There was a man walking along the railroad. His right foot accidentally got stuck in one of the tracks. While struggling to free his foot, suddenly he heard the train coming. He panicked. He tried and tried but he could not break free. He could see the train fast approaching. He prayed to God, “Lord, if you help me, I will attend the worship service at church every Sunday. I will join the prayer meeting every Tuesday. And I will give 30 percent of my income.” Still, he is stuck. So he cried out to God, “Lord, if you help me, I will teach in the Sunday school. I will serve as an usher. And I will give 50 percent of my income to the church.” Still, nothing happened. He could now feel the vibration of the train. So, out of desperation, he shouted, “Lord, if you help me, I will resign from my job. I will serve you as a pastor. I will give you everything I possess. And… and…” Before he could finish his prayer, his foot got unstuck. He fell to the ground just moments before the train could run over him. He stood up, looked up, smiled and said, “Joke… joke… joke…”
Sadly, we tend to be like that man. We are more concerned with what we can get from God rather than what we can give Him. We tell God what we want from Him. But we are afraid to ask God what he wants from us. Tonight we will look into giving God what He wants.
Let us read Romans 12:1-2… “Therefore, 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. Do 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.”[1] Here we find four things that God wants from us.
Circle the word “Therefore”. When we see a “therefore,” we have to ask “Why is that ‘therefore’ there for?” It is the result of what Paul talked about from chapter 1 to 11 of the book of Romans. From chapter 1 to 3 he talked about sin. From chapter 4 to 6 he talked about salvation. From chapter 7 to 8 he talked about the Spirit. Then from chapter 9-11 he talked about the sovereignty of God. In short, the first 11 chapters of Romans talked about “God’s mercy”. Justice is getting what you deserve. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. We deserve to die. But Christ died so that we could live.
Thus, “in view of God’s mercy”, Paul encourages us to sacrifice ourselves to God. Then from chapter 12 to 16, he discussed what a life that is committed to God looked like. So from chapter 1 to 11 of Romans, he talked about the reasons for offering ourselves to God. Then from chapter 12 to 16, he talked about the results of offering ourselves to God. Thus, Romans 12:1-2 serves as the crucial point or key verse of the entire book.
But note the word “brothers”. Paul would not call a person a “brother” or a “sister” if he or she is not a believer. So first, God wants us to RECEIVE Christ as Savior. You cannot offer your life to Him if you do not belong to Him.
Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The word “all” includes all of us, that is, you and me. Yet in Romans 5:8 says that “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” So Romans 10:9 invites us to put our trust in the Lord Jesus: “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Have you come to a point in your life that you are ready to face God? That you know for sure that you would go to heaven? If you like to receive Him as Savior, I can give you that chance today. Let us pause for a while. Let us pray… [Pray a prayer of acceptance. Then, if possible, ask the group to sing “Think about His love.”]
First, God wants us to receive Christ as Savior. Let’s read verse one again: “Therefore, 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.” Second, He wants us to OFFER our lives to Him.
The body here represents our whole person or our entire life. It is like saying “wheels” when you are refer to the car. What does it mean then “to offer [our] bodies”? It is like signing a blank check and then giving it to God. It is like signing a blank sheet of paper and then allowing God to write the terms and conditions on it. It is like giving God a power-of-attorney for your life. In other words, it is giving God full control of your life. God calls for total commitment. Chip Ingram wrote, “Total commitment is the alignment of one’s motives, resources, priorities, and goals to fulfill a specific mission, accomplish a specific task, or follow a specific person.”
Note that Paul asks us “offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God”. Before, people offer God dead sacrifices. Now we are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices. How come? You can only offer a dead sacrifice once. A living sacrifice means a daily offering. It is easy to say “I will die for Christ.” But how can you die for Christ if you are not living for Christ? It is easy to die. It is challenging to live. The word “holy” means “set apart.” It is saying that you are reserved for God. When there’s a seat with a “reserved” sign, no one can seat there except the person for whom the seat is reserved. It is saying to God, “I am at your disposal. You can do whatever you want with my life.” That is the only sacrifice that is pleasing to God. The New Living Translation goes like this: “Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will accept.” Anything less than that is not acceptable to Him.
The NET Bible translates the clause “this is your spiritual act of worship” this way: “which is your reasonable service.” The word “reasonable” means rational or logical. It is rational “in the sense of acceptable to human reason”.[2] It is also logical, that is, it makes sense to commit your life to God. I like how the New Living Translation reads: “When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?”
Underline the word “urge”. In the Greek, it also means “encourage.” It is “one of the tenderest expressions in all the Bible.”[3] To urge is a notch lower than to command. Paul was not commanding us here to offer ourselves to God but he was begging us to do so. Let me clarify that when I say it is not a command, I am not saying it is optional. So, why did God choose to encourage us rather than to command us? God could demand that we surrender to Him. But He did not and He would not force us. Why? Thomas Constable wrote, “The apostle did not want his readers to comply because he had commanded them to do so, but because they wanted to because of what God had done for them. Therefore he made his appeal as strong as possible without commanding.”[4] God wants us to dedicate our lives to Him voluntarily. In short, offer your life to Him not because you ought to but because you want to.
Let us ask ourselves, “What is it that is keeping me from giving my life to God?”
First, God wants us to receive Christ as Savior. Second, God wants us to offer our lives to God. Verse two says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” There are two commands here. One is negative. The other is positive. Let us look at the negative command first: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world…” Therefore, God wants us to DENOUNCE the world. One version goes like this: “do not let the world squeeze you into its own mold.”[5]
Allow me to clarify that “world” here is not the same as the one in “For God so loved the world…” John 3:16 refers to mankind. It is not the same as “God who made the world and everything in it…” That refers to the physical earth. Romans 12:2 refer to the “world-system” or “value system.” That’s why we are commanded in 1 John 2:15-16, “Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him.”[6]
The words “Do not conform…” is in the passive voice. In other words, we are to stop allowing ourselves to be shaped by this world’s principles and practices. Don’t go with the flow. Swim against the tide. When I was pastoring a church in a fishing village near the boundary of Bulacan, we have saying, “Patay na isda lang ang hindi lumalangoy ng kontra sa agos.”[7]
Verse two continues, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Lastly, God wants us to LIVE according to His will. To conform is to shape from the outside in, a change that is shallow and temporary. To transform is to change from the inside out, a change that is deep and lasting or permanent. In the Greek, “transformed” is “morphe,” which is the root word of metamorphosis, the change a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly.
What do we do in order to transform? The Bible says, “…by the renewing of your mind.” If you want to change your conduct, change your thinking first. When we deal with the conduct only, there will be change but it is only temporary. But when we deal with the mind first, the change in conduct will be lasting. For example, we say the solution to a bad habit is to give it up and then replace it with a good habit. But Ephesians 4:22-24 says, “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Note the pattern: “put off”, “renew” and “put on”. We do not change when we put on without putting off. It’s like putting on new clothes on top of the old clothes you are wearing. We do not change when we put off without putting on. It’s like digging in the sand. It keeps coming back. That’s the way to deal with a bad habit. Give up a bad habit then learn good habit. But that’s not all. Note that the bridge between “put off” and “put on” is “renew.” Until and unless one is convinced why he should put off and why he should put on, there will be no lasting change.
So, for example, you want to give up smoking. First you put off or give up smoking. Then, put on or focus on something productive to keep your mind off cigarettes. But, most importantly, repeatedly think of the bad effects of smoking in your body. Think how much money you are wasting. Think of how second-hand smoke can affect not only you but your family and friends also. Keep on doing that until you hate the cigarettes.
If you do not conform to the values of this world and if you transform by renewing your mind, verse two concludes, “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” We are afraid to ask God what He wants. We are afraid that he will ask us to do something that we cannot do or something that we do not want. Again, here’s what the New Living Translation says, “Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.”
So, looking at our outline, we can actually rearrange it so we can come up with the acronym L-O-R-D. God wants us to…
LIVE according to God’s will.
OFFER your life to Him.
RECEIVE Christ as Savior.
DENOUNCE the world.
I challenge you tonight to surrender to the lordship of Jesus. Let us pray…
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[1]All Bible verses are from the New International Version, unless otherwise noted.
[2]The New Linguistic and Exegetical key to the Greek New Testament
[3]Thomas Constable, Notes on Romans 2000 Edition.
[4]Ibid.
[5]J.B. Philips Translation
[6]The Message
[7]In English, “Only dead fish do not swim against the waves.”
