Romans 1: 11-12 | Womens RD Bible Study

Thank you Father God for this time that we can spend in your Holy Word, the King James Bible. Thank you also that we can continue to learn this week from the scriptures how believers are to pray today as well as understanding the importance of edification. 

We are continuing to discuss the verses in Paul's prayer in Romans chapter 1; today we wil specifically discuss verse 11 today. 

11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;

What is the spiritual gift? Edification. Well, what is the edification in the entire book of Romans? It's understanding who we are in Christ so that we can yeild ourselves to serve righteousness instead of sin. It's all about allowing Christ to live in and through us as believers every day! 

In order to understand who we are in Christ we have to understand first of all who we were before our salvation - we were sinners ["in Adam"].

1 Corinthians 15:22 KJB "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

Please note, we still sometimes sin as believers because our flesh doesn't change. But our identity now is as a saint. 

1 Corinthians 6:11 KJB "And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

2 Corinthians 5:17 KJB "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

Sinners are slaves to sin - all that an unbeliever can do is sin. They cannot please or serve God. 

Romans 5:19 KJB "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."

But as believers, also called saints, we are now "in Christ". Believers can choose whether or not to sin (walk after the flesh) or to allow Christ to live through us (walk in the Spirit). It's a moment by moment, day by day decision and that's why we need to be reading and studying God's word rightly divided every day, so that we have a renewed mind and are allowing Christ to live in and through us. For believers, the body of sin has been destroyed with Christ, being buried by baptism into His death, and we are now no longer under the law. We will learn more about this in Romans chapters 6-8.

Romans 6: 4 KJB “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

Romans 6:6 KJB "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

The law taught us like a schoolmaster that we were sinners and couldn't save ourselves. But now as believers we are no longer under that school master but under grace. 

Galatians 3:24-25 KJB "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster."

Grace teaches us godliness. Even as believers we cannot serve God in the flesh. We can ONLY serve God in the Spirit. 

Titus 2:11-13 KJB "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;"

We still have fleshly bodies that want to sin (and wants to be self-righteous! It wants to try and "do good" without having Christ and His word living in and through us). We can ONLY serve God in the Spirit. This means that we yeild our bodies to serve God instead of the flesh and you can ONLY do that by having God's spirit in you as well as His word rightly divided working in and through you. This means that after salvation, as believers (Christ now lives in us), we are to read and study God's word rightly divided, believe it and obey it (Christ living through us). As we read and study (and even meditate upon so that we can properly digest what we learn) God's word rightly divided this is how we have the mind of Christ. Having the mind of Christ we can then make proper decisions as adult Sons of God to serve God.

1 Corinthians 2:16 KJB "For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ."

Colossians 3:16a KJB "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom;"

If we are just trying to do a bunch of good works on our own without having the mind of Christ (without His word working in and through us) then we are doing things from the energy of our flesh-- and those works will burn up at the judgment seat of Christ because no flesh will ever glory in God's presence.

1 Cor 1: 29 KJB "That no flesh should glory in his presence."

1 Cor 3: 11-15 KJB 

11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

God will never reward us for anything we do from the energy of our flesh. (In heaven after the rapture, we will have glorified bodies, not fleshly/carnal bodies but we will be judged for our service after we got saved while we were on Earth - this is called the believers judgement or "the judgment seat of Christ"). Believers can choose to serve sin or yeild themselves to serve righteousness. We have a CHOICE. Every moment of every day. 

You also can NEVER loose your salvation, even when you sin and even if you stopped believing! This is because the moment you believed the Gospel, the gospel WORKED immediately and completely to save you. This work of God can never be undone. However, choosing to serve sin or stop believing will equal lose of rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. Basically, living like the world results in WASTED TIME and many Christians will realize just how much time they had wasted living in sin, getting caught up in the affairs of this world and trying to do good things from the energy of their flesh. Our time is much better spent on reading and studying God's word rightly divided when we can so that Christ can live in and through us in the details of our lives - we can spend our time yielding our bodies to serve righteousness. This includes sharing the Gospel with unbelievers, helping edify fellow believers, taking care of our families, ministering to the saints, etc.

We need to have proper understanding that we are justified by faith; that we have eternal security in Christ; how we yeild our bodies to serve God instead of to serve sin (believers will still sometimes sin because we still have bodies of sin); that we are now a "new creature" in Christ (again our flesh doesn't change but our Spirit is now spiritually alive and we are identified with Christ); that the prophetic program with Israel has been put on hold until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in (an understanding of the mystery dispensation) and we can always trust God to be true to His word; how to serve God and be of loving service to fellow believers and more details throughout the book of Romans. Without this clear understanding of our identity in Christ and how to serve God, we cannot advance to other doctrines such as Ephesians. All of Paul's Epistles are God's spiritual gift to us as believers to grow us up spiritually in Christ. Romans specifically lays the foundation for our edification. 

12 That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

In conclusion to Paul's prayer he says that they will be comforted by their mutual faith. We live in a sinful, fallen world. We are surrounded by unbelievers and ungodliness. We might do our best to share the gospel with others but not everyone around us will choose to believe it. So, it is comforting to be able to be with and around other believers, and even moreso if they have an understanding of God's word rightly divided. 

Thank you Father God for teaching us through Paul's Epistles how we can pray for fellow believers and about the importance of our being established in sound grace doctrine and properly edified by your word. In Jesus name Amen.