Living It Out
Living It Out
Romans 13
March 18, 2007
Pete Newton, whom we support in his ministry to Stephen’s Village made the point at last year’s Diocesan Convention that we don’t simply believe in a gospel of inclusion (although there is a lot of truth in that statement), but in a gospel of transformation.
Nowhere is that more evident than in the chapter 13 of Romans before us today. The gospel, as we remember is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. For in the gospel – the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ – God has declared us righteous in his sight, solely through the sin bearing and substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus Christ received by faith.
By trusting Jesus Christ we have been given new life – life in the Spirit to enable us to live transformed lives. Thus, in Romans 12f Paul tells them what this transformed life looks like.
In chapter 12, this transformed life begins with a new look at ourselves, others, and also the body of Christ, the church. We are not to think too much of ourselves, but we should serve one another with the gifts God has given us.
In chapter 13, Paul turns to other obligations which the transformed life in Christ requires.
There is first our obligation to the government.
There is secondly, our obligation to the law.
Thirdly, the obligation to watch our own lives.
POINT ONE: Our Obligation to the Government v 1-7
The first obligation of the Christian – the transformed person – is submission to persons in the positions of civil authority over us.
This is a bit surprising, but not really if you think for a moment about the context of Romans. However, you may remember that Paul has said in chapter 12 that Vengeance is mine, I will repay says the Lord v 19
Perhaps some Christians thought this meant that evildoers will have their own way since only God, who obviously doesn’t stop all evildoers, is the only one who can judge and exercise vengeance, making Christians wonder.
However, God has appointed governments – governing authorities, who he says, are from God, instituted by God, appointed by him, and is God’s servant.
John Stott points out in his commentary that there have been several models of church/state relationship.
1. Theocracy – which we see in the Old Testament in which the church controls the state
2. Erastianism – the state controls the church
3. Constantinianism – the compromise in w3hich the state favors the church and the church accommodates to the state in order to retain its favor.
4. Partnership – church and state recognize and encourage each other’s distinct God-given responsibilities in a spirit of constructive collaboration.
Number 4 is close to what we have; however, we do need to be sure, I think, that church and state have different and God-given functions.
Along with the family and the church, the government is an institution which God provides for the common welfare and peace of all, and also of Christians.
Sometimes we try and kill this by exceptions. What if the government is tyrannical, what about the American Revolution? And then, of course, there is the example of Acts 5:29 (ESV)
29 But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men.
The early apostles defied the authorities when they were told not to spread the gospel. Of course, they also paid the price of imprisonment for their defiance.
The claim of the state is not absolute. Yet, the Christian responsibility to support and respect the state is what is given emphasis here.
Point Two: Obligation to the Law
Romans 13:8-10 (ESV)
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
The issue of the law has been a dominant one in the book of Romans. The law, referring to the OT, and to the demands of God in general has been shown to be a mixed blessing. Mixed, only in respect to the fact that we can’t keep God’s demands. The law reveals God’s will for us, and yet it condemns us because we can’t keep it.
Yet, we still have an obligation, as Christians to God’s law. We are not anti-nomian – that is against the law.
Notice in these verses that Paul mentions commands 6, 7 and 8. Further, he echoes the Lord Jesus Christ when he says that we are Love our neighbors as ourselves.
The claims of the state can be met; but the claims of love cannot. We must keep on loving.
How are we to think about love and law. Paul has said that we are no longer under the law, but under grace.
Romans 6:14 (ESV)
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
To be “under” means to be in subjection to; to be under the power of. To be under the law means that we are under its control; but to be under grace is to be placed under its domain – and happens through Christ our Lord and his liberating death/resurrection which puts us under grace.
Paul has said that the law has been fulfilled in us.
Romans 8:4 (ESV)
4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Why? Because Jesus Christ kept the law and therefore we can say, because of him, that the fulfilled in us, because he lives in us and we enjoy the fruits of his victory.
Therefore, we are now free to love God and our neighbor. Of course, sin still resides in us, but it no longer has us under control.
2 John 1:5-6 (ESV)
5 And now I ask you, dear lady— not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning— that we love one another. 6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.
Perhaps this passage will help us see what Paul means. We go the law, and tells us to love God and one another; and we go to love, and it says to go the law to learn how to love.
Love and law, for the Christian, go together. The law is banished as a way of salvation or even sanctification; but love, looking the law is the way it is fulfilled.
Further, the law, alone, cannot answer the complex questions we face day in and day out. Yet, these questions do demand answers and we must give them as best we can, meditating on the law and also desirous of loving our neighbor.
The other day at a minister’s meeting, the host raised a few very tricky pastoral questions which he had experienced, and asked us what we would do. Each question required not only an understanding of scripture, but they demanded that we think through how to love our neighbors and members of our congregations. They were not easy. There were no easy answers. And that is the way it is.
So, we do have an obligation to obey God’s law, but the first way we do so is by trusting Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the law, and the one to whom the law points. Then, we can deal with the tricky issues we face.
Point Three: I have no obligation to the flesh and the world of darkness
Romans 13:11-14 (ESV)
11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Incidentally, verse 13 – Romans 13:13 (ESV)
13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.
Were the verse which awakened the great Christian leader and theologian, Augustine, in becoming a Christian.
I have an obligation to the state; I have an obligation to the law of God, and thirdly I do not have an obligation to the flesh and the world of darkness around me.
These verses are addressed to Christians in Rome. It shows that even Christians are not immune from the works of darkness.
These Christians knew they lived in the new age of the Spirit. They were no under the law of God as a means of salvation; yet that does not mean they can play fast and loose with life here and now, as if they were above the moral commands of the Lord.
Christians are not immune from sexual immorality, drunkenness, quarreling and jealousy.
We say one thing; yet we may do something very different.
The picture of casting off the works of darkness parallels Romans 12:2 (ESV)
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
The Truth Project has brought this to light as well. We who are believers often do not think any differently about our culture than a non-believer because we would rather go with the flow than against it.
“So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” can also be another way of speaking of repentance.
“The patterns of behavior from which we must turn are those which characterize all people in their state of rebellion against God…” Romans 7, if you remember, speaks of the struggles of the ordinary Christian, and we are reminded of that here. But, we are not to feed those desires; but to make no provision for them; to starve them in some way, small and big.
Lent is a time to focus on our need of repentance and our need of self-control, and our need of the Lord’s grace and mercy so that we may see love fulfilling the law.
Summary
In Romans 12-13, Paul is offering us an ethic for a renewed mind. It is not easy to live in this world as a Christian.
An ethic of love
We don’t ignore the laws of God, but they are fulfilled when I love God and my neighbor as myself.
An ethic of justification
Justification or acceptance before God is through faith in Jesus Christ, not by works. Therefore, works or ethics are our joyful response to God’s grace.
An Ethic of effort
These are the thinks we should do. We are live out our lives and as we do, God works in them to work and will his good pleasure.