Sermon Tone Analysis

Inscription: Writing God’s Words on Our Hearts & Minds

Part 71: A Living Sacrifice

Romans 12:1-2

April 1, 2012

Prayer

Scripture reading: Romans 12:1-2 (Marilyn)

Turning of the book

Sometimes one word can be really important.

When my friend Bruce Wersen preached on Romans he spent one whole sermon on the word “therefore.”

You will be glad we are not doing the same.

But the “therefore” in 12:1 marks a significant shift in the book.

At this point, Paul changes from teaching theology – what to know, to teaching ethics – what to do.

Romans 12:1 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.

The rest of the book is filled with great instruction on how to live the Christian life.

Things like

“Let no man think higher of himself than he ought...” (12:3)

“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” (12:15)

“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities...” (13:1)

Each of these verses could be a complete sermon in itself, and “I urge you” to read the rest of the book this week.

belief drives Behavior

But the “therefore” is important for another, theologically profound reason.

This “therefore” separates Christianity from just about every other religion:

Every command Paul is about to give flows from everything he has just said about God’s forgiveness, his generous grace, the freedom from sin – not the other way around.

~* We do not do chapter 12-16 in order to earn chapters 1-11; chapters 12-16 are a response to “God’s mercy.”

Doing the right thing for the wrong reason is still wrong.

~* Buying flowers for my wife because I feel guilty doesn’t mean as much as ones bought out of love!

But at the same time, belief alone isn’t enough.

Telling Marilyn “I thought about buying you flowers” doesn’t cut it either.

At some point, thought has to translate into action.

James 2:17-19 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

19 You believe that there is one God.

Good!

Even the demons believe that – and shudder.

Reasonable Worship

Rather than trying to earn God’s approval one on hand or having faith without works, the Bible calls us to live differently as a response to what God has done, “in light of God’s mercies.”

While NIV is an excellent translation, I think it misses the boat at a couple of points in this passage: “spiritual act of worship” is better translated as “reasonable worship.”

~* In light of all God has done, this is what makes sense, anything less would be insulting.

On Friday, Dave Bishop helped me by taking a bunch of pictures for a little book I am working on, “Drinking to the Glory of God.”

It involved taking a bunch of pictures at the Porterhouse of beer and Bibles, etc.

~* I appreciated his help, so it is was more than reasonable to buy his beer; but there was a time I’d have been too stingy.

So maybe this could be translated at “in light of God’s grace, don’t be stingy.”

~* When we fail to live as sacrifices, giving everything to God, it is probably because we forget all that God has given us.

Think of our possessions – God has given us everything we have (it is part of his mercies), yet we are stingy with giving part of it back to him.

Really!?!

~* A big tithe check means that God has given you a lot!

The new law

So in response to God’s mercy, we are to “offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.”

At first, this strikes us as strange – I thought Jesus was the sacrifice who took away our sins, such as the guilt offering.

There were others that were acts of worship, such as the fellowship offering.

~* I have learned that flowers work great as a fellowship offering, but lousy as a guilt offering!

We don’t offer ourselves as a guilt offering, but as a fellowship offering, as a “reasonable act of worship.”

Paul describes it as:

1. Living

That’s a lot better than the alternative.

It’s better than flowers that are dead before you get them home, or even a potted flower that will soon be dead because you forget to water it.

~* We are a living sacrifice, continuing to give and serve.

2. Holy

This means set apart, completely his.

Not like regifting flowers to your spouse, but all the way hers.

3. Acceptable

If your wife is allergic to roses, roses would not be an acceptable gift.

In the same way, Paul is calling us to be offerings that are acceptable to God.

In the OT, there were things that would make an offering unacceptable – offering unkosher animals, leftovers, or offerings given half-heartedly.

The new standard

Q So how can we be “acceptable”?

I finally understood the connection between v. 1 and v. 2 this time through.

I always thought v.2 was one way to do v. 1, but I now understand it is thee way.

See if you can see how:

Romans 12:2 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.

In v. 1, Paul intentionally uses a lot of technical terms for sacrifices.

He is bringing to mind the OT law, which regulated every part of life.

~* It was a long list of rules telling them everything from how to offer good sacrifices to how to be good Jews.

While these rules continue to be valuable for understanding how to life righteously, Paul knew were insufficient:

They were written to a particular people in a particular time.

They were interested in keeping Israel safe from the world around it, so unable to address how to reach the world.

They did not address motives and internals.

They didn’t take Christ’s sacrifice into account.

In chapters 12-16 Paul gives us better rules and instruction on being a living sacrifice, but he knows it is still insufficient, because he can’t cover every single possible situation.

~* Even if you were to memorize every single verse, you would still run into situations it doesn’t cover.

Heart issues

But perhaps even more importantly, it doesn’t deal with the spirit of the law:

Q Have you ever notices how good kids are at finding loopholes?

You tell them to clean off their bedroom floor, and they put all of their stuff under their beds.

They may have followed the letter, but the missed the intent.

Paul knew that God promised that under the new covenant, we would no longer need the specific statutes of the law because we understand the intent:

Jeremiah 31:33-34 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD.

“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.

I will be their God, and they will be my people.

34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD.

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

God isn’t saying there is no more law or moral requirements, nothing to say what is pleasing to God and what is not, but that it will be increasingly written on our hearts and minds.

Q Do you see the connection between this and Romans 12:2?

God’s plan isn’t for the Christian life to be a new set of rules to memorize and obey, but the ability to understand him through what he has already said in the OT and the NT and then be able to apply it to our lives and our situations.

~* We want rules to obey, lists to follow, God wants us to change how we think; the appeal of legalism is laziness.

Test and approve

God’s end goal is not simply that we memorize every verse in the Bible, but that we be able to look at a situation “test and approve” of what God would want.

~* Those words actually translate one word, which means “discern, understand.”