Romans | Take Up And Read!

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Good morning, welcome.

Please join me in opening your Bibles to the Book of Romans, the New Testament letter, known as the Letter of Paul to the Romans.

This morning, as Webb said, we're concluding our series on lessons for the local church from letters to the churches.

I have the intimidating, if not impossible, task of laying out the entire book of Romans for us.

Buckle up.

How do we do that?

There's any number of ways, probably, to summarize Romans in a single sermon.

No matter what, something's going to be left out and someone's going to be disappointed, including myself.

So how do we do that?

Well, here is my attempt to summarize the book of Romans in one sentence.

It is the power of God in salvation, and that power of God is potent enough to pulverize all barriers between God's people.

Romans teaches this by leveling the playing field for everyone, by basing our rescue from sin only in God's saving grace and faithfulness, and by expressing the compelling power of faith in the lives of God's people.

That's a lot.

And I know it's a lot.

So let's start over.

There are two incredibly persuasive accounts in church history that have guided much of the conversation about this letter to the people in Rome.

Most modern Christians are familiar with Martin Luther.

God stirred the fires of the Reformation by bringing Luther to saving faith through the first chapter of the book of Romans.

But another critical event in church history related to Romans occurred about 1200 years before Martin Luther.

A boy was born to a Christian woman named Monica in the year 354 AD.

She raised her son in the church, but he did not possess the personal faith in Christ that his mother did.

And as many young men do, he lived life his way.

He indulged himself in every possible way.

Like the prodigal son, this young man sought fulfillment in life's pleasures and joys, turning this way and then that way, seeking to find satisfaction, even coming to the point where nothing in life satisfied him, so he turned to philosophy and wisdom, and even there he did not find satisfaction in life.

One day, when he was thirty-three, this listless man thought he heard a child's voice chanting a Latin phrase over and over again.

Tole lege.

Tole lege.

Meaning take up and read.

For some reason, he thought it was a command to read the Bible.

The passage he read was Romans chapter 13, verses 13 and 14.

Romans 13:13

That man would later write, I neither wished nor needed to read further.

At once, with the last words of the sentence, it was as if a light of relief from all anxiety flooded my heart.

All the shadows of doubt were dispelled.

What an amazing statement.

Just from reading two verses of Romans.

Monica's once prodigal son, for whom she prayed continually, became one of the greatest theologians in church history.

His name is Augustine.

And we know his name, and we know his story, because he obeyed a voice crying out, take up and read, leading him to the book of Romans.

Unfortunately, though, accounts like Luther and Augustine have encouraged a tendency throughout church history to read the book of Romans in an individualistic sense.

That is, how it applies to me as an individual, how it describes my life as an individual, how it describes theology and God's work for me as an individual, what God does for me as an individual through justification, sanctification, and glorification.

And Romans does address those theological categories.

But the letter wasn't composed as the Apostle Paul's systematic theology of salvation.

Its intent was not to teach about individual salvation.

Now we're not directly told the purpose of the letter.

So to figure that out, we have to assemble some pieces.

We know it is a letter written to Christians in the imperial city of Rome.

But surprisingly, if you look at the first six, seven verses, it is not explicitly addressed to a local church.

It's interesting.

If you read Philippians, for example, it says to the to the overseers and deacons in the church in Philippi.

First and second Corinthians, to the church in Corinth.

Nothing like that in Romans.

It just says, verse 7, to all those in Rome qualified by who are loved by God and called to be holy ones, called to be saints.

Now, if you flip over to the last chapter of the book of Romans, chapter 16, the last chapter is dedicated, devoted almost entirely to specific greetings to some of those known saints in the city of Rome.

Romans 16 · chapter mention

And we find a hint of a church in Rome buried in a seemingly insignificant statement.

Again, Romans chapter 16, beginning in verse 3, the apostle Paul says, Greet Prisca, that's a shortened form of Priscilla, greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well.

Romans 16 · chapter mention

Greet also the church in their house.

Interesting.

Note those details.

The Apostle Paul expects this letter to be read by Christians who are not necessarily part of the assembly of believers in Prisca and Aquila's house.

He's saying, you're going to be reading this and you know about the church over there.

Why write to believers in Rome who aren't part of that assembly, but are expected to know about it?

You can't determine the purpose of the book of Romans without answering that question.

The takeaway is that this letter appears to be directed to believers in Rome, but not directly to an organized church.

The primary recipients, the first hearers, don't appear to be part of a local assembly of believers.

Some believers were clearly meeting in a home.

But the letter was written more to those not meeting with the believers.

What's that about?

I'd like to spend the rest of our time this morning answering that question and seeing then how the power of God in salvation is potent enough to pulverize all barriers in our local assembly.

To do that, we need to see in broad terms that the letter does indeed address matters of the gospel and salvation.

Let's go all the way back to chapter one.

We'll begin working our way through this book kind of systematically here.

Romans chapter 1 and verse 16 may be among the most well-known New Testament verses, where the Apostle Paul says about himself, I am not at all ashamed of the gospel.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

Why would you be ashamed of the gospel when it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

The power of God in salvation.

We can easily miss this statement's intent if we aren't careful.

The apostolic focus is not primarily on the gospel.

The focus is not primarily on salvation.

His focus is on the power of God.

His focus is on the power of God that is seen, that is displayed, that is worked out in salvation.

The power of God brings salvation in a way that impacts people.

Specifically, different groups of people.

To the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

I suggest that we find the heart of the apostle's letter to the Christians in Rome in that last phrase.

The signs point to division among Christians in Rome.

There was division in Philippi because people were proclaiming the gospel with wrong motives, and because some women couldn't get along.

In Corinth, division existed because of social power, wealth, influence, and the acceptance of sin.

But in Rome, the division appeared because Jewish Christians were not willing to unite with Gentile Christians and vice versa.

So you have a small church in one home and a bunch of other Christians throughout the city refusing to gather together.

Now remember, Paul hadn't been to Rome yet.

So an apostolic foundation for the church had not been laid in place.

So in place of that, and perhaps even to prepare for his arrival, he sent those divided people a pastoral letter overflowing with applied salvation theology.

You cannot take up and read the book of Romans without coming away with the awareness that theology matters for the Christian life, and that theology matters for the local church.

First, we see the Apostle Paul address the equalizing nature of sin.

Everyone is condemned between chapter 1, verse 18, and chapter 3, verse 20.

As a cosmopolitan imperial capital, Rome was a hotbed for sin of all kinds, even among Christians.

So everyone is shown to be guilty before God, regardless of background, knowledge, position, wealth, whatever you want to say.

Non-Jews are the first focus in chapter 1, verses 18 through 32.

The Apostle Paul says that the world exists in a pit of ungodliness and unrighteousness.

The truth that God has graciously extended to all of humanity is grasped by sinful hands only to be thrown to the ground and trampled on.

Claiming to be wise in their renunciation of God's truth, the world without God displays their foolishness, their morons.

It stands condemned and without excuse.

In an incomprehensible reversal, the image of God with which He created mankind is quickly exchanged for the worship of created things, including self.

Now at this point, you can imagine the Jewish Christians nodding their heads in agreement.

Go, Paul.

Lay it on them.

We knew we were right.

That's what God has said all along.

Preach it.

And so chapter two begins.

Therefore, you have no excuse.

Oh man.

Every one of you who judges.

For in passing judgment on one another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the very same thing.

Who are you talking about, Paul?

He's speaking about the sinful heart that stands apart from others and offers judgment while sinning itself.

This becomes a transition from the Gentile peoples without God to the religious Jews.

Look in chapter 2 and verse 9, where he says, There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also for the Greek.

Later on in verse 11, he says, For there is no partiality in God.

Hear me clearly.

Chapter 2, verse 24, Paul quotes Isaiah 52, saying, The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

So the first step taken in this letter toward these separated Christians throws all of them under the bus.

Paul makes enemies of everyone by claiming they're all guilty.

What a way to gain support.

In chapter three, these two groups are combined with an influx of Old Testament references and quotations showing that none are righteous.

No, not one.

Why?

Because no one understands.

No one seeks for God.

Everyone is turned aside, and together they have become worthless in verse 12 of chapter 3.

No one does good, not even one.

It's so bad that even their throats are open graves.

They use their tongues to deceive, the venom of asps is on their lips.

Their feet are swift to shed blood.

He goes on and on.

Everyone's turned aside and become worthless.

There's no one who does good.

No, not even one.

And then we get down to verse 19, and he tells us in chapter 3, verse 19, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth might be stopped and the whole world held accountable.

Jewish Christians are not accepting Gentile Christians.

And the Gentile Christians are not receiving the Jewish Christians.

And the indication is that they're unwilling to come together and assemble and worship together as a result because each group thought better of themselves than they did of others.

So the shot across the bow from the apostle's pen evens the playing field.

Sorry for the mixed metaphors there, but you get it.

It's the apostolic equivalent of knock it off, stop it.

Your background as the worst of sinners handed over to the desires of the flesh, or as the religious one raised in the synagogue, has no bearing on your status in Christ.

All stand condemned.

God is an impartial judge, and everyone is guilty.

No human being will be justified in God's sight through their status, through their efforts, no matter what attempts they make to appease God's justice or work the divine system in their favor.

But the application goes beyond that to any self-centered, unrighteous division.

The apostle Paul might say to us, what are you people thinking?

What right have you to hold yourself up as a standard of righteousness?

Don't you realize you're a sinner?

Don't you realize you have no excuse?

Don't you realize that your own self-righteousness brings divisions among you?

Not a single person has a leg to stand on.

Satan, our enemy, loves and labors to bring dissension and disunity to God's people.

He loves having us at each other's throats.

And one of the primary ways that he does that is by elevating our pride and self-righteousness.

Because we think highly of our opinions and our perceptions.

We believe our informed consciences to be biblically correct without room for other views.

But Romans equalizes the playing field.

We are all guilty.

And if we're all guilty, we cannot look down on one another.

Brothers and sisters, we hear a different tune in Romans 1, 2, and 3.

If it is directed towards the believers in Rome who aren't assembling together because of their differences.

When read in that light, this beloved letter takes on the tone of a father setting his family down to lay out some ground rules.

Analyze your complaints, you Roman Christians.

You don't like the Jewish Christians.

You don't like the Gentile Christians.

You don't like the preaching.

It's too long and not enough application.

You don't like the services because they're too long and the room's too hot or too cold.

You don't like the music.

It's not uplifting enough.

You don't think the church is evangelistic enough.

To you, it's not friendly enough.

You don't think it's encouraging because it doesn't make you feel good.

You don't like those people there.

They're proud, stuck up kind of people.

You don't like the particular theology of that church.

You don't like how they exercise church judgment.

To all of us, Paul says check your self righteousness at the door.

Because we are all without excuse before a righteous and holy God.

Self-righteousness kept believers in Rome from being unified in Christ.

Now, some might bristle at this.

And I'm sure there were irritated folks hearing this letter for the first time in Rome.

This guy's just off his rocker.

I'm saved.

I'm not that kind of person anymore.

What right is he to level that kind of abuse at me?

How can you say that about me?

The Apostle Paul actually anticipates that sentiment.

With everyone equally condemned, he asserts that righteousness, salvation, justification is obtained through faith in Jesus Christ and that God's righteousness belongs to everyone who believes.

Everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Full stop.

Everyone.

And if you have risen out of that place of condemnation, your justification came only by God's grace through faith.

This is where the letter turns from sin to discuss the equitable nature of God's justice.

Chapter 3, verse 27.

What becomes of our boasting?

It is excluded.

See, the Gentiles can't boast that God rescued them out of their wretchedness.

And the Jewish Christians can't boast that God brought them to himself because of their religious privilege.

No, God is the God who saves both Jew and Gentile, and that work takes place in Christ Jesus, whom God Himself has put forward as the propitiation, as the satisfying sacrifice for sin that is to be received by faith apart from works of the law.

The only way that divine justice can remain, divine justice against sin, the only way it can remain and be applied to pagan sinners and religious sinners is if the same standard applies to all.

All are guilty, and the only way that God's justice can be satisfied is if God provides the satisfaction for his own justice.

And he put forth his own son.

At this point, the Jewish Christians are waving the red flag because Paul seems to be saying that their Jewish heritage and the law of God in the Old Testament aren't worth anything.

They're without value.

So Paul goes then to show them, listen, this is the way it's been all along.

In chapter 4, he says, even Abraham was saved by faith.

In the same way, just as Abraham was saved and God credited it to him as righteousness, in chapter 4, verses 24 and 25, he says, in the same way, it, righteousness, will be counted to us who believe in him who raised him from the dead.

Jesus our Lord.

The one who is delivered up, whom God delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

He says we stand together in our sin, and we stand together in our faith.

God is an equal opportunity condemner, and his justice is also equitable.

Race, position, status, wealth, power, none of those matter before God's justice.

Only faith in the finished work of Christ.

Faith in Jesus and His work on our behalf gains us equal access to the Father in chapter 5.

We are saved from the wrath of God in chapter 5, verse 9, reconciled to God in verse 10 of chapter 5, such that all of those who are enslaved to sin and death are freed by the grace of Jesus in chapter 5, verses 12, 13, 14, and 15.

That means, friends, that everyone who comes to faith in Jesus is now considered dead to sin.

Chapter 6, verse 7, for the one who has died has been set free from sin.

Jew and Gentile alike, the worst of sinners and the purest of the religious, are declared righteous before a holy God and freed from sin's mastery.

So God's holiness makes everyone equal before him in condemnation.

And then God's justice comes along and makes all who believe in Christ equal before him through grace by faith.

Then we get to chapters seven and eight that address how this invasion of the life of Christ into a dead and dying world works.

On the one hand, we see in chapter 8, verses 7 and 9, 7 and 8, that those who don't know Christ can't be expected to live according to God's standards.

Listen, listen, folks, all of this only applies to those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Everyone else still stands on the equal plane of condemnation.

But thankfully, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The rest of the world, we understand why they do what they do, and we understand that they still stand condemned before God.

They can't help it.

On the other hand, those Christians in Rome who in chapter 8, verse 14, are led by the Spirit of God, were to resist obeying that old master of sin.

Chapter 8, verses 18, 19, 20, 21, he says, listen, we we groan in this world.

We groan at the grief of death.

We groan at the pain of disease.

We groan at sin running rampant.

We groan and we long for God to make things right.

We long for our fullness of redemption, the complete removal of sin.

And in the meantime, we fight against the pull of that old life.

And we repeatedly find ourselves giving in to sin.

And when we do, it makes us look just like the rest of the world, only with clean clothes.

And that giving in to the old master undoes the unifying work of the Spirit in salvation.

So God, in his justice, his right way of working, took some of the evil, sinful Gentiles of the world and declared them righteous by faith in his son.

And he took some of the self-righteous Jewish people, including Paul the Pharisee, and declared them righteous by faith in his son.

And that righteous work of God is by grace, and it is a transformative grace.

That's why he can say in chapter 8, those whom God foreknew, he also predestined to what?

To be conformed to the image of his son.

And not just that.

Those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified.

And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

Listen, if you're in Christ, it's as good as done.

God will finish what he began in you.

You Gentile Christians and you Jewish Christians, you who think this way and you who believe that way because consciences vary, guess what?

God will use all of those differences in you that separate you and that self-righteously hold you apart that you think others are right or wrong about.

He will use all of those things to fulfill his work in you.

He will use all of those things to bring his people together to stand before him, righteous and glorified, because he works all things together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

So, in chapter 8, verse 34, there is this key question: Who is there to condemn?

The answer?

No one.

No one.

Who is there to condemn?

No one.

Because Christ Jesus is the one who was died, who has died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, and who intercedes for us.

If God the Son is interceding for his chosen people, who can condemn nobody.

So if the Jewish Christians are condemning the Gentile Christians, they're wrong.

If the Gentile Christians are condemning the Jewish Christians, they're wrong.

And we understand that now.

Because everyone's been condemned under sin.

And if we have escaped that place of condemnation, it's only by the grace of God through the giving of his son.

We have no place for self-righteousness.

Beloved in Christ, we have no room to look down on one another, for our sin has humbled us all.

And even when we stand in grace before the Father, all we can say is that His grace justifies us as a gift.

At this point, I can imagine the Gentile Christians cheering, preach it, Paul.

And that's when he shifts to the enduring nature of God's faithfulness.

Chapter 9, verse 6, he says, It's not as though the word of God has failed.

He reminds his readers that Israel came to believe that ethnicity gave them a righteous standing before God.

But Paul makes it clear, he says, listen, God has always said, He's always said that his justice and his mercy work through the heart, by faith, not by ethnicity.

You see, in God's program, ancient Israel's pursuit of righteousness, they pursued righteousness, but they pursued it through strict legal obedience.

And that strict legal obedience actually led them away from the obedience of faith, not toward it.

But in chapter 9, verse 30, we begin to see that those evil, sinful, terrible, no good, very bad Gentiles who didn't pursue the strict legal obedience, they actually discovered righteousness by faith.

The Gentiles were drawn toward faith.

So the Gentile Christians are then reminded that while they obtained righteousness by faith, while Israel did not, they can't be puffed up, they can't be proud, they can't be self-righteous, because God did not reject Israel.

For everyone, notice in chapter 10, verse 13, notice the equalizing element here.

Everyone, Jew or Gentile, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Chapter 11, verse 1, I ask then, has God rejected his people?

By no means.

If you have the Old King James, God forbid.

Absolutely not.

There's no way possible.

Granted, in chapter 11, verse 11, not all Israel was saved.

But God's faithfulness drew in the Gentiles, while Israel stumbled over the law instead of reaching out for faith.

So in God's faithful outworking of his plan, the faith of the Gentiles will eventually make Jews jealous, so that one day they, as an ethnicity, will turn to Christ in faith.

Chapter 11, verse 12.

So if you're following with me and you aren't lost yet, we're playing volleyball.

Verbal volleyball.

There's a back and forth from Jew to Gentile, from Gentile to Jew, back and forth, where he's anticipating what's going to be happening when they hear what he has to say.

He's anticipating how they're going to be stirred up, how the heart is going to rise up in its self-righteous pride.

So he levels the playing field again and again, first under sin, then under God's justice, then in God's faithfulness to his covenant promises.

When we get to chapter 11, verse 13, he turns back to the Gentiles and says, Don't be arrogant.

Don't be arrogant.

Verse 18, do not be arrogant.

He tells them in chapter 11, verse 25, don't be wise in your own sight.

You can't get much clearer than that, right?

God's work, he says, is primarily through the non-Jewish world at the present time.

But when the fullness of the Gentiles come to faith, ethnic Israel will turn in mass to Christ, chapter 11, verse 26.

And until then, non-Jews must not look down on Jews because they are still beloved by God, chapter 11, verse 28.

Now look at chapter 11, verse 20 32.

For God has consigned all to disobedience that he might have mercy.

Oh no.

God is faithful to his people Israel, even in their disobedience.

The current outworking does not say he's forgotten them in place of the Gentiles.

He says, No, that's all part of it.

Because God is bringing all kinds of people to himself.

So no one in Rome and no Christian in Grand Forks can righteously look down on another person and claim superiority because of God's work on their behalf.

We cannot declare a greater righteousness and status because of God's grace to us at any time.

God will be faithful to all of his promises, a faithfulness that rests in his righteousness and justice, by which he extends his grace to the greatest of sinners and the most self-righteous of religious folks.

Chapter 11, verse 36, for from him and through him and to him are all things.

Translated, it's not about us.

To him be glory forever and ever.

Amen.

The theology of salvation, including the equalizing nature of sin, the equitable nature of God's justice, and the enduring nature of God's faithfulness, has been applied to Jewish and non-Jewish Christians.

And now beginning in chapter 12, all the way through 15, verse 21, we see that theology applied to relational life by expressing the effective nature of the believer's faith.

If you have genuine faith in Christ, your faith works itself out in life.

Sinners justified by faith and declared righteous before God through faith in his atoning work are to display that divine saving grace.

First, in chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, toward God.

In chapter 3, through verse, I'm sorry, chapter 12, verse 3, through self-reflection, don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to think.

And then toward others, chapter 4, chapter 12, verse 4.

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are now one body in Christ and individually members of one another.

As the Apostle Paul instructed Philippian believers to consider others more significant than themselves because of Christ.

The Apostle Paul encourages the Christians in Rome, don't think more highly of yourself than you ought.

Instead, think of yourself as part of this one body because of what God has done for you through Christ to save you from condemnation.

He urges them, verse 3 of chapter 12, to not think more highly of themselves than they ought.

Chapter 12, verse 16, he urges them, never be wise in your own sight.

Chapter 12, verse 18, live peaceably with everyone.

And so it goes on in multiple areas of Christian life, submission to authorities, working things out and loving one another, how to consider one another when you have disagreements and there's judgment going on, how not to cause others to stumble.

And finally, in chapter 15, looking to Christ.

He says in chapter 13, verse 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh.

Live out the life of Christ.

Chapter 14, verse 19, pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding.

You can't do that if you're thinking only about yourself.

When we get to chapter 15, I think verse 5 and 6 summarize the charges.

May the God of encouragement and endurance grant you to live in harmony with one another.

What does that look like?

Well, it means in accord, in being like Christ, that you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

They weren't welcoming one another.

And to the apostle from a distance, he sees that they're not welcoming one another because they don't understand what God has done in salvation.

In accordance with Christ Jesus.

Friends, we act as unsaved, unjustified, fleshly, self-centered, truth-rejecting heathens when we set ourselves up against others in the body of Christ.

We appear as pompous, self-righteous sinners when we hold on to our consciences without regard for weaker believers or as bully pulpits for our ways.

And so the apostle's bold reminder, look what he says in chapter 15, verse 15, on some points I have written to you very boldly.

His bold reminders to the Roman Christians were intended as a fatherly, stop it with a smile.

He says, I love you.

And you need to understand what God has done for you.

And how what God has done for you works its way out toward one another.

He grounds his labors of writing and the power of the gospel to pulverize the barriers between God's people.

It's an applied theology of the doctrine of God's saving power to those who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.

Now we can't use this to say that the church should never have differences or disagreements.

But it does say that properly applied theology of God's saving grace at Faith Evangelical Free Church should spur us onward to humility and harmony, living out the life of Christ with unified voices that glorify God.

May we hear and obey Tolege take up and read so that God might inform our hearts, our minds, and our consciences to welcome one another in this way.

Lord Jesus, may it be done.

May by your spirit you work powerfully within your people.

Lord, I think I can I can say that your people don't intend to stand in self-righteous pride, but it just happens.

May you use your word to help us look clearly and carefully at our own hearts and our own minds and our own spirits, so that you might do a work in us that you intended to do in that group of believers in Rome.

That you would unite us by the power of the gospel, shattering our differences and our distinctions, so that we might with one heart and one voice praise the God of heaven.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.