Chapter # 14 Paragraph # 2 Study # 15
September 12, 2021
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: The person who puts his/her "conscience" above all else in respect to his/her "relationship" to God is strongly assured of the future's outcomes for him/her.
Introduction: In our studies of "How To Get Along With Each Other" in
Romans 14, we have seen that Paul was insistent upon one basic principle: maintaining a good conscience in view of both God's "desires" and the brothers' "best interests".
This issue of a "good conscience" is of extreme importance in that it highlights the critical truth about how God is going to deal with us when the future comes upon us. That critical truth is this: that God is not seeking a "knowledgable" mind, but, rather, an "uncompromised" heart.
In our study this evening we are going to look into the positive side of this critical truth.
- I. Two Fundamental Facts.
- A. In 1 Timothy 1:5 Paul summarizes the underlying objective of all "revealed truth ".
- 1. It is definitively NOT the building up of "knowledge" (omniscience makes any human knowledge a very small thing).
- 2. It IS definitively the building up of a "value system" that honors the actual value of others above any perceived value of one's own benefit.
- B. In Romans 14 Paul is addressing, not that realm of a general consensus of the specific morality of the "truth revealed", but that realm of "perceived morality" in areas where the various convictions of men collide.
- 1. Both groups in this chapter had words of "revealed truth" as the basis of their "convictions".
- a. There is a large body of revealed words concerning diet and liturgy for Israel in its time.
- b. There is also a critical body of revealed words concerning how dangerous is a fixation upon outer conformity without regard for inner reality.
- 2. Both groups in this chapter had serious flaws in their grasp of the meaning of the words of revealed truths.
- a. Those who "grasped" the truth of "Grace" are presented as not having grasped the more fundamental truth of "Love".
- b. Those who "grasped" the imperatives of dietary restrictions and liturgical processes are presented as not having grasped the more fundamental truth of "Grace" as the intended theological focus of the time because of God's shift in focus in His dealings with men in their times.
- II. One Fundamental Future.
- A. At issue is the "condition" of "blessedness".
- 1. What is this "condition of blessedness"?
- a. "Blessedness" is, at its roots, the experience of the privileges of being favored by God in His treatment of the "blessed" one [Note Paul's quote of David in Romans 4:7-8 wherein the issue is not "sinlessness", but "forgiveness": God's favor in His treatment of the "blessed"].
- b. "Blessedness" in its roots has several aspects.
- 1) First, "blessedness" is external to the person's mental/emotional state: it is the actual treatment of a person by God for "Life" when God overtly takes action that produces a full sense of well-being.
- 2) But, second, "blessedness" is internal to the person's mental/emotional state: it is the actual inner realization of God's special, highly beneficial, care for the heir of "Life".
- 3) And, third, "blessedness", as a present experience, is a matter of Love/Faith as the key factors of "inner experience" when both Love and Faith are seriously challenged by the present, overt, not-clearly-beneficial, realities.
- 4) In the final analysis, "blessedness" is the final future experience of those treasured by God, but is also the present experience of those whose confidence and love overcome the "unblessed" experiences of the present. "Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on" (Revelation 14:13) does not mean that the actual, present, details of the experience of death are pleasant, but that the future brings "rest" by means of the "pangs of death". Once the pain is over and the rest ensues, "blessedness" is the summation of the experience.
- 2. It is indisputable that the "condition" of blessedness is variable according to the specific time involved.
- a. Because there is often a disconnect between what is presently being experienced (various pains being inflicted) and what is going to be the outcome (the future result of such pains), we must recognize that the "condition" varies as to "degree of experience" in the present time.
- b. One is "blessed" when an experience is imposed upon a person if that experience is decreed by God to result in eternal joy, but one is also "blessed" when the imposed experience is presently "joyful" (John 16:20-22).
- B. Paul's declaration of the "condition(s) of blessedness" in this text/context.