The Kingdom of God
A Sermon on Romans 14:17
Originally preached Feb. 16, 1968
Scripture
17For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Sermon Description
The church at Rome was guilty of making the kingdom of God small. Walking into their church, one would have thought the kingdom was about eating and drinking. The apostle Paul forcefully corrects this misunderstanding. But if the kingdom is not of meat and drink, what is it about? In this sermon on Romans 14:17 titled “The Kingdom of God,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones enters into a great debate among commentators on this passage. While some preeminent theologians say righteousness refers to the righteousness written about earlier in Romans 1–3, others suggest Paul has changed the meaning to an ethical righteousness. Dr. Lloyd-Jones seeks to adjudicate the alternative positions and ultimately comes to a mediating position. He follows the immediate context, noting Paul’s deliberate challenge to the Romans preoccupation with minutiae and attitudes towards conduct. Paul’s argument, says Dr. Lloyd-Jones, has been that the kingdom of God is much bigger than moral conduct. Righteousness is clearly much more than ethics in Romans. It refers to our standing before God. Dr. Lloyd-Jones argues that Paul is interested in holiness, not morality. Holiness affects the whole person as they are declared righteous by faith. The truly righteous person is no longer preoccupied with minutiae as the Romans were, but is far more concerned with a life pleasing to God. Follow Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones as he wrestles through this passage in Paul’s letter to the Romans.
Sermon Breakdown
- The apostle Paul reminds the Romans that what really matters is the kingdom of God. They were in danger of forgetting this.
- The kingdom of God is entirely different from everything else. It has its own laws, ways, and way of thinking. Christians must learn to think in this new way.
- The kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking. This is too small and negative. The kingdom of God is about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
- There is disagreement over whether "righteousness" here means righteousness from God (as used elsewhere in Romans) or ethical righteousness in believers. The sermon argues it means both.
- Paul is concerned the Romans not think being Christian comes from what they do or don't do regarding indifferent matters. Their relationship to God and each other is what really matters.
- Verses 18-19 follow from verse 17. They show what those who live according to verse 17 will be like. They are not just restating verse 17.
- Paul's argument here parallels Galatians 5:1-6. There too he argues indifferent matters like circumcision don't determine one's relationship to God. What matters is faith working through love.
- The kingdom of God cannot consist of our ethical behavior. That would deny what Scripture says the kingdom of God is.
- The terms in verse 17 refer to personal relationships, not just ethical ones. Paul wants the Romans to see their whole position and relationship to each other, not just argue over details.
- Paul speaks with a measure of impatience and ridicule. He is astonished they could think the way they do. They are making indifferent matters central and missing what really matters.
- Righteousness here means more than just being right in some respects. Christians want to be right in every way, to be well-pleasing to God. They hunger and thirst for righteousness.
- Christians see themselves as God's people, citizens of His kingdom. They care about God's glory, the kingdom's extension, and fellow citizens. They aim for inward purity, not just outward correctness.
- The "righteous" of Matthew 25 were unaware of their own righteousness. The Romans, in contrast, were very aware of theirs in a self-satisfied way. True righteousness focuses on God and others, not self.
- Christians have been made righteous people. They do righteousness because of what they are, not to become righteous. They are like Christ, who is righteous.
- Paul ridicules the Romans' fussing over indifferent matters. The kingdom of God is about righteousness in being, not views on particular actions.
Sermon Q&A
What is the Kingdom of God According to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones?
What does Dr. Lloyd-Jones say the Kingdom of God is not?
According to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, the Kingdom of God is not "meat and drink" or, in other words, it's not about small details or minutiae like what foods Christians should eat or what days they should observe. He emphasizes that we must never represent the Kingdom of God as "something small or something merely negative." He criticizes the Romans for reducing the Kingdom to these external practices, saying there's a "sarcastic element" when Paul says "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink."
How does Dr. Lloyd-Jones define the "righteousness" of the Kingdom of God?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains that the righteousness in "the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost" is not merely ethical behavior or rectitude. Rather, it refers to the believer's new position and state as someone who has been declared righteous by God through justification by faith. The Christian is someone who "has been clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ" and now "belongs to the realm of righteousness" as opposed to the realm of sin. It's not about particular righteous actions but about being a righteous person through Christ.
What is the difference between morality and holiness according to the sermon?
According to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, morality is "always concerned about particular actions and about being legally right." The moral person is concerned with being right in specific respects and not wrong in others. It's a legalistic conception focused on individual actions. Holiness, on the other hand, "is always concerned primarily about the whole man, not the parts, not the details, not the particulars, but the whole man, his state and his condition." The Christian doesn't just want to be right here or there but everywhere, desiring complete righteousness.
How does Dr. Lloyd-Jones interpret Romans 14:18-19 in relation to verse 17?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones sees verses 18-19 not as mere repetitions or further definitions of verse 17, but as "deductions drawn from the 17th verse." Verse 17 makes the big statement about what the Kingdom of God is, and then Paul draws conclusions from it in verses 18-19. He states, "I regard that verses 18 and 19 as deductions from 17, not mere elaboration of 17." Verse 17 provides the grounds for the appeal that follows in verses 18-19.
How does the sermon compare Galatians 5:1-6 with Romans 14:17?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones argues that Paul uses the same approach in both passages. In Galatians, Paul ridicules the preoccupation with circumcision by saying "in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love." Similarly, in Romans 14:17, Paul lifts the argument above petty details to show "the bigness of it all," demonstrating "with contempt the smallness and the pettiness of this wrangling about these details." Both passages move Christians away from focusing on external practices to embracing the true essence of faith.
What does it mean to be "free from righteousness" according to the sermon?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains that when Paul says in Romans 6 that unbelievers were "free from righteousness," it doesn't mean that "every action they performed was bad and wrong and evil." Rather, it means "you had nothing to do with righteousness. You were not in the realm of righteousness at all." Being "free from righteousness" means being outside the realm or kingdom of righteousness entirely. Conversely, believers have been transferred from the realm of sin to the realm of righteousness.
The Book of Romans
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.