Living Sacrifices
Romans 12:1-13
Responding to Grace
In his other letters, to greater and lesser degrees, Paul deals with topics which arise from his personal knowledge of the recipients of those letters. We can, for example, think of the exhortations to a young preacher found in 1 Timothy, the remonstration of the “foolish” Galatians, the plea for a runaway slave in Philemon, and the tired entreaty to “come before winter” in 2 Timothy. Though all of his letters are profitable for doctrine, reproof, and instruction in righteousness, whether because he had no personal knowledge of the churches in Rome, or because other factors in his ministry gave rise to such a document, the Letter to the Romans is the most systematic presentation we have of the Gospel according to Paul.
To begin with, we are all equal. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (3:23 KJV) The consequences of this sin are very real. “[T]he wages of sin is death.” (6:23a KJV) Yet there is good news. “[T]he gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” Though we have earned death, there is nothing we can do to earn the gift. “[T]he gift is not like the trespass.” (5:15a NIV) “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s effort, but on God’s mercy.” (9:16 NIV)
Given that there is nothing we can do to earn salvation, we may have many questions. “[I]f our righteousness brings out God’ righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us?” (3:5b NIV) “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” (6:1b NIV) “[W]hy does God still blame us?” (9:19b NIV). Though the Sovereign God says “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (9:15b NIV, quoting Exodus 33:19) this is not a threat, but a promise: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (10:13 NIV, quoting Joel 2:32) We are free to accept or reject this mercy. This is the “kindness and sternness of God.” (11:22b NIV)
While there is nothing we can do to receive grace, Paul is constant in maintaining that we must respond to grace. We do not deserve grace because of our nationality, as the children of Abraham thought, but we must become spiritual children of Abraham, because “it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.” (9:8b NIV) No ritual or outward sign, such as circumcision, has the power to bring us grace, but we must respond to grace with an inward “circumcision of the heart.” (2:29 NIV) We do not achieve grace by strict observance of the letter of the law, but by the Spirit. “We have been released from the law so that we serve in a new way of the Spirit.” (7:6 NIV)
Having established our equality in sin and grace, the inability of the law to conquer sin, and the continuity of God’s redemptive plan in the face of rejection by the “Chosen People”, Paul now turns to bring full attention to the subject of our response to grace.
Reasonable Worship
The verses of Chapter 12 are familiar and powerful. In verses 1 and 2 Paul exhorts us to respond to grace by letting go of the influences of this world so that we may be transformed with a new mind. In the last hours before his betrayal Christ prayed for his disciples, including those present with him and those who were to come, not that we would be removed from the world, but that we be protected from it and that we be sanctified by the word of God. (John 17:13-20) Here, Paul says that this abandonment of the ways of the world and submission to the process of sanctification is worship. The world offers many idols which we often try to put in the place of God. Such idolatry is always an attempt to put ourselves in the place of God: the idols have no power over us, but it is our choice to worship them. We worship God by acknowledging that God is God.
Paul says that this worship is “reasonable” as it is translated in the KJV. The Greek word is logikos, the source of the English word “logic”. When John says “In the beginning was the word” (John 1:1 KJV) he uses a related Greek word, logos, which combined the Jewish idea of the powerful word of God with the Greek idea of the mind of God. The word Paul uses is similar in that it could refer to speech or speaking and also to the mind or the soul – these were probably not separate concepts to Paul. In either sense, Paul is not saying that our living sacrifice is neither something we think of from time to time, nor some spiritual feeling we have when the spirit strikes us, but it is an appropriate response to the grace of God; God in Christ gave his life for us, it is reasonable and appropriate that we give our lives to God.
Sober Judgment
In verses 3-8 Paul once again shows his ability to move from lofty levels of powerful theological concepts to the everyday level of common sense. We are who we are, and we are not any more, but we are not any less, either. As it is with the human body, as the body of Christ we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:14) We are not all alike, but we all have value. Others have a responsibility to acknowledge our value, and we have a responsibility to realize our value. We could have all the gold in the world, but if we kept it hidden away all our lives, it would be of no value to anyone. The list of assets Paul mentions here is not meant to be complete, but illustrative. We all have gifts, and whatever they are we must devote them to the service of God.
Living Sacrifices
Verses 9-13 continue Paul’s practice of illustrating by example. This is not meant to be a complete list of requirements for Christian living; that sort of legalistic approach is just the sort of thing Paul decries in preceding chapters. Instead, it is mean to show in common-sense terms what it means to be living sacrifices in the service of our Lord who announced his ministry with these words:
The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. (Luke 4:18:19 KJV, quoting Isaiah 61:1-2)
