Romans 12:1-15:13 is a sketch that Paul offers of redefining
the daily life of the people of God in the light of salvation through faith. He
has already identified, in Chapters 9-11, that Jew and Gentile alike are part
of the people of God through faith. He now wants to explore what it will mean
for the people of God to behave in a way that shows they are in fact the people
of God. One of the dangers of this section, as theologian Karl Barth points
out, is that on the surface, it sounds simple. In distinction from the first 11
chapters, Paul will write in a practical and simple way. Well, what Paul lays
out for us may be simple, but we must not mistake it for easy. The point is, anyone
who believes that God has a people will also need to show how this fact affects
the daily life of the people of God. Paul now wants to clarify the look of this
new life in Christ. It has roots in the doctrinal section of the letter. One
can view it as an ethical treatise. As Paul will do in his writings, he has
made clear that the Mosaic Law is not the norm of Christian life. He will now
show that love flows from the faith of which he has written in Chapters 1-11. Yes,
he will exhort this community to display proper Christian behaviors and
attitudes. What I find particularly instructive here is that Paul would oppose
any move toward a purely private religion. His particular concern is with the Christian
community in this section. Barth will want to stress that as an ethical
section, Paul is treating the command of God, which is good, and therefore
right, friendly, and wholesome. Paul addresses them as a unity as brothers and
sisters.[1]
In 12:1-2,
we find the theme of finding and doing the will of God. Paul establishes the
theme for this section, in that the life of the reconstituted people of God is
a matter of the reasonable worship of God, a matter of finding and doing the
will of God. “Therefore,” refers to the argument thus far. He makes his
“appeal” to them. He will do so as well in I Corinthians 1:10, II Corinthians
10:1-2, Ephesians 4:1, I Thessalonians 4:1, II Thessalonians 2:1, and Philemon
8. In most of these cases, the appeal is for unity. His appeal is “by the
mercies of God” summarizes the basic argument regarding salvation that Paul has
made thus far. “Spiritual” or “reasonable” worship suggests the offering of
one’s life to God is the appropriate response to what God has given to the
world in Christ. The “body,” although in Romans 7-8 the place of the battle
between sin, Law, and flesh, is what the people offer to God. To offer the
body, to refer to this offering as a holy and acceptable sacrifice to God, is
to use the language of Leviticus. Paul refers to his impending death as a
sacrificial offering of the faith of his readers in Philippians 2:17. He also
refers to the gifts of financial support from them as a fragrant offering in
4:18. In Colossians 1:21-22, he refers to the reconciliation with God that the
death of Christ accomplished, in order that Christ may present them to God as
holy, blameless, and irreproachable before God. Paul refers to the behavior of
his team of missionaries as holy, righteous, and blameless in I Thessalonians
2:10, to which his readers are witnesses. “Body” is the anthropological
language of Paul, referring to the whole person, the entire self. If they
“present” themselves to God, it will be a purposive action of place the
offering on the altar. Barth offers the quite good suggestion that every moment
and situation we need to ask honestly, questions like, Who am I, and where do I
stand, and what am I doing, and by what am I compelled? In reference to this
verse, am I with seriousness seeking the will of God and that which is holy and
acceptable? Yes, we are to set ourselves apart from the present age. Yet, the
ever present temptation is to fit in with those surrounding you at work and at
home. The temptation is to let them squeeze you into its mold. Instead, Paul
calls Christians to experience transformation as they move toward what is good,
acceptable, and perfect as the will of God.[2]
In 12:3-8, Paul
draws out the lesson of humility within the church. Paul has already said that
his fellow Jews have had overconfidence in the Law, he has shown that the
prophets warned of the danger of such overconfidence, and that faith in the
saving work of God in Christ gives no one reason to boast. Paul suggests
humility by discussing the notion of the people of God as a body, with every
person given a ministry through the spiritual gifts God gives. One needs modesty
and sobriety because of the character of the church community. It is a living
organism, with each part having a function.
This unity through diversity is the underlying theme of this
"practical" section of Romans. Barth says that in 12:3, we are not to
think highly of ourselves, becoming unfitting and over-ambitious. Further, the
diversity of human gifts and temperaments and tendencies divide, but the
operations of grace unite. Each member must make full use of what God has given
to the individual.[3]
Pannenberg stresses that the dominant insight of Paul is that the fellowship of
Christians with God and each other rests on their participation in the Christ
to whom each of them is related by faith and baptism. He makes what I think is
a challenging and insightful statement about the risen Christ. First, it says
something about us, who have a tendency to focus on ourselves. For Pannenberg, if
we take what Paul says about the church as the body of Christ just as it stands
it follows that we must understand the new life of the resurrection, the life
of the risen Christ, as a removal of the individual autonomy and separation
that are part of the corporeality of earthly life, though with no simple
erasure of who we are as individuals. Second, it also says something startling
about the risen Christ. The new life of the risen Lord does not have a form
that simply separates his life from that of others, even though the risen Lord
is more than the existence of the church.[4] As believers,
we are part of the resurrected life of Christ. Is this not what Paul means when
he can also write of us as living in Christ and as Christ living in us?
Verses 6-8 discuss specific and
diverse gifts, such as prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhorting, giving,
leading, and being compassionate. He expands on this notion considerably in I
Corinthians 12:4-31 and Ephesians 4:11-16. A central point of Paul's
"body" imagery in this discussion of gifts is to emphasize that a
diversity of gifts is natural, normal and indeed necessary, for the continued
health and well-being of the church. There are no small or insignificant gifts.
In keeping with Paul's first point in this discussion, the equality of all
gifts is a given. All gifts are equally important and crucial for the body's
continued vigor. The responsibility of the members of this Christ body is to
discover what gifts they possess and to use them to the further glorification
of God through the church.
The people of God will live by
love, as this section will demonstrate. However, Paul begins by encouraging us
to acknowledge the mercies of God, to seek the will of God in all seriousness,
to exhibit humility, and to discover your place as a believer in the continuing
resurrected life of Christ by discovering your place in the body.
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