By The Mercies of God.
Rom. 12:1-2
There is an old story (various sources, original source unknown) of a mother who approached Napoleon Bonaparte concerning her son. It seems that her son had committed some serious infraction and Napoleon had determined that he was to be executed. The son’s mother came to Napoleon and asked him to pardon her son. Napoleon declared that the boy had disobeyed on two occasions and justice demanded that he be executed. The woman replied, “But I don’t ask for justice, I plead for mercy.” “But your son does not deserve mercy.” “Sir,” the woman cried, “It would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for.” “Well then,” the emperor said, “I will have mercy.” and he spared the woman’s son.
In Romans 12:1-2, the apostle Paul appeals to his readers . . . .
The primary motive which Paul cites for our commitment to God is that of God’s mercies. He says, “Therefore, I urge you brethren by the mercies of God . . .”
What is mercy? Mercy is that act which is performed to alleviate the suffering of another. The famous story of the good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-37 illustrates the concept of mercy. The Samaritan saw the traveler in dire straits and in need of assistance and he took action to help relieve his suffering. In the bible, God’s mercy is that action of God that is taken to relieve the suffering of man which has been brought about by man’s own sin. God’s mercy is not bestowed on us because we deserve it but because God desires to give it. It is unconditional. In the Old Testament, God’s mercy is always connected with the covenant relationship between God and Israel. (Deut. 7:7-9) God has mercy on Israel, not because Israel deserves mercy, but because God is merciful to his covenant people. This is a covenant which Israel continuously violates. This violation always brings about punishment from God. But the punishment is not meant to drive away Israel but rather to restore the broken covenant and bring Israel back to God. God is faithful to himself and therefore faithful to his covenant with Israel.
God’s ultimate act of mercy is his sending of Jesus to die for the sins of “his people.” When the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in Matt. 1:21, he declared concerning Jesus, “He will save his people from their sins.” To the Jewish mind, they were God’s people and so Jesus came to die for them and not the Gentiles. But after Jesus died and the church was established and the Gentiles began to flood into the church, the Jews, including those converted to Christianity, began to ask, “Has God abandoned his people?” Has God done something that he had promised never to do? After all he promised in I Sam. 12:22, “For the Lord will not abandon his people on account of his treat name, because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for himself.” Paul seeks to answer that question in Romans chapters 9-11. He says flatly in Rom. 11:1, “I say then, God has not rejected his people has he? May it never be . . .” In verse 2, “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.” Paul then adds in verse 5-6 . . .
This is where God’s mercy comes in. Paul actually begins his discussion of God’s mercy and Israel in chapter 9 when he begins 6 to differentiate between physical Israel and spiritual Israel. He says in verse 6, “For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.” He adds in verse 8, “. . . It is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.” Paul follows with an illustration of Jacob and Esau in which God declares even before they were born, “Jacob I Loved, but Esau I hated.” (Rom. 9:13; Mal. 1:2). Then in verses 14-16 Paul says . . .
In other words, it is God’s decision concerning who is the recipient of his mercy. In the remainder of chapter 9 and all of chapter 10, Paul puts forth his argument that salvation which brings about righteousness before God, is through the grace and mercy of God which is received by man on the basis of faith. That salvation by grace through faith is offered not only to the Jews but to the Gentiles also (9:23-26).
This was the rock over which the Jews stumbled for they continued to pursue righteousness through obedience to the law of Moses rather than through faith in Christ Jesus (Rom. 9:30-33).
In 10:1-13, Paul declares that righteous before God is obtained the same way, through faith, whether one is a Jew or a Gentile. Verse 12-13 says . . .
In chapter 11 Paul shows how the disobedience of Israel was used by him to bring salvation to the Gentiles (Rom. 11:11). In 11:17-24 Paul uses a rather complex illustration of an olive tree to caution the Gentiles against arrogance against the Jews. The olive tree represents God’s salvation. The Gentiles were grafted onto the tree through their faith. The Jews were “broken off” the tree because of their unbelief. Paul then cautions the Gentiles that if unbelief caused the Jews to be broken off then unbelief will also cause the Gentiles to be broken off. He adds that if the disbelieving Jews return to God in faith that they can again be grafted back into the tree. He concludes his discussion of God’s mercy in verses 30-32 . . .
Both Jew and Gentile were disobedient to God. The Gentiles were brought to God through the disobedience of the Jews and the Jews will brought to obedience to God through the mercy of God shown to the Gentiles. Thus while all were disobedient to God, he has shown mercy to all.
Paul ends chapter 11 with a great burst of praise for God in verses 33-36.
Paul begins chapter 12 and continues through chapter 16 with an urgent appeal to his readers for action based on the mercy which they have received from God. He begins in Rom. 12:1-2 . . . In these two verses, Paul challenges us to offer to God in worship, a living and holy sacrifice, our very lives. He then instructs us concerning the two things we must do or not do to achieve that goal.
Because God has been merciful to us, Paul says we should become living and holy sacrifices to him. These sacrifices have four characteristics. 1. Our sacrifices are not to be animals but our own bodies. Jews and Gentiles alike were accustomed to sacrificing animals to God or to their gods. Paul is calling on us to sacrifice ourselves. 2. Our sacrifices are to be living. This idea of a living sacrifice would be totally new to both Jew and Gentile who offered sacrifices which died upon the altar and stayed dead. To be a living sacrifice is to be a resurrected sacrifice. One that has died but has come to life again. This is a concept which Paul has presented several times in different ways in the book of Romans. Perhaps the clearest allusion to this is found in Romans 6:3-5, 8-13. We who are Christians died to sin when we were baptized and rose from the water alive to God. From that moment on our lives become walking talking, living, breathing sacrifices who are offered on the altar of service to almighty God who extended his grace and mercy to us through Jesus Christ. Thus a living sacrifice is dead to its previous existence and alive to its new existence. In our case as living sacrifices, we are dead to our old lives of sin and alive to our new lives of righteousness.
3. Our sacrifices are to be holy. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel were expressly forbidden to offer a sacrifice to God that was blind, lame or in any way deformed. Likewise, our living sacrifice is to be one that has been made holy by God by the cleansing blood of Christ and is offered to God as a sacrifice without blemish, perfect and holy. Thus our sacrifice will be acceptable to God. The commentator Albert Barnes made this statement,
In like manner we are to consecrate to God our best faculties; the vigor of our minds, and talents, and time . . . Our sacrifice to God is to be not divided, separate; but it is to be entire and complete . . . The sacrifice is to be free from sin. It is not to be a divided, and broken, and polluted service. It is to be with the best affections of our hearts and lives.
4. Our living sacrifices to God are our “spiritual worship” of God. We normally think of worship as something we do on Sunday morning as we assemble together. However, the apostle Paul tells us that we worship God every day of our lives as we offer our lives in sacrificial service to him.
To achieve the goal of presenting to God a living and holy sacrifice that is acceptable to him in our daily worship, we must not allow ourselves to be conformed to the pattern of the world. This word deals with an outward change in our appearance or speech or behavior in order to conform to the environment around us. In nature we are all familiar with the chameleon which can change its color in order to blend in with its surroundings.
People are like that. Both children and adults are reluctant to be different from their peers. How many of us who are parents and grandparents are familiar with the phrase, “but everybody . . . is wearing it/doing it/playing it/ watching it/ . . .” This tendency to want to be like our surroundings is innocent enough until it comes to our relationship with the world of sin. We must not be like clay on a potter’s wheel and allow ourselves to be conformed to whatever pattern the world wants us to become. The world has different standards of what is appropriate speech, behavior and dress. In order to present our lives to God as living sacrifices, we must not allow our lives to be polluted by the world in which we live.
Instead we must continuously be transformed. This word refers to an inward change as opposed to an outward image. It is the word from which we get the English word “metamorphosis.” This is the process in nature during which an ugly old caterpillar is changed into a beautiful butterfly. When we become Christians we are changed from an ugly life of sin covered with the pollution of the world into a life of righteousness, clean and holy. Liked “conformed,” “transformed” is also in the passive voice, meaning that our change is caused by something that happens to us. Unlike “conformed,” “transformed” refers not to a change from the outside in but a change from the inside out. How does that happen? In the case of “conformed,” we are changed by the world through the pressure to be like everyone else. In the case of “transformed” we are changed by God.
Our transformation occurs according to Paul when we are renewed. The word “renewing” refers to a complete change. In our world today we hear the term urban renewal. This involves the tearing down of the old and dilapidated structures and the building of the new and clean and beautiful buildings. In our lives when we are renewed we are completely rebuilt through the destruction and death of the old man and the building of the new man in Christ. When we become Christians we are renewed and become a new creation. II Cor. 5:17, “Therefore is anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
That renewal must take place in our minds. The mind is the seat of our intellect, our thinking. Before we became Christians, we were guilty, as Zig Zigler would say, of “stinkin’ thinkin’.” When we became Christians our renewal process began with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Paul says in Titus 3:5 our salvation was, “not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” This happened when we were baptized and received the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). We continue that renew process by our exposure to the word of God. In II Cor. 3:18, Paul, referring to the “glory of the Lord” says, “but we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Sprit.” In other words, as we behold Christ as revealed through the word of God, our minds are renewed and we are transformed.
It is through the renewing of our minds that we will be able to discern the will of God for our lives. Only through the constant renewing by the Holy Spirit and the word of God can we know what God desires of us. It is then that we can do that which is good to God, that which is acceptable to God and that which is perfect to God.
