Romans 15.3-The Strong Are To Follow The Example Of Christ Who Never Pleased Himself And Paul Cites Psalm 69.9 As Support
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday May 5, 2010
Romans: Romans 15:3-The Strong Are To Follow The Example Of Christ Who Never Pleased Himself And Paul Cites Psalm 69:9 As Support
Lesson # 497
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 15:1.
This evening we will study Romans 15:3 and in this passage Paul teaches that the strong are to follow the example of Christ who did not please Himself and cites Psalm 69:9b as support.
Romans 15:1, “Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves.”
Romans 15:2, “Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.”
Romans 15:3, “For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, ‘The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.’”
Romans 15:3 presents the reason why the strong in Rome must obey the previous command in Romans 15:2, which calls for the strong to continue making it their habit of pleasing their neighbor, i.e. the weak for their benefit for the purpose of that which is good in character, specifically, building them up spiritually.
Therefore, he is teaching that the strong must continue to make it their habit of pleasing the weak by not exercising their freedom in Christ with respect to eating and drinking while in the presence of the weak for the purpose of their spiritual growth because Christ did not please Himself either.
“Even” is the “ascensive” use of the conjunction kai (καί), which denotes that the Son of God never pleasing Himself during His First Advent in order to please the Father and save sinners is out of the ordinary from the human perspective.
Therefore, with this word, Paul is saying that the strong must continue to make it their habit of pleasing the weak by not exercising their freedom in Christ with respect to eating and drinking while in the presence of the weak for the purpose of their spiritual growth because “even” Christ did not please Himself either.
“Christ” emphasizes that Jesus of Nazareth, the incarnate Son of God self-sacrificially delivered the believer from the sin nature, personal sins, the devil and his cosmic system, spiritual and physical death and eternal condemnation through His substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths and resurrection.
“Did not please Himself” is composed of the emphatic negative adverb ou (ou)) (oo), “not” and the third person singular aorist active indicative form of the verb aresko (ἀρέσκω) (ah-res-koe), “did please” and the dative third person masculine singular form of the reflexive pronoun heautou (ἑαυτοῦ) (owf-too), “Himself.”
The verb aresko means “to please” and is used with Jesus Christ as both its subject and object.
The word’s meaning is emphatically negated by the emphatic negative adverb ou, which means “never.”
It therefore emphatically negates the idea that Jesus Christ ever lived to please Himself for His own benefit.
Together, these two words emphasize that during His First Advent culminating at the Cross of Calvary, Jesus Christ lived exclusively to please the Father.
He did this by denying Himself and self-sacrificially suffering a substitutionary spiritual and physical death on the cross in order to deliver sinful humanity from sin, Satan and his cosmic system.
They emphasize that Jesus Christ lived to serve His Father and in the best interests of others, i.e. sinners and that He denied self in order to self-sacrificially serve the Father and sinners.
“But as it is written, ‘The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me’” is a quotation from Psalm 69:9 that stands in direct contrast with the idea of Christ ever pleasing Himself for His own benefit.
So in Romans 15:3b to validate his assertion in Romans 15:3a that the one and only Christ never pleased Himself for His own benefit, Paul quotes verbatim the Septuagint translation of Psalm 68:10b.
“It is written” is the third person singular perfect passive indicative form of the verb grapho (gravfw) (graf-o), which means, “to write.”
The perfect tense of grapho is an “intensive” perfect emphasizing the present permanent and authoritative state of Paul’s exact quotation from the Septuagint translation of Psalm 68:10b that was produced by the past action of the Holy Spirit supernaturally guiding the Psalmist to write what he did with perfect accuracy.
It emphasizes that Psalm 69:9b is applicable to Paul’s readers who are strong in that it presents Jesus Christ as the perfect example for them to follow in not pleasing oneself but the Father for the good of others.
Romans 15:3, “For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, ‘The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.’”
“The reproaches” is the articular nominative masculine plural form of the noun oneidismos (ὀνειδισμός) (own-ee-thee-smoce), which means “insults” and refers to the unjustifiable verbal and physical abuse that sinners inflicted upon the Lord during His First Advent, culminating with His six trials, scourging and crucifixion.
“Of those who reproached you” is composed of the genitive masculine plural present active participle form of the verb oneidizo (ὀνειδίζω) (own-ee-thee-zoe), “of those who reproached” and the accusative second person singular personal pronoun su (σύ) (see), “you.”
The verb oneidizo means “to insult” and refers to the unjustifiable verbal abuse that sinners inflicted upon the Lord Jesus Christ throughout His First Advent, culminating with His six trials, scourging and crucifixion.
The personal pronoun su refers to God the Father since the quotation from Psalm 69:9 records the Son of God addressing the Father emphasizing sinful humanity’s open hostility towards the Father.
“Fell” is the third person plural aorist active indicative form of the verb epipipto (ἐπιπίπτω) (epee-peep-toe), which means “to fall upon” and is used in a figurative sense of becoming the victim of adversity and misfortune.
In context, the word refers to the Lord Jesus Christ becoming the victim of the insults from those who insult the Father.
“On Me” refers of course to the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God as the object of insults from those sinners who insult the Father.
Psalm 69:9 records David lamenting the fact that people were insulting God and that he was the victim of these insults as well.
In this Psalm, King David laments his unjust treatment from men because of his devotion to God.
In the same way and to an infinitely greater degree Jesus Christ suffered unjust treatment from sinners because of His devotion in doing the Father’s will.
Sinners insulted God the Father and the Son became the victim of those insults Himself.
Paul does not mention Christ bearing the wrath of God to bring sinners to God since this was not overtly apparent to sinners of course.
Rather, he mentions Christ bearing the insults of men, which was clearly demonstrated and understood by all who witnessed His ministry and passion.
Just as David had a consuming zeal for the house of God, which resulted in his being the object of insults from those who hated the God of Israel, so Christ to an infinitely greater degree possessed a consuming zeal for the Father’s house, which resulted in His being the object of insults from those who hated the Father.
Therefore, if Christ could endure insults directed at the Father for the sake of saving sinners, the strong can certainly refrain from exercising their freedom with respect to eating and drinking while in the presence of the weak so as to build up the weak spiritually.