This the power of the cross – Christ became sin for us!
” It is maybe hard to imagine that a cruel instrument of death would be the source of power. Your faith your life is indeed transformed by that one act of my son Jesus – through his death immense power was released – power to transform you by firstly winning forgiveness of your sins, which enabled you to be reconciled to me – from there to have a new life slowly drawing you out of the grip of the old nature and helping you to take on the new nature. Welcome to my new kingdom of transformed, adopted brothers and sisters.”
We have been looking at the practical outworking of the transformation of our minds and hearts in the way we live and conduct ourselves. Romans 12:1 ff. In the forefront is the need for the church to reflect the new values of the transformed community. That is the “showcase” of the new kingdom. From vs 9 we see that love is the overarching command which governs our behaviour and interpersonal interaction. Today we will look at 12:14-21.
I have tried to stress how important it is to understand that the power to live the new life is released when we receive God’s righteousness and His Holy Spirit to live this new life. These commands are not suggestions they are clear instructions. Looking at how impossible several of them seem to be, we must therefore understand we cannot try and live like this in our own strength. The churches round the world are full of people trying to be Christian, without the transformation which takes place when we receive the Holy Spirit. So these instructions clearly follow the first 11 chapters of the letter.
One of the basic instincts of the old nature is a sense of outrage when we are harmed or antagonised and that emotion is almost immediately translated into feelings and then plans for revenge. If you watch any number of movies you will see how many of the stories are based on the achieving of revenge for some act done against the main character(s). This produces a sense of satisfaction and therefore appreciation of the story. The story has spoken to that desire for revenge, the desire to prove self-righteousness and satisfy our sense of entitlement, which we all have.
So the instructions in this passage are entirely counterintuitive. And reflect back on the nature of real agape love. We need to allow the Spirit to help transform our thinking, becoming humble, regarding others as more important than yourself (Philippians 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition, but in humility consider others better than yourselves) This is hard for us as pride is basic to our old nature and we have to bury that and regard everyone, even those who are of low position worthy of association.
From vs 17 Paul addresses this sense of revenge directly. It is not just a question of a change of attitude. It starts there but must be put into practice. The basic change in attitude that is necessary is to be prepared to hand over the feelings of revenge to God for Him to satisfy, and to trust Him to do what is right in His sight. In the meantime, you can’t necessarily change your feelings about someone who has harmed you but you can take action for their benefit if the opportunity should arise. Hard? Of course that is why when this is played out in the real world it becomes such a powerful testimony to the transformation which takes place when we receive His Spirit.
There can be no real harmony in a Christian fellowship if there are feelings of being hard done by and subtle plans for revenge circulating among some members and that is where God wants His love to be a shining example, reflected in our ability to love one another across the barriers of race and class and culture.
God bless you all till next week.