Romans Meditation Lesson 58

Romans Meditation Lesson 58

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” (Romans 12:1-3)

Paul has completed his discourse on the doctrine of Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Chapter twelve is Paul teaching how those who have come to faith in Jesus should live and how we should respond to the mercy God has shown us. As Paul is an Apostle of Jesus, he is also a sinner, just like all of us. Paul also is a sinful human saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul addresses God as Father, as we also make Jesus a brother to us in the faith.

Paul wants his reader to recognize the mercy God has shown, which Paul has described earlier in this letter. In the last verses of chapter eleven, Paul presents a poem that shows that God owes us nothing. We have also learned that each of us is deserving death as a result of our sinful living. God has offered us life and purpose through His Son Jesus. God has shown His mercy, forgave us, and shared the riches of His glory with us. We have done nothing to deserve this, and the question is, how should we respond?

In the Old Testament, the Israelites offered animal sacrifices to God. Now that Christ has come and sacrificed Himself for our sins, Paul teaches we are to sacrifice our bodies to Him as living sacrifices. It is a reasonable sacrifice for His mercy and grace to offer ourselves a spiritual service for worship.

The animal sacrifices of the old covenant were set apart from the herd for that special purpose. Only acceptable, unmarked, and unharmed without blemish could be offered to God. Living sacrifices have been set apart for His purposes, and He has declared us acceptable because of our position in Christ. We do not have to wait till we become better to offer our bodies to God. As God the Father sees us as faithful believers of Christ, God will receive our spiritual sacrifice now. Our life of spiritual worship is the appropriate response to the mercy God has already given to us.

Paul now teaches us we are no longer to be conformed to the world. In the New Testament, the world is the world system, the way natural humans live.  The Apostle John describes the worldly way humans live in 1 John 2:16. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” (1 John 2:16). By our nature sinful nature, we chase after these things in the pursuit of happiness and meaning.

Paul is telling us to abandon this pursuit of pleasure, possession, and status. Instead, Paul is teaching us to be transformed from the inside out. We must change how we think, renewing our minds in the power of the Holy Spirit to understand God’s will for our lives. God may provide or allow pleasure, possessions, and status, but our focus is to look at life from a new perspective. The question is, what does God want for us? What is the good and acceptable use of my time for His purposes and will, not just for my own?

We have accepted the gift of God’s grace in our lives, but we need not become overly proud of ourselves, as it was God’s gift and nothing of our own. Human nature often inflates our perception of self. Human nature is self-centered and concerned with pleasing itself. Most judgments are based on how they relate to us. We must transform our minds to have the ability to see ourselves as we truly are. Our view of ourselves should be objective with sound judgment. We need to be honest about what we can do and what we cannot.

I like to see myself in the third position, which affords a moment to step forward and seldom a moment to step back. Ordinary is not less, as quiet contemplation allows great times of inspiration. I keep away from the mirror that sees me as big and powerful and rests in the faith that one who lives within is far superior to me. It takes faith to see ourselves this way objectively. Faith allows us to see ourselves truthfully and to trust God to do through us what He has gifted us to do.

God has a plan for our life, a work of service for His church. An inflated view of ourselves will get in the way of that work and the great things God intends to do with us. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Thomas N Kirkpatrick

First Baptist Church of Durant, June 13, 2024