Embracing the Call to Holy living

Open: A new year is a time to reflect on the past year and to resolve to do things differently in the year ahead. Most resolutions involve physical health. According to the website insideoutmastery.com, “43% of all people expect to fail before February, and almost one out of four quit within the first week of setting their New Year’s resolution. Most people quit before the end of January, and only 9% see their resolutions through until succession.” The article continues with this piece of information: “Most people quit on the second Friday of the month, according to Strava, a Running and Cycling tracking app. They named this day “Quitters Day”

Transitions: We aren’t here today to discuss resolutions. Yes, this is the first day and the first Sunday of 2023, but when Paul wrote these words he wasn’t considering the turning of the page on a calendar. Today’s passage highlights the expected lifestyle for all those who name the Name of Christ, regardless of the time of the year.

With that being said, the start of a New Year is still a great time to focus on God’s expectations for our daily lives. It is a time to reflect on our growth in holiness and to examine our lives for those areas in which we have drifted from our high calling.

Let’s examine our text together: ROMANS 12:1-2

Believers are to UNDERSTAND the reasonableness of offering one’s self completely to God (Romans 12:1)

Explanation: Paul begins a new section of his letter with chapter 12. The focus of the first 8 Chapters of Romans dealt with the Gospel message and why it is so necessary. In Chapters 9 - 11 the Apostle related God’s broadening of the scope of salvation to the Gentiles and dealt with the Jew / Gentile divide. In this first section of the letter Paul proclaimed the depravity of all of mankind and our utter hopelessness apart from Christ. He shared how sinful people can receive the alien righteousness of Christ and how sinners are justified in the sight of God through faith in the finished work of Christ on our behalf.

This is what the word therefore refers to in verse 1 of our passage. In light of God’s amazing grace, we who are believers are called to personal holiness. Though we can never pay Jesus back, our hearts desire should be to serve Him. His gift of salvation is the basis for our service, and leads to worship because we recognize that He has done what we were unable to do for ourselves.

Illustrate: an employee who messed up, but instead of being fired, the boss lets him or her stay. The response should be gratitude. A marriage that suffered betrayal, but instead of divorce the offended party offers forgiveness and reconciliation. The response should be gratitude

Argument: Understanding our call to holy living is a reasonable conclusion - it makes sense. But it is a conclusion, not the starting point. In almost all of the NT letters, especially those written by Paul, the doctrine or teaching (the theology if you will) is presented first, followed by the application.

The natural result is worship of the One who saved us. Paul is now going to discuss the type of worship that is reasonable and acceptable to God. He begins with a strong exhortation for believers to worship God by presenting Him with their lives as living sacrifices. In the OT the prescribed sacrifices were generally dead animals that were burned on the altar. Once the animal was given to the priests and killed it was easy to keep track of because it couldn’t wander off. It was a done deal.

As living sacrifices we have the tendency to draw back and wander away from God. Consider these words from the hymn, “Come thou fount of every blessing:”

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it; prone to leave the God I love

Here’s my heart, oh take and seal it

Application: We have to consider ourselves to be dead to our selfish desires and we have to do this on a daily basis.

Romans 6:11 KJV 1900

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul gives us application on how we CAN become these living sacrifices and offer acceptable worship to the God who redeemed us.

Believers are to DENY the spirit of the age (Romans 12:2a)

Explanation: Paul presents the negative part of the command first. He instructs believes to resist being conformed to this world. The word conformed deals with outside pressures that seek to push an object into a desired shape.

Illustrate: Compression forge uses extreme pressure to force a material into a pattern or mold.

Argument: The spirit of the age IS NOT neutral. It exerts a continuous force upon all of us to conform to its way of seeing the world. This is especially dangerous for our young people who are being indoctrinated into accepting evil for good and wrong for right.

This is not new - the prophet Isaiah warned about this very thing (Isaiah 5:20), so we shouldn’t be surprised. But we should take action to resist the siren song of our age which declares there is not only anything that can be labeled sin, but that calling anything sin is hateful, intolerant and unacceptable. We must stand against the forces of evil that would silence our Christian witness.

Application: learn to think critically instead of just accepting what the world system is forcing on all people.

Accept the role of minority; accept the reality that the world is going to ridicule our beliefs, shout us down when we speak truth, and continue its move to shut us out of the public square

Assume the role of teacher in your home. Equip your family members to resist by pointing out truth vs. error (I would comment on world view issues in movies and shows. Ex: scene in Ice Age with cave pictures depicting evolution)

Believers are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2b)

Explanation: The negative aspect of sanctification is denying the world’s system of values, but there is also a positive part of growing in personal holiness. Paul directs believers to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. The Greek word is the one in which we get the English word metamorphosis which means a basic change in the nature of an object.

Illustrate: caterpillars go through a complete phase change. At a certain point in their life cycle a caterpillar undergoes a metamorphosis and becomes a butterfly.

Argument: We who have the privilege of being IN Christ have also experienced a change.

2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV 1900

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

The change in nature is God’s work - He is the One who transfers us from the kingdom of darkness into His marvelous Kingdom of Light (Col 1:13; 1 Peter 2:9). That is the work of Justification and God acts alone in that process.

Our expected growth in holiness, however, is a joint effort in which we pursue holiness through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is why Paul is using language of the will - we are to actively RESIST conformity with the world while also undergoing transformation by RENEWING our mind. The Spirit of Christ will not fill our minds with His word if we sit and soak without any effort to grow in Christ-likeness.

Here is the parallel: the caterpillar CANNOT remain a caterpillar - it will be changed into a butterfly. A genuine believer will changed over time to reflect his or her new nature of being IN Christ

2 Corinthians 3:18 KJV 1900

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The path of personal holiness will differ from believer to believer, but we are ALL on the same path headed to the same destination. (cf iPhilippians 1:6)

With this assurance from God, it is possible that a person could think, “what’s all the fuss about then? If I am going to be changed into His image, then it’s going to happen whether I pursue holiness or not?” That type of thinking reveals a misunderstanding of what Paul wrote in verse one of our text: “therefore brethren, by the mercies of God. . .” The person with an attitude like that does not have a deep appreciation for God’s grace

Application: Those of us who are IN Christ have experienced His goodness and grace and will have the desire to please Him. We will all be involved in growing in personal holiness by allowing our minds to be renewed by immersing ourselves in His Word and in His ways. We will not achieve it in this life, but it will be our life’s goal to please Him.

For those with no desire for the things of Christ, no interest in His Church or in His Word, the question is this: Are you on the path to Glory?