A Living Sacrifice
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2, NIV 1984)
Romans 12:1-2 represents a major turning point in the book of Romans. With these verses, the apostle Paul moves from explanation to application. In the first eleven chapters of Romans, Paul has focused on explaining the gospel. Paul has revealed how hopelessly lost we are apart from Christ. But here’s the good news! God has not left us to ourselves. In Romans 5:8, Paul declares that God “demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In other words, God offers us forgiveness of sin through faith in Jesus because, on the cross, Jesus absorbed the Father’s wrath—the wrath we deserved. By means of the cross, God justifies (declares “not guilty”) all who trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. But that’s only the beginning. According to Paul’s gospel, God not only delivers believers from the penalty of sin, he also delivers us from the power of sin (see Romans 6:14-22). Then, in Romans 8:29-30, Paul explains how God’s gospel secures our eternity with him! God finishes what he begins. Those he predestines he calls. Those he calls he justifies. Those he justifies he also glorifies. Not one of his children will be lost along the way.
Now, having explained the wonders of God’s gospel (Romans 1-11), the apostle turns to application. Here in Romans 12:1-2 Paul defines our only proper response to God’s gospel. Filled with a wondrous sense of gratitude for God’s grace, Paul declares that our only proper response to salvation through faith in Christ is to “offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God”!
So what does that mean? First, to present your body as a sacrifice to God represents the offering of your whole self—nothing held back! God does not offer us the option of compartmentalizing our lives. For believers there can be no division between “sacred” and “secular”. In Christ, nothing is secular. All is sacred. In response to God’s mercy you must offer up your career. Likewise, your pastimes, your recreation, your sexuality, your marriage, your family, your friendships must all be laid on the altar for God. In other words, properly responding to God grace towards us in Christ means joyfully and gratefully presenting all that we are and all that we do as an offering to the One who first offered himself for us.
But notice, offering our whole selves as a living sacrifice to God is not a one-time event. Paul says we must offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice is the sacrifice of a life that keeps on serving and keeps on submitting to God. So many speak of their willingness to die for God. How many are willing to persevere in this world by fully devoting themselves to God one day at a time.
Finally, Paul says we must offer ourselves to God not only as a living sacrifice but also as a holy sacrifice. To be holy is to be “set apart” for God and his purposes. Offering yourself as a holy sacrifice means constantly making the choice to set yourself apart from habitual sin for the sake of being useful to God. Offering yourself as a holy sacrifice means you can’t think like the world thinks, act like the world acts, or value what the world values. Only then will your light shine in the darkness.
So how do we do it? How do we joyfully and gratefully offer up our bodies as living and holy sacrifices to God? In verse 2, Paul tells us we must consciously and consistently decide to “not be conformed to this world.” Rather, we must always be choosing to be “transformed” by the “renewing of our minds.” This we must do in the strength of God’s Spirit and by means of God’s word, prayer, and the fellowship of God’s people.
This really isn’t rocket science. If we invest the bulk of our lives in reading this world’s books, watching this world’s movies, concerning ourselves with this world’s opinions, pursuing this world’s goals—guess what we’ll end up being conformed to? This world! But, if we invest ourselves in God’s word, prayer, and God’s people we will discern God’s will and know what is pleasing and acceptable to him. Then our lives will be a living and holy sacrifice to God and our joy will be complete.