WWUTT 1331 The Measure of Faith God Has Assigned (Romans 12:3)

Romans 12:3 and the Measure of Faith

Romans 12 .3 says, for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

When we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Romans 12 as the Turn from Doctrine to Application

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in the book of Romans 12. And I'm gonna start out here by reading the first eight verses the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome. 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. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

Romans chapter 12 is really where we have a turn happening here in the instructions that Paul is giving in this letter. For the first 11 chapters, the first two thirds of the letter, he's been laying out a doctrine of justification by faith.

And this is the gospel, that our sins are forgiven when we believe in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for us as an atoning sacrifice and rose again from the grave. But now here in these latter five chapters, the last third of the book of Romans, he shows the church what it looks like then to be justified by faith.

If you say that you are justified by faith in Christ, if you call yourself a believer, a disciple, a follower of Jesus Christ, then what will that look like in your life? And that's what we have here in this latter portion of Romans.

So first off, by the mercies of God, it is by God's mercy that we are forgiven our sins by faith in Christ. And by this mercy that we have been shown, we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

So this is Paul pointing out that though he's been laying out some deep doctrinal truths in these first 11 chapters, this is not something that just exists in the mind, but it is something that will show itself transformatively.

I suppose that's a word.

Yeah.

The transformation will be demonstrated in a person's life. When this renewal that they have received by faith in the gospel through the Holy Spirit that has been poured in their hearts, it will be seen outwardly by the way that they live.

And this starts with Paul saying that you are to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Think of this in contrast with Gnostic teaching. I don't know that Paul was necessarily writing here in opposition to Gnosticism, but we could certainly set Gnosticism against this and see the contrast.

So Gnosticism believes that everybody has this internal light we're all inherently good people. It's the flesh that's corrupt. It's material things that are sinful and the world is what causes us to be bad.

So we're not inherently bad people. It's the world around us that's bad. And so the Gnostics teach that eventually you're gonna die. Your body will become nothing and your spirit goes on and lives forever.

Whatever is spiritual is perfect and is eternal. Whatever is material is inherently evil. So it actually doesn't matter what you do in your body. It has no ramifications on your eternal soul since what is a part of the body is physical and it will just melt away and perish.

Whereas what is spiritual is eternal and it will go on and live forever. Therefore, what's spiritual is perfect and what is material is bad, is evil. That's the way that the Gnostics would teach that.

But what Paul shows here would be exactly contrary to Gnostic teaching by saying that you must be holy in your body. What you do in the body absolutely has eternal ramifications on your soul. Or as we would understand it, at least in the context of what's being presented here, that what you do in the body is a reflection of your soul.

What has happened to your soul now by faith in the gospel of Christ is it has been brought from death to life. You were previously alive in your body, but you were dead in your sins and transgressions in which you once walked.

But when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, that which once was dead inside you has been born again. It has been brought to new life in Christ. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me.

Paul says in Galatians 2 .20, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live unto God, he goes on to say. So here in the life we live in the body, we are to be holy and acceptable to God. And this is our spiritual worship.

So there's no disconnect here between the way you live in your body and who you are according to your spirit. The two are interconnected. Your spiritual worship is going to be the holy living that you are committed to as a follower of Jesus Christ.

And Paul goes on to say in verse two, not to be conformed to this world. That's who we were before we came to Christ. We were children of wrath like the rest of mankind is what Paul says in Ephesians 2 .3.

We were conformed to the world. We were perishing with the rest of the world, but now by faith in Jesus, with the transforming power of the gospel, we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

Now, this is something that is continual, it's ongoing. There is definitely an immediate transformation that must take place, that you no longer want worldly things, you desire God. So there's that transformation of the mind that has happened but this renewing of the mind implies that there's a daily thing that is going on.

So you're consistently having your mind renewed. As we live in this world, the world is throwing stuff at us all the time. There's toxic messages that you're getting every day, especially if you're on social media.

It could be everything from telling you that you're good just the way you are. Believe in yourself, follow your heart, do what feels right, do whatever makes you happy, no matter what that might do to other people.

That's just mild examples of some of those messages that might come from the world. So from that to things that are more specific, like sex is not for marriage. In fact, you're kind of weird if you think that sex is only supposed to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife.

Transgenderism, that's perfectly a natural thing. The Bible is not true. And if I don't believe it, then I don't have to do what it says. Or the world will even try to tell us what it means to be a good Christian.

Like if you're not empowering this group of people, then you're not being a good Christian. Jesus was just a great prophet or a great philosopher or whatever. They'll even try to tell us who Jesus is apart from what is said in the scripture.

Those are some other examples of specific messages that will come from the world. And we daily have to have our mind renewed to keep us from being swayed by these worldly things. Satan is described in Ephesians 2 as the prince of the power of the air.

His satanic message is going out all the time. And we need regular cleansing of our minds through what we read in the scriptures. Our commitment to the Bible, seeking God's will according to what has been written down for us here by God's prophets and apostles.

This is what is going to renew our mind, taking every thought captive and making it to obey Christ. And we need to be at this daily. If at any point we start to languish in our commitment to God's word, that's when the world's thoughts and philosophies and things like that are gonna start to take hold and they will dominate our thinking.

You can have messages posted on billboards that are clearly evil. For example, I remember when I was much younger, I would drive to work and I would have to pass this billboard every day that was advertising a gentleman's club.

Well, a strip club is not anything gentlemanly at all. That's just part of the wickedness of this advertising, making you think that you're doing something manly by being a part of this sexual immorality.

Even a message like that is communicating something that I daily have to take captive and submit to what God has said in his word, not letting the desires of my flesh take over, not letting worldly thinking lead me into sin and destruction, but it is through the word of God that we are set on a right path.

Remember what we read last week in our Proverbs 3 devotional on Thursday. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. In Psalm 119, 105, we are told your word, God's word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Another way of saying this, be transformed by the renewal of your mind so that by testing you may discern what is the will of God. And we cannot know what God's word says to us. We cannot follow this in a way that is pleasing unto God, becoming that holy and acceptable living sacrifice to God in our bodies that we are supposed to be.

We cannot do this without the transforming power of the Holy Spirit of God in our hearts who has regenerated us that we may hear the gospel and believe it and so live. And that life that we now live in the flesh is not according to the flesh, but it is according to the spirit of God that lives within us.

What is that going to look like on the outside? And this is what we have here in Romans 12, being a living sacrifice. Now I've spent really the first dozen minutes here going back to verses that we looked at last week, but here in verse three, we have, we're gonna start on this today.

I'm gonna come back to it tomorrow and go a little bit further, but here Paul expounds even more. We have the general instruction here that in view of the mercies of God, knowing that you have been saved by faith in Jesus Christ, you're to present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

No longer conformed to the world, transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may have the mind of Christ so you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. And everything we find in God's word is that which is good and acceptable and perfect right here in the Bible.

The Grace Given to Paul and the Measure of Faith

So now going to verse three, Paul starts to get more specific as to what this looks like. We have the general instruction in verses one and two. Verse three, we start talking about the gifts of grace.

God has shown us grace, the mercies of God, and now the gifts that he has given to us when exercised will demonstrate that we have that renewing of the mind, no longer conformed to the world, no longer pursuing the things of Satan, the works of our flesh, but instead we desire God.

And so Paul says in Romans 12, three, for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. So this statement by the grace given to me, this actually goes back to something that Paul said in his greeting to the letter.

In Romans one, about verse five, he says that in Jesus Christ, we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations. This is something that Paul has been called to as an apostle.

He is able to speak with a certain authority to the church that God has given, Jesus has given to his apostles. The word of an apostle was the same as the word of Christ itself. So that's the authority by which Paul is speaking with here.

He does this very humbly. He's not saying, hey, I'm in charge, so listen to what it is that I say. He approaches this with meekness and with grace itself. Romans 12, three, again, for by the grace given to me, he has been given grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of the name of Christ among all the nations.

So it's in that grace that Christ has shown to him, though he was once a persecutor of the church, now as a Christian and an apostle, by the grace that has been shown to him, he says to the church something that will bring about the obedience of the faith.

And here is what he says, by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. This is a command of Christ that's coming from Paul here. The way that he has started this is really to make reference to who he is as an appointment that has come from the Savior himself.

By the grace shown to me, I'm telling you, this is an instruction from the Lord. Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

The faith that we have does not come from us, it is rather a gift that comes from God and the measure of faith that we have, how that faith might be exercised within the body of Christ, all of that is a blessing that comes from God.

So let's consider this a piece at a time. Let's take your overall faith that you have in Christ, where did this come from? Well, it is the blessing of God. Ephesians 2, eight and nine says, it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no man may boast.

Now we're certainly talking there about salvation but the faith that we have in Christ Jesus who has given us our salvation, this is not something that we manifest on our own, you don't sit there and concentrate and boom, you have faith, I'm gonna sit here, I'm gonna believe, boom, okay, now I have faith and now I'm saved because I'm justified by faith, right?

So I did this thing, it is not a result of your works so that no man may boast, it is God who blesses us with this. Hebrews 12, one and two says, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

He is the founder and perfecter of our faith, he is the one who gives us this faith and he is the one who grows us in it as well. Consider Philippians two verses 12 and 13, where it says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Yes, it is you who believes, you have heard the call to believe in Jesus Christ and be saved, you've done that, but you've done that because it is God working in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure, you would not be able to follow this command if it was not for the regenerative power that has occurred in your spirit by the Holy Spirit himself who has done this for you, raising you from death to life, that you may in your life honor Christ with your whole body, that you may be a living sacrifice unto the Lord and this is your spiritual act of worship.

God is the one who gives us this faith and he apportions the faith that we have, everybody's faith, the measure of faith that you have received, it is to be done with faithfulness unto God for his glory, it is not your work, it is to give all the glory and the recognition to God.

Now, you may have a measure of faith by which you are not called to be a teacher, but there is something that you have been called to do and whatever gifting it is that you have received by the spirit, use that to the benefit of God's church, so you're using that to benefit others, hence why Paul says here, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned and then he expounds on exactly what that means, as in one body we have many members, not all the members have the same function, so we though many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another and then he talks more specifically about individual gifts, having gifts that differ according to the grace that is given to us, if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, you may not have a gift of teaching, but you have been given something to do in the body that you may be a benefit to the body, that you may grow in your sanctification and help others grow in their sanctification as well and we're gonna talk about these things some more as we go on from this tomorrow, so today was Romans 12, three, we'll jump into verse four tomorrow, as in one body we have many members and the members do not all have the same function, so we though many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another, let us pray, heavenly father, we are so grateful to you for this grace that you have shown to us, we were as good as dead men and women on our own, we had sinned against God, if left to ourselves, we would have surely perished in that sin under the righteous judgment of God, but you have shown mercy to us, you have given us grace through your son Jesus Christ, that by faith in him, we would be forgiven and now we may live a life that is holy and acceptable to God, where previously we were wicked, sinful, depraved sinners, unworthy of the presence of God, you have made us worthy by faith in your son who died for our sins, may we continue in this faith, growing in this faith, maturing all the more as we commit ourselves to the word of God, so that we may be transformed by the renewing of our mind to know what is good and acceptable and perfect, according to God's word, we pray this in Jesus name,.

Amen.

This has been, When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes, find all our resources online at www .wutt .com. On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, thanking you for listening.