Romans 12:1–2. That little word “therefore” is the hinge of Romans. Paul is not suddenly leaving doctrine behind and beginning a list of rules. He is saying, in effect: Because of everything God has done that I have just spent eleven chapters explaining, here is how you should live.
And there is another connection we should not miss: Paul has just finished talking about God's mercy in Romans 11:32. Now he begins, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God...”
A LIVING SACRIFICE
Romans 12:1–2
Paul has spent eleven chapters explaining the gospel.
Humanity is under sin.
We cannot make ourselves righteous.
God acted through Christ.
We are justified by faith.
We have peace with God.
We died with Christ and were raised to new life.
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
Nothing can separate us from God's love.
Jew and Gentile alike depend upon God's mercy.
Paul ended chapter 11 saying:
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
Then comes:
Therefore.
DON'T MISS “THEREFORE”
Paul writes:
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God...”
— Romans 12:1
Whenever we see therefore, we should ask:
What is it there for?
Paul is connecting what follows with everything he has already said.
Christian living does not begin with:
Do this so God will save you.
It begins with:
Look at what God has done. Therefore, this is how a saved person should live.
Grace comes first.
Then comes our response.
“BY THE MERCIES OF GOD”
Paul does not say:
I threaten you by the anger of God.
He says:
“By the mercies of God.”
That takes us right back to Romans 11.
Both Jew and Gentile needed mercy.
Nobody earned salvation.
Nobody put God in his debt.
Now Paul says:
In view of that mercy, give yourself to God.
Christian obedience is a response to grace.
It is not an attempt to purchase grace.
PRESENT YOUR BODIES
Paul continues:
“To present your bodies as a living sacrifice...”
That's interesting.
Paul doesn't merely say:
Give God your heart.
He says:
“Present your bodies.”
Christianity is not merely something happening inside our minds.
Our bodies belong to God.
What we do with:
our hands,
our feet,
our mouths,
our sexuality,
our possessions,
our time
matters.
God wants the whole person.
A LIVING SACRIFICE
Paul's readers knew about sacrifices.
A sacrifice was placed upon an altar.
But Paul describes something unusual:
“A living sacrifice.”
The Christian sacrifice isn't an animal killed upon an altar.
We are the sacrifice.
And we keep living.
That means this sacrifice isn't offered once and forgotten.
Every day we live as people who belong to God.
Our lives become the offering.
HOLY AND ACCEPTABLE TO GOD
Paul describes this sacrifice as:
“Holy and acceptable to God.”
That language sounds like the language of worship and sacrifice.
But now the sacrifice is:
the believer's life.
This continues something we have seen elsewhere in the New Testament.
Under the new covenant, worship is no longer centered around bringing animal sacrifices to a physical temple.
God's people themselves belong to Him.
Our lives are offered to God.
“WHICH IS YOUR SPIRITUAL WORSHIP”
Paul finishes the sentence:
“Which is your spiritual worship.”
Some translations say:
“reasonable service.”
The Greek expression can carry the idea of rational, reasonable, or spiritual service.
Either way, Paul's point is larger than what we sometimes mean by “worship service.”
Paul isn't talking merely about what Christians do for an hour on Sunday morning.
He is talking about offering:
our whole lives to God.
That is worship.
WORSHIP IS BIGGER THAN AN ASSEMBLY
This is worth thinking about.
We sometimes use worship almost entirely for:
singing, praying, preaching, communion, and giving on Sunday.
Those things certainly honor God.
But Romans 12:1 widens the picture.
Your life belongs on God's altar.
How you treat your family matters.
How you conduct business matters.
How you speak matters.
What you do when nobody is watching matters.
Your everyday life can be offered to God.
Worship doesn't end when we leave the church building.
“DO NOT BE CONFORMED”
Then Paul says:
“Do not be conformed to this world.”
— Romans 12:2
The world around us is always trying to press us into its mold.
It tells us:
This is normal.
Everybody does it.
This is what matters.
This is what success looks like.
Paul says:
Don't let the age around you determine what you become.
Christians are supposed to be different.
BUT BE TRANSFORMED
Paul doesn't merely say:
Don't conform.
He says:
“But be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”
Christian change works from the inside outward.
God doesn't merely give us a longer list of rules.
He changes how we:
think.
And when our thinking changes, our lives change.
That fits perfectly with what Paul has been doing throughout Romans.
He has spent eleven chapters reshaping the way these Christians think about:
God,
sin,
grace,
Law,
faith,
Christ,
Israel,
Gentiles,
and mercy.
Now transformed thinking should produce transformed living.
THE MIND MATTERS
Christianity is not:
Stop thinking and just believe.
Paul expects Christians to think.
Our minds need to be:
“Renewed.”
That means Scripture should challenge our assumptions.
Sometimes our thinking comes from:
family tradition.
Sometimes:
church tradition.
Sometimes:
culture.
Sometimes:
politics.
Sometimes simply:
“That's what I've always believed.”
Paul says our minds need transformation.
That means none of those things gets the final word.
God does.
THIS IS TEXT B4 TRADITION IN DAILY LIFE
There is an interesting connection here with what we have been trying to do throughout these studies.
Read First. Conclude Later.
Why?
Because our minds can be conformed without our realizing it.
We may read the Bible through something we were taught fifty years ago and never stop to ask:
Does the text actually say that?
Renewing the mind sometimes means allowing Scripture to correct ideas we have held for years.
That isn't weakness.
That's exactly what should happen when God's Word shows us something more clearly.
TESTING THE WILL OF GOD
Paul continues:
“That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
A renewed mind learns to recognize what pleases God.
Notice that Paul expects discernment.
Christian maturity isn't merely:
Someone tells me what to do, and I do it.
We learn to examine.
To think.
To test.
To discern.
We increasingly learn to ask:
What does God want?
DOCTRINE WAS NEVER THE END
Romans 1–11 contains some deep theology.
But Paul never intended theology to remain on paper.
The gospel changes:
how we live.
Theology that never changes the person studying it has missed something.
Paul's great explanation of:
grace
ends with:
a life given to God.
His explanation of:
mercy
ends with:
obedience.
His explanation of:
the gospel
ends with:
transformation.
GRACE AND OBEDIENCE ARE NOT ENEMIES
Sometimes Christians talk as though grace and obedience compete with each other.
Paul doesn't.
Grace is the reason for obedience.
“By the mercies of God...”
therefore:
“Present your bodies.”
We don't obey in order to make God merciful.
We obey because God has been merciful.
That's an important difference.
READ PAUL BEFORE READING A SYSTEM INTO PAUL
Romans 12 begins the practical portion of the letter.
But don't separate it from Romans 1–11.
Paul's ethics grow out of his gospel.
The order matters:
God acts.
God shows mercy.
God saves.
Then:
we respond.
Paul doesn't say:
Earn God's mercy by becoming a living sacrifice.
He says:
“By the mercies of God...”
therefore:
“Present your bodies as a living sacrifice.”
Grace comes first.
But grace produces a changed life.
BEFORE YOU LEAVE
Ask the text:
What connects Romans 12 with everything before it?
“Therefore.”
What motivates Christian obedience?
“The mercies of God.”
What are we to offer God?
Ourselves.
“Present your bodies as a living sacrifice.”
Is worship limited to what happens in a church assembly?
No. Paul describes the believer's entire surrendered life as worship.
What must we resist?
“Do not be conformed to this world.”
What must happen instead?
“Be transformed.”
How?
“By the renewal of your mind.”
And what does a renewed mind learn to do?
Test.
Discern.
Recognize what pleases God.
Paul has told us to offer our whole selves to God.
Now he immediately addresses something that can ruin life together in the church:
Thinking too highly of ourselves.
And his answer is that we are different members of:
one body.
NEXT: ONE BODY, MANY MEMBERS
Romans 12:3–8
TEXT B4 TRADITION
Read First. Conclude Later.
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