The Book of Romans - Uniting a divided church

How do you unite a divided nation?

The 1860s was a difficult time in American history. The north and the south looked drastically different. The northern states were more industrialized and commercial. The Southern states were more agrarian. But the biggest issue seemed to be that of slavery. Many northerners wanted to prevent the expansion of slavery - some even wanted to abolish it completely. In the south, slavery was central to their culture and economy.

President Lincoln was elected in 1860. The year of his inauguration, 11 states seceded from the union - forming a southern confederacy. Politicians and people in the north saw this as an “unconstitutional” and “unthinkable” act. In order to preserve the union, military action was initiated and the Civil War began.

After four years of fighting and hundreds of thousands of lives lost - mostly in the south - the nation had remained together and the slaves were freed, but was there unity?

Laws were passed in order to enforce the outcome of the war. Reconstruction sought to restore economic health to the devastated nation.

Do laws address the heart of the matter?

Even in the wake of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 - there were other laws and actions that skirted around the issues and continued to keep many African Americans in a subservient and slave-like status. Other laws were passed that segregated housing and schools.

The boundaries of our nation were intact, but the heart of the nation was divided.

Can laws change hearts? How do you unite a divided nation?

In the years since the civil war, we’ve seen gradual changing of hearts and attitudes. Laws are continuing to be passed in order to unify the nation, but at times it seems like there is along way to go.

The division that our nation experienced is not completely unlike a division that the Apostle Paul addressed in the book of Romans.

Today, we’re going to dive back into our long series considering God’s Story in Scripture.

In the Old Testament we learned that God made promises that he fulfilled in the New Testament (Dever). We also learned about how God created everything, humanity corrupted the creation with sin, and then God entered into covenants with various individuals and the people of Israel in order to bring restoration to the corrupted world.

Eventually, that restoration was revealed in the four Gospels in Jesus Christ as he lived a perfect life, perfectly fulfilling all that God expected, and then died on the cross as a permanent payment for the cost of our sin.

We saw in Acts how Jesus established his assembly of people who have been called out of their sin - into a relationship with him and in fellowship with one another into what we now call the church.

Much of the remainder of Scripture is made up of letters to various churches. The letters are organized by author and then by size from largest to smallest in these categories.

Open your bibles to the book of Romans. Let’s consider the division and how the author seems to address that.

Introducing Romans

The opening greeting tells us that that it was written by Paul (Rom. 1:1). Paul was from Tarsus and grew up as a very devout and zealous Jew in the tradition of the Pharisees. As a Jew, he fervently persecuted the church until God miraculously called him on the road to Damascus. In the subsequent years, Paul used his knowledge of the Jewish scriptures - the Old Testament - as a foundation for sharing the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews). Eventually, as Paul planted churches throughout modern day Turkey, Greece, and Macedonia.

And yet - the church in Rome, the recipient of this letter, was not started by Paul.

In fact, it’s unclear exactly how this church got started. Some speculate that it was residents of Rome who were in Jerusalem during the Pentecost and the later persecution (Acts. 2; 8). In any case, a church was started - and it seems that it was made up of a mixture of Jews and Gentiles.

In AD 49, Emperor Claudius expelled all of the Jews from Rome. It appears that the dispute between believing and non-believing Jews had created such a disturbance in the city that all of the Jews were expelled. This is actually how Paul came to meet Priscilla and Aquila, two of his greatest allies in the advancement of the gospel (Acts 18:1-2).

Now, this expulsion of Jews from Rome left the church with only Gentiles. So, for about five years, the church continued to meet as a gathering of gentile believers.

When the Jewish believers returned to Rome, it seemed that it resulted in a bit of a disturbance again. The gentile Christians had established some new norms without the Jewish religious rituals - like Sabbath, circumcision, and certain eating practices.

Purposes for writing the letter

Several scholars suggest that addressing the division in the church is one of Paul’s primary purposes for writing Romans. And yet, when you look at Romans, Paul doesn’t address this disunity head-on; he addresses it at the root - at the foundation - with the Gospel. He seems to seek to unify the church by giving them a full and complete understanding of the gospel and how it is needed for everyone - and the result that it will have in the church (Rom. 1:16-17).

There also seems to be another purpose for the book - that is that Paul is working to establish a partnership with the church for further ministry. It’s almost as though the entire letter becomes his Philosophy of Ministry in order to garner their support for further work in Spain:

Romans 15:22–25 ESV

This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints.

We learned in Acts that it was on this trip to Jerusalem where Paul was arrested and then after two years of imprisonment was sent on an arduous journey to Rome. Many suggest then that Paul wrote this letter around AD 57 from the city of Corinth (Roughly 8 years after the expulsion of the Jews from Jerusalem, and three years following the return of the Jews).

Framework

Before we dive into the book, I want to remind you of a framework that seems to be present in many of Paul’s letters - and it is present here in Romans. At a very broad level, Paul’s books can be divided into two sections:

Indicatives - truths about God, Christ, us, the church

Imperatives - actions that need to be taken in light of those truths.

Here in Romans, we see that pattern hold true:

Indicatives about God, humanity and the gospel - chapters 1-11

Imperatives regarding how we should live in light of those truths - chapters 12-16

As we consider the book of Romans today, we’re going to be launching from a more detailed outline of the book that has been assembled by the guys at the Bible Project as Paul speaks to this church.

First of all, we see that...

“The Gospel reveals God’s righteousness” (Rom. 1-4)

Romans 1:17 (read from the Bible) talks about that the gospel reveals God’s righteousness. But what does this mean?

The Apostle Paul helps us to see that there are several truths (indicatives), that we must understand.

God is the one true God and His nature is able to be known by everyone. (Rom. 1:19-20)

Romans 1:19–20 ESV

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

In this section, Paul seems to be talking directly about Gentiles who were far from God, arguing that there are qualities about God that are evident. There are things in all of creation and the universe that speak plainly to God’s power. I think that this is why we see the presence of some form of a worship of God in every society - and yet there are those who choose to ignore what is plain to see.

A second argument that Paul makes here is that...

Everyone - Gentiles (Rom. 1:18-32) and Jews (Romans 2:1-3:8) are trapped in sin.

Paul seems to be helping the church at Rome understand that both Gentiles in their innate sinfulness and Jews in their rebellion in the law are guilty of sin and are thereby trapped. They are on equal footing. No one is better, no one has an advantage.

He then goes on to say that...

Jesus became like us (human) in order to justify us (Rom. 3:9-31)

Sin has consequences. Sin deserves judgment because it misses the mark of God’s expectation. As Jordan and her boys showed us last week, the law helped us to see the ideal - our sin helps us to see that we need a Savior - someone who can perfectly fulfill that law.

Jesus is that someone.

Romans 3:21–26 ESV

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

So in the gospel, God reveals who He is, who we are as sinners, and what He did for us - sending Jesus. As a result of that, Paul helps us to see that...

Faith is the marker of God’s people (Rom. 4)

In chapter 4, the Apostle Paul talks a lot about Abraham and his faith. Of course Abraham lived before the law was given. He believed in the promises of God - just as we should. Since faith is the marker (as opposed to following a legalistic list of rules) - there will be no distinction between ethnicities or languages or legalism.

Romans 4:16–17 ESV

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

The gospel reveals God’s righteousness. It reveals not only that he is righteous, but that we are not. The gospel reveals that He has addressed our unrighteousness and our inability to keep the law by sending his son Jesus Christ. The gospel reveals that we get to receive His righteousness by faith.

Friend, if you are not yet a follower of Christ, I pray that you will consider all that God has done for you in the Gospel, embrace it by faith.

For those who do receive this salvation, the righteousness of God by faith, Romans helps us to see that...

“The Gospel creates a new humanity” (Rom. 5-8)

In these chapters, Paul helps us to see that all of us as descendents of Adam are in the same sinful situation. You see Adam (the first human) rebelled against God by being disobedient. Because he had no children before his sin, all of his children are born in that sin-infested nature. We all are in that same condition.

Romans 5:12 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

But we are made right with God - not because of our obedience to the law, but because of faith in what Jesus did for us.

Romans 5:15–17 ESV

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Now that we have been freed from the law of sin and death, we get to be baptized or immersed into a new family, a new humanity that is marked by love - by God’s love for us and our love for others. We get to turn aside from being slaves to sin and become slaves to righteousness.

Now, this new humanity in Jesus then almost begs the question - “why have the law at all?”

In chapter 7 - Paul states that law helps us to see what God’s will is, his ideal. It also helps us to see that we are unable to fulfill the whole law. So in many ways, the law becomes a light on our own sinfulness and our own fallenness (Romans 7:7-12).

Romans 7:7–12 ESV

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

So, even though Jesus has completely fulfilled the law and we can no longer be condemned by it, the law is still good and guides us into how we should live.

Paul concludes this section with a discussion on how Jesus Christ and our life indwelled by the Holy Spirit help us to live out this new humanity.

Romans 8:1–2 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

Because we have been saved by God through Jesus Christ and sealed by His Holy Spirit, we get to walk with great confidence knowing that...

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Oh what a joy to know that we get to be part of his family, part of this new, diverse body of Christ for eternity. We’re not bound by the law and are not condemned any longer by our flesh. Jew and Gentile get to be on one level playing field.

So, keep in mind for a moment the fact that there is this underlying conflict between the Jews and the Gentiles in the church in Rome. It doesn’t change the fact that the Old Testament - the law - made promises to Jews - to the people of Israel. Are those nullified by Jesus? What about the non-believing Jews - those who do not believe that Jesus is the promised messiah?

Paul next addresses that by helping us see that...

“The Gospel fulfills God’s promises to Israel” (Rom. 9-11)

In these chapters, Paul acknowledges that there are some Jews who are part of “ethnic Israel,” but are not truly part of the covenant community - and there always have been. He reasons that even though God chose Abraham - who believed before he obeyed any law, God did not choose all of Abraham’s children. Abraham had two sons - Ishmael and Isaac. Both were blessed, but only one, Isaac was part of God’s promise.

Again, Isaac has two sons - Esau and Jacob - and yet only one of them is of the promise.

We could spend multiple sermons and classes really diving into the intricacies of this argument - but it speaks to the sovereignty of God - the reign of God over all things. The will of God to choose whom to save. (Romans 9:13-18).

And yet there is an element of our response...

Romans 10:9–13 ESV

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

It seems like the whole point that Paul is getting at here is that God has always chosen those who will be a part of His promise. By His nature, He has the right to do so. In His grace and mercy, He has made a way for all of those who would believe in Jesus to be saved. In Jesus, God fulfills all of his promises to Israel. At this point, they can choose to believe - along with the Gentiles.

As Paul gets to the end of this part of his argument and this section of the book, it’s almost as though his mind is blown. He is exhausted his ability to understand the will of God, and so he says so...

Romans 11:33–36 ESV

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Now that he has concluded the indicative section of the book explaining how the gospel displays God’s righteousness, creates and new humanity, and fulfills His promise to Israel, Paul gets to the imperatives or the action steps for the church as he demonstrates how...

“The Gospel unifies the church” (Rom. 12-16)

The work of the gospel in our lives does more than just bring us salvation, but it should do something among us as well - as we do life together as His church.

For the church in Rome - the divisions that they were experiencing were real and deeply held. The knowledge that they had just received could have been both encouraging and challenging. All of their preconceived ideas and natural biases were shaken. So Paul encourages them with this familiar transition:

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Because of what they had learned, they must be willing to sacrifice. They must be willing to break with convention and learn a new way of thinking.

He then goes on to talk about how life in the church will be marked by

Humility (Rom. 12:3)

Unity as one body - though gifted differently (Rom. 12:4-8)

Love - as a genuine marker (Rom. 12:9-13)

Romans 12:9–13 ESV

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Imagine what it would be like for a Jewish brother or sister in Christ to look at a Gentile brother or sister in the same sort of love - outdoing one another in showing honor. Or today, what it would look like for a democrat brother or sister and a republican brother or sister Christ to move past their partisan opinions and truly love the way that Paul describes. Paul’s encouragement to promote unity through the bond of love is palpable.

Paul continues to challenge the divisions by encouraging grace toward each other on non-essential issues such as food or a day of the week or ethnicity in order to promote unity and healing (Rom. 14-15).

He then closes the book with some greetings - it’s unclear how he knows some of these people, since it seems he hadn’t been to Rome yet. In this closing, he also commends Phoebe - a servant or deaconess to them. It’s likely that she is the one who delivered the letter to them.

In thinking about the unity that Paul is after, it seems like there is a lot that we can learn, a lot that I can learn - especially in relation to brothers and sisters in Christ from other denominations.

David deSilva, a commentator, reflects on this in this way...

“We should bear in mind that disunity in the body is not an “indifferent” matter for Paul (or Jesus; recall the prayer of Jn 17). If we follow Paul’s instructions, we will allow that God can be honored by a variety of behaviors. God can be honored in drinking wine; he can be honored in abstaining from wine. God can be honored by worship on Saturday; he can be honored by worship on Sunday. God can be honored through high liturgy; he can be honored by low liturgy. God can be honored through a presbyterian form of church polity; he can be honored through an episcopal form of church polity. God can even be honored with music playing in the background of prayer times. But God is certainly not honored when one Christian condemns another, refusing to honor the work of the Lord in another person on the basis of disagreement over such matters—or worse, when one sister or brother despises or even hates another on such a basis.” (deSilva, 637)

Closing Thoughts

As we close, I want to take us back to the Civil War for a moment.

In the Spring of 1865 in the aftermath of the Civil War, white southerners were reeling from the new environment in which they found themselves experiencing, what historian Joseph Pierro called, “the total collapse of their political, economic, and social order.” The residents of the confederate Capital of Richmond dealing with the emotional and physical aftermath of the war - while trying to hold to some sense of normalcy.

One Sunday in June, the congregation at St. Paul’s Episcopal church gathered for worship and communion. One of those in attendance was General Robert E. Lee - one of the south’s leaders. As the Rector of the church rose to lead the congregation in celebrating the Lord’s Supper, the social strife outside the walls of the church made their way inside. In that church, people would stand by row, come to the front of the church and kneel at a railing to receive communion. Just as the front rows were beginning to stand, Pierro writes that “a well-dressed black man advanced to the altar and knelt before the railing. In that instant, centuries-old conventions of racial hierarchy and social propriety were being cast aside, and it literally paralyzed the attendees. There was absolute silence in the church for some moments, as the remainder of the communicants remained fixed in their seats.” Pierro continues, “Then, without a word, General Lee rose from his family pew midway down the length of the church on its eastern side. He strode down the aisle to the chancel rail and kneeled reverently alongside the stranger… Lee the living embodiment of the South had pronounced by his action an acceptance of racial coexistence, rejecting the differences between black and white in favor of a shared Christian identity. Lee’s fellow parishioners, who moments before would have recoiled at such a suggestion, followed their old commander’s example and began to do likewise.”

In that moment, Lee demonstrated the unity that the gospel brings.

Beloved, because the gospel so beautifully reveals God’s righteousness, creates a new humanity, and fulfills God’s promises, we get to live in unity with other brothers and sisters in Christ.

Let’s pray.

Memory Verse: Romans 1:16-17

Romans 1:16–17 ESV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Benediction

Romans 15:5–6 ESV

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Outline from: https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/romans

References:

Crossway Bibles. The ESV Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008.

deSilva, David Arthur. An Introduction to the New Testament: Contexts, Methods and Ministry Formation. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004.

Dever, Mark The Message of the New Testament: Promises Kept, Crossway Books, Wheaton, 2005.

Gromacki, Robert G. New Testament Survey. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1974.

Rothstein, Richard, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of how Our Government Segregated America, Liverlight Publishing, New York, 2017

The Bible Project: Romans Part 1, 2 videos. - https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/romans

https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/civil-war-and-reconstruction-1861-1877/overview/

https://www.historynet.com/praying-with-robert-e-lee.htm