Romans 12:1-2

Leah and the stop sign

MAIN IDEA: The Lord’s mercy calls us into a transformed life we cannot possess on our own.

Paul makes a shift at the beginning of chapter 12. He takes everything that we have learned from the previous 11 chapters and wants to push it out of our head and into our hands and feet. It’s practical application that shifts our knowing to going.

I appeal to you because the Lord’s mercy is extravagant and has made a significant difference in your life. The Lord has been exponentially kind and compassionate. From him, through him and to him are all things in our life ~ for his purposes and his glory.

Here we come to a major intersection in Romans. One direction leads to the absorption of information without any impact on our life. Another direction leads to a transformed life that declares the hope of Jesus Christ as we continue to grow in Christlikeness. I invite you to linger at the stop sign and consider who might be influenced for Jesus Christ if your life continues to be transformed.

A transformed life is a decisive act of obedience and worship.

Romans 12:1 ESV

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.

As we linger at the stop sign, I remind us that Jesus presented his body as a living sacrifice. That was a decisive act of obedience to the Father and to demonstrate his love for the world. In our current culture, it is likely none of us will hang on a cross, but this verse calls us to the same decisive act. Present our body as a living sacrifice. “Living” is important because the spiritually dead person doesn’t understand the mercies of God and has not surrendered his heart to Jesus Christ. “Sacrifice” is also important. The Jewish people would have understood that only certain animals qualified to be a sacrifice. Every detail of the animal’s history determined if it was eligible to be a sacrifice. Our history is used as evidence of a transformed life, but it is not put under a microscope to determine our eligibility. We must meet one requirement ~ only the person who is alive in Christ has the ability to be a living sacrifice. One cannot have a transformed life without a surrendered heart. Joshua 24:15 says, “choose this day whom you will serve…but as for me and my, we will serve the Lord.” If I could make the decision for you, I would. Friends, Paul said the same thing to his Jewish audience in Romans 9.

Decisive acts of obedience, presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, will develop our holiness. Let’s talk about a rotisserie chicken. These chickens have been sacrificed so the purchaser can have lunch. The chicken has to linger and develop in the oven for about 2 hours before they are ready to impact people. Maybe we need to think of ourselves as a rotisserie Christian, our holiness and obedience is being developed so God can use us to impact other people. Just as the chicken has been surrendered to the rotisserie process, so we must also be decisive in our surrender to transformation process as our holiness is developed.

Decisive acts of worship. Let’s look at verse on the screen. You’ll notice two versions say “reasonable service.” If that is your version, I’m not condemning you. I just don’t like the translation for this verse. The greek word for worship can also be translated as service. Meaning this, our internal worship begets external service. Our head worship will always lead to ‘hands and feet’ worship. Our ‘know’ worship becomes ‘go’ worship. I bring that up because a person could see reasonable worship and conclude that humans can define what reasonable worship is. The problem with that line of thinking is the context. The context is a sacrifice and animals in the Jewish culture had no part in determining what was to be done with them. The Word of God describes the spiritual worship of a transformed life.

Do not neglect meeting together (Heb 10:25).

Give financially to the local church often and generously (1 Corinthians 16:2).

Study your Bible faithfully (Joshua 1:8-9).

Pray continually (1 Thess 5:17).

Serve the body of Christ (Romans 12).

Daily tell people about Jesus and invite them to church (Matthew 28:19-20).

If Trinity only did these things, decisive acts of obedience and worship would multiply.

A transformed life anticipates a cultivated heart and mind.

Romans 12:2 ESV

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.

‘Do not be conformed to this world’ does not mean abandon the world and let them go to hell as you buckle down to preserve your life and values. Additionally, it’s more than not giving in to the unbiblical values. I think the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle. I challenge you with this ~ dead people don’t give in to unbiblical values and dead people have definitely abandoned the world. How is your transformed life different than a dead person?

Chris, the woke movement makes me angry. Chris, I look around and see sin everywhere. Chris, the immoral behavior of people makes me nauseous. Friends, that is the transformed life at work. But, the transformed life should also burden our heart for those who need Jesus.

As the transformed life cultivates our heart and renews our mind, we should become more eager to share Jesus with the people around us.

As the transformed life renews our mind, our biblical wisdom and spiritual discernment will develop. But don’t jump to verse 2 without surrendering to verse 1.

A transformed life brings clarity to the will of God

Romans 12:2 ESV

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.

Have I given God my very best in the past 7 days?

Have I allowed space for another person to question my holiness?

How does my surrendered mind measure against Philippians 4:8?

Present the path to salvation concisely and clearly!!! Today can be your day to know Jesus personally.