11-06-11 Becoming What We Are

Our study of the book of Romans

has brought us to the final few verses of the book.

I mentioned in my comments last week

that the actual structured body of this remarkable letter

ends with Romans 15:13.

Then, from 15:14 through the end of chapter 16

Paul concludes with some personal comments about himself,

about the believers in Rome,

and about the people who were with him at the time he was writing this letter.

He begins these comments

by talking about his reasons for writing the letter.

He then includes some personal comments about his own future traveling plans,

and then finishes the letter with a number of personal greetings

both to and from individual Christians.

We are not going to spend a great deal of time with this final section of the letter,

but there are several treasures in this last section

that I don’t want us to miss altogether.

Some of the most powerful teaching ever given to us in Scripture

is the teaching we receive from the examples of the writers’ lives.

I know I’ve mentioned it in the past,

but I never cease to be amazed

at the power of the form God selected

for nearly all of the New Testament writings.

There are a total of 27 books in the New Testament.

Of those 27,

24 were originally written as letters.

Some are letters from one individual to another individual.

Some are letters written

from one person to a specific group of Christians,

and some are open letters written to all Christians.

But they are all letters,

and as such they enable the writer

to weave into the document

a tremendous amount of personal information

about himself,

and about the person or people he’s writing to.

And in the process

rather than becoming sterile doctrinal textbooks,

these letters become documents

that not only present the truth

but then illustrate it through both the lives of the writers

and the lives of those they are writing to.

And we see this happening in a beautiful way

in the closing verses of Paul’s letter to the Romans.

For most of the preceding 15 chapters

we have heard Paul describing for us

the true nature of life with God through faith in Christ.

He has talked with us

about the way in which the human spirit

is literally recreated by God

in response to our faith in Christ.

At one point he told us we have died to our former life

and been joined to Christ

in the same way as a wife is joined to her husband.

He has told us, “ ...that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin...”

It is impossible to read the book of Romans

without recognizing

that through Christ we are not simply given forgiveness by God for our sins,

but we are actually recreated at the spirit level of our being.

Certainly he also talks with us

about the way in which this new spirit

must take up temporary residence

in a physical body that has been trained in rebellion against God,

a situation that brings tremendous tension at times

between our spirit and our flesh,

but even in that struggle

Paul has told us that what is needed

in order to bring practical changes in our performance

is not added change in our spirits,

but rather a correct understanding

of the change that has already taken place through Christ.

The mind of religion targets the flesh

and attempts to bring about changed performance

by changing behavior through fear,

or guilt,

or shame,

or ego gratification.

“You’d better shape up

or God will get angry with you

and pour out His wrath and judgement upon you.”

“How could you act that way after all He’s done for you?”

“You are such a worm,

such a wretch! You should be ashamed of yourself!”

“If you give a thousand dollars or more

we’ll put your name on a plaque and hang it by the front door.”

Or possibly, “If you will do the following four things,

then God will bless you and bless your life and bless your future,

and make you healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

That’s the way religion operates.

That is not the way our God operates.

And it is certainly not the way

He brings about practical changes in the lives of His people.

I can explain to you what He does

through an illustration I end up sharing with you every few years

simply because it is the best way I’ve ever found

of enabling us to picture what God is actually doing in the lives of His children

when it comes to His changing our behavior.

Let me tell you a story about a very good king.

This king loves his people deeply

and does his best to rule his subjects with wisdom and compassion.

But this King has a problem -

he’s growing old and has no son of his own to rule in his place after he dies.

He very much longs for the one who rules after him

to share his heart of compassion for the people he rules.

He wants a man who can understand the problems, concerns, and needs

of even the most lowly of his subjects.

And so, after much agonizing about what he can do

he comes up with a plan

that he’s certain will accomplish what he wants.

He will go to the poorest part of his great capitol city,

and he’ll find a boy, perhaps 11 or 12 years old,

an orphan who’s been forced to live by his wits on the streets.

He’ll legally adopt this child and raise him as his own son,

teaching him the skills he’ll need to one day rule in his place.

The boy's deprived heritage will give him a strong identification with the people he will one day rule,

and his careful training under the king's guidance will equip him for the great work.

The king commissions certain trusted members of his staff

to find a boy who meets the qualifications he’s outlined

and tells them to report back when they’ve found a suitable child.

When the selection is finally made, the king enters his royal limousine

and instructs his chauffeur to drive to a certain poor part of town.

He finds the boy loitering on the street.

The king has the chauffeur stop and orders his guards to bring the child to him.

The boy is terrified.

He’s been arrested by the police for petty theft many times,

but now the king himself has come after him

and he just knows he’s got himself in deep trouble.

The king tells the boy to get inside the limousine

and then assures him that he’s not in trouble,

not being arrested,

and he’s got nothing to fear.

The two of them sit and talk for a while -the king in his royal robes and the orphan in his rags.

The longer they talk,

the more they both begin to relax and the more they find themselves enjoying one another.

After some time, the king is confident that this boy is exactly what he’s been looking for.

He tells the child he has a proposition for him.

The king explains in careful detail all that he has in mind

and then concludes by saying,

“I want to be sure you clearly understand what I’m offering you.

If you agree to my terms, you’ll become my legal son forever.

You’ll live in the palace with me.

I’ll personally take responsibility for meeting all of your needs.

I’ll feed and clothe you,

train and educate you,

and prepare you for the day when I die and

you will rule in my place as king of this great nation.

Will you accept my offer?”

The boy just breaks out in a grin, sticks out his hand, and says, “You've got yourself a new son!”

They return to the palace and, at first, everything goes fine.

The boy spends hours just wandering around the palace and the grounds,

overwhelmed by more wealth and luxury than he’s ever seen in his life.

He begins his schooling, and the king is pleased to see that his new son has a sharp mind and learns quickly.

The plan seems to be working out well.

But then the king begins to observe some strange behavior in his son.

At the dinner table, when the boy thinks no one’s looking,

he takes a piece of meat or a roll and some cheese and slips it into his pocket.

When he walks down a hallway,

his young hand quickly reaches out and grabs some shiny object sitting on a table and slides it under his coat.

The boy then stashes his treasures under his bed.

At first the king is puzzled by the boy's behavior.

The child's every need is being met in abundance.

The king has withheld none of his treasures from his son,

and yet the boy seems compelled to hoard a small pile of stuff in his room.

Then the king finally realizes what’s happening.

His son has the clothes, the food, and the legal position

of a prince and a future king,

but he still has the mind and emotions of a street kid.

He was told that the king is now his father and that he will never again want for anything,

but in his mind he still sees himself as a boy who has to live by his wits-

a boy who’s got no one to rely on but himself.

Through an amazing series of events, he has ended up in a king's palace for a while,

but he knows something will go wrong

and he’ll be back on the street.

All of his life he’s survived by taking what he can get when he can get it

and, in his mind, nothing has really changed.

And when we come to our King, our Lord Jesus Christ,

we’re just like that street kid.

We bring with us into our union with our God,

a highly refined system of tricks

and techniques

through which we have been attempting to meet our needs.

Most of them don’t work very well,

but they’re a part of who we are.

Our little adopted street kid

didn’t need the food and trinkets

he crammed in his coat,

but he thought he did,

and his every survival instinct

told him he has to take and grab

whatever he can get his hands on.

When we come to Christ,

we’re just like that boy.

We’re told that God has “raised us up with Christ, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places” .

We’re told that our God “shall supply all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” .

We’re told clearly that

we now share an eternal Father-child relationship

with the God of the universe,

and “He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you’” .

We’ve heard the words,

and yet, just like that boy,

we don’t really believe it’s true.

We have the legal standing of a prince,

but the mind of a street kid.

All of our lives we’ve believed

that we alone are responsible

for governing our own little world,

meeting our own needs,

taking care of ourselves

without the involvement of our Creator.

Then, in an instant,

all of that is changed forever.

Our spirits know it has changed,

but our minds, emotions, and memories don’t.

When our King

begins His recreation process in our lives

there will be some areas

where we’re locked into highly self-destructive behaviors

and some disciplinary measures will be needed.

But He knows that

what we need most of all

is to learn to think like the children of the King we really are.

The problem isn’t

that we continue to cling to

all our ineffective techniques

for meeting our needs.

The real problem is that

we believe we still need them.

Our King will find ways

of helping us understand

that we no longer have to take

and hide

and hoard to get our needs met.

And the foundation of that whole process

is what Paul calls our being renewed in the spirit of our minds.

It’s the process of our learning more and more

how to view ourselves as we really are,

seeing ourselves as the new creations in Christ we have become.

Why do you think God begins every conversation He has with us

throughout the entire New Testament

by addressing us as “the holy ones”?

We translate those words as “the saints”,

but if you’ve listened to me for any length of time

you know the literal translation is “holy ones”,

and you know, too,

that the word “holy” used there

is exactly the same word “holy” that’s used in Scripture to describe God Himself.

He does that

because He wants to constantly reinforce in us the truth -

we are now absolutely holy in Spirit.

It isn’t just that He sees us as holy.

We truly are now eternally holy at the deepest level of our being.

And most of what God is seeking to do within us

is a process of His bringing us more and more into the knowledge of our true identity.

I’ve brought all of this up at this point in our Romans study

because the way Paul begins his closing comments

gives us a powerful illustration

of this whole process.

Listen to what he says.

ROM 15:14 And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another.

Now, how in the world can Paul say that

to and about a group of Christians

that he’s never met personally?

Certainly he’s heard some word of their reputation,

but it’s not on that basis that he makes this statement.

You see, Paul is simply speaking to them

the truth about who they really are in Christ.

Because of the recreative work of Christ within them,

because they have a new heart within,

a new inner spirit that now exists in an eternal love union with the Spirit of God,

they truly are full of goodness,

and, at the spirit level, filled with all knowledge,

and, by the life of Christ within them,

able also to admonish one another.

And when Paul speaks those words to the Christians at Rome

he’s doing the same thing that the King needs to do with his adopted son.

The answer to the King’s thieving son

is not to place guards in the hallways

and spring unexpected searches on his room.

The answer is found in the King

telling his boy over and over and over again

the truth about who he really is.

“You’re no longer alone in the world.

You’re no longer an orphan.

You’re no longer poor,

or powerless,

or helpless.

You are royalty.

You are a prince.

No matter how you act,

nothing can ever or will ever change that.

You are my son,

I am your Father,

and all that I possess I give to you.”

You see,

the real healing in that adopted child’s life will come

not through him saying to himself,

“I can’t take this because I might get caught.”

The real healing will come

when he can say to himself,

“I don’t need to take this

because my Father has already met all of my needs forever according to his great riches.”

And when Paul says to the Christians at Rome,

ROM 15:14 And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another...

he is simply reinforcing the truth,

and in the process helping to reshape their concept of themselves.

And there is one other area of application here

that I want to be sure we don’t miss.

And, oh how I hope and pray

that the Spirit of God will give you ears

to hear what I’m about to say.

If you are to have a powerful positive impact

on the lives of those God has brought into your life...

husbands - if you want to create for your wife an environment in which she can grow,

wives - if you want to do the same for your husband,

parents - if you want to shape the minds and hearts of your children in powerful, positive ways,

speak to them the truth

about who they are in Christ,

about the good you see in them,

and about the unique strengths and gifts God has placed within them.

And I need to warn you,

most of us are so accustomed to seeing what’s wrong in those around us,

and speaking to them about what’s wrong,

that it’s very likely when we start speaking the truth

and telling them the truth

the words will sound strange and awkward coming out of your mouth.

Most Christians will spend their entire life on this earth

never living out the reality of the life of Christ within them

because they still believe that they are just sinners saved by grace,

and have never even begun to see themselves as what they truly are -

the holy ones of God,

indwelt by the Spirit of God,

equipped by God with the ability

through their words and through their actions

to bring tremendous changes for good in their world.

ROM 15:14 And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another.

And then, before I leave this,

I need to complete the picture

by reading the next verse.

For, after assuring the Romans of the life of Christ within them,

and of their ability to instruct one another,

he goes on to say,

ROM 15:15 But I have written very boldly to you on some points, so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God,

...so as to remind you again...

And taking those two verses together

we have the heart of God’s reconstructive process within us -

He tells us the truth about who we are,

and then He reminds us of that truth again and again and again.

You see, we forget the truth on a daily,

even an hourly basis.

And unless we keep reminding ourselves

and one another,

all the old lies will come pouring back in again.

There is one other treasure I want us to pull out of these final verses in Romans,

but I think I’ll save it for next week.

And, just so you know,

we are going to do something next week

that I hope will pull together this study of Romans

in a way that is both enjoyable

and effective in allowing us to understand

not just the content of the book,

but it’s power and passion as well.

Next week we are going to invite the Apostle Paul himself

to take 30 minutes

and share with us in his own words

what he was trying to say in this letter.

And if Paul does his job well

it will provide us with the basis we need

for appreciating that last treasure we’ll find in this book.