Romans 12:1-8 Part 1
Well here we are in chapter twelve of Romans. Paul has now turned the corner in his instruction to us.
We have gone through eleven chapters in these past eight months in which we have learned about how God out of His grace and mercy for us imperfect, undeserving sinners. Has still out of His love for us, has chosen some to come to faith in His Son Jesus Christ who has given Himself as payment for our sins.
We have learned that being here in this world is not about us but about God and Him being glorified through our lives and our work for Him. No longer now that we are Christians is it about me, me, me and what do I get or what do I take from this world.
We are called to something else now. We are called to live a life that reflects Christ in every way. We are called to now live a life that is committed and dedicated to glorifying God. We are called to be living sacrifices to God.
In the Old Testament we see that the Jews would sacrifice animals to God but now we are to sacrifice ourselves. We are to be living sacrifices for God.
We are now to live our lives in every way for God. Everything we do, everything we have, our abilities, our wealth, everything that is given to us by God which is everything, is in return to be used to bring God glory and to further His kingdom.
These next five chapters are going to help us as Christians apply the Christian walk to our lives. These are instructional chapters on who we should be as Christians.
Chapter twelve starts with the word therefore. Therefore meaning now that you understand these things in which I have instructed you about in the last eleven chapters, therefore now what are you going to do about it?
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
We start off in verse one with Paul telling us that we as Christians are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. He says bodies that are holy and pleasing to God. So what does that mean to us?
We are to keep in mind that our bodies are now Gods and we must not use them for things that are sinful. Verse one tells us to give our bodies in a holy manner that is pleasing to God. (Lust of the eyes, sex outside of marriage, committing physical harm to others).
We are to use our bodies for things that will bring glory to God. (Serving the church, working and being productive, spreading of the gospel of Jesus).
In a more general sense it is devoting ourselves in everyway to serving and giving back to God for His mercy to us.
Remember that we are now vessels for the Holy Spirit, God is within us and we do not want to subject God to our sin.
God wants pure and holy sacrifices. If we say that we are Christians then God expects us to act like Christians, to act like Christ. Not in perfection but to the best of our abilities both in heart and mind.
It is called a sacrifice because we do have to make sacrifices don’t we? But what are we really sacrificing? All we are sacrificing is our natural desire to sin.
I punched in Sacrifice on the online dictionary and one example it gave was “the thing so surrendered or devoted”. I thought man that is perfect, that is exactly it, we are surrendering ourselves to God, we are devoting our selves to God, that is our sacrifice to Him.
This all returns back to mercy, the reason why we surrender and devote ourselves is because of Gods mercy to us. If His mercy truly affects us deeply then our sacrifice to Him shouldn’t really be a sacrifice at all should it? It should be a true heart felt desire.
The end of verse one tells us “this is our spiritual act of worship” that if we surrender ourselves to God and devote ourselves to Him by being more like Christ, that He looks at this as us worshipping him, and that pleases Him.
2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 8:5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
What is the best way to transform your mind? It is through the hearing and studying of Gods word. This is what God has given us so that we can know what it is we are supposed to do and not do.
Here is a good question for you to think about, are you conformed to this world or have you been transformed by God as it says in verse 2?
It almost sounds like a test God has given us.
Five questions to test yourselves by:
1.Do you spend more time every day watching your TV rather than studying the Bible?
2.Do you spend more time every day on the phone rather than spending time in prayer?
3.Do you spend more time every day serving yourself rather than serving others?
4.Do you spend more time every day on personal activities rather than evangelizing for Christ?
5.Do you spend more of your money on unneeded selfish items rather than supporting Christ’s work in His church?
So how did you do? I am sure as poorly as I did.
We have all been deceived, we have all been tricked, and we have all fallen under the spell of this sinful world.
Have you been conformed to this world or have you been transformed by God?
Your answer I am sure has changed from what you may have thought before.
2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
To conform is to be changed by something external in this case the world.
To be transformed is to be changed by something on the inside in this case the Holy Spirit.
We today are seeking self fulfillment instead of God fulfillment. The world is all about what we can get from it and that is not what Christianity is about. They are at opposite ends of the spectrum, the world on one side and Christianity on the other with nothing between the two which overlaps.
Do you know what Gods will is for you “God’s good, pleasing and perfect will?” It is very easy, it is to Glorify Him and we do that by working as hard as we can to serve Him and be as much like His Son as we can.
