21. A Highway for God
Covering Romans 13 to 16:
The remainder of Romans, Chapters 13-16, contains a number of different issues of the day, in which Paul shared, in part, his wisdom for living the life of Christ. Nonetheless, through these other topics, Paul continues to weave his responses to the question – Who? Who are those whom God has called?
Paul’s massive turn around continues to prevail in all our thinking, however, and thus we no longer think in terms of “what’s in it for us,” as in our former “Christian” thinking. The word that changed our point of view from here forward is Pro-Thesis, that is – What does the Father want? Having accomplished all, God is waiting for one thing – His Opportunity, that He might enter again into His creation.
God’s Opportunity. God’s Opportunity, then, is found through two of the most powerful and most important statements in the Bible, both essential to our being made just like the Lord Jesus. The other gospel verses in these chapters then serve these two verses.
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. – Receive one another in just the same way that Jesus receives you. – Again, this is the simple gospel – believe into Jesus and love one another. Yet these two lines are worded in such a way as to contain a vast complexity of meaning for us and for God.
No one who is dealing with “sin in the flesh” is available to God for His purposes. And Paul supposes that he has successfully removed such thinking from all Christians. Yet things still remain that might hinder God’s movement through us, and those are the things Paul now addresses.
Being Available to God. (Chapter 13) • 8 But do not owe anything, or be under obligation in anything, to anyone, except to love one another. Indeed, the one who loves the other has fulfilled law and brought it to completion. • 10 Love does not work evil to your neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of law.
Because they know not the Flow of Gospel Word, or the great Turn Around of the Gospel, or what the Father wants, Christians have completely misunderstood Romans 13:1-10. The issue is Covenant. We are not available for God’s Purpose if we have committed ourselves to the purposes of this world. Two kinds of commitment in this world might possibly be the strongest preventers of God-through-us. One is rebellion against authority and the other is obsequiousness to authority, otherwise known as patriotism or “duty.”
Owe No Obligation. Paul’s purpose in 13:1-8 is to eliminate two stupidities found among humans, opposing the government/king/state/political class or worshipping the president/flag/country/elite.
Yield to human authority in what is right, give honor where honor is due – live peaceably with all – BUT otherwise ignore that whole ridiculous nonsense entirely. Owe no obligation to the claims of this world. The rulers of this world want you for their service, and the Lamb wants you for His service, thus they are entirely at war. More than that, putting on the Lord Jesus is mostly our story of self, which “love of country” or “allegiance to flag” obliterates.
I now see that “Do not love the world” is part of Covenant. Allegiance to this world is treason against the Lamb.
Separation into Love. Then, even though our two bullet points also reference love, these are completion verses and thus speak first of Kingdom.
Covenant: The Covenant requires one master only. Allegiance to or rebellion against the causes and entities of this world ARE each a second master. We respect authority in what is right; we live peaceably with all, but we owe obligation to none.
Speak Christ: The issues of, and any attachments to, this world create a story of self that has no place for the Father’s purpose. Such compromised stories also divide Christ’s body.
Kingdom: Inside of Kingdom is found all fulfillment and completion. The Kingdom is Love, believers in Jesus loving one another with pure hearts. Our Love for all believers is the fulfillment of law and the completion of Christ Jesus.
Ruling Verse 10. 11 Finally this, be aware of the time, that the hour for you to awaken out of sleep is already here; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is advanced, and the day has drawn near. • We should set aside, therefore, the works of darkness, and should enclothe ourselves with the armor of light. 13 We should walk in good form as in the daytime, not in partying and drinking, not in sexual immorality and insolence, not in contention and jealousy. • 14 But put the Lord Jesus Christ upon yourself, enclothe yourself with, sink into the Lord Jesus Christ as into a garment, and do not give thought [one way or the other] regarding the desires of the flesh.
Verse 14 is the third part of Ruling Verse 10, but I will not develop that in full until we get to John 14.
The Armor of Light. We must address verses 11-13 out from the flow of Gospel Word from Galatians through Romans 8:8 before we can know how to understand Romans 13:14. Two things exalt and worship the flesh and its lusts to equal measure. The first is feeding those lusts and the second is subduing those lusts. The first is stupid, but understandable, the second is lawlessness and open hostility against God. Remember that the Galatians were falling from Grace, from God giving Himself to them, because they had turned to subduing the flesh, to getting the flesh “under control.”
It is Paul’s definition of “those whom God has chosen” that defines for us what he means by “enclothe yourself with the armor of light.” – Run into God; give to Jesus all of your stupidity, wickedness, and shame, for He ALONE saves you.
Placing Ourselves in Jesus. This is very helpful, for it shows us exactly how to apply Ruling Verses 5, 6, and 7 to Ruling Verse 10, that all questions of separation are resolved only inside of Jesus.
Definition: Light is honesty, for light hides nothing inside the presence of God. The entrance of light is the entrance of Jesus into our hearts. Darkness has two parts: subduing the flesh and feeding the flesh. To enclothe ourselves with light is to place all that we are, including our sin and our shame, into Jesus.
Ruling Verses 5, 6, & 7: Ruling Verse 5 is HOW Jesus comes to us first that He might share life with us in intimate fellowship. Ruling Verse 6 is HOW Jesus carries us as we are into all the knowing of God now ours. And Ruling Verse 7 is HOW we walk inside of Jesus now, in full confidence of faith. Out from these three HOW’s, we put Jesus upon ourselves.
Turning One Way or the Other. In all Christian thinking I once knew, no one considered the meaning of “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” rather, Romans 13:14 provoked only an immediate turn to the flesh in a failed effort to “get it under control.” In other words, Romans 13:14 did nothing more than inspire dishonesty, not Light. Either we put the Lord Jesus upon ourselves INCLUDING upon our flesh, upon our sin and our shame – or – we put the flesh upon ourselves in all our thinking, driving Jesus away.
Thus the Rock that confirms for us the actual and correct translation of Romans 13:14 is Romans 8:2. The law of the Spirit of Life inside of Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. Having turned to the Lord, we put Jesus upon ourselves through faith by the words we speak inside our story of self.
The Commandment of the Gospel. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ” is the first commandment of the Gospel inside of which all other obedience is found.
Turning to the flesh is seeing and judging all by outward appearance, by human feelings and judgments, by what’s in it for “me” right now. Turning to Jesus is seeing and judging all by the Word God speaks in the Gospel, even against ALL outward appearance. We speak out from our hearts (Romans 10), and we see what we first speak. Yet putting Jesus upon ourselves, enduo, enclothing ourselves with Jesus, is found in all the meaning of the three HOW verses of the Gospel.
Then, I have placed this line as the third part of the Tenth Ruling Verse, rather than Jesus’ command in John 15, abide inside of Me, which remains part of the same picture.
God’s Opportunity. The three parts of Ruling Verse 10 have grown into each other in our understanding over time. Moreover, this Rule corresponds with the materials used in the construction of God’s House and ours, in Patterns of Home. In other words, Ruling Verse 10 is a description of each one of us. John 14:20 places us into the relationship of Father and Son, now part of that same Flow. John 17:3 is purpose, that we know the Father by knowing Jesus sent into us. But then Romans 13:14 is our part, what we do with this Jesus now the very fabric of our lives.
And so Paul is placing our active involvement with the Lord Jesus inside of us, our very and only life, as how we are the WHO – God’s opportunity now at this end of the age to reveal Himself once again as Christian Love.
Part of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ruling Verse 10: John 14:20 places us into the relationship of Father and Son, now inside of Them. John 17:3 is purpose, that we know the Father by knowing Jesus sent into us. Then, Romans 13:14 is our part, what we do with this Jesus now the very fabric of our lives. In our acknowledgment, in all our thinking and speaking, we place the Lord Jesus upon all that we are, and especially our sin and shame, who alone saves us.
Defining the Rule: We are inside of Jesus, and we remain inside of Him (John 15:4). Yet God has given us a part to play, that is, our active faith. Our part is to acknowledge the Lord Jesus as the entire fabric of our lives. Putting Jesus upon ourselves, then, is shaping the words of our consciousness by the Gospel Words that are Christ Jesus, that we would see ourselves as part of Him, that we might KNOW the Father.
A Two-Lane Highway. (Chapter 14) 5 Truly, one person judges one day to be above another day; another person, however, judges every day alike. • Let each be fully assured inside his own mind. 6 The one who regards a day, to the Lord he regards it; and the one who does not observe any special day, to the Lord he does not observe it. The one who eats, eats to the Lord; he gives thanks to God. And the one who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and he gives thanks to God.
Let’s think of God’s Highway as having two lanes operating as one together to give God the Opportunity He needs. We could even envision a very large car with the wheels on one side running in one lane and the other wheels, the other lane. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ is the first lane. Paul is now constructing the second lane, which is receive one another.
Share Life with God. Two things are happening in these verses, outward doing and inward faith. Inward faith means doing whatever together with God. Sharing life with God is Salvation. But humans see only outward doing, and if the outward doing of another is different from my outward doing, how can that be “God?” As meaningless as that question is, nonetheless, it has split churches thousands of times. Be assured means be filled with faith in your own mind, which means consciously share all things with God.
Ruling Verse 7: To be assured inside our own minds is to walk in confidence that God shares our lives with us in all that we do. Outward practices that differ from one to the next have no meaning to God or to us, but rather faith in Jesus.
Giving an Account. 10 So why do you judge your brother, or even, why do you despise your brother? We all will be present in the judgment seat of God. 11 As it is written: “I live,” says the Lord, “so that to Me every knee will bow and so that every tongue will speak forth the same word with God.” • 12 So, then, each one of us will give an account concerning himself in return to God. 13 Therefore, we should no longer judge one another; but determine, rather, not to place any stumbling block or snare before our brother or sister.
Paul is using a very large sweep in order to catch his readers into Romans 15:7 – Receive one another. What would it be if I heard someone I once knew give their honest account, “God, I trusted Daniel Yordy, but he lied to me, and I suffered not knowing You for years as a result.”
Giving an Account. I cannot imagine anything worse, and I would be on my knees before that one in tears until trust was restored. Putting the judgment off to “someday in heaven” is a gimmick of unbelief, even hardness against God and others. We are giving this very account every moment of every day in the story we speak of ourselves and towards others inside the secret places of our consciousness.
Speak Christ: Speaking Christ is a critical part of putting the Lord Jesus upon ourselves. We give an account of our lives every moment in the story we speak of ourselves inside our consciousness as well as what we say to our brethren. As we place Jesus upon ourselves, so we place Jesus upon our fellow Christians as well. As we love and regard the One who saves us, so our account includes the same Love regarding others.
Approval and Joy. • 17 For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but just approval, peace, and joy inside the Spirit Devoted. 18 For the one who serves Christ in these things is well-pleasing to God and approved by men.
“Eating and drinking” are the example Paul is using regarding different outward doings among Christians. I have used the example of “to tithe or not to tithe” as being current to us. When I approve of YOU, regardless of your different ways of doing, when you fill me with Joy inside of Spirit, then I am sharing life with God, and you find no offense in me.
Kingdom: When I approve of YOU, regardless of your different ways of doing, when you fill me with Joy in Spirit, then I am God’s pleasure, and you find no offense in me.
Driving a Wedge Between. 22 The faith that you have, keep it to yourself inside of the presence of God. Blessed is the one who does not judge himself in what he approves. 23 The one who doubts, however, if he should eat [something he believes is unclean], has been condemned because it is not from faith. • And anything not coming out from faith fails to connect with God.
What if I mock your practice of tithing and convince you mentally that its “not what Christians do.” Yet you doubt inside that you are doing the right thing. What have I done? No demon could do you more harm, for I have driven a wedge between you and Jesus inside your story of self. Your doings no longer come out from a life shared with God. Doing that to you is a horror to me because I FEAR God.
Defining Sin and Faith. If I tithe because I have to, it is sin. If I refrain from tithing because I have “superior” understanding, it is sin. Yet if our definition of “sin” is out from the tree of good and evil, then we cannot know the solution, or even what these words mean. The problem is NOT tithing or not-tithing, sin or not-sin, the problem is living in a mind that does not KNOW Jesus sharing all with us. Sin and faith seem to need defining the most.
Definition: Salvation is sharing Life with the Father inside of Jesus. The faith of Jesus, now ours, is how we know that every moment is God-with-us. All sin begins inside of thinking of ourselves as “on our own,” as no longer part of a Jesus who comes into union with us first. Then, anything we might do, especially to “try to please” God, is also disconnected, and therefore, “sin,” that is, not living in God sharing Life with us.
Bear the Reproach Yourself. (Chapter 15) • 1 Now, we who are strong are committed to carrying the doubts and hesitations of those less able and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor into good towards the act of constructing [the house of God]. 3 For even Christ did not seek to please Himself, as it is written: “The reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen upon Me.” • 5 Now, may the God of steadfastness and encouragement give you to be of the same heart-gut thinking with one another down to the finest details of Christ Jesus. 6 So that, having the same desire and with one mouth, you might glorify the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. • 7 Therefore receive one another [] in exactly the same way that Christ received you into the glory of God.
And We Also. Verses 1-3 is an expression of what Jesus meant when He said, “Carry your cross.” Carrying our cross is NOT something for self, as most imagine, but for others. I take upon myself all the press of difficulty your different ways of doing and thinking and believing have upon me. I bear the pain you cause me inside myself for your sake. I carry you inside my heart all the way into the Father’s Heart. I share Hheart with God. This is 1 John 3:16 – And we also.
Putting Jesus upon yourself GIVES YOU EVERYTHING. Receiving one another COSTS YOU EVERYTHING. This is the return of Devotion; this is how God lives. Yet because Jesus is always giving Himself utterly to me for my sake, giving myself for your sake is my Joy and my crown.
Father at Home. Ruling Verse 8: We carry one another’s great weight of value (see Galatians 6:2) inside our own hearts into God. Regardless of any clash or difference of ways, we bear any reproach ourselves, just as Jesus does for us, that our brethren might know that God dwells inside of them.
Verses 5-7 is the Form for God through Jesus, God’s dwelling place inside of creation, the most important Value for God. Yet inside those verses is also the injunction that we speak Christ together out from the same desire for Father at Home.
Speak Christ: As brethren together, we share the same heart-gut thinking that is the Lord Jesus now part of the fabric of our lives. We share the same desire together, that God dwells among us as Love, that our Father would be at Home in our midst. Thus we speak Christ our life together into Glory.
God Satisfied. Receive one another just as Jesus receives us. I think this is the most important “be just like God” commandment in the Bible, for it is what makes Love real. Yet it is very costly, yet it is where the Father dwells. I think that “into the glory of God” in this case means God at Home, God satisfied, God having entered into His deepest Desire, God accomplishing His greatest work.
The Form for God through Jesus: To receive one another just as Jesus receives us is to be part of one another’s lives with strong personal interest, the practicality of Love. Putting Jesus upon ourselves gives us everything; receiving one another costs us everything. Yet this is how God lives, this is where God dwells; receiving one another is God coming through, it is Father at Home. Our love for one another is the Father’s greatest work, that is, Glory.
God Coming Through. (Chapter 16) • 13 And may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace inside of believing; that you might abound inside of hope inside of the power of Spirit Devoted. – • 20 Now the God of peace will shatter Satan under your feet quickly. The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, be with you.
Two BIG things happen as God comes through His Highway into His creation, God manifest in the flesh once again.
Ruling Verse 3: As we put Jesus upon ourselves, as we receive one another, so God comes through into our world as Rivers, as the power of Spirit Devoted, God manifest in the flesh.
Ruling Verse 4: As we put Jesus upon ourselves, as we receive one another, so the God of our peace comes through into our world, and the spell caster, the spirit of slavery into fear, and all accusation-against just vanish away.
Glory and Wisdom. • 25 Now to Him who is able to strengthen you, according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation and unveiling of the mystery, which was kept secret through the times of the ages, 26 but has now been made visible, and also through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the ordering and arrangement coming out of the age-unfolding God, into submission to the hearing of faith, and now has been made known to all the ethnic families, 27 to the only wise God through Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory into the ages of the ages. Let it be so; it is so.
God who is able and wise; God to whom is the Glory.
The Form for God through Jesus: The mystery of God is a God who fills His Church, believers in Jesus loving one another, with His Glory, with His wisdom made known.
Life versus Death. Let’s try to state Paul’s answer for the question – Who – in simple form. Understand this is a dividing line that goes through all. It goes through all who are descended from Jacob, through all who pretend that they are, through all Christians, through all non-Christians, through all humans in heaven-only and through all upon earth.
1. I need Jesus ~ versus ~ I’m doing just fine myself. 2. I put Jesus on myself that Father might share life with me ~ versus ~ I fix myself to boast against God. 3. I receive my brethren and carry them in my heart ~ versus ~ I don’t know who “they” are. They are beneath of me.
Notice the “me” found fully in all of the first. The second is death and hades.
| Jesus connecting me with God. | Me |
| Knowing the Father sharing life with me. | Me |
| My brethren with me, my joy and reward. | Me |
God as Rivers. Two sit side by side on a garden bench, identical in all outward appearance. The PRESS comes upon both in the same moment. One cries, “Jesus,” the other does not.
All who call upon the name of the Lord are chosen of God. Crying “Jesus” connects us with God, but then, oh my, LOOK OUT. For as we put Jesus upon ourselves, as we receive one another as this same Jesus to us, GOD our FATHER is coming through us into our world as RIVERS. – The aroma of His knowledge in every place.
Paul does not forget symmorphos. Every line going forward now is directed towards Philippians, towards the Ekenosis, towards God manifest in the flesh once again, symmorphosed with His death, symmorphosed with His Glorious Body.
Reading for Next Time. That’s it for Romans. We are now heading into Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians, and Philippians, the Jesus Secret books. Colossians and Philemon were written and sent together, out from Paul finally having arrived into some stability in his secure home in Rome. Read them together in the JSV, out loud if you can and as one whole thought. It is a short but powerful read.
Back to Romans, however. I have set myself the task of creating a brief summary of the flow of Gospel Word in each book. Once I have learned how I want to do that, going back to James through 2 Corinthians will not be hard. Galatians and Romans, however, are more complex. I must do that now, while both studies are fresh in my heart.
Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, we share the same desire together, that You would be Love in our midst, that You would be at Home inside our gathering together. Out from our shared desire, Father, we speak Christ together, that we might place all that He is upon all that we are, that we might receive one another just as Jesus receives us.
“Father, we live inside of Your energeoing Flow. For just as You give all and receive all, so we receive all from You and we give all to one another. Father, we walk with You, entering into You every moment, bringing one another inside our hearts into Your presence. Father, we belong together with Your own ones inside of Glory, Father bring us Home.
“And Father, just as we bear the reproach for one another here inside of Your presence, so we carry all our Christian brethren all across the earth into You as well. Father, inside of Jesus, we receive all whom You have given to Him now alive, that all our fellow Christians might be gathered into Christ, that You might enter creation through Your Church.
“Father, this is Your hour, we give ourselves to You as Your opportunity to reveal Yourself once again as One who is meek and lowly of Heart, who walks beneath, carrying others. Father, let the kindness of the Lord Jesus be upon our faces, let His gentle touch be in our hands. Let all creation say, ‘Now we see Love, now we know that God sent Jesus.’ Oh Father, we are Your wisdom and Your Glory revealed.”