Romans 14

Using Your Liberty Well

Text: Romans 14

Introduction

We live today in the land of the free. Sometimes people will develop the attitude, “Well, it’s a free country and I’ll do whatever I want!” While they do live in a free country, they tend to forget it is a free country governed by certain laws. You could say, there is a law of liberty every citizen should honor and respect if they love this country.

The Christian is described in scripture to have been made free in Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:2 “2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

Galatians 5:1 “1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

Galatians 5:13 “13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”

James 1:25 “25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”

James 2:12 “12 So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.”

God knew that we not only needed guidance to repentance and faith in Christ, but also on how to live in order to not make those Jesus died for stumble as they live to honor and serve Him in their daily lives.

This passage will shut the mouths of those who are highly opinionated against those who don’t do things exactly like them.

VERSES 1-4

The church at Rome was to welcome into its fellowship those Jewish believers who were finding it difficult to let go of their religious past. Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 251.

(v1) “Receive” — means to welcome in

This teaches us that Christians and the local church should be governed by the gospel.

This also teaches us that we must leave the work of transformation to the Holy Spirit.

Don’t receive them just to debate on petty preferences.

God has never commission us to become a judicial body to make pronouncements on things that really don’t matter.

Paul mentions to groups of Believers:

First, those he called “weak in the faith.”

This was those who had yet to fully grasp how the gospel effected dietary laws.

They only ate vegetables.

Second, those he called “strong in the faith.”

There were others who understood that one’s diet was not restricted to vegetables only.

What would be the tendency of those eating meat toward those remaining within the confines of old dietary laws?

Could create an attitude of superiority.

It really depends on where you stand along the spectrum.

Someone’s hopeless fundamentalist could be someone libertarian.

Quote: “The Christian is not to despise or treat with contempt those who are still working through the relationship between their new faith in Christ and the psychological and emotional pressures of a previous orientation.” Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 252.

On the flip side, those who refrain from eating everything should not spend their time judging those who do.

Their tendency is to condemn those who are enjoying a greater freedom.

What easily happens here is believing what is wrong for me is wrong for everyone else.

LISTEN…God has determined what is right and wrong, righteous and sinful. Paul is discussing the petty things of their past rituals.

(v3) “God has received him”

Let this help you to refrain from criticizing others.

To have a exclusive attitude is to not meet God’s approval.

(v4) The prerogative belongs only to God (master).

Both parties will stand because God is their strength to stand.

VERSES 5-8

There was considerable diversity in the early church. Some believers regarded certain days as more sacred than others. Old Testament law had declared that feast days were consecrated to God in a special way. The Sabbath, for instance, had its own set of regulations. Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 252.

You also had people who regarded every day the same and believed each day gave equal opportunities for worship and service.

KEY POINT — Be fully persuaded in your own mind.

Dealing with one’s own conscience.

You can only be convicted for yourself.

Be fully persuaded because our lives are lived to honor the Lord.

(v7) “none of us liveth to himself”

This is not the same as John Donne’s quote, “No man is an island.”

Paul is saying that everyone lives accountable to God.

Whatever decision you make about food or special days, you don’t do it in isolation away from God.

Every believe should make decisions about their observances according to God’s will as best to their understanding.

1 Thessalonians 5:10 “10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.”

VERSES 9-13

Paul now gives the final clause “For this very reason.”

Paul explains the purpose of Jesus’ death and resurrection; Jesus is Lord both of the dead and living.

Paul then asked a question in v10.

In other words, “Why are you passing judgement of one another when you are not their judge on those things…God is their judge and he will judge.

Quote: “We stand before God in the awful loneliness of our own souls; to him we can take nothing but the character which in life we have been building up.” (William Barclay)

(v10) There is no room for this kind of censorious and harsh judgement in God’s family.

Matthew 7:1 “1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.”

Matthew 7:16 “16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?”

(v10) Believers are not judged regarding one’s salvation, but according to their works.

1 Corinthians 3:13–15 “13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. 14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”

What people do with their life is the best indicator of genuine faith.

Notice v11

Isaiah 45:23 “23 I have sworn by myself, The word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall swear.”

Philippians 2:10–11 “10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

(v12) All will give account to no one but to God.

(v13) The best thing for every believer to judge is whether they are becoming a stumbling block for their those in God’s family!