“Between the Lines: Establishing a Standard of Living”
Romans 1:1-17
There are standards for almost everything. Educational institutions have academic standards for students; governmental bodies have security standards for employees; military organizations have standards of conduct for enlistees; most athletic teams have standards of performance, and perhaps behavior, for members; and the vows ministers, elders, and deacons take contain certain theological and moral standards. Financial and governmental analysts even discuss our standard of living. What, by the way, is your standard of living? I’m not asking a financial question – I’m asking a spiritual one. What is your standard of living? By what do you live? Upon what do you make your decisions? Against what do you measure the quality and substance of your life? In his letter to the Church at Rome, the Apostle Paul laid out in great detail the Christian standard of living. In order to better measure ourselves, we need to first understand that standard.
Paul indicated that the first standard is THE COMFORT OF BELONGING (verse 6): “And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” We belong to Jesus Christ. This watch is mine because I bought it – I went over to the counter, picked it out – chose it – and paid the price for it. It therefore belongs to me. So JESUS CHRIST PICKED US OUT, CHOSE US, AND PAID THE PRICE FOR US. We belong to Him. We recited this truth in our Affirmation of Faith a few moments ago: “…I am not my own, but belong … to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has also set me free from the tyranny of the devil.” This affirmation is based upon a recurring theme of Scripture. Is. 43:1: “But now, this is what the Lord says… ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine.” In the New Testament (1 Cor. 6:20) Paul echoed: “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” Jesus Himself affirmed it when he said (Jn. 10:28): “…they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”
I have three watches. They had no meaning until I bought them; they get their meaning from me. I assign each one its meaning and value. I put this watch on a shelf as a showpiece; it is a showpiece. This watch I wear for informal occasions and when working in the yard; it’s my casual watch. This watch I wear during the course of my ministry or more formal occasions. It’s my ‘good watch.’ I, as the owner of the watch, determine the purpose of the watches. So JESUS CHRIST ASSIGNS US MEANING AND GIVES US OUR PURPOSE. We have no meaning apart from Jesus Christ. We get our meaning, our purpose, from Him. The essential meaning of a Christian is, in fact, ‘a Christ one.’ We belong to Jesus Christ. We find our purpose in Him.
Yet there’s another angle to belonging. When I bought the watch I bought the whole thing. I didn’t buy just the band, or the second hand, or the face – but the whole thing. SO JESUS BOUGHT EVERY PART OF US – not just our minds, or our words, or our deeds and actions – all of us. He bought us body and soul; every part of us belongs to Him. “…I am not my own, but belong – body and soul - … to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” That means that we are whole only when we are in harmony with Jesus.
But the choice is yours – will you be what Jesus wants you to be or what you want you to be? BEING ANYTHING SHORT OF WHAT JESUS WANTS US TO BE IS TO STRUGGLE TO BE SOMETHING WE ARE NOT. Attempting to be what we want to be is like trying to walk up a down escalator – we get nowhere fast – and burn up tremendous energy in doing so. Attempting to be what we want to be results in turmoil – I liken it to the white, foamy backwash on the shore of a lake or sea. The foam is the result of waves rolling in and water that has rolled in rolling back. Where the two forces meet, there is nothing but foam and distress. But make no mistake about it – we can choose to be what we want to be.
Or we can take comfort in belonging to Jesus Christ. COMFORT IS A CALMING, A STIRRING TO LIFE, A SETTING UPRIGHT OF SOUL. It is the strength to keep going; it is survival power. So Jesus Christ is our strength in life and death. “What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong … to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has also set me free from the tyranny of the devil.” The late Rev. Fred Klooster wrote an outstanding study of the Heidelberg Catechism. In this section he wrote this powerful sentence: “HE (JESUS) NOW STANDS AT MY SIDE BECAUSE HE ONCE STOOD IN MY PLACE.” This makes all the difference – and it makes us different. It gives us strength, establishes our purpose, and sets us upright in our souls. We can establish our standard of living upon this comfort. And comfort begins by admitting that we are not our own – we belong to Jesus Christ.
We continue to establish our standard of living when we base our lives upon THE CHARACTER OF LOVE (7): “To all in Rome who are loved by God…” You and I are God’s beloved. Now, I love all of you. But Barb, my sons and daughters-in-law, and my grandchildren, are my beloved. For them I have a special love. They receive unmerited gifts and are the objects of my abiding good will. And the word beloved describes a permanent condition. They always will be my beloveds. Nothing can ever change that. I will always have their best interests in my heart. So GOD ALWAYS HAS OUR BEST INTERESTS AT HEART. Our Heidelberg affirmation put it this way: “He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven: in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.” Jesus said (Matt. 10:29-31): “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” Paul, in Romans 8:28, put it this way: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” God always has our best interests at heart.
But here’s even better news: we do not have to buy God’s love and acceptance. WE ARE ALREADY LOVED AND ACCEPTED WITHOUT ANY QUALIFICATION OR PREREQUISITES. God does not say, “I will love you if you are talented enough, or good looking enough, or smart enough, or rich enough, or humble enough, or good enough.” God says simply, “I love you – because I choose to love you.” You are God’s beloved!
This does not mean God’s love is blind – He knows us as we really are. Even in all of our sin God loves us. GOD LOVES US NEVERTHELESS. Shirley Guthrie has written it powerfully: “God sees us as we really are…God says to us: ‘You may fool other people, but you cannot fool me. I see behind all the masks and defenses and pretensions by which you try to convince yourself and other people that you are somebody and not nobody. I see you – even more clearly than you see yourself when no one else is around and you admit to yourself who the real you is behind the front you usually hide behind. ‘Nevertheless’ I love and accept you – despite your open and secret sins, despite your unworthiness and unlovableness, despite what you do to other people and yourself by your inability and unwillingness to love and let them love you.” As Paul succinctly wrote (Romans 5:8): “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Once again, the choice is ours. We do not have to accept God’s love. But to reject God’s love does not release us from lordship – it simply removes us from the most benevolent lordship there is, and places us under something or someone that does not have our best interests at heart. Are you willing this morning to establish your standard of living on the character of love, on the fact that God, in Jesus Christ, loves you – and that all things will work together for your health, wholeness, and salvation?
The comfort of belonging and the character of love; and the third basis for a healthy standard of living is to live in THE CONDITION OF RIGHTNESS (7,17): “To all in Rome who are … called to be saints…For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last…” We are saints! We are set apart to live for God, by God’s standards. Our lives are headed in God’s direction. In his famous “Through the Bible” series, J. Vernon McGee aptly wrote: “A person becomes a saint when Jesus Christ becomes his Savior. There are only two classes of people in the world: the saints and the ain’ts. If you are not an ain’t, then you’re a saint.” But what does it mean to be a saint? Saints are those who are righteous.
And RIGHTEOUSNESS MEANS BEING IN THE RIGHT. To be righteous is to live between established lines. Throughout the Old Testament, boundary lines were important. They defined where, and how, God’s people lived. (Gen. 31:53 NLT) “So Jacob took an oath before the fearsome God of his father, Isaac, to respect the boundary line.” (Ex. 19:12 NLT) “Mark off a boundary all around the mountain. Warn the people, ‘Be careful! Do not go up on the mountain or even touch its boundaries. Anyone who touches the mountain will certainly be put to death. (Dt. 19:14 MSG) “Don
