A Rational Response to God’s Grace and Mercy - Romans 12:1-2

Copyright August 4, 2024 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

A number of years ago I asked you to respond to the question “And all God’s people said . . . ?” Not with the traditional “Amen” but with the question: “So what?” The reason for this was because I wanted you to start to look at the Word of God not as a textbook but as important information for life and eternity. At the end of every passage, whether it was preached or whether you were reading it on your own, I wanted you to ask, “So what?” What is it that we are being asked to do because of the teaching you were just reading about.

Chapter 12 of Romans, if you will, gives us the “So what?” of the book of Romans. From here to the end of the book (chapter 16) Paul will teach us how to respond appropriately to the work of grace we read about in the first 11 chapters. For today we are going to look just at the first 2 verses but they contain lots to think about in practical application. Let’s start with verse 1.

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

Application is for Believers

Paul begins his application by reminding his readers that he is writing to Christians. The reason this is important is because we have a tendency to want to coerce non-Christian people to function by Christian ethics. We feel if we can pass godly laws we can make our country stronger and more pleasing to God. There is truth in these ideas, but merely legislating morality will not and cannot change a human heart. In fact, if we are pushing Christian ethics instead of sharing the gospel message of Jesus, we are preaching a false gospel. We are preaching salvation by works! The point is, in these verses Paul is talking to those who are believers.

Second, these applications should be in response to the kindness and grace of God. In the first 11 chapters of Romans, we were shown we are sinful people who, left to our own efforts, will never seek God. We were shown that people can only be saved by faith in what God has done for us and God is the One who has to help us see this. When we do see and believe, we are transformed. Our conduct will always be a consequence of our doctrine. Don’t miss this! If we rightly understand the salvation offered to us in Christ, it should provoke a response in us.

Unfortunately, there are many who claim to be Christians (Christ-followers) who don’t live their lives any differently from the world around us. That doesn’t make any sense! If your doctrine is right . . . it should powerfully impact your behavior. If it doesn’t you need to question whether or not your faith is genuine.

The Call to Commitment

Paul says in response to God’s grace and mercy we should give our bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice. He uses the term body to show that our faith is not just in spirit and soul (a “spiritual thing”) . . . it is also practical and should be seen in the things that we do. It is a lot easier (and preferred by most of us) to give our attendance or a check than it is to give ourselves fully to the Lord. We would like to do the least possible and still be “OK with God.” Paul says the right response is to give ourselves fully and wholeheartedly to the Lord.

Paul says this is “truly the way to worship Him.” Other versions say this is our true and proper worship (NIV), or our “spiritual worship”. The different words are used because they are trying to convey the idea of the Greek word “logikas.” It is a word related to the word, logical. Douglas Moo believes it is best translated “informed” or “understanding.” In short, the most logical or reasonable response to all the Lord has done for us is to give ourselves fully to the Lord (as He gave Himself fully for us.) Moo continues,

Worship is about the way we live, not what we do on Sunday morning. . .worship, however expressed, must engage the mind. It must be logikos worship, worship appropriate for rational creatures, worship that arises from understanding something about God and his truth.

I do not think that God ultimately cares how we sing, but he does care about what we sing. The words we sing must be true, expressing something about what he has told us about himself. By reminding ourselves of such truth in our singing we are moved to the praise and worship that pleases God.

I am afraid that what passes for worship in some churches goes little beyond an emotional reaction to a certain form of music. Some writers of music and certain kinds of worship leaders know how to get people excited, but I am not always clear that they are getting people to worship.”[1]

This is different from what many are looking for in a church. People want to know what, or how long they sing, what the band sounds like, how big the church is, what kind of programs are offered and which of their friends attend. Not one of those things has to do with the heart of worship or the proclamation of the Word. You can tell a great deal about the depth of a believer by asking them why they worship where they do.

One more thing, a living sacrifice is constant, continual and lifelong. It may start with a prayer at an evangelistic service, but it is a commitment and an offering given anew every day and often several times during the day.

When we devote ourselves to the Lord as a proper response to God’s mercy and grace toward us, it involves not only staying away from sinful behaviors. It also means doing positive things. Too often we are good at one and not the other: We work hard not to spew profanity but are we working just as hard to speak words of praise and honor to the Lord? We may be diligent about not stealing from others, but we must also ask, “Are we being generous?” We may be staying away from people who may lead us down a wrong path and condemn those who do not hold a Biblical position (in our mind and conviction) but are we also trying to find ways to point these people to Jesus? God is not calling us to simply weed out sinful behaviors, He wants us to model the fruit of the Spirit and godly love for each other.

How Do We Start?

In verse 2, Paul gives us some good first steps on how to live more completely for the Lord,

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

JB Philipps wrote one of the earliest modern language translations of the Bible. His translation (or paraphrase) of our passage reads like this:

Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves toward the goal of true maturity.[2]

There are a couple of key ideas in these verses they can be summarized by the difference between conformed and transformed.We are not to be conformed to the world but live as people who are transformed by our Lord Jesus Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit.

Think of some of the beliefs and priorities in the world today that run counter to the Word of God,

· This Life is all there is. A large part of the world doesn’t believe in an afterlife or the eternal. They certainly don’t believe in any kind of judgment. They conclude any loving God would never judge someone and consign them to Hell. They believe most people are “good.” As believers, we renew our mind by living in light of eternity and the truth that Jesus rose from the dead and will someday return and judge the earth. This leads us to witness and work to live according to God’s eternal principles.

· Experience is the measure of Truth. You hear people all the time say, “Well, it works for me!” Truth is whatever we want to be true. There was a popular song by Debbie Boone named “You Light up My Life” that had this ridiculous lyric, “It can’t be wrong, if it feels so right.” What matters to the world is not whether or not something is true but whether or not it fulfills my desires. There is a psychological truth called confirmation bias which is when you only seek information that confirms what you want to be true. We see this all the time in what we choose to watch, listen to, and believe. As believers, we measure truth by the Word of God and seek to align our lives to His Word. We must not be swept up by popular opinion

· Images are Valued more than Words. Social scientists say we are no longer linear thinkers. In other words, our society doesn’t wrestle with arguments and logic anymore. People get more of their beliefs from television, the movies, podcasts, and YouTube “influencers” than from books. We believe what people say without evaluating what we are being told. Ironically, those same people feel they have researched a subject thoroughly because they have listened to things that comes from their same perspective. I have been stunned by those who tell me (with pride) they have not read a book since they were a child. The world around us is much more impacted by sound bites than rational discussion. If you watch a political debate the goal is not to explain your view of issues, it is to get your soundbite front and center! As believers we are to be people who listen and think. We must be willing for our ideas to be challenged and draw our values from the Word of God. We are to study to show ourselves to be approved and we check out what we are told is true.

· The goal is less effort for more reward. There has been a lot said about an increase in people who want to be paid a great deal of money to do less. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We should always be trying to be more efficient in our work. However, this isn’t about efficiency…it is laziness. And this attitude doesn’t work with our spiritual growth just like it doesn’t work in many other things. The Lord wants ALL of us not just one hour a week from us. We must resist this tendency.

· New is always seen as better than old. The world is into novelty. A new technology is often embraced without thinking. A new drug is rushed to market without considering side effects. People get a new spouse because it is more “exciting” than putting in the hard work to maintain your current relationship. There is little thought today about where the new ways are taking us. Just think about our devices. They have pulled us away from personal contact. They have a benefit but also a danger. We could say the same about contemporary Christian music. There are great songs but many of those songs move our attention to the attitudes of man rather than the glory and majesty of God. As believers, we know our faith is built on the historical truth of the Christian message. New religions are just as false as those of the past.

There are some extremes when we think about worshipping the new. First, we can become people who reject anything that is new. Someone has rightly said, the seven last words of a church are “we never did it that way before.” The assumption is that anything new is bad. But that isn’t true. As a church we have embraced technology. We send out e-mails and use a screen to project lyrics. We use computers instead of typewriters. As Pastors we use a Bible program that enables us to research things faster and more thoroughly. Just because something is new does not make it bad.

However, the other extreme is also true. We can become so fascinated with anything new that we embrace it enthusiastically. We embrace new theologies, new music, new styles of worship, new social morals and beliefs, and new interpretations of familiar passages because these things are new and popular and we are arrogant enough to think people of the past were not nearly as enlightened as we are. Ironically, try reading something from a Christian scholar back then . . . they show how much more advanced they were than OUR thinking. We must be discerning! Anything that moves us away from God is bad no matter how shiny and new it is.

Daniel Doriani writes,

Unless we resist, this age constantly shapes us. In recent decades, for example, public discourse has become ever more rude, profane, and harsh. Advocates of opposing viewpoints are not simply wrong; they are considered hypocritical, idiotic, and traitorous. Sadly, [even] the tone of Christian dialogue has followed suit. Our meager boast is that we have lower rates of profanity. (417)

To state things more positively we could say about those with a transformed mind,

· We should have a new attitude. We should trust rather than panic. We will work to solve problems rather than win arguments. We will give people the benefit of the doubt rather than embrace anything negative that others say.

· Our values will be drawn from God’s Word. We will uphold God’s views of gender, marriage, sexual ethics, conflict management, and pursue humility over power.

· We will embrace Christian ethics. We will value people over money, grace over condemnation, forgiveness over bitterness and hostility. We will be those work hard, tell the truth, and love others.

Finding God’s Will

The apostle Paul ends with, “Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

There is no question that seems to come up among Christians more often than “how can I know God’s will for my life?’ Anyone who wants to serve the Lord has likely asked that question at one time of another. Paul says the best way to know God’s will is to do these things: give your whole self to the Lord and take every thought captive to the Word of God (meaning, trust the Bible as your authority rather than the whims of men). As we begin to live God’s way, His way becomes even clearer.

As we surrender ourselves to the Lord, we become open to the leading of the Lord through the Word, through others, and even at times through our circumstances. The will of God is generally not the same as public opinion, current fads, the interpretations of celebrity Pastors, or even our own desires. Finding God’s will, comes when we learn to seek Him in all things. As we become aware of what God’s heart desires for us, according to Scripture, we will find it much easier to navigate the myriad of choices in life. Not only that, as we do what God clearly tells us to do, we will discover that God’s way is far superior to the ways of the world around us.

· You will see that you have greater influence on people if you are nice rather than aggressive. This is true in work or in your social or family life.

· As you live out the Christian faith you will find people interested in why you live such a “different” life and yet seem so happy and content. You can gladly tell them.

· People who used to ridicule you (or may currently do so) will turn to YOU in the time of crisis when they need something substantial in their life (failed married, rebellious child, a devastating loss) because they will know that the cliches of the world no longer have any value . . . they need something deeper. They need hope. And they see that in you.

· Your children will be much more likely to embrace your faith when they see that faith lived out in your daily living one decision at a time.

· You will face the times of crisis much less afraid in life because you will know for certain that you life is in His hands.

This doesn’t mean we will necessarily know which job to take or what person we should marry or if we should invest in the stock market, invest in a new business opportunity, or invest in a person who is in need. But we will have principles that make it easier to know the mind of God. Sometimes when we don’t know what we should do, the answer is really to do nothing and wait on the Lord. He may be doing something that will make things much clearer.

This text, I hope, raises some questions we need to ask ourselves,

1. Am I a Christian only in terms of my associations or knowledge? Have I given my life to the Lord as a living sacrifice? Or am I just lying to myself? Am I willing to follow Him with my whole being and not just my checkbook or attendance? In other words, do I serve the Lord wherever I am and in whatever I am doing.

2. Have you ever asked the question: Do I adequately appreciate what God has done for me? Do I merely say that I appreciate what God has done or do I show my appreciation in the way I live my life, budget my time, give of my resources, prioritize time, and defer to Him in the decisions of my life?

3. Have I been discerning in what I listen to and believe? Do I evaluate what I am hearing through the grid of the Word of God, or am I merely absorbing whatever the world and its proponents tell me is true?

4. Are there areas of my life where I am being conformed to the world rather than transforming it?

As you see, Paul does not ease into these applications of the truth of the book of Romans. He is direct and to the point. It is our job to heed these words so Christ can be magnified in our lives.

[1]Douglas Moo p. 397 [2]The New Testament in Modern English Translated by J.B. Phillips 1958