How Should We Respond to the Grace of God? Rom 12:1-2

Intro: Good Morning FE, we are glad to have you here this morning, welcome to those watching on line. We are back in the book of Romans, and just like many of Paul’s letters, there is a shift. In Romans 1-11, Paul has been communicating his theology of revelation, sin, redemption, justification, sanctification, Christian Living, the struggle with sin, The Holy Spirit’s work in the believer, our glorification, God’s Sovereign Choice in salvation, He answers questions about the future of Israel and the Gentiles. Everything Paul says in Romans 1-11, is leading here to Romans 12:1-2, it is the answer to the question, How should we respond to the Grace of God in our lives?

Romans 12:1–2 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. 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.

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

Por consiguiente, hermanos, os ruego por las misericordias de Dios que presentéis vuestros cuerpos como sacrificio vivo y santo, aceptable[a] a Dios, que es vuestro culto racional. 2 Y no os adaptéis[b] a este mundo[c], sino transformaos mediante la renovación de vuestra mente, para que verifiquéis cuál es la voluntad de Dios: lo que es bueno, aceptable[d] y perfecto.

Paul starts this chapter with “therefore” and this therefore is packed with meaning because Paul is saying based on everything you have read and studied from Romans chapter 1-11, based on the revelation of God through creation and through the person of Jesus Christ, based on the work of God bringing to life, dead and sinful people, based on you being clean, declared righteous filled with the Spirit, set free from the power of sin, based on you being chosen by God to walk in newness of life, based on all these mercies of God, therefore… in other words

Now that we know God’s Grace…

Now that we have experienced God’s grace in our lives, now that we know the mercies of God. Here is how you should respond… go and serve, go and do, go and give… is that what Paul says first? Paul will eventually talk about serving, giving, doing, but what Paul says first is present or offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual worship. Paul is still focused on our vertical relationship to God and what he is saying is the proper or logical response to the mercy and grace of God in our lives is worship. The logical response to the Sovereign love of God through the redeeming actions of Jesus is worship.

Josh, where do you get that from, the word for spiritual in this passage has a dual meaning, it can mean reasonable, many other translations translate this phrase as “which is your reasonable act of worship”, which I believe this is what Paul is trying to say, the logical response of someone who has been transformed by the Sovereign love of God through the redeeming actions of Jesus is to worship and give him glory for the great things he has done in our lives.

Something else we need to notice, is Paul describes what this worship looks like. Paul mentions the body, as we learned last week, the physical body is important in the Christian faith, the body was made by God, and he declared that it was good. But the body was also made for God, in other words we glorify God with our bodies, we glorify God by how we use our bodies when we work, serve, play, enjoy pleasure. We are not just spirt beings we are embodied people and God cares about what we do with our bodies. That is why he tells the people in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 6, do you not know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, therefore glorify God with your bodies. Or in Romans 6, when Paul said when you were dead in sin you used your body as instruments of unrighteousness or sin, but now that you have been transformed by the Gospel use your body as instruments of rightousness or to do good.

We also see the importance of the mind, Paul talks about the importance of renewing your mind, what Paul is doing here is talking about the external and the internal, your body what people actually see you doing and the internal, the mind, the part the people do not see. Paul is talking about the whole person, everything that you are and says the logical response to the Sovereign love of God in the redeeming actions of Jesus is

We must respond by offering God our whole life as a living sacrifice

Paul is using the imagery of ritual worship of sacrifice, something both Jews and Gentiles would be familiar with. In the Old Testament, the worshipper would bring a living sacrifice to the priest then the priest would kill it and present it too God for the worshipper. In our passage this morning, the worshipper is both the one brining the offering and the priest presenting it to God, we are functioning in the role of the worshipper by bringing our whole lives to God, but we are also in the role of the priest presenting our offering to God as a living sacrifice. How is this possible? Better question is who made this possible? Who was the other person who both functioned as priest and sacrifice? Jesus! Jesus offered up his life as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus offered his life as a living sacrifice but Jesus is also our high priest presenting the sacrifice before God to cover the sins of those who repent and believe in him. When we come and present our whole life as living sacrifices we are following the example of our Saviour.

Jesus was our sin offering, so we are not offering our lives as a sin offering, Jesus did that and it was final, we do not need any more sin offerings. There was another offering in the Old Testament which was a “whole burnt offering” which was an animal from your flock that was holy and without defect. This offering was burnt totally and represented complete devotion to God, it signified that all you were and all you had belonged to God, God didn’t just get the leftovers, he recieved all of you and all that belonged to you. I believe this is the type of offering Paul had in mind, our logical response to the grace and work of God in our lives is giving up all of our lives for him and for his glory. To be willing to obey his Word in every area of my life, obey God in my marriage, in my singleness, in my sexuality, in my work, in my finances, in my relationships with other people and to be willing to thank God for whatever is sent in any area of my life. My life belongs to God, every area. Here is the amazing truth about the Gospel and the implications for our life, in order to save your life you have to lose your life ‘you must deny yourself and take up his cross and lose your life” and when you do, you find it, for you are living sacrifice, living for what you were created for, which is worship and glorify God forever.

You see the Gospel is not just the motivation of our worship, but the Gospel provides the freedom to truly worship God and to please God. We do not have to worry if we are accepted by God, In Christ we are fully accepted in the family of God, in Christ the words of the Father echo through time and speak over us “this is my beloved son and daughter in whom I am well pleased”, In Christ the Father does not see the filthy dirty sinner that I am, he sees the clean and holy rightousness of Christ. Because God is pleased with us , we can live in a way that pleases God. We don’t obey to earn God’s favor, that is foolishness, we can never, out of our own goodness earn God’s favour, we obey because in Christ we have God’s favor and we are so grateful and full of worship our desire is to please God with our whole lives, because we are thankful for the grace of God in our lives.

The question we must ask is,

How do we give God our whole life?

If God is asking for all of me, how do I do give God my whole life?

The first command Paul gives us, the first “how” is stated in the negative.

Do Not Conform to the world

The first step in giving your whole life to God is not conforming to the world. The Bible talks about the world in three different ways, the first is God’s creation, the earth, the plants, the trees, the flowers, the whales, and cows and lions and well you get the point.

The second way the Bible talks about the world is by referring to the people that live in the world. For example, “For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son”, did God give his Son for the tress , flowers and animals, no , this passage is referring to the people that live in the world.

The third way the Bible uses the word world is to talk about the world systems and beliefs which are opposed to the rule and reign of God. In Ephesians 2:2 Paul is talking how when we were dead in our sins we

Ephesians 2:2 ESV

once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— en los cuales anduvisteis en otro tiempo según la corriente de este mundo conforme al príncipe de la potestad del aire, el espíritu que ahora opera en los hijos de desobediencia

before you came to Christ, your life followed after the pattern of the world, ultimately you were a follower of satan, because he rules this domain of the world that is opposed to God. Kevin DeYoung describes love of the world in this way

“Worldliness is whatever makes sin look normal and righteousness look strange.” Kevin DeYoung

Do not let the world’s systems, beliefs and philosophies become the pattern of our lives, do not let the world form your beliefs and actions. Do not let the world make sin look normal and dull your mind into thinking there is nothing wrong. Don’t go back to the life God saved you out of.

How does this happen? It is very subtle and if you are not careful, you do not even see the change. Many of you have experienced this before, for example, when the Bible talks about sex, we see the Scriptures reserves sexual intimacy between a man and a woman who are in a covenant marriage with each other. Any sexual act outside of these parameters, is a sin. Sex before marriage, sin. If you are married , having sex with a person that is not your wife, sin. Having sex with someone of the same sex, sin. Now let me ask you,what is the pattern of the world in the area of sexuality, does it mirror or oppose God’s commands? The world is opposed to God and we know it because we see it in the movies and tv shows, we listen to it through the music the world produces, and if we are not careful we become influenced by the discipleship of the world and we here the voice of the Serpent echoing from the Garden of Eden, “Did God Really Say?”

Here is what John says

1 John 2:15–17 ESV

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. No améis al mundo ni las cosas que están en el mundo. Si alguno ama al mundo, el amor del Padre no está en él. Porque todo lo que hay en el mundo, la pasión de la carne, la pasión de los ojos y la arrogancia de la vida[a], no proviene del Padre, sino del mundo. Y el mundo pasa, y también sus pasiones, pero el que hace la voluntad de Dios permanece para siempre.

John says, DO NOT love the world or the things of the world, this is the love that God hates, love for the world and love for the things of this world. The world just tempts you to follow after

your sinful desires - the desires of the flesh

desires of your eyes - this is when you see something you want it, you have to it, it consumes you, and you reorganize your life to pursue after it. It can be a person, a possession, or a passion/pleasure. Whatever it is it becomes more important than God in your life.

The pride of life - The pride of life is seeking to acquire wealth and position because you find pleasure, satisfaction and identity in possessions, image and the stature/power they provide you.

Do not love the world, because the world is passing away, but the one who does the will of God abides forever.

After Paul states the negative, he states his second command in the positive, the second way in which we present our lives as a living sacrifice is

Be Transformed by renewing your mind

Paul says do not conform to the world, but you must be transformed by renewing your mind. We are people that are rescued out of the domain of sin, evil, of the the world. If you were saved at 25, you have been discipled and shaped by the world for 25 years. The way you have lived and patterned your life needs to change, it needs to be transformed by renewing how you think, renewing your mind.

Renewing your mind is the work of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God in your life. John tells us in John 16, the work of the Spirit is to guide us into all truth, it also says that the work of the Spirit is to take the Word of God, the words of Christ to glorify Christ by transforming us to become more like Christ. This is is the process of renewing our mind. Take the example we used about sexuality earlier, once you learn that sex outside the union of marriage between a man and woman is sin, we should pray for the Spirit to transform our heart so we can think like Christ thinks in this area of sexuality and to give us the strength to trust and believe Christ in the areas of our sexuality, and then if you are sinning in this area, make steps toward obedience. Which means if you are watching porn, stop and seek help, if you are living together and having sex, stop and someone move out. If you are having sex with someone of the same sex, stop. As soon as we know we are in disobedience to Christ, we must be transformed by renewing my thinking and allowing the Spirit to transform our hearts, the transformation brings glory to Christ.

Church we must be a community of people who help our brothers and sisters struggling with sin, help them carry their burden, like Galatians tells us, those who are spiritual should restore them in a spirit of gentleness. At the same time we are helping those struggling with sin, Galatians tells to keep watch of our lives so we do not fall into temptation as well.

Do not conform to the world, but be transformed by renewing your mind. What does this lead to,

Then you be able to discern God’s will

When we respond to God’s grace by denying our selves and presenting our whole life to God as a living sacrifice by not conforming to the world and being transformed by renewing our minds, then we are able to discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable and perfect. Do you want to know the will of God? Live out what Paul teaches in this passage, because by living out the principles in this passage you will discover the will of God and you will respond in worship, Romans 12:1-2, is not describing a one time event, but a daily interaction with our loving Father, we daily run to him and offer up our lives in worship, as our lives our transformed by the work of the Spirit and the Word of God, we become more like Jesus everyday. This is the logical response to God’s grace to worship and glorify him, to be transformed by him, then we can be a blessing to others, which is what the rest of Romans is about how we as believers serve others. But we must have the vertical relationship right, giving our whole life to God as a living sacrifice is the only logical response to the sovereign love of God in the redeeming actions of Jesus in our lives.