"I beg you, therefore, brothers, through these mercies God has shown you, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies as a living sacrifice, devoted and well-pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. Stop living in accordance with the customs of this world, but by the new ideals that mold your minds continue to transform yourselves, so as to find and follow God's will; that is, what is good, well-pleasing to Him, and perfect." - Romans 12:1-2 (Williams New Testament)
I think verses 1 and 2 of Romans chapter 12 are the introduction to the whole practical section of Romans. Now, unlike most of Paul’s epistles which are called occasional letters, which means something caused the writing, a problem, or a need, or a quarrel, or something, Romans is probably the most neutral. And by that I mean, it’s not unduly affected by the local situation that caused it to be written. I think the reason it was written is because Paul wanted to travel to Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire. He wanted to visit the Christians there. And we don’t know how the church got started; Paul didn’t start it, Peter didn’t start it. Probably the Jews who were converted on Pentecost went back home and started it, we really don’t know. And Paul writes to them telling them of his desire to visit them and explain his understanding of the Gospel. But interestingly, when you look at Romans, Paul would say ‘say hello to so and so, and so and so, which tells us he knew so many people there. So, Paul comes down after all of this wonderful theology, and he’s going to put an introductory capstone, and then tells us what this means in our daily lives.
NASB has “I urge you…” while Williams renders it “I beg you…” in the opening phrase of verse 1; this word is really an important word. It’s important because of what it communicated to these believers in Rome. We know that Paul is an Apostle of Jesus Christ; he says this over and over again in his epistles. His apostleship comes directly from Jesus Christ, and he has the authority from Christ to tell us what to do. I mean, he’s in charge, and yet he never comes across in overbearing manner. His words are tender yet command attention. Paul’s saying, ‘I’m urging you, I’m beseeching you, I’m imploring you,’ and at the same time telling them, ‘this is not an option’. ‘I want you to participate in this; I’m excited that you’re going to join with me, and that you’re hearts are with me’. Now, although Williams translation starts with “I beg”, that’s not this thing really starts; it really starts with the word “Therefore”. This word is a logical link to everything he has said before, and now he comes down, draws a line, adds it up and says, ‘what does this mean to you?’ There are significantly 3 ‘therefores’ in this book, and I think they’re going to tell us what these mercies of God are that Paul’s about to tell us. One is the ‘therefore’ of Romans 5:1, where from Romans 3:18 through the end of chapter 4 talks about ‘Justification by Faith’, that we’re right with God, based exclusively on the finished work of Christ, and whosoever will may come, Jew, pagan, whoever wants can come. So, what do I do with this now?’. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 deal with what about the Christians and their to the Law, their relationship to Sin . Now that we’re saved by Christ, what do we do with this sin problem that all of us continue to struggle with? Well, that’s what 5, 6, and 7 is all about. Now, Paul sums that up on chapter 8:1 where the 2nd ‘therefore’ appears. Based on Christ’s finished work, and we would call that Justification; based on the Christian’s victory over its struggle with sin and the Law, and we would call that Sanctification, Paul hits this marvelous high-peak of theology that we know is Romans 8:5 where he says, ‘we do not walk in the flesh, but we walk after the Spirit’. And then he just lays out those beautiful truths of who we are in Christ. Now, come chapters 9 through 11 which is, what about unbelieving Israel? Israel had all the benefits; she had all the prophets; she had the Messiah, Israel had everything, why did the Jews reject the Gospel? I think Paul deals with this subject because the Jewish Christians in the church of Rome were being offensive. And Paul kind of says to them, ‘you need to back off. Yes, you were chosen, but you weren’t chosen because you’re so hot. You were chosen because of God’s love’. Incidentally, this whole passage is characterized by the word ‘mercy’, and I don’t think it’s characterized by predestination. This whole section about Jews who don’t do what they’re supposed to do, if you’ll look at chapter 11 verses 30 through 32, you’ll see the word ‘mercy’ is used thrice, which introduces us right into chapter 12. Why do I live the Christian life? To earn points with God? To earn my way to a bigger house? To make God think I’m really something? Or to do something that God will be impressed? Of course, not! Everything we do for God, we do out of the overflow of gratitude based on the undeserved merit that Christ came and died for us. We do nothing to win favor with God. Because the truth is, we’re all messed up in ourselves. So, chapter 12 is going to come, and kind of tells us now, what are we going to do in light of all that God has done, in light of Justification, in light of Sanctification, in light of unbelieving Israel? How do we come to this? Well, it all comes to this: “I beg you, therefore, brothers, through these mercies God”. Notice it’s plural. It’s not in the sense of ‘plurality of majesty’, because I think there’s more than one mercy. And the ‘mercies’ had been spelled out by Paul in crystal clear presentation of the doctrines of the Gospel. Because of the mercies of God, because of all that God has done for in in Jesus Christ, because of all that He’s doing for us through the Holy Spirit, and all that He’s going to do for us in eternity, based on all of that, now, He’s going ask us to live in a certain way. In theology, we have a common phrase to describe this flow: first is a statement of truth, and we call it in grammar as Indicative. And that the statement of truth is, God loves you, Jesus died for you, and ‘whosoever will may come’, and we do have the indwelling Spirit to overcome sin, and the law, and death. And those are statements you can’t mess with; that’s finished, that’s in history, that’s from God. Now, based on statements like that, God calls on us with imperatives, with commands. And we call this the ‘indicative and the imperative’. Because of who I am in Christ, now, I need to live in a certain way. Hebrews 12:1 and 2 Timothy 4:7 put it in a metaphor of ‘running the race’; we have won the race in Jesus Christ, the trophy is on the shelf, our names are written on it, I mean, it’s over, it’s a done deal, and one day Jesus is coming to get me, but, because of that, then God says to us, ‘I want you to run the race for Me, not to get that, not to earn that, but because of who I Am and because of what I’ve done for you, I want you to run for Me. So, when they see your good works, they’ll glorify your Father in heaven. So, when they see how changed your life is, and how different you are, they’ll come to Me. I want you to be the light to the world, and the salt of the earth. Run for Me, live for Me’. Alas, modern-day Christians are scared to death about ‘running’, about living for God, so they’ve taken this out of the deal, and emphasized the ‘decision’ they’ve made once in their life and ignored the lifestyle faith to be lived. They’ve turned salvation into a point, instead of a process. Now, this is the process: “to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God” – now there is a lot of sacrificial words here in here; ‘present’ is often used to present the sacrifice. The word ‘holy’ is a word that’s from the sacrificial system, and the word ‘acceptable’ is an Old Testament’ for an acceptable sacrifice. We are in a sacrificial setting. Paul’s using priestly terms to describe what he wants us to do – ‘because of the mercies of God, I urge you, I beg you, I command you, to present’. If you picture in your mind a priest taking a dead animal and placing it on the altar, it’s an aorist tense, which means it’s a completed act. It’s a once and for all dedication. You only put that dead animal one time, and the altar burns it up. So he says, ‘decisively, completely, once and for all present your bodies (body, soul, and spirit) as a living sacrifice’. We’ve been freed from sin, so that we can serve God with our bodies. And that’s the whole point. God does not want a dead animal placed on a sacrifice to be burned up, God wants a living sacrifice that will burn for Him for 40, 50, 60 years. “a holy sacrifice” – this word ‘holy’ means to set apart for God’s use. It doesn’t mean you wear a halo over your head. It doesn’t mean you glow in the dark. It doesn’t mean you need an aurora. What it means is that you live a godly lifestyle. This sacrifice is acceptable to God, it’s well-pleasing to Him. This is something He affirms; this is something He wants. God wants you to give yourself to Him as a servant. That’s exactly what God wants. And what do you think God wanted from you? To say nice words about Him when you pray? To come and sit in the church building a couple times a week, or to stick ‘Jesus loves you’ sticker on your shirts? What do you think He wanted from you when He saved you? To go back to your miserable selfish lives? No! He wants you to serve Him. There’s something lacking in us if we don’t serve Him. “which is your reasonable service” – NASB says it’s “which is your spiritual service of worship”; ‘reasonable’ is a form of the Greek ‘Logos’ from which we get “and the Word (Logos) was with God, and the Word (Logos) was God. Same thing in 1 John 1:1, “That which was from the beginning,… the Word (Logos) of life;”. It’s a title for Jesus that goes back in the Old Testament, and it also goes back into Greek society which that the Logos was some kind of a personal controller of the universe. And so, some say, well, it means reasonable or rational. And it’s used that many times in the Bible as something that’s rational or reasonable, or to be expected of intelligent, rational human beings. I think it means to give to God the essence of what we are. It means we come to Him with all of our thoughts, and dreams, and plans. And that’s to be expected. I mean that’s the normal. That’s not unusual. The big problem with us today is that we think someone who is spiritual is someone who is abnormal. The fact is, the problem with sin is abnormal for the Christian. It’s not abnormal to be filled with the Spirit; that’s normal and for everybody. So we’ve taken the abnormal as the normal, because we’re so unused to the normal spiritual service of worship.
The problem is, we live a life that is half-God and half the world. You say, “I go to church on Sundays, and the rest of the week belongs to me. This is a great deal.” I tell you, it’s a sick deal, an unchristian deal, and an unbiblical deal, and a powerless deal. And it will rob you of your joy. You were made to serve God. Your bodies were made to be instruments of righteousness, and not wrongdoing. You have been freed from the power of sin! “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace” (vs. 14). Friend, I think we’ve played this religious game long enough. Our homes are in trouble, our witness is in trouble, our assurance is in trouble, and we wonder why? What we need more than anything is to recognize our standing in Christ, and repent and confess the known areas of rebellion, and to yield our bodies as a “living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service”. LET GOD REIGN IN YOUR LIFE!
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