Today we’re moving beyond Paul’s salutation into the body of his letter to the Church at Rome.  If you’ve been walking along with us so far, I hope you’re as excited about what God has for us as I am.  Sometimes people will ask me a question about whether I know what I’m going to write on any given day.  The answer is honestly no.  There are sometimes when I bring my previous understanding of a text with me, and so I have an idea of what I am going to write, but more often than not God reveals something new that changes my plans.  That is what is amazing about God’s Word to us; as God Himself is without end, so too is the knowledge of Him found in His Word inexhaustible.  Moreover, God can and does use the exact same Word, the exact same message to pierce and sharpen each person individually – differently.  His work through His Spirit in us as our guide is amazing.  This is off topic, but I’m throwing this scripture about God’s Word in for free:

Hebrews 4:12 – “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

2 Timothy 3:16 – “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

See?  I didn’t plan on going there, but God has better plans than me.  🙂  On to Romans…

Romans 1:8 – “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.”

 

There are two things I want us to see today:  God’s Plan for a Community of Faith – the local church and to see “faith” as inseparable from how you live.

I remember hearing growing up and hear it even more today, that our faith is a “personal” thing.  Now, I’ve entitled this series through Romans “Reconnecting with the Gospel”.  While there is definitely a personal aspect of the gospel, the gospel is not primarily about individuals.  This is hard to take in, coming from a culture that idolizes the individual.  Likewise, our faith in Jesus, although it has personal aspects, should not primarily terminate on ourselves.  You see this throughout the Bible.  In the Old Testament, God delivered a people out of slavery in Egypt.  That was a picture of what Christ was to do.  Jesus, nailed to a tree, ransomed His bride, the Church, the true Israel, out of bondage to sin and death by His blood.  This is why it is a mystery to me that people can say that they are believers, but they don’t belong to a local church.  I understand no church is perfect.  I understand even church leadership can say and do hurtful things – I’ve experienced it personally multiple times.  There are times perhaps where one should move on from a local church body if they are unrepentant in blatant sin or preaching a different gospel, but if you move away from the church altogether, you have misunderstood the gospel.  The gospel is about a people together, ransomed for Christ.

 

Paul moves on to describe His thankfulness for all of those in the Church at Rome (plural), because your faith (singular) is proclaimed in all the world.  Many persons, singular faith.  Do you not stop to think that your faith is influenced by those around you?  What would your faith be without those around you at church?  Who would be your teacher?  Who would model mercy to you?  Who would demonstrate the generosity of Christ to you?  Who would show hospitality to the orphans and widows to you?  God has given us each other as gifts, that through each of us as the Church, we would see more clearly Jesus and the gospel, and our faith would be great among the nations.  Look at what God tells us:

 

1 Corinthians 12:14-27 – “For the body does not consist of one member but of many.  If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.  And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?  But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.  If all were a single member, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.  The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.  Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”

 

Ephesians 4:11-16 – “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faithand of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

 

So my exhortation in all of this is to love your brothers and sisters in Christ.  Extend extra grace to them, just has you have been extended infinite grace through Christ.  They need you and you need them.

 

Now, since I’ve already gone long in presenting my argument for a community of faith, I will appeal quickly to the inseparability of faith and how you live.

 

James 2:18-22- “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!  Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?  You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;” 

 

Paul rejoiced because the faith of the Church at Rome was proclaimed throughout the world.  How could that be?  Well let me tell you what it isn’t.  The world wasn’t rejoicing over the doctrine espoused by the Church at Rome.  Much like there isn’t going to be a tidal wave of new believers because I preach the sovereignty of God more fully than most.  It was the fruit of faith that was seen, and Christ being the foundation of that faith, He was glorified.

 

Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” 

 

Matthew 5:16 – “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

 

True belief will always be accompanied by works.  If you disagree with that, then next time you see a red light, just keep going.  Of course you don’t do that.  Why?  Because you believe that if you do you will get a ticket, likely wreck, and/or die.  So what you do follows what you believe.  Likewise if you believe that your sin was infinitely horrible, Christ bore the infinite wrath of God for that sin in your place, Christ rose triumphant over sin and death in righteousness, and now lives in you as the Holy Spirit sealing for you an eternal reward…. you’re going to live differently.  You don’t live differently to earn Christ’s approval, you believe that you were approved apart from your works and now you are a co-laborer with your Savior for His glory because of the great love you have for Him.  You can’t separate belief and action.  The Greek word used here for faith is pistis.  What we translate as “believe” or “faith” is usually that word in the Greek.  Unfortunately most people understand belief or faith to be merely head knowledge of a fact, but pistis carried with it an implicit understanding that actions would manifest the conviction you held.   This is how we are to understand the book of James, and the correlation of works with authentic faith.

 

My question then, is how would other characterize your life?  Do they see your good works and understand that they are born out of a conviction about Jesus and the gospel?  If you find that your life does not manifest actions corresponding to what you profess to believe, do you really believe?  These are hard questions worth asking.  Be encouraged, by grace as you draw near to God he will draw near to you.  Your glorification has already begun, and God is already working in you as believers to transform your understanding of and affections for Jesus.  Pray that God would continue to extend grace to us all who are in this good work together, that we as a community would build each other up in our faith, and that as a whole, the nations might lift up and praise the name of Jesus Christ.

 

Your Fellow Laborer in Christ,

Adam