Bodywork: A Sacrifice Consumed
Romans 12:1-2
Roy, Utah, September 28, 2014
12Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform 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.
Our pattern is different from that of the world. It becomes more and more obvious, almost daily, that God’s people are unlike anything else.
Chapter 12 is a transition in the book of Romans. The passage begins with “Therefore,” and it points to everything that has already been stated. The first eleven chapters have been dealing with law and grace. Legalism says, “Do these things, and you will live.” Grace says, “Live, and you will do these things.” The law demanded a sacrifice of all for sin.
God wasn’t satisfied with sacrifices that were given incorrectly.
Amos 5:21-24
“I hate, I despise your religious festivals;
your assemblies are a stench to me.
22Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.
23Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Isa 1:10-17
“The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?” says the Lord.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
12When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?
13Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
14Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals
I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I hide my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers,
I am not listening.
Your hands are full of blood!
16Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
stop doing wrong.
It’s this sort of reaction from God that helps me understand what went wrong in the first sacrifice—Cain and Abel. Cain’s sacrifice wasn’t accepted because of a horrible. He didn’t give his best, he didn’t get what was expected. He threw something together at the last minute because he felt like he had to. Old Testament law allowed for grain to be offered. A merciful God extends grace to us, because of that, we should be different. God’s grace doesn’t demand an offering, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make one. Rather than a bull or a ram, the sacrifice made because of grace is oneself. When we realize God’s grace, we cannot help but make our lives an offering to God.
How will we respond? Paul “urges” the readers, in view of God’s mercies, to act. Is there any way that someone could learn of the unending, indescribable, amazing grace of God and NOT be affected by it somehow? When you understand the lengths that God has gone to in order to save you, can you NOT respond? Stott says, “There is no greater incentive to holy living than a contemplation of the mercies of God.”
"Offer your bodies.” Same verb as Romans 6 where Paul urges the Romans to not offer themselves as sacrifices to sin and evil, but righteousness.
Living sacrifice. Not the same as undead. A sacrifice full of vigor, not suffering from rigor . . . mortis. Whole irritation with the zombie thing. It’s a cheap imitation of what God really does—He brings resurrection and new life, real resurrection. Satan can only imitate and copy. God’s not looking for undead, not really living sacrifices . . . he’s looking for the quickened, active kind.
How can we fulfill the “demands” of grace? How can we offer ourselves to God? By refusing to be smashed and squeezed into the world’s mold and to be changed according to God’s perfect will. Quit thinking about things from the world’s perspective. OFFER YOUR BODIES. Bodies are about behavior. If we’ve accepted the truth of God’s amazing grace, then that acknowledgement can’t only be mental; it must be demonstrated physically by our bodies. Holiness is seen as holiness through the movements of the body. What I see, I believe. If you say, “holy,” I’d better see “holy.”
Paul calls it our “spiritual worship.” Is he talking about the times when the body of Christ gathers to worship? Or is talking about our everyday lives? If we are truly offering our bodies, there is no difference. When the body comes together to praise God, we are “all in,” present and engaged. Our focus in corporate worship is giving God what He deserves because of His goodness. Corporate worship is special and must not be neglected.
But for a believer in Jesus, EVERYTHING is worship. First Corinthians 10:31 says that we do “everything for the glory of God.” Colossians 3 urges us that whatever we do, we do it for the Lord with all of our attention. Laying down our lives in service to God is the only reasonable, rational response to the irrational love and grace of God.
How can we be changed to the standard of God’s will? By renewing our minds. Initially and originally changed by the Holy Spirit, but ever after by continual instruction from God’s word. RENEW YOUR MINDS. While our visible behavior should be changed because of the grace of God, we cannot neglect our inner being. Our minds and hearts ought to be developing constantly, as well.
Refuse to be conformed. Superficial, surface qualities. Stop trying to look like our culture. Stop trying to fit in. Stop emulating everything you see in society. Don’t look like the world on the outside; become more and more like Christ on the inside.
Choose to be transformed. Deep, abiding, internal change. Don’t just change behavior; change your thinking. Renew/change/reformat your mind. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). It’s the set of intellect and moral judgment. Renewing our mind is about learning to think correctly, especially about spiritual and moral matters. When we become followers of Jesus, we must learn to think in new ways about the world around us.
Renewing our minds deals with both the process and content of our minds. Philippians 4:8. “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
One of the great difficulties is that the church doesn’t think about things from a spiritual perspective—they are still trying to use worldly spectacles to see the world when they really need to put on their “Jesus glasses” for His perspective.
Paul stresses that this is ongoing work. God brings about a transformation in us, and it something that continues. Will we allow God to constantly make changes in our lives? But in order for the changes to take place in us, we have to want the change.
What will result when we offer ourselves to Him and we are changed? The result is that we can make moral choices in keeping with God’s will, living a life that truly pleases God.
How do we act? How do we live? What do we do? Where do we go? Lots of conflicting choices are in front of us. How can we decide? By washing the options through the spiritual filter of God’s word. We can determine what God’s will is and keep pleasing Him.
His good—morally right
Pleasing—acceptable
And perfect—complete and adequate.
God’s will is what we need to lead a holy and fulfilled life. Constantly using the word as a mirror leads to know and to fulfill God’s will in our lives.
Mark 12:33, “To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
As a sacrifice, “I’m engaged, and I’m in. . . . All the way in.”
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