“Being Transformed to be more like Jesus as Worshipper of God” (Romans 12:1-2)
V.1 Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship.
V. 2 Do not conform 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.
V.1 Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship.
Paul is urging us here to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. But, his appeal starts with a conjunction word "therefore" because his appeal is based on what God has done as explained in the previous chapters, Romans 1-11.
That’s why Paul said, his appeal is based on the mercies of God as he said, “ by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice”
As we studied Romans 1 through 11, we have learned all the blessings in Christ: We received God’s forgiveness, we received eternal life, His peace, His love, hope; we received the right to become God’s children; we received being in union with Christ; We received reconciliation with God; We received the Holy Spirit. We received salvation and we received all these blessings even though we don’t deserve them because “Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood” for us. (Rom 3:25)
Since we received such mercies of God, Paul is urging us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; our spiritual worship. In fact, offering sacrifice and worship are not unique to Christianity. Every religion demands its followers some kind of sacrifice and worship. But the difference is that they offer sacrifice so that they may receive mercy and forgiveness or salvation from their god. They are begging for mercy from their gods. But, we Christians offer sacrifice and worship as thanksgiving because we already have forgiveness and salvation from God.
I read a story about pastor David Platt, (i don’t know if anyone knows him) He is well known young pastor. He served as director of the international mission board in his 30s. Years ago he visited a Buddhist temple in Indonesia. There he was engaged in a conversation with a Buddhist leader and a Muslim leader in this particular community. They were discussing how all religions are fundamentally the same and only superficially different. One of them said, "We may have different views about small issues, but when it comes down to essential issues, each of our religions is the same."
David listened for a while, and then they asked him what he thought. So David answered, saying, "It sounds as though you both pictured God (or whatever you call God) at the top of a mountain. It seems as if you believe that we are all at the mountain, and I may take one route up the mountain, you may take another, and in the end, we will all end up in the same place." They smiled as David spoke. Happily, they replied, "Exactly! You understand!"
Then David Platt leaned in and said, "Now let me ask you a question. What would you think if I told you that the God at the top of the mountain actually came down to where we are? What would you think if I told you that God doesn't wait for people to find their way to him, but instead he comes to us" They thought for a moment and then responded, "That would be great." So David introduced Jesus to them.
God knows no one can climb up to the top of the mountain where God is. No matter how hard you try, no one will be righteous enough before God because Bible tells us, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard.” (Rom 3:23 NLT) No matter how hard you try, no one can meet the righteous standard of God and no one can ever be made right with God by his own efforts. Then, the following verses say what God has done,“Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. ” (Romans 3:24-25NLT)
Let me repeat verse 25 “Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood” This is what God has done. When no one could reach God, God came to us in Christ.
Therefore, if any of you hope for salvation or reconciliation with God through your efforts or merits, know that you don’t have any hope and you have to repent. That’s why Paul was so disappointed about, some in the Galatian church. So he said, “if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.” (Gal 5:4)
No matter how religious you are, no matter how devoted you are you have to repent if you hope for salvation through your own efforts or your own righteousness. Why do you have to repent? You have to repent because you are overestimating yourself thinking you can reach God’s glorious standard. You have to repent because you are underestimating God’s glorious standard.
But, we Christians can say, “For by grace we have been saved through faith. And this is not our own doing; it is the gift of God ” (Eph 2:8) Indeed we have been saved since our salvation is by grace of God, not by our own works or efforts. So we don’t have to wait until we die to find out whether we are saved or not. We already have it, salvation because of Jesus in us.
Jesus was the final sacrifice for us, therefore we don’t need to offer dead animals as sacrifices, but we offer our lives as a living sacrifice, which is worship. So worship is more than what we do every Sunday for 1 hour or so when we get together. Worship involves everything in our lives: how we are and what we do in the workplace, in society, school life, family life, the church in thanksgiving for what God has done for us in Christ. So Eugene Peterson put it this way: “Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.” (Message )
Then Paul describes the living sacrifice as holy and pleasing to God. Here we learn some important facts about worship. Worship is to offer our lives as a living sacrifice, that is holy and pleasing to God. That’s why in the following verse, verse 2 says, “Do not conform 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.”
If you want to present yourself as a living sacrifice that is holy, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world”.
If you want to present yourself as a living sacrifice that pleases the Lord, then you have to know His will.
So then, the key is “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” because without transformation by the renewing of your minds, you will follow the pattern of this world and without transformation by the renewing of our minds, we wouldn’t be able to discern what is God’s will. Therefore you and I need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds if we want to offer our lives as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to the Lord.
Then you may ask me what do you mean by “the transformation by the renewing of our mind.” and how can we experience “the transformation by the renewing of our mind.”
The answer is Jesus Christ. Because, Jesus is the best example when it comes to living sacrifice, holy, and pleasing to God. Jesus lived the holy life and Jesus lived pleasing God. So transformation means becoming like Jesus and following His example. And to be like Him and to follow Him we need to learn His mind and we need to try to have His mind.
Unless we learn the mind of Jesus day by day, we will find ourselves following the pattern of this world rather than being transformed to be like Jesus. Unless we try to have the mind of Jesus, we will not able to discern the will of God. That’s why the Bible says: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Php 2:5) We are commanded to "think the same way that Christ Jesus thought. But, if you don’t learn the mind of Jesus, your life will be in vain, following the attitude of the world.
My mother loved the Lord and faithfully read the scripture and attended early morning prayer meetings, but she didn’t forgive my good father even after my father passed away. So I suggested that she would not pray if she didn’t want to forgive him. Thanks to God, she later repented. But, my mother was not unusual. It seems to me that almost all Christians have someone they said they wouldn’t forgive. There must be reasons for that. I acknowledge it must be really hard in certain cases. But, no matter how hard it may be, the real reason we don’t forgive because we haven’t learned the mind of Jesus, who asked God to forgive those who insulted, mocked, tortured, and even crucified him.
I believe if we have grudge, strife, criticism, complaint, grumbling, slander, envy, inferiority, superiority, then that is because our way of thinking still follows the pattern of this world.
That’s why You and I have to learn the mind of Jesus from the scriptures and change the way we think. We have to learn and change the way we think about God, ourselves, other people, family, sin, life, our future, church, and every area of our lives.
And, as we learn Jesus from the scriptures through the Holy Spirit, we will have a renewed way of thinking. And our renewed thinking will determine the way we feel, and the way we feel will influence the way we act, that is transformation, thinking like Jesus and acting like Jesus.
As we experience transformation through our renewed mind, we will offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to the Lord according to the will of God; which is spiritual worship.
Jesus taught that our heavenly Father is seeking such people to worship him in spirit and truth. God seeks people who offer spiritual worship in truth, that is, according to His will. Our Father seeks for people who worship the way Jesus offered Himself as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
As I conclude the message, I would like to review the overview of what we learned again.
V.1 What is worship
Worship is thanksgiving for what God has done in Christ
Worship is offering our bodies as a living sacrifice
Worship is living holy and pleasing to God
V. 2 How to worship
For holy living - “By Not conforming to the pattern of this world”
For living to please God - “By being able to discern God’s will
The Key - “ being transformed by the renewing of your mind” so that you may not conform to the world and you may discern God’s will
Conclusion:
To worship God we have to be transformed by renewing our minds
Being transformed means being more like Jesus because Jesus is the best example of living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God
To be transformed like Jesus, we have to renew our minds resembling the mind of Jesus.
So as a worshipper of God, we have to learn Jesus and His mind - from the scriptures through the Holy Spirit - and obey Jesus, becoming more like Jesus in mind and acts.
(* I used a lot of ideas from ‘Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren)
