Romans 12.3c-Justifying Faith Is The Objective Standard By Which All Christians Can Form An Accurate, Objective Opinion Of Themselves
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday October 1, 2009
Romans: Romans 12:3c-Justifying Faith Is The Objective Standard By Which All Christians Can Form An Accurate, Objective Opinion Of Themselves
Lesson # 403
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 12:1.
Tuesday evening we noted the Pauline prohibition in Romans 12:3, which forbid the Roman believers from thinking more highly of themselves than they were obligated to think.
Last evening we continued with our study of this verse by noting the command that appears in contrast with this prohibition, which calls for Paul’s readers to think so that they think properly about themselves, which as we noted is accomplished by obeying the command in Romans 12:2 to renovate one’s mind.
This evening we will wrap our study of Romans 12:3 by noting that thinking properly by renovating one’s mind is consistent with the objective standard that the Father distributed to each believer without exception by which they can accurately and objectively form an opinion of themselves, namely justifying faith.
Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:3, “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”
“As God” is composed of the relative adverb of manner hos (w($) (hoce), “as” and the articular nominative masculine singular form of the noun theos (qeov$) (theh-os), “God.”
The noun theos refers to the Father since the articular construction of this noun in the New Testament commonly signifies the first member of the Trinity.
The relative adverb of manner hos functions as a comparative particle.
This indicates that it is making a comparison between the manner in which the believer thinks when he is renovating his mind through the Spirit and the Word and the objective standard by which the believer is to form an accurate and objective opinion of themselves.
This indicates that thinking properly about oneself by renovating one’s mind is “consistent with” the objective standard God the Father has distributed to each and every believer without exception, namely justifying faith.
Renovating the mind through the Spirit and the Word involves the believer learning about his new position in Christ and appropriating it by faith.
The believer’s new position means that the Spirit has identified them with Christ in His crucifixion, (spiritual and physical) deaths, burial, resurrection and session.
The implication is that the Father now views them not on the basis of their sins and transgressions and having sin natures but rather as crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ.
The Father now views them as He views His Son, not as the second person of the Trinity but identified with these events in the life of our Lord.
The believer’s new position in Christ emphasizes that the Father views the believer on the basis of the merits of Christ rather than their own merits.
This is consistent with justification, which teaches that the Father justified the believer on the basis of the merits of Christ and His substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the Cross.
Therefore, renovating the mind by appropriating by faith one’s new position in Christ is consistent with justification in that both emphasize the merits of Christ and who and what He is and what He has accomplished for the believer rather than what the believer has done for himself on his own merits.
Romans 12:3, “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”
“Has allotted” is the third person singular aorist active indicative form of the verb merizo (merivzw) (mer-id-zo), which means “to distribute” and is used with the Father as its subject and faith in Christ, which justifies the sinner as its object.
“To each” is the adjective hekastos (e%kasto$) (hek-as-tos), which functions in a distributive sense meaning, “each and every one,” referring to each and every justified sinner without exception regardless of race, gender or social status.
“A measure of faith” is composed of the accusative neuter singular form of the noun metron (mevtron) (met-ron), “a measure” and the genitive feminine singular form of the noun pistis (pivsti$) (pis-tis), “of faith.”
In Romans 12:3, the noun metron refers to the “objective standard” by which all Christians are to measure themselves, which Paul identifies with the noun pistis, which refers to justifying faith.
The noun pistis refers to the sinner’s faith in Christ, which results in the Father imputing or crediting His righteousness to the sinner that results in Him declaring the sinner justified.
Pistis refers to the non-meritorious system of perception of placing one’s “trust” or “confidence in” Jesus Christ as one’s Savior, which results in the imputation of divine righteousness, which in turn results in the Father declaring the sinner justified.
That metron refers to justifying faith is indicated in that all believers have this faith in common, which emphasizes that they were all saved on the merits of Christ rather than their own merits.
The object of the justified sinner’s faith is Jesus Christ indicating that the justified sinner is accepted by the Father on the basis of the merits of His Son and His spiritual and physical deaths on the Cross.
No Christian can ever and should never consider himself or herself superior to another Christian or inferior for that matter because they are declared justified by the Father on the basis of His Son and His substitutionary deaths on the cross.
Therefore, metron signifies that justifying faith is the objective standard by which all Christians are to measure themselves.
Since faith is non-meritorious emphasizing the merits of the object of the justified sinner’s faith, it will thus give the Christian a proper opinion of themselves in that it will humble them since God the Father declared them justified on the basis of the merits of His Son and not based on their own merits.
Corrected translation of Romans 12:3: “In fact, by means of the spiritual gift, which was assigned to me for the benefit of myself and others I say for the benefit of each and every person, namely those who are at this particular time living among all of you not to think more highly of oneself than what one is, as an eternal spiritual truth, obligated to think. On the contrary, make it a habit to think so that you think properly about yourselves consistent with the objective standard God the Father distributed to each and every person without exception for their benefit, namely justifying faith.”
Therefore, from our study of Romans 12:3, we can see that Paul is exercising his apostolic authority, which he calls a gift that he received from God.
This gift he says was not only for his benefit but for their benefit.
Thus, giving his readers an example for them to follow in that their gifts like his are designed not simply for their own benefit but for the benefit of others in the body of Christ.
From this apostolic authority, Paul issues both a prohibition and a command.
In the prohibition, he says that he does not want his readers to think more highly of themselves than they were obligated to think.
They were obligated to think in a manner consistent with the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit in the Word of God.
Specifically, they were to consider themselves crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ.
Thus, they were obligated to think by renovating their minds, which he commands them to do in Romans 12:2.
Then, in the adversative clause, Paul issues a command to his readers to think so that they think properly about themselves.
The means by which they were to do this is not explicitly mentioned by Paul in the command but is clearly implied from his command in Romans 12:2 to renovate their minds.
Thus, his readers were to think by the renovation of their minds, which would result in them thinking properly about themselves.
Renovating the mind involves prayer and learning and obeying the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit through the teaching of the Word of God.
Specifically, it involves the believer learning about his new position in Christ and appropriating the Spirit’s teaching in this epistle with regards to this new position.
Again, they were to consider themselves crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ.
He then teaches that they were to think properly about themselves consistent with the objective standard the Father distributed to each one of them without exception, namely justifying faith.
Therefore, he is commanding his readers to think properly about themselves by appropriating by faith their new position in Christ, which is consistent with justifying faith since both emphasize the merits of Christ and who and what He is and what He has done for them.