“Transformed Christians"
or "What Have You Done Lately?"
Romans 12:1,2
June 26, 2005
by C.W. Powell
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“1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
"2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Ro 12:1-2 AV)
I. The exhortation is to those who are interested in worshipping the Lord. The nature of God and the whole matter of salvation that Paul has set forth in the first eleven chapters of this book gives a strong impetus to worship the Lord.
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A. Paul is saying, ‘If you want to worship the Lord, then this is the way you do it.’
B. The figure used is the Old Testament sacrifice, the heart of the worship of the Old Covenant. It was introduced in the Garden of Eden, and pointed forward to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world. Just as the Jew, in the true worship of God, would go to Jerusalem to offer his sacrifice of a lamb to the God he served, so we as Christians have a sacrifice to offer.
C. God is not pleased with the things we invent and all the innovations we do to please the flesh and such. As Samuel told King Saul, “Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”
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A. The mercies of God are the foundation. Paul has showed us how God’s mercies toward us were manifest in the Lord Jesus Christ: “God commended his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
B. This shows that the foundational motive for true worship is thanksgiving. There can be no element of payment for sins in any of our worship.
1. Works that are offered to God for remission of sins are fraudulent and a denial of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
2. This is true even of the idea of offering Christ again in any way; for he died once for sin, and will never be offered again. There is no more offering for sin, Hebrews tell us.
3. To even entertain the idea that you must do something to satisfy God with respect to your sins, is an affront to God and to the blood of Jesus Christ.
4. There can be no true worship of the God if it arises from guilt. You are not called to the worship of God because you are guilty and must find a way to get to heaven; you are called to the worship of God because God has freely and wonderfully forgiven all your sins, and you are called to praise and glorify Him because of this mercy.
C. That this is true is because of the terms used to describe the sacrifice:-
1. Holy.
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a) Are you going to attain a satisfactory degree of holiness to make your sacrifice acceptable to God? No, No. No. What are you going to do to be holy? You are called to worship, because God has made you holy.
b) This is the dilemma that faces every son and daughter of Adam: You cannot worship God acceptably because you are not holy; you cannot be holy because you cannot worship God acceptably. What are you going to do? Pretend that you are holy? Make up stuff?Note:
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” (Tit 3:5 AV)
“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,” (2Ti 1:9 AV)
“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:” (Eph 1:4 AV)
c) You are declared righteousness before God on the basis of the righteousness and holiness of Christ. Your holiness is an imputed holiness. It is wrong to separate righteousness from holiness, because they both are the gift of God in Jesus Christ and are the result of election. This is what justification is.
d) Body: means the whole person: body and soul. If anything is certain, nothing could be offered in sacrifice that was not holy before the Lord. If God calls you to offer yourself as a sacrifice, then it is certain that you are holy before the Lord.
e) This is the pattern of the Gospel: You are holy, therefore be holy; You are of the truth; therefore tell the truth. You are justified; belief and trust the Lord.
2. Acceptable: This sacrifice, based upon the Lord Jesus Christ and God’s mercies to us is certainly an acceptable sacrifice. This sacrifice is acceptable if:
a) It is based on the mercies of God and sins forgiven.
b) It is offered to God in faith and confidence.
c) It comes from thankfulness and not fear. Any attempt to drive men to worship by fear and the terror of God is doomed to failure. Faith drives fear from us, for we know that the blood of Christ is fully acceptable to God. Do not fear, but believe.
3. Living: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. His delights not in the blood of bulls and goats, but in the living service of His people in thankfulness and praise.
4. Reasonable: this is the form of worship that most fits the nature of God. God is a spirit and true worship must be in obedience, not the forms of the flesh. It is spiritual service because our worship is ruled by the word of God, not by our inventions. -
a) Are you going to attain a satisfactory degree of holiness to make your sacrifice acceptable to God? No, No. No. What are you going to do to be holy? You are called to worship, because God has made you holy.
III. What is the Nature of True Worship?
A. True worship involves the whole man: body and mind.
1. The body is to be the instrument of righteousness, as Paul tells us in Romans 6. We are to yield our members as instruments of righteousness.
a) Eyes: what you do with your eyes is an act of worship.
b) Ears: what you do with your ears is an act of worship.
c) Hands. what you do with your hands is an act of worship
d) Feet: what you do with your feet is an act of worship.
e) Mouths: what you do with your mouth is an act of worship.
2. The instruments are not to rule themselves, but are to be ruled by a renewed mind:-
a) The world is to be rejected and its philosophies and mind set.
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” (Ps 1:1-2 AV)
b) This is the work of maturity As we saw last week, doing the will of God is for strong men; for mature men; for men of faith:
“But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (Heb 5:14 AV)
c) The will of God is to be good and acceptable and perfect.
B. A Living Sacrifice: Who said it was going to be easy?-
1. The true sacrifice can only come out of a thankful and heart in which the love of God dwells.
2. The mercies of God compel us to this worship. Consider
“31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Ro 8:31-32 AV)
“6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” (Col 2:6-7 AV)
“15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: 16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. 17 For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. 18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:” (1Pe 3:15-18 AV)