“Transformational Living”
(Romans 12:1-2)
Series: Not Guilty!
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
First Baptist Henderson, KY
(10-18-09) (AM)
- Take God’s Word and open to Romans, chapter 12.
We have been making our way, verse-by-verse, through what is arguably the Apostle Paul’s greatest treatise in the New Testament. Romans if full of rich theology, namely an in-depth study of the joy of justification by faith, that we are saved not by our works, not by our works plus faith, but solely and entirely by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. For 11 chapters now the Apostle Paul has been teaching us about the depth of sin and the mercies of God. We left off in our study with this incredible paragraph of praise at the end of chapter 11.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
34 “For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?”
35 “Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?”
36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
It’s like the Apostle Paul just says, “Hallelujah!” and then takes a big breath and begins a new section of material, chapters 12 to the end. So we come to what is a very pivotal text, Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. This small text is the turning point in the epistle that takes us from doctrine to duty and from instruction to application, or from learning the deep truths to living the deep truths. Paul is saying, “In light of everything we have studied to this point, let me tell you how then we should live.”
- Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
- Pray.
Introduction:
If we could somehow express succinctly the entirety of the Christian life in two verses, we would have Romans 12:1-2. These two verses say just about everything we need to hear about living the Christian life. I wonder how many of you have memorized Romans 12:1-2? Anyone? It’s a great text to memorize. Say it with me as I read it again. Read it together.
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
I want to talk to you this morning on the topic of “Transformational Living.” Nearly every one of us is here this morning or is listening to this message because we want to draw closer to our Lord Jesus Christ. We want to know, as Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:18-19, what is “the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
I mean, we want to know Him and yet grow more deeply in our understanding of Him. We want to experience the very life and power of the Gospel in our whole being. There’s something within us that drives us to that. We were created in His image. We yearn for the glory of God. We want more of Him. We sincerely sing:
More about Jesus I would know,
More of His grace to others show;
More of His saving fullness see,
More of His love who died for me.
Romans 12:1-2 feeds us with the nutriments for which our soul desperately yearns. And, at the same time, this small text warns us about becoming derailed in our longing for the glory of God by exchanging the glory of God for the glory of something else. Each of these two verses calls for two clear actions. First, the Bible teaches:
I. Be Entirely Devoted to the Lord (1)
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Verse one calls the Christian to complete devotion to the Lord God. Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. Paul begins this section strongly. He says, “I beseech you.” Now that’s not some old, formal way to speak. It is the language of urgency. It conveys deep importance. Contextually, we understand it to be a matter of life and death. Paul is not merely saying, “Hey, I’ve got some stuff you may want to consider.” He is saying, “Listen to me! I urge you with everything I can muster! Listen, while there is time! Don’t sleep! Awake! This is urgent!”
I beseech you therefore. The word therefore is the particle that links chapters 1-11 to chapters 12-16. Paul is saying in light of what precedes—chapters 1-11—here’s how you must live—chapters 12-16. I’ve given the doctrine, now here is the duty. I’ve provided instruction, now here’s application. We’ve talked about the learning, now let’s talk about the living.
Paul does the same thing in the Book of Ephesians. Look at it later. There are six chapters. The first half is doctrine, the second half is duty. Chapters 1-3 are learning. Chapters 4-6 are living. Doctrine is never to be studied in the abstract. We’re never to just sit around in Bible studies and study doctrine. I love Bible studies, but the study of doctrine should lead to duty. The Bible teaches us the great things of God so that we will live the life God has called us to live. We will leave our Bible study saying, “I want to serve God! I want to share the Gospel! I want to teach a class! I want to feed the hungry! I want to go overseas! I want to give my tithe and offering! I want to sing!” Doctrine leads to duty.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. The phrase is “mercies of God.” Some translations have only “mercy” of God, but it is plural in the Greek. Paul is talking about the many aspects of God’s mercy in the preceding chapters, all of this great doctrine we have been studying the past few months, mercies like Romans 1:16-17, that the Gospel is “the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes…for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” Mercies like Romans 3:23 and following that, despite the fact that we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:24, we may be “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness.”
Mercies like Romans 5:1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Mercies like Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Mercies like Romans 6:4 that, “therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” mercies like Romans 7:24-25, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Mercies like Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Mercies like Romans 8:18, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Mercies like Romans 8:28 and following, “and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew (which means fore-loved), He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, theses He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Mercies like Romans 8:38 and following, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
These are just a few of the many mercies of God. So Paul says in Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that is, in view of all these wonderful aspects of God’s mercy—present your bodies a living sacrifice.”
The motivation for our devotion to God is what He has already done for us in Christ. This is why we live the Christian life. I’m afraid too many people have it the other way around. But Paul is careful to give us first the basis for holy living so that we live out of the overflow of our gratitude to God for what He has already done. If we don’t get that down, we are susceptible to guilt and legalism. In other words, if Paul began Romans with all of the duty, you know, “Do this and do that” we would just have another religion of morality, no different really than any other religion. Our guilt would drive us to “do this” and “do that” and “don’t do this” and “don’t do that.” But that’s not the Christian life. The Christian life is, “Here is what God has done for you in Christ (chapters 1-11), now in view of this, do this and do that.” Make sure, you get the proper motivation. It is gratitude for all God has done. It is, “in view of the mercies of God.”
Paul says, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice.” Perhaps that sounds a bit strange to us. But remember that the Old Testament way of worship was for the priest to present to God an animal sacrifice to atone for sin. The Levitical system taught Israel that God demanded blood sacrifice to atone for their sin. When an animal was offered on the altar, the death of that animal meant that God’s wrath toward their sin was temporarily averted, or turned away. God would regard the sins of His people as paid for in the death of that animal. This is way the Bible says that, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.”
And so the priest would come before the altar with an unblemished animal sacrifice. These animal sacrifices were a kind of temporary means by which Israel received forgiveness of sin. They were temporary because they served as a picture of a future coming sacrifice, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who suffered and died as the final sacrifice to atone for sin. He was the last sacrifice of death.
Hebrews 9:11-12, “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”
Christ was the last sacrifice of death. So Paul speaks here in Romans 12 of a “living sacrifice.” He says, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice.” And here is the call for entire devotion to God. Do you think of your life as literally offering your entire self to God? That is our daily duty!
Present your bodies to God as a living sacrifice. You are presenting your very self to God in utter devotion to Him. This is worship. It is all pictured in the Old Testament way of worship. See there in verse 1. We are to present these very bodies of ours upon the altar of God as bodies that are “holy, acceptable to God.” Just as a lamb was to be unspotted, unblemished, so are we to be unspotted from the world, unblemished.
And Paul says this is “your reasonable service” or reasonable worship. That’s what He’s talking about here, worshiping the Lord. Service to the Lord is worship. We daily present ourselves to God. It is our reasonable, or logical, act of worship. In other words, we’re not irrational animals who die. We are humans—thinking, reasoning, rational humans—who die regularly before God as living sacrifices. This is your reasonable service.
He’s talking about worship. Too often we think of worship as only that which occurs for an hour in a building. Worship is not confined to a building and worship is not confined to an hour. Worship is to take place all the time and everywhere. That’s what Paul’s talking about here. Present your bodies a living—hear that, living—continually, offering yourselves sacrificially to God, presenting yourself, saying, “Here am I. Use me for Your glory.” That is worship. Worship is not just a service on Sunday or Wednesday.
I don’t have many original thoughts, but God gave me this one in my study. Here’s Brother Todd’s definition for worship. “Worship is bringing glory to God in all we do all the time.”
There is a sense in which we ought to roll out of bed every morning with these verses on our hearts and minds. “Dear God, I present my body to you today as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.” This is what the hymn-writer had in mind when he wrote:
Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee;
Take my voice and let me sing,
Always, only for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee;
Take my silver and my gold,
Not a mite would I withhold.
My intellect, my will, my heart, my love—myself.
Be entirely devoted to the Lord. Here’s number two from verse 2:
II. Be Entirely Different from the World (2)
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
The word “world” here is a reference to those things that are in opposition to the things of God. We speak of the “world” as the earthly things over which the “prince of this world,” the devil, rules and reigns.
Do not be conformed to this world. The word “conformed” means to take on the things of the world often without even realizing one has done so. Most of us dress the way we do because we are under pressure to conform to the norms of our society. Now maybe you didn’t say it just like that when you went shopping and picked out that dress or that shirt, but you knew that there were certain things society affirms and certain things society does not affirm. A person who doesn’t care at all about conforming to the norms is called a “non-conformist.”
Now Paul is not talking so much about shopping here as he is talking about the world system in general. And what he says here about the Christian life is that you and I are to be “non-conformists.” We are not to be “conformed to the world.”
I believe JB Phillips provides an excellent translation here. He says, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold.” I believe that’s right on target. Don’t let the world around your squeeze you into its own mold.
Don’t be conformed to this world, don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, its standards, its expectations.
The world says you have to look a certain way to be attractive. Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold. The world defines what is successful. Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold. The world has its own low standards for marriage and divorce. Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold. The world tells you to eat, drink, and be merry! Party!” Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold. Do not be conformed to this world. The world can tempt us in so many ways…its science says the Bible is wrong, its politics says the Bible is offensive, its popular society says the Bible is prudish and outdated. Don’t be conformed to the world.
John says in John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
This was the sad fate of a man named Demas to which Paul referred in his last letter, in
2 Timothy 4:10: “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.” Don’t love the world.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The word “transformed” there is the word from which we get “metamorphosis,” to change form from one thing into another. An ugly caterpillar transforms into a beautiful butterfly. This is what God does for us on Calvary’s cross. We were dead in sins, but God gives us life that we may be transformed into a new creation. So the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
God brings about this transformation and expects us to grow in our transformational living. In one sense, Romans 12:2 is a call to be who you are. Be the Christian God has called you to be. How are we to continue to transform, to be conformed into image of God’s Son? Paul says, “by the renewing of your mind.” How does that happen? Through the Word of God. The Spirit of God speaks to us through the Word of God to renew the mind of the man of God. We begin to change the way we think in light of this process of transformation.
The Spirit of God speaks to us through the Word of God to renew the mind of the man of God. We cannot have renewed minds without read Bibles. We must read our Bibles if we want to renew our minds. Then we grow in our thinking.
If we do all of this then, says Paul, we will “prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” The NLT has, “Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.”
Two steps to transformational living: 1) Be entirely devoted to God; 2) Be entirely different from the world.
- Stand for prayer.
Keith Green has a song entitled, “You love the world.”
I want you here with me.
But you’ve been keeping other company.
You can’t sit still, it’s plain to see.
You love the world and you’re avoiding me.
My word sits there upon your desk.
But you love your books and magazines the best.
Prefer the light of your tv.
You love the world, and you’re avoiding me.
You used to pray, you were so brave.
Now you can’t keep even one appointment we’ve made.
Oh i gave my blood, to save you life.
Tell me, tell me is it right?
Will you leave me here along again tonight?
Well i love you, still more and more.
But you’re fighting everything i’m working for.
You’re acting like my enemy.
You love the world and you’re avoiding me.
These other loves, they’re hurting you.
If you end up losing me, then what will you do?
Oh, i gave my blood, to save your life.
Tell me, tell me is it right?
Will you leave me here alone again tonight?
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