WWUTT 1386 Glorify God for His Mercy (Romans 15:8-13)

Christ Came to Serve and Fulfill God’s Promises

Jesus Christ left his throne in heaven, put on flesh and became a man and served, that we may now have an example to follow as we have been called to serve one another when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Find all our videos online at www .wutt .com, as well as links to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Romans, chapter 15 is where we are, and picking up where we left off last week. So I'm gonna start by reading verses eight through 13. The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome.

"'For I tell you that Christ became a servant "'to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness "'in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs "'and in order that the Gentiles "'might glorify God for his mercy.

"'As it is written, "'therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles "'and sing to your name. "'And again, it is said, "'Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. "'And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, "'and let all the peoples extol him.

"'And again, Isaiah says, "'The root of Jesse will come. "'Even he who arises to rule the Gentiles, "'in him will the Gentiles hope. "'May the God of hope fill you with all joy "'and peace in believing, "'so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, "'you may abound in hope.'".

Christ the Servant to Jews and Gentiles

Now, this is an interesting sort of a shift that's happening here. This almost looks like we've left the topic that we were reading about in chapter 14 and then the first seven verses of 15, where Paul is saying, "'We who are strong have an obligation "'to bear with the failings of the weak.

"'Those who are strong should not despise "'those who are weak in faith, "'and those who are weak in faith "'should not pass judgment on those who are more mature.'". That's been the instruction that we've had over the last chapter, a little more than a chapter now, and closing that section with saying, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

So we're not dividing against one another, quarreling over opinions. We're actually finding ways in the church that we can serve one another and be unified together with Christ. Don't be looking for those ways that you can be divided from each other.

That's not our aim or our goal. We're unified together in Christ. We're one body with many parts, back to Romans 12, verse five. And so as we are of that body, each part of the body needs to be serving the rest of the body so that it builds itself up together in love.

So our goal is Christ, to look at Jesus, to be one with him. And in so doing, we're building each other up into Christ. That's what we're doing together as the church. That's been the instruction throughout 14.

And then again, those first seven verses of 15. So then we get to verse eight, and it says, for I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs.

Okay? So now given the context, you know that Paul's not just wandering off into another Jew Gentile lesson here, like pulling in this theology from the Old Testament. Well, the Old Testament was always pointing toward how the people of God were gonna be Jews and Gentiles together in Christ.

Okay? Paul is not just wandering off into talking about that again. He's drawing that into understanding why we serve one another for the glory of God. And remember that our example is Christ. Going back to verse three, Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, in the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.

So consider what Christ gave up for our benefit, and not just for the Jews only, but also for the Gentiles. Go back to the statement that Paul makes about the gospel at the very beginning of the letter, Romans 1 16.

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. It was proclaimed first to Jews, then it goes to the Gentiles, and all who believe in the gospel are one people in Christ, Jew or Gentile, there is no distinction as it says in Romans 3 22, for we're all one in Christ.

So looking at Christ as our savior, as our unifier, as our example, Paul comes to this again here in verse eight to say, I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised. Remember the words of Jesus in Mark 10 45, for the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And he became a servant to the circumcised, who were the circumcised? The Jews, those who were descended in the line of Abraham who had received the covenant of circumcision. Now, I don't think here that Paul is making reference to just true Jews.

I don't think he's talking about those that were only the keepers of the promise. He's making a reference to everyone who was really ethnic Israel. That's the reference here, because Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness.

So he was a servant to all of Israel, not just those who were going to be genuine believers. That makes sense, you understand what I mean there? He preached the truth of God to everybody. He showed himself as a fulfillment of those Old Testament prophecies to everyone, whether they believed in him or not.

So in this way, he became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, proclaiming God's truth to Israel, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

We've had Abraham as our example talked about in Romans chapter four, and we can know whether we are Jew or Gentile, that Abraham is our example. He is our father. He is a father to everyone who is a follower of Jesus Christ.

As it says in Galatians chapter three, it is those who are followers of Jesus who are the children of Abraham. So any one of us can look at Abraham as our example. That's not just something that is exclusive to those who are ethnic Jews.

So God gives a promise to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob that through them, all the nations would be blessed. I just read this with my children recently because we've been going through the book of Genesis.

So in Genesis 26, God gives a promise to Isaac, just as he gave to his father, Abraham. And he says to Isaac, sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you for to you and to your offspring, I will give all these lands.

And I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham, your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

Same thing God said to Abraham, he says here to Isaac. In Genesis 26, and again says to him there, in your offspring, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. How are we blessed through the offspring of Isaac?

Because we have faith in Jesus Christ, who is a descendant of Isaac. And in Jesus Christ, all the nations of the earth are blessed. Everyone from anywhere on earth who has faith in Jesus is blessed, approved by God, because we have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us by faith.

Statement that was made back in Romans 3. Jew and Gentile, there is no distinction. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And we 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.

So in this way, as we see all these peoples from anywhere in the world putting faith in Jesus Christ, we have a confirmation of those promises, the truthfulness that God had given to the patriarchs thousands of years ago, long ago.

Christ confirmed these things by his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, he reigns on high in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. Romans 15, nine, all these things in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, mercy to Gentiles.

And we read about that also in Romans chapter nine, that God has shown mercy to the Gentiles. We who likewise were rebellious against God had broken God's law, even though we didn't know there was a law for us to break.

We were deserving of the wrath and judgment of God, yet he has shown us mercy through the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born in the line of Judah, fulfilling the promises that were made in the Old Testament, dies on the cross for our sins, rises again from the grave, tells his disciples to go out and preach the message of the gospel, the message of repentance to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem, then to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

That's the commission that he gives in Acts chapter one. So that ends of the earth, that's where it gets to us. As he goes out from, the disciples go out from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth, we have heard the gospel, we have come to faith, and therefore we have been blessed by God, just as he promised to the patriarchs that through them all the nations of the world would be blessed.

This word nations is synonymous with Gentiles a lot of times when we see it come up in the Old Testament. And then Paul gives those examples. So we go on from there into, well, verse nine, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, and then we have our first reference.

As it is written, therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name. Now we find this reference in a couple of different places. It's in 2 Samuel 22, but that's also Psalm 18. So we find it in both spots.

2 Samuel 22, verse 50. For this, I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations and sing praises to your name. Great salvation he brings to his king and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.

And David's offspring is not limited to those that were gonna be in the line of David that would sit on the throne of Jerusalem. We're talking about even Christ who is an offspring of David. And then everyone who is in Christ gets to be called children of Abraham.

So we have the blessing of God through faith in Christ. And among the nations, God is praised and his name is extolled. So we have that in 2 Samuel 22, 50. We also have it in Psalm 18, verse 49. For this, I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations and sing to your name.

Now that's not exactly as we have it said here in Romans 15, nine. It says in Romans 15, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name. And when we looked at these two Old Testament references, it says, for this, I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations and sing praises to your name.

Well, the references that we have in the Old Testament are to the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. So whenever we see those Old Testament references in the New, they're referencing the Greek translation of that which was formerly Hebrew text translated into Greek.

Now, it's not that those Hebrew texts ceased to be exist because when we have the Old Testament that we have today, whether you're reading the English Standard Version or the New American Standard Bible or the New King James, whatever translation you're reading from, those Old Testament texts that you read in English were taken from the Hebrew, the oldest Hebrew texts that we have record of.

And that's so that we can have the most accurate translation according to what was originally written. The New Testament was written in Greek so that it might be read by Jews and Gentiles. Koine Greek was the common language of the world at that time.

And so therefore, all the references to the Old Testament are going to be to the Greek Old Testament, not the Hebrew Old Testament. So the Greek translation of the Old Testament was the Septuagint. So there's gonna be some differences.

Whenever you do your cross-referencing, when you're cross-referencing something in the New back to the Old, you're gonna notice, well, the words aren't exactly. If I was doing a cross-reference here in the same Bible, then I would expect the cross-reference I'm looking at in the New Testament to look just like the reference to the Old Testament.

Well, they're not gonna be exactly the same since what you're reading in the New Testament comes from the Greek Old Testament and we've translated from the Greek into English. And what you're reading in the Old Testament comes from the Hebrew Old Testament and we've translated from Hebrew into English.

So that's why there's some differences in the wording there. But whenever we read nations, I think we need to be careful of the context, but whenever we're reading nations in the Old Testament, more often than not, we're seeing a reference to Gentiles.

So the word in the New Testament becomes Gentiles, which is a non-Jew. Anybody who wasn't a Jew was referred to as a Gentile. Sometimes that word pagan can be synonymous with Gentile. So we're talking about those who were not Jews to whom had not been given the oracles of God.

And yet even among them, among the people that were not the promised people of God, that were not the descendants of Abraham, to whom had not been given a land promise of that spot there in the land of Canaan that they would eventually inherit and drive the peoples out of and inhabit their cities, that was fulfilled with Joshua leading the people into the land and taking it over.

And then you have the story of the Old Testament that goes pretty much from the book of Joshua to Esther. Everything that's in there, you're seeing the fulfillment of that land promise that had been given to Israel.

That's not the fulfillment of the promise of the Gentiles praising God. That wouldn't happen through any other means except through Christ. He is the one who brings together Jew and Gentile into one people of God who praise his name.

Therefore, I praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name. And again, it is said, rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. That's a reference to Deuteronomy 32, 43. And there, if you look at that in your English Bible, it's gonna say, rejoice with him, O heavens, bow down to him, O gods, for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries.

That definitely looks a lot different the way that we read it here in Romans chapter 15, but that's the reference. And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let the peoples extol him. That's verse 11, and that is cited from Psalm 117, one.

And then again, Isaiah says, verse 12, the root of Jesse will come. That's from Isaiah 11. Even he who arises to rule the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles hope. So what's with all these references? Why is Paul saying this?

Again, go back to verses eight and nine. I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, which by the way, that was the promises given to the patriarchs, that the Gentiles would glorify God for his mercy.

And we're seeing that fulfilled. And Paul's pointing that out to the church there in Rome, made up of Jews and Gentiles, that even among you, the promises of God have been fulfilled, that the nations are praising the Lord because of Christ who came from the line of Judah, fulfilled all the law and the prophets, and now Jew and Gentile together are praising the Lord.

So in light of that, because Jesus became a servant to confirm God's truthfulness, the promises given to the patriarchs, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, all of this was accomplished because Christ came and became a servant.

Therefore, we must be servants to each other. That's the point. I know it took me a long time to get there, but that's the point that Paul is drawing out of this. So he's not leaving what he said in Romans 14, and then the first seven verses of 15 to then make another theological argument about how we're all one people, Jews and Gentiles in Christ.

This is in the context of exactly the instructions that we've been getting over the last chapter and a half, that we may know Christ served to glorify God. So therefore we must serve one another as servants of Christ to glorify God.

Joy, Peace, and Hope in the Church

So in verse 13, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. May there be joy among you in the church, not quarreling, squabbling over opinions. You're not looking for ways to divide from one another.

You are together as one, lifting up your voice in praise to God, in peace, in believing. So let there be peace among us, not strife, not division over differences of opinion. We're looking for ways to be unified because our unity has already been purchased.

It's not like we're looking for unity. Okay, well, here we are as a church. I guess we're supposed to be unified. So let's look for ways to unify with one another. The unity has already been purchased in Christ.

We need to grow in that now. And that's the instruction Paul had given to the Ephesians in Ephesians chapter four, so that we are growing up in every way into him who is the head into Christ. When we are looking for ways to be divided from one another, we grieve the Holy Spirit.

So then he says in Ephesians 4 .30, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. If we've been sealed for the day of redemption, the Holy Spirit, we're sealed together.

So to stop trying to divide from one another and therefore grieve the Spirit of God, he goes on, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. That's the same instruction we're having here in Romans 15, that because Christ gave himself for us, he accomplished this through the promises that were given to the patriarchs down through the Jews, became a servant that the Gentiles might also know the mercy of God.

As Jesus Christ has done this, so we all must be servants of one another, the Jews serving the Gentiles and Gentiles even becoming servants to the Jews. So pointing that out at the church there in Rome, and that should be the way that it is with all of us.

It doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile, for again, there is no distinction. So you're not looking for, well, Jews in my church to serve, where some Gentiles that I can serve, we're all to be servants of one another out of service to Christ.

Remember the instruction that Jesus gave to his disciples in the upper room after he had washed their feet. This is John 13, starting in verse 12. Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right for so I am.

If then your Lord and teacher, if I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you.

And that's the same instruction we're finding here in Romans 15, eight through 13. May the God of hope fill you with all joy. We rejoice to be together. And peace, that there's peace with one another because we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ that was back in Romans 5, one.

Peace in believing in Jesus so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. Meaning that we're growing in this hope. We are helping one another and encouraging one another in the hope that we have in Christ, that we may help one another, prepare each other for that day when we will be with the Lord together in glory.

So be servants to one another. As Christ has set this example for us, let us serve each other to the glory of God. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this lesson today. Going back to what is said in Romans 15, four, whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

And that's what we've done here. Gone back and looked at even those Old Testament scriptures, those things that were written down thousands of years ago for our edification, that we would be encouraged, that we would look to Christ as our hope and seeing how you have planned these things from long ago and fulfilled them in your son so that by believing in him, we are unified, we're together as one in the body of Christ.

And as we look to him as our example, who served us, may we serve one another to the glory and praise of his name. Until we join you together in glory and live forever in that eternity, let us not lose our grip on that hope that we have in the present in Christ.

Life can get hard, people can get slammed with different things. When we're seeing a brother or sister beginning to struggle, may we become that servant to our brother or sister in the Lord and help to lift their gaze and remind them of the hope that we have in Christ.

May we love one another in these days. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.

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