Romans 12:1 - Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Message: Presenting myself, holy and acceptable to God
Time: Written in AD 57 from Greece, to the Christians, both Gentile and Jewish in Rome.
What the Lord is Saying:
The Set Up
Therefore. As always, we ask what is therefore there for? I think this verse is a break from the previous 11 chapters. I think it is a culmination of everything that has been said. There has been very little commands of personal duty or application. There has instead been a presentation of the condition of man or at times the digression of man away from God. There has been talk as to how many tries to earn value in life and earn God's acceptance. Man has a natural relationship between himself and God and man has a constant desire to be valued and accepted by God.
The problem with man is he naturally lives in a works-righteousness way. He naturally is very self-centered and very focused on achieving things for himself and putting forth a separation between himself and everything and everyone else. And so even though he knows there is a God, he believes God is waiting for him to show himself worthy of being a God-child.
The Book of Romans is very refreshing because it anchors us in the things of God. It anchors me in the idea that life is about the Gospel. Life is about surrendering myself to God. It is about submitting myself to God and who He is and trusting in Him. God knows it all and God has chosen man to be His.
Yes, there are chosen people, there are people that God has set aside for himself, but that doesn't mean that only these people will know God. Faith is an individual thing. We do not get grafted in because of our belonging to a group. Our position is only their because of faith in what God did in transferring the righteousness of Christ to man. This was done by His grace and it reflects a person's life by their faith.
Yet, this verse also marks a natural next step after hearing the previous statement, "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen." Life is about God and everything that has been stated thus far in this book if for God, through Him and to Him. All of these words of doctrine are for Him, through Him and to Him. So, to Him be the glory forever.
But even here in the book of Romans we see that in the first 11 chapters the focus has been on what God does. It his mercy and His grace that beckons us to Him, that saves us. It is his doing. And now, in response, we are to live from Him with our bodies. He has done the work, now we respond to live as a living sacrifice. Our life is not lived in that way as a condition for God's saving grace, but as a response.
I urge you
It is no secret that the rest of Romans is about our service to God. Doctrine and truth has been established, now, How Must We Live? Paul is not giving a command, he is urging, exhorting, beseeching or begging. The called have been called and now they are urged to live in a way that is consistent with their calling.
By the mercies of God
Again here Paul reiterates what is said all along. This urging is upon God's mercy. It is the mercies of God first that comes and then the response. The covenant first, the life lived second. This cannot be emphasized too much because works-righteousness is so much a part of our life.
To Present
To bring or introduce into the presence of someone especially of superior rank or status. It is to place at someone's disposal.
Romans 6:13 explains the contrasts between the two "presents" - and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
We are not to present the members of our body to sin, but rather present the members of our body to God. In Romans 6, sin is a picture of death, so why would we present our bodies to that which is dead? But, rather we present our bodies to God, that which is alive.
Included in this is love. We love God so we present ourselves. We are to abide in Him. We bow down to worship God.
Your bodies
This is our present to God: our body. This is encompasses everything we are. We present our entire body to Him. We present our feet that walk, our arms that work, our brain that thinks, our ears that listen, our eyes that see, our nose, that smells, our mouth that tastes. So, we present our thought life, what we do, what we eat and speak, our viewing habits, our surroundings, what we listen to -- we present it all.
A Living
How can a sacrifice be living? It is true we are to deny ourselves, but Paul has been speaking of our life of sin, the works-righteousness in our life. For the wages of sin is death. The life we live apart from Christ is basically a dead life. The life in Christ is living. However, that life of sin, though God sees as dead because He sees Christ in us, we still let it live, so we are to daily kill it.
And Holy Sacrifice
We are to simply to make some sort of sacrifice to God. We are not simply to make an offering to the Lord of any type. In the Old Testament, the sacrifices that came before God were very specific. Not just any animal could be offered. The animal must be clean. And not just anyone could offer it. I think we must be careful to always examine our lives and what we think we are doing for him. We must be careful to examine our sacrifices and the motives of those sacrifices.
Our sacrifice is to be holy. It is to be set apart from the world unto God, with a special purpose. We sing Holy, Holy, Holy because the Lord our God is holy and set apart. Yet, he calls us to live our lives in the same manner. Why wouldn't we based upon what we have read in the first 11 chapters? Why wouldn't we based upon Romans 6-8 and the clear picture of being dead to sin?
One clear reason we don't is instead of surrounding ourselves continually with the things of God, we are now in the habit of surrounding ourselves continually with the things that are not of God. I think about my phone and all the apps I have that really are not about making a holy sacrifice. They are about entertainment and socialization and learning of the world, but I often do not surround myself with the things of God. I have trained myself to be bored if I only have a few things in my life. I must have numerous things and bounce from one to the other. The gospel is simple and straight forward and yet, in today's world, it is almost too simple and straight forward. I have trained myself to not live a simple life, but one that needs a lot of variation. Variation is okay, but I must be careful with all of the inputs I allow in my life.
I think of that song I Surrender All:
All to Jesus, I surrender
All to Him, I freely give
Wow. Wouldn't life be great if those words were actually heeded? That said, my life is to be an offering. He will take me the distance.
Acceptable to God
The question that went around 10 or 15 years ago was the question, "What Would Jesus Do" from the book entitled "In His Steps." Yes, our sacrifice is to be Holy, but it is to be acceptable to God. Again, how often do we simply throw things at the foot of Jesus and they say, "there you go, I gave something." We spend so much of our day in other activities, and then just give things like to God and think, "Well, I did something."
What is acceptable to God? Do I really think about this? I'm not saying I must read more books, but maybe I should. I spend so much of my day still on the TV, entertaining myself. Again, do I define rest in my life or do I let God define rest?
Your Spiritual Service of Worship
This is the only use of this word in the New Testament, Spiritual, and it really takes upon the meaning of being reasonable or logical.
Here is the deal. After verse 36 of chapter 11, that from Him, through Him and to Him are all things, is there any other logical or reasonable way we should be living? It really doesn't make sense to live any other life. It only makes sense if we don't really believe God to be God and His sacrifice for me to be that significant.
Sometimes I am concerned that we play such a high priority on going to church several times a week and taking part in different acts of worship at church but then don't share Christ with others. This past week someone came to our house for work and we gave him work to do and paid him. I never left my chair to talk to this young man. He comes into my lap and I do nothing.
Promise: There is not one area of my life that does not fall under the Lordship of Christ.
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