What Does Romans 15:3 Mean?

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(NASB)

Verse of the Day

Paul has pointed to Christ as the eternal God and perfect Man in the book of Romans. He lead us through the doctrines of predestination and election, justification and sanctification, the old sin nature and the new creation in Christ, the flesh and the spirit - law and grace. Paul was most thorough in his outstanding epistle to systematically set out every aspect of Church-age doctrine.. so that we have no doubt that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ.

But here.. for the first time we come to a section where he introduces a totally new concept.. Christ as our example. Paul portrays the life of Jesus as the exemplification of what a godly life should be. He was not only our representative sin-offering.. but His life stands as a witness to what a godly life should look like.. a life that is lived in accordance with God's plan for humanity. Whether rich or poor, young or old, male or female, Jew of Gentile.. Jesus is held up as the perfect example of a life lived to the praise and glory of God, in a sinful word and hostile environment - Jesus is seen as living His earthly life in the way that God intended mankind to live, when God formed man in His own image, and breathed into him the breath of life.

The life of the Lord Jesus demonstrated a God-focussed man that chose to please God before self.. and who cared more for the needs of others before His own. Jesus was a man Who delighted to do the Father's will and could pray in the most gruelling of circumstances: Thy will not Mine be done. Jesus was the perfect example of a man that loved the Temple of God and applied the Word of God in every area of life - for it was of Jesus that the Psalmist wrote these words: zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.

Jesus indeed demonstrated His zeal for the House of God as exemplified in His life and actions, when he overthrew the tables of the money changers and cried out in fury: You have made My Father's House into a den thieves. He also demonstrated a Man who had a passion for God .. for His food was to do the will of His Father and His joy was to do only those things that He heard from His Father in heaven.

Jesus set aside His own desires and needs because of His love for His Father in heaven but Christ also had to suffer the reproaches of men because of His Father, which was due to His relationship to His Father. The reproaches of those who hated God were transferred as a concentrated loathing onto Christ Himself, for we read that:  the reproaches of those who reproached You, fell on Me.' Jesus was the the chosen Servant of God who had to suffer the reproach of sinful man - who transferred their reproach, loathing and hatred of God onto a hatred, loathing and reproach of Christ.

We are not of this world for we have been born-again into a new creation and have been imputed with the nature of Christ. How fitting that we should become imitators of Him - not in what He did for He was truly God, and we are not - but in how He lived.. for He was truly Man, and so are we. Jesus lived His life as unto to Lord and for the eternal benefit of all mankind. He only said and did those things that He heard from His Father and suffered reproach for His love of God and the people of God. Let us seek to live as He lived - in total obedience to God, only doing those things that we hear from Him, showing a zeal for His Word and a deep love for the Church, which is His Body - knowing that it is fitting a right that we should live as unto the Lord, for His greater glory

My Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You that Christ came to earth to become my Saviour. Thank You that He did not come to please Himself but was prepared to say: Thy will be done, even when He faced the cross, knowing that it was only by His death that we can have life. Lord we pray Your mercy on those that have been blinded to the truth by the enemy of our soul and pray that even today, many would come to faith in Christ and discover that in Him is life and light for evermore.. in Jesus name I pray, AMEN.

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