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It is, gentlemen, a great pleasure for me to meet you and to be here with you and to work with you. Our program shows us that we have four days together in order to study the Epistle to the Romans. What I shall be attempting to do, as far as it depends upon me, is to aim at getting to know the book of Romans as a book. Not so much the interpretation of individual verses, but an attempt to come at the book of Romans as a coherent work, and therefore to study its major themes, and then to look at the major arguments that are used within each theme in order to prove and illustrate that
theme. If we get time, we shall then, at least in some parts of the book, give attention to the smaller details. Let me use an analogy. I have been living in Belfast for nearly fifty years, and I have to confess to you that I never once sat down to learn the name of every street in Belfast, uh, by heart. Yet I have come to find my way around Belfast, more or less successfully, do you see?
And I do it by mapping out in my mind the major parts and layouts of the city. I, I have the distinct impression, you'll see, that you have to distinguish between bits that are south of the lock and north of the lock, you'll see. And therefore, when I am going to the airport, I have to be careful when I'm in the middle of the city, which road I take, because I have found to my cost that if you go down one road, it will land you to the south of the lock, when all the time Aldergrove is up the north and by Loch Neid, you see.
And so I have it in my mind, that bit over there is south of the lock, and that has all sorts of things connected with it, like a city airport and things and so forth. And this bit is north of the lock, and you'll have to go there if you're going up to the airport, and such and such. And then I orientate myself going out the other way, what is west, you see. And so I come to know the plan as a whole. Then one can work out the details of individual street names. I want to do that with the Epistle to the Romans, to ask the layout of the book as a whole, and what are its major themes, so that if you came to me in the middle of the night and woke me up and said, now this verse here, let all, uh, believers be subject to the powers that be, where does that come in Romans?
I should have to say to myself, wait a minute, minute, what, what is that? Oh, that's practical stuff. That will be the fourth major section of Romans, do you see? And, uh, uh, when it says Christ, uh, uh, we died with Christ, what is the context of that? And you'll see that isn't in the first part of Romans, it's in the second part of Romans, and such like things. So now I am, I proceed to ask, what are the major parts of the Epistle to the Romans. Now, any respectable commentary at the beginning will give you a table of contents, and the author will lay them out as best seems fit to him.
And you only have to look at, uh, two or three uh, books on Romans, and you will find different commentators take different views on how the book is to be analyzed. I am well aware that the analysis that I'm about to give you is open to question and is questioned by nearly every other commentator on the book of Romans, do you see? Yourself perhaps included. Never mind that. I regard these things as scaffolding round a house, and the scaffolding helps you to get the general shape of the house. When you've built the house, you can take the scaffolding down, do you see? That's all I'm offering you now as a scaffolding.
Huh? But I shall ask, how would you decide what are the major themes of the book of Romans? A number one principle in my thinking for that is carefully to observe the thought flow, the flow of thought from one verse to another, from one paragraph to another, from one chapter to another. And I shall be asking, where does the theme begin, and where does each theme come to its climax and finale?
You will say, perhaps, what do you mean by thought flow? Nothing involved, gentlemen. You'll say, suppose you and your friend and myself were sitting in your lounge, and you and your friend were pondering where next to spend your holiday. And you said, I were wondering whether to go to, uh, uh, to, uh, the Costa Brava, and your friend says, no, I wouldn't go there, I'd go to the mountains in Switzerland. And I say, well, last year I, um, I put a weed killer all over my lawn. You said, pardon? What's that got to do with anything?
Have I suddenly gone off on some completely different topic? Or is there in my hazy mind some connection? Is it that I, you provoke me to think about, uh, g- going on holiday, and I suddenly remember that before I went on holiday last year, I put weed killer all over my lawn, and so forth and so on. What is the thought flow? Is there any, or isn't there? Now, when we take individual verses of scripture and preach from them, that is a very good thing. I'm saying nothing to suggest that it isn't a lawful method of interpretation. But if we merely take verses out of their context, we should get out of the habit of asking what the connection of thought is between them.
And if we are properly to listen to the Holy Spirit's argument in Romans, we shall have to pay close attention to what is the flow of thought between one statement and the next, between one verse and the next, between one paragraph and the next, and one chapter and the next, and so forth. And to see where themes begin and when a particular theme comes to its climax. Now, in Romans, it is easy to demonstrate this kind of thematic approach, for let me remind you of chapters nine, ten, and eleven.
Chapter eight has ended with a doxology of praise to God. For the confidence we have that, uh, nothing can separate us from his love. When we come to chapter nine, we have Paul's statement, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ, for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh. And it is self-evident that he has now left the consideration of chapter eight and is introducing a new subject.
Every commentator agrees about it. This is a subject of Israel and its majority rejection of the gospel in Paul's day. Paul's sorrow of heart on that account. And now the chapter nine, ten, and eleven are going to discuss the question of Israel. That is plain to see, isn't it? When you come to the end of chapter eleven, it ends with another doxology, but chapter twelve goes on to talk about something rather different.
I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Easy example, then, of the use of thought flow, following the flow of thought, to begin to see what are the major themes. The major theme of nine, ten, and eleven uh are the, uh, uh, uh, is Israel and its attitude to the gospel. It's easy also to see how- what brings this theme to its climax. In chapter nine, Paul is bewailing the fact that the majority in Israel reject the gospel.
But by the time he comes to the end of this theme in chapter eleven, verse twenty six, He says, and so all Israel shall be saved. He comes to a triumphant conclusion of this particular theme, and such is the sense of triumph in his heart that he sings a do- doxology from verses thirty three, thirty four, thirty five, thirty six, a doxology to the wisdom of God, who will arrange all things so that this triumph eventually takes place.
It ends, as we see, with, uh, the, uh, comment on the wisdom of God. Verse thirty three: all the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. An a- a paean of praise to the wisdom of God. Thus we come to a climax in this particular theme. We're not then surprised, surely, to find that in chapter twelve, now he goes on to a different, but also a major theme.
If that is true of Romans nine, ten, and eleven, we must ask about the other parts of the epistle. Are they just one whole? Let's take chapters one to eight. Are they just one undivided, indivisible whole talking about one major theme? Or are chapters one to eight uh, composed of different major themes? Now I'm going to make my suggestion as to what these themes are, and then I shall proceed to cover the whole book from that point of view. That is to say, in these early sessions, I shall talk.
Gentlemen, store up your questions, make notes of them, your objections and everything else, uh, your criticisms of the known sequators in my argumentation and how illogical I am and all that kind of thing. Uh, store all that up, uh, and we shall have a special session of the fourth, uh, uh, session the, the, the today on discussion and argumentation. I want, for the moment, to advance my thesis. Now, as to the first major theme in the Epistle to the, to the Romans.
I start in, um, chapter one where Paul is greeting the Romans and telling them he hopes to come to them. Meanwhile, he writes to them, and he is ready to preach the gospel to them. Verse sixteen: for I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is revealed a righteousness of God by faith, unto faith, as it is written, but the righteous shall live by faith.
Paul, therefore, stating he's not ashamed of this gospel. Do you see, it is the power of God to salvation. I ask him, therefore, Paul, please tell us why we need to be saved anyway. You're so proud of the gospel, you're not ashamed of it, and the reason you're not ashamed of it is it is the power of God to salvation. You must surely tell us, Paul, why you think we need to be saved anyway. I suggest, therefore, that his first reason is given to you in verse eighteen immediately.
Why do we need to be saved? For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold down the truth in unrighteousness. Reason number one why we need to be saved, because of the wrath of God. Now, as you know, one way of approaching scripture, one, uh, I- I won't say trick, but one- one practical thing that you can use is that if you come across a word in your reading, and it appears to you that this word repeats itself several times, well, then get out a concordance and see where that word appears, not only in the New Testament in general, but in this ep- uh, epistle in particular.
Make sure your concordance lets you see what the underlying Greek is. Our noble King James, God be thanked for it, had it as a matter of literary style that confronted with the same Greek or the same Hebrew word, they felt it good English style to vary the translation, and that was nice of them because it produces beautiful English, but it's a, a difficult if you're going to study seriously, because in the authorized version you'll find different words used for the same Greek word, maybe, and then the same words used for different Greek words.
So it's a little bit, uh, difficult. So get a concordance of some sort. Uh, one of the older ones is this, uh, Englishman's Greek Concordance by Wigram, but like me, it's very old, and I'm sure you have modern computer devices that can solve that problem for you. But do a study of the times a word appears in your particular epistle. Let me give an example of that by way of encouragement. If you were studying the first epistle by Timothy, and you came across the word godliness, and you looked it up in a concordance based on the Greek, you would find that that particular word occurs in the New Testament about twice or maybe three times before you come to First Timothy.
And then in First and Second Timothy and Titus, it occurs very frequently, which immediately would alert you to the fact that godliness is one of the major themes of the pastoral epistles. So now we come across this word, the wrath of God, the first reason why we need to be saved. And in chapters one to five eleven, it occurs twelve times in the whole epistle, but seven in these chapters one to five eleven.
So I'm going to suggest to you that the wrath of God is one of the major themes of the opening chapters of Romans. Let's take our Bibles in hand and note the occurrence of them. First of all, chapter one and verse eighteen: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. Chapter two, verse five: Twice over. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath. Chapter two, verse eight.
But unto them that are factious and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation. Turning over again into chapter three, verse five: But if our unrighteousness commends the unri- the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous, who visiteth r- with wrath? And chapter four again, and verse fifteen, for the law worketh wrath.
And then, as we come to what I shall presently suggest is the climax of this part of Romans, we come to verse, uh, uh, uh, t- uh, verses, uh, 15, sorry, verses, uh, f- where are we now? Verse nine of chapter five. Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God. Now notice the connection of thought between that and the first occurrence. Why do we need to be saved? Why is Paul not ashamed of the gospel? It is the power of God to salvation.
Why do I need salvation? Because the wrath of God is at manifest from heaven. That being so, the climax is in chapter five verse nine: much more than being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through him. Now, as we, uh, come to that kind of climax, let us notice the, the, uh, context of the, the detail, some of the detail of this climax. Look at verse five. Hope putteth not to shame, because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, which was given to us.
The love of God shed abroad in our hearts. This tremendous emphasis on the love of God by the Holy Spirit is pressed home upon our hearts by a logical argument. It's not a question of feeling, it's a question of logic and consistency in the character of God. That is God's love for us, not our love for God, but God's love for us has been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who was given to us. And the Holy Spirit sheds it abroad by this argument. For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Perhaps even for the good man, some would even dare to die. But God commends his own love. Do notice we're not talking of our love for God, the love of God in that sense, but of God's love for us. God commends his own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through him. It is a logical argument based on the consistency of the character of God. If while we were sinners, God gave Christ to die for us, now that we have been justified, do you suppose God would change his mind and, uh, exclude us or pour his wrath upon us?
The argument is repeated. For if while we were sinners, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. The argument, as the logicians would have it, a minore ad maius. Mm-hmm. Or you might dispute it and say, no, it's the other way around, it's from the bigger to the less. Whichever way round you put it, you can put the argument to any congregation you're talking to like this. If they are believers, you can say, tell me, what is the biggest thing that God will ever do for you? Suggest a few things, big things, not small things.
Um, give you a, a planet or two to play with when you get home to heaven, or a galaxy to administer. And I incidentally hope you don't think we're going to be sitting down on thrones singing every second of eternity. Um, but what is the biggest thing God will ever do for you? And when they have thought and searched their brains, they will say, no, none of those. The biggest thing God will ever do for you is what he has already done. He's given his son for you. God will never give you anything bigger than that, will he? And when did he do it? When did Christ die for you? You say, well, God waited to see whether I would repent, you see, and then, uh, when I'd repented, he said, yes, but don't let's be hasty.
Let's see how you behave, and, uh, if you behave jolly well, then I might consider giving my son for you. Well, no, not of course. He gave his son for us while we were still. So is the thesis. Now let's work out its implications, says Paul. If God loved us so much as to give his son to die for us when we were sinners, now that we've been justified, forgiven, pardoned, accepted, would it be consistent of God to pour out his wrath on us? No, indeed not. Our security gentleman, we notice in passing, is based on the character, the unchangeable character of God.
And the argument is, uh, uh, stated twice over, as you see, and it is an argument about the love of God. A tremendous climax, we notice, to this theme of the wrath of God. It has not gone off to talk about something else, for in the climax, verse nine again, much more than being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved? Notice the phraseology. It doesn't say shall we be sure of going to heaven. That's perfectly true. Or we are sure we have eternal life. That is perfectly true. But this is Paul arguing a case about the wrath of God.
And therefore, when he comes to this climax, he puts salvation in those terms much more than, do you see, uh, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through him. I want to suggest, tentatively, as far as you're concerned, that the one of the first major themes of Romans is this question of the l- of the wrath of God, why we need to be saved, and then its climax is to be found here. We shall be saved from the wrath of God, and that statement is made in the context about the consistency of God's character, a tremendous description of God's love. Now, we've already seen reason for thinking that chapter eight similarly comes to a climax because the end of chapter eight is followed by the three chapters on Israel that are distinct in their theme, aren't they?
Let's look back to that chapter eight again that we were reading a moment ago, and to how it ends and what it's talking about when it ends. Verse thirty one of chapter eight: What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? Let's pause and think. What I have suggested is the climax of the first part in chapter five was talking about what?
Ah, you'll say that's easy. It was talking about God giving his son to die for us. That was what the basis of the argument was. And this is God who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. That is the na- number one major posit effect. Now, the deductions to be drawn from it. If God gave, spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? An argument based on the historical fact that God gave his son for us and did not spare him.
And so the imprecations of the death of Christ are spelled out. Verse thirty three: who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. All shown to spring from God's love for us in giving his son and the absolute security that we have in him, in spite of persecution. Now look at verse thirty It na- in all these things, even in our persecution and sufferings, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So the end of chapter 8, uh, vividly, uh, uh, i- i- is vividly similar to those paragraphs at the beginning of chapter five. It is on that kind of basis that I am, I will now suggest what four major, uh, themes of the Epistle to the Romans are. I hope you can see the screen from there.
Um... It's a bit hazy to my eyes, but then my eyes are very elderly. I'm suggesting that Romans has four major themes, for all four major, uh, compartments or departments, or however you like to phrase them. That the first one runs from chapter one to five eleven. One of its central themes is the wrath of God as the reason why we need to be saved. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God to salvation. Why do I need it? For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.
And that theme developed in the chapters that next follow. What are the principles of God's wrath and his judgment? Solomon's serious chapters, but then they give way to what God's salvation, what the salvation that God has provided in light of his wrath. So it is salvation from the wrath of God in these chapters. And the exposition of salvation in this context, namely the context of the wrath of God, comes to its climax in chapter five. We shall be saved from the wrath of God through him.
And that climax and all the certainty connected with it is argued on the basis of the love of God in giving his son to die for us. It's a logical argument based on the love and character of God. I suggest, therefore, that these verses of Ro- Romans, this part of Romans one one to five eleven, These verses form the first major theme. We trace it through and then watch it come to its climax. Notice the nature of the climax. It is an argument still based on the love and character of God.
If that is so, what would the next theme be about? We have already noticed that chapter eight reads similarly like a climax, and it is a climax dealing with our absolute security in the face even of persecution. And it has to deal with the love of God. I am persuaded that nothing in the whole universe, or in other universes, if there be such, can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And just as at the, uh, climax of the first theme, this glorious certainty of being saved from the wrath of God is based on a consideration of God's love in giving Christ to die for us, explicitly so, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
So here the climax in chapter eight and the certainty that it gives us is based not merely on the love of God, how nice and kindly God is, but is based on the historical expression of that love of God. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? You notice the similarity, gentlemen, between those two climaxes. Similarity in content about the love of God, about the security of the believer. Similar, uh, similarity in logical argument. When we come to consider the preaching of the gospel in the light of this epistle, one of the things that we shall have to fa- talk about, because it will influence our preaching, is that a believer's assurance is based in the historical fact and in the character of God and the deductions that can be made from that historical fact as to the nature of God's character and therefore the nature of his love, and so forth.
Assurance of salvation is very much based on logic and historical fact. It is based on a good deal more, as we shall see elsewhere in the epistle. But if the, um, climaxes of these two, uh, uh, chapters are similar, what is the difference between them? Gentlemen, another principle of, uh, um, biblical exposition and exegesis and interpretation and so forth and so on is the principle of what the m- the medics are apt to talk about as differential diagnosis.
That sounds something very complicated, and therefore the medics deserve their fee if they can understand complicated phrases like that. Do they really have to do with differential diagnosis? Well, so can anybody. You'll see, even the housewife who puts out the different color bins is engaging in differential diagnosis. Now, don't begin to tell me this is too difficult. You'll see, I forget what the names are of the blue, the brown, and the black bins, Dolly or Piggy or something, I forget what they are. But you see, the whole stuff is waste anyway. That's the general, uh, thing.
It's all waste, household waste, you'll see. So it's all the same in the fact it is waste. Ah, but the council in their wisdom have asked us to see that while it's all the same when in the fact that it's waste, then there are differences between different kinds of waste, and here comes the differential diagnosis. The brown is the garden waste, and the blue is bottles and and plastic milk bottles and tins and things, and the other is a general collection of of horrible stuff. Yeah. Differential diagnosis. If these two, um, uh, uh, themes come to their climax, and the climax is similar, then we have to ask, what are the differences?
Because the differences are as important, if not more important, than the similarities, more important for the point of when you come to expound these different themes. So we have to ask about the beginning then. If this theme is about the wrath of God as a reason why we need to be saved, what is the second theme about? Is that likewise talking about why we need to be saved?
And if so, what is it, uh, how is it in any way different from what chapter one said? So let's take our Bibles in hand once more and look at chapter five verse 12. Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned. This now is giving us, as I see it, a second reason why we need to be saved. And this is now not so much the wrath of God, but what you might call the wreckage caused by Adam's primal disobedience.
The wreckage it has brought upon the human race. And that, of course, is a somewhat different thing from the wrath of God. There are two sides to the matter of salvation here, then. And we can pick that up if we take one of the, uh, uh, smaller themes of this second section, namely the slaveries, the dictatorships, the dominions that have come upon us as a result of Adam's sin.
So, if you care to look at f- chapter f- uh, six and verse nine, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death has no more dominion over him, and therefore over us as well. For the death that he died, he died unto sin once, but the life that he lives, he lives unto God. Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. The dominion of death broken.
Verse fourteen: For sin shall not have dominion over you. The second dominion to be broken. Chapter seven and verse one, are you ignorant, brethren, for I speak to men that know the law, how that the law has dominion over a man as long as he liveth. And our d- our escape from it, verse four: wherefore, my brethren, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ.
The dominion of law broken. And then to follow on that theme, let's look in chapter eight. Uh, chapter eight, verse two: for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free. Setting free from this principle, this l- uh, of sin and death, made me free from the law of sin and death. That principle broken in our case.
Or again, when he talks about, uh, spiritual life, verse fifteen: For you received not the spirit of slavery again unto fear, but you received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba Father. So whatever, uh, other themes come through, I point to one of them here. Deliverance from the dominions, tyrannies, bondages, slaveries that were brought on us as a result of the wreckage of Adam's first disobedience.
So then this second part comes to its climax, as we have already seen, that not only we who have the first fruits of the Spirit shall be delivered one day. We groan in our present state, but we wait our redemption. Do you see the, uh, our adoption, uh, the redemption of our bodies. But, uh, not only that, do you see, but creation herself, verse twenty one, shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
The undoing, therefore, salvation in the terms of the undoing of the wreckage caused by Adam's disobedience. And the effect that that has on the subsequent human race and on creation itself. How that shall be put right, you'll see. And we are glorified together with the Savior. I needn't stress those things anymore because they are c- common knowledge. Then we have, we leave it for the moment and come back, uh, to it.
We have one more part of the epistle to the Romans. What shall we say of Romans twelve to the end? Well, it is obvious, uh, that it's going to be about the practical implications of our salvation. How then we ought to live. Let's do what we did, uh, with the other, uh, the first three sections and look at the end of them. We have found now that the first major part ends with a statement about the love of God.
And the second major part ends with that great statement about the love of God. We found that the three chapters nine, ten, and eleven, that deal with Israel ended with a doxology of praise, but not now to the love of God, but to the wisdom of God and the knowledge of God. So chapter eleven ended. The whole epistle, the final section ends likewise with a doxology. Uh, let's read verses, uh, twenty five to twenty seven of chapter sixteen.
Now to him that is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations, unto obedience of faith. Now hear the doxology. To the only... No, you notice, not to the only loving God, but to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever.
Amen. So two great themes, two great passages, two great parts ending with doxologies on the love of God. The other two major parts ending with doxologies on the wisdom of God. And I can envisage you, gentlemen, if you've never done it before, I'm sure you have, but then you will do again many times. Start a few praises in your worship meetings, if you have such, that worship God for his, not just for his love.
Make a change, wouldn't it, to start worshiping him for his wisdom. Mm. And there's nothing wrong with variety, of course. So then we could say, right, um, that last thing is about, uh, practical things. But now I want to show you one or two things that show that once more the, uh, epistle is not just, uh, a collection of isolated things. That section at the end, section four, is not, of course, unrelated to what has gone before.
Mm-hmm. Ponder that for a moment. In the course of explaining the justice of the wrath of God, in part one, Paul talks about the various features of sin that have followed from man's rejection of the Creator.
We shall come back to that all in more detail. This is just a summary glance. Man's rejection of the Creator has affected man's body. Their bodies dishonored, says Paul. It has perverted their intellect, their rationality, their minds, their foolish minds were darkened. Paul points to a serious flaw in man's character.
At first, when you hear it, it sounds a small thing. It is absolutely basic. They rejected God, neither were thankful. That is a basic flaw in the character of the unregenerate. Surrounded by countless blessings and marvels of creation and of our human bodies and the cells and everything else under the sun. The natural response, it's an inbuilt response in the human heart, is to be grateful.
It's not a something that, uh, we have to remind ourselves of. We do, yes, but it's something that should be spontaneous. Someone gives you a gift, someone shows your kindness, you feel grateful. And the normal response of a human being to all the marvels o- of the creator's goodness should be gratitude. But if you deny there is a personal creator, gratitude is very difficult. How can you possibly be grati- uh, grateful to an atom? Oh, atom, I thank you very much. Or to a cell, oh, how marvelous cell, I I do feel very grateful to you, cell, you got rid of the poisons.
Very difficult. And this fee- feature of man's ingratitude to God is, of course, fundamental to the doctrine, uh, uh, uh, of the fall. It's one of the pernicious results of the fall, inevitable results of the fall. And then it affected what Paul calls their service. They worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator. The word for service, latria, is almost a priestly word.
And therefore, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, and we shall be saved from his wrath. You remember that. But now look at the final section. We're coming to the practical section that deals with the, uh, results of salvation and the practical effects on our lives. Notice, first the mind. That you see, and then the body. I ought to put that first, didn't I? The body.
I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies. And to do that properly, you'll need the transforming and renewing of your mind. And notice the effect upon our motivation to be grateful. I beseech you by the mercies of God. You have to judge this, if one died for all, then all died, and so forth and so on. Our motivation. And our service.
Paul uses the same words here as he used in one To say, a a living sacrifice acceptable to God, your spiritual or your reasonable, your rational service, same word as in chapter one. And there he talks about the wrath of God, now in a very different context. The practicalities of government in any country, that the magistrates are God's servants to execute his wrath, and therefore to hold some kind of order in, uh, community life. Other- which otherwise would be chaotic.
And all I'm trying to show is that these four major parts of Romans, though they are distinct parts, are linked together in their thought. For the practicalities now in chapter twelve onwards are the undoing and the reversal of the effects of man's rejection of God that were delineated in the first section, the first major part of the book. Yes? That's nothing very profound, that isn't, isn't it, is it?
But it is worth noticing. It could make an introduction to, uh, a talk on the practicalities, couldn't it now? God's salvation does have a scheme for reversing the effects of the fall. You'll say that's nice, uh, uh, well, it's interesting at any rate, stimulus before coffee, but uh, uh, uh, what use is it, practical use is it?
Well, I shall be talking about what practical use is it when we come to the individual sections and why we need now to get those four sections clearly in our minds, so that when it comes to expounding salvation, we state the full case and state it clearly. A number one thing that is now already evident in the preaching of the gospel. Why do folks need to be saved? In my youth, great emphasis was placed upon the wrath of God.
You need to be saved because of the wrath of God. Yes. In my old age, I seem to notice a lot of evangelism that puts the emphasis slightly differently. Are you feeling down in the dumps, my boy? I mean, have you been jilted by your, I mean, or, or what is it? You're feeling down, yes. Well, Christ can fill you with joy. That approach to salvation. Of course, both are true, aren't they? When our Lord talked to Nicodemus in John chapter three, he mentioned the cross under the simile of Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness, God's judgment on sin.
And the gift that God gave, he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to die on a cross, to suffer that judgment. When he talked in the next chapter to the woman of Samaria, he didn't talk about the cross, did he? Here was a woman deeply unsatisfied, dissatisfied, sinful indeed, but dissatisfied. He talked to her about the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that living water that once she drank, she would never thirst again. There are two parts of the gospel. Well then, because there are two separate parts, we need to get clearly in our minds how those two different parts work and what lies at the heart of them, and not to confuse the two.
But let's break off there, for I've come to my limit prescribed, which was eleven fifteen.
