Sermon: Members of One Another

Let's open in prayer together.

Lord, we are gathered in your name at the end of this Lord's day In order to hear from you and your word. I come in humility knowing that we need your direction. You come in hope, knowing that you can transform us by the renewal of our minds. We ask that the words of my mouth, meditations of our hearts would be acceptable to you and that our prophet would be greater faith, hope and love in Christ's name. Amen. Well, this evening we

are beginning our series on all the one another passages from Paul's letter to the Romans. This first one that we are members of one another is from chapter 12 verse five, and I think that it serves as something of a ground for all the others that we will see in the weeks to come going forward in the book from our passage tonight, God through Paul instructs us to love one another, to honor one another, to live in harmony with one another,

to build one another up, to welcome one another, instruct one another and greet one another. And we will look at each of these specific exhortations in turn as we progress through this theme in Romans over the summer. A little bit of context to get us ready for a text this evening. You'll probably recall that Paul is writing this letter to the Christians in Rome, whom he has not yet met. The letter overall serves as both an introduction to Paul

and to the ministry that he has. It's not unfair to think of Romans as the best missionary support letter that's ever been written. This book serves as a thorough summary of the gospel of grace that Paul preached from town to town in our kids' profession of faith class. You saw them all this morning, uh, we learn that a good summary of the gospel is the three Gs, guilt, grace, and gratitude. And as it turns out, this is a very good overall summary

of the book of Romans, guilt, grace, and gratitude. Chapter one to three, outline humanity's guilt before a holy God and why we deserve his wrath. Chapters three to 11 explain God's grace upon the His people who by the death of Christ are saved from that wrath. And Chapters 12 to 15 where all the one another passages are answers the question, how then shall the Christian live here on earth with a life of gratitude towards God

for his mercy and love? Chapter 16 is a bunch of greetings and doxology, but uh, I wish that I had time to reflect with you on the stuff from the previous 11 chapters in Romans. Uh, I think it's that it is an easy case. Uh, an easy case can be made that they are the high point of human theology. Full stop. Our passage tonight though is right at the beginning of chapter 12, which is the transition from this glorious theology

of grace to the practical reality of the Christian life of gratitude. You'll recall that this is Paul's regular practice in his letters to follow deep theological truths of the gospel with practical instructions and exhortations. Paul's reasoning is, since these amazing things are true of you, because of Christ, you must bring your life into conformity with these truths since you are, uh, beloved and saved in Christ, lived as a Christian.

Chapter 12 starts this, how then shall we live theme with two of the most important verses relating to the Christian life in all of scripture. Our focus tonight is gonna be the verses after these, but our understanding of those verses will not be complete without verses one and two of chapter 12. So allow me to read those for you now. I appeal to you, therefore brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy

and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

So as we read through Romans, we've seen the heights and depths and wits of the love of God all the way through chapter 11. And now what must our response be? How must the redeemed live we are to live our day-to-day lives given over to Christ? The vivid imagery here is of a sacrifice that lives on, that is the Christian life of gratitude is one totally given over to the will of Christ. We show our love, our gratitude,

and our hope by putting to death what is earthly within us and living for what is heavenly. We stand against the conforming current of the world and we allow ourselves to be transformed by the spirit of God through the word. Now, all that leads up to our passage for tonight, and I labored that introduction because what we'll focus on for the rest of the sermon is not distinct from everything that we just said. It flows out and puts flesh on it.

This whole sermon series can be seen as in light of the astounding grace of God. We must offer our self interest from day to day to Christ as a sacrifice and renew our minds by submitting to his word. So what specifically or practically should that mean about our relationships with one another? What form does our spiritual worship take in relationship to other believers? Now turning to our passage for this evening, Paul says this,

starting now in verse three, reading through verse eight, or by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned or as one as in one body, we have many members and the members do not have all have the same function. So we though many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another, having gifts

that differ according to the grace given to us. Let us use them if prophecy in accord in proportion to our faith if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching and the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal and the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

I read to you verses three through eight in order to complete Paul's thought. But our focus tin tonight is verse five. Paul's first point after verses one and two is believer regard yourself with humility. Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to be humble and in particular be humble toward others in the body of Christ. Remember that you belong to one another and that the graces that you have been given are

for the purpose of building up your brothers and sisters in Christ. It should be striking to us that the oneness of believers in Christ, the recognition of the fact that in him we are one body comes right at the top of Paul's list of what the sacrifice, but living life looks like. Living sacrifice. Do not be conformed, but be transformed and be humble toward one another and remember your duty to one another focusing on verse five.

So we though many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. I can see three concepts in this verse that deserve our attention tonight. First, we though many are one body, second in Christ and third individually members of one another. Or put it another way to summarize it another way. First we have unity. Second, the unity is in Christ and because of Christ. And third, we must live out, live in accordance

with this unity. But first we have unity. We though many are one body, the body of Christ is Paul's favorite metaphor for the people of God. Other New Testament writers use different metaphors. Paul says, we are Christ's body. The English word member comes from a Latin word meaning limb or body part. Paul uses the metaphor, Paul's, excuse me, Paul's use of the metaphor is so influential in Western thought that we've just adopted the metaphorical usage

of the words body and member into our common use all over the place. We talk about the student body referring to all the students at a school and we talk about our Costco membership. Uh, we probably get so used to these words that the power of Paul's metaphor can be lost on us. And when we say member, we think of a voluntary association with a group of people that we make. Maybe we pay to be a part of the group. It would be an error to consider our membership in Christ's

body to be a voluntary association. Christian, you have been graciously granted this membership and the duties that accompany this membership are not chosen or dictated by you or even by the group itself. The duties that you and I owe to one another come straight from the head of the body, thus the unity that you and I possess as believers in Christ. It's not ours to choose or to be fickle about. We possess it whether or not we like it and whether

or not we pursue it. When Paul says that believers are members of one another, he is saying that we have an organic and mutually beneficial relationship spiritually. So, but nevertheless, we are one like different parts of the same physical body and that body is Christ's body. In one Corinthians 12, Paul makes this exact same argument, uh, that he's making here in Romans. There however he really draws it out, pulls out all of the implications.

The ear does not say, because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body. Neither can the eye say to the hand, I have no need of you. Those parts which seem to be weaker or indispensable. These differences Paul says, are actually essential to the proper functioning of the body. One thing that this means is that for the Christian living a life on the sidelines of the church is not an option. A Sunday in and out sort of relationship

with the body is not right. Paul's metaphor argues that you believer in the pew are just as essential to this body as anyone else's and that it is a loss when you do not share your gifts. Again, in our kids' profession of faith class, I like to ask the kids who are joining the church, uh, in what way in which they think they could serve the church. Now, you might think it's an odd question to ask a 10-year-old that question,

but it absolutely is not. They usually give a good answer like, I could help in the nursery or I could help with ushering. These are great answers and I like to remind them and I wanna remind you, uh, one of the most important ways to serve your church is to welcome new faces that you see and to reach out to those who seem on the fringes. This is not a hard job, even for an introvert. You can do it. Just say, Hey, do you wanna see where the cookies are?

Introduce yourself, reach out. Uh, this is a way in which you can, uh, function and use your gifts in the body. Another thing that the body metaphor means is that our unity, as I said earlier, is not optional either descriptively or prescriptively. This passage doesn't say it would be a good idea to consider yourself connected to one another. It says you are one body with one another. If you have faith in Christ, you already are this.

It says you are one body with one another. Again, Paul's reasoning, this is true of you and you should cultivate and treasure it. You should lean into it. This is true of you both descriptively. It already is true and you should pursue it, love it, and treasure it. I wanna suggest that we regard this unity that we possess more lightly than we ought to. We're not given the freedom to choose our brothers and sisters, but we sure can try.

If I describe an experience to you, uh, we'll see if you can resonate with it. I, let's say I'm in the lobby talking with someone that I like and I catch someone out of the corner of my eye who I know and I know that they're going to make me uncomfortable with their neediness. And so I think to myself, without actually admitting that I'm thinking this to myself, how do I get out of the way of this approaching conversation?

I wonder if you resonate with that. Now I'm, I'm old enough and have been through it enough to know that I have been both parties in that scenario. As a general rule, we seem uncomf to be uncomfortable with neediness in any form. Our individual's individualist culture, prizes, self-sufficiency. We are uncomfortable asking for help and for be and being asked for help, but that is not how a body functions. If something has hurt the left arm,

the right hand will be there to hold it and to help. It is a blessing, uh, to be asked to help and to pray and to encourage and to give, uh, in the ways that we can allow me to suggest also that in a culture that's forgotten how to disagree with dignity and integrity, our ability to resolve differences inside the church because of our unity in Christ will serve as an incredible witness to the watching world. We are able to do this by remembering who we are

and who we belong to. We are members of one body who belong to Christ and belong to one another in Christ. Our duty to care for one another is neither optional nor dependent upon worldly factors. We, those of us who believe in Christ have everything in common. Second concept to draw out of verse five, our oneness is in Christ and because of Christ, we are one in Christ. Our unity is because of what Christ has done and it is in Christ from first to last.

It is Christ. Consider this, my own union with Christ begins with the recognition given to me only by the sovereign grace of God that I am in the most extreme type of vulnerability and weakness, namely that I am a sinner in the hands of an angry God.

It is in that lost state that Christ gave himself up for me, that God loved me in Christ, had mercy and rescued me from my perilous place, and brought me into intimate fellowship with himself. I am better than just a redeemed slave, although that's a good analogy. I am a statue that was destined to be torn down and thrown into the heap, but somehow was brought to life. I am, as you've heard multiple times today, a pile

of bones so devoid of life that I am dry and by the power of the word of God, have been given life and not only life, but purpose, joy, and hope there is such a great distance from what I deserve, where I should be and where I am. That only an infinitely sovereign, infinitely powerful and infinitely merciful being could have accomplished this on my behalf. There was literally no way in creation to redeem a sinner as bad as me.

So the creator himself entered into the creation to bear the penalty on my behalf. It is not only good news, it is not only the best news, it is the best news in all possible worlds brother or sister in Christ. This great redemption from object of wrath to beloved air is not only true of me, it is true of you. We want, if we want to talk about shared experiences creating unity, how about the shared experience of dry bones being transformed

into living, breathing people? Our unity is not just because we ident, we both identify as whatever it is, not just because of voluntary association that we chose. We didn't choose it at all. Our unity is not because we grew in up in the same general area because of our shared culture or even because of our shared theology. Our unity was bought for us at the price of Christ's blood. The unity of the redeemed in Christ is of the

profoundest and deepest character. We have everything in common, every deepest and most important thing, namely our unworthiness, the mercy that was shown to us and our utter loyalty and dependence upon our exalted head. Paul illustrates for us here how supremely unfitting, therefore it is for these two former piles of bones who now have been set together in the same military unit in the Lord's army to, for example, squabble with one another to gossip about one another.

You remember who you are. Do you remember the depths from which you have been brought? But we see in our passage is that it is Christ's intent that one of the primary ways that we would show our love for him show our gratitude to him is by fulfilling our duty to love others who are in exactly the same position of dependence upon his grace. That we are, we are united to one another because each of us is united to Christ.

Christ is the head of the body, the source, the director, the center of authority and action. But we who are united to him by faith are the parts or members of that same body. Again, when we say the body of Christ, we do not merely mean the people who call themselves Christians. It is not merely a descriptive reference to us as believers. You don't voluntarily identify as a Christian. You are bought and placed in the church.

You and I are sheep who recognized our shepherd's voice. We are those unique in the world whom Christ called, whom Christ died, for whom Christ united to himself and whom Christ united to one another. We are those in whom Christ dwells and among whom he moves. The unity that we have that has been given to us is held in place by the most immovable thing in the universe, and that is the very character and nature of God himself.

Which means that our oneness is true. Whether we feel whether or not we feel it or do anything about it, that it also means that we must do something about it. We must do something with it. To neglect it. To neglect our oneness in this great savior would be to disrespect what went into purchasing it. We must treasure and cultivate this gift of oneness. Third concept, we must live out this unity. We are members of one another.

How do we treasure and cultivate this oneness? I think our text that we read through gives us a couple clues. First in verse six, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. And then it proceeds to give a list of those gifts in verses seven and eight. Uh, there was a, a time early in my Christian walk that the teaching, uh, that was around me, uh, was, uh, to interpret this list of gifts

and the other lists lists it say in First Corinthians and in Ephesians as, um, sort of like a spiritual life, Myers-Briggs test, right? And there were actually tests and I, I took tests and I I took the tests at different points early in my Christian life. Um, and the first time I took the test or once it, it all my te all the top gifts and the, the, the lists were teaching gifts. And I liked that I was, I was pleased.

And the second time I took the test, they were all service gifts and I didn't like that as much. Um, so what changed? Why, why, why would that, why would that change? Uh, well, what changed was I had started working for the church as the building and groundskeeper. And so everything that I was doing to serve the body was, uh, was reflected in my answers to this, uh, spiritual Myers-Briggs. I think that what this illustrates is first the limits of

that kind of thinking about spiritual gifts. And second, that the phrase in verse six, according to the grace given to us, is more referring to the provides that God has sent into your life and the grace that has been built in you by these provides. Your gifts are largely determined by the sovereign providences of the Lord as it has played out over your life. Some of these providences have been hard and some have not been so hard,

but they have shaped you into who you are and ultimately they grant you grace from God by which you can bless others. In fact, I see, I think we see from this passage that they grant you grace by which you must, you are obligated to bless others in the church. One thing I've I've learned as a ruling elder here at University Reform Church is that although a shepherd of god's people must be both able to gently encourage the faint hearted

and sternly admonish the sinner, each of us elders is better at one of those than the other. Right? Some of us are better at one, some of us are better at the other. And I've learned to be thankful for the my brothers with the opposite strength. Those strengths were built in us by providence. It would be wrong of us to look at the brother with the opposite strength and say, well, he's not as, he's not as good at this as me

'cause he doesn't have my grace. This that's against this, this passage that we are seeing that we are studying tonight. Allow me to also suggest that the hard providences that you've been through are or are going through now are meant in turn to produce in you graces, which you are to take and to use to bless the church. In all my life, I have never had a trial or a time of suffering that I have not seen the Lord turn

to good in the lives of his. People think that this is the model which we must look at, uh, the circumstances in our lives. And sometimes the answer to the question, why am I going through this hard season is quite simply so that you may be a blessing to others.

Okay? Uh, another thing that this suggests is whatever our particular place or role in life, whatever our past looks like or whatever ways in which we struggle, each of us has something to add to the building up of the body of Christ. We saw in one Corinthians 12 that our differences are actually essential to the proper functioning of the body. Children here in the room, you have some grace that you have been given in order

to bless others in the church. I don't know what it is, but I know that I have been very encouraged to sit in prayer meetings with you and to hear you pray and to hear you call out your favorite hymn and request it maybe, uh, God has placed on your heart a burden for someone who is suffering in your family or for someone who doesn't know the Lord. And you want people to know so that they can pray for that person. High school and college students, young moms

and dads singles old people. The church is not only for you, it needs you, it needs your unique graces, it needs your unique gifts in order to build it up to its proper health. Those among us who are suffering with an illness, those who are suffering anxiety and depression, those struggling with doubt, you do now have graces to share and you will later have graces to share. I don't know what particular in what particular way God has shaped you

and formed you for the blessing of his body. All I know is that if you are his, you have some ways in which you can and should bless the other members of God's church. So the first way to cultivate and treasure, uh, the body that you have been given is to use your gifts and to serve them. And the second I think we see in verse three, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,

but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. As I've already said, our duty as members to the same body is to humbly regard our selves in relation to one another. This doesn't mean that we pretend that everyone else is less of a sinner and more spiritual than us. It means that when we submit ourselves to the authority of the word and encounter another person who has also submitted themselves to the authority

of the word, uh, we seek to humbly relate over debatable matters. We seek to humbly understand and discover what we may not know from their perspective. The provides that they have experienced are very likely different from your own and thus may grant you wisdom that is gained from a new perspective regarding ourselves with sober judgment in relation to others in the body, and seeking to use the graces that we have been given

to bless the body are the ways that we can treasure and cultivate the oneness that we have been given as members of the body of Christ. Just one final note, A ps at the end of my sermon, in a sermon about the unity of the body, undoubtedly a question arises in the mind of some listeners about the limits of our duty to fight to preserve this unity. Um, the yeah, buts could be strong with this sermon, but my fear in leaping too quickly to caveats

is that we would water down the two edge authority of the word of God that sits in front of us. Paul doesn't offer caveats here. Paul says, you are one and that you should love one another. In Christ. You have a duty to members of his body, a duty to love, to be humbled toward and to bless with your graces. When Paul wrote the book of Galatians, he questioned the existence of their faith, uh, because they were entertaining the false gospel

that they were hearing from the judaizers. But as strange and messed up as the church at Corinth was, Paul exhorted them as brethren. This means that a believer in Christ can look to us pretty wild and crazy and still have oneness with us. And as such deserve our love and grace and humility. However, it also means don't, don't neglect the other half of it, that we do not have unity with anyone who has in fact denied the gospel.

There's a definite need for wisdom and discernment here, but we must not allow our desire for clarity, our desire for discernment, to lead us to resist the plain instruction of the word, which is to pursue unity with your brethren. With that, let's pray to close.

Father, we give you praise for your glorious plan and for the sovereign and triumphant accomplishment of that plan in the life, death, and resurrection of your son. It is by his work that we can draw near to you and it is in his name that we have unity with one another. Help us to cultivate a humble love for one another. Help us to see the ways in which you have made us to bless one another. Help us in all these things. In Jesus name we pray.