Last night we continued our study of Paul’s letter to the Romans by looking at the first two verses of chapter twelve. Here are the notes:
The exhortation: Whole-Life Response to God’s Mercy
1. “By the mercies of God” – Learn, know and be moved by God’s mercies.
What does Paul mean by “God’s mercies”? It’s hos way of summing up everything he’s written about in the first eleven chapters of Romans: The good news about what God has done to accomplish total salvation, by total grace, enabling a new life now and a new destiny for the future. Humans are all guilty before God, we will face his wrath, and we’re slaves of sin as well. But He has done something that can completely save us from all that: sent his own son to meet the demand and die in our place, and rice again from the dead to offer a whole new kind of life to us.
In Romans, we’ve already seen that this good news is about the power of salvation from:
1. A debased mind: 1:21, 28; 6:11; 8:5-8
2. A dishonored body: 1:24, 4:19, 6:12-13, 7:25, 8:4
2. Present your body to him (as a “living sacrifice”)
“body” = body, but whole self…
“present” = offer as a sacrifice
“sacrifice” = one that does not die to be offered, but lives. My living is my sacrifice. “My worship is not special sacred times of places, but daily living out a holy life in a profane world.” See Rom 6-13-19. (see also 1 Cor 6:13-20, Phil 1:20)
The point: Whole-Life giving of yourself to the Lord. A complete discipleship. Nothing piece-meal.
How? Inner Transformation.
3. Resist being confirmed to this world.
That is, resist being conformed to the world…in any way that would keep you from presenting your self as a living sacrifice.
To understand this, we can ask ourselves: What, in our current culture, would…
…belittle God, and make him seem not worth giving yourself to?
…interpret your life without reference to God?
…preach other messages to you about who you are or what you should be doing with your life?
…offer fulfillment that does not include God?
…present a way of thinking and living that is opposed to God’s purpose of setting up Jesus as king and glorifying the Father through him forever?
Other verses about the pressures to conform in this present age: Eph 2:2, 1 Jo 2:15-17, Gal 1:4
4. …but pursue transformation through mind-renewal. (or, allow the Spirit to do this renewal)
“mind” (Rom 1:28) – ***The center of Christian transformation in this life is not the transformation of our bodies, but of our minds.
The Result: A Visible Exhibition of God’s Will.
5. Then, you’ll be able to know and live out a proof of what God’s will is.
A mind that’s remade in God’s pattern will lead to a whole life that worships him. In other words, you’ll know (in your mind) what things God desires, and your actions will show it.
Sum up: The response of someone who has been gripped by the truths Paul shared in chapters 9-11 is a whole new kind of thinking, which enables a whole new kind of living—one that is a daily offered up sacrifice of worship to God. “This is Yours God! This is for you!” When you look at that kind of life, you can see what God really has for people.