WWUTT 1327 Your Body as a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1b)

Romans 12:1 and the Call to Present Our Bodies as a Living Sacrifice

Romans 12 .1 says that by the mercy of God, we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices. What does that mean? What does that even look like? To present your body as a living sacrifice? Well, we know when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everyone. We come back to our study in Romans 12, and this time, I'm going to start off by reading the whole chapter. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 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.

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them, if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, 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.

Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you, bless, and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Live in harmony with one another, do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The Mercies of God Behind Romans 12

And there you have Romans chapter 12, a very popular chapter of the Bible, not just a chapter of Romans. The way that we start here, we kind of explored more yesterday, going back through the first 11 chapters of Romans, and getting a summary of the mercies of God that Paul is talking about here.

Romans 12, 1, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. What are these mercies of God that Paul is talking about? Well, that was the doctrine that he laid out in the previous 11 chapters, that we may come to an understanding that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

It is by this faith that we have in Christ that we are saved, and this according to the mercies of God. What is mercy? What does that mean when we say that God is merciful? Oftentimes you probably hear mercy and grace framed together, these two definitions side by side.

Grace is when we have not done anything to earn the kindness that we receive, but God shows us that kindness anyway. That is grace. We do nothing to earn it. He does it because he is gracious. Mercy is when what we deserve is judgment, and God doesn't give it to us.

So grace is to receive something that we have not earned. Mercy is to not get what we do deserve. That would be the difference between mercy and grace. So God is merciful toward us, and it's in his mercy toward us that he gives us grace.

He is merciful. He does not judge us, but by his grace has covered over our sins by the precious blood of Christ, shed on the cross for us, and we receive that propitiation when we put our faith in Jesus Christ.

All of the blessings of that justification that we receive comes by faith. When we put our faith in Jesus, we stand before God justified. He sees us as innocent because of the righteousness of his son that has been imputed to us by faith.

So again, Paul says, I appeal to you, therefore. So he's appealing, therefore, based on everything that I've said up to this point. And he calls the church, once again, brothers. That can be translated brothers and sisters, but it's the brotherhood that we understand we are a part of if we are in the church of Jesus Christ.

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God. That's almost explaining what the therefore means. Therefore, by the mercies of God, which we have seen displayed in all these doctrines that have been laid out in the first two thirds of this letter.

He says that in light of this, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Jesus lived for us and died for us. He, by his death on the cross, is our atonement. He presented his body on the cross to die for us.

We, in response to that, if we know that Jesus has done that and his body, of course, rose again from the grave, it did not stay dead, but rose again because he offered a perfect sacrifice. And God showed that he received that sacrifice by raising Jesus from the dead.

That is how we know that that everything has been paid in full because Christ died and was risen again. So in light of Christ doing this for us, dying for us, we are to live for him. He put his body forth as a sacrifice.

We put our bodies forth as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. This verse here, Romans 12 1, I think that this really is like like the summarizing verse as to what our response is supposed to be to what Christ has done for us.

We are to be filled with worship to God. But what does that worship look like? Paul explains it here to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. And this is your spiritual worship.

So worship is not just limited to Sunday morning church service. If that's what our worship was limited to, then that's all you would have to do. All you'd have to do is go to church. And as long as you were doing that, you were putting forth some sort of confirmation of your faith.

But that is not what what holiness requires of us, just that we go to church and we sing the songs that everybody else is singing and we sit quietly while the pastor is preaching. That's what we often summarize as being worship.

But the Bible says worship is something that we do with our whole selves, all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. Have you ever really contemplated that before when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is?

And he says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, with everything that you are, mind, body, soul and spirit, everything you are to love God, committing yourself fully and wholly unto him.

Holy in that sense would be W-H-O-L-L-Y. But this is, of course, the holy sacrifice, H-O-L-Y, that we are to be in light of what Christ has done for us. Holy and acceptable to God. What does it mean to be holy and acceptable to God?

Well, Paul goes on. I'm going to do this verse a little more tomorrow, Romans 12, too. But he goes on to say, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Holy and acceptable. What is holy and acceptable? It is according to what God's word says, the Bible. We read the Bible and we know of God's glory and majesty, his mercy and grace, what he has done through his son Jesus Christ for us.

And then furthermore, we read in the scriptures what he requires of us, what is good and acceptable and perfect, how we are to be holy and acceptable to God as Christians living in this world. That is what we are called to.

That is what this instruction lays out here. It's more than just making some sort of profession. It's more than being able to give Sunday school answers or articulating the right words. It's more than just opening your Bible and reading it and praying.

Everything that we do must be done unto the Lord that we may be living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. Now, as Paul goes on to expound on that, that's what we have in verses 3 through 21. Paul is explaining there the marks of a true Christian.

If we are living according to the grace of God that we have been given, what will that look like? He starts with the church because everything that we have there, verses 3 through 21, is basically, this is what a Christian in church will look like as he talks about by the grace that is given to me.

And that was that was back at the start of the letter. He talked about the grace of God that is given to him to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. So as he's saying this here, he is speaking with the authority of an apostle.

By the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. And then the service that we have to one another as one body with many parts. We're one body in Christ Jesus.

You have the our love. Let love be genuine, he says in verse 9. Hating what is evil, holding fast to what is good, loving one another with brotherly affection. And we know that kind of love that he is talking about there is in regards to the love that we have for one another in the church.

There is a love that we should show to every person. But specifically here in this context, he's talking about love one another with brotherly affection. The love that we have as the brotherhood in the body of Christ.

Live in harmony with one another. If anybody does anything evil to you, don't repay evil for evil. But repay evil with good. And these are the instructions that Paul has for the church. But then beyond that, then after chapter 12, then we start to go outside the body of Christ and how we are to live even in this world.

We have submission to governing authorities talked about in chapter 13. We have fulfilling the law through love. And now we're talking about loving everybody, showing the kindness of God to everyone, according to the instruction to love your neighbor.

That is the fulfilling of the law. Paul talks about that in Romans 13. Then you have being kind to one another and not putting a stumbling block in front of one another. In Romans chapter 14. In chapter 15, we have following the example of Christ.

When we who are mature will serve those who are less mature for their benefit to build them up. And then the whole church benefits in that way. You have the ministry to Gentiles. You have Paul talking about his intention to come and visit the Christians there in Rome.

And then he gives some final personal greetings and closing instructions in Romans chapter 16. That's where we're going from here. But this is all in light of now this next section, this new section that we are in following the instruction to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

We should look at that verse and say, well, what does that mean? What does holy and acceptable mean? How is how do I live in such a way that I present my body as that living sacrifice? Paul expounds on that in Romans.

But, of course, we have many other places as well in Scripture where these instructions are given to us. Let me just read to you from second Peter chapter one, where Peter talks here about confirming the calling and election that you have received in Christ.

Let me begin in verse three. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love.

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So we demonstrate that we have been changed by the gospel that was proclaimed to us when we show these things exactly that Peter went through here. A more summarized version of this, you might point to the fruit of the spirit, right?

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. That was Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 through 23.

And that is set in contrast to the works of the flesh. So Paul says the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

Paul says, I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So there he contrasts the works of the flesh, the fruit of the spirit. And if we are in the spirit, we will demonstrate the fruit of the spirit and no longer be walking in the works of the flesh.

Just as Peter said in 2 Peter chapter 1. Let me give you another example of this and this one from what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. Let me go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and I'm going to, let's see, I'm going to go ahead and start in verse 1.

1 Thessalonians 4 1. Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God. That sounds familiar, right? Just as you are doing, he says, that you do so more and more.

So he's saying to this church in Thessalonica, we know that you have been walking in the grace of God that was shown to you through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I'm encouraging these things to do it more and more.

So this is not a rebuke. He is going to give instructions on how a Christian is, is to live as a reminder to this church for their edification to build them up. So he goes on in verse 2. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality. That each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the pagans who do not know God.

That no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things. As we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you, for God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.

Therefore, whoever disregards this disregards not man, but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. So there's further instructions on on offering your bodies as a living sacrifice. And here he says, really, it came down to first and foremost, that you abstain from sexual immorality.

A very similar instruction he gives in First Corinthians, chapter 6, because we are a temple of the Holy Spirit. So therefore, you're not going to unite yourself with a prostitute, but rather as a temple where the Holy Spirit dwells.

We already keep ourselves unstained by the ways of this world, by the passions of our flesh. Let me read to you one more. This one from Colossians, chapter 3. I preached from Colossians this past Sunday.

Well, it was a week ago, I guess. And so here, let me read this one to you in Colossians, chapter 3, beginning in verse 5. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry.

All of those things deal with sexual immorality and even equated with being idolatry. It is bowing at an altar to a sex god, to a false god like the fertility gods. If you continue in sexual immorality, you are not honoring God with your body, but you are chasing after the passions of your flesh.

It's as if to say, God, what you have given me is not good enough, and I need this other thing in order to be satisfied. And that is to worship a false god, a god of your own making. Verse 6, Paul says so emphatically, on account of these things, these sexual immoralities, even the desire in your mind to want that instead of desiring holiness.

On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. So even our tongues are a part of our bodies, we must submit even our tongue unto the Lord.

Verse 11, here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians get the enslaved free, but Christ is all and in all. Again, all of these instructions come in light of Christ, what God has done for us in Christ Jesus.

They're not just standalone instructions, heaping things on you, attempting to modify your behavior. It is in light of the fact of what Christ has done for us, that we live in a way that is holy and acceptable unto God.

Demonstrating that we have the grace of God poured into our hearts, that we have the robes of righteousness that have been placed on our shoulders. And we walk in a way that is pleasing unto the Lord, because the Lord has shown such love for us through his son, Jesus Christ.

Living as a Holy and Acceptable Sacrifice

Okay, so let me read this instruction one last time, Romans 12, 1. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time in your word, and we thank you for the reminders of what Christ has done on the cross for our sins, risen again from the grave. We need reminders of this gospel often, so that we would walk in light of what Christ has done for us.

Not attempting to be good on our own, but knowing that we are justified in the presence of God by faith in Jesus because of what he has done. No sacrifice will ever be as great as what Jesus has done for his own people.

But help us to walk as living sacrifices, showing love to God with all that we are, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening, and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word. When we understand the text.