Romans 12:1-13 What's that "Therefore" There for?

I'm Rich Pierce, and this is Let the Scriptures Speak. On the last episode, we completed

Romans chapter 11 and briefly discussed the first two verses in chapter 12.

Picking up in verse 1, we immediately find something that should grab our attention. Let's take a closer look.

In Romans 12, it begins with the word therefore, and many theologians,

Bible teachers, preachers, they will like to use certain phrases in order to get you to be able to remember the thing.

It's a memory device, and one of those memory devices is the phrase, when you see therefore in the

New Testament, you need to stop and find out what it's there for. It's cute and kind of corny, but it does make you remember it.

You'll probably never forget that phrase now, and when you see the word therefore, you do need to stop and look and find out what it's there for.

So in that way of thinking, we need to take a closer look. The Greek word for therefore is the word un, therefore, or thus.

It is a transitional word that takes us from one thought, one idea, and connects it up to the next thought, the next idea.

What is gone before is connected into what is to come next. If we were to put this into a formula, it might look something like this.

If or since x is true, therefore, execute y.

So the first question we need to ask in the formula is, well, what is the value of x?

What does it mean? If we apply it to the word therefore, chapters 11 connecting to chapter 12, we need to look a little closer.

We need to see what the value of x is. Ask some questions. Be curious.

The first question might be, is it connected to the doxology of verses 11 through 36, specifically verse 36?

What is the value of x? Is it that doxology? The next question that leads from that question is, if it is the doxology, what's loaded into that?

Because, you see, we see a situation where Paul has gone through explaining a series of things and then it culminates in him praising

God in a high fashion and explaining God's wisdom.

And we're going to go through all these different things here in a moment. But it leads us to that question. So what's connecting, if we look at verse 36, what's loaded into verse 36 is, at the very least, verses 33 through 35 or even all of chapter 11.

Or is all of chapter 11 what is connecting to therefore?

Is it referring back to that? Or the next question would be, is all of Romans up to this point, chapters 1 through 11, being connected to that word therefore?

I'm not saying any one of the three. I'm simply saying I want you to think about these things. We need to quiz these things.

We need to ask ourselves these questions and try to probe it so that we better understand the text and all of what has been said and, of course, what is about to be said.

Paul labors over the idea of what is to come next. So I skipped something here.

I need to step back here. So we have everything that's come before, maybe. What comes next is the result of the formula, a changed life leading to holy living.

So however we want to connect that is to the doxology, all of chapter 11, the entirety of the book of Romans so far, however we want to connect it.

What's coming next is a changed life that leads to holy living. So let's recap, starting at verse 32 of chapter 11, if you would turn with me there.

Paul has just finished explaining the ... I wrote that and I don't know why

I wrote that. I hate it when I do that. Paul has just finished explaining some things and this is supposed to flow.

Sometimes it doesn't flow. Paul has just finished explaining what God is doing, what he has done, what he has yet to do involving

Israel, the Gentiles, in ethnic and spiritual ways, taking the time to point out that God isn't yet done with Israel.

And in fact, in the process of warning that God isn't yet done with Israel, he warns against arrogance towards Israel.

This is, as I explained in the last couple of sessions, this is something that we're seeing very common in our day and time, a genuine hatred for the people of Israel.

And as the Gentiles are grafted in during our current time, we are in that place,

Israel is under a partial hardening.

He explained that to us. But yet, as Paul is laying this out, his focus isn't on what man is doing with God, his focus is on what

God is doing with man. And the point here for us as believers is that Paul wants us to understand what

God is doing so that we can have a right attitude towards what God is doing.

And Israel's regrafting, he explains, is yet future.

He explains all of these things to us in such a way as to emphasize God's actions with man rather than man's actions with God, concluding with a purpose statement in verse 32.

And let's read that. For God has shut up all in disobedience.

Who's the all? Well, he's talked about the time that God is working through Israel and with Israel, and now he's working with the

Gentiles. Put it all together, God culminates it with the regrafting of Israel, it culminates in all those activities, and it includes all of mankind.

So when Paul says that he's shut up all in disobedience so that he may show mercy to all, that's the end game.

God's end purpose here is to show mercy to all. And then he begins the grand doxology, as I call it here.

Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways.

Paul marvels here. He's marveling as he's just finished explaining these things and God's conduct and plan, the wisdom of God.

He praises the knowledge of God, and he praises the judgments of God, and he praises the mind of God, who has known the mind of the

Lord, he says, or who became his counselor, or who has first given to him that it might be repaid to him.

And then he concludes with this grand doxology, for from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever, amen. There's your grand crescendo.

Now I want you to notice in all of this, the focus. Paul's focus is on God, on God's actions, on God's purposes, on God's ways, and he glorifies

God for his wisdom, knowledge, judgments in all that God is doing as he has laid it out.

Now you may think that I've just violated some of your end times thinking. Maybe I have, but I didn't.

The apostle did. The fact of the matter is, no matter what your end times picture or worldview may be,

Israel's in it. We have a situation in social media these days where I'm noticing more and more of a particular group that is denying the existence of Israel in our day and time.

The idea here is that, I mean, I'm just roughly spitballing this, but the idea is that somewhere around the time of the

Talmud, Judaism as we know it from scripture disappears and is hijacked by the

Talmudic Jews, and so the Jews that we see referenced in the

New Testament no longer exist. That view is very problematic when it comes to the text of Romans 11.

Romans 11 spells out clearly a future action that God will be doing with the people of Israel.

How is it that they think God is going to be doing this if these people no longer exist? That just makes no sense.

So we need to keep this in mind as so many in our day and time are reacting to what

I believe is the feminization of men in the world, and they're overreacting in anger and in the desire to rebrand or bring back masculinity.

And somehow, someway, their anger and their rage and their malice gets focused upon the

Jews, and everything is blamed on the Jews, and conspiracy theories start to abound, and it just goes on and on.

But for Paul, Paul would put that in the category that we're about to look at, and that is the category of worldly wisdom or worldly thinking, and that's not how we are instructed to think.

The problem is what we're about to see in Romans 12 is oftentimes confused or identified as being feminine.

It's not feminine. For the man of God to stand his ground, feet firmly planted, and not give way to anything that violates scripture or is contrary to scripture,

New Testament scripture, the apostles' teaching here that departs from it, the man of God may face persecution.

That's not feminine. That's courage. That's spiritual courage, even in the face of so many martyrs that we have seen throughout the centuries as they face down so many of their days and times that would do them harm simply because they did not think in this worldly manner.

Instead, they thought scripturally, biblically, and spiritually. So let's get in to this as it proceeds here.

But before we do that, I want to focus here, I've got some new tools, because I keep trying to point at things here, and it doesn't actually work out that I'm pointing at the right stuff.

See, it doesn't quite work out. So I've come up with a new deal where I've got a little pointer here in my

PowerPoint, and so from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be glory forever. The conclusion is not about what man's doing with God, I've already said that.

This is important for us to understand. As we go back to our question, if you're seeing that, if you're seeing that God is the one in view here,

God is the one that's being focused upon, then we need to go back to the primary question of therefore and read it again, because this is a summation of what has come before.

So when we ask the question what it's there for, and we get our formula out,

I need to slow down, think through what I'm saying. Because X is true, therefore execute

Y. Well, what does that actually look like? I feel like I missed a slide here somewhere, but we'll come back to it.

Let's come back to that thought and proceed forward here, because I have a feeling it's further down the road here.

Therefore I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice.

I've kind of gone down the road a little bit here, but let's summarize here. First of all, he exhorts us.

This word exhort, let's go back, is parakaleo or parakalo, it is a verb, it's a present tense, active, indicative, first person, and singular.

It can also be translated as urging, I urge you or exhort you. So therefore

I exhort you, brothers, and what is the vehicle by which he gives this exhortation?

The vehicle is by the mercies of God. So his exhortation is coming from that point of view.

His exhortation is coming from that source. By the mercies of God, he's empowered to do this and encourage this and exhort this and urge this, and it is by the mercies of God that we are empowered to do it and follow through on it.

So let's follow along. So we see the vehicle is the mercies of God. What's the task?

The task is to present our bodies as a sacrifice. Sacrificial language is going on here.

Living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is our spiritual service of worship.

So as we look at our text here or our

PowerPoint here, the vehicle is the mercies of God. This is what takes us from point A to point

B. The task is to present our bodies as a sacrifice. The how is living in holiness.

That's what we've been instructed to do. The result is worship. So we are to present our bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is our spiritual service of worship.

And now he's giving us the contrast, the warning, and that warning is against worldliness.

Not to be conformed to this world. We're flat out told, do not conform to the world.

We're supposed to be different, not worldly. Conforming to the world should be something that is in our past because that is our natural state of being.

So what does this look like? What does conforming to the world look like? Well, one example we can find in Galatians chapter 5, verses 17 through 21 is called the deeds of the flesh.

These are the things, these are enumerated for us, and they come from our natural state of being, or what he might call the natural man.

This is how we, the natural man, behaves. So all of these things are enumerated for us there.

So he lays out a conflict now. And that conflict comes from being conformed to the world versus being transformed.

So he says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed. What does being transformed look like?

Well, I talk about the vehicles and the task, etc., well, here's another vehicle.

The vehicle, let me get my pointer out. So the vehicle for living in the flesh is conforming to the world, deeds of the flesh.

The vehicle for being transformed is the renewed mind. I actually got that backwards.

Conforming to the world, the vehicle is the flesh. These are in conflict with one another.

The renewed mind is a spiritual thing, not a natural thing, and it produces that transformation.

So in producing that transformation, there is a purpose behind it. And that purpose is that we live under the will of God.

It is the will of God, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect.

So the result is the one who approves the will of God does so through a changed life, which produces a new way of thinking versus the old way of thinking.

Now I want to stop and point something out here because it's easy to read this section here and understand it upside down.

The idea might be that we read it and we say, oh, I get to approve the things of God.

I get to approve what the will of God is, and take a subjective approach to it.

That's not what Paul is saying here. What Paul is saying is that the things of God are absolute.

The will of God is an absolute thing, and it is summed up in things that are good, pleasing, and perfect.

The natural man doesn't approve of these things. It's not pleasing to him.

But someone whose mind is renewed now has a changed way of thinking, a modified way of thinking, and in that he approves of the things of God for himself.

So now he's in agreement. Now he approves of them. Now he loves them.

So are you seeing it yet? Are you seeing the clear picture that Paul sees in the contrast versus living under the flesh and living by the

Spirit? Let's continue on. Back to our formula.

Let's look at this real quick. So let's sum up what we've learned so far and apply it to the formula.

Since X is true, or because X is true, therefore do

Y. X would represent the majesty of God, and Y would represent the renewed mind.

So let's read it. Because of the majesty of God, you are to live according to a renewed mind.

One produces the other, and one and the other is connected to the previous.

So if you have a renewed mind, if you're living according to a renewed mind, the renewed mind is so because of the majesty of God.

That's the connection to verse 36, and all that's poured into that. Are you seeing that?

And up here, let's read it, and we're not looking to skip all this, but I want you to see the connection.

Therefore I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Be transformed. So let's sum up. We did the value of X and all that.

What comes next is the result of the formula, leading to a wholly living, a changed mind.

So let's look at verse 3. For through the grace given to me, I say to each one of you, not to think more highly of then.

Well, let's back up. The apostle, first of all, is now to give some commands for how one is to think, how the renewed mind does think, and looks in the mirror and sees himself, looks at his fellow man, and the vehicle by which he's able to do this is the grace given to him.

So through the grace that has been given to him, he says to each one among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think.

There is a humility of thought that the renewed mind produces. But instead, you are to think so as to have sound thinking.

Well, clearly, arrogant thought isn't something he considers to be sound thought.

The renewed mind does not think highly of itself, but produces sound thought in contrast.

As God has allotted to each a measure of faith, he now again appeals back to what

God is doing in our midst, with the believers, with the people of faith.

And he talks about that God has allotted. This is something he is sovereignly distributing among us, and he's doing it through and by faith.

So God has allotted to each one of us a measure of faith for just as we have many members, he says, in one body, and all the members do not have the same function, he's using the body, this is what

I got stuck at a moment ago, he's using the body as his illustration, the human body, whether it's the hands, the eyes, the ears, the feet, each one of our members have different functions, but they all function in harmony, hopefully, in the function and the purpose, the greater purpose of the body itself.

So he's using that as an analogy. God sovereignly distributes functions among the body in order that the body may be fully equipped and properly equipped to perform its duties as an instrument in his hand.

So each of the members is an instrument in the hand of God, and the body on a whole is an instrument in the hand of God.

So we who are many are one body in Christ, he says, and individually members of one another.

So he's describing the connective tissue in the human body in comparison to the spiritual body of Christ.

We are to function in harmony, all going in the same direction, and that is the will of God, following the will of God.

So God is the one that's distributing the faith. Verse six, but having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.

So the body is functioning. Each one of us has a differing faith determined by God, not us.

It's not as we're lining up asking for this and asking for that. God's the one that sovereignly distributes these things.

And we have gifts also that differ according to the grace given us.

Who's the giver? God is. What are they determined to be? God determines them to be.

So it's all according to God's grace, and these are the gifts. So there are distinct functions. He describes the connective tissues and granting of gifts according to God's grace.

Whether prophecy in agreement with the faith, or service in his serving, or he who teaches in his teaching, or he who exhorts in his exhortation, he who gives with generosity, he who leads with diligence, and he who shows mercy with cheerfulness.

He enumerates all of these things for a particular purpose, and it is reflective of God's sovereignty within the body of Christ.

He's the one that's in charge of it all. Back to the exhortation again, the renewed,

I skipped something there, shows mercy with cheerfulness. The renewed mind produces love without hypocrisy.

This is really super important, and I'm going to stop here and camp out on this a second.

Let love be without hypocrisy. How do we let love be without hypocrisy?

By abhorring what is evil. Now, again, the context here is Paul is talking to believers within the body, the function of the body, and we as believers are to love each other without being hypocrites.

We do that by hating evil. So when we see evil creeping in amongst the body, we are not to look the other way.

We're not to be hypocrites. We're not to sloppy agape them.

We are supposed to call it out, and we do so by abhorring or hating the thing that is evil.

We see things in our day and time being promulgated by supposed believers.

Whether it's a violation of Paul's admonition against being arrogant towards Israel, or the things that we're about to see, probably in the next lesson, in what proper

Christian conduct looks like, every bit of it connected to the glory of God. If you believe in the glory of God and you love the glory of God, then you're going to do these things, and you're going to function with a renewed mind.

But if you have someone that is functioning in the flesh, doing fleshly things and calling them

Christian, that's hypocrisy, and we're to abhor it. So we have a number of groups, but primarily the ones that fall within the camp of Christian nationalism, that they accuse us of punching right.

Punching right. We're supposed to punch left, but we are punching right, and they're on our side, and we need to think like them, and we need to do things the way they tell us to.

The problem with that is that what they're advocating is not a product of a renewed mind, and we need to call that out.

And we're specifically told here, if I can get my pointer to work here, let's get the pointer out again, we're specifically told that we are to abhor these things.

So, we get the complaint that we are harsh on fellow believers, we are harsh on the brethren, we are mean to the brethren, but that's a hypocritical love, to overlook these things.

We're not looking to put up with it. We're not to put up with it.

Abhorring what is evil requires us to stand up and face these things down, and if necessary, put them out of the body, put them out of our thinking, and identify them for what they are, based on what they're advocating.

I can't know the spiritual state of another man, but if he's advocating evil things,

I am to hate the evil things, and I am to call him out for adopting those things.

So, let's continue on. The renewed mind produces love without hypocrisy, hating evil.

And in doing this, in reading this, 2 Timothy 2 .15 comes to mind,

I want to go over there, turn with me if you will, keep a finger where we are, to 2

Timothy 2 .15, which says, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

This is what we're trying to do in this program. We're trying to accurately handle the word of truth.

And in so doing, we are now admonished, he says in verse 16, but avoid godless and empty chatter.

Avoid godless and empty chatter. If we're advocating things and talking about things that go directly against the things that we've been warned not to do, like condemning

Israel, like being arrogant towards Israel, as they do, this is godless and empty chatter.

And the reason we are to avoid it, he says, it will lead to further ungodliness.

Have we not seen that just in this year alone? James has pointed this out as these men, as what's inside that has been dying to get out and is churning and churning and churning.

And like Paul explains here in verse 16, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger the more that they do it.

So the more godless and empty chatter that they do grows to further ungodliness.

And their word will spread like gangrene. Is Paul writing to us today?

Is he right around the corner seeing what's going on and he's writing this? He very well could be. This applies to us just in any generation.

It's spreading like gangrene and it's getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

The only thing we can possibly do is warn the brethren, don't fall prey to this.

Don't fall into this pit. Don't listen to these men and we must call them out because they are being disobedient to the direct statements, direct commands found in the

New Testament by the apostle. And this warning in 2 Timothy is a perfect, perfect example of what they're doing.

And their word will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place and they have set the faith of some.

Now, these fellows that I'm referring to may say, well, that's only in regard to someone denying the resurrection.

No, this is just one example he's giving. This is just one example he's giving.

Okay. Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands having this seal.

The Lord knows who are his and everyone who names the name of the

Lord is to depart from wickedness. We call these things out because it's wicked.

It is wicked and evil to hate your fellow man. You are to be looking at your fellow man as someone who is an image bearer just like you are and the fact of the matter is, but for the grace of God, you and I are worse than they.

So, if you're going to hate somebody, start with the guy in the mirror. But don't go past that.

And submit that man to the renewed mind.

Okay. Now, another passage that comes to mind is also there right next to it in chapter 3 starting at verse 16.

All scripture is God -breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I want you to consider this. The scriptures. We focus on the scriptures.

They are our sole infallible rule of faith and practice. Okay. And as we're doing it, we do so understanding that it is profitable for teaching.

So, we are to teach those who do not know, all right, for reproof and for correction and training in righteousness.

So, we teach training in righteousness. When someone has the wrong -headed idea or someone has just a false idea, we're to use the scripture to correct that idea.

We correct them. But if that person doubles down on it, they double down on the ungodly and empty chatter, and they're, no, no, no,

I've got to do this, and they start appealing to all kinds of things in church history that should never have happened, well, that's where reproof comes in, or rebuke is another word.

This is where the correction becomes a stern warning, a stern correction.

They complain that we're so mean, and we're so mean to the brethren.

Well, if you're brethren, repent. There's nothing mean about that.

There's everything right about it. You need to repent, and you need to stop thinking in worldly ways and start, put on the mind of Christ and start thinking in a godly manner, all right?

Have a renewed mind, that the things that come out of your mouth and out of your keyboard are reflective of a renewed mind, not falling back into that fleshly man with worldly thinking that wants to do battle, that is angry, that fleshes out the deeds of the flesh rather than the fruit of the

Spirit. So let's move forward. Let love be without hypocrisy by abhorring what is evil, clinging to what is good, clinging to what is good, being devoted to one another in brotherly love.

Remember something, if it's brotherly love, let's get out the pointer, if it's brotherly love, it isn't hypocritical.

If it's love, it isn't hypocritical. It's true.

It's correct. It's godly. Giving preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, so we honor one another, being fervent in spirit, we're supposed to be devoted to one another, serving the

Lord, that's what it's all around, rejoicing in hope, persevering in affliction, being devoted to one another in prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, and pursuing hospitality.

All of these things are the product of a renewed mind. All of these things come from a pure love that isn't hypocritical, that abhors what is evil and pushes it out, and keeps the place, the congregation, the meeting, the assembly of God a pure and a holy place that is devoted to the

Scriptures, worshiping God in all the things that we have just covered. Well, we're coming to the end here, and I want to just give a little bit of a preview.

We'll begin our next lesson at verse 14. Bless those who persecute you.

Now, what's coming next, and it's a perfect place to transition because this is an instruction for conduct and attitude.

Christians throughout the centuries have found themselves under persecution. So many martyrs have gone to the stake, burned at the stake, beheaded, fed to the lions early on.

Christians have historically faced persecution, and yet here we have the

Apostle telling us that we're to bless those who do this to us. Bless, don't curse, he says.

Well, think about it again. When you're looking online, when you're reading someone online, or you're watching a video online and you see the angry man there pounding his desk or however they're doing it, are they blessing their persecutors, or are they cursing their persecutors?

Are they cursing those who disagree with them? Are they cursing those who are exhorting them to come back to the place where they are functioning with a renewed mind?

All of what's coming next is behavioral for the

Christian, and we're going to get to a place where it's not just those who persecute us in how we are to conduct ourselves toward them, but also those that we would consider to be enemies, and how we are to conduct ourselves toward them.

Every bit of what's coming next, folks, is so contrary to what we see in online behavior these days from professing

Christians, which has to lead us to the question, what is the quality of that profession that they make?

Is it a quality profession at all? Is it a meaningful profession?

Is it a real profession? Or are they just posing in a role that they cannot and don't have the ability to understand?

We'll take a look at that more next week or next month. I'm going to be doing these shows on a monthly basis.

I'm hoping, as we conclude here, to be able to do them mid -month, third week of the month, and that should keep me from being able to let things fall through the cracks and be able to keep up with my other duties.