Worship and Will: Paul's Vision for the Christian Life

Introduction

We now embark upon the third movement of Paul’s great epistle, his magnum opus, his chief work.

We have seen the argument progress as follows:

The righteous shall live by faith

The righteousness of faith is necessary because the righteousness of works has condemned us

The righteousness of faith has been revealed in Christ

The righteousness of faith has been exemplified in Abraham

The righteousness of faith has reversed the condemnation of Adam

The righteousness of faith has made us slaves of righteousness

The righteousness of faith is planted within us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit

The righteousness of faith is applied sovereignly in God’s covenant of grace

What Paul has done so far is given us indicatives. He has simply taught the truth, and only loosely sprinkled application throughout. Paul now turns the corner from indicative to imperative, from teaching to application, from theology to ethics, from doctrine to duty. He will spend the rest of his letter working out the practical, pastoral, and ecclesial implications of what he has taught us in chapters 1-11.

With that being said, let’s jump into chapter 12 verses 1 and 2, one of the more famous passages in the Bible.

Worship - Verse 1

Paul begins his 5 chapters of imperatives with a kind of overture. He sets the tone for the rest of the book in 12:1-2. The center of verse 1 is this phrase “present your bodies as a sacrifice.”

So let’s look closely at this phrase: present your bodies as a sacrifice.

The Old Testament Sacrificial System

Paul is couching this first verse in the language of the Old Testament sacrificial system, so I believe it’s appropriate to think about Paul here as exhorting his readers to present or offer themselves in the same way that an Old Testament priest would present or offer a sacrifice.

If Paul is speaking with reference to the Old Testament sacrificial system, we would do well to ensure we know a little bit about it so that we can more clearly understand Paul.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary offers 5 categories of sacrifices or offerings in the Old Testament Levitical system.

The first is the whole burnt offering, which is described in Leviticus 1-7 and is primarily oriented around atonement, expiation, and forgiveness of sins.

The second is the grain offering, which is also called a gift offering and has less to do with sins, and more to do with response after the other offerings have been made.

The third is a peace offering, which was seemingly instituted as a means of bringing the community together over a shared meal and worship service.

The fourth is a purification offering, in which purification from external pollution corresponded to purification from sin.

The fifth is a guilt offering, another type of expiatory offering in which forgiveness from sin is sought.

It’s important then, in these categories, to distinguish which offering Paul has in mind as he escalates the sacrificial terminology and applies it to the individual Christian.

Paul is clearly not referring to any expiatory or atoning sacrifices when he exhorts his readers to offer their bodies as sacrifices.

We affirm that the true and better sacrifice offered by Christ on the cross accomplished eternal expiation and eternal atonement:

Hebrews 7:23–28 LSB

And the former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, who has been made perfect forever.

What this means is that no other sacrifice is necessary. And not only are other sacrifices not necessary, such sacrifices actually violate the sacrifice of Christ, implying by their very use that Christ’s sacrifice was not final, not eternal, and not sufficient.

Therefore we must affirm that Paul does not speak here of atoning or expiatory sacrifices, for if we are to offer our bodies as an atoning sacrifice for sin, we violate and nullify the atoning sacrifice of Christ. This is a logical fallacy, so therefore we must conclude that Paul is speaking of a different category of sacrifice here.

I believe the Christian’s offering of his or her body as a sacrifice is intended to fall into the category of free-will, thanksgiving, and peace offerings. As we will see, just as the Old Testament sacrificial system had a personal and community element in the free-will, thanksgiving, and peace offerings, so also the Christian sacrifice of one’s own body has both a personal and community element as we will see moving forward.

Paul therefore is presenting his vision for the Christian life in the context of an offering or sacrifice. However, he escalates his presentation by changing the actual content of the sacrifice. No longer is it grain, or an animal, but it is your very body.

What is being presented?

Now what is meant here by body? Our modern American English reading hears this and immediately applies an inner man/outer man distinction. When we think of the body, we typically thing solely in physiological and biological terms. Paul's usage here, however, is different. If we look down at verses 4-5, we see that Paul’s conception of a body is not so much to be understood in physical terms, but actually as a sum of parts.

So what Paul is really saying here is this: your whole person, your whole self, is to be offered to God as a free-will sacrifice of thanksgiving. All of your life is to be lived in a posture of thankful worship to God.

Paul’s vision of the Christian life is not limited. It is not held back in any way. Paul wants Christians to be Christians in all ways, at all places, and at all times. You don’t cease being a Christian on Monday. You don’t cease being a Christian when you leave church. You don’t cease being a Christian when you are not with other Christians. If your whole body, your whole person, your whole self is to offered and presented unto God, you can never cease being a Christian, and you can never cease acting like a Christian. Paul simply doesn’t have a category for it.

The Means and Ground of the Presentation

Finally, before we move on to Paul’s threefold description of the sacrifice, we need to understand the means of this presentation, the way this offering comes to be. Paul tells us that it is by the mercies of God.

In the near context, Paul has been using this word mercy repeatedly in chapters 9 and 11, where the word occurs 3 times each. What Paul has in mind here is that the sovereignly dispensed mercy of God in salvation is both the ground and the means for the sacrificial presentation of our whole selves to God. What do I mean by both ground and means?

Mercy as the ground of whole-life sacrifice means that the Christian’s offering of themselves as an act of worship is done as a response to the mercies of God. We present ourselves in response to God’s mercy. Mercy is therefore the prompt for worship.

Mercy as the means of whole-life sacrifice means that the Christian’s offering of themselves as an act of worship is done according to the mercies of God. We present ourselves according to power of God’s mercy. Mercy is therefore the power of worship.

To summarize: The correct response to God’s sovereign and saving mercy poured out in Christ and received by faith in Him is a whole-body, whole-life, whole-person presentation of worship, worked out in our daily lives by the same mercy that saved us.

Paul now describes this whole-life, whole-person, holistic sacrifice of oneself with three terms. What are those terms?

Living

Holy

Pleasing to God

Living Sacrifice

The whole life, free-will, thanksgiving offering of oneself to God is a living offering, a living sacrifice.

Paul includes this qualifier for two reasons. In the near context, the concept of life permeates the book of Romans. In fact, Paul’s first declaration of the inheritance of the righteous person all the way back in Romans 2 is connected to life. Christians are, by definition, people who are alive, both inwardly and spiritually now, and outwardly and physically in the future. Paul is careful to ensure consistency throughout his book.

He includes the qualifier for a second reason as well. In the far context, when considering the Old Covenant sacrificial system, the distinguishing mark of the sacrifices was their deadness. A dead sacrifice was necessary because of the need for life-for-life atonement for sins. If death is the penalty of sin, someone or something must die in order to satisfy that requirement. For the Christian, however, Christ’s death made eternal satisfaction. So our sacrifice is not in death, because death is now longer necessary. Our sacrifice is in life, to distinguish our sacrifices from the Old Testament system, and to underscore the eternal sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

As an aside, this doctrine put for here by Paul stands in direct opposition to what we might call dispensational Third Temple Zionism, which insists that a third temple will be built in the future, and in that temple, sacrifices will once again be offered as they were in the Old Covenant. What this sect and others like it fail to understand is that the third temple is already here, it is Christ and His raised body, and the atoning sacrifice was already made by Christ, and the free-will and thanksgiving offerings are given daily by every Christian who takes Paul here at his word, offering himself in daily in the third temple of Christ and His church.

Holy Sacrifice

Paul further describes the whole-life sacrifice of the Christian as holy.

The Christian presentation of themselves in a lifestyle of worship is a holy thing. Again, Paul escalates the Old Covenant model.

The sacrifices of the Old Covenant were made holy by adherence the proper rituals and the keeping of the ceremonial laws.

Our sacrifices is made holy by virtue of the fact that Christ’s inherent righteousness has become our imputed righteousness. He is holy, and we are holy in Him. Therefore, our lives are now led in a holy manner as we follow in His example of obedience and righteousness and holiness.

Again, Paul chooses his words carefully here to remind us of the ever-present reality of the mercies of God applied to us in Christ. Our sacrifice is holy because it was consecrated by the Great High Priest, just as the Old Covenant sacrifices were holy because the priests and Levites consecrated them. Our whole-life, whole-person worship lifestyle is holy not because we’ve made it such, but because Christ has made it such. We simply live in that holiness.

Pleasing Sacrifice

Paul’s third descriptor is that this sacrifice is pleasing to God. This sacrifice delights God. God looks upon it and calls it good.

In using this word pleasing, Paul calls upon a handful of Psalms that help teach us what the Spirit intended to communicate through Paul

The first is Psalm 56:13

Psalm 56:13 LSB

For You have delivered my soul from death, Indeed my feet from stumbling, So that I may walk before God In the light of the living.

That phrase translated walk was understood in Paul’s day specifically as walking in a manner pleasing to God. It was understood in behavioral terms. So a sacrifice that is pleasing to God is one that lives before His face, in the land of the living, as we have already seen. Psalm 56 also guides us back to the centrality and primacy of the sovereign grace of God in the endeavor of presenting ourselves to God: the pleasing life of a sacrifice is only only walked before God after He has delivered your soul from death and your feet from stumbling. Therefore David is in complete agreement with Paul: the reality of regeneration and the hope of resurrection are the ground and means by which we walk worthy before God, in the land of those whose spirits are alive now and whose bodies will be raised to life in the future.

Paul’s intent becomes further clear when read in light of Psalm 69:30-31

Psalm 69:30–31 LSB

I will praise the name of God with song And magnify Him with thanksgiving. And this will please Yahweh better than an ox Or a young bull with horns and hoofs.

That word please there is the same word in the Septuagint translation of Psalm 69 as Paul uses here in Romans 12.

The sacrifice that truly pleases God is not the ox or the bull. It is the offering of praises and songs and thanksgivings that magnify his name.

In other words, the sacrifice that pleases God is the one that ascribes glory to His name.

By linking himself linguistically with David in Psalm 69, Paul is effectively demonstrating that Christ’s work in the New Covenant has elevated and escalated the Old Covenant system. Bulls and oxen and goats and lambs are no longer necessary in this system because what God truly desires is now, by the work of Christ, able to be offered to Him in abundance.

So Paul’s encouragement to us is this: because of the mercy of God and in the mercy of God, present yourselves as New Covenant sacrifices. Living sacrifices. Holy sacrifices. Pleasing sacrifices.

Paul describes this as your spiritual service of worship.

New Covenant Priests in the New Covenant Temple

Paul’s final description of this whole-life offering of the Christian to God is “spiritual service of worship.”

That phrase service of worship is actually one word in the Greek, latreuo. Paul has used it 3 times in Romans already, first to describe his relationship to God in 1:9, then to describe the sin of idolatry in 1:25, and then in 9:4 to describe the blessings given to Israel under the Old Covenant.

This worship-service is always vertical. The Greek has other words for horizontal service in which we serve one another. This type of service is always rendered by humans as worship to God. I like the way the English renders it because it helps remind us that the worship-service that occurs in our whole-life sacrifice of ourselves to God is not esoteric or abstract. The word serve carries the connotation of doing something. There is action involved in serving. And that is Paul’s entire point in chapter 12 - worship-service to God is actionable.

In the far context of the rest of God’s Word, Paul is again reminding us of the mercy of God as the ground and means of our worship-service.

The most highly concentrated use of this word anywhere in the Greek Bible is in the book of Exodus in the Septuagint. In fact, this word is actually how God described the telos or end of the Exodus.

Exodus 3:9–12 LSB

“So now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. “So now, come and I will send you to Pharaoh, and so you shall bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God at this mountain.”

God delivered His people from slavery in Egypt so that they might offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and worship to God at Mount Sinai.

This becomes Moses’ refrain throughout his discourse with Pharaoh in the ensuing chapters: Let my people go, that they may serve Yahweh.

The service of worship is always the end goal of exodus.

So then, after Paul has explicated in chapters 3-11 all that the true and better Moses has done to lead His people in the true and better Exodus, it only makes sense that the outcome would be true and better service of worship.

As we trace the usage of this word latreuo through the Bible, we see that it develops into a description of temple service, specifically the worship rituals that were to be performed by the priests in the tabernacle and later in the temple. In a particularly memorable New Testament usage, we see this word being used to describe what the priestess Anna did in the temple daily prior to meeting the Christ Child.

What Paul is telling us then, by using this word, is that just as sacrifices were offered in a physical sense in the Old Covenant, elevated and escalated sacrifices are offered in a spiritual sense in the New Covenant.

What Paul is telling us then, is that we are New Covenant priests in the New Covenant temple, offering better sacrifices in a better temple because these sacrifices and this temple are the spiritual fulfillment of the physical imagery that dominates the Old Testament storyline.

But this ought not be news to anyone familiar with 1 Peter 2:9-10

1 Peter 2:9–10 LSB

But you are A CHOSEN FAMILY, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.

As members of the New Covenant people of God, having been led out by the true and better Moses from our slavery, into the land of promise, now enter into the New Covenant Temple of His body, the church, and offer our very selves as a sacrifice upon the altar of our faith, and we do as living sacrifices, holy sacrifices, sacrifices that are truly pleasing to God because they have been consecrated once and for all by the blood of the Great High Priest.

This is Paul’s vision for our worship. But he also has a vision for our will.

Will - Verse 2

The second exhortation Paul provides in this overture to Christian living has to do with our will. We see that the final outcome of transformation is approving what the will of God is. We will see in a moment how all of this works together.

First we need to start with the foundation, before moving to the outcome. Paul places two Greek words in opposition to each other, translated here conformed and transformed.

Not Conformed

Paul is commanding his readers to not be conformed to this world.

It’s important to note here that Paul uses a Greek word translated world that is probably better understood as age. It’s not so much non-conformity with the spatial plane of planet earth as it is non-conformity with the ideas and spirit of the age.

I believe Moses provides us with a great definition of this non-conformity in Deuteronomy 18:9

Deuteronomy 18:9 LSB

“When you enter the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of those nations.

If our worship-service is to be holy, as Paul commanded in verse 1, that means that we are to be distinct from the abominations of the people around us.

Now it’s important to remember here that by non-conformity, Paul does not intend the extreme non-conformity of certain cultures like the Amish. Paul is not advocating non-conformity for it’s own sake, nor is he advocating non-conformity against every possible idea that can’t be found in the Bible.

Rather, he is advocating for a big-picture worldview shift. The way that we think about life and approach life and live life ought to be recognizably distinct from the world. This doesn’t play out in the movies we watch or the games we play or the clothes we wear so much as it plays out in our theological and ethical convictions. The way we think about issues ought not to be molded and modeled and formulated by the spirit of the age.

This is downfall of many professing Christians who piggy back on whatever flavor of the day the news and social media decide on. I can’t help but chuckle a little bit at Christians who are all of sudden paring back the strength of their rhetoric on things like homosexuality, transgenderism, and feminism, simply because it’s now not cool to speak out against those things. Ten years ago, these same people would have spoke strongly against these things. Now it’s not cool, so they begin to conform to the spirit of the age. Too many Christians today are like insecure high schoolers, wanting so badly to fit in that they will sacrifice all sense of principle and conviction just to be seen as “one of the guys.”

Paul’s command is quite the opposite. These fads and wordlviews and culturalisms will pass away into the night. If you bind yourself to them, you will pass into the night as well. Bind yourself instead to the eternal and heavenly things.

But not only does Paul give a negative command, do not be conformed, he fills that space with a positive command: be transformed.

But Transformed

This word is metamorphao in the Greek, where we get the English word metamorphosis. It means to change, to evolve, to grow. Paul does not speak here of a change in nature or ontology, but rather growth in that same nature.

Paul is actually borrowing language here from ancient Greek philosophy, from both the Platonic school and the Heracletian school. Paul is actually very well versed in Greek philosophy, and it shows up all the time as he demonstrates repeatedly that the Greek philosophers got all their good ideas from natural theology.

The philosophical ideas in play here are two-fold.

First, the Heracletian notion of perpetual change is in view. Heraclitus posited that the core proof of existence is change. Change is inevitable, it is unstoppable. We observe it all around us. Our bodies grow, then they decay. Cells regenerate. Rivers flow. Heraclitus himself visualized this reality with the illustration of a river. You can stand in the middle of a river and your position doesn’t change, but the river is constantly changing. The water molecules that touch your feet are completely different from one second to the next. This movement is what makes a river, a river, and not a lake. It is therefore essential to it’s identity. He applies this to people by arguing that the moment that human beings stop changing biologically is the moment they die. Biologically this is true, and what Paul does here is take the idea and demonstrate that this change is also vital to the life of the Christian. If the Christian is to have a vibrant and dynamic life, he must constantly be in a state of change.

This perpetual change is part and parcel of the Christian life. We long to see Christ more clearly, love Him more dearly, and follow Him more nearly. The process of doing that is the process of change for the Christian.

But change in and of itself is not enough for Paul, so he also appropriate Plato.

The Greek root for metamorphao is morphe. This word is translated into English as form. Some of you may be familiar with Plato’s theory of forms. Essentially Plato argued that the mission or goal of human existence is to pursue the highest form, what he called “The Good.” Plato, of course, as a pagan, could not really define “The Good.” So Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit, defines it for us. It is the will of God, and indeed it is God Himself.

So for Paul, Christian transformation is the perpetual process by which we continue to attain to higher and higher forms, eventually passing from this plane and into the next, where we will achieve the “Highest Form, the True Good,” when we will be like Christ because we will see Him as he is, according to 1 John.

Transformation is an abstract and esoteric idea, so Paul puts feet to it. How is one transformed? By renewing your mind.

How does one renew their mind? That’s just the catch. You can’t renew your mind. But David tells us what can:

Psalm 19:7–11 LSB

The law of Yahweh is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of Yahweh are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, even more than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your slave is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.

Transformation happens by mind renewal and mind renewal happens by repeated and profitable exposure to the Word of God. The reason I constantly urge you all to be in the Word regularly, repeatedly, and systematically is because this is the divinely ordained means by which your mind is renewed, and in turn how you are transformed out of conformity with the world and into conformity with the will of God.

Just as good food renews, restores, and refreshes the body, so also the Good Word renews, restores and refreshes the soul.

Just as the body cannot grow without food, so also the soul cannot grow without the Word.

We affirm therefore that the word is essential to mental renewal and essential therefore to transformation in pursuit of the highest good.

And what is the final outcome?

Approval of the will of God. Now this may be a little tricky. We might say “Well, God’s will doesn’t need my approval.” You’re right, it doesn’t, but if you’re going to be transformed, you better approve it. If you don’t, how can you follow it?

The point here is willful consent. Seeing the word and being transformed by the word will lead you to willfully consent to the Word, formulated here by Paul as the will of God.

Paul then expands the idea of the will of God with three qualifiers.

Good

Pleasing

Perfect

Again Paul engages with Plato. The highest end of man, according to Plato, as we saw, is “The Good.” He was also fond of using the word translated here pleasing, as well as perfect. Paul therefore makes a nod to Plato, but expands the thought as he did on Mars Hill - you worship what you do not know, we worship what we know.

The ultimate goal of Christian transformation then is not just simply non-conformity but a willing and active consent to that which is good, pleasing, and perfect.

The good, the pleasing, and the perfect ought to be understood as that which is good, pleasing, and perfect in the sight of God.

Paul makes a subtle reference back to the creation narrative here. The Christian life of upward, onward, and forward transformation is actually a life of backward transformation. Backward to the goodness and perfection of the garden of Eden that pleased God so greatly.

He also makes a subtle reference back to the life of Christ. The Christian life of transformation is a life is lived in keeping with those same principles that guided Christ, and made him worthy of the Father’s declaration: This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Paul’s vision for the Christian life then is not just transformed worship but transformed will. A willing consent to the the things of God that comes about through our mental transformation, a transformation that comes about according to our mental renewal in the Word.

Conclusion

Paul’s vision for the Christian life is one of worship and will. One where our whole life and our whole person is offered up as a love-sacrifice to God, living, holy, and pleasing to him. That worship, according to Paul, happens in the real world. It’s visible service that takes place in real and active transformation which leads us onward and upward to the good, the pleasing, and the perfect.

What do we take away then?

Our whole life to be lived in such a way that magnifies and glorifies God. We are not just Christians on Sunday but every day of the week. We are not just Christians at church but at work and at school and at home and at play.

We must refuse conformity to the spirit of the age. The temptation is always to go with the flow, to fit in, and to try and be socially acceptable. Paul’s command is to deny that and refuse to be conformed to the Spirit of the age.

We must constantly be in pursuit of the Word, so that we might renew our minds and be transformed onward and upward into the good, the pleasing, and the perfect.