In Romans 12:1 through Romans 16:27, Paul gives rules for living as a group of redeemed people in a fallen world. We are to give ourselves to Christ as living penances, comply with the public authority, love our neighbors, and take extraordinary consideration of the people who are frail in their faith. This section speaks about Christian personal responsibility as a living sacrifice to God. We will look today at the first couple of verses from chapter twelve.
During the animal sacrifice as indicated by God's Law, the priest killed the creature, cut it into pieces, and laid it on the altar. It was important to perform a sacrifice, however even in the Old Testament God clarified that dutifulness and obedience from the heart was more significant (1 Samuel 15:22; Psalm 40:6; Amos 5:21-24). God does not want us to offer animals but ourselves, as living penances, by dismissing our own wants and desires to follow him on a daily basis, making all our energy and assets available to him, and confiding in him to direct us. We do this because of our appreciation that our sins and transgressions have been pardoned.
God has great, satisfying, and ideal designs for His people. He wants us to be new individuals with reestablished minds, living to respect and submit to Him. Since He wants just what is best for us, and since He gave His Son to make our new life attainable, we should cheerfully be willing to offer ourselves as living penances to serve him.
Be Not Conformed
Christians are called to “be not conformed to this world” with its conduct and customs that are narrow minded and regularly undermining. Numerous Christians carefully conclude that a large part of the world's mainstream conduct is forbidden to them. In any case, our refusal to adjust to this world's values should go more profound than the degree of conduct and customs, it should be solidly established in our brains, “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” It is feasible to keep away from most common worldly traditions and still possess a proud, rapacious, narrow minded, difficult, and pompous attitude. It is only when the Holy Spirit reestablishes, re-instructs, and re-diverts our minds are we genuinely changed and transformed (Romans 8:5).
Now that we are to be a LIVING sacrifice, let us take a look and break down these two verses.
The Call
In verse one we see The Call, “I beseech you therefore, brethren.” This means to request earnestly, to summon, to appeal or demand for something to happen or be done. Paul is saying “Listen to me, this is very important!” When someone is calling us, do we pay attention to them, or do we ignore them? How many of us have heard the royal telephone ringing, looked at the caller ID, and did not answer? I am referring to the call from God.
The Consecration
Next in verse one we see The Consecration, “that ye present your bodies a Living sacrifice.” This means to be dedicated to a sacred purpose, to make holy, to dedicate to a higher purpose, or to devote irrevocably to the service of God. No longer are we to sacrifice animals for atonement of sins. Christ has already paid the price for us. But we can do something, we can sacrifice or offer something of ourselves as in our time, by visiting the sick and afflicted, et cetera. (Romans 6:12-13)
The world should be able to see the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian and that is by seeing the new life that the Christian now lives. Paul told the Ephesians to put away their old lifestyle and we should be doing the same thing. As a Christian, we have a new nature. But it is a process to remove the old thoughts, old habits, and old attitudes and start anew. It does not happen automatically overnight. As we continue to listen and read God’s Word, the changes will come (Ephesians 4:21-23; Galatians 5:16-26; Colossians 3:3-8).
The Charge
And then we see The Charge, “which is your reasonable service.” What is our “reasonable service?” That could be our continued worship to the Lord, our witnessing, et cetera. We are to follow the Holy Spirit wherever he leads and do the work that the Lord has set before us. We should consciously choose to center our lives on Christ and follow the Spirit and not the flesh.
The Challenge
And then in verse two se see The Challenge, “be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” How can we do this? By living as a new person. We are to trust and obey the Lord by changing the world’s values for God’s values. We should render ourselves to God, all that we are, all that we have, and all that we can do. Conversion and sanctification are necessary for the renewing of the mind. We are to die to sin and live righteously.
Continual
The Christian is in a continual instruction program. The more we are aware of Christ and his work, the more we will be converted to be like him. Since this interaction is a long-lasting lifelong process, we should never stop learning and complying. There is no avocation for simply floating along, yet there is an impetus to search for the rich fortunes of maturely developing in him. It takes practice, personal examination, tolerance, and focus to keep in accordance with his will (Colossians 3:10).
Classifications
In Romans 8:5-6, Paul isolates individuals into two classifications, the people who let themselves be constrained by their wicked qualities (“to be carnally minded”), and the individuals who follow the Holy Spirit. We all would be in the primary classification if Jesus had not offered us an exit plan. Whenever we have accepted Jesus, we will need to keep following him, since his way brings life and harmony. Day by day we should intentionally decide to fixate our lives on God.
Many individuals have attempted a wide range of ways of satisfying God (Micah 6:6-7), yet God has made His desires noticeably clear. He wants His children to be fair, just, lenient, and to walk modestly with Him. In our endeavors to satisfy God, we ought to look at these regions consistently (Micah 6:8).
The ability to continue with the Christian life comes from Jesus Christ. Since Christ died for us and delivered us from sin and transgression, we are liberated from the control of sin. He gives us the power and comprehension to live as per God's will and to accomplish something useful. Thusly, we should anticipate His magnificent return with energetic hope and trust (Titus 2:11-14).
