Romans 12:1 “God Cares”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹I am urging you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your (pl.) bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] well-pleasing to God, [which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship..

The old KJV translated this verse beginning as “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God…” The NIV today begins, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy…” You will notice above in my fairly literal translation that, rather than “mercy/mercies,” I have used the word “sympathies.”

As it turns out, the Greek word being translated “mercies” is not the word one would expect. There is a word “eleos,” which very specifically means “mercy,” and is, almost without exception exactly the word you would have expected to find. However, the word we do find here is “oiktos.”

When a person is scratching around in the ancient languages, after a while you get used to certain words you expect to see. When it’s something else, it is always a good idea to pause. No two words mean exactly the same thing. The differences may be slight, but still, one wonders why Paul would choose oiktos rather eleos, if all he meant was “mercies.”  

Here’s what I want to suggest. Mercy is certainly a wonderful thing. As the old saying goes, “Grace is when God gives us what we don’t deserve; Mercy is when He doesn’t give us what we do deserve!” All of us thank Jesus from the bottom of our hearts for His mercy. However, mercy, in and of itself, can be, in a sense, a cold thing.

What I mean is, it is something you choose to do. There could be a judge who wants to be known as a merciful judge, so he plans that, about every tenth case he tries, he’ll let the person off. So at around that tenth case, the person is found clearly guilty, but the judge chooses to say something like, “In light of the circumstances, I’m simply going to drop your charges. You’re free to go.” If it were you or me, we would thank him profusely and definitely tell our family and friends about what we saw as his kindness.

In that case, even though the judge really doesn’t care about the person, yet he can show “mercy” in a very official sort of way. That would be the usual word “eleos.” “Eleos” itself is almost never used in such a cold sense, but it could be. And that is where “oiktos” comes in.

“Oiktos” is definitely a more emotional word, which I believe is better translated “sympathies,” as I did above.  In typical usage, I would say there is no difference between the words, just as we would see no big difference between “mercies” and “sympathies.” However, there is a difference, and once again, I think “mercies” are more about something you do, while “sympathies” are more about how you feel. Now go back and think about this verse and read it as “sympathies” rather than “mercies,” and what do you find?

What I see is that what Paul is referring to is not primarily what God has done, but what He feels. What is sympathy after all? Sympathy sees another person’s sorrows or afflictions and simply “feels sorry” for them. Sympathy does not consider what that person does or doesn’t deserve. Sympathy doesn’t consider if they got themself into this or not. It just sees their misery and feels sorry for them. It may express itself in being merciful. But can you see, there is a fine line between the feelings of sympathy and the action of mercy?

That fine line is what I’m talking about here in Romans 12. “I urge you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your body,,,” Think with me for a second not just about God’s great mercies, but about His sympathies! For me personally, this is another one of those atom bombs of truth I get from studying the Bible! Paul isn’t just asking us to think back about what God has done, but what He has felt. He’s taking us behind the curtain of God’s acts…to actually see His heart!

Have you ever thought about how the great God of heaven, the Creator, the King of the universe, the infinite, eternal I AM feels sorry for you? He looks down from heaven and sees you in the misery of your sin, sees all of us in the miseries of this sin-cursed world, and His big eternal heart is moved to sympathy! Completely apart from questions of who deserves or doesn’t deserve whatever. Completely separate from matters of justice and judgment and all of that judicial sort of business, He simply feels sorry for you.

Someone may be objecting at this point, thinking I’m somehow suggesting something below God’s great regal dignity. Actually, that is exactly what blows my mind – to see past all the “regal,” judicial business and see His heart. Consider yourself -- do you ever just “feel sorry” for someone? Where do you get that from? Is it not rising from a heart that was “made in the image of God?” You have those feelings of sympathy precisely because God does.

In our case, feeling sympathy might lead us to be foolishly merciful, whereas, even with those feelings, God will always still do right. That is true enough, but, once again, we’re distinguishing between those feelings and the acts that follow. We can look back over those first eleven chapters of God’s amazing mercies, the whole great Plan of Salvation, and be literally awestruck at what He has done for us through Jesus. However, Paul is here calling you and me to look even deeper and see not only God’s acts of love on our behalf, but to see His heart of love! This isn’t just official. It’s personal.

Have you ever paused to consider that the Lord feels sorry for you? Have you ever really thought of how, as He sees you in your miseries, that even though you may deserve them all (and worse), that you bring them on yourself, while others tell you, “You made the bed; You’ll just have to sleep in it,” that all of that aside and regardless of what He may have to do, behind it all He simply feels sorry for you?

My own heart just reels with those thoughts. I feel like Paul has taken me to a depth I’ve never gone before. No wonder Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” Even from the Cross, He was seeing you and me in the misery of our sins and His big heart was moved to sympathy!

What to do? I want to dwell more on these thoughts, to deliberately see God’s sympathies as I read the Bible, to see more of His heart as I read. And then, I want to deliberately let sympathy happen in my own heart. As I see people, I want to be wise, but I want to let my heart see their miseries and, like my Father, allow myself feel sorry for them. Maybe I still need to say, “No,” or, if I was a judge, I might have to pronounce them guilty, or as a parent administer discipline, but under it all, I want to feel what God feels. I want to be like Him. I want to be like Jesus. I want to have His heart.

If you’re reading this, even as I type, I know your life is very hard in many ways. Some you deserve and some you don’t, but I hope it encourages you as much as it does me to know that God cares.

Romans 12:1 “Urging”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹I am urging you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your (pl.) bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] well-pleasing to God, [which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship.

It seems, as I have been studying this verse, that almost every word is an atom bomb of truth. That should actually come as no surprise, following eleven chapters proclaiming the glorious Gospel of grace!

Clearly, Paul here moves to the natural question of, “How shall we then live?” This is especially imperative, having presented that Gospel of grace and, having emphatically stated, “We are not under law, but under grace.” Understanding what this means would be particularly important for Jewish Christians, used to living under the Law, with all its very specific rules. On the other hand, I would maintain it is critical for all of us to ponder, understand, and let God weave these thoughts into our souls.

What do I mean? It is very easy for us today to look at the people of Israel and see their legalism. The Hasidic Jews (modern counterparts to the Pharisees of Jesus’ day) are probably the most visible consequence of people supposedly pursuing a relationship with God, based on OT law. That approach to “religion” expresses the idea that knowing God is a matter of meticulous rule-keeping. Supposedly, if you try really hard to keep all of the rules, you can persuade others that you are a “religious” person and that God likes you.

Turning from the Jews and looking around, is that not what all “religion” is about – keeping some specific set of rules or ceremonies? Each “faith” is distinctive not only for the beliefs that they hold, but visibly for their unique practices. A prime example is “Seventh Day Adventists.” To join their company means you go to church on Saturday, not Sunday. To be any kind of Protestant means you go to church on Sunday, repeat the Lord’s Prayer and perhaps the Apostles’ Creed, maybe teach Sunday School, etc. What distinguishes every “religion” is their unique rituals and practices and standards.

That, I have come to understand, is because we are all obligate legalists. Our natural inclination all day every day is to think life is somehow about “keeping the rules.” Making people happy usually comes down to keeping (their) rules. and certainly, we think making God happy comes down to keeping His rules. Then Jesus comes along and tells us it all comes down simply to “love God/love others.”

We try to come to God with our obligate legalism, only for Him to slap it out of our hands! Actually, even for OT believers, what did He say is the sum of it all? “To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God” (Mic. 6:8). I know it was true of me and also that it was so with others – that when we really came face to face with grace, it caused a strange nakedness as we stood before God. “But, but, but…if you take away all these things I’m ‘doing,’ what is my relationship with God???” Then one marvels to realize all the Lord ever really wanted was you. “Nothing in my hand I bring…”

If a person has read and truly understood the first eleven chapters of Romans, and if we have truly drunk deeply of the wonder of His grace, then as we come to Romans 12:1, Paul is answering the very question our hearts long to ask: “How shall we then live?” If I’m not under Law, but under grace, what will my life look like? What kind of person will I be?

“Ah,” Paul replies, “I’m so glad you asked!” Actually, the very simple answer to that question is Jesus. God saves us for the specific purpose of “transforming us into His image, from glory to glory” (II Cor. 3:18). As we stand together at this point, I believe we would see any direction the Lord gives us not as a “set of rules to keep,” but as the very heart of Jesus and this God of grace with whom we have fallen deeply in love.

So, then, the wording of Romans 12:1 should come as no surprise at all. Consider how it starts, “I urge you, brothers…” Urge? “But shouldn’t it be, ‘I command you, Christians…’” No, it shouldn’t. Born again hearts do not sit at the foot of Mt. Sinai hoping God will give them Ten Commandments. They don’t grovel peevishly shouting, “All the Lord commands us, we will do.” He doesn’t need to get out His whip for us. “Obedience” isn’t about keeping the rules. It’s about knowing His heart, wanting to please Him, about wanting to be like Him. So how would an Apostle speak to such people? “I urge you, brothers.”

The word translated “urge” means literally something like “to call beside.” It might refer to that kindly grandfather who puts his arm around you and says, “Here’s the way to do this,” or perhaps the kind coach who sits beside the struggling athlete and shows him he’s doing better than he thinks.

May we all be reminded that is the way of grace. Grace does not command. It draws. “Commands” tell us, “Do this and live.” Grace instead steps into our heart and says, “Live, and do this!” All of this brings us back to what we learned from Daniel – “the unassailable citadel of the human heart.” “Commands” are a power word. In this world, if you have enough power, you can basically get anyone to do anything.

Nebuchadnezzar could threaten people with a raging fiery furnace and get them all to bow down and worship his idol. Essentially, the entire Babylonian Empire would bow before his idol – except three young Hebrew fellows. However, think about all those other people. Was their bowing real? Was it not clearly forced upon them? Obviously, it was not real, and, in fact, it proved nothing except that Nebuchadnezzar was a brutal bully.

There again, you may have the power to threaten people into doing almost anything, but have you changed their heart? No. It has always been true of even the most powerful kings who ever lived, there is one thing they cannot do. They cannot change a human heart.

To “call beside,” to urge, to appeal are all words that communicate respect. They are words that woo, words that draw. That is how you can speak to people with “good” hearts, people you are confident want to do right, and that is what is true of every real believer. At this point in the book of Romans, if you have to command people, it only proves they haven’t really understood those first eleven chapters.

Now, I have to insert an excurses on this business of commands. Someone may object, “But what about all the commands in the NT? That word has not disappeared. What about Jesus’ words, ‘A new command I give you…?” First of all, yes, the word “command” is still clearly present in the NT. However, stop and consider that it appears in its various forms about 800x in the OT, but drops to only about 100 in the New. In this Church age and with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, believers simply don’t need to be constantly “commanded.”

However, as we are all too aware, while I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit and sincerely want to do right, my Adamic sin nature is still quite present and ever longing to drag me back down to hell. Paul addressed this soundly in chapter 7. “So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me” (vv. 22,23)

Although we are born-again, we still have that sin nature. Personally I like to think of the “commands” of the NT as like guard-rails on the highway. Although I certainly want to stay in my lane, I am also keenly aware of how easily I can lose concentration or fall asleep at the wheel and plunge myself over a cliff. Those guard-rails are there to keep me on that “straight-and-narrow.” I want there to be guard-rails, and so it is in my Christian life. Precisely because I want to obey God, I actually appreciate the “guard-rails” of God’s commands.

So, yes, they are still there. To me, anyone who has ever been required to supervise people knows it’s true. You can have one very compliant student or worker who actually wants to please you and whom you can give a great deal of freedom, confident they want to do right. Then you can have another person who seems to have been born with what I would call a wanderlust. They take a lot of watching, a lot of commanding, but it is precisely because they don’t want to obey. If you and I are truly born-again, we have become that first person, and so the 800 commands drops to only 100. You and I only need “commands” as guard-rails, while those yet outside of Christ can only be commanded.

End of excursus. What I am saying is all supported by the very next phrase, “because of the mercies of God.” Paul can urge us “because of the mercies of God.” The “mercies of God” is basically those first eleven chapters of Romans -- because of the Gospel, because of grace, because, from the very bottom of our souls we thank God for our salvation, we need only urging, not someone standing over us with a whip.

There is much more to say, but I will stop here. I would suggest, if we should take away anything from these words, it would be to simply re-commit in our hearts to being submissive to our Lord’s will. Though that battle rages within us, and perhaps even because of that battle, we can look up to Jesus in the very deep gratitude of our hearts and say, “Yes, Lord, I do believe,” then add, “help my unbelief!”

I hope as I wander through the rest of the book of Romans, I can constantly keep in mind, every word that is written is written for people who want to obey. Although the Spirit within in me makes me one of those people, I am also keenly aware my sin nature is alive and well. And so I hear the Lord calling to me, “Do not be like the horse or the mule, which must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you,” rather, “Let me guide you by My eye” (Ps. 32:8,9).

Yes, Lord, help me not be a stubborn mule You have to constantly command. Help me to be that person you can guide simply by Your eye. May I only require of You urging.

 

Daniel 12:13 “Rest”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³And you go to the end and you will rest and you will stand to your lot to the end of the days. 

And so, here we are. Daniel 12:13, the last verse of this wonderful book, the Lord’s last recorded words to our friend Daniel. I have been trying to simply ruminate on these words, to let them sink deeply into my soul. That is in part because I am so loathe to end my study of this book. I’m loathe to end these frequent visits with this man who has taught me so much and who I have come to admire deeply. If I seem to babble on, it might be because I simply don’t want this all to end. 

It’s interesting to me to note that the Lord used this very man Daniel the first time He ever “touched” me. I know I’ve related this before, but, since I’m deliberately procrastinating my conclusion, I’ll relate it again. The very first time I remember the Lord’s “touch,” I couldn’t have been more than 4 years old. My brothers and I were attending a Vacation Bible School in our little bitty town.

I clearly remember a lady had out her flannel graph and was telling us the story of “Daniel in the Lions’ Den.” All I remember is that I liked the little cut-out picture of Daniel and just being told the story. But, what struck me most was the lady herself. There was a kindness and gentleness and love about her that just seemed to glow in my little heart. I know now what it was. It was Jesus. She was a real born-again woman who sincerely loved us, who loved me, and that day, Jesus reached out through her, and through this Daniel, and touched my heart.

As I sit here today, Jesus is that exact same glow in my heart. I like Him. He makes my heart happy. I want to know Him, for Him and this same gentle kindness to be a part of my life. Even as I think of our Daniel, he still lights that same glow, that exact same happy feeling in my heart. I like him. I want to be like him—just like that lady.

Little could I have ever imagined that, near the end of my life, I would spend some ten years studying Daniel’s book, very slowly enjoying every verse, every word, sometimes even every letter! At this point, there is no doubt in my mind that he has been the single greatest influence in my life -- on who I am, on the kind of believer I am, on how I see God Himself -- than any other single person (besides my parents, of course).

Looking at this final verse, it strikes me that (as usual) it is packed with meaning. First, it starts with the Hebrew word “you” – second person singular pronoun. As I have pointed out before, in Hebrew they seldom ever speak pronouns like this. The pronouns get absorbed into their verbs. When they are expressed, it is for emphasis. So when the Lord says to him, “You…,” He is clearly and deliberately speaking to Daniel himself,

This reminds us all that a relationship with God is personal. He is not the Deist’s god who lives out there somewhere and is just sort of everyone’s god in general. No. He is your God. He is my God. He is, at the exact same time, the God who knows and cares for every single living thing in this world. “The Lord is good to all and His tender mercies are over all His works. He opens His hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing.”

As this elderly Daniel stands here beside the river, his God is the God who has known him his whole life, who has walked beside him, helped him, taught him, used him in ministry to others. The two of them know each other well. Daniel is a man whose own eyes have seen angels, talked to them, heard and seen for himself incredible visions of human history right down to the end. He’s been a man who has spent his entire adult life faithfully meeting the Lord in prayer and studying diligently in the Word. He’s asked many questions, right down to verse 8 just above us: “I heard but I did not understand, so I asked, ‘My Lord, what will the outcome of all this be?’”

And what are these final words to this Daniel? “As for you, go [your way] until the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to [receive] your allotted inheritance.” In Hebrew He says simply to Daniel, “Go.” From verse 9 to 13, the Lord does not answer his question, rather just throws in more mysterious prophecies, then tells him, “Go.” If you and I would pause to ponder that single word, we’ll realize this is simply a part of knowing God. Deut. 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this Law.” The plain simple fact is that His thoughts are not our thoughts. “As the heavens are high above the earth, so are His thoughts above our thoughts.”

To know God is to know much. Jesus promised us, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” As I’ve studied the book of Daniel and all his prophecies, it has amazed me what a blessing it is for us believers – to actually know the flow of human history right down to the end of this world we live in. From the Bible, we know much about even our own personal lives, what is right, what is wrong, what we should do and what we shouldn’t. However, there is always much we don’t know!

Part of walking with God for a lifetime is to accept that simple little truth, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God.” I can pray and study and ask and ask and ask, but there will always be things I just don’t understand. As I face those things, what does the Lord tell me? “Go.” I have to give up and just do what I do know.

It was massively helpful to me when I learned that Jesus really did mean it when He said the two Great Commands are to love God and love people, that all of the law and prophets comes down to those simple commands. Paul had learned that and told the Galatians, “All that matters is faith expressing itself through love” (5:6). Where that is massively liberating to me is precisely when I’m confused, when I feel like I really don’t know “what’s up.” I can always come back to reminding myself, no matter how much I don’t know, if I make it my goal, to the best of my ability, today to simply love God and others, then when I lay my head down at night, I can know I succeeded.

Sometimes I feel so confused, I almost don’t know what to do. The Lord says, “Go.” I’m personally stuck right now in this awful murky world, hanging between my entire life of full-time work and this strange, scary, uncertain world called retirement. Part of me so wishes I could just give it all up and stay home. However, work is really all I’ve ever known. I love my job. I love the people I work with. It seems like to me that my engineering is the main place the Lord has used me all down through the years. How can I give that up? What am I giving it up to? I want Him to use me. I want to do all the good I can for other people for as long as I remain here on earth. If I do retire, where am I going?

All those questions frankly terrify me right now. I feel horridly confused and uncertain what to do. So what am I to do today? “Go.” “Love God, love others.” “Whatever you do, wherever you are, whoever you’re with, just make it your goal to love God and others.” I have to believe, as I do that, somehow He will make it all clear. I just don’t get to know “it all” ahead of time. I simply have to “Go.” That is what Daniel was told and that is what the Lord tells you and me. Daniel didn’t get all his questions answered and neither will you and I. That is simply part of serving and knowing this mysterious, infinite God we call Jesus! And note again, Daniel is an old man. He’s been walking with God for something on the order of 90 years! And what does he still have to accept as his answer from the Lord? “Go.”

Note again, though, the Lord’s kindness. For this very elderly man, what else does the Lord tell him? “…You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to [receive] your allotted inheritance.” “You will rest.” You see we are still listening to a very personal relationship. The Lord tells him, “You will rest.” Daniel has heard the Lord’s plans for the human race far into the future. But what about him? The Lord tells him, “You will rest.” He is going to die. The older we get, the more inviting that thought becomes, however, for each of us, it isn’t just “You will die.” The Lord says, “You will rest.”

What an incredible kindness! As it says in Job 18:14, for the human race, death is “the king of terrors.” Hebrews 2:15 describes humans as “those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” As I pause and ponder on the Lord’s words, “You will rest,” I’m struck by the thought that I take this for granted. After some fifty years knowing the Lord, I have come to take it for granted that I don’t fear death! I’ve got to live my entire adult life seeing my own death as actually something good. It isn’t “death;” it’s rest.

Interesting. Rest. Yes, that is exactly what my heart sees. Life is hard. It is very hard. Yet, as a believer, from the very bottom of my soul, I see death as simply a transfer – a transfer from this world of constant stress and worries and frankly unbearable workloads, into a world of perfect beauty and all things good. Of course that’s what I see. That’s what the Bible teaches us. Our souls hang on those words, “They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain…” (Rev. 21:3,4).

In fact, I feel exactly what Paul describes in Phil. 1:22-24, “Yet what shall I choose? I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.” In our minds, like Paul, the only thing “bad” about death is the people we leave behind. I love being a husband and a father and a grandfather. I love all the people I work with. I live to do them all good. Yet death takes all of that from me.

As I sit here typing, if the Lord were to suddenly appear and say, “Okay, Don, you’re done here. Time to come home,” that would be a glorious relief. Yet, my first thought would be, “But, but, but…what about Joan? She needs me. What about my kids and grandkids? I really don’t want them to have to sit through a funeral! What about all my family and friends who might not know the Lord? I was hoping maybe somehow, someway, Jesus could use this confused, bungling idiot to touch them.” Huh. It seems I’m also “torn between the two!”

Just so it’s said, the one thing I’m sure we all still “fear” about death is the pain. We’d all like to just die quietly in our sleep and slip away to meet the Lord, but we’re also aware we could die of cancer or get creamed by a semi. For that, we just have to trust the Lord. He said, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Ps. 116:15). Who knows? Maybe believers don’t feel pain when they die. Wouldn’t surprise me—even if we’re creamed by a semi!

All of that aside, yes, I take it for granted that I actually see death as “rest.” Where do I get that from? The Bible. Just like Daniel, what the Lord calls me to is not “death,” but rather rest. What an incredible kindness! In my heart of hearts, I need to not take that for granted. It’s just one more thing I can thank our wonderful Lord for. I’m so glad my friend Daniel got to go to his rest. He suffered so much. His whole life he suffered, torn from his family and forced to serve as “head of the warlocks” under the wicked kings of Babylon and Persia! His faithfulness through all of that inspires me. Yet, I’m glad it ended for him and he got to go to his rest.

One last thing to note is the Lord promising Daniel, “…and then at the end of the days you will rise to [receive] your allotted inheritance.” Remember Daniel was a Jew. It was enormously important to them that they had an inheritance in the Promised Land. As a boy, Daniel would have just assumed he was going to marry one of those cute Jewish girls, have a family, and live out their lives on their “allotted inheritance” there in Israel. Yet at probably about 15, he was ripped away from it all and forced to live out his earthly life in the epicenter of evil – Babylon.

We probably utterly fail to realize how painful that was for our Daniel. Yet, what are the Lord’s last recorded words to him? “…and then at the end of the days you will rise to [receive] your allotted inheritance.”

“No, Daniel. You’ve not lost everything. In fact, the very things you wanted most are at this very moment awaiting you in glory!”

So what are we to do? “Go.” Live our lives. Take care of our people. Pray. Do all the good we can for all the people we can for as long as we can. And then what? “You will rest, and you will rise to live out all your wildest dreams…forever.”

Daniel’s life (and death) are recorded for us “upon whom the end of the ages has come” that we might be encouraged to love and worship and serve the same wonderful God, and do it all in the comfort of knowing, no matter what, there is a beautiful future in store for each of us!