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August 24, 2008
Pentecost 15a
Romans 12:1-2
Pastor Ben Berger

A Living Sacrifice

Last week Pastor Raasch asked us to consider the most important question we’ll ever answer, “Who is Jesus?” This week we’ll consider the next logical question, “Who am I?” And we’ll consider that question in light of our answer to the first. What we confess about Jesus determines who we are. We’re going to study a little differently this week. I’ll still do all of the talking, but I’d like you to do some of the thinking. We’re going to study these two verses phrase by phrase and sometimes word by word. As we study the phrases and words, keep thinking about your answer to the question, “Who am I?” Ready? Here we go.

Paul begins, Therefore. Therefore. Paul is about to make a conclusion based on what he has already written. We don’t have time to review all eleven chapters that precede, but we can summarize them this way: God gave us righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. First Paul reminds us that God demands righteousness we cannot provide. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Not one of us has lived up to God’s holy standards. Then Paul tells us how God solved our problem. God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement for our sins. Through faith in Jesus’ blood God has justified us or declared us not guilty of sin. And in place of our sin God has given us the righteousness of Christ. In other words, in the first eleven chapters Paul answers the question, “Who is Jesus?” Jesus is our Savior who made us righteous by his blood.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers. Paul already begins to help you understand who you are in light of Jesus. He calls you brothers. He assumes that you are a believer. He assumes that you believe in the blood of Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and the righteousness of Christ for your salvation. As a believer Paul urges you. Neither Paul nor God are making any demands of you. God doesn’t demand that you earn your salvation. He doesn’t demand that pay for your sins. Nor does he demand that you pay him back for everything he has done for you. Rather, God and Paul urge or encourage you to respond willingly to all God has done for you. God asks for your love and thanks, but he doesn’t demand it.

In view of God’s mercy. This phrase both points back to who Jesus is and ahead to who we are. Looking back we can see that all God did, he did out of mercy. Mercy is a form of love; it’s also a form of pity. Because of our sin we are in such a pitiful condition that God can’t help but feel sorry for us. It’s not as if we ever get close to living up to God’s holy standards. We’re not just a little bit short of his glory. We are completely and utterly sinful. Even our best is like a filthy rag before God. Imagine what we’d look like if God removed our sinful parts. Our eyes would be gouged out, our ear drums pierced, our tongues snipped, our hands chopped, our stomachs slashed, and let’s not even go below the waste. Because of sin we look and smell like death. Pitiful. But in his mercy God sent Jesus to remove our sin rather than our sinful parts. And Jesus covered our sin with his righteousness.

Such mercy from God motivates who we are today and who we will become in the future. Every single day we sin. And every single day God has mercy on us. Every single day he forgives our sins by the blood of Jesus. Every single day that mercy motivates us to willingly thank God. We become who we are in view of God’s mercy.

Now we get to Paul’s encouragement. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies. Offer your bodies. This is truly give and take. God the Father took your sin and in its place offered his Son. Jesus took your sin and in its place offered his body. Both God the Father and God the Son offered you everything he had. In thankful response, in view of such mercy, Paul now encourages you to offer your body. Take the mercy, the forgiveness and the salvation that God offers. And in thanks present yourself to him. The body in this case represents the whole person. Offer God everything you have, everything you are. Offer God your life. With the prophet Isaiah proclaim, “Here am I, send me.”

Paul continues, offer your bodies as living sacrifices. That word ‘sacrifice’ conjures up so many images in the believer’s mind. Sacrifices were huge in the Old Testament. And in the OT God didn’t encourage sacrifices; he demanded them. OT believers were required by God’s law to offer sacrifices. Of course, they didn’t offer their own bodies; they offered animals. Sometimes they offered the whole body of the animal; other times just parts. And the blood of the animals reminded them of the price God demands for sin. That blood also pointed ahead to the sacrifice God would make to pay for sin. Only the blood of Jesus could and did really pay for sin. Because Jesus has now paid for all sin, God no longer requires animal sacrifices.

Instead, God is requesting living sacrifices. God wants you to thank him with your life. You are now the sacrifice. God never wanted dead animals; he always wanted living people. He created man to worship and glorify him with his life.

And Paul describes your living sacrifice as holy and pleasing to God. God himself has made you holy. He has removed your sins and their guilty by the bloody sacrifice of his Son and presented you with his righteousness. Whatever you now do in thanks to God pleases him or makes him happy.

Through Christ God has given us a new relationship with him. We are his children. Until I became a parent I didn’t fully understand this relationship. As children we are not always pleasing to God. So often we whine and cry because we want our way. We think we know what’s best. We want to prove that we can do it ourselves. And we easily frustrate, anger and annoy our Father with our sin. Other times, we are cute and funny and make him happy. We show our love to him. We please him. And our Father is willing to deal with the frustrating times for those pleasing times. Yet, God wants us to offer him more and more and more pleasing times as we grow up. He wants us to become living sacrifices, holy and pleasing until he makes us completely holy and pleasing in heaven.

To end this verse Paul says, this is your spiritual act of worship. What Paul means is that he really wants you to change who you are. When it comes to offering sacrifices, it’s easy to go through the motions. Anyone could buy an animal and ask the priest to sacrifice it. Only some really thought about their sin and trusted in God’s forgiveness when offering that sacrifice. As living sacrifices it would be easy for you to just go through the motions. In fact, you probably catch yourself doing so sometimes. You come to church, sit in the same pew, sing the same hymns, speak the same words, listen to the same sermon, pray the same prayers, etc. It’s so familiar you may not think about what you’re doing. It’s the same in daily life. You may forget that as a living sacrifice God wants you to glorify him in everything you do, right down to eating and drinking. Always remember to repent of your sin, trust in God’s forgiveness and then offer your bodies as living sacrifices of thanks.

That means that who you are and who you will become has a lot to do with your attitude and way of thinking. That’s what Paul tackles in verse two.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world. What is the pattern of this world? How does the world think? Two things. First, the world usually puts self first. The world is all about feeling good and having a good time. The world doesn’t want you to sacrifice anything, but to get as much as you can. Secondly, when the world does think of God, it offers the wrong thing. Rather than offering thanks for the free gift of salvation, the world offers works. The world tries to buy God off and earn his favor.

We have to admit how often we conform to the thinking of the world. It’s no surprise since our sinful nature thinks the same way, but it’s also no excuse. We are selfish sinners who want to take everything for ourselves rather than sacrifice for others, including God. And even though we know better we still think we have to please God with our works to earn his favor. We treat our relationship with him as a set of chores or laws rather than thanks for his wonderful gifts. If we are going to be living sacrifices, we need to change our thinking.

Paul put it this way, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Only one person can transform and renew our minds; that’s God. And God only promises to transform and renew our minds one way – through his word. Who you are has a lot to do with what enters your mind. Just think of how many ways the world enters your mind without even trying – books, TV, movies, music and on and on. And don’t tell me it doesn’t change who you are – when my 19 month old daughter hears “shake it, shake it” and immediately shakes her hands, I know the world is getting in. So we have to work extra hard to let God’s word in. The only way God can transform our mind is through constant, yes daily, contact with his word.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. Only through God’s word can we know God’s will. His will is good for us, pleasing to him and perfect or complete in every way. The more time we spend in God’s word, the more we will know and be able to live according to that word. Then we can be who God made us to be.