The Appeal
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Living Sacrifice
Living Sacrifice
Paul’s call upon the Romans was framed as an appeal. He entreats them to something. Now the first question that is answered in this entreaty is the question why? Why should we do what Paul is calling them to do.
The answer is found in the first line, “therefore...by the mercies of God.” The call that he gives them is based on the mercies of God. What are the mercies of God that Paul speaks of? Well, it’s the mercies found in chapters 1-11.
God’s mercy is encapsulated in the gospel that he has taught them. John Piper sums up that gospel message as such:
“The Gospel is the news that Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, died for our sins and rose again, eternally triumphant over all his enemies, so that there is now no condemnation for those who believe, but only everlasting joy.”
Based on that Gospel, the truth of Christ reigning gloriously triumphant over sin and death, Romans 11:32 notes that ‘God (binds) everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all’, and his appeal is made ‘in view of God’s mercy’, mercy encapsulated in the gospel.
As believers we are called to live out a life of sacrifice because of the sacrifice made in our place for our sins.
The Bible is replete with calls to be living sacrifices.
for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
But what are we to sacrifice. Well, Paul notes two ways that we are to sacrifice ourselves:
Sacrificed Bodies
Sacrificed Bodies
The first way you are to sacrifice is by presenting your body.
As believers the first thing we must realize is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians:
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
When payment is made, it is always made for a good or a service. When Christ made payment on the cross he bought you and me. We were bought at a high price on the cross.
We are to thus live lives that subjugate the flesh and seek to live differently than the world.
The world is full of calls to live your truth. Live your authentic self. To just be you. These seem like innocuous and even inspirational quotes, but they are deadly to the soul. The reason, our bodies are wicked and our lusts seek to lead us away from God not toward him.
The truth is this: The world will always seek to make you the center of your life, to set you on the throne of your kingdom. But Christ bought us to call us to something else, something more.
Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
We are slaves. Slaves to sin. Slaves to our lusts, but we are called to not give in to lust but to master it.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.
But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Like an athlete training for the big game or a race, we must beat our bodies into submission to the calling of Christ.
1 Corinthians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Through Self-Control
The Greeks had two great athletic festivals, the Olympic games and the Isthmian games. The Isthmian games were held at Corinth and were therefore intimately familiar to those to whom Paul was writing. Contestants in the games had to prove rigorous training for ten months. The last month was spent at Corinth, with supervised daily workouts in the gymnasium and athletic fields.
The race was always a major attraction at the games, and that is the figure Paul uses to illustrate the faithful Christian life. Those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize. No one would train so hard for so long without intending to win. Yet out of the large number of runners, only one wins.
A great difference between those races and the Christian “race” is that every Christian who will pay the price of careful training can win. We do not compete against each other but against the obstacles—practical, physical, and spiritual—that would hinder us. In a sense, every Christian runs his own race, enabling each one of us to be a winner in winning souls to Christ. Paul therefore counsels all believers to run in such a way that you may win, by setting aside anything that might hinder the reception of the gospel.
-John MacArthur
Sacrificed Minds
Sacrificed Minds
Second we must be transformed in our minds. Paul calls them to “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
The Holy Spirit Renews the Mind
The Holy Spirit Renews the Mind
he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
Listen to rich expositions of the “gospel of the glory of Christ.” Read your Bible from cover to cover always in search of the revelation of the glory of Christ. Read and ponder the Bible-saturated, Christ-exalting writings of great, spiritual men and women. And form the habit of meditating on the perfections of Christ. And in it all pray, pray, pray that the Holy Spirit will renew your mind, that you may desire and approve the will of God, so that all of life will become worship to the glory of Christ.
May the mind of Christ, my Savior,
Live in me from day to day,
By His love and power controlling
All I do and say.
May the mind of Christ, my Savior,
Live in me from day to day,
By His love and power controlling
All I do and say.
May the Word of God dwell richly
In my heart from hour to hour,
So that all may see I triumph
Only through His power.
May the Word of God dwell richly
In my heart from hour to hour,
So that all may see I triumph
Only through His power.
May the peace of God my Father
Rule my life in everything,
That I may be calm to comfort
Sick and sorrowing.
May the peace of God my Father
Rule my life in everything,
That I may be calm to comfort
Sick and sorrowing.
May the love of Jesus fill me
As the waters fill the sea;
Him exalting, self abasing,
This is victory.
May the love of Jesus fill me
As the waters fill the sea;
Him exalting, self abasing,
This is victory.
May I run the race before me,
Strong and brave to face the foe,
Looking only unto Jesus
As I onward go.
May I run the race before me,
Strong and brave to face the foe,
Looking only unto Jesus
As I onward go.
May His beauty rest upon me,
As I seek the lost to win,
And may they forget the channel,
Seeing only Him.
May His beauty rest upon me,
As I seek the lost to win,
And may they forget the channel,
Seeing only Him.
(Kate B. Wilkinson, “May the Mind of Christ, My Savior”)