A Consecrated Body — John Murray

Let's pray. Most high, eternal, and ever-blessed God, who art holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, who dwellest in light that is unapproachable and full of glory, who art light, and in whom is no darkness at all, praise, honor, and glory belong unto thy great and holy name.

And it is a good thing to extol thy praise, for this is an exercise to which there can be no restraint. Thy glory is above all the earth. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains. Thy judgments are a great deal.

Thou, O Lord, preservest man and beast. How precious is thy grace. Thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and they shall sing of thy righteousness.

We would, O Lord, draw nigh unto thee in confession, in humble supplication, for we have sinned. We have all turned aside from the right way. We have together become unprofitable, and there is none that doeth good, no, not even one.

Our throat is an open sepulchre. With our tongues we have used deceit. The poison of asps is under our lips. Our feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in our ways, and the way of peace we have not known.

There is no fear of God before our eyes, and it is this confession that becomes us. Blessed forever be thy great and holy name, that we may come to thy throne of grace to confess our sin. Because thou hast said, If we confess our sins, thou art faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

O how precious is thy grace, that we may come with confidence to obtain mercy and find grace to help in every time of need. Do thou, O Lord, impress upon us the claims of thy holiness, so that we may take the place that belongs to us, that we may smite upon our own breasts, and that we may utter the suppliant cry of the penitent, God be merciful, give me a sinner.

O Lord, our God, do thou grant that we might also know the claims of thy holiness upon us for our life uncondemned, that we may not think that the claims of thy holiness upon us have respect simply to those exercises of worship in which we are engaged in thy help.

But do thou grant that thy fear may be in our hearts, and therefore that we may have an all-pervasive sense of thy presence, a continuous sense of our dependence upon thee, and a continuous sense of our responsibility to thee, so that in every detail of life we may realize how indispensable it is that the forces of redemptive and regenerating and sanctifying grace may be operative enough, so that we may bring by the operation of thy Holy Spirit in our hearts every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Do thou, O Lord, make us a sanctified people. Do thou make us a consecrated people, so that we shall live in our daily life and walk and conversation in a way that becomes the gospel of Christ, and does honor to thee the God of truth, and does honor to Christ as the Savior and as the King.

May he be the Lord of our life, for none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. Whether we live, we live unto the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

And may we understand the meaning of Christ's death and resurrection. For it was for this purpose that he died and rose again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. Do thou grant unto us, O Lord, that we may be instructed aright in thy word, that we may not be led astray with the error of the wicked, that we may not have our minds corrupted from the simplicity that is unto Christ, that we may not have our minds imbued with the vain philosophy of this world.

Presenting the Body as a Living Sacrifice

May we not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of our mind, so that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Grant, O Lord, that in every situation of life we may have respect to truth and justice and honor, that whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, may we think on these things.

For, O Lord, we confess that it is as we think in our hearts, as we meditate in the deepest recesses of our minds, that we are. And do thou, O Lord, grant unto each one of us that in the particular situations in which we are placed, in the various employments of life, we may bear witness to Christ Jesus as Savior and as Lord.

Do thou, O Lord, remember us as a branch of thy visible church, and do thou graciously establish and further the interests that pertain to the church of Christ here and to the church of Christ throughout the whole world.

May we always have jealousy for the purity and the honor and the peace of thy church throughout the whole world, that we may recognize indeed that the church is the bride of Christ, that the church is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.

And O grant that we may constantly have in mind the advancement of thy church and of thy kingdom to the very ends of the earth. Have mercy, O Lord, upon the nations of the world. Do thou cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations, and do thou grant that there might speedily be fulfilled that which thou hast promised, that thy people, thy ancient people, Israel, might turn again to the Lord and might see the glory of the Redeemer.

Do thou hasten the day, O Lord, when the fullness of the Gentiles will come in and when all Israel will be saved. O grant that we may have constant concern for the conversion of both Jews and Gentiles, and have mercy, O Lord, upon the nations in their political capacity.

Grant, we pray thee, that wisdom may be given unto those who rule, so that they may rule in thy fear and in justice and truth. And now while we wait upon thee, grant us thy blessing, the unction and power of thy Holy Spirit in understanding of thy works, in the application of it to ourselves, and in the bringing forth of the fruit that is unto everlasting life.

For Jesus' sake, amen. The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, the twelfth chapter, at the beginning. The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, chapter twelve, verses one and two. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. A great deal of thinking in the professing Church of Christ has tended to regard the physical body as evil, and as a hindrance to the attainments and exercises of the human spirit.

That the human body were a weight that dragged down the human spirit, and that after all, it is the body, that is the physical body which we possess, that is the source of evil. In the Roman Catholic Church, for example, it is taught that sin began at the beginning of human history because bodily appetites, the line of reason, or transgressed the dictates of reason.

And that is how sin began, and of course, the meaning of that is that sin really has its source and origin in the human body. That there is something in bodily appetite that tends to sin, and that is degrading.

Now that you ask that, the human body is not biblical at all. The teaching of Scripture is very different, and we need to be warned against that very dangerous tendency that has appeared again and again in the history of the Church, which regards this human body, this human frame, as essentially evil, and as essentially degrading.

The teaching of the Scripture points in the very opposite direction. Have you ever noticed that in Genesis 2 -7, which is an account of the origin of man, it is the human body that is mentioned first?

It is that material that entered into man's being that is mentioned first. The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul or a living creature.

And you find the teaching of Scripture to the same effect when it deals with the question of death. Now death consists in the separation of the human body and the human spirit, so that the human body returns to dust.

It disintegrates, and it returns to dust, according to the word, dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return. Now if the body is essentially evil, death would be a good thing, wouldn't it? Because it would separate the human spirit from this material entity that we call the body.

But the Scripture doesn't represent death as a good thing at all. The Scripture represents death as an evil, as the wages of sin, and as utterly abnormal. And remember that the final step in the redemption of God's people will be the destruction of death for them, and the resurrection again from the dead, so that man will be both spirit and body in glory.

Christ, we are told, must reign until He places all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. And so when this corruptible will put on incorruption, when this mortal will put on immortality, then will be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

Yes, the great goal of the whole redemptive work is the destruction of the last enemy itself, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and the living will be changed. The body belongs to the human person, and the man is constituted as no other being in God's creation.

He is given a body, a physical body, and he is given a human spirit, a physical body and a spirit, and these in perfect union, the one with the other. There was no disharmony when God created man at the beginning.

There was perfect harmony between body and spirit, and that is the unique kind of being that man is. God created angels, but they have no body. They don't have this physical entity that we call the body.

They're simply spirits. But man is both body and spirit, and these in perfect union, the one with the other, as he was created. This epistle has come to the point where he is dealing particularly with practical exhortation, with the exhortations which bear upon practical life and upon the practical sanctification of believers.

And it is very important to notice that when he begins these practical exhortations to believers, he begins with this, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.

You see, the Apostle Paul was not carried away by that error of the wicked, by that vain philosophy that regarded the body as something evil, as something to be, as it were, debilitated, as something that was to be crucified altogether.

Not at all. The Apostle Paul was imbued with the knowledge of the Word of God, and therefore he regarded the body as of the greatest importance in the Christian life and in that process of sanctification.

And consequently he says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, to present your bodies, your very bodies. And he means, of course, the physical body. The Apostle Paul was very concrete. He was very practical.

And because he was very concrete and practical, he put in the forefront of practical exhortation that which is most concrete and practical, namely, the use of the human body. Let ye present your bodies.

Old Testament Sacrifice and New Testament Consecration

Now what are they to be presented as? A living sacrifice. And we may very well be surprised to find in the New Testament such language as a living sacrifice, because it was in the Old Testament that sacrifices were offered, and that was part, that was a necessary part of the worship of God under the Old Testament.

There could not be, there could not be any effective approach to God under the Old Testament except through sacrifice, except through the shedding of blood. And we might be surprised to find that here, at the very beginning of practical exhortation, there is the place for sacrifice.

But that's exactly what Paul says. Present your bodies, a living sacrifice. And he is making allusion, without any doubt, to the sacrifices under the Old Testament. You know, most of the sacrifices under the Old Testament were brought to the altar as living creatures.

There was indeed meal offerings, otherwise meal offerings. There were certain offerings which were not living beings. But generally, the sacrifices that were brought to the altar under the Old Testament were living beings.

They were oxen, they were sheep, they were goats, or they were birds. And they were therefore living beings. But I think that what Paul is particularly emphasizing here, when he says a living sacrifice, it is that there is a contrast between the type of sacrifice that was made under the Old Testament and the type of sacrifice that we are to make under the New Testament when we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice.

For these animals that were brought to the altar under the Old Testament were always Their blood was shed, and part of their body was burned upon the altar. No sacrifice. However living it might be, when it was brought to the altar, was placed upon the altar as a living being.

It was always slaughtered. And so you hear a contrast. We are not to come to God with our bodies, that they may be slaughtered, to God with our bodies so that their life portions may be taken away. No, we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice.

And there is to be no slaughter. There is to be no shedding of the blood of our physical bodies when we present them to the Lord. It's a living sacrifice. And that is what we are to present to the Lord, and I shall show you just in a moment what that means.

And Paul characterizes this sacrifice that we are to make of our bodies as something else, as holy and acceptable, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Now when he says holy, he means that the body is to be holy.

It's a characterization of the body. And that means, you see, that of the human body there is such a thing as moral predication, if you understand what that means. Morality belongs to the human body. The human body is indeed material, but the body that is to be presented as a living sacrifice is a living body.

It's a body that is animated by a spirit, and therefore it is to be holy. This implies, it's the very opposite, that sin is attributed to the human body. And where regeneration and sanctification are sinful, and Paul characterizes the body of the unregenerate person as a sinful body, as a body of sin.

And it means, you see, now that the body is to be the very opposite. Instead of being sinful, it's to be holy. You remember what Paul says in another epistle, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof, but present your members instruments of righteousness unto God, and yield not your members instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members instruments of righteousness to God.

That's what the body is to be, and that's what its members are. Now let us ask the very practical question. How do we use the members of our body? Do we use them in the practice of sin? How do we use our tongues?

How do we use our hands? How do we use our feet? Are our feet swift to evil? Are our hands ready to be involved in the practice of iniquity? Are our tongues the tongues of deceit and falseness? It's very practical, don't you see?

Let not sin reign in your mortal body, but present your members instruments of righteousness to God. In another epistle, Paul brings that to the sharpest focus when he says, What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price?

Glorify God therefore in your body. It's to characterize the human body, and its holiness is to characterize it. It isn't to be characterized by the indulgence, by the dissipation, by the debauchery, by the uncleanness, that are so characteristic of us.

How do we use our physical members? Do we use them for uncleanness? Do we use them for the practice of iniquity? That is after all the test of our standing before God. Then you notice that the apostle not only characterizes this body that is to be offered to God as holy, but as acceptable unto God.

Seeking What Is Well-Pleasing to God

The apostle is pointing to something which is after all the regulating principle of the believer's life. Governing, regulating principle of a believer's life. What is it? You answer that question. The thing that looms up in your mind when you are confronted with a certain decision, when you are confronted with a certain situation that demands action, what is the first thought that looms up in your mind?

Is it the material advantage you're going to get out of this course of action or that course of action? Is it some purely material, worthy consideration that looms up first of all in our minds? When we are presenting our bodies a living sacrifice and holy, we are to present our very bodies as acceptable to God.

And the first thing that looms up in the mind and thought of a believer when he is confronted with a certain situation is this, what is well-pleasing to God? What is the will of God in this situation?

If I'm going to choose one course of action rather than another, if I'm going to enter into one business rather than another, if I'm going to choose one vocation rather than another, what should be the first consideration?

It is this. What is well-pleasing or acceptable to God? And you see, that governing principle of the believer's life is brought to bear upon the human body. What can I do with my feet? What can I do with all the other things with which God has equipped my soul to be the instruments of?

This is the question that will determine what is well-pleasing to God. What is the will of God? You young people who may be choosing a vocation, who are going out into life with all its problems, and sometimes with its very crucial decisions, I plead with you, my dear young friends, to lay that principle in the very forefront of your thoughts.

Put that always at the forefront, listening to God, answering yet the question, what is well-pleasing to God? But we'll come to that in just a moment. But nevertheless, let that always be paramount, and let it be paramount even in connection with the use of your human body, that it is to be acceptable to God.

Reasonable Service as Spiritual Worship

And then he characterizes that whole exercise. That presentation of our body as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable, as a reasonable service. It's a reasonable service. And you could translate that by saying it is a rational service.

The use of the human body, to which the human body is devoted, is an irrational thing. It's perfectly true that this human body is material. It's composed of elements that are material, and that can, on the event of death, return to dust, and will return to dust.

These of our bodies are material particles. Don't think. That reason, that mind, that spirit, are two operations. And perhaps when he says your reasonable service is this. It is a service to God that derives its character, its meaning, and its acceptableness with God, because it enlists your mind and your reason.

You can't deal, just to put it very practically, you can't deal with your human body automatically or mechanically. It's the servant of the mind that comes into the fullest operation in connection with the rendering, the presentation of our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God.

But there is something more than that in this expression, reasonable service. What Paul is speaking about here is not simply what we call service, but the service of worship. And perhaps I could render the thought this way.

It is your reasonable service of worship. The word that Paul uses here is a word that means the service of worship. Therefore it's spiritual service. Remember that the Apostle Peter speaks of spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

The people of God, you see, are built up, are priesthood, are made of priesthood to offer us spiritual sacrifices. That is, sacrifices that are indicted and impaled by the Holy Spirit. When Paul says that this is your reasonable service, your rational service, it means undoubtedly that the devotion to God in the fullest sense of the term into this presenting our bodies as living sacrifices acceptable unto God.

Resisting Worldly Conformity

Notice, of course, that the Apostle Peter, in connection with his practical exhortation, he goes on in the second verse to bring in something that is, as it were, a more inclusive Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transfiguring of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

See, Paul turns to other aspects of our obligation, to other aspects of sanctification. It isn't as if he now leaves entirely behind the thought that he expresses in the first verse. It's the closest relationship.

Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world. And that means that even our bodies are not to be used in a way that is to be conformed to the patterns and passions of this present evil world.

Now, in this exhortation, you'll notice that the Apostle says something that they are not to do and something that they are to do. Now, that's very simple. The situation in life is something else. Something else, we don't do the other.

It is very practical and very simple, indeed, to present this exhortation in that form. Be not conformed to this world. One is negative, the other is positive. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Be not conformed to this world. And when Paul says, be not conformed to this world, he says, be not conformed, it's a relief to this age. And in the Scripture, there's a contrast always drawn between this age and the age to come.

It's not because time is evil. God created time. Time is not evil. But it so happens that sin entered into this age and sin very largely controls and determines this age. This person, he calls Satan the god of this age.

He speaks of the rulers of this age that crucified the Lord of Glory. And so this age is somewhat synonymous with what we would call this present evil world. And when he says, be not conformed to it, he just means something like this.

Do not have your character and comments and passions of this present evil world. Is that practical? If you have had any Christian instruction, and if you have any sensitivity or any Christian obligation, perfectly well, practice at your father's or your mother's knee in reference to the Christian faith, how difficult it is to practice that.

Because you know it very well, just as well as I do. ...require the present evil world to subjugate, to eliminate corruption which you receive, to adopt... That's exactly what the apostle Paul is saying here, be not conformed to this world.

And I tell you, beware of evading the patterns of this present evil world, because they will bring you down to destruction. You know the commandments of God, and these are the patterns, perfectly well, what the contrast is between the commandments of God and the commandments of this present evil world on the other.

If sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Be not conformed to this world. But there is something else. In the language that Paul uses here, reflecting upon the wickedness of this present evil world, the wicked patterns that this present evil world presents to us for emulation and cultivation.

The Passing World and the Abiding Will of God

Paul is thinking likewise of the fleeting... ...of this present age, of this present evil age. Remember this. This age is going to pass away. And if the patterns that we follow in this life of ours, which belong to this present evil age, then they will pass away.

They will come down with terrific destruction. They will tumble upon us, and they will tumble us into everlasting perdition. There is nothing less than that. Remember what John the Apostle says, What is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

And the world passeth away, and the lust of God abideth forever. And I think there is something of that very same thought in the very language which Paul uses here when he says, Be not conformed to this world.

It's an instinct of human nature. To want is something that is abiding, something that is permanent, something that will end you. And you don't pay very much attention, do you, to something that is going to pass away, as it were, with the night, or pass away with a few days.

There is a desire in the human heart for something that is abiding, that is permanent. Well, let me tell you this, that the patterns of this world are something that are going to belong to what is going to be completely destroyed.

It's a passing fashion. Come to an end, and it will come to destruction. Do not pattern your life, therefore, after that which is passing away. What is in the world, and the lust thereof, will pass away, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

Transformation by the Renewing of the Mind

And now, in contrast with that, is the positive side of the apostle's exhortation. But be transformed. ...of your mind, and acceptable and perfect will of God.