Studying His Word and His Works

Listen to the study here: Romans 14:14-23

Read here: Romans 14

Review

• Calvin on the theme of Romans: “Man’s only righteousness is the mercy of God in Christ, when it is offered by the Gospel and received by faith.” Romans 1:17 and elsewhere.
• IMPORTANT: Paul wrote the letter to the saints (1:7), and the letter is about the gospel, which is a reminder we need to preach the gospel to ourselves daily. 
• Luther: Simul iustus et peccator = At the same time, righteous and a sinner! Romans 3:23-25
• In Ch. 1-3 Paul shows us our unrighteousness, and God’s wrath against that, and then switches to Christ’s righteousness as our covering, the propitiation of our sins (Romans 3:25) as the final sacrifice for sin, fulfilling the promise to Abraham, who had faith before any works
• Faith being “counted” or “credited to our account” as righteousness is mentioned 11 times in Chapter 4! If “none are righteous” as Paul wrote in Romans 3:10, then this saving faith must be a gift from Jesus, the founder of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
• Ch. 5, We now have peace with God, access to God, and hope, because of what Christ did for us while we were weak(v. 6), sinners (v. 8), and enemies (v. 10). Christ did this “at the right time,” (v. 6), connecting Christ’s work on the cross and God’s plan of redemption to real history (not just a myth or legend).
  • Atonement(5:6-11): Jesus satisfying God’s wrath for us through His sacrificial death on the cross.
• Ch. 5 and 6 describe federalism, this idea of one man making a difference, for righteousness (Jesus) or wickedness (Adam). 
• Ch 6 ended with lots of words pointing to the new road we are now on with Christ, the sanctification road.
  • Service is the key word, “slaves” used 8 times
  • “Present yourselves”(5), “Leads to”(5)
• Sproul: “our regeneration, our rebirth was the work of one Person, God. It was not a joint venture; but from the moment we take our first breath of regenerated spiritual life, it  becomes a joint effort.” the work of one Person is what salvation is about. The joint venture is what sanctification is about. Ch.6 ends and we continue into Ch.7 describing what this “sanctification road” looks like to walk down. We were on the sin road that leads to death, but now we are on the grace road that leads to eternal life.
• Chapter 8 is describing the assurance we have as Christians in salvation. Deus pro nobis – God for us. It is a reminder of God’s sovereignty over our salvation, and God’s infinite wisdom, in the creation, fall, redemption plan he has for not just us, but the whole world. Ultimately, God, not us, foreknows, predestines, calls, justifies and glorifies. There are many verses (Romans 2:4, John 3:16, etc) that point to God’s patience with everyone, His love for everyone, that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9), so I believe there is some free will in there somewhere, perhaps an ability to answer the call, or not. But, even if we answer the call, it is God who initiated. Even if we are crying out for God, “feeling our way to Him” like Acts 17:27 says, we are only doing this because He has already called. We are MORE THAN CONQUERORS, not on our own of course, but “through Him who loved us” from before time began. 
• Chapter 9 continues on the point of election, which, if you think about it, Paul has been discussing since Romans 1:1 when he said he was “set apart”. Paul continues to hammer the point that it is God’s free will, not ours, that matters most. It’s good to keep in mind the complexity of God, as he is not just electing, but he is doing a bunch of things simultaneously and eternally. He is electing, foreknowing, predestining, calling, justifying, glorifying, answering prayer, “giving them over to a debased mind” (Romans 1:28-32) while also being kind as a means to lead people to repentance (Romans 2:4), showing mercy to some and hardening others (9:18). It’s like God is working on an eternal and therefore infinite scale, but also an instantaneous and therefore infinitesimal scale. Pastor John Macarthur, who went home to Jesus in 2025, described this as a parallelism, God’s sovereign election running alongside the “whoever believes in Him will have eternal life” of John 3:16. It is Euler’s “every instant,” of God initiating, so the saved are always indebted to Him. And it’s also Paul’s “unceasing anguish” for the lost in 9:2, something we should ask God to give us, too. And something that clearly shows that God predestines us to a team, His team, and we are working with Him to save sinners. He’s just team captain and MVP. He gets all the glory!
  • Also remember that Paul references almost 50 OT verses in Chapter 9 alone. He is retelling Israel’s story in many places to serve as a reminder of God’s sovereign will over nations, but also individuals like Pharoah, Moses, Jacob and Esau, etc. Some want to say election is only about nations, or only individuals, but this is another both/and. 
  • Romans 9:6 is key (I think) to understanding a lot of Ch. 9-11. We need to keep going back to this, that “not all Israel belongs to Israel.” What Paul is getting at here is that true Israel are believers, regardless of nation or ancestry.
• Chapter 10 also discusses election, as well as Macarthur’s “parallelism”, or even the “3 strands are not easily broken” analogy in Ecclesiastes 4:12. Think about it, God could just yell the gospel down from heaven if wanted, but he chooses to use us, weak on our own but strong in Him. Ch. 10 describes a deep, personal bond God has with believers. Paul also describes Israel’s history of disobedience, how they did not hear the gospel, but in Ch. 11 again reminds that God preserves a remnant.
• In Chapter 11, there is one tree, with branches being broken off and grafted in. One body of covenant believers, and broken branches are those who had the outward signs like circumcision (OT) or baptism (NT) but no belief, no Holy Spirit-given gift of faith, no imputation of Christ’s righteousness. Chapter 11 hints that God works through individuals of course, but also nations, and that He is not done with ethnic Israel. He used Israel’s “stumbling” to lead the gentiles to salvation, and these verses say he will eventually use the gentiles to lead Israel to salvation. Paul also reiterates that salvation is by grace, not works, that God is merciful in spite of man’s disobedience. Paul ends Ch. 11 with what Calvin called “finitum non capax infinitum,” meaning, “the finite cannot grasp the fullness of the infinite.” Stay humble, don’t think you have to figure everything out about God because you can’t! It’s also important to note that all Paul says in Ch. 11 is that God still has a plan for Israel. The only emphasis Paul makes in Ch. 9-11 is on their salvation, on a mission mindset, which is something modern evangelical churches should refocus on. Getting away from blind political support for Israel, and praying for and getting the gospel to Jew and Gentile in the region. 
• Chapter 12 saw a switch from mostly describing God and his character, to application for believers. To discipleship. Verses 1-2 describe the importance for Christians to turn from the world, the “spirit of the age” and present themselves to Christ. With the Holy Spirit in you now as a Christian, He WILL renew your mind, whether you like it or not, but it is a joint effort, it is clear it is not robotic, you have choices to make, to turn and present (v. 1), or not, to think with sober judgment (v. 3), or not, to do everything in verses 9-21 that you can as a Christian, or not. Verses 3-8 focused on spiritual gifts, which make us unique in the body, while verses 9-21 describe things that all Christians can be, regardless of gifts. Ch. 12 ended with a Proverbs 25:21-22 reference to smother evil with good, and a judicial system that upholds 10 Commandment based laws is one way. All three spheres (family, church, civil government) executing justice and mercy in accordance with their positions is a good thing
• Chapter 13 was about responding biblically to government and what ideal, godly government should look like. It ended by describing how we should treat our neighbors, which means both Christians and non-Christians, in agape love, which is a fulfillment of the law.

Intro

• Key words: you/yourself, not (8);eats/eating, do/does/doing, whoever/anyone (6); God, one/oneself, but (5); faith (4); Christ, peace, judgment (2).
  • Paul switches from a more general “one” in describing Christians, to a more direct “you”, doubling down on not making a big deal about food and trusting God with that. This is about you making a personal decision while not expecting everyone else to draw the same conclusion.
  • When it comes to food choices, there is a lot of Christian liberty. This IS one place where saying “you do you” is OK. Where your choice really is a matter of opinion and personal preference.
  • There are only 10 commandments where “you do you” fails, and Jesus generalizes those down to two commands (love God, love neighbor), where “you do you” is false. Obviously, there are limits to this, like a gambling casino where they entice you with cheap food and then destroy you by taking the rest of your money by gambling. A “stronger brother” might be able to eat the food without getting into gambling too, but another thought is, why even support them at all, why not just go eat somewhere else? These verses also suggest that in Christian liberty, there can be clear, stronger arguments supported by Scripture (like meat eating), and the point here is not to be a coward and never correct the vegan, but to build them up in faith in Christ and His word.
• Sproul begins where he left off in his last chapter, reminding that Paul is describing adiaphorous matters, a word that refers to practices not essential to salvation, things that are morally or spiritually neutral. Or at least they should be morally or spiritually neutral, but the problem is that we turn them into moral or spiritual matters so we can one-up our Christian brothers.
  • While verse 13 ended our previous study, I included it in the “key words” count. The “Therefores” that begins v. 13 indicates the start of a big conclusion from previous passages, which emphasizes NOT passing judgment on areas of Christian liberty. 
• Verse 14
  • Paul doubles down on veganism being the weaker argument, because Jesus himself says so. He is connecting to Acts 10:15 and Peter’s vision to rise, kill and eat. In v. 14, and the “therefore” of v. 13, we know Paul is concluding what he already said in v.2, hence the “doubling down” on veganism as the weaker argument.
    • This is still specifically about food, not “unclean” as in “evil”, but food someone thinks is unclean. In other words, it is a matter of personal opinion, and in God’s eyes, eating that food would not be an evil act.
    • There was a time when God’s people DID have specific food laws and lists of “unclean” things, dietary laws in other words. Remember, that’s part of why Daniel and his friends ended up in the lion’s den, because they refused to break God’s dietary laws. Orthodox Jews today call clean foods “kosher.” 
    • So, what happened with Peter and his Acts 10 vision obviously created a massive change. Think about it, Jesus was a Jew, Paul was a Jew, Peter was a Jew. And suddenly they go from centuries of dietary laws to now it’s okay to eat bacon.
      • Even Peter, who God gave the vision to, caved to the Judaizers at one point, until Paul rebuked him (Galatians 2:11-21). This is Peter, who God called a “rock”, but even he caved to those around him regarding dietary restrictions that were no longer necessary. In other words, legalism is an easy trap!
      • To understand why things that used to be unclean aren’t any more, Sproul says reformers break OT law into 3 categories: moral laws, ceremonial laws, and dietary laws. He says moral laws may not be the best category, because, going back to Daniel and his friends, they felt a moral obligation to uphold Jewish dietary laws.
        • Sproul describes instead the natural law of God and purposive law of God.
          • God’s natural laws: based on His holy nature, immutable. This would be the 10 commandments, written, but also inborn (Rom 2:15), in our conscience. 
          • God’s purposive laws: more for a particular redemptive purpose, at a particular time. This would include OT dietary and ceremonial laws. Once that time was fulfilled, “God annulled those laws without doing any damage to His character.”
            • This was what was hard for the early Christians, because some thought they were doing damage to God’s character by eating certain foods, something deeply ingrained in society. As mentioned previously, Paul wrote to the Colossians and Corinthians about all of this, too.
      • Sproul brings in the topic of eating food sacrificed to idols, which is part of the concern of early Christians, although Paul doesn’t specifically mention that here. Some objected to this meat and wine, not because of the food but because of the source.
        • Which raises a question of primary and secondary separation.
          • Should we pay our taxes if the government uses the $ to pay for abortions? Yes.
          • If we pay a merchant and then he uses our money for something ungodly, should we steal from him next time we shop there? No.
            • If my family makes a stand against abortion, or against ungodly behavior of a merchant, that is a primary separation. A secondary separation would be separating myself from anyone who has anything to do with abortion or ungodly behavior.
              • Do you know what the only place is that you can completely separate yourself in a secondary sense? Heaven. 
          • In Paul’s day, a problem was Christians entering a temple and participating in sacrificial rituals, afterwards eating the food sacrificed to the idol. Not participating would be a form of primary separation.
      • Verse 14 ends by describing a “you be you” form of Christian liberty. But, this is also Christian liberty, not pagan liberty! Think of 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, the love of Christ controls us. We are slaves to Christ now, Romans 6. To think Paul is saying here to “do whatever you want” is to forget everything he wrote leading up to verse 14:14.
        • Luther, “to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.” But, what is at the core of your conscience? Is it Christ or not? How are you doing regarding renewing your mind of Romans 12? Are you 1% renewed or 90% renewed? If 1%, then “letting your conscience be your guide” is a bad idea. 
• Verse 15
  • If you have a Christ-focused conscience, you won’t let your “you be you” Christian liberty destroy your brother over food. Paul is saying “do not despise” in a different way here, that the believer with the stronger argument should be careful to not destroy the weaker. If their conscience is misinformed because of an unbiblical grounding in food choices, it is more important to remember Christ died for them JUST THE SAME as you!
• Verse 16
  • Don’t let your good be spoken of as evil, either. If you have the stronger argument, that is good, it is more biblically grounded, which is always better. Some people will call you evil no matter what, they will take you out of context, etc. So be careful how you present your better argument to another Christian brother, lest you be the source of division in the church.
    • I think Verse 16 is also saying that those stronger in faith have an obligation to stand for the stronger argument. Being careful does not mean you need to be a quiet coward. If something happens at a dinner group or a potluck gathering, we are not supposed to hide the stronger argument, especially if it is causing a visible and loud conflict. We are to speak the truth in love. It is cowardly to let the weak argument dominate everything, especially if the stronger point is being called evil. Speak up if that happens, counting the trial as joy. 
• Verses 17-19
  • We can idolize and covet food and drink, but that’s not what the kingdom of God is about. It’s about righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
    • Regarding food and drink, and the 10 commandments, you might be thinking, how are drunkenness and gluttony a violation of the 10 commandments? Why does the Bible call those sins, too?
      • Because, anything you put more emphasis on than God is idolatry, which includes food and drink. The 2nd commandment says “no idols.”
      • Drunkenness and gluttony also violate the 10th commandment, coveting. Early church fathers and medieval theologians like Augustine and Aquinas held this position, that coveting is a desire to not just want what you don’t have, but want more than you need.
        • Wanting in itself isn’t bad. Coveting is wanting it disorderly or disproportionately.
        • The Greek and Hebrew meaning is “to lust after,” to set one’s heart upon.
      • The conclusion here is that drunkenness and gluttony are not part of Christian liberty, they are sins. And we CAN judge others in the church regarding sin. In Matthew 18:15-17, Jesus provides a good framework for one-on-one conflict resolution, which Paul connects to the church body in places like 1 Cor 5, 2 Cor 2:6-8, and 1 Timothy 5:20-21. In a church body, unrepentant sin is like a cancer that can spread to the whole body if unchecked. So, the pattern is to judge sin, first going to the individual, and if that isn’t feasible, go to the elders, and if that doesn’t work, excommunicate them. In other words, surgically remove the cancer from the body. And the goal of excommunication is repentance. That the excommunication would be a temporary measure. And finally, that when we judge sin, that we judge without partiality (I Timothy 5:21). Keep in mind too that, since we live in a Christian nation, many of our laws are connected to sin, so going directly to law enforcement is sometimes necessary, as in the case of domestic violence or sexual abuse. So, the bottom line is this: it is okay to judge regarding sin, but not okay to judge regarding things that are a matter of opinion.
    • Idolizing and coveting aren’t what God’s kingdom is about anyways. His kingdom is about righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Let’s spend some time describing those “big three” of kingdom life, the title of this study.
      • Righteousness
        • The point of the entire book of Romans is to show “the only way we can stand before God is if we are clothed not in our own righteousness but in the righteousness of Christ.” (Sproul)
          • None of us are righteous on our own (Romans 3:10).
          • Christ’s righteousness imputed to us (Romans 3:21-26), received as a free gift (Romans 5:17-18).
        • Because Christ is in us now, righteousness is in us now. Sanctification is that Christian walk, that “rigorous pursuit of holiness. That is what righteousness is.” (Sproul)
        • I’ve mentioned this before, but I can’t say it enough. The Hawaii State Motto: The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
          • Outside of Christ, there is only self-righteousness, which is really unrighteousness. There is no righteousness apart from God. 
          • A phrase spoken by King Kamehameha III  in 1843.
          • 1839 Bill of Rights and 1840 Constitution
            • Also authored by King Kamehameha III with help of his friend, William Richards (one of the first missionaries, from Lahaina, had cannons shot at his house).
            • The first words of the Bill of Rights are a paraphrase of Acts 17:26
            • Article I: That no law shall be enacted which is at variance with the word of the Lord Jehovah, or at variance with the general spirit of His word. All laws of the Islands shall be in consistency with the general spirit of God’s law.
            • Article II: All men of every religion shall be protected in worshipping Jehovah, and serving Him, according to their own understanding, but no man shall ever be punished for neglect of God unless he injures his neighbor, or brings evil on the kingdom.
        • In the context of Romans 14, righteousness cannot be defined in categories of food and drink choices. That just leads to self-righteousness.
      • Peace
        • Paul again is describing ideal situations here, from an ideal government in Romans 13 that, ideally, defends against unbiblical actions of a population. Ideally, righteousness, peace, and joy will reign in a family, church, and community. But, inevitably things come up. Our goal should be to turn back to those “big three.”
          • “Peace” does not equal fear of conflict, cowardice, or compromise. Luther called that “carnal peace.” We should also not run around looking for a fight, either, which happens when immature people major in the minors. 
          • Ideally, we always turn to things that bring peace and build each other up(Verse 19), which means we turn to Christ, remember Christ is in us, remember the fruits of the Spirit that are in us if we turn to them (Gal 5:22-23). Mutual upbuilding involves everyone in the church having the stronger argument, because it is biblically-based. How and when and where we do this is important, it is part of actually having a relationship with fellow Christians, which can be sloppy and messy. 
          • Romans 12:18, “as far as it depends on you”, do things that make for peace. That won’t always be the outcome, and you don’t always have to be involved, but, as far as it depends on you, make peace the goal.
      • Joy
        • The kingdom is not supposed to be a bunch of grumpy, bitter people. We should be happy for each other, happy to serve Him, happy to serve each other because we’ve been redeemed, bought with a price, received a “get out of Hell free card.” Joy is a key ingredient for mature Christian unity. No need to be grumpy and sad about who eats meat and who drinks wine! Loving Christ and those He died for is what the kingdom is about.
• Verses 18-23
  • For a “tripling down,” Paul reiterates all things are clean in V. 20. Schreiner states that nowhere in Ch. 14 does Paul associate faith with the weaker person. Faith is always the strong position. Eat what you want with a group of strong believers. Don’t do that in public settings where you don’t know where everyone is in the Romans 12:2 mind renewal process. At the very least, say something edifying, something that will make for peace and mutual upbuilding, which means building the weak person up.
  • V. 22 is saying the strong are blessed. It is a blessing to not have your conscience seared by what you eat or drink. It is a blessing to be able to do this in a sober-minded way, not falling into the sins of drunkenness and gluttony, and not falling for weak and unbiblical arguments about what you can and cannot eat.
    • Schreiner: “Nowhere does Paul say the weak are blessed by abstaining. This privilege belongs only to the strong.” It’s not a blessing to flaunt in front of the weak, though. 
  • In the Christian walk with brothers and sisters, some arguments are just going to be weaker than others. Some people will just have a better understanding of God’s word and therefore His will. These verses are saying humility should be your response to your strength in Christ and His word. These verses are saying that believers are equal in Christ’s eyes. He died for all of us. Remember that first and foremost. 
  • The v. 23 conclusion is that doubting is sin. Schreiner says there is a parallel in these verses and Romans 4:18-21, where God plants the seed of faith and if it truly is from Him, it grows stronger over time, not weaker. 
  • The warning again in v. 20 for strong not to make a weak person stumble, that you might destroy God’s work, is a reminder of how God uses believers to bring others to salvation. Like Romans 10:14-16 implies, believers have a responsibility in bringing the Gospel. God could just shout it from heaven, but He chooses to use believers. I Cor 3:6, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” Imagine If that said, “I planted, Apollos made them stumble, and they all reverted to paganism.” Let’s make sure that is not our witness!
  • Even more though, I think these verses are talking about discipleship.  This section implies that this is all about Christian brothers and sisters, “brother” written 5 times in Ch. 14. It also implies that equal in Christ does not mean equal in faith, there are weaker versions. You can’t lose your salvation, but you can end life on earth with a weaker faith than others. It’s not that only the strong get to heaven. Vertically, God chooses and Christ sanctifies. Horizontally, as we make disciples and do some Proverbs 27:17 iron sharpening, the actions of a stronger brother may cause a weaker brother to sin. If the weaker one reverts to paganism as a result, then they aren’t saved to begin with. If they just stop going to church for a while, stop reading their Bible as much, it is ultimately on them. As v. 14:4 says, it is God who will judge, he knows if they are a weak believer, a stronger brother who falls to temptation, or an unbeliever. What we need to be aiming for is to do the things that bring mutual upbuilding (v. 19), not destroying the weak on their Christian journey from weak to strong in faith.
• Up next, Romans 15.