THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Epistle of Paul to Romans
Message Five
A Laboring Priest of the Gospel of God
Scripture Reading: Rom. 1:1, 9; 15:16, 29; 16:25-27; Rev. 5:9-10; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; 1 Thes. 2:1-12; 1 Tim. 1:11; Titus 1:3
I. “That I might be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, a laboring priest of the gospel of God, in order that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, having been sanctified in the Holy Spirit”—Rom. 15:16:
A. Paul’s being a laboring priest of the gospel of God to minister Christ to the Gentiles was a priestly service to God, and the Gentiles whom he gained through his gospel preaching were an offering presented to God—1 Pet. 2:5:
1. By this priestly service many Gentiles, who were unclean and defiled, were sanctified in the Holy Spirit and became such an offering, acceptable to God—Rom. 15:16; 16:4-5.
2. These Gentiles were set apart from things common and were saturated with God’s nature and element, and were thus sanctified both positionally and dispositionally; such a sanctification is in the Holy Spirit—6:19; 15:16.
3. Based on Christ’s redemption, the Holy Spirit renews, transforms, and separates unto holiness those who have been regenerated by believing into Christ—3:24; 12:2; John 3:15.
B. Paul is a pattern of the priesthood of the gospel; in the Epistle to the Romans, which concerns the gospel of God, he tells us how sinners can be saved and justified by believing in the Lord, how they advance in Christ by being sanctified and transformed, and how they present themselves to God as living sacrifices so that they may become members of the Body of Christ to live the church life, expressing Christ corporately and awaiting His coming—1 Thes. 2:1-12; Acts 20:17-36; Rom. 1:16-17; 3:24-26; 12:1, 4-5; 13:11.
II. The New Testament service ordained by God is that all believers are priests to serve God with the offerings that He desires—Rev. 1:5-6; 5:9-10; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9:
A. As priests of the gospel of God, we offer saved sinners, as parts of the enlarged and corporate Christ, to God as sacrifices—Rom. 15:16.
B. The offering of the believers to God is in three steps—v. 16; 12:1; Col. 1:28:
1. Those who preach the gospel offer the newly saved ones to God as spiritual sacrifices—v. 16; 1 Pet. 2:5.
2. After the new believers grow and begin to understand what it is to be a believer in Christ, they are encouraged to offer themselves to God as a living sacrifice—Rom. 12:1.
3. As the believers continue to grow unto maturity, those who labor on the believers present them full-grown in Christ—Col. 1:28.
C. In order to function as priests of the gospel, we need to see that the gospel of God includes the entire book of Romans; this Epistle shows us that when we preach the gospel, we make sinners the sons of God and members of the Body of Christ, and we help them to grow so that they can be active members in the practice of the Body life in the local churches—1:16-17; 3:24; 5:10; 8:16; 12:2, 4-5.
D. The service of the priesthood of the gospel is the service of the church as the Body of Christ; the focus of our service is to save sinners and offer them to God, and the goal of our service is the building up of the Body of Christ—15:16; 12:4-5; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Eph. 4:11-12, 16.
III. “God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son”—Rom. 1:9:
A. The spirit in Romans 1:9 is not the Spirit of God but Paul’s regenerated spirit—John 3:6:
1. Christ and the Spirit are with the believers in their regenerated human spirit—2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16.
2. In Romans Paul stresses that whatever we are, whatever we have, and whatever we do toward God must be in this spirit—2:29; 7:6; 8:4-6, 9, 13; 12:11.
3. Paul served God in his regenerated spirit by the indwelling Christ, the life-giving Spirit, not in his soul by the power and ability of the soul—Phil. 3:3.
4. In order to serve in our spirit, we must sense the spirit, know the spirit, discern the spirit, and be burning in spirit—Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11; Heb. 4:12.
B. The apostle Paul served God in the gospel as well as in his spirit; the way to serve God involves service in the spirit inwardly and service in the gospel outwardly—Rom. 1:9; 15:19-20; 7:6; 12:11.
IV. Our service to God in the gospel concerning His Son is related to the three sections of the gospel of God in Romans—redemption, life, and the Body—1:16-17; 3:24-26; 5:1, 9-11, 10, 17; 6:19, 22; 8:9-11, 29; 12:2-18:
A. In the first section we should help the saints to know what redemption is, to know that the cross has dealt with every problem between us and God, and to know that in Christ we have been forgiven of our sins, justified by God, reconciled to God, and accepted by God—1:16-17; 3:24-26; 5:1, 9-11.
B. In the second section we should help the saints to know that Christ as the life-giving Spirit is in us as our life, mingling Himself with our spirit as one spirit, and that now we may eat Him, drink Him, enjoy Him, be filled, saturated, and permeated with Him, and be saved in life and reign in life by being sanctified, renewed, transformed, and conformed to His image—vv. 10, 17; 6:19, 22; 8:9-11, 29; 12:2.
C. In the third section we should help the saints to know the Body, to live in the Body, to coordinate together as members of the Body, and to realize that spirituality is a Body matter and that our spirituality must be measured by the Body and be tested by the Body—vv. 4-18.
V. The Greek word rendered “serve” in Romans 1:9 means “serve in worship”; Paul considered his preaching of the gospel a service in which he worshipped God:
A. The worship of God is our service to God, and this worship includes all positive matters between us and God, such as contacting God, praying to God, looking unto God, waiting on God, having fellowship with God, and working for God—Matt. 6:9, 33; John 4:23-24; Phil. 4:6, 20.
B. In the book of Revelation we see a special line—the line of worship—4:10; 5:14; 7:11; 9:20; 11:16; 13:4, 8; 14:7,11; 15:4; 16:2; 19:4, 20; 20:4; 22:9:
1. God needs our worship, but Satan fears our worship of God, wants worship, and is seeking worship—Matt. 4:8-10; Rev. 4:10; 5:14; 13:4.
2. We should seek to give special worship to God, because Satan is getting worship for himself more and more—7:11; 13:4; 22:9.
3. If we live according to our spirit, God will gain our worship, but if we live according to the soul, Satan will gain our worship—Rom. 1:9; 8:4.
C. The worship that satisfies God the Father—worship in spirit and truthfulness—is the worship in the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity by our drinking and flowing the water of life in resurrection—the fountain, the spring, and the river—John 4:14, 23-24; 7:37-39; Exo. 17:6; Psa. 36:8-9; 1 Cor. 10:4:
1. The Samaritan woman worshipped God in her spirit by drinking of Him as the living water to quench her thirst; thus, God was worshipped by her in a genuine way—John 4:7-14, 23-24.
2. Throughout the centuries, only a small number of Christians have worshipped God in spirit by drinking of Him as the living water—Matt. 15:9.
3. God in Christ as the Spirit conies to us as the living water for us to drink; when we drink of Him as the water of life, we worship Him in a genuine way—John 1:1, 14; 4:10, 14, 23-24; 7:37-39.
4. We urgently need to enter into the real worship of God in spirit by drinking Him as the living water—4:10, 23-24.
D. Genuine worship is realized in the Body of Christ; worship in the New Testament is a corporate matter, and apart from the Body, it is difficult to have genuine worship— Rom. 1:9; 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 10:3-4, 16-17; 12:12-13.
E. The more we serve and worship God in our spirit in the gospel of His Son, the more we will enjoy the fullness of the blessing of Christ, and the more we will offer praise to God—Rom. 15:29; 16:25-27.
VI. “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel, that is, the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery…to the only wise God through Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen”—vv. 25, 27.
Ministry Excerpts:
ALL THE NEW TESTAMENT BELIEVERS BEING PRIESTS TO SERVE GOD
The New Testament service ordained by God in the Scriptures indicates that all New Testament believers are priests to serve God (Rev. 1:5-6). The priests are those who serve God. Everyone who serves God, anywhere and at any time, must be a priest whose special profession is to serve full time before God. Although he serves full time, he still labors for his livelihood, working with his own hands to minister to his own needs. Paul was the top and best serving one of God in the New Testament. He also held the job of tent-making, laboring and working with his own hands. He not only ministered to his own needs but also took care of the needs of his co-workers. Therefore, on the one hand, we serve God exclusively, and on the other hand, we also have a way to make a living. We should not allow others to worry about us because of our serving the Lord.
THE PRIESTS OF THE GOSPEL OF GOD
Almost everywhere in the entire New Testament, God speaks concerning how to be priests of the gospel of God, how to serve God. Paul called the New Testament priests the priests of the gospel (Rom. 15:16). They are priests, yet they are gospel preachers, priests who specialize in the gospel. In the Old Testament the priests specialized in taking care of the sacrifices. By this we can see that the priests of the gospel, mentioned in Romans 15:16, are those who specialize in taking care of the gospel. In Greek, the phrase a priest of the gospel has a further meaning; it denotes not only a priest of the gospel, but a laboring priest of the gospel. In other words, the New Testament priests of the gospel should be laboring priests of the gospel—not priests who are content or at leisure, but priests diligently striving and laboring. They are priests who diligently labor in the gospel of God. Paul was such a priest of the gospel of God, and we too should be such.
Being Built up Into God’s Holy Priesthood
According to the New Testament, there are at least seven aspects related to being priests of the gospel of God. First, these priests are built up into God’s holy priesthood. The priests of the gospel of God do not serve alone or individually; they are built up into a priesthood. We know that today any kind of successful work in human society must be a work that is carried out by an organized group. It is difficult for individuals to have a great success; the achieving of a great success depends on the effort of an organized group. The priests in the Old Testament did not serve individually; they carried out their duty group by group. They all belonged to the house of Aaron; they were sons of Aaron formed into a body of priests. Luke chapter one tells us that when Zachariah the priest went to serve God, he served in the priestly body according to the order of his course. When we preach the gospel in the church today, we also should realize that the whole church constitutes a priesthood of the gospel.
In Greek, one word is used for priestly duties or priestly work and another for priestly body or priesthood, but in English the two words are treated as one. Therefore, in reading the English Bible, it is often difficult to tell what the particular word denotes. What is referred to both in 1 Peter 2:5 and 9 is the priesthood, not the priestly duties. Today in the church, we, the priests of the gospel, should be built up together to serve in coordination as a body of priests. Do not consider this a small thing. If we preach the gospel without any building up, but in a very individualistic way, our gospel will never be powerful or effective. For the preaching of the gospel to be both powerful and effective, we must be built up together and coordinated together.
In church history it is difficult to find one Christian body that has not been divided. It is not easy for us to be coordinated and built up in the church, for although we have been regenerated in our spirit, we often do not speak or walk in our spirit. If we want the church of the Lord to be blessed, first we must learn the lesson of coordination. We should learn to be upright and not crooked, to obey the Lord, and to be built up with others into a holy priesthood.
Telling Out the Virtues of the One Who Has Saved Us
Out of Darkness Into His Marvelous Light
Second, the priesthood of the gospel should tell out the virtues (such as love, grace, and forgiveness) of the One who has saved us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9). To tell out His virtues is to tell out what He is in His attributes. Our telling out to people in this way is our preaching of the gospel. To be the priests of the gospel of God is to tell out the virtues of what He is, to tell out how He has saved us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Carrying Out the Stewardship of the Grace of God in God’s Economy
Third, the priests of the gospel of God should carry out the stewardship of the grace of God in God’s economy (Eph. 3:2; 1 Cor. 9:16-17). As the New Testament priests of the gospel, we have a stewardship, and our stewardship is the economy of God. Every time we go out to preach the gospel, we are carrying out our stewardship in God’s economy to dispense Christ’s salvation and life to others.
Ministering to Others the Unsearchable Riches of Christ as the Grace of God
Fourth, the priests of the gospel should minister to others the unsearchable riches of Christ as the grace of God. This is to dispense Christ to people.
Offering up Spiritual Sacrifices Acceptable to God, That Is,
Offering up the Saved Sinners as Members of Christ
Fifth, after we dispense Christ to others, there will be a result. Others will receive and believe in the Lord, and we will baptize them into the Triune God. Thus, the sinners whom we save become the spiritual sacrifices that we can offer up to God for His acceptance, and they also become members of Christ to constitute the Body of Christ (1 Pet. 2:5; Rom. 15:16b). After a sinner is saved and baptized through us, he becomes a lamb of the Lord to be offered as a sacrifice to God, and he also becomes a member of the Body of Christ to constitute the Body of Christ.
As priests, we must offer sacrifices. All the sacrifices of the Old Testament are types of Christ. Therefore, what the Old Testament priests offered were types of Christ; we may say that they offered Christ in type. But what the New Testament priests offer is Christ Himself, because the sinners whom we save are members of the Body of Christ, and they thereby constitute the Body of Christ. Therefore, in God’s eyes what we, the New Testament priests of the gospel, offer is Christ. In the Old Testament, what was offered were types of the individual Christ, whereas in the New Testament what is offered is the reality of the corporate Christ. Therefore, what we offer is more and higher than what was offered in the Old Testament. Whenever we gain one person by preaching the gospel, we should rejoicingly offer him on the altar as a sacrifice to God and as a member of Christ’s Body. When all the members are added together, they constitute the Body of Christ. Therefore, what we offer is the corporate Christ.
Being Chosen and Appointed by God to Bear Remaining Fruit
Sixth, we have been chosen and appointed by God to bear remaining fruit (John 15:16). It is not difficult to bear fruit, but to bear remaining fruit requires effort. At the time of fruit bearing, a farmer must be busier than in ordinary times. For example, he must prevent the birds from coming to eat the fruit. In like manner, to bring forth children is easy, but to nurture them is difficult. According to my observation, the number of baptized ones among us is not small; there are many baptized ones everywhere. However, at the end of the year, when we take a count, not many remain. The reason is that after people are baptized, there is a lack of care and there is not much nourishing. For this reason, after people are saved, we need to spend time to nourish them and to care for them. If we do this, after half a year or a year, they will be solidly in the church.
THE LIVING OF THE PRIESTS OF THE GOSPEL OF GOD
Being Revived Every Morning
In order that we may be the New Testament priests of the gospel, we must have a living that matches our priesthood. To be a certain kind of people, we must have a certain kind of living. To be the priests of the gospel, we must have the living of the priests of the gospel. First, we need to be revived every morning. Psalm 119:147 says, “I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word.” Morning is the beginning of a day; in the morning everything is fresh. If we desire to enjoy the Lord’s fresh supply, like the psalmist, we need to rise early to call on the Lord and to look to His word—to eat, drink, and enjoy Him through His word. You do not need to spend too much time or read too many verses; two or three verses a day are sufficient. At the same time, do not skip in your reading. Rather, read book by book. The best way is to start with the books that are easy. Books such as the Gospel of John, Romans, Galatians, and Philippians are very good material for morning revival. Read two or three verses every morning. Then, on Saturday go back to review the verses for the previous five days, and try to put your impressions and feelings together and arrange them so that they become the contents of your prophesying in the Lord’s Day meeting.
Overcoming Every Day
As the priests of the gospel of God, we need not only to be revived every morning but also to overcome every day. Romans 8:37 says, “In all these things we more than conquer through Him who loved us.” Although Paul encountered many problems in his experience, he could always give thanks to God because he had found the secret. In his living he adopted an overcoming attitude with an overcoming standing. We also should be like this in our living. Regardless of what happens, we should have an overcoming faith, take an overcoming attitude, and stand on the position of the Lord’s victory to boast to our environment.
Being Filled with the Spirit Every Moment and Speaking Christ Everywhere
To be revived every morning and to overcome every day has become our motto in all the churches around the globe today. As priests of the gospel, we must have this kind of living. Not only so, we need to be filled with the Spirit every moment (Eph. 5:18b) and to speak Christ everywhere (2 Tim. 4:2a). This truly is the most beautiful and best living in the world.
Feeding the Lambs in the Lord’s Flock
What we spoke previously concerns the preaching of the gospel to save sinners, which is also what we call begetting. This is the first step. The second step is nourishing. After the begetting, there is the need of nourishing. We all know the story in John 21. The disciples were not able to catch any fish the entire night. Then the Lord came to perform a miracle, enabling them to catch a net full of fish, and He also prepared breakfast for them. After breakfast, the Lord said to Peter, “Do you love Me more than these?” Peter said, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” The Lord said, “Feed My lambs” (v. 15). Of the four Gospels, the first three—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—charge us at the end to preach the gospel; only the Gospel of John charges us to feed the Lord’s lambs. Chapter 15 says that we should bear remaining fruit, and chapter 21 says that we need to feed the lambs. Every one of us should not only preach the gospel to save sinners but also should have two or three lambs in our hands.
The best way to feed the lambs is through the home meetings in the new believers’ homes. To ask the new believers to come to our homes is not as good as our going to their homes. This kind of feeding will enable the new believers to remain. When we take care of and nourish the new believers, we should be like a nursing mother cherishing her own children (1 Thes. 2:7), not only feeding them but also caring intimately for them that they may be comforted and encouraged and may feel happy. This can be accomplished through the help of praying together, singing hymns, and reading the Word.
Perfecting the Saints
The third step is to perfect the saints, that is, to teach them (Eph. 4:11-12), which is usually carried out through the group meetings. If we lead people to salvation and feed them as lambs, we may bring them together to form a group meeting. The group meeting is not a religious service; it is the manifestation of the Christian living. It does not have a set way. Rather, it is free and informal. While we are on the way to the meeting, we should call on the Lord’s name and sing hymns. No one knows when the meeting begins. There are no regulations, and there is no one who takes the lead. Everyone simply lives together, and spontaneously there is fellowship, intercession, knowing the need of one another, and care for one another. Furthermore, this kind of group meeting is not a Bible study with someone teaching and presiding over the meeting. Rather, it is a meeting for everyone to share and testify, to ask questions if they so desire, and to answer according to each one’s own knowledge and experience. Through this, everyone will receive the teaching and the help in truth and in life.
This kind of group meeting is the Christians’ “own” assembling as mentioned in Hebrews 10, which is for considering one another, inciting one another to love and good works, and exhorting one another (vv. 24-25). Therefore, we need to bring the new believers who are under our nourishing to attend this kind of group meeting. Besides the mutual fellowship, intercession, care, shepherding, and testifying, the main thing in the group meetings is to teach one another that all may be perfected. For this reason we need to exhort and console the believers and to testify to them as a father to his own children (1 Thes. 2:11).
The words I have presented before you are all according to the Scriptures. Therefore, this is the New Testament service ordained by God. I hope that you will bring this word to the Lord to pray much and to look to Him. May the Lord have mercy on us. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 3, “The Up-to-Date Presentation of the God-Ordained Way and the Signs Concerning the Coming of Christ”, msg. 4)
THE BELIEVERS SERVING AND WORSHIPPING GOD
IN THEIR SPIRIT IN THE GOSPEL OF GOD’S SON
The believers serve and worship God in their spirit in the gospel of God’s Son. Paul says, “God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son” (Rom. 1:9a). The Greek word translated “serve” here means to serve in worship of God, as used in Matthew 4:10; 2 Timothy 1:3; Philippians 3:3; and Luke 2:37.
The New Testament Service and Worship Being Carried Out
in the Preaching of the Gospel
If we would serve God and worship Him, we must do this in our spirit for the preaching of the gospel. The New Testament service and worship are carried out in the preaching of the gospel. This gospel is not concerned with anything other than God’s Son. The gospel of God’s Son refers to the all-inclusive Christ. Therefore, to serve God in the gospel is to serve Him in the all-inclusive Christ. In the New Testament the gospel is simply Christ Himself. This is the reason Acts 5:42 says that the apostles were “bringing the good news of Jesus as the Christ.”
Genuine Worship Being in the Human Spirit
A crucial matter we need to see is that genuine worship, the worship God the Father is seeking, is not in a certain place but in the human spirit. In the Old Testament Mount Zion, the place of God’s habitation and the place of His name, was a type of the human spirit. According to the New Testament, God’s habitation is not on any mountain, nor even in the heavens. God’s habitation is in our spirit. Actually, our spirit is both God’s habitation and the place of God’s name. If we go elsewhere to worship God, this indicates that we have given up God’s name. There is only one place where we can be preserved in God’s name, and that place is our spirit. When we come to our spirit, we keep God’s name and we are preserved in His name. The genuine worship of the Father, the worship He desires, is the worship of Him in our spirit.
The genuine worship of God the Father is also in reality. In the Old Testament the children of Israel were required to worship God on Mount Zion with the offerings. The offerings typify Christ as reality. Christ is the fulfillment and the reality of all the offerings with which God’s people worshipped God. Christ is the genuine sin offering, trespass offering, burnt offering, meal offering, and peace offering. Today we worship God in our spirit with Christ as the reality of all the offerings.
Preaching the Gospel Depending on Our Spirit
In Romans 1:9a Paul said that he served God in his spirit. This indicates that in order to preach the gospel of God’s Son, we must be in our spirit. Preaching the gospel depends on our spirit. Whenever we preach the gospel, we should exercise our spirit.
Only in the book of Romans does Paul say that he serves God in his spirit. The reason is that in Romans Paul is arguing with religious people who invariably are in something other than the spirit—in letters, forms, or doctrines. In Romans Paul indicates that whatever we do toward God must be done in our spirit, that whatever we are must be in spirit, and that whatever we have must be in spirit. In 2:29 he says that the genuine people of God must be in spirit, that true circumcision is not outward in the flesh but in the spirit. Then in 7:6 he says that we should serve God in newness of spirit. Finally, in 12:11 Paul says that we must be burning in spirit. Preaching the gospel of God is absolutely a matter of our spirit.
The gospel of God in which we serve God in our spirit is actually the subject of the book of Romans. In the very first verse of this book Paul says that as a slave of Christ and a called apostle he was “separated to the gospel of God.” This indicates that Paul’s intention in Romans is to write concerning the gospel. The entire book unfolds the gospel, the glad tidings of God, in its fullest way.
Paul refers to his Epistle to the Romans as a gospel. In 2:16 he says, “God shall judge the secrets of men according to my gospel by Jesus Christ.” Paul also believed that God would establish the saints according to his gospel: “Now to Him who is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ” (16:25). Therefore, the book of Romans may be regarded as the fifth gospel.
The Serving of God in the Gospel of His Son Being a Priestly Service
The central message of the book of Romans is that sinful, fleshly people can be made sons of God and conformed to the image of the Son of God. In this way Christ becomes the Firstborn among many brothers (8:29). Thus, the central point of the gospel is not forgiveness of sins. It is the producing of the sons of God, many brothers of the Son of God. God desires to transform sinners in the flesh into sons of God in the spirit. If we would serve God in the gospel, we all should make this same matter our goal. We preach the gospel not simply that people may be saved or be forgiven of their sins or become spiritual, but that they may become sons of God. This is our aim. In Romans 15:16 Paul says, “That I should be a minister of Christ Jesus to the nations, ministering as a priest the gospel of God.” For Paul, the preaching of the gospel, the serving of God in the gospel of His Son, was a priestly ministry, a priestly service. As believers, we all should serve God in such a priestly way in the gospel of His Son.
Learning How to Function as Priests in Ministering the Gospel of God
If we would serve God in the proper way, we need to serve Him in the gospel. To do this, we first need to know what the gospel is, and then we need to experience all that the gospel includes. We also need to learn how to minister the gospel to others, that is, how to function as priests in ministering the gospel of God. Whenever we contact anyone, whether a believer or an unbeliever, we need to know his need as far as the gospel is concerned. If a person is not clear about salvation, we should help him to be clear and even joyful in God’s salvation. We need to serve him with the gospel. Others may be clear about salvation but not about other aspects of the gospel. Thus, we must minister something to meet their needs.
The crucial point in serving God in our spirit in the gospel of His Son is that we minister Christ to others in the gospel. For this, we need to learn the elements and details of the gospel, we need to experience the full content of the gospel, and we need to exercise our spirit. This is to serve God in our spirit in the gospel of God’s Son. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 168)