When we read the first verse of Romans 12, we are opening the final section of this wonderful letter from Paul. This section will be spent outlining the responsibilities of Christians to government, to mankind in general, to brethren, and to brethren who are “weak in faith.”
This section opens with a fervent plea from the apostle: “I beseech ye therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service.” Paul, after appealing to his brethren by this tender exhortation, makes further appeal by the mercies of God. These mercies (upon which he made his plea) had been expressed in the prior chapter. There he mentioned four times the mercies by which he now appeals to the Romans to present “holy bodies” to God. In Romans 11:20 he wrote, “For as ye in time past were disobedient to God but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience.” His point was that although the Gentiles had been disobedient, in that respect they were no different from the Jew: he had been disobedient, too — Jew and Gentile were in the “same boat.” Then he said, “Even as have these also now been disobedient that by the mercy shown to you they also may obtain mercy” (11:31). God had shown mercy upon both peoples because He is no respecter of persons, and whatever treatment God extended to either branch of humanity, He extended to the other because of His love for all. The apostle concluded, “For God has shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all” (Romans 11:32).
Because of the wondrous mercy of God which is shown to all, he pleads with them that they present a transformed body to God: a body which is a living sacrifice. In the case of animal sacrifices under the Law, the offering of that animal brought about its death, and while the Christian must “die,” he is raised from that death to walk in newness of life. Paul tells us in Romans 6:3-5 that this death, burial, and resurrection which pictures the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus occurs when one is baptized in water. Paul said, “Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.” Hence, the body becomes a living sacrifice the remainder of one’s earthly life. The Christian’s body is dedicated to serving God, for without the body it becomes virtually impossible in earthly life to be obedient to the commandments of God. This commitment of our body to God’s service thus becomes holy and acceptable to God, which action on the Christian’s part is our reasonable (spiritual) service.
Paul continued his instructions for the spiritual service of our body. He wrote, “And be ye not conformed (fashioned) according to this world but be ye transformed.” The world to which we must not be conformed is that of which John wrote: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever” (1 John 3:15-17). There is a contrast: something we must do and must not do. We must not be conformed to the world. We must be transformed from the world.
This change in the behavior of our bodies is brought about by the “renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2). The renewing of our minds comes through the “renewing of the Holy Spirit.” Paul wrote to Titus saying, “But when the kindness of God our Saviour and his love toward man appeared, not by works done in righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us through washing of regeneration (baptism) and the renewing of the Holy Spirit which He poured out upon us …” (3:4-5). This renewing wrought by the Holy Spirit is not a miraculous work; it is wrought by God’s living Word. Of this work the Hebrew writer said, “The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joint and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). God’s Holy Word is the way our minds our renewed. We hear God’s instructions and our minds and hearts are changed and made to be both fitting and willing servants of God.
When this transformation takes place in our hearts, and thus in our bodies, “we prove (to ourselves) what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God.” We become fitted in the image of Samuel who said long along to God, “Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth.”
Jim McDonald