Study Romans 8: 12-17

Hello Everyone,

Hopefully, my traveling days are over for awhile. If I haven’t already let you know my Dad, R.B., came through the surgery wonderfully and is doing well. I was privileged to preach in Batesville Sunday and that is always a treat. Please remember the Batesville Church in your prayers they are still without a Pastor.

Below is the text that will be preached on this Sunday. I hope these little tidbits of information will help you get ready for what ever the Holy Spirit would say to you. If you don’t attend church or don’t attend here, I am trusting the Holy Spirit to meet with you where you are today.

 

For Sunday 5/27/07                           Pentecost        Romans 8: 12-17

NIV    ¹²Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. ¹³For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, ¹⁴because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." ¹⁶The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. ¹⁷Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 

General Info - First we must realize this “book” is not a book at all but a letter. People reveal their thoughts and soul in letters. Paul really opened his heart to the people he wrote to, many of them he knew personally and had planted the church there. No wonder often he refers to them as “my children.” It is very important that we understand though that of all the literature in the Bible, letters can be the hardest to understand as the writer meant it to be understood. It is very unwise to study any of the letters of the New Testament without researching the situation, the people the letter was written to and what was happening at the time. Yes, there are many conceptual and general truths that can be taken at face value but there are many parts of the letter that will be interpreted INCORRECTLY if research is not done.

Paul used the writing rules of his day. He was an educated man and would do it naturally himself or any secretary he may have used would have followed the cultural norms. Not only do we have the writing of the Bible but we have other letters from this time period and Paul’s letters are of the same format. We also understand that Paul’s letters were written to address a particular people, in a particular church and often in response to information he had received either in letter form from them or by a personal visit from someone within the church. Remember Paul didn’t write these letters knowing that one day they would be canon, as a matter of fact, that would have probably mortified him. Sometimes Paul is hard to understand, because his sentences begin and never finish; his grammar breaks down and the construction becomes involved. We must not think of him sitting quietly at a desk but striding around some little room, pouring his heart out while some poor secretary writes as fast as he can.

Romans - The letter to the Romans is different than all of Paul’s others. This was the church Paul did not plant and had not put any personal touch into it. This particular letter is the nearest thing to a teaching sermon of any of Paul’s other writings. In the other letters he deals with immediate trouble or some pressing situation. When Paul actually wrote this letter, the date was sometime around 58 AD and he was in Corinth. The Jerusalem church was financially in trouble, Paul had been gathering offerings from the newer churches, he was about to set out with that gift to the Jerusalem Church.

I have to stop right here and make an observation. As I was doing this research it occurred to me. It was the Jerusalem church that had balked at the gospel being shared to the Gentiles. Finally, it was agreed by the church in Jerusalem that they could share the Gospel with Gentiles and they could have churches etc. but I would imagine that the belief system of a life time that Jews and Gentiles could not be equal was embedded deeply. Now, the church in Jerusalem is in trouble and these Gentile churches who know full well the prejudice of the Jewish hub are sending an offering to them. WOW, is that not a lesson to us!!!! They gave offering, MONEY, to a church that had reluctantly accepted them, almost didn’t let them be part of “the way.” How’s your offering been to your home church, the church you attend, the church where your children attend and are taught, etc.? Now I’m not talking about tithe. Tithe is God’s to start with, if you are not paying tithe, your robbing God, that’s a different issue. I’m talking about offering which is over and above tithe. Back to this observation, these folks gave to a need in a place where they probably wouldn’t  have been allowed in. Something to think about…

In verses 12-17 Paul uses the metaphor of Roman adoption practices, which were elaborate and serious. When a person was adopted by a Roman father 1) the person lost all rights in his old family and gained all rights in his new family. 2) He became heir, even if other sons were afterwards born, it did not affect any of the adopted sons rights. 3) In all legal issues, the old life was gone such as debts, anything it was gone. 4) In the eyes of the law he was absolutely the son of the adopting father. During the ceremony there were seven witnesses at the end one would step forward and declare the process to be genuine.

This entire process of Roman adoption is in Paul’s mind when he dictates these verses. The Holy Spirit is the witness that declares it to be genuine. We were in sin but God in his mercy brought us into his absolute possession. The old life has no more rights over us; God has the rights. The past is cancelled and its debts are gone! We become joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, God’s own Son. That which Christ inherits, we inherit – suffering or glory. Paul gave us the incredible picture that when we became a Christian we entered into the very family of God. We did nothing to deserve it; God, in his an amazing love and mercy, has taken us – the lost, the helpless, the sinners and adopted us into his own family! If you are a Christian how does it feel to know you are fully adopted, all the debts of the past are gone and you are a co-heir with Jesus? If you don’t know this God who loves you enough to fully adopt you, He really is only a sentence away, begin talking to the one who wants you as a son or daughter. Information found in the book by William Barclay “The Letter to the Romans”