and should not be in fellowship), and belongs to the one body in Christ, and so is to contribute to it. Verses 4 - 7 show how it is worked out; it is in the body, and it is “as God has dealt to each a measure of faith”.
CAM Do you not think it a difficult thing to arrive at — the measure of faith?
JT [p. 148] I do. But to form a true estimate of oneself is of great importance. Not to assume you are more than you are, nor pretend to be less. It is what God has made you, and involves the giving up of all fleshly sentiment amongst the people of God. We are then simple, free, and transparent with each other, and in our relations one with the other.
JS Alluding to the tabernacle, you have each board standing on its own sockets, but in relation to the others.
GWW I would suggest that, as well as the rings, there were the bars. The believer must accept his responsibility to take the bars. I think there are a great many who are glad for the sockets of silver, and for the overlaying of the gold, but the moment we come to the question of taking the bars there is a tremendous amount of work to be done. You do not want to let the bars go by without your having a link with them. The bars speak of the unity of the Spirit, and what the Spirit is maintaining here; the believer has to accept his responsibility in that connection.
JS According to the measure of faith.
JT It is the apprehension one has of the divine thought. It is only in thus apprehending that one can have one’s place in the tabernacle. “See ... that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount” (Hebrews 8:5). The pattern is Christ.
Rem In verse 3 we get: “As God has dealt to each a measure of faith”, but in verse 6 it is, “according to the grace which has been given to us”. The faith is dealt and the grace is given.
JS I suppose you really come to the divine pattern here. You have the reflex of Christ.
CAM A practical difficulty in my mind (granting you have a sense of the measure of your faith) is that we are told here: “As to honour, each taking [p. 149] the lead in paying it to the other” — how that is to work in all?
JT We have to wait on one another, and be subject to one another. So that what underlies christianity is the spirit of mutuality. That is always a check on clericalism.
WLP In what sense do we wait on one another?
JT There certainly ought to be, as together, a sense that there are others present who may have grace to participate as well as oneself.
BTF A great check to clericalism would be in souls entering into their responsibility as being in the body.
JT If we have neither faith dealt to us nor grace given to us we are not christians, but as having both we are obligated to contribute to the end that all should be edified.
Ques You were making a distinction between the body and what we have here, “one body in Christ”. What was the distinction?
JT Let us see how it reads: “For, as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office; thus we, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other”. Now, that is what is in the body. You have to go to Colossians for “the body”. Where you come to the expression, “of the body”, you have a definite thing, distinct from other things; so in Colossians Christ is said to be “the head of the body, the assembly”. That is the whole body. Here in Romans it is “one body in Christ”, because it is a question of laying the basis of unity. It is no more than that, you and I are members of the same body in Christ.
GWW It is the body looked at as present, at any given moment, in this world. It is that in which one is as long as one is here.
JMcN This is the body held in the sense of [p. 150] responsibility.
JT You take part in the meeting according to the measure of faith dealt to you, and grace given, not according to the measure of knowledge of doctrine.
GWW We apprehend what our present position is in relation to the divine system here, and if we get that in our souls, we shall understand how to conduct ourselves towards man’s system.
JT Chapter 13 shows how you conduct yourself in regard of the powers that are ordained of God.
GWW Yes. That is man’s system.
BTF These chapters not only give us instruction as to how we should act with each other, but supply important thoughts as to how we should walk through this world.
JT At the end of this chapter we read, “If therefore thine enemy should hunger, feed him; if he should thirst, give him drink ... Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”. That is a great moral triumph.
Rem Really, the turning point comes with verse 17. “Recompensing to no one evil for evil: providing things honest before all men”. All men are introduced. Then, it goes on to say, “If possible, as far as depends on you, living in peace with all men; not avenging yourselves, beloved, but give place to wrath; for it is written, Vengeance belongs to me, I will recompense, saith the Lord”. That is the turning point as to what is outside, and leads on to the way you should treat your enemy, and being subject to the powers that be.
GWW You cannot expect man’s system to regulate itself by the principles of christianity; but we are to be regulated by these principles.
JT Chapter 13 is dealing, not with christianity, but with what existed before it — government as set up [p. 151] by God.
GWW We have to learn that the blessed Lord came into this scene and found certain conditions here; He acted according to God in those conditions — He did not seek to change them. Herod was on the throne, but He did not interfere. He moved through it all to the pleasure of God. So, in our measure, we move through what was in existence before we came into being; we found it here, and must act according to God in relation to it.
JT What the apostle is dealing with is not what was set up at Babel, but in Nebuchadnezzar; he alludes to that government which had been introduced by God. It is remarkable that in Zechariah 6 the four gentile monarchs are alluded to as “the four spirits of the heavens”. It is a very remarkable fact that their government is out of heaven. The principle of it is that the heavens rule. This was introduced in Noah, had been taken up in Israel, and then in Nebuchadnezzar. It is of God; the christian is here and is not going to set aside that which is of God.
JDS That is very important. It is not that I have to submit to something which is evil; but to that which is ordained of God. The authorities are really acting for God in the sphere in which God has put them; it is their responsibility to do so.
JT If there is any man in the world who regards government in its right light, it is the christian. He has learned in his soul what the rule of God is morally, so that he can take account of government — what it is in the abstract.
Rem Another point the christian should observe is that it is not a question whether the ruler is good or bad; it is rule, therefore he is subject to it. Where this very chapter was written it is very probable that the one who was ruling was Nero or someone not much better. It helps us to see this, because if Paul could write thus under that rule, we can observe and obey under any [p. 152] rule.
JT There is no idea put forth that the government may not miscarry — those in office may dishonour the office. I suppose every one did. Nebuchadnezzar certainly did, and God virtually said to him: I cannot have government dishonoured in you, the first vessel I have taken up in this way: “They shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field ... till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will”. This was fulfilled, and at length the needed lesson was learned. “And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me”. As if God would give the world government through a man’s heart. So he learned that the heavens rule and, when he lifted up his eyes to heaven, he became as a man, instead of a beast (see Daniel 4).
JDS Is not the argument that government is good? The point in this scripture is not that it is bad, therefore I think, if we contemplate it as being bad, it is not exactly the idea in this scripture.
JT The gentile monarchs are symbolised by four horses which are said to be “the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth ... Then cried he upon me, and spake unto me, saying, Behold, these that go toward the north country have quieted my spirit in the north country” (Zechariah 6:5,8). So God, in that way, is served by these horses. They have not hearts like men; but He can control them. Over against that, in the same chapter, you have a Priest upon His throne, who isa Man. That is what we have.
GWW A brother came back from dwelling amongst savages, and was sitting at table with his host, when the tax collector passed in his bill. The host, rather grumbled about the tax collector and the bill, but the brother said, ‘If you had been where [p. 153] I have been, amongst savages, you would thank God for the tax collector’.
Rem I remember a man who was not a believer, but a prominent, intelligent man in the world, who said to me, ‘I would not like to live in any country in this world where the Bible was not respected’. It is the restraining power there is for good in such instances.
JT That there is provision made for the conscience of a christian by some governments today shows that God is overruling. We should recognise this, and thank Him for it. There will be no allowance made for a believer’s conscience under the beast (see Revelation 13). The dragon will give to him his power.