Today, we transition into Romans 12 where we come to the final section of the book of Romans which is about service. You will remember that we began this study in Romans 1 considering seven characteristics of a servant, and now the book ends with a portrait of the servant.
Everything from Romans 12 until the end of the book is conditioned upon that one prepositional phrase, "by the mercies of God," or, as other translations have it, "in view of God's mercy." This prepositional phrase introduces the first main idea that Paul is bringing out in this book which is: the more we come to see the mercies of God, the more we will long to submit ourselves to Him and to obey Him. The Greek word used for mercy means to supply forgiveness and compassion for past failures. Mercy is what God pours out upon us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Mercy is our only hope because there is nothing we have done, or can do to make us acceptable before and useful to God. The mercy of God counters the fact that we deserve hell for our violent rebellion against God.
Once we understand the mercies of God, the Apostle urges us to present our bodies a living sacrifice to God. The sacrifice of Christ on the cross, when understood by the forgiven sinner, prompts us to lay down our total existence for the glory of God. One preacher once said, "I must live so close to the cross that I get splinters in my nose."
As, I am sure that you know, the most inner part of us is our spirit. In fact, when we were born again after inviting the Lord Jesus into our lives, it was our spirit that was made alive to God. Due to the fact that we are trichotomous beings, in addition to our spirit we also have a soul and a body. And, even though we value our bodies the most, our spirit is the most important part of us because it is the only part of us that is born again.
Now, the obvious question then is: Why did the Apostle urge us to submit our "bodies" to the Lord? Well, since our bodies are most important to us, it is the last to go, it is the last part of us that we yield up to God. In addition, the work of God is most profoundly delivered through our bodies which He is training to follow His Spirit and His Word.
The word "present" used in today's verse is a technical term often used to refer to the Old Testament Levitical priests who would offer their animal sacrifices on the altar. We are reminded in 1 Peter that we are a holy priesthood, and we are therefore to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God. We, as priests, are to offer ourselves to God as sacrifices. We are to do this every day, and, in doing so we are yielding our total existence up to the Lord.
Notice that the sacrifice we are to make should be living, holy, acceptable and reasonable. Today, we are just considering the first of these four characteristics of a grace saturated life. Then we will consider the other three in the following studies.
A "living" sacrifice renders life not death. In the Old Testament believers were called to “make” a sacrifice from a dead sacrifice. In the New Testament believers are called to “be” a sacrifice from a living sacrifice. The key to all of this is that we are to live by dying to self.
The Lord Jesus said in John 12:24, "I assure you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself – but if it dies, it produces a large crop."
Being a "living sacrifice" is the product of growing in intimacy with God. And, this type of intimacy is only experienced by those who go through deep waters with Him. When we remain by ourselves, we really miss the real reality. The essence of sin is the self, and, when we follow the self, we will be selfish. When we die to self, loneliness may be our reality, that is until we begin to see that the loneliness is a means into deeper intimacy with the Lord. The way of the self is not the way of our Savior. His way leads us to selflessness or down the path of the servant.
Our sacrifice must not be out of duty, it must be born out of our devotion to Him. In fact, if it is not done out of devotion, we should not do it. I say this because in order to be a living sacrifice we must be steeped in the mercy and grace of God. The biggest threat to this grace-saturated way of living is the thinking of many that has been influenced by this world's economy rather than the economy of the God of the Bible. This causes many to think that the Christian faith is linear and they evaluate it according to this world's way of thinking, when in actuality it is quite the opposite. God's economy is upside down and inside out, and only those who have been accosted by God's grace and His mercy really see get it.
When we "die to self" we reveal that we understand that God created us for a reason; that we are a part of God’s plan for the world. To be used of God one must understand the essence of who we really are now, and how it is that God can use us.
The world says, "Live for self!" God says, "Die to self!"
The most difficult prayer for the believer in Christ is, "Not my will, but Thine be done." When we learn to die to self, we discover the "abundant life" the Lord Jesus offers. It is accessed by depending upon God, who provides much more than we can imagine. When we die to self, we discover the freedom of a life freed from a life of self-obsession, and we become more preoccupied by loving others. This moves us away from "the self life" and we find ourselves wanting to serve God by serving others. It is then much easier to pay attention to the concerns, interests and needs of other people when we are no longer preoccupied with ourselves.
