Altar-ed Humans (Romans 12:1-8)

15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Reading #1, for perspective:

Genesis 22:4–8 ESV

4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

Reading #2, main text:

Romans 12:1–8 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Intro.1

How do you look for church? That’s probably a question that brings very particular things to your mind, isn’t it.

Maybe it’s your hair or your shoes.

Maybe it’s the outfit you picked out, or the outfit you first picked out and then you put it back for another set of clothes altogether that you chose and decided to wear instead.

Or maybe it’s the milk-mustache or the bit of snot that was on your kids’ faces as they made their way out the door this morning—and now you’re wondering, did I actually get that cleaned up and taken care of??

Men—maybe it’s the shave of your face and whether you’re “cleaned up” enough or left a bit too much stubble or whatever it is.

Maybe it’s the look of your car, and in some church contexts whether your car is washed and polished enough for showing up on Sunday morning in the parking lot.

Whatever it is—as a kid I remember showing up to evening church in shorts, and my Grandma looked at me and asked if I was going to a picnic or a baseball game...

How do you look for church?

Intro.2

A question we might not ever consider is, how do I smell for church?

We talk now about churches that are “fragrance-free” for allergies’ sakes, and they encourage not wearing perfumes or colognes that give off heavy scents to those sitting around you. — Or if your congregation is fragrance free, you might also refrain from stocking scented soaps or air fresheners in your church bathrooms.

It’s being mindful of the sensitivities and needs of those who are around you (and that’s a good thing!).

But it helps illustrate the question, how do I smell? And what aroma am I wafting and giving off as I come here and as I serve Christ?

Intro.3

ILLUSTRATION: In 1964, two entrepreneurs from Chicago stalked the Beatles on an American tour that the band was doing. — And what the businessmen did was purchase the bedsheets and pillowcases from the Detroit and Kansas City hotels where each Beatle slept and was staying.

These two had the idea that they would sell each “artifact” to adoring fans, hoping to make $165,000 in total if every piece sold.

(A 1” square was priced affordably for $1… Or, $9.79 in today’s dollars...)

They thought fans would love to have a piece of history who, even, might be able to catch whiffs of the Beatles member who had slept on the 1” square of cloth.

(Rather than $165,000, they ended up making less than $1,000. And the fans weren’t as interested in the unwashed bedding as the two entrepreneurs had originally thought…)

<https://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/the-time-those-guys-tried-to-sell-sheets-the-beatles-slept-on/article_f79d115a-7a96-5c21-bf83-1edbfec6927a.html>

All this is to knock around the point that our passage has us consider: of how (to use Paul’s word) we present ourselves in worship.

Romans 12:1 “1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

The Greek word there, translated “present,” is also a word that can mean “offer” or “make ready.”

Offer your bodies as living sacrifices.

Make your bodies ready as living sacrifices.

And we come as “holy and acceptable”—holy and pleasing—in an act of spiritual worship, or (in other translations) an act of “reasonable service.”

II.

I don’t know if you’ve ever thought of yourself this way. I know I really haven’t.

You present your idea to your boss or team. Or in the old days, a dignitary presented themselves to a foreign king or government of another country.

There’s deference in presenting yourself. There’s subjection or submission—a lowering of yourself and a humbling.

* * *

And to rustle the Romans and catch their attention—first, Paul is calling them in this passage to submission and humility. But second, he calls them to sacrifice. Romans 12:1 again, “1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Many Romans by this time would have found both ideas repugnant. First to serve, men were the basis of Roman society (over against women and children), and you wanted to build your class and your status and stature by having more property and, preferably, by being born or married into a place of status and power.

You didn’t serve if you were high up. Instead you were to be liberal—“free”—untouched by the cares and work of life, unmarked by the labor and toil that others did maybe even on your behalf. In fact, Rome had seen 150 years of strife between the two classes of (1) those who could trace their lineage and ancestry way back into the annals of Roman history, and (2) the “plebeians” who were descendants of former slaves or else of foreigners who had immigrated for trade or business.

And if you were high up or low down, you showed it and you “dressed the part.” If you were the emperor, for instance, then only you (by law) could wear a purple toga. Or if you were a senator, then the law provided that only you could wear the white toga with a single purple stripe on it that signified your status and your elevated position among the people.

But you certainly didn’t stoop below your place. You caused no betrayal to the fact that there was inequality between you and a person of another class. You definitely didn’t intermarry with the lower classes or show any deference whatsoever to someone who would be lower than you. And you certainly didn’t present yourself or bow yourself—but instead you expected slaves and others to present themselves to you and bow to you!

But Paul, for one thing, calls you to present yourself. Lower yourself. Subject yourself, in service and worship.

* * *

And then the very idea of humans being sacrifices would have been absurd!

Rome and Greece had had human sacrifices in their past, to be sure—but it was in the past! It was far back in the antiquated and outdated history.

You didn’t sacrifice humans any longer, and particularly not Romans who were citizens! The last practice perhaps had seen slaves sacrificed to satisfy the gods, or enemies who had been captured and taken prisoner in battle. But no Romans would be offered! Not in the Empire, and certainly not in the more dignified and ordered time of Roman order and law.

III.

Ah, but Paul changes the script! Paul changes the practice. Be “living” sacrifices, he says: or “living” offerings—“holy and acceptable to God,” in “spiritual” worship.

Paul’s not calling the Romans to go back to a gruesome and frightening time of human sacrifices that the Romans had since overcome and undone among their own doings. Instead he’s calling for living sacrifices done in spiritual (reasonable) worship. — This fits with the whole overall argument of Romans to be sure!

You can imagine Paul heading off the Roman objection. I’m not calling you to lay yourselves down as bloody, slaughtered sacrifices!

Paul shouts:

“Already I’ve called you to be dead—but be dead to sin, Rom. 7! — And remember that at the same time I told you to be alive in Christ!

“And of course I told you that the wages and payment for sin and wrongdoing would be death. — But at the same time again, Rom. 6:23, I told you that “23 the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

He says this is the way, i.e., as living sacrifices, that is “holy”—marking us in the same category as what Paul calls elsewhere “the holy scriptures” (Rom. 1:2). “Holiness” is the same category tying us to the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5 and a few other places). “Holiness” also raises us to the level of the holy law (Rom. 7:12) and a certain type of holy kiss that’s given and practiced among the saints (Rom. 16:16).

Indeed the whole thrust of Romans as an argument is to convert us into the “saints” of God—literally in Greek, the holy ones of God—to take us out of being those who are lost and dead to sin, overcome by the lusts and the desires of the flesh…and to make us instead those who receive God’s favor and righteousness and kindness and eternal life, justified by grace (Rom. 3:24) and sanctified by the Spirit (Rom. 8:15) who released us from “the spirit of slavery” and who now intercedes for us and raises us into heavenly places!

IV.

This is the first of three “appeals,” or summonses or exhortations, that Paul will make in his applications of the gospel. The other two being:

Romans 15:30 “30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf,”

Romans 16:17 “17 I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.”

And here his application demands the offering of the body—but it also deals with the mind. Romans 12:2

Romans 12:2 ESV

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

* * *

And if you’re an engineer or architect of any sort, you already know the word “schematic,” which is the word we get from what Paul uses for being conformed. —

Don’t follow the design of this world, or its pattern.

Then he adds positively, “But be transformed.”

And there we get the word for the change that a caterpillar undergoes in becoming a butterfly: metamorphosis.

It’s a change of the mind, too, that Paul hones in on. The same word is used in the gospels to express Jesus’ transformation—his transfiguration—on the mountain (Matt. 17:2, Mk. 9:2): which Matthew Henry notes was NOT a change of the substance of Jesus’ body (i.e., he didn’t change there into a spirit)—but it WAS a turn and glimpse that went from humility/dishonor to “pull back the veil” and show Jesus’ power/glory instead.

So in our minds, it’s a total restructuring and overhaul. Not just a remodel, but an entire rebuilding and reconstructing of what had been there previously under sin and death.

The “mind,” Paul says (Rom. 7:23-25), is at war between sin and righteousness. And for the Roman, the mind was the part that was at the very core and the center of a person’s humanity and existence.

The Romans were very much in the Greek world and ethos.

So it’s not the heart that’s at the core for the Romans (as it was for the Jews)—but it’s the mind: the place of thought, and understanding, and intellect or reason.

And Paul continues against the grain of the Roman way, in how the renewed believer ought to think of himself or herself:

Romans 12:3 “3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

* * *

Remember the Roman problem of pride and status that we already talked about. So when Jesus says, in Mk. 10:42, that 42 “Those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.” — The Romans would affirm this, as the ones occupying that whole Palestine area around Jesus, that this is indeed true of them. They most certainly do “lord” over whomever they can rule! --- And Paul reminds these believers back in Rome, one of the leading cities and powerhouses of the time: be sober in how you think of others.

Be restrained, or controlled.

Think wisely or with prudence and proper measure.

Again, hear Paul:

You know how your surrounding world operates here. That’s not how you are to operate. That’s not how you are to act or how to think.

Arrogance in Greek is a “hyper-thought,” a thought that’s in overdrive and is overly bloated in its own concept and self-valuation.

So Paul, in applying the gospel, reins-in that bloated overconfidence and hyper thinking—just as he reminded in Romans 8:5,

Romans 8:5 ESV

5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

For the Romans, the flesh and the material surroundings and earnings are crucial and important. They determine all the realities and hierarchies and structures that are around you. — But Paul says, don’t be conformed! Be renewed in your mind…and your mind ought to be humble and wise and sober!

VI.

And it stems, Rom. 12:3ff, from “gifting” and from the assignment of God. Romans 12:3 again,

Romans 12:3 ESV

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

* * *

There’s an outward regard and concern that Paul is going to drive toward. And bodies which are given as living sacrifices and spiritual-devotions to worship: they are going to think of a body and its parts (“members”) coming together to function and acts as one.

Romans 12:4-5 “4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”

And he draws attention to the unique giftings and portions—but only insofar as they come together to benefit and contribute to the whole and to the collective people of God.

* * *

ILLUSTRATION:

So, recently, I was driving in the car with my son, and my son asked from the backseat, “Dad, what do the kidneys do?”

And what I had to do in that moment was remember and try to repeat all that my wife had told Isaac in the past when he had asked this question so many times before (my wife who works in medical and knows these things!). And I told him about the kidneys filtering our blood and getting the toxins out of our body.

Then he asked a follow-up question—and here’s the direct tie to our text this morning. He asked, “Daddy, what happens if you get rid of your kidneys?”

That question took me by surprise.

What happens is, your body doesn’t work. Your kidneys aren’t your brain, and they’re not your heart. They’re not those fundamental parts of the body that we typically think of. Yet, if they’re not taken care of—and if they’re not functioning and operating—then without the kidneys, the other systems of the body take a major blow and hit, things start shutting down…and the body eventually dies with it.

VII.

What’s the point here?

Paul says we’re a body here. We’re bodies (plural) presented as those “living sacrifices”—and we’re a body (singular). Romans 12:5, we’re “one body in Christ.” Each of us is “members,” or “parts” of the whole. Each of us is distributed and assigned “gifts,” or callings (literally in Greek, charismas)—and we’re to use those individually-assigned gifts. And in service to the body, we’re to be spent up, and used up, and poured out.

There’s no sitting back or sitting out—but as members of the body, there’s also no pushing others out either. There’s no neglect or room for abuse or misuse.

We’re in this body together.

And notice it’s not that we’re members of a team—a “team” where some members play and others can sit the bench.

Nor did he say that we’re members of a club—where maybe you join because you share a certain interest, but then you join elsewhere too because of another shared interest, and then you leave another one because that interest has waned.

No, we’re members of the body—”members of Christ,” Paul says.

VIII.

It’s not even that we buy our gifts or our place in the body—as if the body were at all transactional or a business.

But these are gifts. — They’re graces.

Prophesying, service, teaching, exhorting, contributing, leading, and showing mercy. They’re gifts, given among the body. Distributed among the body. And expected to be spent up and used and exhausted by the body.

“If prophecy” (not so much fortune telling as it is forthtelling and declaring)—then speaking the word in direct relation to the level of faith given to us.

“If service” (lit., deaconing)—then serving in the gift of service.

“If teaching”—then teaching in the gift of teaching.

“If exhorting” (calling the people to account)—then that in the gift of exhorting.

And “if contributing” (distributing)—then doing it liberally, generously, and freely, with openness and willingness to give.

“If leading”—then doing it with zeal and devotion and diligence.

And “if giving mercy,” then doing it with cheerfulness, without any grudge, and (literally in Greek) with hilarity.

IX.

It’s Numbers 7:1-6 acted out in the New Testament context.

In Numbers it’s the law of God that receives all the gifts of the people, and then goes on to distribute those gifts, “share and share alike” right back among the very same people.

Numbers 7:4-6,

Numbers 7:4–6 ESV

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, 5 “Accept these from them, that they may be used in the service of the tent of meeting, and give them to the Levites, to each man according to his service.” 6 So Moses took the wagons and the oxen and gave them to the Levites.

It’s the Lord taking his gifts into inventory, and then returning them to the body and expecting that they be shared and invested as the body has need!

That’s grace. It’s all of God…and yet God shares bountifully with us and brings us together so that we share with each other.

Conclusion.1

So: how do you smell for church?

Do you smell like an offering—like the living sacrifice that you are?

No doubt Israelite worship, in the physical world of sight and smell and sound, was both nauseating and delicious at the very same time.

It was nauseating in the smell of the blood, the bleating and cackle of the animals before their slaughter.

But it was also delicious. In the crackle of the wood as it was prepared and burned, in the wafting of the meat as it started to roast and cook, and in the taste and smell and enjoyment too as the priests and others of the congregation were invited to eat different parts of the animal and bread offerings alike.

Conclusion.2

“How do I smell” brings to mind the way the Lord typically described in the Old Testament whether an offering was pleasing to him or not. — It was whether or not the offering had a “pleasing aroma.”

Pleasing aroma was what situated and distinguished a bad offering and sacrifice from a good one.

Pleasing aroma was, in Paul’s words here in Romans 12, whether or not an offering was “holy and acceptable to God.” (Romans 12:1)

Pleasing aroma is used 16x in Leviticus alone, in setting out the instructions for all the different sacrifices and offerings in the Hebrew tabernacle.

And all the other uses there appear in other places of the Law of Moses (Genesis-Deuteronomy), except for just three other times that appear in the prophecy of Ezekiel.

And all 41 uses of “pleasing aroma” refer to sacrifice and refer to offering.

Conclusion.3

But we no more put ourselves in front of the sacrificial knife and lay ourselves on an altar here in our worship, than would the Romans have done (which was as repulsive to them as it is to us).

Nor was it for Abraham to have Isaac on that altar either, in the account we read at the start in Genesis 22.

You and I, and Isaac, as a sacrifice would be repugnant to God: useless, unworthy, definitely not holy and certainly not acceptable or a “pleasing aroma.”

You and I, and Isaac, have sin. We are not holy. We are not worthy. Our sin makes us worthy of death to be sure, but not a death that pleases God or which God deems fit to undo the sin that we have commited.

Isaac’s death on the mountain, at the hands of his father, would have been as useless and devastating and sad as if our own lives had been offered there.

So we are “living sacrifices,” used in spiritual worship—and the only One who has remained truly holy, has been our sacrifice and offering on our part.

It is both nauseating and wonderful at the very same time—Christ on the cross, for us and for our sin. Naked, bloody, rejected, beaten, and taking away the sins of the whole world.

Psalm 51:15–17 ESV

1 Samuel 15:22 ESV

22 And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

Mark 12:33 ESV

33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Matthew 9:13 ESV

13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 12:7 ESV

7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.

And maybe now you can read Genesis 4, the story of Cain and Abel, and go back and have some clues there now—of why Abel’s sacrifice would have been acceptable to God, but Cain’s sacrifice was rejected… (Consider it in your personal devotions, perhaps.)

Conclusion.4

Also Genesis 4 there, starting with Cain and Abel, maybe you can see if any more c

* * *

The sacrifice has been made for us. Our bodies are spared.

And now in our spiritual worship, our minds (with our spirits and bodies) are “transformed”—and we are converted into that one body, which is the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We share in his gifts. And we are given his gifts in order that we would give and share with others.

And we live now in our worship, just as we will always live and have life eternal.

Amen

Parting blessing:

2 Corinthians 2:15–16 ESV

15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

Translation/notes:

So I summon/beseech/exhort (Rom. 15:30, 16:17; 1 Cor. 1:10, 16:15; 2 Cor. 10:1; Eph. 4:1; Phil. 4:2; 1 Tim. 2:1; Philem. 10; 1st pl., 1 Thess. 5:14; outside Paul, Heb. 13:22; (1 Pet. 2:11); 1 Pet. 5:12) y’all, siblings (cf. Rom. 1:7; Rom. 1:13, 7:1, 7:4, 8:12, 10:1, 11:25, 15:14, 15:30, 16:17), by/through/by-means-of the mercies/pities (2 Cor. 1:3, Phil. 2:1, Col. 3:12) of God to present-in-subjection/offer-in-total-reliance/make-ready (Rom. 6:13,16) y’all’s bodies (Rom. 6:6, 6:12-13, 8:10-11, 8:23, 12:4-5) a living (of the righteous Rom. 1:17, and dead to sin Rom. 6:10-13, dead to the law/alive in Christ Rom. 7:4ff, dead to flesh’s deeds Rom. 8:12-13, living for Christ’s sake Rom. 14:7-11) sacrifice/offering, holy/sacred/devoted/dedicated (like Scripture Rom. 1:2, the Spirit Rom. 5:5, Rom. 9:1, 14:17, the law Rom. 7:12, and a certain kiss Rom. 16:16), pleasing/acceptable/pleasant (Rom. 12:2, 14:18; 17x refers to offering “aroma” in Leviticus) to God, y’all’s reasonable/logical/genuine/true/logikos worship/service/servitude.

And do not be conformed/fashioned/assimilated/lapsed-back (1 Pet. 1:14) to this eon/age/generation/time, but be transformed/transfigured/changed (Jesus, Matt. 17:2, Mk. 9:2; saints being unveiled, 2 Cor. 3:18) in the renewal/reestablishment/renovation (Titus 3:5) of your/y’all’s mind (at war with sin and righteousness, Rom 7:23-25), so that y’all examine/prove/distinguish/discern/test/approve/regard (Rom. 2:17-24; 14:22) what is the will/wish/desire/inclination/pleasure/intent/purpose (Rom. 2:18) of God, good/worthy/noble and well-pleasing/acceptable (v. 1 above) and perfect/full-grown/mature/complete.

For I say to everyone being among y’all, by the grace/“charity”/favor/gratitude/gift/kindness given/granted/bestowed to me, not to be arrogant/conceited/hyperphronein than it is necessary to think/phronein, but to think/phronein resulting in controlled-/sober-/restrained-/prudent-mind/sophronein, to each as God divided/distributed/imparted/bestowed/allotted the measure/portion of faith/trust/belief.

For just as in one body we have many parts/members/limbs, and not all the members have the same praxis/practice/function/task,

so/thus we the many are one body in Christ, and as one body are members of each other.

And having diverse/different/various/distinguished gifts/particularly-placed-and-situated-spiritual-calling/charismas according-to/in-relation-to the grace/charis/gift/favor/goodwill/kindness given to us: if prophecy/declaration/utterance, in proportion/agreement/“analogy”/measure of the faith;

If service, in service; if one teaching, in teaching;

If one summoning/beseeching/exhorting, in summoning/beseeching/exhorting; the one distributing, in sincerity/generosity/bounty/liberality/openness; the one leading/presiding/being-in-charge, in zeal/diligence/effort/devotion; the one showing mercy, in cheerfulness/“hilarity”/without-grudge.

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