The Body Serving the Body

We know the verse well...

(Romans 12:3-8 ESV)

[3] For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. [4] For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, [5] so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. [6] Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; [7] if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; [8] the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

But practically speaking, why did God ordain things this way? Wouldn't it be much easier if, when we were born again, we were fully sanctified? Why would God place a small amount of grace on one person and yet give someone else a larger amount? Once again, John Piper finds a way to put this into an analogy that we can all learn from:

God has ordained that it be [this way] in the body of Christ until Jesus comes. In our natural depravity and sinfulness he ordains to transform us by degrees, and at different paces and different consistencies, and in different measures. And in this way he makes the very sin that he hates serve the beauty of the body of Christ. His way produces humble interdependence with all of us serving and being served, which leads to a unity in diversity that is more difficult and more beautiful and more God-glorifying than if all our faith were the same.

Original post [HERE]


And here is another resource on this same topic:




Jason