Romans 12
In View of God’s Mercy
Romans reaches a climax at the end of Paul’s theology section.
Chapters 1-11 are a systematic look at Christian theology.
Chapters 12-16 will be a systematic look at Christian living.
Someone has said, Christian theology is grace and Christian ethics is gratitude. Well put! Romans 12 begins by showing that the Christian life has God’s mercy as its foundation (the grace of God) and living sacrifices as its structure (obedient faith).
Under the old covenant sacrifices secured mercy, under the new, the mercy of God secures our sacrifices.
We live in view of God’s mercy. All of our faith and all of our lives are transformed by this newness. God has loved us and shown his mercy by giving Jesus to die on the cross in our place. God’s mercy is seen! The cross still stands before us! Our songs, our prayers, our communion, our preaching, our giving, all our worship to him reflects upon the mercy of God seen in Jesus Christ, the Son. After what he has done for me... what he is still doing for me... what else can I do but give my life to him!
Because of his mercy my whole life is now a worship to him.
The world in its blindness and sin still blames God... still blames others... still centers on itself. The whole pattern of the world is to look out for self! I did it my way! Nobody tells me what to do! Look at what I did! See what I have accomplished! I, I, Me, My... the universe revolves around what I want and I need. At least in my worldly mind! God says get a new mind! One that puts self on the alter. One that recognizes the wretched condition of selfish sin. One that embraces the death of self through the cross of Jesus. A new mind that seeks the will of God. A new mind that gives up this life for the eternal glorious life of Jesus. A new mind that tests and approves things according to what pleases God.
In view of his mercy! Let us be living sacrifices!
What do living sacrifices look like?
We have seen in chapters 1-3 what selfishness and sin looks like. It refuses to give thanks and glory to God. It turns created things into its gods, and worships and serves things instead of God. It makes us pursue fleshly pleasures at the expense of what we were made for. We become so dead to truth and our purpose we even corrupt God’s laws by trying to make ourselves righteous by keeping them. So instead of trusting God, we end up trusting only self.
Sin corrupts the whole fabric of nature and humanity. Spiritual death is the result.
We have seen in chapters 4-11 what God’s mercy looks like. While we were still sinners Christ died for us, while we were enemies of God, he showed his love for us in that Christ died for us. While we were powerless, unable to do a thing to please God, he sent Jesus to die and pay for our sins.
We have seen how God imparts his own righteousness to us. We hear the message of Christ, we trust God and turn from sin and embrace the gospel of the death burial and resurrection of Jesus by being baptized into his death and being raised to a new live like he was raised. God in grace frees us from sin, frees us the curse of the law, and indwells us by his Holy Spirit.
God, who can harden the unbeliever’s heart or have mercy on the one who trusts him has given you his mercy! We are saved by faith and must not forget our place and become arrogant or unbelieving.
So... I see what God’s mercy looks like, in view of that... now what do living sacrifices look like?
Lets read Romans 12 (read text)
One thing that is immediately obvious here is that we have moved into some highly practical material. What this tells us hits us right where we live. Just as chapters 1-11 center on how we related to God, 12-16 center on how we relate to others. In fact, the test to see whether you accepted and embraced chapters 1-11 comes by whether you practice 12-16! But looking at just chapter 12…
Verses 3-13 focus on our relationships with the church, and verses 14-21 focus on how to relate even to enemies. I would assume that these enemies would not be in the church. But hey! Whatever!
I want to spend some time looking at what he says about the church as a body. That analogy is used over and over in the scriptures. I think we need to study it afresh and determine to apply it to ourselves here in this church. When the church is described as a body, we see ourselves as belonging to each other in a unique way.
How is the church like a body? What does that mean to our relationships to each other? How does this affect our commitment to each other? Assuming the Bible is true and assuming we are Christians here and assuming that we are therefore a body belonging to one another as God’s Word describes... what would we expect our group here to look like?
Do we look and act like the body that we read about here?
Let’s get specific. Do you personally see yourself as a body member in this church?
I think one of the things being transformed with a renewal of mind must mean, is that we are not to relate to each other in the same way that people of the world relate to each other.
Being a body is not a matter of meeting together once a week and clocking in for worship and clocking out for the rest of the week.
Just imagine your body disconnecting and going its separate ways for a week and then coming back together for an hour or so a week, then splitting up again. That doesn’t describe a body, that describes a business!
The idea that a body conveys tells us that we are connected all the time! When we leave here to go home, we do not disconnect! We spread out, but we don’t disconnect. Our nature, spiritually, is unity and single mindedness. Our diversity is by design, to serve for our good. Many parts, different functions. Yes! But still one body!
Another thing. Who gives each part its function? Who decides what part of the body you will be? Do the elders, does the preacher, do the deacons? Who decides what your gifts are? Do you? No! None of the above! Your function is from God! It is your gift to the body! Our elders don’t decide what it is, the deacons don’t decide your function, I don’t authorize your gift... God does! And what God gives you becomes your responsibility to the rest of us. We depend on your part! If you are not performing, I suffer.
What if I decided I just didn’t want to preach today and again didn’t show up next Sunday. A few of you would notice! What would happen if I only showed up to preach most of the time, and half-heartedly a lot of the time. Do you think some of you would have a problem with that? Why?
This is my responsibility! True! But what about you? What is your responsibility? Let me tell you something. If you don’t offer your gift and perform your responsibility here, the rest of us suffer as a body too! Besides, a church can get a new preacher easy enough, but you are not so easy to replace.
The enemy of God offers lots of excuses like: Oh, no one really notices me... I’m not important enough... I don’t feel like my part makes any difference...
Why would anyone think like that? One of two reasons comes to mind.
1. That person has been stifled and held back from service.
2. That person is resisting God.
In the weeks ahead we are going to look into these matters more deeply. But I just want to close with a couple of thoughts today.
I am so glad every one of you is here this morning. I only wish all of you would come to all of the meetings that we have as a body. I wish that there was something in you and something in those meetings that made you feel that you couldn’t miss them.
There are priorities in many of your lives that make this Sunday morning service the only meeting of the body that you attend. I’m very glad you are here, but I wish that all of us could be together every time we meet. I wish that we all shared such a sense of loyalty and commitment to one another that we all believed that being together at all the assemblies took high priority in our lives.
Remember: we are a body. This body needs its members.
Being together because of love for God, in view of his mercies, and love for each other and because each of us is a member of one another and each of us is given a gift according to God’s grace…
If we embrace the gospel, let us also embrace one another in Christ.
May God help us to demonstrate to all who see us that we are indeed the body of Christ.
