Unlocking the Christian Life (Romans 12:1-2)

Open your Bibles to the Book of Romans.

Paul's letter to the church at Rome, written sometime around A .D. 56 during

his third missionary journey, written to a church that had formed perhaps out of

Peter's preaching in Acts 2, but a church nonetheless that did not have.

Apostolic oversight.

And so Paul writes to this church to bring to them a full presentation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus

Christ and to seek their financial support on his further missionary endeavors as

he seeks to go west to Spain.

Let's pray.

Father, we are opening the Word of God together this morning, and as we have just sung together, we pray that

your Spirit would speak to us through His Word.

Father, incline our hearts to hear.

What He has for us.

Help us to be doers of the Word and not merely hearers who deceive ourselves.

We pray in Christ's name.

Amen.

As I was thinking about the sermon this week, I was reminded of Paul's words in

Colossians chapter 3 and in verse 21, where he writes, Fathers, do not exasperate your children

that they may not lose heart.

Do not exasperate your children that they do not lose heart.

One of the ways that a father, and we'll say a father and a mother, can exasperate their children is

to require them to change without showing them how to change.

We should require obedience, for sure, but we must help our children learn

how to obey.

Merely requiring it is not enough.

And that same reality is true of the Christian life.

That, in fact, the reason, I believe, one of the main reasons why, in the New Testament, that it says an elder's

home is a proving ground to qualify him for the public office of

elder within the church.

Can he make disciples in his home?

If he can do it in his home, then that is a good reason to believe he could do it within the church.

Now, the text before us this morning is Romans chapter 12, and

we are looking at verses 1 and 2.

So verses 1 and 2 of Romans chapter 12, and this is the transition

point of Paul's letter here to the church at Rome.

Beginning in verse 3 of chapter 12, and then running through to the end of the book, Paul is

going to present a number of ethical imperatives for the Christian life.

In other words, a series of commands will occupy basically the rest of the letter.

That is, how to live the Christian life.

And the means by which the Holy Spirit motivates and empowers our obedience to those

commands is our text this morning, verses 1 and 2.

So, like a wise father, Paul gives us here four keys

that we can and must use to unlock the Christian life.

Four keys that we can and must use to unlock the Christian life.

Key number one, remember the gospel.

Key number one, remember the gospel.

Paul writes here, 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.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may

prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Notice Paul begins here with the word there translated in English, the word therefore.

When we see the word therefore in the text, we need to ask ourselves, why is it there?

What is it there for?

And it indicates here that the transition point of the book, this is the place where the book

moves into the imperative section, the command section of the letter.

And so what Paul is doing here is he is summarizing or he's gonna build on all that has gone

before and he's going to say, therefore, in light of what has preceded me,

preceded in this text, therefore, this is how you need to live the Christian life.

This is how you are to live the Christian life.

In other words, Christian ethics are theologically motivated.

They are theologically driven.

Christian obedience is the outworking of what God has done for us and

in us through Jesus Christ.

As he says in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17, we are a new creation,

a new creation.

Many, many religions have a lofty set of ethics, a

code of behavior that is admirable in many ways.

But only Christianity, only Christianity is rooted in a supernatural act

that took place in history.

And it is that supernatural act taking place in history that carries with it the

effectual power to bring about the Christian ethic that is required.

All the other religions will tell you do this, do this in the power of your own strength.

And of course, that's a recipe for failure.

But the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is not that.

There is a theological reality that one must believe and place their faith in.

And when that happens, there is a transformation that occurs that provides the internal

motivation and spiritual power to live out the Christian ethic.

Notice.

Paul says,.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God.

A little expression, by the mercies of God.

What mercies of God, Paul, are you talking about?

The mercies of God that he has just explained in the first 11 chapters of the book.

The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God's compassionate dealing with them in the person of Christ.

Paul writes in chapters one and two and the first half of chapter three that all the world

lies under condemnation.

That's the bad news of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And without the bad news, without an understanding of the bad news, the good news is not so good.

But Paul systematically, like an attorney building his case, he places

each and every human being before the bar of God's justice and he indicts

and convicts every single one.

They suppress the truth of God, he says in verse one.

They know God, it's within them, God has placed it in them.

And yet they suppress the truth.

He moves on to chapter two and he says, and you, you who have religious affections, you

who have the law, you who think you're doing all right, you're just as corrupt.

You look good on the outside, but inside you are just as corrupt.

He summarizes it then in the first part there of chapter three and he says, for both Jew and

Gentile, there is none righteous, no, not one.

And God is angry about that.

In fact, God is furious about that.

God's wrath is being stored up for that kind in response to

that kind of flagrant unbelief in the face of the mercy.

And goodness of God.

And Paul says, you know what?

The only hope is if someone can take God's wrath.

And the only one who would take God's wrath is God himself.

And so God, the son, second person of the Trinity, stepped into space and time, took to himself human flesh and God

the father poured out on him as a propitiation, as a sacrifice to consume the wrath of

God almighty, the sin for his people.

How do we receive such a gift?

Paul says it's by faith.

It's by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work.

Well, that sounds like a new concept.

And Paul says, no, chapter four, that's not new at all.

It's always been by grace through faith.

Look at Abraham, he says.

Look at David.

It has always been grace by faith in God himself.

Well, how did humanity get into such a predicament?

How did it come about?

Do parents teach their children such wickedness?

Chapter five, no.

No, you see, for we are all one in Adam.

He was our representative head and when Adam fell, the race fell with him.

And when the race fell, it fell into corruption, total corruption.

And it has produced the devastating results that we both see around us and sense within our own soul.

Well, then what hope?

We need a second Adam.

He says Christ is that second Adam.

All of humanity is here in the first Adam, but by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are

moved in union with the second Adam, Christ himself.

And it's like a turnstile.

It goes in only one direction.

You move into Christ.

You don't step in and step out.

You are a new creation.

Well, as a new creation, we still need to deal with the residual

hangover of sin, don't we?

And so Paul begins to address that in chapters six, seven, and eight.

In chapter six, he says we need to believe something and then we need to act accordingly.

And what do we need to believe?

We need to believe that we were immersed in the death of Christ, that his death became our death, that we are

raised to walk in newness of life with him.

Chapter seven, what about the law?

Where does the law fit into all of this?

Chapter seven, the law will not sanctify you.

We are not saved by grace and sanctified by struggle.

The law will only condemn you.

We need to walk in the spirit.

Chapter eight, those who walk in the spirit are not in the flesh.

And that brings us, at the end of chapter eight, to that great

confession that Paul says here, for I am convinced, in verse 38, that neither death, nor life, nor angels,

nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,.

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God,.

Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Wow, that's a high point.

But he keeps going, doesn't he?

He goes on for three more chapters.

Why?

He goes on for three more chapters because there's a question hanging out there that has to be addressed.

And here it is.

What about Israel?

What about Israel?

They had God's promises.

They are in covenant relationship with God, but they have rejected the Messiah.

They have been cast aside.

How do you explain it?

And if they can fall away, if they can be cast aside, then what about me?

What about me?

So chapters 9, 10, and 11, Paul addresses Israel's unbelief, and it's

simply this.

Israel has refused their Messiah and has been cast aside from

God according to the predetermined counsel and foreknowledge of God, chapter

9.

God's secret election.

But it doesn't end there.

In chapter 10, he says, they have been cast aside because not knowing about God's righteousness and

seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

Verse 21, chapter 10, but as for Israel, he says, all the day long I have stretched out

my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.

Why was Israel cast aside?

Because of God's secret election.

Why was Israel cast aside?

Because they refused the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why say then God has not rejected his people, has he?

Chapter 11, verse 1, may it never be.

May it never be.

Chapter 11, you Gentiles, just remember, just remember God has brought you into the root of

the Abrahamic covenant by faith.

Do not be arrogant against his people, for he will bring them back again.

Because as he says, verse 29 of chapter 11, the gifts and the calling of God are

irrevocable.

The promises made to the fathers are irrevocable.

And so it is written, verse 26, all Israel will be saved.

Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways.

For from him and through him and to him are all things, to him be the glory forever.

Therefore, I urge you, brethren,

by the mercies of God, by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you present

your bodies a holy, a living and holy, excuse me, holy

sacrifice, acceptable to God.

Brothers and sisters, as we continue to be reminded of the gospel,.

We need that.

We need it regularly because you and I are forgetful people.

We are forgetful people.

It's not like that we can't remember what the gospel is.

It's that we lose sight of it day by day as we move through this

world, as we're joshed and jostled and bumped and bruised.

We begin to forget it.

It begins to recede from our thinking.

We doubt its power, but we cannot forget the gospel.

And one of the most significant ways that we are reminded of that gospel is this gathering here.

It is to come together on the Lord's day.

Hebrews chapter 10, verses 23 and 25, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without

wavering, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one

another in this all the more, as you see the day drawing near.

I need you to help me remember the gospel.

You need me to help you remember the gospel.

You need to sing to me, and I need to sing to you, those great gospel

truths.

Because the first key to unlocking the Christian life is to remember the

gospel of Jesus Christ.

Second, the second key is to relinquish yourself to God.

First key, remember the gospel.

Second key, relinquish yourself to God.

He says, I urge you, verse 1, to present your bodies a living and holy

sacrifice acceptable to God.

Once we remember, once we're reminded through the gospel of what God has

done for us and in us, then we recognize that we are

not our own, that we don't have property rights anymore in the

same way.

Instead, we belong exclusively to God.

Someone once wrote, and I think they're on something here, that said, as Christians, we have no rights,

only responsibilities.

As Christians, we have no rights, only responsibilities.

Paul says, 1 Corinthians 6, you are not your own.

You have been bought with a price.

Romans 6, you are slaves of righteousness.

Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice.

This word, present, translated to present here, the Greek behind it indicates it's a

technical term, actually, that refers to the religious offering of a sacrifice.

In the Old Testament, when a sacrifice was made, the

sacrificial victim was presented before God.

That process of presentation was a relinquishing of ownership.

You would bring your sacrifice and you would present it.

You might wave it or you would offer it to the Lord.

Symbolically, what you were doing is you were relinquishing your ownership over the sacrifice.

It became holy in the sense that it was set apart to God.

And even if the worshiper consumed the portion of that sacrifice, it was not that they thought they were eating part of

what they brought.

What they understood was, is that God was sharing with them.

A meal of fellowship.

You can see it very clearly in the burnt offering, right?

Where the entire sacrifice is consumed.

And it pictures the reality that this is no longer yours.

It has been given to God.

Now, when you came in here this morning, I didn't see anybody with a sheep over their shoulders.

That was under the Old Covenant, wasn't it?

We don't offer the animal sacrifice anymore, but notice what we're called.

To do.

We are still called to sacrifice.

We are called here to offer ourselves.

Ourselves.

Not merely our skin and bones, but the totality of our being.

God does not demand from you a gift.

What God demands from you is the giver.

The giver.

And again, the holiness here is speaking about being set apart.

Being set apart for God.

And there's an ethical component to that, to be sure.

When the lamb was brought as the Old Testament sacrifice, it was to be without obvious blemish.

And when we are to present ourselves to God as a living and holy sacrifice set apart for him,

we are to be without obvious blemish.

Our lives are not to be marked by continual and obvious blemishes of unconfessed sin.

Furthermore, notice Paul says it is to be a living sacrifice.

It points to the ongoing and the voluntary nature of this offering.

This is to, we present ourselves to God not once, not twice,

not three times, not just Sundays.

It is to be the reality of who we are now in Christ.

We are continually a sacrifice of offering to our God.

Paul says, you know, what he's speaking of here, it's actually kind of a logical thing.

Notice this.

He says, which is your spiritual service of worship?

Logikos is the Greek word.

We get the English word logic or logical from it.

If you have a study Bible, you probably see a marginal note there that it could be translated spiritual or it could be translated

reasonable.

I think reasonable actually gets better at the argument of what Paul is making here.

It is a reasonable sacrifice to offer yourself continually to the Lord Jesus

Christ.

Why?

In view of the mercies of God.

That's why.

Because you're a new creation in Christ.

That's why.

Because you're no longer in Adam.

That's why.

Because you're now in Christ.

That's why.

Because Christ is coming again.

That's why.

It is consistent.

It is logical.

It is reasonable.

In view of a proper understanding of the truth of God revealed in Christ

Jesus.

The first key to unlocking the Christian life is to remember the gospel.

The second key to unlocking the Christian life is to relinquish yourself to God.

Not once, but continually.

Third.

The third key to unlocking the Christian life is to resist the world's

corruption.

To resist the world's corruption.

Verse 2.

And do not be conformed to this world.

And do not be conformed to this world.

Now the grammatical construction here indicates that this is something that is going on and needs to stop.

He's not saying to them, don't start this.

What he is saying to them is, this behavior is happening in your life and it's got to stop.

Stop allowing yourself to be conformed, would be a more literal rendering of the Greek.

Stop allowing yourself to be conformed to this world.

Brothers, sisters, we spend our lives swimming in the

ocean that Paul calls here, the world.

Do not be conformed to this world.

We're like a fish swimming in the ocean.

We have no idea how wet we are.

But here's the deal.

When you're swimming in the ocean, it's inevitable you're going to get some salt water in your mouth.

But you're not to swim with your mouth open.

One of the first things we taught all of our children when we taught them to swim was, keep your mouth closed.

Keep your mouth closed.

We need to resist the pressure of being squeezed into the mold of this world.

The patterns of behavior and thought that characterize it.

This world lies under the power of the evil one, we're told.

And because of that, we cannot.

We must not serve or use the world as a model for what it

means to live a Christian life.

We've got to reject it.

We need to resist it.

Its values are corrupt.

Its morality is corrupt.

Its goals are corrupt.

Its entertainment is corrupt.

Its ethics are corrupt.

Its philosophy is corrupt.

Its worship is corrupt.

It is selfish and self -serving and antithetical to growth as a Christian.

Do not be conformed.

Stop being conformed.

Stop being squeezed into the mold of this world, for this world is

headed to destruction.

One of the ways that we are frequently conformed

to this world system is by drinking out of its filthy wells.

For many of us, our choices in entertainment could be likened

to taking a rancid stew and pouring it through a strainer to take out the big chunks

and then drinking the broth.

These things should not be, brothers and sisters.

These things should not be.

When you allow yourself to be squeezed into the mold of this world, to be conformed to this

world, what takes place is not simply a disguising of your real

nature.

It is a corruption of it.

It is a corrosion.

Years ago, we had a small undetected water leak in our bathroom,

and it went on for a long time, just dripping water inside the wall.

We had no idea that there was a problem until it began to finally show through on

the drywall, and by the time it was torn open and we got a good look at it, everything had

been corrupted.

Everything had been corroded right down to the floor joists.

They'd have pieces cut out of them and new scabbed in.

Listen, Christians don't have blowouts.

They have slow leaks that show up flat one day.

You look around you and you wonder, what happened to Pastor So -and -So, or this person

that I knew that seemed like they knew the Lord?

They seem to even at times to be on fire with the Lord, and then boom!

They go out to their car and the tire is flat.

It's not how it works.

It's not how it works.

There has been a slow corrosion.

There has been a slow seeping corruption.

They have been squeezed into the mold of this world.

They have adopted the values and morality and outlook and goals of this world

that is destined for destruction, and it has changed them.

One day they go out and the tire is flat.

Remember the gospel.

Relinquish yourself to God.

Resist the world's corruption.

Number four, the fourth key to unlocking the Christian life is to renew

your mind through the scriptures, to renew your mind

through the scriptures.

Verse 2, do not be or stop being conformed to this world, but

be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

By the renewing of your mind.

Be transformed.

Present passive imperative.

Continue to allow yourself to be transformed, more literally.

It indicates an action that has already begun, and it is going to continue on indefinitely.

This transformation process is not something that happens in an instant.

We don't get a holy hop.

It goes on moment by moment, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by

year as we seek and pursue after Christ.

We still live in this age, still live in this world, but we're not to be of this world.

We're to recognize because what Christ has done, we belong to the age to come, the world to come.

So we can't be content being pressed into that.

When this is who we are, we're no

longer the victims of sin.

We're no longer helpless and hopeless before it.

Its power over us can be resisted.

That's chapter 6.

Consider yourself dead to sin and alive in Christ.

And then live accordingly.

We are indwelt, chapter 8, by the spirit of God himself.

God has taken up residence within you.

You're a child of God this morning, and he is jealous for you.

We're going to struggle.

It is a struggle for sure.

It's a regular and daily fight.

Why?

Because the old man still hangs on in a

way.

There are still the values of that old world that still kind of hang on to me.

There are impulses that I came over with.

There are temptations that I brought over with me.

And I need to fight back against them.

And you do too.

Sin is always strong.

It's always insidious.

We often yield unconsciously to it without a thought.

It's just, boom, where did that come from?

It's a battle for the mind.

It's a fight for the mind.

Be transformed.

Continue to allow yourself to be transformed.

How?

Verse 2, by the renewing of your mind.

By the renewing of your mind.

We participate in the work of God within us, Philippians 2.

And the process by which we are renewed in our mind is through the cleansing of the

word.

Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 26.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3 .18, As we behold the glory of the Lord in his word,

we are transformed into his likeness.

Same verb, by the way.

Same verb.

We behold the glory of Christ as we stare and gaze upon the beauty of Christ.

We are conformed into his image.

We are transformed into his image.

We are made like Christ.

And where can you find him?

Where can you see him?

He's given you everything for life and godliness, Peter says.

Listen, reprogramming the mind doesn't take place overnight.

It's a long process.

It's a long process.

And the way in which our thinking is more and more conformed to the way God wants

us to think is by spending time with him in his word.

Listen, there is no substitute for significant time spent in the word of God.

If the word of God is a Sunday -only occurrence for you, you're fighting this fight with one arm

tied behind your back.

You need the word of God.

I need the word of God.

Think of it this way.

If I had poison, a really powerful poison that will kill you if I

put a few drops into a glass of water and handed it to you.

But think if I took those same few drops and were to drop them into a swimming pool with 50 ,000 gallons of

water in it.

The poison is still there, but its toxicity has been diluted.

Its effect has been lessened.

Why?

Because it has been pushed aside by the quantity of the water.

Before Christ, your mind is filled with nothing but corruption.

You come to Christ.

You're a new creation.

You're united with him.

But that stuff's still there, isn't it?

You need to fight against it.

Well, how do I fight against it?

You need to dilute it.

You can't just say to yourself, I'm just not going to think like that anymore.

Good luck.

That's Paul's counsel in Ephesians.

We need to put off and put on.

We need to replace.

To my illustration, we need to dilute.

The more scripture you take in, the less hold that corruption will have on you.

The less it will occupy your thoughts, the more infrequent it will become.

And as a man thinks in his heart, so he is.

Paul says we need to be renewed in our mind, right?

Why?

Into the verse, chapter 2, or verse 2.

So that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable

and perfect.

You want to know the will of God for your life?

Book of Romans is a great place.

Paul says that as you are renewed in your mind, you will begin to

understand and agree.

Documento.

You may prove.

You may understand.

You may agree.

You will begin to agree with what God wants from you.

You'll be able to begin to discern the will of God.

That Paul describes here with three simple adjectives.

This is the will of God.

It is good. It is good.

It is, in other words, it is God, the source of that, makes

it good, right?

For no one is good but God alone.

Mark 10, 18.

It is acceptable to God.

So it is good as defined by God.

It is acceptable as measured by God.

And it is perfect or probably mature.

Well, that's helpful.

But I need specifics.

Don't you?

I'd like to know specifically the will of God for me.

And, hey, here it is, the rest of the book.

What are the results of a transformed life?

It's simply this.

Chapter 12, verses 3 through 8, a transformed life is humbly serving others.

A transformed life, chapter 12, verses 9 to 21, is loving to both friend and foe.

Chapter 13, 1 through 7, a transformed life is submissive to authority.

Chapter 13, verses 8 through 14, a transformed life is pure of mind and body.

In chapter 14, verses 1 through the middle of chapter 15, a transformed life is

deferential toward others with regard to matters of personal conviction.

This is God's will for you and I.

Brothers and sisters, Paul has given us keys.

Keys to unlock the Christian life.

Remember the gospel.

Relinquish yourself to God.

Resist the world's corruption.

Renew your mind through the Spirit, or Scriptures, rather.

Now may the Spirit of God grant you and I the power to stick

those keys in the lock and turn them.

And let us pray toward that end.

Our God and our Father, you love us with a love that is beyond our comprehension.

Or as Paul says in Romans 8, if you would not withhold your only Son from us, there is no good thing

that you would hold back.

And so, our Father, we have opened the Word here.

And we pray that we would be doers of the Word.

Father, let us go forth from this place encouraged that the power

lies with the Spirit through His Word.

Transform us, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.