New Testament 5
Romans 12: 1 – 13:14
Lecture 25
The first 11 chapters
•	Paul has presented the gospel. He described the sinfulness of men(1:18-3:20).
•	Then Paul showed how God brought ___________________________to men through the death and resurrection of Jesus (3:21-8:30).
•	Next he talked about Israel’s ___________________________(9:1-11:36).
•	Now he deals with the last major division of the letter where he applies the gospel to daily living (12:1-15:13).
The Call to Commitment (12: 1-2)
•	Paul uses the language from the altar to encourage his readers to ___________________________themselves to the living God. Most likely Paul intends the readers to offer their whole persons to God in service. 
•	Three qualities are given:
•	1. Living vs dead bodies of ___________________________sacrifices.
•	2. Holy in that the Christian is set apart and belongs to God.
•	3. Well-pleasing to God. It is not enough for an offering to be made, it must please God.
12: 1 – The Greatest Motivation: Mercies of God:
•	This is the ___________________________“therefore” in the letter. 
•	Romans 3:20 is the “therefore” of condemnation, declaring that the whole world is guilty before God. 
•	Romans 5:1 is the “therefore” of justification, and Romans 8:1 is the “___________________________” of assurance. 
•	Romans 12:1 is the “therefore” of dedication. It is this dedication that is the basis for the other relationships that Paul discussed in this section.
Before conversion
•	we used our body for sinful ___________________________and purposes, but now we belong to Him. We want to use our bodies for Him and His glory. The Christian’s body is God’s ___________________________(1 Cor 6:19-20).  This is because the Spirit of God dwells in the believer (Rom 8:9).  
12: 2 – The Greatest Discovery
•	Every Christian finds out the truth of this verse in daily life. The world ___________________________the Christian relentlessly to be like it. Paul urges Christians to resist this pressure. 
•	Paul desires the Christian be transformed by the renewing of the mind. This leads to a proving of the ___________________________will of God – this “proving” means to discern by testing. It is used in 1 Peter 1:7 to describe gold tested by refining fires.
•	THE GREATEST DISCOVERY IS THE WILL OF GOD.
It is our privilege
•	to glorify Christ in our body and ___________________________Christ in our body (Phil 1:20-21).  Christ took a body to do God’s will on earthy, so we must yield our bodies to the Spirit that He might do God’s will through our ___________________________(Rom 6:13).  The OT sacrifices were dead sacrifices, but we are to bring living sacrifices.
The world wants 
•	to control our minds, but God wants to transform your mind (Eph 4:17-24; Col 3:1-11). 
•	The word “___________________________” is the same as “___________________________” in Matt 17:2. It has become our English word “metamorphosis”.  This is a change from within.  The world wants to change you, so it exerts pressure from outside. 
But the HS 
•	changes your mind by releasing ___________________________from within.  If the world controls your thinking,  you are a conformer, if God controls your thinking, you are a___________________________.  
•	Read the Word! 
•	Memorize the Word! 
•	And Make it part of your life! 
Your mind controls
•	your body, and your will controls your___________________________.  
•	Many people think they can control their will by “willpower’.  
•	Usually they___________________________. 
This was Paul’s 
•	experience as recorded in Romans 7:15-21.  It is only when we ___________________________to the will of God that His power can overtake us and give us the willpower (and the won’t power) that we need to be ___________________________Christians.  
We surrender 
•	our wills through the discipline of___________________________. As we pray, we learn and follow the ___________________________of God.  
Paul is talking 
•	to Christians who belonged to the churches of Rome. They were a part of the body of Christ.  (See 1 Cor 12 and Eph 4:7-16 for the same idea).  
•	The ___________________________idea is that each believer is a living part of Christ’s body, and each one has a spiritual function to perform.  
•	Each has a gift to be used for the ___________________________good.  In short, each member belongs to the others and need each other.  
What are the essentials
•	for spiritual growth in the body of Christ?
•	Each Christian must know what His spiritual gifts are.  It is not wrong for a Christian to recognize his ___________________________and the gifts in others.  What is wrong is a tendency to have a false evaluation of ourselves. Nothing causes more damages than a local church with a ___________________________who overrates himself and tries to perform a function that he is not equipped to do.
12: 3-5 -- The Nature of the Church
•	IS ___________________________BODY IN CHRIST…
•	Pride always threatens the unit of the church. Verse 3 leads directly into a discussion of spiritual gifts. Perhaps this issue was dividing the ___________________________in Rome as it had in Corinth.             
The gifts of the believer
•	are given by God’s grace.  We are saved by ___________________________and are gifted by the same grace.  Since the gifts are from God, then no Christian can take the ___________________________for them.  
All we can do 
•	is accept them to honor his name (See 1 Cor 15:10) for Paul’s personal ___________________________about gifts.             
•	When believers know their gifts, accept them, use them by faith and for God’s___________________________, then God can bless in  a wonderful way.
12: 6-8 -- The Variety of Gifts
•	This is important to understand. As McGorman says, p. 84, “We are saved by grace, we grow by grace, and we are empowered by grace.”  We are not left to our own ___________________________when it comes to serving God than we are at salvation or growth. As a group of baptized believers who___________________________, fellowship, and serve the Lord, we have a shape. Each member is placed in the body for purpose. 
Each believer 
•	must use the gift for the good of the body.  The Christian may not see the ___________________________of his gift, but God is aware and knows about that.  Note that exhortation (encouragement) is as much as gift as ___________________________or teaching.  Giving and showing mercy are important gifts. 
To some people, 
•	God has given the ability to rule, or administer the various ___________________________of the church. 
•	Whatever gift we have been given must be used for the ___________________________of the church.
The Christian serving God
•	will find that they have enemies.  Yet they must not play God and seek to make their own___________________________.  Returning evil for evil, or good for good, is the way most people live.  Christians must live on a ___________________________level.  
12: 9-13, 15-16 – 
•	General Instruction for ___________________________Relationships are covered in these verses.
This requires  love, 
•	because our first inclination is to fight back.  Love must be___________________________, and not mere role-playing. V. 9 “genuine” means “without hypocrisy.” 
•	It also requires faith, believing God can ___________________________and accomplish His will in our lives and in the lives of those who hurt us.
Verse 10
•	Shows that brotherly love is to be the major way brothers relate to one another. 
•	V. 11 reminds the Christian he is to be ___________________________in the Christian life and to be aglow with the Spirit. See Acts 18:25 where the same word is used to describe Apollos. 
Verses 12-13, 15-16
•	Christians are to rejoice in hope, endure___________________________, and to continue in prayer. 
•	They are to contribute to the needs of other saints and to practice hospitality (v13).
•	V. 15-16 indicate that Christians are to identify with others in ___________________________and joys. Love seeks harmony in all personal relationships. Freedom from conceit makes all relationships possible.
12: 14, 17-21
•	Here Paul deals with what to do when ___________________________by others.
•	He does not quote Jesus in Matthew 5:38-42, but it reflects the same___________________________. 
Evil for Evil
•	Is not to be followed. The Christian is to think on the things that are noble. This is a quote from Prov 3:4. It indicates that Christians need to think about how ___________________________men will see them in these kinds of relationships.
V 18
•	As much as possible, Christians are to live in peace with all men. Sometimes our best efforts are enough and people hurt us. They refuse to be___________________________. But take heart in knowing that God never withholds His peace from us because another has done something wrong.
V 19 
•	Teaches that in no instance are we to take things into our own hands. God is to be the one who exercises ___________________________and wrath. 
•	He is the only one who knows how to make the punishment fit the wrong done. 
V 20
•	Paul quotes Psa 25:21-22. This rather unknown ___________________________means that such conduct will produce remorse in the life of one’s enemies and lead them to repent. 
V 21
•	These kinds of responses allows one to show good instead of evil. The world at its ___________________________is returned with the world at its best.Usually the world returns evil for evil and good for good. The Christian operates from another position and___________________________. 
13: 1-7
•	This section allows Paul to handle Christian.  
God has established three institutions: 
•	the home (Gen 2:18-25); ___________________________(Gen 9:1-17) and the church (Acts 2).  
•	Paul writes to the believers at the very ___________________________of the Roman Empire.  
The great persecutions
•	had not started when Paul wrote this letter.  Christianity was considered a part of the ___________________________religion.  The day was to come when it would be hard for a Christian to be loyal to the Roman government.  He could not drop incense on the ___________________________and say, “Caesar is Lord!”  Men are not to do what seems right in their own eyes. 
Paul refutes this 
•	by explaining four reasons why the Christian must be in subjection to the laws of the___________________________.
•	The governments were established by God (see Acts 17:24-28).  This does not mean that God is responsible for all that governments do or tyrants.  But it means that originally all ___________________________came from God.  
It was the lesson that
•	 Nebuchadnezzer had to learn in Daniel 4:17, 25 and 32.  
•	To resist the law is to resist God who established government in the world, and this means inviting punishment.  Governments bear the___________________________, that is, they have the power to afflict punishment and even to take life.  
Respect should be given 
•	to our governments in most cases.  They serve to protect and preserve human life.  On more than one occasion Paul used his ___________________________with the Roman government to save his life.  They should be thought of as ministers of God.
This is a step higher
•	than the control of governments. Here Paul moves to our conscience. Any citizen can obey their ___________________________because of fear of punishment.  A Christian ought to obey because of his conscience.  If the government interferes with___________________________, then the Christian needs to obey God and not the government (1 Tim 1:5, 19; 3:9; 4:2; Acts 24:16).            
Verse 7 commands us 
•	to pay what we owe: taxes, revenue, ___________________________and honor.  To fail to do so is to show disrespect for the government officials, law, and Lord. 
McGorman summarizes
•	Paul’s teachings in the following manner:
•	Christians should be subject to ___________________________(13: 1-2)
•	Christians must recognize the function of rulers (13: 3-5)
•	Christians must support ___________________________(13: 6-7).
13: 8-10
•	This shows the Christian obligation to all___________________________, not just governments. 
Paul enlarges the circle
•	of responsibility by including other people besides governmental___________________________.  
•	“Love one another” is the ___________________________principle of the Christian life. It is the “new commandment” Christ gave to his disciples and to us (John 13:34).  
When we practice love, 
•	there is no need for laws, because love covers it all!  ___________________________others will not allow us to sin against them.  This explained why the 10 commandments were not referred to often in the NT. 
In fact, the Sabbath 
•	commandment is not quoted at all in the epistles.  “Owing no man anything” may refer to ___________________________debts. 
•	But it may refer to the fact that men should not make useless and unnecessary debt.  The heart of the issue is that one should not borrow with the motivation that he will ___________________________it.  
So, Paul centers
•	on the heart issues. Because the heart of man is sinful, God established government. But ___________________________cannot change the heart; man’s heart is still selfish and can be changed only by the ___________________________of God.
13: 11-14
•	This small paragraph relates how Paul deals with the end of the___________________________. 
•	Paul uses the metaphor of day and night to show the relative progress of the two ages. The present age of darkness was already far spent (v 12) . It is time for Christians to awaken from their ___________________________(v. 11 & 1 Thess 5:4-7). Paul is thinking about the climax of our salvation. 
Christian ethics
•	Are born out of Christian theology and hope.
•	The Christian is to live in light of the ___________________________of Jesus’ return. 
•	V. 14 – Paul tells the Christian what to put on in order to live ___________________________in this life.
V. 13 –
•	Paul names six works of darkness…
•	___________________________
•	Drunkenness
•	Debauchery
•	Licentiousness
•	___________________________
•	Jealousy.
The argument has come
•	a long way for why the Christian should obey the government.  From fear to conscience to loving one another and now to our devotion to Christ.  The ___________________________is on the imminent return of Christ.  As His servants we want to be found faithful when He returns.  The completion of our salvation is near! The ___________________________is coming!  Be Ready!