Romans (48): Transformed Temperaments

[Rebbe]

PAUL'S LETTER TO THE ROMAN CHRISTIANS (48)
Analytical Commentary on Romans

 THE FIRSTFRUIT LIFE OF TRANSFORMATION (6)

TRANSFORMED TEMPERAMENTS

Audio Lecture is now available for members: Paul's letter to the Roman Christians: Lecture 48
http://www.bripodcasts.com/Romans/Lecture48.MP3

Copyright © BRI/IMCF 2018 All Rights Reserved Worldwide by Les Aron Gosling,
Messianic Lecturer (BRI/IMCF)
CAUTION: BRI Yeshiva notes are not available to the general public. They are not for distribution. They are not for reproduction. The notes may also bear little or no resemblance to the actual audio or video recorded BRI Yeshiva lecture.

"The devil is more laborious now than ever; the long day of mankind drawing towards an evening, and the world's tragedy and time near an end"
-- Sir Walter Raleigh

"If thy friends be of better quality than thyself, thou mayest be sure of two things: the first, that they will be more careful to keep thy counsel, because they have more to lose than thou hast; the second, they will esteem thee for thyself, and not for that which thou dost possess" -- Sir Walter Raleigh

"A man must first govern himself ere he be fit to govern a family, and his family, ere he be fit to bear the government in the commonwealth" -- Sir Walter Raleigh

I could have shared many quotations from Sir Walter Raleigh to launch this lecture, but I chose just three because, in one way or another, they best suited the theme of today's exposition. These quotes reveal something of the Spirit of God within the mindscape of this great sailor, soldier, courtier, historian, spy, poet, chemist and Christian, Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), one of the most colourful characters ever to grace English history and a close friend and prime favourite of Elizabeth 1. These three quotes also tell us something of ourselves, if in truth we have the courage essential for authentic self-examination.

What was it that animated the enormous courage Raleigh displayed when facing his death by beheading in 1618?  

It was this same Walter Raleigh who first introduced, and cultivated, potatoes in Ireland (and tobacco in England) as a consequence of his adventurous sea-faring expeditions in the name of Queen, King and country. It was this same extraordinary visionary who founded, in what is now North Carolina in the mighty USA, the colony of Virginia in the hope of creating a Greater England beyond the seas. Twice unreasonably charged with treason by the utterly profligate paranoiac King James 1 who was both terrified by Raleigh's influence and presence at Court as well as seized with fits of intense jealous at his immense popularity throughout the British Isles Sir Walter finally faced execution by order of the King as an Enemy of the State.

Condemned to die, Raleigh refused to countenance King James any perverse revelry in his execution. Indeed, he entered the Palace Yard in high spirits, humorously joking his way to the block where he shared a quip or two with his executioner before placing his own head on that block and actually signaling to his murderer for the ax to fall and decapitate him. So, again, what was it that gave this man such astonishing courage to face death in the way he did? The answer lies in a poem which was discovered in his Bible a few days after his death. It reads:

Even such is Time, which takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with earth and dust;
Who, in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days;
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust.

(The poem has been advantaged by me from Dr Ken Chant's
The Cross and the Crown, 1992, 94. Dr Chant was a
mentor of mine, in years too swiftly gone, and
whose broad grasp of history was only equaled by my own!)

Raleigh lived his life to the full. There are his detractors -- there are invariably detractors -- who spurn his Christianity due to his membership in a secret society known as The School of Night and that he was on record as to sharing his own esoteric views with occultists Christopher Marlowe and another shadowy author of the time, George Chapman. Raleigh was virtually everything people considered him to be, but his faith in God and his personal integrity were beyond dispute. From what I have studied about his life Raleigh's philosophy can be summed up in two great intentions or resolutions. In the spirit of Romans 12, we would be counseled wise to adopt them (if we have not as yet already done so).

1. Never let the fire in your heart go out. Keep it alive at all costs. Do everything it takes to keep it burning.

2. Serve the Lord with a clean heart, conscience free.

This is precisely what Paul tells us in Rom 12.11-13. "Never let the fire in your heart go out. Keep it alive. Serve the Lord. When you hope, be joyful. When you suffer, be patient. When you pray, be faithful. Share with God's people who are in need. Welcome others into your home" (NIRV).

Now I realise this is a free version, but I believe it captures what Paul was writing about in this Greek passage. For, the expression "fervent in spirit" (Rom 12.11 KJV) as in "Never let the fire in your heart go out" is also translated by another version as "in enthusiasm be at the boiling point."

LIVING WITH ONE AIM: TO PLEASE GOD
Originally, I was anticipating entitling the sub-heading of this lecture Living With One Aim -- To Please God. But half-way through composing it I became intensely aware of the admonition of the Spirit to call it nothing less than Transformed Temperaments. I think the Spirit so urged for two quite apparent reasons: this is the thrust, in effect, of the entire contents of Romans 12 and also and much more importantly because we are made in the image of our Creator, and we ought to do all we can in transforming our ordinary temperaments by becoming more and more like our God.

In what ways?

Why, in ways the world would be surprised to admit as actually being God's nature. The heathen world (THEM) has a remarkably different view of God's Nature and Character and Personality than do we (or, US).

Firstly, God always aims to please us as HisHer children! So therefore we ought to pursue a policy in life of pleasing God. The world fails to see God (if they even believe in Him) in such a light.

Secondly, God is at the boiling point at all times in enthusiastic creative activity ("My Father works incessantly," said His Son Yeshua and really, Christ ought to know) and therefore we ought to inculcate a more positive mental attitude even an entheos (God within us, or enthusiasm) toward life and in all the challenges that life brings to our door.

And thirdly (and we will come to this clarifying point more a little further on) God is cheerful in His disposition relating to us as HisHer children. You wouldn't know this from Catholic or Protestant belief-systems but it holds true nevertheless in the biblical revelation. Therefore we also ought to reflect God in this matter of personality and character and nature (as images of the Divine) and become even much more cheerful in our own dispositions.

As to the second admonition "Serve the Lord with a clean heart, conscience free" we find the same appropriate counsel in the Mishna:

"One should be guiltless before other people as well as before God, for it says, 'You shall be guiltless before God and before Israel' (Numbers 32:22)" (Sh'kalim 3.2).

OUR NEED FOR CHEERFULNESS
Sir Walter Raleigh may not have been without fault, but it may be conjectured from his own writings that he certainly had personal integrity and an inward sense of justice. It has also been noted by his many biographers that Raleigh was motivated by a nature and personality that, while it obviously had its serious side and even a rather dark occult side was denominated by an ongoing outgoing underlying cheerfulness even in the worst of possible times. It is Paul, again, who brings out this imperative of Christian cheerfulness in the face of opposition and persecution. Always striving as a melancholic pessimist to be optimistic, Rav Shaul laid an expectant urgency on us all to reach the level of Godhead in this need for a transformed temperament.

If we look carefully at particular gifts in Romans 12.6-8 we find the foundation of gift expression qualified as cheerfulness. Raleigh knew that this word was transliterated into English from a Greek word hilarotes basically carrying the meaning of being cheery and equipped with a readiness of mind to be other than that of a character imposing a self-righteous cynical arrogance. As Kenneth Wuest points out we get our term hilarity from this Greek word. Marvin Vincent defines it as "the joyfulness, the amiable grace, the affability going the length of gayety, which makes the visitor a sunbeam penetrating into the sick-chamber, and to the heart of the afflicted."
    
We really need to encourage and even launch a total reexamination and courageous rethink of all that God is, in Nature and Temperament, to get to know all that God thinks, and all that God assesses as acceptable behaviour in this humankind's LAST century in rebellious opposition to the expectations of the KINGDOM OF GOD.

While we see the need for ongoing and stable cheerfulness in our disposition and temperament, the moreso as we enter more deeply into the Divine Nature of God, so we seemingly encounter every opportunity to become even more serious and cheerless with ensuing squabbles, disorders, debates, arguments and spats, along with outside tensions and social impairments that come with ferocity at us entirely from out of  left-field. "Left-field" because the LEFT HAND OF GOD IS AT WORK. I might just add, as did Peter, that the "left-hand" is seeking "whom he may devour" (1 Pet 5.8). For haSatan hates and despises cheerfulness.

But why?

SATAN HATES AND DESPISES CHEERFULNESS
Lecturer Alva McClain directs believers in an understanding of Romans 12 in its emphasis on how love ought to manifest itself. Recall that we are twice told by the apostle John to accept the fact that "God is love" (1 Jn 4.8,16).

The world does not believe this simple fact about God's nature because the Dark Lord has deceived them into accepting the idea that the Divine role has been redirected into his own role with the horrific result that the nature of God is seen to be very Dark indeed. Satan has literally become (if he was not before) the god of this world, or age. The entire world is deceived into believing that God is a cruel, heartless and capricious heavenly tyrant when in fact the truth of the matter is frankly quite the direct opposite.

The fact is, and in the meantime will remain, that most people -- especially Christians deceived into accepting fairy tales emanating from the sacred precincts of Non-Think (we call them churches today... the modern inheritors of the ancient Mystery Religions) -- do not largely believe any more in a personal Devil. Yet this disbelief in his position of authority in (or possibly better, beneath) the Government of God is itself a fruit of Satan's marvelous deceptive power.

Understand! It is Satan's function to be a deceiver to originate and promulgate deception at every turn.

Please hear what I just said, "at every turn." Just as mysterious black holes are thought to be located at the very centre of each and every galaxy, so the Dark Energy of God is at the very centre of all thought and activity (Dan 8.23; 2 Cor 4.4; Rev 12.9). The mystical rabbis perfectly grasped this notion. For, HaShem created our vast universe (which continues to expand dramatically) in such a way as providing for the existence of evil at every level of awareness. As it is written,

"I am HaShem, and there is nothing else [intention of Hebrew]; I form the light and create darkness: I make peace AND CREATE EVIL; I, HaShem, do all these things" (Isa 45.6,7).  

Further, and based primarily on the Isaiah passage, the Jewish sages understood that God decreed that the universe contain both good and evil, "and therefore arranged that EVIL SHOULD BE ABLE TO EXIST ON EVERY LEVEL WHERE IT POSSIBLY CAN" (Derech HaShem, 3,2,7-8 Emphasis mine).

Again, for those who are not yet attuned to recall some of these factors, the basic building blocks of the entire universe are unmanifestations of Ten Dimensions of BEING called the Sefirot. Some of us are well aware of the Ten Sefirot or Curtains (or, Dimensions) of Reality. They are in actual experience expressions of HaShem's ETERNAL CHARACTER. But what most fail to realise is that there is a counterfeit of the TEN.  

There are also four stages (worlds) that manifest from HaShem's complex Realm: Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah. At the level of Beriah (creation) exists Samael (meaning poison-god or, poisonous god) who is none other than haSatan. And at that same level we find the negative energy of Satanic manifestation (evil counterpart) IN the ten horns (or centres) of cosmic power. With the ten exist seven heads of the Dragon (Samael) which are emblematic of the materialisation of its power seven being the number of 'maximum compactness' in the physical world [or realm we call the universe] (yashanet). The Dark Lord possesses unfathomable destructive power with which God empowered this Agent of Death and Demolition at the very beginning of his creation. And, precisely like a black hole (in our present understanding of its existence) Dark Energy in what ever form it may take, including haSatan, probably serves a fundamental role in the structure and function of the universe (in the words of another author) to illustrate the majesty and power of an Almighty God who can call such beasts into existence through His will and word.

As HaShem has two sides (of the Ten Sefirot) known as the cosmic Tree of Life so the Dark Lord possesses two sides of his own cosmic Tree of Atrophy. HaSatan is the Left Hand of God. The Ten Sefirot contain the Image of God but each image of God has its own image. Those images are, of necessity, infinite. This is because God is infinite.

Let me explain a little about the image of God. It is written in Genesis that God made humankind in His image. That Image was the Eternal One we today know as Yeshua. He was not known at the time of Creation as Yeshua, but as the Mem'ra or Logos of God. The Mem'ra was always in existence with God, and was in fact, God (Jn 1.1-3). In due time the Logos (Word or thoughtforms of God) became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) with humankind (Jn 1.14). When he returned to God the Father after the resurrection Yeshua became again the invisible image of God.

"He (Yeshua) is" present tense in the Greek "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn [from the dead] of all creation" (Col 1.15).  

While Yeshua was the firstborn of all creation through a resurrection from the dead, he was also IN THE MIND of God as an eternal entity of thought PRIOR to the creation of SpaceTime, which means in Einsteinian terms which I have already intimated from eternity.

(There is much more to this aside and I encourage our readers and listeners to access our lectures on The Apocalypse particularly lecture 126 Revelation 13.1-10 WHO is the Beast? [Part One].)

FUNCTIONS OF THE SPIRIT AS MANIFESTED LOVE
And so it is that Paul, writing to Jewish and Gentile Christians bound together by and in the love of God in Rome in the very Seat of Satanic Governmental authority and under the reign of emperor Nero -- who is about to emerge from his stand-up comic routine and change into a vicious Beast (wild animal) -- lists for the Christians in the Roman ekklesia a variety of holy Spirit functions beginning with prophecy as a supernatural gift.

Dr Ken Chant informs us, based upon his understanding of the Greek, that this gift implies both preaching (forth-telling) and foretelling. As to the manner of our prophesying, it must be 'according to the proportion of faith.' That is using every talent, every ability, every capacity, every grace, given to us by God, and setting all possible faith behind every word spoken.

"But note: this very exhortation shows that not every person can exercise the gift of prophecy at the same level of excellence. Not all have the same proportion of faith, not all can soar to the same heights of prophetic inspiration. Each person exercising this gift of prophecy must be content to do so within the limits imposed by his or her level of faith. The (ekklesia) must also be prepared to accept graciously each prophetic utterance at its own level, and not demand from people what they cannot give.

"As to the matter of our prophesying, what is spoken must be in strict harmony with the revealed word of God. Any prophetic utterance that contradicts Scripture must be judged by the (ekklesia) (1 Cor 14:29) and emphatically rejected" (Ken Chant, The Holy Spirit, 1992, 25).

Now, in the spirit of my once-mentor Dr Chant (for whom I maintain the greatest respect due to him) I can also say that Paul, after mentioning the prophetic gift, proceeds to link the supernatural gift of prophecy with his six operations that are entirely natural: teaching, exhortation, ministry (literally, deaconing), giving, ruling, showing mercy. In my own view these natural operations are expressions of the gift of the person whom God has called. Paul, for instance, was called by God because God wanted to utilise to the max the natural abilities of the one who was destined to be the apostle of God to the Gentiles. Ken Chant and I differ on this matter to some extent. In Chant's view (and he may be right) each of these various functions are reckoned to be the gift of God to those who are called to exercise them, and each of them requires the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Those whose ministry or gift is more spectacular ought not to despise those who serve God in ways that are seemingly more mundane; nor should the latter envy the former (See Chant, Holy Spirit, 26). He then quotes vvs 4,5.

"For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members of another."

Of course, in most respects Ken Chant and I are in general agreement and the tension is not paramount.

We both consent to the truth that "all of the ministries and gifts that function in the body of Christ are interdependent; none of them can successfully function in isolation from the body; all of them receive their life and direction from Christ, the head of the body. Our task, being aware of the office within the church to which God has called us, is to seek from the Holy Spirit whatever is necessary to enable us to function adequately in that office" (26).

To which I can say wholeheartedly, Amein!

Without argument to the contrary, the gift of teaching is always a gift. But the Teacher is a GIFT in him or herself. As McClain recognises, "Teaching is the art of making the unchanging divine message understandable to the unlearned" (Romans: The Gospel of God's Grace, 211).

He adds a most important qualification: "When God has called a man and given him a certain gift, he is not to do something other than that for which God has called him" (212).

Absolutely! The person who is given a teaching gift ought to remain within the exercise of that gift as the one who has been given the gift of exhortation, within the exercise of that gift. Counsels Kenneth Wuest, "It is a wise man who stays within the sphere of service for which... the Holy Spirit has fitted him, and does not invade some other field of service for which he is not fitted" (Romans in the Greek New Testament, in Wuest's Word Studies, 1973 edition., Vol.1, 212).

Contrary to Paul's explicit revelations and advice to the Roman Christians concerning the gifts of the holy Spirit, there are myriads of believers who want to exercise all of them which is ego-satiating and overstepping our authority (even in Christ). But this self ingratiation is not what is stated as the will of the holy Spirit in the sacred text! Some Christians forget that the holy Spirit is, above all else THE ONE who bestows HIS particular gifts on particular people. The giving of such a unique gift suited to the unique natural ability of the one gifted to use such a gift to the glory of Almighty God is HIS ALONE TO GRANT. None of us can seek to usurp the authority of GOD THE SPIRIT and we should all be content to stay in the calling wherein we were originally appointed as far as giftings are concerned. The Rebbetzin and I have known such people and they run themselves ragged in attempting to DO -- to ACCOMPLISH, and to GIVE EXPRESSION to -- ALL the giftings listed in Paul's writings. It's as if they fail to recall the integral integrity-driven/flowing ways and methods of God's SUPERIOR knowledge and understanding and wisdom concerning His own children, both sons and daughters of the Divine Ocean of Consciousness.

Speaking of the imparting of spiritual gifts from heaven, Paul adds "But all these (gifts) works that One and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as She will" (1 Cor 12.11).  As She -- the Spirit wills -- and not as we so presumptuously determine. If we have been granted a gift by God it is to be used as a SIGN (Acts 2.17-19) a signature of God's POWER in US. And, I might just add, none of the gifts are revoked once they are given (Rom 11.29). When the Lord gives us a gift, he never takes it back. YET while this is a correct assessment, the Biblical revelation informs us that the gifts are temporary in that they will one day in the future cease to exist (1 Cor 13.8-12). In no way is this true of the fruit of the Spirit. It is eternal, everlasting, and will never perish because those fruits are US, what WE have become IN Messiah. Messiah is eternal, we are (in Messiah) eternal, so the characters we possess (and will possess as evidence of our partaking of the Divine Nature) are equally eternal.

Our God is the creatively unique God above all the gods of the nations.

In God's eyes we are only limited by our own imposed self-view -- a view which may well be enhanced by the EMPOWERMENT of the Ruach HaKodesh. The gifts of God are in some respects related to the fruits of the Spirit from the point of view that the motives of LOVE and JOY and PEACE (and its pursuit) are the Divine Nature impulses (for lack of a better descriptor) that direct the gifts into positive affirmations within others. It is not drawing a long bow to ascribe the sentiment that while the fruits of the Spirit reveal the Nature (character) of God, the gifts speak of His personality attributes, such as God's power. Another author has thought well on the callings and elections of God and I follow his script accordingly for all truth is God's truth no matter from whence it comes. I may use his script but I have incorporated my own thoughts into it.

WHAT'S HOLDING YOU BACK?
God's gift of power in the man of His choosing is not limited by AGE as evidenced in His call of the Prince, Abraham. God poured His loving blessing into the Patriarch who in turn lovingly blessed the Gentiles as well as his progeny.

God is not held back in His purposes by a person's INEXPERIENCE, which is why He called David to be King over Israel.

God never feels unjust when He comes to GENDER in His election in Grace which is why He elevated Esther to be Jewish Queen of Persia married to the King Khsyayarsha (known in the Hebrew Bible as Ahasuerus and in history as Xerxes) and when He chose Deborah to be a judge (General) over His people.

God turns a blind eye when it comes to our PAST so He called and elected Paul to become His Emissary to the Nations.

And God is not impressed with our PHYSICAL APPEARANCE. Remember He elected Zacchaeus who was remarkably short and had to climb a tree to see Yeshua over the multitude as he passed by.

God is not impressed by the FLUENCY OF SPEECH. We know that because the prophet God chose possessed a heavy tongue and lips (Ex 4.10) intending a number of possibilities. (1) Moses, having being reared from childhood in the Egyptian palace, and later spending decades dwelling amongst the Midianites, had difficulty with speaking Hebrew with a thick accent or (2) he was, as many rabbis believe, a stutterer.

As to the latter appraisal it is said that God offered Moses his choice of lands. Moses somehow knew that Canada possesses an enormous variety of natural resources, including oil, and so tried to get the word out. But when he stammered, C...C...C...C...Can-Can-Can... God thought he was saying Canaan, and rewarded him with what we now know as Israel.  

Further to the above possibilities, in a recent issue of the journal Neurological Science medical researchers suggested that the Moses story betrays three tell-tale symptoms of stuttering -- fear, finding someone else to speak as a spokesman, and the pattern of negation/hesitation/avoidance. More intriguingly, they point out that Moses' father married his own father's sister (Ex 6.20), and that there is a higher prevalence of speech disorders among today's Israeli children born from consanguineous (same blood) marriages. They also find that stuttering today is more prevalent among bi-linguals (those who speak two languages), and that Moses probably had to master three languages: Hebrew (taught by his parents in his first years), Egyptian (learned during his thirty-plus years as a foster son of Pharaoh's daughter in the royal household), and Midianite (learned during his forty years as a shepherd and husband to the daughter of the priest of Midian).

God is decidedly not mindful of a person's CAREER; remember that He chose Miriam Magdalit who was a prostitute.

Our great God, who created our vast complex universe after much mathematical forethought and who brought into an existence all knowledge in the first place does not place paramount importance in our own accumulation of KNOWLEDGE, SCIENCE OR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALISM for He always has select people in mind whom he well knows can get the job done that He wants done perfectly. After all, He chose Job to build the Great Pyramid, and Noah to construct the Ark (the proportions of which are still being used by all naval engineers around the globe).

OUR GOD IS EVERLASTING LOVE
As we draw to a close in Romans 12 there is so much we could talk about in reference to God's expectations of us. What we could speak about and not speak about could fill a large book! But these are lectures only, and in no way are they an end in themselves. But there is one thing I would like to add before completing this chapter. Recently I received a beautiful letter from one of our number who has been with us for some years. He is ever ready to listen and also to share. I consider him a brother indeed. I reminded him that I have toward him a brother's love. Not a brotherly love. A brother's love.

Paul speaks in Rom 12.10,13 of Christian love within the ekklesia and in the last section of the same chapter he stresses Christian love outside the ekklesia. Some commentators have noted this and wonder why he differentiates between the two. If we look intently at the former Paul speaks of brotherly love. This is how it appears in the beloved (and oftentimes erroneous KJV). It reads, and you can check this out if you possess a KJV or AV. I will have something more to say about this version of Rom 12.10 in a minute. Recall that Paul is talking about love in the ekklesia.

As to the latter, Paul speaking of the love we are to show to the world, that love is displayed in this way: "live peacefully with all men" (Rom 12.18). There is a definite Them and Us in the way he writes!

In verse 9 he urges, "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cleave to that which is good."

For effect, and quite literally, the Greek word Paul uses which is translated as cleave carries the meaning "to be glued." We locate the same word in Acts 8.29 where Philip is commanded by the Spirit, "Go near! Join [glue] yourself to this chariot!"

I have mentioned above an issue relating to Acts 12.10. The ASV (American Standard Version) carries a different but pertinent emphasis to the AV. The ASV has "In love of the brethren (brothers)" and the word is in Philadelphia. Literally it means brother love, and not brotherly love. It is the very love that ought to exist between literal brothers. Brotherly love is love like a brother loves. However, what the holy Spirit is stating is that we are to possess actual genuine BROTHER LOVE itself.

This leads us into the end section of Romans 12. The reality of the very principle of brother love becomes apparent in everyday life as Paul denotes it.

Romans 12.18 tells us: "If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men."

McClain informs us that Romans 12.18 "confronts believers with a most difficult task, and only by the grace of God can we do."

I think the advice that ushers forth in his classic lectures on Romans is quite balanced at least to this point of Romans 12. When he launches into Romans 13 he is on another wave length altogether from me. We are as different from each other theologically concerning Paul's inclusions in the next chapter as east is from west. To continue:

"If it be possible" there he is talking not about you, but the other fellow. The second phrase talks about you: "As much as in you lies" emphasis on you live at peace with all men. That does not mean peace at the expense of righteousness, but the point is this: you are never to be the one to break the peace. When the peace is broken, don't look at the other fellow, but look at yourself and see if you have done all you can do.

"We are not to use this exhortation for simply giving in to everything that comes. For instance, when it concerns me individually, then it is right for me to give, give, give to the last drop, and never break the peace! But I also have a duty to others in my life, and when, by permitting somebody to run over me, I fail in my duty to others, then that is a different matter.

"In the 19th verse we find the underlying reason for this assessment. Paul begins, "Dearly beloved." He knows he is uttering a hard thing. The people of his time were accustomed to taking revenge, perhaps even more than today. Do not avenge yourselves, but give place to wrath, that is, the wrath of God. Let us not imagine this means the wrath of other men or even the wrath of ourselves. It means the wrath of God.... Give place to wrath. Why? Because it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord. It is not our business to repay men for what they do to us. Any effort on our part to administer justice will fall far short of the true situation.

"But if the believer is not satisfied with that and feels that he must do something in repayment, then there is a way to do it. This is set forth in the 20th verse: If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst give him drink. That is the only kind of repayment that is permitted the Christian. In doing that, what will you do to him? Heap coals of fire on his head. What so you think that means? A lot of folks are at sea and do not know just exactly what it does mean... In so doing, you shall heap coals of fire on his head, If you actually heap coals of fire on his head, you will destroy him in the sense that you will destroy him as your enemy. That is the kind of repayment to make. Or, if you want to look at it as some others do: Very often there is nothing that burns and brings greater remorse than for a man who has done damage to realise that you have forgiven him for all of it, and that you have treated him kindly. In that sense, it would be a revenge and would destroy him as your enemy.

"Paul sums it all up in the 21st verse. "Overcome evil with good." Paul had begun his exhortations by saying, "Be not conformed... but be you transformed."  The word good ought to be the dominant word in the Christian life, from one end to the other. God's people who have been listening to the mercies of God ought to be very prayerful in the presence of these exhortations to holy living. We ought to have regard for the exhortation that says, I beseech you by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice" (McClain, Romans: The Gospel of God's Grace, 1973, 213-216).

God has called each of us to primarily be living sacrifices in His spiritual Temple the ekklesia of God.

We are blest to know, and know that we know, that our God never changes.

Our God never made a promise He would not keep.

God never heard a prayer He would not answer.

God never found a soul He would not love.

He never found a sinner He wouldn't forgive.

And God indwells us by His Spirit of Love.

Would that we could all remember it.

THIS CONCLUDES LECTURE 48