Romans 12.1b-The Christian Offers His Body To God As A Sacrifice By Appropriating By Faith His New Position In Christ
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday September 20, 2009
Romans: Romans 12:1b-The Christian Offers His Body To God As A Sacrifice By Appropriating By Faith His New Position In Christ
Lesson # 396
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 12:1.
The apostle Paul in Romans 12:1 appeals to his Christian readers in Rome on the basis of the merciful acts of the Father on their behalf to offer their bodies as a sacrifice-alive, holy, extremely pleasing to the Father, which is their reasonable service to the Father.
Thursday evening we began a study of Romans 12:1 by noting that Paul appeals to the Roman Christians on the basis of the merciful acts of the Father to offer their bodies as a sacrifice.
This morning we will see that Paul’s readers were to do this by appropriating by faith the Spirit’s teaching that they have been identified with Christ in His crucifixion, deaths, burial, resurrection and session.
In other words, they were to do this by appropriating by faith their new position in Christ, which would enable them to experience eternal life and sanctification and would make them extremely pleasing to the Father.
Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
“To present” is the aorist active infinitive form of the verb paristemi (parivsthmi) (par-is-tay-mee), which is used transitively and is used as a technical term for offering a sacrifice.
“Your bodies” is composed of the articular accusative neuter plural form of the noun soma (swma) (so-mah), “body” and the genitive second person plural personal pronoun humeis (u(mei$) (hoo-mice), “your.”
The noun soma refers to the human bodies of the Romans Christians and does not denote the entire person as some suggest since the word stands in direct contrast with the noun nous, “mind” in Romans 12:2.
This is further indicated in that the verb paristemi appears in Romans 6:13 and 19 in relation to the members of the Christian’s physical body.
The Scriptures teach that the believer’s body is God’s temple (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) because the Spirit indwells him (Romans 8:9).
1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”
When a person trusts in the Lord Jesus as his or her Savior the Spirit proceeds from the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father to permanently indwell that person.
The Holy Spirit is the resident teacher or mentor whom the Father has sent through the Son to indwell every New Testament believer as God’s special anointing to teach and make the truths of the Word understood and real to the heart or mind of believers.
John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
This anointing, which is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit as our true teacher and mentor, protects us from the lies of the cosmic system, which are promoted by Satan’s false teachers.
1 John 2:20, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.”
“Anointing,” in 1 John 2:20, is the noun chrisma and is a synonym for the indwelling of the Spirit, who provides the believer the spiritual capacity or power to understand and apply spiritual phenomena for producing, in the believer, Christ-like character.
Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
“A sacrifice” is the accusative feminine singular form of the noun thusia (qusiva) (thoo-see-ah), which means “sacrifice” and is used in relation to the justified sinner offering his or her physical body to the Father as a sacrifice.
“Living” is the accusative feminine singular present active participle form of the verb zao (zavw) (dzah-o), which is a reference to the believer experiencing eternal life and is not referring to human existence since the justified sinner is only acceptable to God when he or she is experiencing eternal life.
It speaks of the believer experiencing eternal life by appropriating by faith the teaching of the Spirit in the Word of God that they have been crucified, died and buried with Christ and also raised and seated with Christ.
Experiencing eternal life is the result of the believer considering himself or herself dead to the sin nature and alive to God.
Paul taught extensively on this subject in Romans 6.
Romans 6:11, “In the same way, also, on the one hand, all of you without exception make it your habit to regard yourselves as dead ones with respect to the sin nature while on the other hand those who are, as an eternal spiritual truth, alive with respect to God the Father, in union with Christ, who is Jesus.”
In Romans 8:1-14, Paul teaches that the believer can experience eternal life by being occupied in his thinking with the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:6, “In fact, the mind-set produced by the flesh is, as an eternal spiritual truth temporal spiritual death. However, the mind-set produced by the Spirit is, as an eternal spiritual truth life as well as peace.”
Therefore, the verb zao in Romans 12:1 is a reference to the believer experiencing eternal life by considering himself or herself to be crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ.
Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
“Holy” is the accusative feminine singular form of the adjective hagios (a^gio$), which means “holy” and refers to the believer experiencing sanctification.
“Sanctification” is a technical theological term for the believer who has been set apart through the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of salvation in order to serve God exclusively and is accomplished in three stages: (1) Positional (2) Experiential (3) Ultimate.
The “baptism of the Spirit” takes place exclusively during the dispensation of the church age and is accomplished at the moment of salvation when the omnipotence of the Spirit places the believer in a eternal union with Christ, thus identifying the believer positionally with Christ in His death, resurrection and session.
By positionally, I mean that God views the believer as crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ since at the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit placed the believer in union with Christ, identifying him with Christ’s crucifixion (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20), His death (Romans 6:2, 7-8; Colossians 2:20; 3:3), His burial (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12), His resurrection (Romans 6:5; Ephesians 2:6; Philippians 3:10-11; Colossians 2:12; 3:1) and His session (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:1).
“Experiential sanctification” is the function of the church age believer’s spiritual life in time through obedience to the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit through the communication of the Word of God (John 17:17; Rom. 6:19, 22; 2 Tim. 2:21; 1 Pet. 3:15; 1 Thess. 4:3-4, 7; 1 Tim. 2:15).
“Experiential sanctification” is the post-salvation experience of the church age believer who is in fellowship with God by confessing any known sin to the Father when necessary followed by obedience to the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit through the Word of God.
Experiential sanctification is only a potential since it is contingent upon the church age believer responding to what God has done for him at the moment of salvation, therefore, only believers who are obedient to the Word of God will experience sanctification in time.
“Ultimate sanctification” is the perfection of the church age believer’s spiritual life at the Rapture, i.e. resurrection of the church, which is the completion of the plan of God for the church age believer (1 Cor. 15:53-54; Gal. 6:8; 1 Pet. 5:10; John 6:40).
Sanctification is experiencing the holiness of God or in other words manifesting the character of God through one’s thoughts, words and actions.
1 Peter 1:14-16, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.’”
Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
“Acceptable to God” means that by offering his body to the Father as a sacrifice by appropriating by faith his new position in Christ, the believer is extremely pleasing to the Father because it is offered up to Him in the power of the Spirit.
It is extremely pleasing to the Father because it is according to the Father’s will that the believer appropriates by faith the Spirit’s teaching that the believer is crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ.