START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Romans 12:1-8
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OBSERVE:
In Romans 12, Paul’s focus shifts from theology to ethics — from what we must believe to how we must act. He has established the doctrine of justification by grace through faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ, and the identification of the believer with the risen Christ.
So Paul continues to explore the implications of his theological insight for the Christian life. Since the Spirit bears witness to our spirits that we are children of God, and therefore heirs with Christ, how are we to live? His initial answer is among the most magnificent and challenging exhortations in Scripture:
Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
The old saying in seminary New Testament classes is that when you run into a therefore in the epistles, ask yourself “what is it there for?” Paul is saying that because of what Jesus has done for us, and what the Holy Spirit is doing in us, we are to live a new life.
The language he uses is the language of the temple — we are to offer our very bodies as a living sacrifice. Of course, we are reminded that Jesus has previously offered himself for us. Earlier in this letter Paul has made it very clear that we are:
justified freely by his (i.e., God’s) grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance (Romans 3:24-25).
Paul is in no way suggesting that sacrificing ourselves for Christ is a means of earning God’s favor or grace. The therefore suggests that offering ourselves completely to God is a response to what Christ has done for us, not a means of attaining salvation.
This is what a previous generation might have called “consecration” — giving oneself wholly and completely to God. No longer are the sacrifices of lambs or bulls in the temple adequate — the sacrifice required in order to be transformed is our living selves! Today we might say it differently — we are to be “sold out” for Christ. Note that Paul is not calling for martyrdom. He urges a living sacrifice. Our whole lives are to belong to God.
The Biblical understanding of the body is not that you have a body (that it is some sort of shell) — you are a body. The Christian’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). When Paul tells us to offer our bodies to God, he is including every dimension of our lives.
This complete offering of self to Christ, having been justified through his blood, is what makes our sacrifice holy and acceptable. The phrase that is translated spiritual service is more properly translated reasonable (from the Greek logiken) service. This suggests that because Jesus has offered himself completely for us, it is reasonable that we offer ourselves completely to him! And the word service can mean work, but it can also mean worship. Our living sacrifice is a reasonable worship to God.
The second sentence of this passage is every bit as powerful:
Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
In a sense, Paul is defining what it means to be offered as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.
To be conformed to this world also has a nuanced meaning. The Greek word translated here as world is aiown — meaning this present age, this generation, this era. In other words, Paul is talking about a culture and an era that is transient. This age will pass away. His description of this world in another epistle clarifies the sinister nature of this present time:
the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them (2 Corinthians 4:4).
The god of this world is undoubtedly Satan, as Jesus also tells us in the Gospel of John when he describes his own death and resurrection as a victory over the Evil One:
Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince of this world will be cast out (John 12:31).
We are not to be conformed to this world because it has been temporarily taken hostage and enthralled by Satan. The prevailing values, treasures, and priorities of this present age are not consistent with the eternal values, treasures and priorities of God’s age to come.
And Paul takes the next step. Instead of becoming conformed to this world, we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Again, this phrase is packed with meaning. The word transformed in Greek is metamorphosthe. For one thing, it is an imperative. A command. Be transformed.
For another thing, transformed is a loaded word. It is used to describe the Transfiguration of Jesus in the Gospels (Matthew 17:2 and Mark 9:2), when he was transformed from his normal appearance into a brilliant, other-worldly light. And this word is also used to describe the transformation that occurs in the believer who looks onto the glory of God by faith:
But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).
This suggests that the transformation that Paul speaks of is nothing less than transformation into the likeness of Christ! As Paul writes elsewhere, to be made new in Christ is nothing less than to begin to see the renewal of God’s image in our lives:
seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator (Colossians 3:9-10)
This transformation begins within — by the renewing of your mind. We are reminded that when the Spirit begins to work in our lives, he works from the inside out:
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:5-6).
Faith, though a gift from God, is also a matter of internal focus — beginning in the realm of the mind. So Paul exhorts the Philippians:
Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise, think about these things (Philippians 4:8).
The result of this complete surrender to God, coupled with non-conformity to the schemes of this world and the transformation of one’s mind, is astonishing:
that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
The person who is surrendered to and transformed by God is in God’s will!
And Paul isn’t finished with the practical applications of the transformed life. He calls upon these transformed people to maintain their sense of proportion — we are to be humble:
For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think reasonably, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith.
The transformed person is to have a sense of self-awareness. They have been lifted up with the promise of the restoration of the image of God, but they are not to become arrogant or filled with a sense of superiority.
He then reminds the Christian that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. In an image that will become familiar in Paul’s writing (1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4:11-16) — the church is the body of Christ. And this explains why no believer should think more highly of themselves than they ought to — because each member of the body is important to the functioning of the whole body:
For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members don’t have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
And finally, he focuses on some of the individual gifts that differ from one another, but are each essential to the effective functioning of the body of Christ:
Having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, if prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; or service, let us give ourselves to service; or he who teaches, to his teaching; or he who exhorts, to his exhorting: he who gives, let him do it with liberality; he who rules, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
This list of varying gifts is not comprehensive or exhaustive. There are other gifts that are listed in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4. Paul’s point is that each person’s gifts are required for the well-being of the body.
APPLY:
The question Paul addresses from Romans 12 to 15 is this — how then shall we live? Knowing that we have been claimed, redeemed and adopted by God — what does that mean for our lifestyle?
Paul’s exhortation in Romans 12:1-2 is a stirring call to new life:
- When we surrender our lives completely to God, our entire life can become an act of worship — with our families, in our daily jobs, in our church work, even in our leisure pursuits and hobbies — provided they are offered up to God first.
- We are urged to be consciously non-conformist to this present age. This age (our present culture) is not consistent with the kingdom of God that we see envisioned in the Scriptures — a kingdom of love, righteousness, peace, and joy. And if we have trouble believing the notion that this age seeks to shape us and our worldviews, we need only ask one simple question — why do advertisers in the United States spend approximately $10 billion a year? If the advertisers don’t think they can influence our spending habits, our consuming, our lifestyle choices, why spend so much money? And by the way, how many hungry children would that money feed? How many water wells would it drill in arid Africa? How much medical research would that money fund?
- We are urged to be transformed from the inside out — as our minds are transformed by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, we become what God originally intended us to be, with his image renewed in our lives.
- And when we have wholly surrendered to God, rejected the distorted values of this world, and allowed the Holy Spirit to transform our minds, we are beginning to know and live according to God’s will.
But all of this is not simply for our own personal self-actualization. We are part of a larger community of faith — the body of Christ. Therefore, we are to have a proper, realistic self-awareness — we are to know our own role within the body of Christ, and humbly exercise our gifts according to the grace that was given to us.
The truth is that God’s goal is not merely the personal transformation of individual Christians, but the transformation of the world. And his instrument for that purpose is — of all things — the church, which is the body of Christ! Only when every member within the church understands their own gifts and exercises them for the well-being of the whole body is the church able to accomplish this transformation.
RESPOND:
When my sons were young, my wife discovered an interesting genre of literature for them to read. These were books called Choose Your Own Adventure. As an English major, I thought I knew what was needed to make a story work — and one of those elements was a plot. But in these books, the reader can decide the outcome of the plot! At the end of each chapter, the reader is given certain choices, and then directed to different pages based on those choices — and the outcome could be very different based on those choices!
It struck me that we are also presented with choices by God — we are invited to join God in the adventure that he has planned for our lives. And in Romans 12:1-2, we have a plotline provided by God that leads to the ultimate adventure:
Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Life is our adventure story, and we are faced with so many different choices and decisions. Everyone has a story. Some are dramas, some are comedies, some may have tragedy. We see all of those elements as we read the accounts of the life of Paul and the other apostles. But we also see the ultimate outcome of these stories when their lives are surrendered to God:
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
And for our part, in response to what God has done for us in Christ and through the Holy Spirit, there is one first step necessary — faithful surrender to God.
This one thing was illustrated to me several years ago when I was helping my oldest son to move in at the University. I was trying to think of something wise and “fatherly” to say to him as he began his second year in college. Nearby, there was a soccer stadium. The stadium seemed vacant — no practice or game was going on — and yet a song was playing on the public address system. I suddenly figured out what it was — the hokey pokey. As I listened to the music, I thought especially of the last verse:
You put your whole self in
You take your whole self out
You put your whole self in
And you shake it all about
You do the hokey pokey
And you turn yourself around
That’s what it’s all about.
And it hit me — that was it! That was my advice to my son! I said to him “That’s it, Son! The secret to life — put your whole self in.”
I think this is the first step necessary in this passage from Romans — submit your whole life:
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
This is salvation — not merely saying the sinner’s prayer, not simply getting some water sprinkled on our heads, or even being completely submerged in a creek. True salvation and discipleship begins and ends with complete surrender to God.
Our Lord, you have offered yourself completely for us. Our response to you is to completely offer ourselves to you. Take our lives, enable us to turn away from the clamoring demands of this world, and transform us into your likeness. And empower us to use the spiritual gifts you give us for the good of your body and the world. Amen.
PHOTOS:
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