The Holy Spirit: Romans 12 – 15

(Rom 12:9-21 ESV)  9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.  10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.  11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.  12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.  13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.  14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.  15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.  16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.  17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.  18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.  19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”  20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”  21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

It’s admittedly not obvious that Paul is continuing his discussion of the Spirit in this passage, but it’s true. Consider how the preceding verses about spiritual gifts closely parallel 1 Cor 12, which is followed by 1 Cor 13, dealing with faith, hope, and love — with Paul arguing that love is the greatest gift, far greater than tongues or prophecy.

Or consider —

(Gal 5:22-23 ESV)  22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Or —

(Col 1:7b-8 ESV)  7 He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf  8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

So it seems pretty clear that Paul credits the Spirit with producing love in the Christian — at least, in helping us to love. This may well be part of the meaning of —

(Rom 5:3-5 ESV) 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,  4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,  5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Commentators debate whether “God’s love” is really our love for God (the Greek is “love of God”) or God’s love for us or even love for others coming from God. All are possible. I think all are true and all are intended.

Now, this means that Rom 12:9-21 is further explanation for what it means to be “led by the Spirit” and to “put to death the misdeeds of the body” from chapter 8. The Spirit leads us to love others. It fits.

Read Paul’s instructions again. These are not easy things to do. To bless those who persecute us requires a strength beyond mere flesh and blood. Feeding our enemies requires other-wordly powers. Overcoming evil with good is beyond comprehension. These commands are hopelessly impossible — except by the Spirit.

And that’s one reason an understanding of the Spirit is so very important. Without the Spirit, obedience seems impossible. We can’t imagine actually doing these things, and so we spend our time arguing over Calvinism vs. Arminianism rather than trying to actually live as we’ve been commanded.

Rom 14:7, 15:13

(Rom 14:17-18 ESV)  17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.

Romans 14 is a familiar passage, as it’s at the heart of the conservative/progressive controversy in the Churches of Christ. Your understanding of this passage pretty much defines on which side of the divide you stand. I’ll not attempt a complete exposition here, because I’ve covered it several times in the past.

The Fork in the Road: Galatians 4 and Romans 14

The Regulative Principle: What the Bible Really Says

What’s a “Disputable Matter”?

For our present purposes, just reflect on Pau’s argument in these two verses. The Romans were disputing over whether a Christian could eat meat (likely either a concern for Jewish food laws, as meat is rarely kosher in a non-Jewish community, or the familiar problem of meat sacrificed to idols), treating some days as more holy than others (likely a concern for observing the Sabbath and other Jewish festivals), and drinking wine (Rom 14:21; the reason is not known, as the Jews had no objection to wine, nor did most Christians).

Paul responds to those with and without these scruples by declaring that “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking” — obviously not objecting to Christians eating and drinking together to their defining their relationship to Jesus and to each other in these terms. It’s impermissible to have the “wine drinking” and “wine refusing” parties. They may not divide over wine, meat, or holy days, because these are not what the kingdom of God is about. That much is very clear.

We, of course, very often define God’s kingdom in terms of who does and doesn’t teetotal, who does and doesn’t honor the “Christian Sabbath” by refusing to work on a Sunday, etc. These very issues — and many others quite like them — remain very much with us today — and we still divide and look down on others and judge over these things contrary to Paul’s explicit commands not to do so found earlier in the chapter —

(Rom 14:3-4 ESV)  3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.  4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

(Rom 14:6 ESV) 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.

(Rom 14:10 ESV) 10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;

And just as is true today, these are considered doctrinal disputes today just as they were in First Century Rome. This passage is about disputes over what God does and does not command and even the nature of the new covenant — but it’s about dispute among those who share a common faith in Jesus (14:1).

Paul then declares that while the kingdom is not about what we eat and drink, it is about “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” This is very similar to —

(Rom 15:13 ESV)  13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Obviously, Paul is not just tossing words in the air hoping something will sound eloquent. He is quite serious that the true gospel will bring the kingdom to peace, joy, and righteousness.

The peace is “peace in believing.” This is a reference back to —

(Rom 5:1 ESV) Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our peace comes from a gospel based on faith and not works — which provides us a confidence that can never be found in our own works.

“Joy” is joy “in the Spirit.” Joy is a gift from God — not a work we accomplish on our own. It’s a fruit of the Spirit in Gal 5:22. See also 1 Thes 1:6. Joy may well be the most frequently mentioned gift of the Spirit. Of course, there is an entirely human, rational element. Peace that comes from God’s gracious provision for us certainly should lead to joy — and I’ve seen this many, many times as I’ve taught on grace. Grace produces joy.

But joy is also a fruit of the Spirit working in our hearts. As the Spirit circumcises our hearts, our hearts become more attuned to God and his will, and so we find his grace more joyous. It’s more than mere understanding.

(Phi 4:7 ESV)  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

God’s peace — and the joy it produces in us through the Spirit — is beyond understanding. Paul plainly explains that it’s much more than our own knowledge that produces this peace. Rather, this comes from something is beyond comprehension, God’s work in our hearts and minds, as prophesied by Jeremiah.

(Heb 8:10 ESV) 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Amazingly, there is a parallel here between God’s promise to write his laws in our minds and on our hearts and this peace that surpasses understanding and joy in the Spirit. It all fits — and it’s all by the power of God. You see, the Greek permits and I’m persuaded that in Rom 14:17, “in the Spirit” modifies not only “joy” but also “peace” and “righteousness.” It’s all in the Spirit. Paul couldn’t have written Rom 8 and meant otherwise.

Now, we tend to think of “righteousness” as meaning “obeying God’s laws,” but the word has much more to it than that. For now, we’ll just consider how Paul uses it in Romans.

(Rom 3:21-22 ESV) 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — 22 the righteousness of God through [the faithfulness of] Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:

God, of course, does not have to obey his own laws. He is the law maker. And in this context, “righteousness” means “faithfulness to covenant promises.” And this is a major theme of Romans: God’s faithfulness to his promises to Abraham. We covered this some time ago in —

The Cruciform God: Righteousness and Faith, Part 3

Paul next applies the term to Christians —

(Rom 6:17-20 ESV)  17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,  18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.  19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.  20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

Here, as applied to Christians, it must mean our faithfulness to the covenant with God. But righteousness is a free gift!

(Rom 5:17 ESV) For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

The paradox is resolved by —

(Rom 8:3-4 ESV)  3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,  4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

We can’t actually live righteously, but because God writes his laws on our hearts and minds — because he circumcises our hearts by the Spirit — we can walking according the Spirit and be deemed righteous although only imperfectly so. We obey — but we obey imperfectly, but we obey from the heart because we want to obey. Thus, we are free to do what we want and slaves to righteousness all at once, because doing what you want to do is freedom.

Therefore, when Paul speaks in 14:17 of “righteousness … in the Holy Spirit” he is referring back to 8:3-4 and many other verses that speak of righteousness, our obedience to the covenant with God by the power of the Spirit in our hearts — a free gift to those who have faith in Jesus.

And this is what we should be focused on, not food and drink. Rather than seeking salvation through rules that just might be true, we need to enjoy true righteousness, the righteousness of God’s faithfulness to his covenant, shown through the faithfulness of Jesus, which is credited to us but which also changes us to be like Jesus.