Borrowed Light

The Most Shared Verses In Their Context (Romans 12:3)

June 1, 2015Mike Leake

Last year I looked at the Top 10 Most Shared Bible Verses from 2013 in their context. They have recently posted their 2014 list and to my surprise there are ten new most shared verses, so I figured I’d look at these ten popular verses in their context again this year. Today we will look at Romans 12:3, which is the eighth most shared verse of 2014.

The Verse:

For 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. (Romans 12:3 ESV)

The Context:

In Romans 12 a massive shift takes place. For the first eleven chapters Paul has been laying a solid doctrinal foundation for the church at Rome. Starting in chapter 12 he moves to exhortation. Paul does this in about every letter—he grounds his exhortations in a solid Christ-centered theology. Romans is no different.

The reason why Paul has written this letter to the Romans is somewhat complex. I believe his ultimate reason is for the purpose of setting up Rome as a hub to launch his upcoming ministry to Spain. But Rome isn’t in much of a position to be such a launching pad because they are plagued by disunity between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians.

So, in order to bring unity and to launch his ministry to Spain, Paul writes to the church at Rome. His strategy is brilliant. With a robust theology of salvation Paul succeeds in uniting Jew and Gentile. With this completed, he plants the seeds for his visit and his proposal to make Rome a hub for his next mission trip to Spain.

Disunity can almost always find its source in pride. The church at Rome is no different. Oddly enough their pride has attached itself to the use of spiritual gifts. And so this is the first place where Paul addresses in his application of the gospel. That is what we read in Romans 12:3-8.

Paul’s core point in this section is that because God has given us these gifts of grace we have no room for personal pride. Instead, no matter our gift, we should use them as if they are given to us as gifts from God—not as if they are personal accomplishments, used to promote ourselves against our brothers and sisters.

The Meaning:

It is interesting that this is one of the most shared verses. My guess is that people share it because of the exhortation to not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to. That’s a popular sentiment these days.

Whether it is in the area of spiritual gifts or even in generic pride, what Paul does here in Romans 12:3 is tremendous. I love Tom Schreiner’s explanation of this:

What prevents pride from cropping up is a sober estimation of one’s faith, and this sober estimation is based on the truth that God apportioned to each one a measure of faith. Pride is eliminated when one recognizes that the faith one has is a gift of God, not the result of one’s own virtue. (Schreiner, 653)

What Paul has been doing from the very beginning is rooting out the pride of both Jew and Gentile by showing how they are both united as helpless sinners under the wrath of God. Furthermore, they are united as believers bought with the precious blood of Christ. They have nothing they can bring into the kingdom. The gospel is the great leveler.

When Paul tells the Christians at Rome to view themselves with sober judgment he isn’t talking about judging according to some man-made standard. He is saying to view themselves rightly in light of the gospel. When we do this there is no room left for pride.

Conclusion:

I’m happy that this verse is one of the most shared verses. I just hope that as we share it with others we aren’t doing it pridefully. I pray that we take this verse to heart and realize that in Christ there is absolutely no room for pride. Whether it be in the area of spiritual gifts or anything else—everything we have is a gift from the Lord.

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Am I Saved Even If I Don’t Think I Am?

May 29, 2015Mike Leake 8 Comments

Listen as a fearful man tells us his story:

I started out so wonderfully in my walk with Jesus. You know how I was addicted to various drugs, and woke up to a different woman about every night? Well, once I turned to Jesus all those desires went away. I couldn’t get enough of reading the Bible. I was at church every time the doors were open. I couldn’t get enough.

It wasn’t just the things that I stopped doing, either. I found in my heart an ability to love people that I’d never loved before. I had so much peace. For the first time in a long while I was able to sleep—and actually rest. I don’t know how else to say it, man, I just couldn’t get enough of Jesus. If you’d ask me a few months ago where I thought I’d spend eternity, I’d have told you with great confidence…I’m going to heaven! But now…now…well, I’m really not sure….

I haven’t read my Bible in weeks. My passion has grown cold. I just mouth the words on Sunday morning. I find myself almost falling asleep at the pastor’s sermons. And I’m starting to doubt. I’m starting to doubt whether God is real…maybe this whole thing was an illusion. I’m getting scared, man. I’m getting urges and desires I thought were gone. My love for Jesus is growing colder every day it seems and the world is start to look attractive to me again. In fact…well…I’ve already stumbled a couple times. And, I’m just not sure anymore. I don’t know how in the world I can still be saved.

So what do I do, man? Am I still saved? I sure don’t feel like it?

Incomplete Answers

How would you counsel this fearful man? There are two ways that I’ve heard counsel given that I think are incomplete.

Option 1: Just tell the guy not to worry about it. You remind him of the decision that he made a few months ago. Explain to him the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer—and how God holds us to our decisions.

Tell him the story of the guy who went around to the back of his barn and drove in a stake. And how every time Satan tempts him with doubt he goes back to that stake and reminds the devil of the decision that he made so many years ago. Encourage this fearful chap to do the same thing—drive in a stake and go back to the day of his conversion.

While, there might be some help to doing this—I don’t know that the Bible really encourages us to stake our hope on a past decision on our part. The Bible seems a bit more concerned with establishing our present faith (even if weak) in Christ. The Scriptures encourage the falling by reminding them of the fullness of Christ—not by pointing to a time when they had a good frame.

Option 2: Tell the guy he probably isn’t saved. The logic goes something like this: Faith is the certainty of things unseen. True believers have assurance. If you lack assurance you aren’t a true believer.

If the guy isn’t saved it’s pretty obvious that he wants to be. And so tell him that what he did previously must not have been legit. Have him repeat the gospel and then go back to something similar to the first option.

While I appreciate that this option takes the question seriously it ultimately fails too. I’ve seen people really wounded by this type of counsel. They are told that Christians never doubt. When seasons of doubt come, they assume that they must not be saved and so they’ve got to do it again. In the end, they fall prey to the same error as those in the first option; namely, putting the surety our salvation on the strength of our faith and confession.

Newton’s Biblical Answer

Both of these options were present in one form or another in Newton’s day. And he tore holes into both. For those who opt for the first option Newton compares the believer to an infant:

I allow that while faith is weak, there may be little solid comfort…But though an infant has not the strength, activity, and understanding, which he will attain when he arrives to the age of manhood, he is as fully possessed of a principle of life, while he is an infant, as at any time afterwards.

Newton is following Richard Sibbes in helping the struggling believer find his assurance in the finished work of Christ and not in the level of his own faith—a weak faith can indeed lay hold of a strong Christ.

Newton also takes to task those who boast of assurance and speak as if they are freed from all doubts and fears:

To hear persons talk much of their assurance, and that they are freed from all doubts and fears, while they habitually indulge proud, angry, resentful, discontented tempers, or while they are eagerly grasping after the world, like those who seek their whole portion in it, is painful and disgusting to a serious mind…we have great reason to fear that they do not understand what they say, nor whereof they affirm.

Rather than finding security in our own boasting of assurance Newton, rightly, believed that our frames and comforts are up to God. Right doctrine alone is not enough in the dark night of the soul. For “notions of truth, destitute of power, will not keep the heart in peace”. What is needed is the Spirit to give us assurance.

The key to assurance is to look much to Christ and not to self. I think Newton would answer this fearful man by asking him if he is trusting in Christ today. Does he believe the gospel today? Even with a weak and feeble faith. If he does—then even if he doesn’t have assurance that day will likely come. In the mean time he should humbly continue to seek the Lord—looking not to his frames or his feelings but to Christ.

Conclusion

In a letter that we will look at in depth in a few months Newton says this of assurance:

I call it assurance, when it arises from a simple view of the grace and glory of the Savior, independent of our sensible frames and feelings, so as to enable us to answer all objections, from unbelief and Satan, with the Apostle’s words, “Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died; yes rather, who is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” Rom. 8:34. This, in my judgment, does not belong to the essence of faith, so that ‘B’ should be deemed more truly a believer than ‘A’, but to the establishment of faith.

God often matures our faith by withdrawing a pleasing frame (or feelings of assurance). In this we are put in a position to place our whole hope in the work of Christ and not in our own faith in that work. And so if you find yourself wrestling with whether or not your faith is legit—listen to the counsel of Newton, and look to Christ alone.

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