(Romans 12:1-2) The Will of God for Every Believer (New Years)

New Years is a time of reflection and resolution.

Reflection in that it is a natural occasion in which we recount the blessings of our last year.

The start of a New Year makes us think about what has happened over the last year. We think of the good times and we think of some of the bad times.

Resolution because we often recognize our deficiencies from this last year.

As we reflect on the last year we reflect where we have failed. Therefore, we make resolutions to improve or not make the same mistake again. As we reflect on the last year we often also reflect on what we would like to accomplish that we didn’t accomplish last year.

Therefore, we make resolutions to diet or exercise, or finish that project we have been wanting to start.

Reflection and Resolution at New Year should also be a time of spiritual reflection and resolution. If we are believers in the Gospel, then we should be concerned with more than just mere deficiencies. We ought to be concerned with:

- Our sin – When we choose our own desires over God’s way.

- Our Study of the Scriptures – The only sure Truth to what is right.

- Our Prayer Life– The sacred relationship we have with God.

So I ask, How was your walk with God this year?

Are there areas in which we need to change this year?

The reality is that everyone of us our at different points in our Christian growth, but every one of us still have room to grow as we serve and learn about our infinite and all-wise God.

This new year we should ask the question, what would God have us to change this coming year?

One of the difficult parts to Biblical change is actually knowing what needs to be changed.

This morning, I would like to share a text that I often use as a measuring stick for my Spiritual growth.

ILLUSTRATION:

My wife likes to sow a lot. In her sewing room is a yard stick. She uses the yard stick to know what she needs to cut out and what she needs to keep.

I would like us to use this text to measure our lives and reflect on what change God would have us make in our lives.

Romans 12:1–2 (ESV)

A Living Sacrifice

12 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. 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.

Paul has given us a measuring stick.

A measuring stick for how the Gospel should be changing us.

Proposition: We should be changed by the Gospel

Transition: and Paul gives us two ways that we should be changed.

The first way is that of devotion.

1. Devoted to God (Romans 12:1)

The Old Testament speaks much about idolatry. It was prohibited in the 10 commandments,

Exodus 20:4 (ESV)

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

but Israel struggled with this throughout its entire history. Every book of the OT describes some form of false idol worship.

The New Testament is no different, but under the NT the meaning of idolatry is expanded and heightened. John makes this point explicit. He has been talking about sin and how believers in Christ should not sin.

Then in 1 John 5:21 he makes an explicit statement about idolatry.

1 John 5:21 (ESV)

21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

What idols is he is talking about?

Sin.

This idea of idolatry is any loyalty that is not God, in other words sin.

Barrowed from Brad Hambrick, Biblical Counseling Coalition

Idols of Worship

§ With these idols we celebrate the object of our affection.

§ We pursue it with passion because we find it delightful. We try to savor and master the experience.

§ The mode of worship for these idols is pleasure.

§ If you will, this is an idol we “sing to.”

§ These idols would have a tendency to stem from our raw sin nature and deem God to be less desirable.

Every time I choose a sin, who am I showing that I am loyal too?

Myself and my own ways. I choose my selfishness rather than my loyalty to God.

Even as NT Christians we struggle with idolatry. At the very least, we struggle with having true devotion to God.

Yet, Paul gives us a measuring stick for true devotion.

Romans 12:1 (ESV)

A Living Sacrifice

12 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.

Paul tells us two important aspects of true devotion to God.

Notice, the first aspect is utilizing the proper means to change.

An important aspect change is doing the right way.

How often do we try to force change or to do it by our own will-power?

How often does New Year’s resolutions fail because our will gives out?

- Simple will-power is ineffective because we are finite.

- Simple will power is ineffective because we are sinful. We crave that which is wrong before God.

So what hope do we have? How is change possible?

Paul gives us the only working solution.

A Living Sacrifice

12 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.

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Means to Change: The Mercies of God.

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Paul tells us how we can actually be devoted to God.

However, what does he mean “the mercies of God” mean?

There are two main clues about the meaning this phrase.

1. Therefore – is a significant transition. Sometimes, the word is used to make a conclusion about the previous paragraph. Other times this is a word that serves as a major transition recalling several paragraphs.

In this case, Paul is making a broad conclusion based on the previous 11 chapters of the book.

2. Previous statements – Often the best way to understand a phrase is to understand what an author has already said in a book.

What has Paul already talked about?

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Romans 1-4: Describes the mercy of justification

Justification is mercy that gives us a standing before the Father. Further, along with this justification we are given several further mercies that are a result of our salvation.

Romans 5: a) Peace with God

b) Access to God

c) We no longer are enemies of God (We are reconciled to God)

d) Our sins are imputed to Christ

e) Christ righteousness is imputed to us

Romans 6-8: Tells us that we are dead to sin and raised in newness of life.

Romans 9-11: Assures the Jews that God has not rejected them. He tells the Jews in Romans 9:15, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”

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A brief Summary of the meaning of “mercies of God”.

God has given mercy through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We would call this the Gospel. Belief in the Gospel for the remission of sins is the first mercy Paul presents. This mercy has reconciled us to God and removed the power of sin.

Romans 6:6 (ESV)

6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

This Gospel, the Mercies of God, is what gives us the power to actually be devoted to God. Before this we were self-centered, self-righteous sinners. But through the mercies of God we are able to loyal and devoted to God rather than our sin.

Also observe, the 2ndaspect of devotion.

Paul tells us to be sacrifices.

Romans 12:1 (ESV)

A Living Sacrifice

12 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.

Recognize the irony in this.

We once were devoted to either carved idols or to our own sinful desires. But by the mercies of God our loyalty can be changed. We instead can be loyal to our good and merciful God. Our great and wonderful savior.

Paul tell us we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices.

The picture that Paul gives us is one that would have been familiar to the pagan Greek world.

In fact, many of those he had been writing to had either personally offered sacrifices or observed sacrifices being offered to idols.

So to say that they are to present their bodies as living sacrifices would have resonated with them. Instead of blood, or money, they were to present their bodies as sacrifices to God.

Because of these mercies they were to present themselves, all that they are, to God.

The ultimate sign of devotion and loyalty: Themselves as the sacrifice.

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Goal of Change: holy, pleasing, and living Sacrifice

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They were to be holy.

This does not simply mean sinless. Paul has already told them to not present their bodies as tools of sin.

Romans 6:13 (ESV)

13 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.

This helps us know that the primary meaning is not sinless, but dedicated, devoted, consecrated to God.

We are to be sacrifices dedicated to the God of our salvation.

Further, our sacrifice should be “acceptable” to God –

This is the idea of pleasing to God.

What kind of offering is pleasing to God?

A pure offering.

- It should not be mixed or married with sin.

As Paul has already told us our lives should not be dominated by sin, but with the new life that came from the mercy of the Gospel.

- It should not be mixed or marred with other loyalties.

God should be the reason, purpose, and focal point of our lives. Loving and be loyal to anything other than God is idolatry. Instead, we personally should be dedicated sacrifices.

Also, we are told this sacrifice should be a living sacrifice.

This kind of sacrifice is a play with words in contrast to a normal sacrifice.

Normally, to offer a sacrifice you kill it, dedicate it, and then it is gone. You have to go get another sacrifice.

However, this text tells us that we ought to be a living sacrifice.

This is the idea of being sacrificed again and again. In other words, a daily sacrifice.

We ought to be a sacrificing ourselves daily.

Exhortation:

This is one of the reasons we all need change. If we are not sacrificing ourselves in light of God’s mercy than we are not doing enough. Further, each one of us may have lived a sacrificial life yesterday. We served in this capacity or that capacity in the church. We have been faithful for all these years. But that can never be an excuse not to serve today.

Why?

Because we are called to be a living sacrifice, a daily sacrifice. Perhaps you have never started. Be resolved to do that today. Perhaps you have sacrificed greatly, Praise God, but keep sacrificing.

We ought to be consecrated, pure, living sacrifices for God. We should be devoted to God as his sacrifices because of the incredible mercies we have through Jesus Christ.

We should be devoted to God, but we also should be dependent upon God.

2. Dependence upon God (Romans 12:2)

Paul continues his challenge to the believers in Rome regarding their response to the Gospel.

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.

We are told in v. 1 to be a living sacrifice and Paul elaborates to us how that happens in v. 2.

Another essential to biblical change is redefining what we are dependent on. To put it another way, we must evaluate what we are feeding our minds with if we want to change.

We have to define what the source of our dependence is.

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The Source of Dependence:

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Paul tells us negatively,

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.

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a. Negatively - Not the World.

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Conformity is the idea of becoming like something. We are told not to become like this world. For Paul, the world is in rebellion against God, controlled by the desires of the flesh. We are not to allow these eathly philosophies, wisdom, and fleshly desires to control us.

We are not have the same goals, interests, or passions as the world.

CAVEAT:

This does not mean if you like guns you can’t have guns, if you like sports you can’t like sports, and if you like fine dining you can’t eat at a nice restaurant.

However, this should not be our “hearts desire”. If we are dedicated, pure sacrifices for God than the center of our hearts desire is expressly not of this world. Our hearts desire is for God.

As we all say amen, what does a worldly conformed heart look like?

It is when my personal interests, desires, and self-preservation is more important than being faithful to God’s mission for the church and his believers. Get this, we are not called to be nominal Christians going along with boat of Christianity, but passionate lovers of God willing to give up all and do all for the Glory of God. The cost is irrelevant.

We are not make the world the source of our dependence.

However, we are to make the Gospel the source of our dependence.

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.

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b. Positively - The Gospel.

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We are told to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

This portion of the text requires to think through what knowledge we are being renewed and transformed by.

This grammatically is dependent upon v. 1. Whatever knowledge we are to be transformed by and renewed by, it is defined by v. 1. In v. 1, it was the mercies of God that gave us the power to change. The Gospel.

Paul is telling us that our source of dependence should not be the world, but the Gospel.

“be transformedby the renewal of your mind” is in meaning almost equivalent and parallel to the “by the mercies of God” in v. 1.

What do you depend on?

Don’t depend on this world and give into the flesh desires, but be dependent on the Mercies of God, the Gospel.

Because the created world is finite, that is limited in power and existence, it can never truly satisfy us. We will forever will be searching for more and more in this world

But God, being the infinite, one how no limit to anything has, power, existence, knowledge; is capable of satisfying us.

Who did you depend on in 2016, this world or God?

Paul commands us in this text to be dependent on God alone.

If you want to make changes in your life this year, part of that change must be a change from dependence on this world to dependence on God.

CONCLUSION:

Perhaps, as you are counting the cost of being a living a sacrifice, you wonder why you should do it.

There are two reasons in this text for why we should be changed by the Gospel.

The first, it is a rational response to the Mercies of God.

Romans 12:1 (ESV)

A Living Sacrifice

12 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 final statement here sometimes is difficult to bring all the essential elements across in the text.

PERSONAL TRANSLATION: “which is your reasonable[1]worship service[2].”

I say reasonable or rational because the word in the text that carries the idea of being logical. It was often used in broader Greek culture to describe the rational worship as opposed to superstitious worship.

Being a living sacrifice is the rational response to the incredible work of Christ dying on the cross for our sins.

The second element is the idea of worship service.

The term used in the text describes a ritual being performed in a worship service.

Understand this, a reasonable response to God’s grace and mercy in the Gospel is to worship him by being a living sacrifice.

Another reason, is because God is good and perfect.

We might hold back because being sacrifice costs, and what we are being called to do is to sacrifice everything. There is no more valuable possession that we possess than our own bodies, yet God has called us to sacrifice that to him.

But when we do so, we learn something about our God.

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.

This text, literally means that as we suffer as sacrifices we learn that God

- is good.

His way was beneficial for me.

- That this suffering is pleasing to us.

The result of this sacrifice is something to be desired.

- That it is perfect.

We will find out that His will is perfect. Any other way would not have been as good. It was perfect the way it was.

So we learn as we are holy, acceptable, living sacrifices to God that his way is Good, pleasing, and perfect.

Let’s recap what this text says,

Proposition: We should be changed by the Gospel

Transition: and Paul gives us two ways that we should be changed.

We can be changed by the Gospel by being:

1. Devoted to God (Romans 12:1)

Means to Change: The Mercies of God.

Goal of Change: holy, pleasing, and living Sacrifice

2. Dependence upon God (Romans 12:2)

The Source of Dependence:

a. Negatively - Not the World.

b. Positively - The Gospel.

I started saying this text is a great measuring stick for our Spiritual lives.

How did your life in 2016 measure up?

Are there areas in which you need to cut something out OR are there areas in which you need to keep and be faithful to.

I challenge us to measure our life based on this text.

As we began a new year, we should reflect on our Spiritual lives.

Because Christ is worthy,

- We should be prepared in 2017 to live sacrificially, not just in terms of money, but also of our selves. Willing to sacrifice every aspect of our lives.

- We should be mindful that we ought to be dependent on God rather than that which is in this world. Our sinful flesh craves that which can be found in this world, but true satisfaction is found only in Gods perfect will.

Are there spiritual changes you need to make this year?

[1]Extremely rare word. Not used in LXX, only other example is in 1 Peter 2:2. Moo: Word used in Hellenistic world to compare rational belief with superstitious belief. [2] A cultic term used consistently to describe Cultic rituals. Rom 9:4, Heb 9:1, 9:6, John 16:2. Appears to be a term describing ritual service as a part of worship, worship service.