A Living Sacrifice

Text: Romans 12:1-2

Romans 12:1 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.

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.

PRAY

Review of last week: A Gospel Foundation

Basis or foundation for our Christian lives: the mercies of God

Focus this week:

Romans 12:1 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.

This is the first thing Paul tells us to do in response to the mercies of God.

OT Sacrificial Background

Fulfillment in Christ

Significance of Living Sacrifice

Present/Offer

Bodies

Many Bodies, a Single Sacrifice

The Nature of the Sacrifice

Living

Holy

Acceptable/Pleasing to God

Spiritual Worship / Rational worship/service

Applications:

Worship includes all of life — everything we do with our bodies and minds

Need for unity in the body — together we are a living sacrifice

Be holy and seek to please God with your life

Parallel verses: 1 Pet 2:5; Rom 6:13-20; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Phil 1:20; Numbers 8:5-22; Malachi 3:1-4; 2 Cor 5:14-15; Hebrews 13:15-16; 1 Peter 1:14-16; Psalm 19:14; Eph 5:10;

My translation of Rom 12:1:

Therefore, I appeal to you, brothers, through the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice that is living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your rational act of worship.

Sacrifices evokes the idea of temple worship — we are God’s NT temple and the sacrifices

Living sacrifice — having died with Christ, we are now alive with Him

The NIV Grace and Truth Study Bible Chapter 12

proper worship is not only offered in church; we are to worship God with our whole lives. Worship is whatever we do in our bodies, which includes absolutely everything.

The Epistle to the Romans (2 vols.) A. Manifold Practical Duties (12:1–21)

Holiness is the fundamental character and to be well-pleasing to God the governing principle of a believer. These qualities have reference to his body as well as to his spirit and show how ethical character belongs to the body and to its functions.

The Epistle to the Romans (2 vols.) A. Manifold Practical Duties (12:1–21)

The service here in view is worshipful service and the apostle characterizes it as “rational” because it is worship that derives its character as acceptable to God from the fact that it enlists our mind, our reason, our intellect. It is rational in contrast with what is mechanical and automatic. A great many of our bodily functions do not enlist volition on our part. But the worshipful service here enjoined must constrain intelligent volition.