Reforming Our Lives Series

Scripture

During this fall, we are focusing our attention on the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. So far, we have examined the five key doctrines of the Reformation: sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), solus Christus (Christ alone), sola gratia (grace alone), sola fide (faith alone), and soli deo Gloria (glory to God alone). One of the major areas in which reformation took place was in the area of worship. We examined that last week. Another major area in which reformation took place was in the area of Christian living. We shall examine that today.

Paul’s letter to the Romans is a grand manifesto of the gospel, and also of the Christian life. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, Martin Luther came to understand the glorious truth that our salvation is by grace alone in Christ alone, received by faith alone, grounded in Scripture alone, and all for the glory of God alone.

Today, I would like to use Romans 12:1-2 to see how God reforms our lives. Let’s read Romans 12:1-2:

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

Introduction

Romans 12:1-2 are very important verses in which Paul shows how God reforms our lives. It is important to understand that the starting point for God reforming our lives is his mercy. We see that in verse 1a, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God….”

The starting point of our Christian life is God’s mercy. The basis of on which he calls us to reform of our lives is his mercy. Paul calls us to live for God, to love God, to obey God, to delight in God’s word, to delight in God’s will, to delight in God’s law, to live it out because of the mercies of God toward us.

Christian living, Paul says, is grounded on our having received mercy. Paul exhorts us to obedience to God because of what God has done for us. He says, “In light of God’s mercy, you do this: you be a living sacrifice, and live for God.”

This is vital for us to understand at the outset. The Christian life is not God saying to us, “Do this and live.” It is rather, “Because I have given you life, do this!”

God’s mercy not only has the goal of seeing us justified before him and accepted and accounted as righteous, it has the goal of making us righteous.

The Reformer, John Calvin, you may remember, if you have read his Institutes of the Christian Religion, calls this double grace. God wants us to be acquitted and declared righteous. But he also has the goal of one day having us standing perfect before him. He begins that labor now. It never ends in this life. We may wish that it did. It’s an ongoing project, it is never completed in this life, but its goal is that we would, not only on that last day be declared righteous, but that we would actually be righteous as we stand before him through the work of his mercy.

Paul wants you to understand that God’s call to obedience must be set against the backdrop of what God has already done. Paul is not saying, “Just obey well enough and God will show you his mercy.” Rather, he is saying, “God has already shown you his mercy in Jesus Christ. In light of God’s mercy, give yourself to God as a living sacrifice. Love God and obey God and love his law and live the Christian life because of his mercy to you.”

Lesson

Romans 12:1-2 shows us five ways God reforms our lives.

I. God Calls Christians to Whole-Life Sacrifice (12:1b)

First, God calls Christians to whole-life sacrifice.

Paul says in verse 1b: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.”

Paul urges us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. He’s telling us that this call to holiness that he’s issuing here means a whole-life sacrifice. Christian living, in other words, means dying for Christ.

Now, we don’t live in a culture where people offer animal sacrifices or other types of ritual sacrifices. That doesn’t go on in our culture. We’re not familiar with it. But, the people that Paul was writing to knew very well the typical practices of sacrifice, so something of the shock of what Paul is saying would have hit home to them. They would have been used to putting something else upon an altar to sacrifice it as an offering to God. Now, suddenly Paul says, “Climb up there yourself and give yourself as a sacrifice to God.”