Rom_12

Romans 12:1-2

A Living Sacrifice

As we come to chp. 12 in Paul's epistle to the Romans, Paul shifts his focus from explaining the gospel to now showing us how the power of the gospel manifests itself in specific areas of our day-to-day lives. Here Paul shifts from the indicative of the gospel, where he told us what Christ has done for you, to the imperative of the gospel, where Paul shows you how this new life in Christ is being worked out in your life.

Notice that Paul begins this chp. with "therefore". Paul wants you to understand that what he will tell you in the following chps. is firmly rooted in what God has done for you in Christ. The “therefore” is absolutely essential to the Christian life.

We often want to begin with the practical. As Americans, we are so pragmatic and we usually want people to just tell us the bottom line. If Paul were here we would want him to just tell us what we are supposed to do for Christ so that we can get on with it. But Paul is no mere pragmatist. Paul understands that if the first things, the theology of the gospel, are not understood, then the practical will be warped and useless.

So often we want to jump to the "how" of the Christian life, without clearly understanding the "what" of the Christian life. We are like the father who sits down on Christmas eve to put his son's bicycle together, jumping right into it without looking at the directions, only latter to find out that he's got a whole bag of parts left.

But Paul has grounded us first in the theology of the gospel of Christ, and only then does he begin to tell you how this new life in Christ is supposed to work day-to-day.

All doctrine of God leads to godly living. All godly living is rooted in the theology of God.

Now, notice how Paul approaches you this morning as he begins to spell out the nature of the Christian life: “I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God.” Do you hear the tenderness and gentleness by which the Spirit of God approaches you? No longer are we approached by the loud thunder and the earth trembling of Sinai as the air is filled with threats of wrath and judgment. No! These words come to you with the blessings of God’s mercies upon you. You are already blessed as God draws near to you.

Paul begins, “I urge you,” which is the same word that we use for one of the names of the Holy Spirit: the Comforter. Literally, Paul begins, “I encourage you,” or “I comfort you.”

And what is the source of this comfort? Paul doesn’t simply state that God has shown you mercy, singular. That would be plenty enough for sinners like us. But Paul says that God approaches you with “mercies” – the fullness of His love for you by which He draws you into His presence.

No longer are you called before God’s bar of justice threatened with death for whoever even touches the base of the mountain of God! Rather, you are invited into God’s presence to sit and fellowship at the mercy seat of God. You are fully welcomed by the friend of sinners.

But why? Why are you now drawn into His presence by the gentle cords of God’s love?

Because the mercies of God flow mightily from the fountain of Christ’s all sufficient work on your behalf – the cross! The mercy of God can be summarized "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?"

God has perfectly displayed His mercy on us in Christ. "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (5:8). "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His

Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (5:10).

Paul describes the coming of Christ as the in-breaking of the world to come, into this present age. It is the "age to come" – our heavenly life -- that has entered into "this present age" so that what we had hoped to experience in Heaven is already being experienced presently in Christ.

"This present age" is the life of Adam. A life of death and condemnation. But Christ, the second Adam, brought with Him the life to come. A life of righteousness, eternal life, and justification. In Christ we have been translated from that old life in Adam, to a new life in Christ.

2 Cor. 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

For Paul, our new life in Christ is already a foretaste of what is to come. Your life is hidden in Christ’s life. Just as Christ was crucified, died and was buried -- you too died to your old life in Adam. You died to sin and unrighteousness. Your old life of death and condemnation has been crucified with Christ.

But Christ was also raised from the dead unto glory, so that just as we died with Christ, we also were raised with Christ into a new life. We have died to "this present age" and we have been raised to the "age to come". Therefore, Paul says, "we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (6:4). We should walk in the newness of the "age to come".

Now, this new life that you walk in is "sacrificial." On the one hand, it is a life that is a holy sacrifice, which pertains to death. But Paul also calls it “living.”

But how can that be? How can a sacrifice be both dead and living at the same time?

With such language our minds are immediately drawn to the Old Testament sacrificial system and particularly to the Day of Atonement (cf. Lev. 16). The LORD gave instructions that on this day, Aaron, Moses’ brother, was to first purify himself to make a sin offering for the people. He then would receive two male goats from the congregation of the people and cast lots over them. One goat belonged to the LORD and it was to be killed and offered up as a payment for the sin of Israel. The blood of the goat would be sprinkled upon the mercy seat itself in the Holy of Holies signifying the payment of sin through the shedding of innocent blood.

But the other goat was to be kept alive before the LORD as an atoning, living sacrifice for Israel’s sin as well, but it would be released into the wilderness “for Azazel,” which some translators translate “scapegoat.” The word is better translated as “Azazel,” which is a Hebrew name for a demon. Therefore, the text says that one goat is for Yahweh and the other goat is for Azazel (cf. Lev. 16:8).

Once Aaron laid his hands upon the living sacrifice and confessed the sins of Israel, he was to release the goat for Azazel into the wilderness, which is clearly a picture of the afterworld – or the place of judgment – Hell. This second goat symbolized the punishment and removal of sin from the presence of God’s holy dwelling.

These two sacrifices together signify communion with God in Heaven and removal of sin in Hell. By this twofold sacrifice, the sinful people of Israel would be permitted to live one more year in God’s holy presence.

Now, there was a serious problem with these Old Testament sacrifices, which the author of Hebrews explains in Hebrews 10 that the blood of bulls and goats can never take away the sin of man (cf. Heb. 10:1-18: READ). What the Old Testament sacrifices were too weak to accomplish, Jesus Christ has fully accomplished once and for all for the forgiveness of your sins.

What no priest could offer, Jesus Christ offered Himself – a blood atonement for your sin – His own body as the ultimate sacrifice. And God displayed His full approval and vindication of the sacrificial work of Christ by raising Him from the dead. John brings these two pictures of death and life together in Rev. 5:6 when he sees standing between the throne of God and the elders – the Lamb of God, as if slain, but standing in all victory and glory. Jesus Christ is the ultimate “living sacrifice” upon which Paul’s gaze is fixed this morning.

It is the resurrected, sacrificial Lamb of God that is your life this morning and it is only in Him that you live out your Christian walk as a living sacrifice. This is your resurrected, cross-bearing life that you live as you follow Christ.

Note how Paul has already made this connection in Rom. 6:3-7 – “you have been crucified with Christ” AND “you have been raised with Him” so that you may walk in “newness of life.”

You have been united to Jesus Christ through faith so that you are both dead and alive in Christ – you are in the crucified and risen Lord.

But here in our passage this morning, note how Paul inverts the order of death and resurrection – you are a “living” -- “sacrifice.” We would normally expect resurrection to follow death, but here resurrection is placed first. Paul does this again in Phil. 3:

That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead" (Philippians 3:10-11).

Why does the power of the resurrection life precede our being conformed into Christ’s death?

You would think that we must first be crucified and then we gain the resurrection life. But it is clear that the Christian life is not through our sacrificial work on behalf of God, but through God’s sacrificial work on your behalf. It is because He has been crucified for you and raised on your behalf that you can live the Christian life. It is the power of His resurrection that makes it possible for you to fully participate in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings and to be conformed to His death.

So, how can you a poor, wretched sinner offer any sacrifice to God? You can only do so in the power of His resurrection! You can’t take one step in the Christian life apart from Christ’s life and power in you. That is why Paul prays in Eph. 1:

"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might" (Ephesians 1:18-19).

It is now in Christ that you live the life of a living sacrifice:

Peter says that we are living stones, being built up as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 2:5).

As you have been united to Christ, your whole life has been transformed. It is no longer a life lived for yourself, for your own selfish pleasures, but one where your whole bodies are offered up to God in true worship as living sacrifices "holy" -- set apart unto Him -- and acceptable to God -- well-pleasing -- to His pleasure, not yours.

The love of Christ constrains you (2 Cor. 5:14) – for you have been bought with a price – you are no longer your own (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

Now, v. 1 tells us what our new life in Christ is before God (corem deo), but v. 2 tells us how your new life in Christ is lived:

1. "not be conformed to this world" -- "this world" or "this present age" -- this age which is dominated by sin and death and condemnation. It is the realm of Adam's sin and fall, where man is condemned because of Adam's rebellion. It is what Paul calls in Gal. "this present evil age". As Christians we have been transferred from the old realm of sin and death into the new realm of righteousness and life.

The life of "this world" or "this age" is described in chp. 1 as a life under the wrath of God because man, knowing the person of God in creation, chose not to worship Him or glorify Him but rather to worship the creature rather than the Creator. It is the epitome of Idolatry, or False Worship.

But we have been called out of this present age, to True Worship, in the life of the Spirit of God. Our True Worship is characterized by our offering our whole bodies as living sacrifices to God, rather than being molded or conformed into the life of sin and death of this present age in Adam.

2. Rather, we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Note that Paul uses a divine passive, telling you that this is God’s sovereign work in that is transforming your mind. God’s Spirit deprogramming you from what you have habitually learned within this fallen, present age. Rather, He is giving you the mind of Christ so that you might gaze upon Heaven where your life is hidden away in Christ. Eph. 5 speaks of the Word of God as cleansing our minds. Rom. 8 speaks of the life of the Spirit as transforming us into the image of Christ.

Why? “That you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” But how will you know what the will of God is? Look at the rest of Romans 12! Here you see the character of life-giving, sacrificial life of Christ in you. He shows you a life in which you live not for yourself, but as a living sacrifice to God on behalf of your neighbor. Here Paul causes you to fix your minds on Christ to see what your life will look like as it is being transformed by His Spirit.

Notice that at this point Paul does not send you back to the law of Moses in order to be transformed or to know what the will of God is. As Paul says in Romans 7, the law has no power to do the work in you that is necessary for Christ-like transformation. Only the gospel can do that – the work of Christ in you lived out in the life of the Spirit by which you are conformed or transformed in your minds. It is the Spirit, working through the crucified and risen Christ, that changes and transforms your mind (8:4ff). It is the work of the Spirit who is actively working to effect the renewal of your thinking, by which you are conformed from the fleshly mindset of this present age, to the heavenly mindset of the age to come that pleases God.

It is through this Spirit-life, Gospel-minded renewal, that you live out your Christian life. Day-by-day, your mind is being renewed, so that you seek more and more the things above in the Heavenly realm where Christ is seated in glory. It is as you seek His Kingdom and His righteousness that your life is being conformed into the image of Christ.

Paul tells the Corinthians: "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:18). "Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day" (4:16).

Amen!

-SDG-