THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Epistle of Paul to Romans
Message One—The Body of Christ in Romans
Scripture Reading: Rom. 12:1-16; 14:1; 15:5-7; 16:1, 4-5, 16b, 20
I. The subject of Romans is the gospel of God–to make sinners sons of God to constitute the Body of Christ, which is expressed as the local churches—3:23; 8:14, 29; 12:4-5; 16:1, 4-5, 16b. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
II. In His salvation God is making sinners the sons of God to be constituted the Body of Christ for the expression of Christ—8:14; 12:4-5: (2006 ST, msg. 4)
A. Sons are the children of God who are in the stage of the transformation of their souls; they are growing in the divine life and also are living and walking by being led by the Spirit of God—8:14, 16; 12:2. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
B. In order to be the members of the Body of Christ, we need to be conformed to the image of Christ as the first-born Son of God—8:29; 12:4-5. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
III. The will of God is to obtain a Body for Christ to be His fullness, His expression—Rev. 4:11; Eph. 1:5, 9; Rom. 12:2, 4-5: (2006 ST, msg. 4)
A. In Romans 12 the will of God is that we whom God has chosen, redeemed, justified, sanctified, and conformed unto glorification may be members one of another to have the living of the Body of Christ—8:29-30. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
B. To live the Body life is to “prove what the will of God is”—12:2, 4-5. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
C. If we are proper members of the Body, acting and functioning in the church life, we will be persons in the will of God—1 Cor. 1:1-2; Eph. 1:1; 5:17. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
IV. We are one Body in the organic union with Christ—Rom. 12:4-5: (2006 ST, msg. 4)
A. Romans 12 speaks of the Body from the angle of the organic union, from the uniting life, from the life that unites us together, not only with Christ but with all the other members of Christ—vv. 4-5. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
B. We are one Body in Christ, having an organic union with Him: this union makes us one in life with Christ and with all the other members of His Body: (2006 ST, msg. 4)
1. The Body is not an organization or a society but is altogether an organism produced by the union in life that we have in Christ—John 15:1. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
2. The Body is something that is held together in the organic union with Christ, and the actuality of the Body is the remaining in the organic union with Christ—vv. 4-5. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
V. If we would live the Body life, a life in the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to live a grafted life—Rom. 6:5; 11:17. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
VI. In order for the Body of Christ to he built up, we need to reign in life, that is, be under the ruling of the divine life—5:17, 21; 12:1-16: (2006 ST, msg. 4)
A. Every aspect of the living of the Body life in Romans 12-16 requires us to be ruled by the divine life. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
B. We can live a life of the highest virtues for the Body life only by reigning in life—12:9-12, 15-16, 18. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
C. When we are reigning in life, living under the ruling of the divine life. the issue is the real and practical Body life—5 :17, 21; 12:4-5. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
VII. Romans begins with the designation of Jesus Christ to be the Son of God for the mass reproduction of the many sons of God as the members of the Body of Christ, and Romans ends with the practice of the local churches as the expression of the Body of Christ—1:3-4; 8:29; 12:4-5; 16:1, 16b: (2006 ST, msg. 4)
A. The local churches are the practical expression of the Body of Christ—vv. 1-5a, 16b. 23. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
B. Although the churches appear in different places, they are not separate, and although they are local, they are still part of the unique universal Body of Christ—12:4-5, 16; 16:16b: (2006 ST, msg. 4)
1. On the one hand, the Body of Christ is expressed in localities city by city as the local churches—Rev. 1:11. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
2. On the other hand, because the fellowship of this Body is universal, these local churches are still one—1 Cor. 10:16; Eph. 4:4. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
C. For the practice of the Body life, all the local churches must receive all genuine believers unconditionally, according to the way God and Christ receive them—Rom. 14:1-3; 15:5-7. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
D. Romans 16 displays the real and practical Body life; here we see that all the churches and all the saints live in the universal fellowship of the Body of Christ. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
E. In his greetings Paul unveiled some crucial indicators of the proper church life both in a particular local church and among the churches: serving the church. risking our lives for the church, having the church in our home, acknowledging that the church is the church of Christ, and extending hospitality to everyone in the church and being a host to all the churches—vv. 1-5a. 16b, 23. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
F. We must be governed by the vision of the Body of Christ and follow in the footsteps of Paul (who took the lead in the fellowship of concern among the saints and between the churches), by bringing all the saints in all the churches into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ—vv. 1-23. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
G. When we live in the fellowship of the Body of Christ and express this Body in the local churches, the result will be God’s crushing Satan under our feet, our enjoying the grace of Christ and the peace of God, and the giving of glory to the only wise God—vv. 20, 27. (2006 ST, msg. 4)