ROMANS 1: 14-15
OUR DEBT TO THE WORLD
[Psalm 116:1-19]
In Psalm 116 (1-2) the Psalmist says "I love the Lord, because He hears my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live." Then for the next seventeen verses he recounts God's goodness to him and all that God has done for him. In verse 12 he asks the question "What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me?" Then in verses 13 and 14 he answers his own question. "I shall lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I shall pay my vows to the Lord, oh may it be in the presence of all His people." The question "What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me?" is born out of a sense of indebtedness to God, a sense of thanksgiving to God for His goodness and numerous blessings He gives us. We are debtors to God for His goodness. We owe God a debt of gratitude that can never be paid fully.
We are not only debtors to the Lord God, but we are debtors to Jesus Christ. 1st Corinthians 6: 19-20 says "... do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body." 1st John 3:16 says, "We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." 2nd Corinthians 8:9 says, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich."
Every spiritual blessing that we have, every benefit that we have in the Christian life is because of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. We cannot repay that debt. Isaac Watts said it: "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small." Were we to attempt to repay Jesus, we could not do it. We owe a debt that cannot be paid.
In addition we are debtors to countless number of brothers and sisters in Christ who walked before us and establish our faith and practice. We are indebted to our friends, family, and loved ones. I personally owe a debt to the many men and women who sit in this congregation this evening. I owe a debt to those who introduced me to Jesus, that nurtured me, that loved me, that taught me. I owe a debt to teachers who helped me understand spiritual truth. I owe a debt to my Christian family. I am a debtor to the men and women who have touched my life. All of us are debtors. None of us is self made. There is no place for pride in any one of us. There is no such thing as a self made person. We are debtors.
But the thrust of this text that I read to you does not deal with our debt to God, or to the Lord Jesus Christ, or even to the ones who have influenced our lives. This text has to do with our debt to an unbelieving world (CIT).
I. The State of His Obligation
II. The Scope of His Obligation
III. The Substance of His Obligation
IV. The Shared Obligation.
V. The Submission of His Obligation
The Apostle states, "I am debtor" ( ยต "to assume a debt"). There are two possible ways to be in debt. The first is to borrow from someone. The second is to be given something for someone. For example, if I were to borrow $1000 from you I would be in your debt until I paid it back. Equally, if a friend of yours were to give me $1000 to give to you, I would be in your debt until I gave it to you. In the first case I am in debt by borrowing, in the later case I am in your debt because I was entrusted with $1000 intended for you.
It is in this last sense that Paul is in debt. Jesus Christ had entrusted him with the Gospel. The Romans and the world had a spiritual need that only the Gospel could relieve. Paul had the kind of obligation a person has to someone whose house is on fire or who is drowning. When someone is in great danger and we are able to help, we are under obligation to do what we can to save him. Because the people of the world face spiritual death and Paul had received the message of life he was obligated to help rescue them.
II. THE SCOPE OF HIS OBLIGATION, 14b.
By receiving salvation from God Paul was under obligation "both to the Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish." Paul speaks of his debt to people he never knew, people who had never done anything for him. Now this indebtedness may seem strange to you, but I submit to you that this realization of indebtedness to a lost world, at least in part, formed the inspiration, the motivation, and the challenge of ministry and the missionary task of this great soul. Mankind with all of it's differences was on his heart. His obligation was not confined to any class or nation.
Greeks and Barbarians means all nations; wise and foolish means all classes, the rude and uncultivated as well as the refined and civilized. Paul is obligated to share the gospel across all cultural, social, racial, educational, and economic lines.
Not only does he have the responsibility to share he also has the enabling to do so. He, as a messenger of the gospel, can stride across all the barriers that divide the earth. The "wise" do not frighten him, and he is equally at home with the "foolish." The whole world and all its people stands open to him for he is a servant of the Lord.
Paul became a steward of the gospel when he believed in Christ on the Road to Damascus. Though our calling and gifts and thus our responsibility differ greatly, this principle applies to all Christians. Every servant of Jesus Christ who has received the truth, has received it as a steward and as such is indebted both to God from who he received it and to mankind for whom he received it. For the Gospel was given to us for others.
The film SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, though disturbingly graphical, tells the gripping story of a World War II rescue squad sent to bring a soldier out of harm's way. One by one the squad members are killed-sacrificed for the life of Private James Ryan. Finally, mortally wounded and near,. death, the squad leader calls young James close and simply says, "Earn this." Good men had given their lives to save Private Ryan, and he needed to embrace the sense of indebtedness such sacrifice should engender. Ryan owed his life to those who had rescued him.
Paul likewise felt indebted. Christ had sacrifice Himself to pay for Paul's sins and set him free from judgment and death. Paul's response? "I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise." Why was he indebted to them? The Greeks and barbarians hadn't died for him, nor had the wise or the unwise. But Christ had. The sacrifice of the Son of God on his behalf was so overwhelming that Paul was responsible to tells others of Christ's redeeming love. His sense of indebtedness to Christ made him a debtor to all who needed the Savior.
We can't earn God's gift of love, but we have an obligation to share it with others who need Him. [Bill Crowder] We can never sacrifice to much for Him who sacrificed His all for us.
III. THE SUBSTANCE OF HIS OBLIGATION
How is he in debt to them? What is it that he owes them? He owes them "the Gospel." He is in debt to them in that the Gospel has been entrusted to his care. He speaks of the Gospel being put in him, deposited with him. He is a debtor in that he considers this Gospel entrusted to his stewardship, and he holds it in trust, not only for himself, but also for those who are what he was and are what he is. As long as there is one person who has not heard a spirit filled presentation of the Gospel, he is their debtor.
Each person's capacity which is determined by abilities, opportunities, and circumstances, indicates the kind and the degree of work to be done in discharging this obligation, but the obligation is universal. We each are to do our part in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
A friend of mine stopped to get his car serviced. THE ATTENDANT seemed in an unusually good mood, so my friend asked him why he was so happy. "I've just gotten all my bills paid," he said. "I'm out of debt."
My friend congratulated the attendant for good money management and then added, "I have no unpaid bills either, but I'm still in debt." Surprised by this strange response, the young man asked him what he meant. This gave my friend an opportunity to explain the gospel. "Man is weighed down with the debt of sin," he pointed out. "But God, through the sacrifice of His Son, has paid that debt. When by faith we trust the Savior, He forgives all Our sins, cancels the debt, and freely gives us life in Christ." My friend then added, "Although I have received this free gift, I am a debtor to God and to mankind to proclaim the gospel to others."
This is the kind of debt the apostle Paul was talking about when he said, "I am debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise." His debt to God for his sins had been paid in full at Calvary, but he still felt a deep obligation - an obligation to tell others the good news. That's a debt we too need to be paying off every day. - P. R. V.
Fortunately the debt we owe to God is payable to any man. But if we leave our debt to share the Gospel unpaid we are dishonest Christians (Alexander Maclaren, Baker, Vol. 13. p 24ff).
IV. THE SHARED OBLIGATION, 15a.
In verse 15 Paul states that he looks forward eagerly to his obligation to share the gospel with them. "Thus for my part (thus the purpose according me) / I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome."
The words thus (or so) for my part are first of all a confession of limitation. Paul acknowledges that he can't be everything. He can't go everywhere. He can't do everything. He can't witness to everyone. He recognizes a sense of limitation. But more than a confession of limitation, these words are a confession of absolute commitment. I can't do everything. I can't go everywhere. I can't witness to everyone, but as much as is in me, to the fullest of my capacity, to the fullest of my ability, with all that God has given me, here I lay my life before the Lord. I am willing. I am ready to share with some.
In a very real sense, this sense of indebtedness formed the inspiration of this man's life. Because he was a debtor he made himself a servant of all men. Because he was a debtor he became all things to all men so that by some means he might save some. Because he was a debtor he was willing to suffer hardship, persecution, difficulty, and pain. Because he saw himself indebted to a lost world he was willing to give of himself tirelessly. "So, because I am debtor, so much is in me I am willing, I am ready, I am poised, I am committed to proclaiming this gospel." That word "so" or "thus" links his spiritual indebtedness to his commitment to missions, and he commits himself to the very fullest of his ability: ".... as much as in me is ...."
V. THE SUBMISSION OF HIS OBLIGATION, 15b.
Paul was in readiness, even eager "to proclaim the gospel to" them, but he did not direct his own steps. As far as he was concerned, he was willing to proclaim in Rome; but whether he should or not rested not with him but with God.
Thus in verse 16 Paul declares that his commitment, his absolute surrender to make himself available to God, is made with the conscious conviction of the power of the Gospel.
He's not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God unto salvation. That confidence in the power of the gospel is the equipment that is necessary and that will enable him to fulfill a commitment, a commitment born out of a sense of indebtedness.
Now I want to ask you a question. Do you feel that sense of indebtedness? Is there within you a sense of spiritual debt to a lost world? Since this gospel has been entrusted to you, since it has been deposited with you, and since it has been put in your hands, not just for your sake, do you sense the need to share it with others? Or do you just rejoice in the fact that you got saved, and hope that somehow, some way others are going to know what has changed your life? Do you feel that sense of indebtedness that leads you to say, "Woe is me if I do not proclaim this gospel entrusted to my care. I proclaim out of a necessity what God has laid upon me because He entrusted to me the sharing of the gospel.
Missions is a passion more than it is a program. Missions is a motivational urge more than it is a method. Missions is a fire burning in your soul. Missions is Henry Martin graduating from Cambridge with the highest honors, leaving England, sailing to India, and saying, "Here am I Lord, send me to the ends of the earth. Send me from all that is called comfort in the earth. "Missions is Jim Elliot going to the Acua Indians in Ecuador and saying, "He is no fool who gives away what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." Missions is C.P. Studd saying, "Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell. I want to live and set up a rescue shop within a yard of hell."
Missions is born out of a sense of indebtedness. From that indebtedness there comes a commitment. From that indebtedness there comes an abandon to the will of God. From that indebtedness there comes a commitment and an availability to the Spirit of God. Oh, what God is looking for today is men and women who will make themselves available to Him.
Would you do that? Would you say what this man said? "As much as in me is." I can't do everything. I can't go everywhere. I can't be everything, but as much as in me is, I am ready." When you say that to God, when you live in that spirit, then it will no longer be up to you to determine where you go and where you don't. No longer will it be up to you to determine who you will love and who you won't. All of that will be up to the Lord to determine.
Listen to Fanny Cosby pleading with us:
Rescue the perishing.
Care for the dying.
Snatch them in pity
from sin and the grave.
Weep o'er the erring one.
Lift up the fallen.
Tell them of Jesus
the mighty to save.
Christians have both privilege and a great responsibility. Paul and the apostles received the undeserved privilege of forgiveness of sin. But they also received the responsibility to share the message of God's forgiveness with others. God also graciously forgives our sins when we believe in Him as Lord. In doing this, we are committing ourselves to begin a new life. Paul's new lite also involved a God-given responsibility - to witness about God's Good News to the world as a missionary. God mayor may not call you to be an overseas missionary, but he does call you (and all believers) to witness to and be an example of the changed life that Jesus Christ has begun in you.
CONCLUSION
You and I are debtors. Dare we say anything less than "....as much as in me is I am ready to proclaim the gospel...."
We have the gospel that the Christ has died for the sins of mankind so that they might receive the love of God and turn from their wicked ways. We are indebted to every person until we both individually and corporately have given them a chance to respond to the Gospel message. That is what Bold Mission Thrust is all about. That is what Empowering Kingdom Growth is wanting to accomplish.
But like Paul we should not just carry out the inescapable duty of the stewardship entrusted to us, but we should be eager to do it.
Are you, to the best of your strength and encouraged ability cancelling out your debt of sharing the Gospel?
