The following is taken from a 4-part series I taught entitled, “Living This Life”, from the last 4 chapters of the epistle to the Romans.
Living This Life Pt. 1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. – Romans 12:1-2 ( NIV)I think a lot of us, at one time or another, have wanted to know what the will of God is and in just a few sentences Paul tells us how we can prove what His good, pleasing and perfect will is.
In View of God’s Mercy
Paul’s first step to connecting with God’s will begins in the light of God’s mercy. Our actions, if not connected to the heart and love of God, will end up being a religious regiment of do’s and don’ts that quickly lose sight of why we do what we do. So it is in this awareness of mercy shown to us that we move forward.
As Living Sacrifices
This language is intense, especially if you can imagine a time and place where animal sacrifices were common occurrences. Jesus often used extreme language like this as well. He would say things like, “pick up your cross and follow me” or “whoever finds his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” The intensity of how he spoke at times even turned people away (John 6).
People have different thoughts about what it means to be a Christian. To some, being a Christian is a matter of exclusion. I’m not a Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist so I must be Christian.
Others focus on the negative things they have seen or heard, like the televangelist who always wants money or Uncle Jim who just got out of rehab and feels the need at thanksgiving to tell the family the “good news” that they are all going to hell. Their perception is based on a few incidents and not on Christendom as a whole. And to others Christianity is about patterning their lives after the principles of Jesus (who is a great person to pattern your life after!). But this frame of thought doesn’t need to embrace the significance of Jesus death on the cross, the resurrection or even His claims to divinity. These people are simply following the principles Jesus taught, caring for the poor and outcast and in all sincerity trying to live a good and wholesome life. And again, those are all good things. But I believe Jesus gave us an example through His life of what it really meant to be “Christian”; after all the word means, “little Christ”. In Jesus’ life we see a dependence on God to a degree that seems foreign to us (well at least it does to me). He said things like, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing” or “I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.” (John 5 & 12). I really believe that Jesus revealed what our lives are supposed to look like. And I believe that He is also the best clue as to what a living sacrifice looks like: a life yielded to God, in relationship with God, directed by God. God leads, we move, we hear His voice, then speak, we are touched by Him and reach out in love to others. This kind of life IS a spiritual act of worship.
Conform / Transform
I have heard people talk about “not being conformed to this world” and talk about things like the kinds of clothes people wear, movies they watch or music they listen to. I think to myself, “Are you serious?” On the top of God’s list of what’s important to change in our lives is our fashion, the movies we watch and our taste in music? Do the same standards apply to those in Africa or the Philippines as they do to us in the western cultures? What about tattoos? Are they conforming or transforming?
Once again I think we can be much too superficial in the way we look at these things. I believe the contrast is really between the spiritual and the material. We are to walk by faith, not by sight. We can only serve one master. One is God, who is Spirit; the other is money or what is material. If we live by the Spirit, we will not gratify the sinful desires of our flesh. The world is what we see and what is temporal; our minds are renewed when we set our eyes on the things above and on what are unseen and eternal. Not whether or not our clothes or hair are acceptable to certain religious standards.
If we would live in the constant light of God’s mercies (which are new every morning), be as mindful as Jesus was to the Father, aware that without him we can do nothing (even as Jesus said that apart from His Father He could do nothing) and walk in the reality of this Spirit-led life, then I think we would have no problem wondering what the will of God is, for we would find ourselves ALIVE in it.
To be a living sacrifice (or follower of Christ) may cost you everything you have, but in exchange you will gain everything your soul needs and craves.
As Living Sacrifices
This language is intense, especially if you can imagine a time and place where animal sacrifices were common occurrences. Jesus often used extreme language like this as well. He would say things like, “pick up your cross and follow me” or “whoever finds his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” The intensity of how he spoke at times even turned people away (John 6).
People have different thoughts about what it means to be a Christian. To some, being a Christian is a matter of exclusion. I’m not a Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist so I must be Christian.
Others focus on the negative things they have seen or heard, like the televangelist who always wants money or Uncle Jim who just got out of rehab and feels the need at thanksgiving to tell the family the “good news” that they are all going to hell. Their perception is based on a few incidents and not on Christendom as a whole. And to others Christianity is about patterning their lives after the principles of Jesus (who is a great person to pattern your life after!). But this frame of thought doesn’t need to embrace the significance of Jesus death on the cross, the resurrection or even His claims to divinity. These people are simply following the principles Jesus taught, caring for the poor and outcast and in all sincerity trying to live a good and wholesome life. And again, those are all good things. But I believe Jesus gave us an example through His life of what it really meant to be “Christian”; after all the word means, “little Christ”. In Jesus’ life we see a dependence on God to a degree that seems foreign to us (well at least it does to me). He said things like, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing” or “I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.” (John 5 & 12). I really believe that Jesus revealed what our lives are supposed to look like. And I believe that He is also the best clue as to what a living sacrifice looks like: a life yielded to God, in relationship with God, directed by God. God leads, we move, we hear His voice, then speak, we are touched by Him and reach out in love to others. This kind of life IS a spiritual act of worship.
Conform / Transform
I have heard people talk about “not being conformed to this world” and talk about things like the kinds of clothes people wear, movies they watch or music they listen to. I think to myself, “Are you serious?” On the top of God’s list of what’s important to change in our lives is our fashion, the movies we watch and our taste in music? Do the same standards apply to those in Africa or the Philippines as they do to us in the western cultures? What about tattoos? Are they conforming or transforming?Once again I think we can be much too superficial in the way we look at these things. I believe the contrast is really between the spiritual and the material. We are to walk by faith, not by sight. We can only serve one master. One is God, who is Spirit; the other is money or what is material. If we live by the Spirit, we will not gratify the sinful desires of our flesh. The world is what we see and what is temporal; our minds are renewed when we set our eyes on the things above and on what are unseen and eternal. Not whether or not our clothes or hair are acceptable to certain religious standards.
If we would live in the constant light of God’s mercies (which are new every morning), be as mindful as Jesus was to the Father, aware that without him we can do nothing (even as Jesus said that apart from His Father He could do nothing) and walk in the reality of this Spirit-led life, then I think we would have no problem wondering what the will of God is, for we would find ourselves ALIVE in it.
To be a living sacrifice (or follower of Christ) may cost you everything you have, but in exchange you will gain everything your soul needs and craves.
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