A Living Sacrifice
Romans 12:1-2
What drives your dreams and determines your choices? What underlying belief or mindset guides your vision and goals and shapes your actions and lifestyle?
Said another way, “What underlying desire keeps you up late at night and wakes you up early?” Or, “If you could do anything regardless of money, what would it be and why?”
Common answers to these questions naturally arise from one of three human drives, (1) the drive to fulfill some physical, bodily desire, (2) the drive to obtain or experience some material object or experience, or (3) the drive to achieve a better position or status in the world (1 Jn 2:15-17).
When we reflect upon our personal choices, direction, and lifestyle, we should note that whatever takes supreme priority (or what normally wins out when faced with what seems to be competing choices) reveals our underlying, driving motive in life. What is that driving, underlying motive for you?
The Hillsdale College newsletter, Imprimis, has this as its slogan: “Because Ideas Have Consequences.”
We have had lots of ideas in the first great sections of Romans—truthful ideas, stirring ideas, ideas that have come to us by means of an inerrant and authoritative revelation. (James M. Boice)
If you are a follower of Christ by faith, that underlying motive and drive should be something far more significant than bodily desires, material goals, and earthly achievements. What drives your dreams should not be pragmatic (what works for you) but should be theology.
By theology, I mean the knowledge of who God is and what God does as he has revealed himself through his Word and expressed himself and acted through the gospel (the coming, life, death, and resurrection of Christ + Christ’s future coming and reign). Who God is and what God does should drive your dreams, determine your choices, and be the underlying commitment that guides your vision and goals and shapes your actions and lifestyle.
The question is – does good theology drive your dreams and determine your choices? Is it the engine that drives your car, the magnet that moves the arrow on your compass, and the fire that lights your furnace – or is it merely a set of religious facts to which you agree, but which you may easily set aside when they are not convenient, or when more compelling, interesting, enticing, or seductive realities come into play?
Dave Jenkins (director of Servants of Grace Ministries and of Theology for Life magazine) suggests, for example, that anyone can gather with the people of God on Sunday, but “if we esteem sports over the regular gathering of the people of God on Sunday, then that reveals something of our theology of worship.” So many other examples could be given.
It’s easy for us to view theology – the study of God and his ways through the study of his Word – as an abstract, philosophical activity that’s disconnected from everyday life. We can view the concepts of theology and life like a paradox or an oxymoron, such as “black light,” “servant leadership,” or “constructive criticism.” Theological living is not an oxymoron but is a pair of concept that must go together. You are not doing theology well if it does not transform the way you are living and you are not living well if you are not giving serious attention to good theology.
But if we study God with sincerity, we’ll realize that an accurate, clear, and personal understanding of God and his ways must necessarily affect not only our dreams but our choices, lifestyle, and practice.
Our behavior, ethics, and values are rooted in God’s real activity and nature.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God …
“Beseech” here means to “urge” and expresses a deep and earnest desire to encourage and motivate someone to a different way of acting and thinking. It differs from a casual suggestion, “dropping a hint,” speaking in veiled terms, or even relying on tight logic and persuasive argumentation. Though Paul does also employ good logic and argumentation here, he adds this emotional and personal layer to his message.
“Therefore,” then, draws attention to the logic that Paul employs here. What he is about to say is based upon all that he has said before now in this letter to the church at Rome. This connecting word is like a coupling or a hinge which connects the first eleven chapters to the final five.
As Paul often does, he gives a conceptual, philosophical, theological basis for his message in the first part of the letter, followed by a personal, practical section. The first section explains and reminds us about what is real and true of God, his purposes and plans, and people and life in general – it provides us with the theology that should drive our dreams and our choices and shape our lifestyle. With this material, he teaches us how to think and feel. In the second section, he explains and reminds us how to act and behave as a result of what is true. With this material, he teaches us how to act and behave. The first half seeks to shape our heads and our hearts, while the second half seeks to shape our hands.
“Mercies of God” here refers both to God’s felt compassion for us but also his active compassion and care. It not only describes how God thinks and feels about us but also what he has done as a result of that compassion and care which he has towards us.
The first five chapters of this letter explain what any person must believe about God to become a child of God, to be rescued from the power of sin, and to receive eternal life with God forever. We call this salvation or positional salvation – how to come into a right relationship with God by faith.
The next three chapters (6-8) then explain what every child of God must know about to live well as a child of God. We call this sanctification. It is important to note that this next section begins by teaching us the priority of baptism, revealing not only the first-importance of public baptism by immersion for every child of God but also the spiritual significance of baptism, what the act and the symbol teaches us about our relationship with God. It teaches us of a new and intimate relationship with God through the Holy Spirit who enables us to be what we must be and to do what we must do. Furthermore, it depicts for us and reminds us by way of visual illustration of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
The next three chapters (9-11) provide some intense and detailed explanation of how God has worked out our salvation through history in difficult and fascinating ways. Then the final five chapters (12-16) give us specific, practical instructions for how to live as followers of Christ. This section reminds us that theology must lead to a transformed lifestyle. This section also acknowledges that our lives as followers of Christ must be rooted in and developed out from a clear awareness and understanding of who God is and what he has done.
Many of the living religions have an ethical code that uplifts and inspires. Only the Christian faith, rooted as it is in a supernatural act that took place in history (the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ), has the ultimate moral authority as well as the effective power to transform human life according to the divine intention. So Christian ethics are practical specifically because they do not stand alone but emerge as unavoidable implications of an established theological base. Theology in isolation promotes a barren intellectualism. Ethics apart from a theological base is impotent to achieve its goals.[1]
So, what Paul is about to say reveals to us that the proper response to God’s goodness as God and in action is not to speculate and philosophize about the complexities and intricacies of his nature and ways but to – instead – respond with service and worship, and to do so the way that he desires.
We worship God by offering up our own lives to him in return.
That you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Here, Paul sums up all the practical instruction he is about to give in terms of sacrificial worship in the Temple. This is not a specific instruction itself but presents us with a clear choice we must make as believers, one that we do not automatically make the moment we believe on Christ – not with this level of full awareness.
Old Testament believers worshiped God by bringing animal sacrifices to him to offer upon the altar. These sacrifices were supposed to be costly, taken from the best of their material wealth and resources. They were also to be lifeless and dead. These sacrifices did not save people from their sins, but they provided a means for people to demonstrate that they recognized the true cost of their salvation and desired to draw near to God and express their humility, repentance, and appreciation to him as a result.
Today, God also calls us to give back to him a costly sacrifice, but one which is alive not dead.
The point of similarity here between Old and New Testament sacrifices of faith is that both are intended to be costly in a personal way. A point of difference, though, is that the former was auxiliary (something we own or possess), while the latter is our own selves. Another key point of difference is that the former was to be dead and lifeless, while the latter is supposed to be very much alive.
By “alive” (or “living”), Paul means that our sacrifice must be lifelong, not only setting aside scheduled moments in time for “worship” but viewing our entire lives – our lifestyle as a whole – as devoted to God’s worship and service. This is not a “one and done” commitment, but a lifelong mentality and way of living.
By “alive,” Paul also implies that our sacrifice must be conscious, intentional, and voluntary, not unaware and involuntary (as OT sacrifices would have been).
F. F. Bruce comments that “the sacrifices of the new order do not consist in taking the lives of others, like the ancient animal sacrifices, but in giving one’s own.”[2]
When we devote our entire lives to God for his worship and service, this is “holy” and “acceptable” to God. In other words, this kind of response to the gospel is what God desires and enjoys – it’s what brings him pleasure.
It’s also “what makes the most sense.” Or we could say, “This is what God deserves based upon who he is and what he has done.” Nothing else or nothing less seems appropriate.
Paul uses this sacrificial terminology one other time in this letter (Rom 6:13):
And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
How do we go about doing this? Certainly, God is not expecting us to come forward at a church gathering and lay down upon a sacrificial altar! Paul explains the answer in a twofold way as two balancing principles, one which consists of saying ‘no’ to something and the other which consists of saying ‘yes.’ These commands themselves are principles, not specific actions. But it is these principles which produce the various very objective, practical, and tangible commands and instructions which follow in the rest of Rom 12-16. Do the commands, guidance, and instructions of Rom 12-16 characterize your life?
We give God our lives by renouncing the world’s goals and values.
And do not be conformed to this world …
This command, instruction, and principle brings to mind how someone crafts, designs, or shapes something to match or resemble something else, as when an artist pours concrete into a mold to produce an image that matches the mold or when an engineer designs something to follow a preexisting pattern. It’s like a scale model purchased in a box, which looks like a real car only smaller and with certain limitations.
Peter refers to the same concept when he says this (1 Pet 1:14-15):
as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
As people whom God has so lovingly redeemed and powerfully rescued from sin, we must stop allowing ourselves to be “poured into the mold” of this ungodly world. We must choose to renounce the world’s continuing pressure to adopt its customs and mindset. Now, what is worldliness?
There is no single word that perfectly describes how the world thinks, but secularism is good for general purposes. It is an umbrella term that covers a number of other “isms,” like humanism, relativism, pragmatism, pluralism, hedonism, and materialism. Secularism, more than any other single word, aptly describes the mental framework and value structure of the people of our time. (Boice)
In short, the goals and values of this world consist of those things which are not only evil and sinful but are, in fact, limited to this world alone and are therefore temporal, temporary, and of relatively limited meaning, satisfaction, and significance. As believers, though, we have the ability to understand and pursue goals and values which are not limited to this temporal world but are, instead, eternal, lasting, and timeless.
And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:17)
The famous poet, T. S. Eliot, seemed to agree when he wrote this epitaph for our modern, materialistic, secular generation:
Here were decent godless people:
Their only monument the asphalt road
And a thousand lost golf balls.
How would Eliot pen your epitaph?
The old children’s song which says, “the things I used to do, I don’t do them anymore,” etc., is simple but true. When we truly grasp the holiness, justice, purity, goodness, and grandeur of God, we change the way we approach life by ending certain behaviors, practices, and pursuits. But we also do something else. We don’t just subtract, we add.
We give God our lives by adopting his goals and values.
But be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
On the flip side, we must submit to God’s ongoing, transforming work in our lives. This happens as we allow him to change the way that we think and what we value. We must allow him to change us from within, not as the world which merely changes from without.
This change happens as we intentionally, regularly familiarize ourselves with God’s will as revealed through his Word. When we do this, the Holy Spirit reshapes our affections and re-shifts our values. This occurs both through personal study of the Bible as well as regular participation in the teaching ministry of your church family, through large, medium, and small groups. What do these new goals and values consist of? I’m glad you asked! Romans 12-16 provides us with some practical and specific examples!
These are things which the world does not understand or value, but we – by doing and pursuing them – bring for us eternal value and, for God, bring supreme pleasure and glory.
When we adjust our goals and values to align with God’s will as revealed in Scripture, we then “prove out” over time the greater significance and value of pursuing God’s will instead of the world’s values.
This is not a three-tiered paradigm of God’s will for us, as though he has a (1) good, (2) acceptable, and (3) perfect option for us to choose from. Instead, it means that when we apply God’s goals and values to our choices, lifestyle, and priorities, we will demonstrate over time that doing so is the better way. To prove this takes time. I can defend this as a better way in a sermon, for instance, but only when you actually commit yourself to living in this transformed way driven by the theology of Romans 1-11 will you prove out over time (years and a lifetime) that God’s way is best.
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him! (Psa 34:8)
The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it. (Prov 10:22)
He who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. (Gal 6:8)
To be clear, choosing to submit to God’s will over those things which this world values does come with a cost. This cost may not cause us to die as a sacrificial animal. Instead, it requires us to devote ourselves in faith to a conscious, daily lifestyle which submits to the clear teaching of God’s Word no matter what the consequences may be for us financially, materially, relationally, physically, professionally, or otherwise.
By living this way, we do not seek to earn God’s favor in any way but do, instead, simply respond to his complex, lavish, and undeserved grace by being as extravagant and devoted as possible to being and doing what brings him greatest glory and pleasure.
Then King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing.” (1 Chron 21:24)
How does your life and lifestyle differ today because of your theology? How is the theology
(who God is and what he has done) of Romans 1-11 driving your dreams and influencing your choices? And what is that costing you? What change of life is God calling you to today as you follow Christ by faith? Today, let me urge you like Paul to offer or surrender your entire life to God as a living sacrifice, making his priorities your priorities no matter the cost. When you know who God is and what he has done for you, this is the only response that makes sense. Our entire life should be viewed as worship.
In conclusion, I leave you with these remarks by the 19th century Scottish pastor, Robert Candlish:
Of the fashion of the world, it may be truly said that the more you try it, the less you find it to be satisfying. It looks well; it looks fair, at first. But who that has lived long has not found it to be vanity at last?
It is altogether otherwise with the will of God. That often looks worst at the beginning. It seems hard and dark. But on! On with you in the proving of it! Prove it patiently, perseveringly, with prayer and pains. And you will get growing clearness, light, enlargement, joy. You will more and more find that “the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
Discussion Questions
What drives your dreams and determines your choices? What underlying belief or mindset guides your vision and goals and shapes your actions and lifestyle?
Said another way, “What underlying desire keeps you up late at night and wakes you up early?” Or, “If you could do anything regardless of money, what would it be and why?”
Common answers to these questions naturally arise from one of three human drives, (1) the drive to fulfill some physical, bodily desire, (2) the drive to obtain or experience some material object or experience, or (3) the drive to achieve a better position or status in the world (1 Jn 2:15-17).
When we reflect upon our personal choices, direction, and lifestyle, we should note that whatever takes supreme priority (or what normally wins out when faced with what seems to be competing choices) reveals our underlying, driving motive in life. What is that driving, underlying motive for you?
The Hillsdale College newsletter, Imprimis, has this as its slogan: “Because Ideas Have Consequences.”
We have had lots of ideas in the first great sections of Romans—truthful ideas, stirring ideas, ideas that have come to us by means of an inerrant and authoritative revelation. (James M. Boice)
If you are a follower of Christ by faith, that underlying motive and drive should be something far more significant than bodily desires, material goals, and earthly achievements. What drives your dreams should not be pragmatic (what works for you) but should be theology.
By theology, I mean the knowledge of who God is and what God does as he has revealed himself through his Word and expressed himself and acted through the gospel (the coming, life, death, and resurrection of Christ + Christ’s future coming and reign). Who God is and what God does should drive your dreams, determine your choices, and be the underlying commitment that guides your vision and goals and shapes your actions and lifestyle.
The question is – does good theology drive your dreams and determine your choices? Is it the engine that drives your car, the magnet that moves the arrow on your compass, and the fire that lights your furnace – or is it merely a set of religious facts to which you agree, but which you may easily set aside when they are not convenient, or when more compelling, interesting, enticing, or seductive realities come into play?
Dave Jenkins (director of Servants of Grace Ministries and of Theology for Life magazine) suggests, for example, that anyone can gather with the people of God on Sunday, but “if we esteem sports over the regular gathering of the people of God on Sunday, then that reveals something of our theology of worship.” So many other examples could be given.
It’s easy for us to view theology – the study of God and his ways through the study of his Word – as an abstract, philosophical activity that’s disconnected from everyday life. We can view the concepts of theology and life like a paradox or an oxymoron, such as “black light,” “servant leadership,” or “constructive criticism.” Theological living is not an oxymoron but is a pair of concept that must go together. You are not doing theology well if it does not transform the way you are living and you are not living well if you are not giving serious attention to good theology.
But if we study God with sincerity, we’ll realize that an accurate, clear, and personal understanding of God and his ways must necessarily affect not only our dreams but our choices, lifestyle, and practice.
Our behavior, ethics, and values are rooted in God’s real activity and nature.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God …
“Beseech” here means to “urge” and expresses a deep and earnest desire to encourage and motivate someone to a different way of acting and thinking. It differs from a casual suggestion, “dropping a hint,” speaking in veiled terms, or even relying on tight logic and persuasive argumentation. Though Paul does also employ good logic and argumentation here, he adds this emotional and personal layer to his message.
“Therefore,” then, draws attention to the logic that Paul employs here. What he is about to say is based upon all that he has said before now in this letter to the church at Rome. This connecting word is like a coupling or a hinge which connects the first eleven chapters to the final five.
As Paul often does, he gives a conceptual, philosophical, theological basis for his message in the first part of the letter, followed by a personal, practical section. The first section explains and reminds us about what is real and true of God, his purposes and plans, and people and life in general – it provides us with the theology that should drive our dreams and our choices and shape our lifestyle. With this material, he teaches us how to think and feel. In the second section, he explains and reminds us how to act and behave as a result of what is true. With this material, he teaches us how to act and behave. The first half seeks to shape our heads and our hearts, while the second half seeks to shape our hands.
“Mercies of God” here refers both to God’s felt compassion for us but also his active compassion and care. It not only describes how God thinks and feels about us but also what he has done as a result of that compassion and care which he has towards us.
The first five chapters of this letter explain what any person must believe about God to become a child of God, to be rescued from the power of sin, and to receive eternal life with God forever. We call this salvation or positional salvation – how to come into a right relationship with God by faith.
The next three chapters (6-8) then explain what every child of God must know about to live well as a child of God. We call this sanctification. It is important to note that this next section begins by teaching us the priority of baptism, revealing not only the first-importance of public baptism by immersion for every child of God but also the spiritual significance of baptism, what the act and the symbol teaches us about our relationship with God. It teaches us of a new and intimate relationship with God through the Holy Spirit who enables us to be what we must be and to do what we must do. Furthermore, it depicts for us and reminds us by way of visual illustration of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
The next three chapters (9-11) provide some intense and detailed explanation of how God has worked out our salvation through history in difficult and fascinating ways. Then the final five chapters (12-16) give us specific, practical instructions for how to live as followers of Christ. This section reminds us that theology must lead to a transformed lifestyle. This section also acknowledges that our lives as followers of Christ must be rooted in and developed out from a clear awareness and understanding of who God is and what he has done.
Many of the living religions have an ethical code that uplifts and inspires. Only the Christian faith, rooted as it is in a supernatural act that took place in history (the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ), has the ultimate moral authority as well as the effective power to transform human life according to the divine intention. So Christian ethics are practical specifically because they do not stand alone but emerge as unavoidable implications of an established theological base. Theology in isolation promotes a barren intellectualism. Ethics apart from a theological base is impotent to achieve its goals.[1]
So, what Paul is about to say reveals to us that the proper response to God’s goodness as God and in action is not to speculate and philosophize about the complexities and intricacies of his nature and ways but to – instead – respond with service and worship, and to do so the way that he desires.
We worship God by offering up our own lives to him in return.
That you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Here, Paul sums up all the practical instruction he is about to give in terms of sacrificial worship in the Temple. This is not a specific instruction itself but presents us with a clear choice we must make as believers, one that we do not automatically make the moment we believe on Christ – not with this level of full awareness.
Old Testament believers worshiped God by bringing animal sacrifices to him to offer upon the altar. These sacrifices were supposed to be costly, taken from the best of their material wealth and resources. They were also to be lifeless and dead. These sacrifices did not save people from their sins, but they provided a means for people to demonstrate that they recognized the true cost of their salvation and desired to draw near to God and express their humility, repentance, and appreciation to him as a result.
Today, God also calls us to give back to him a costly sacrifice, but one which is alive not dead.
The point of similarity here between Old and New Testament sacrifices of faith is that both are intended to be costly in a personal way. A point of difference, though, is that the former was auxiliary (something we own or possess), while the latter is our own selves. Another key point of difference is that the former was to be dead and lifeless, while the latter is supposed to be very much alive.
By “alive” (or “living”), Paul means that our sacrifice must be lifelong, not only setting aside scheduled moments in time for “worship” but viewing our entire lives – our lifestyle as a whole – as devoted to God’s worship and service. This is not a “one and done” commitment, but a lifelong mentality and way of living.
By “alive,” Paul also implies that our sacrifice must be conscious, intentional, and voluntary, not unaware and involuntary (as OT sacrifices would have been).
F. F. Bruce comments that “the sacrifices of the new order do not consist in taking the lives of others, like the ancient animal sacrifices, but in giving one’s own.”[2]
When we devote our entire lives to God for his worship and service, this is “holy” and “acceptable” to God. In other words, this kind of response to the gospel is what God desires and enjoys – it’s what brings him pleasure.
It’s also “what makes the most sense.” Or we could say, “This is what God deserves based upon who he is and what he has done.” Nothing else or nothing less seems appropriate.
Paul uses this sacrificial terminology one other time in this letter (Rom 6:13):
And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
How do we go about doing this? Certainly, God is not expecting us to come forward at a church gathering and lay down upon a sacrificial altar! Paul explains the answer in a twofold way as two balancing principles, one which consists of saying ‘no’ to something and the other which consists of saying ‘yes.’ These commands themselves are principles, not specific actions. But it is these principles which produce the various very objective, practical, and tangible commands and instructions which follow in the rest of Rom 12-16. Do the commands, guidance, and instructions of Rom 12-16 characterize your life?
We give God our lives by renouncing the world’s goals and values.
And do not be conformed to this world …
This command, instruction, and principle brings to mind how someone crafts, designs, or shapes something to match or resemble something else, as when an artist pours concrete into a mold to produce an image that matches the mold or when an engineer designs something to follow a preexisting pattern. It’s like a scale model purchased in a box, which looks like a real car only smaller and with certain limitations.
Peter refers to the same concept when he says this (1 Pet 1:14-15):
as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
As people whom God has so lovingly redeemed and powerfully rescued from sin, we must stop allowing ourselves to be “poured into the mold” of this ungodly world. We must choose to renounce the world’s continuing pressure to adopt its customs and mindset. Now, what is worldliness?
There is no single word that perfectly describes how the world thinks, but secularism is good for general purposes. It is an umbrella term that covers a number of other “isms,” like humanism, relativism, pragmatism, pluralism, hedonism, and materialism. Secularism, more than any other single word, aptly describes the mental framework and value structure of the people of our time. (Boice)
In short, the goals and values of this world consist of those things which are not only evil and sinful but are, in fact, limited to this world alone and are therefore temporal, temporary, and of relatively limited meaning, satisfaction, and significance. As believers, though, we have the ability to understand and pursue goals and values which are not limited to this temporal world but are, instead, eternal, lasting, and timeless.
And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:17)
The famous poet, T. S. Eliot, seemed to agree when he wrote this epitaph for our modern, materialistic, secular generation:
Here were decent godless people:
Their only monument the asphalt road
And a thousand lost golf balls.
How would Eliot pen your epitaph?
The old children’s song which says, “the things I used to do, I don’t do them anymore,” etc., is simple but true. When we truly grasp the holiness, justice, purity, goodness, and grandeur of God, we change the way we approach life by ending certain behaviors, practices, and pursuits. But we also do something else. We don’t just subtract, we add.
We give God our lives by adopting his goals and values.
But be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
On the flip side, we must submit to God’s ongoing, transforming work in our lives. This happens as we allow him to change the way that we think and what we value. We must allow him to change us from within, not as the world which merely changes from without.
This change happens as we intentionally, regularly familiarize ourselves with God’s will as revealed through his Word. When we do this, the Holy Spirit reshapes our affections and re-shifts our values. This occurs both through personal study of the Bible as well as regular participation in the teaching ministry of your church family, through large, medium, and small groups. What do these new goals and values consist of? I’m glad you asked! Romans 12-16 provides us with some practical and specific examples!
- 12:3-8 – We get involved in regular Christian ministry and worship with a church.
- 12:9-21 – We take a patient, long-suffering, and humble posture in our relationships.
- 13:1-7 – We obey and respect government officials and laws.
- 13:8-10 – We make godly, Christian love our guiding principle in our treatment of others.
- 13:11-14 – We withdraw ourselves from the nightlife scene and make strategic, purposeful choices to avoid unnecessary temptations.
- 14:1-23 – We shape our consciences according to the Word of God regarding secondary matters and behave graciously towards other believers who have differing views.
- 15:1-13 – We strive for harmony within the church, including when ethnic diversity is present within the church.
- 15:14-33 – We partner through prayer, financial support, and hospitality with other likeminded pastors and missionaries.
- 16:1-16 – We involve ourselves in ministry partnerships and teamwork in various ways.
- 16:17-20 – We avoid close relationships and interaction with divisive people.
These are things which the world does not understand or value, but we – by doing and pursuing them – bring for us eternal value and, for God, bring supreme pleasure and glory.
When we adjust our goals and values to align with God’s will as revealed in Scripture, we then “prove out” over time the greater significance and value of pursuing God’s will instead of the world’s values.
This is not a three-tiered paradigm of God’s will for us, as though he has a (1) good, (2) acceptable, and (3) perfect option for us to choose from. Instead, it means that when we apply God’s goals and values to our choices, lifestyle, and priorities, we will demonstrate over time that doing so is the better way. To prove this takes time. I can defend this as a better way in a sermon, for instance, but only when you actually commit yourself to living in this transformed way driven by the theology of Romans 1-11 will you prove out over time (years and a lifetime) that God’s way is best.
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him! (Psa 34:8)
The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it. (Prov 10:22)
He who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. (Gal 6:8)
To be clear, choosing to submit to God’s will over those things which this world values does come with a cost. This cost may not cause us to die as a sacrificial animal. Instead, it requires us to devote ourselves in faith to a conscious, daily lifestyle which submits to the clear teaching of God’s Word no matter what the consequences may be for us financially, materially, relationally, physically, professionally, or otherwise.
By living this way, we do not seek to earn God’s favor in any way but do, instead, simply respond to his complex, lavish, and undeserved grace by being as extravagant and devoted as possible to being and doing what brings him greatest glory and pleasure.
Then King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing.” (1 Chron 21:24)
How does your life and lifestyle differ today because of your theology? How is the theology
(who God is and what he has done) of Romans 1-11 driving your dreams and influencing your choices? And what is that costing you? What change of life is God calling you to today as you follow Christ by faith? Today, let me urge you like Paul to offer or surrender your entire life to God as a living sacrifice, making his priorities your priorities no matter the cost. When you know who God is and what he has done for you, this is the only response that makes sense. Our entire life should be viewed as worship.
In conclusion, I leave you with these remarks by the 19th century Scottish pastor, Robert Candlish:
Of the fashion of the world, it may be truly said that the more you try it, the less you find it to be satisfying. It looks well; it looks fair, at first. But who that has lived long has not found it to be vanity at last?
It is altogether otherwise with the will of God. That often looks worst at the beginning. It seems hard and dark. But on! On with you in the proving of it! Prove it patiently, perseveringly, with prayer and pains. And you will get growing clearness, light, enlargement, joy. You will more and more find that “the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
Discussion Questions
- What are some problems that we may face if we forget that ideas have consequences? We could answer this question in any realm of life.
- Why is it easy for us to view theology as abstract or disconnected from everyday life?
- In Romans 12, Paul uses “therefore” as a hinge or a coupling, connecting his next thoughts to their basis in the first eleven chapters of Romans. What are some practices, or actual steps, we can take to connect our behavior to theology?
- What makes the Christian faith unique in reference to its ethics, theology, and the connection between the two?
- Which is easier, a living sacrifice in the New Testament, or an external sacrifice in the Old Testament? And why?
- What does “the world” mean in the sense Paul used in Romans 12:2?
- What are some of the values and goals of the world? Can you contrast each with one of God’s?
- What is meaningful to you personally about God’s mercy? How can this aspect of His mercy (which is theology) motivate you to “double down” on being a living sacrifice?
Posted in Sermon Manuscript
Posted in Surrender, Sanctification, Will of God, Service, Holiness, Worldliness
Posted in Surrender, Sanctification, Will of God, Service, Holiness, Worldliness
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