Romans 12.1c-Offering His Body As A Sacrifice To God By Appropriating By Faith His Position In Christ Is The Christian's Reasonable Service
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday September 22, 2009
Romans: Romans 12:1c-Offering His Body As A Sacrifice To God By Appropriating By Faith His Position In Christ Is The Christian’s Reasonable Service
Lesson # 397
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 their reasonable service to the Father.
Last Thursday 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.
Sunday morning we saw 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.
This evening we will complete our study of Romans 12:1 by noting Paul’s teaching that the Christian who offers his body as a sacrifice to the Father by appropriating his new position in Christ is performing the only reasonable service or the only service that makes good sense.
It is the only service that makes sense because the believer was identified with Christ through the baptism of the Spirit for the express purpose of serving the Father.
The Father crucified His Son and had Him die a substitutionary spiritual and physical death on the cross and raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand and through the baptism of the Spirit identified the justified sinner with His Son in His crucifixion, His deaths, burial, resurrection and session.
All of this was to make it possible for the justified sinner to serve God.
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.”
“Which is your spiritual service of worship” is composed of the articular accusative feminine singular form of the adjective logikos (logikov$) (log-ik-os), “which is spiritual” and the accusative feminine singular form of the noun latreia (latreiva) (lat-ri-ah), “service of worship” and the genitive second person plural personal pronoun humeis (u(mei$) (hoo-mice), “your.”
In Romans 12:1, the noun latreia means “service” rendered to God.
It does not mean “worship” itself but rather the service that pertains to the worship of God.
Worship is adoring contemplation of the Lord and is the act of paying honor and reverence to Him and affection for Him and flows from love and where there is little love, there is little worship.
It is the loving ascription of praise to the Lord in gratitude and appreciation for who and what He is, both in Himself and in His ways and in His work on the Cross for us. It is the bowing of the soul and spirit in deep humility and reverence before the Lord.
The purpose for which the believer has been purchased out of the slave market sin is to serve the Lord and other members of His body and not self.
The Lord Jesus Christ served us by redeeming us and by redeeming us, we as His purchased possession, have been given the opportunity and the privilege of serving Him who is now our Master.
The only service that God the Father will accept and reward is that which is performed by means of the Spirit of God and the Word of God.
Philippians 3:1-3, “From now on, my brothers, all of you begin rejoicing and continue doing so because of the Lord: writing these same things for all of you is in fact never bothersome for me but safe for all of you. Beware of those dogs, beware of those evil workers, beware of the mutilation because we are the circumcision, those who are serving (God the Father) by means of the Spirit of God, who are priding themselves in the nature and doctrine of Christ Jesus, who have no confidence in the flesh.”
The manner in which the believer is to not only love God but also serve Him is with his entire being.
Deuteronomy 10:12, “Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Christian service is directed toward both God and man with the former (serving God) acting as the motivation for the latter (serving man) (Eph. 6:5-9).
The Servant of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect example of servanthood and the believer is to imitate His example of self-sacrifice in order to serve God.
Obedience to the will of God is essential in order to serve God (Col. 3:22-24).
The believer must possess a humble mental attitude and a servant’s mentality in order to serve God and this he acquires by learning and applying how the Lord Jesus Christ thinks which is revealed by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God (John 13:1-17).
Every believer has been given a spiritual gift at the moment of salvation, which is designed to serve the body of Christ (1 Pet. 4:10-19).
The church has been given the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher in order to provide believers the necessary divine power (Word of God) to operate in their spiritual gifts (Eph. 4:12-16).
The believer must never perform any work of service for men but rather he must perform his service to men as unto the Lord.
Colossians 3:17, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”
Old Testament Servants of God: (1) Moses (Dt. 34:5; Josh. 8:31). (2) Joshua (Josh. 24:29). (3) David (Ps. 18:1; 36:1). (4) Abel (Heb. 11:4). (5) Enoch (Heb. 11:5). (6) Noah (Heb. 11:7). (7) Abraham (Heb. 11:8). (8) Sarah (Heb. 11:11). (9) Isaac (Heb. 11:20). (10) Jacob (Heb. 11:21). (11) Joseph (Heb. 11:22). (12) Rahab (Heb. 11:31).
New Testament Servants of God: (1) Paul (Acts 27:22-24). (2) Priscilla (Rm. 16:3). (3) Aquila (Rm. 16:3). (4) Urbane (Rm. 16:9). (5) Timothy (Rm. 16:21; 1Th. 3:2). (6) Titus (2 Cor. 8:23). (7) Epaphroditus (Phlp. 2:25). (8) Euodia (Phlp. 4:3). (9) Syntyche (Phlp. 4:3) (10) Clement (Phlp. 4:3). (11) Tychicus (Col. 4:11). (12) Onesimus (Col. 4:11). (13) Aristarchus (Col. 4:11; Phlm. 24) (14) Barnabas’ cousin Mark (Col. 4:11). (15) Jesus called Justus (Col. 4:11). (16) Philemon (Phlm. 1). (17) Demas (Phlm. 24) (18) Lucas (Phlm. 24).
It is clear that the adjective logikos, “reasonable” in Romans 12:1 does not mean “spiritual” since the word pertains to reason or the mind.
However, although the word does not mean “spiritual” we must understand that what Paul is describing with this word does pertain to spirituality since he desires that his readers offer their bodies to the Father by appropriating by faith the teaching of the Spirit regarding their position in Christ (Romans 6:11-13).
This results in their experiencing eternal life (zao, “alive”) and sanctification (hagios, “holy”) and being extremely pleasing to the Father (euarestos, “extremely pleasing”).
The word means “reason” in the sense of being agreeable to reason or sound judgment, good or common sense.
This word says that when the Christian offers his body as a sacrifice to the Father by appropriating his new position in Christ that this sacrifice is “reasonable” in the sense that it is exercising sound reasoning or judgment, or in other words, good sense.
The Christian who offers his body as a sacrifice to the Father by appropriating his new position in Christ is performing the only “reasonable” service or the only service that “makes good sense” because he was identified with Christ through the baptism of the Spirit for the express purpose of serving the Father.
The Father crucified His Son and had Him die a substitutionary spiritual and physical death on the cross and raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand and through the baptism of the Spirit identified the justified sinner with His Son in His crucifixion, His deaths, burial, resurrection and session.
The Father did all of this so that the justified sinner could serve Him.
The personal pronoun humeis means “your” and functions as a possessive genitive emphasizing that service to God is a responsibility that “belongs to” the Roman believers.
It indicates volitional responsibility on their part in offering their bodies to the Father on the basis of His merciful acts on their behalf by appropriating by faith their new position in Christ, which is their reasonable service to God.
So to summarize, 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.
This appeal is based upon his teaching in Romans 1-11.
