“Present Your Bodies as a Living Sacrifice”
Here we have one of the biggest and most famous “therefore’s” in all of Scriptures. Almost everyone agrees that this “therefore” brings together all that preceded--all of what Paul has said in chs. 1-11--as the rationale for what Paul is about to say in chs. 12-16. As he is about to bring to conclusion his letter to the Romans, he issues forth a set of commands in chs. 12-15. With this “therefore” in 12:1, Paul is showing how all the commands to follow are grounded in, and flow out of, all that he has said previously. And what has he spoken of in chs. 1-11? How all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, whether Jews or Gentiles. How we cannot be justified not by our own works, therefore, but by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. How such divine arrangement is not for a licentious and careless living but for a holy and obedient living in union with Christ. How we are predestined for future glory according to God’s sovereign election, whether Jews or Gentiles.
Paul’s review of our redemption in Jesus Christ makes him burst out in an exultant doxology:
“Oh, the depth of
the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable
are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of
the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he
might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To
him be glory forever. Amen.”
Paul
just loses it here! It is as though he could not contain himself any more; he
just could not continue on, simply explaining the wisdom, power and love
of God in our salvation. Though he must have taught and preached these precious
doctrines hundreds of times, it still aroused in him a sense of awe and wonder
and thanksgiving and praise, which could not be contained in a cool, collected
teaching. Can we expect anything else when we survey the wondrous cross, on
which the Prince of glory died for sinners such as us? Shouldn’t the very name
of Jesus fill our breast with sweetness that transcends all the sorrows and
bitterness of life? Can we stay silent, unfeeling, unmoved, unaffected? And if
we stay indifferent and unmoved, the stones would cry out, declared Jesus (Luke
With
that crucial word “therefore” Paul goes on to urge Christians to present their
bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is their
spiritual worship. That Paul should start the concluding set of commands with
this particular command is understandable, isn’t it? What was the last part of
his doxology, immediately preceding this command? “For from Him and through Him
and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever.
Amen” (
We can also say that all that God has done for our redemption--all that Paul has recounted in chs. 1-11--is for this, that we should present our bodies as a living sacrifice unto God! This, not because God needs anything from us to make Himself complete and whole! He is already an all-sufficient, all-glorious, all-happy God! It is not that our worship and sacrifice will add anything to God. The privilege is ours when we give ourselves wholly to the triune God! For there is nothing, both in heaven and earth and in all the worlds, that is worthier than God to receive our sacrifice and service!
I want all of us to hear the force of the “therefore” in v. 1. The link between God’s work of redemption and our offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him is inevitable and unbreakable. No one can be saved and not offer his body as a living sacrifice to God! In fact, we are saved so we can offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. One indispensable aspect of our salvation is presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice to God!
Don’t misunderstand
what I am saying here. I am not saying that Christianity is all about how we
live. The Gospel is not what we do, or even how much we have changed! What is
more, in a strictest sense, the Gospel is not so much about what Jesus taught
as it is about who Jesus is and has done! After all, His teaching has the kind
of absolute authority it has, not because of its logical consistency, force of
argument and eloquence of expression (which it all has), but, most strictly
speaking, because of who He is! His teaching is not independent of who He is
and what He has done! In this way, He is different from all other teachers!
Jesus Christ did not come to teach us some profound truths (which He certainly
did) and teach us how we ought to live to earn our redemption and point us to
the way! Jesus Christ is the Way and the Truth and the Life! Jesus
Christ is our salvation. Jesus Christ is the Gospel--that He died for our sins according to the Scriptures and
how He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures!
Again, how we live as Christians is not the Gospel proper! But we dare not denigrate the importance of how we live! Just look at the plethora of commands that Jesus and His Apostles gave throughout the New Testament! What Jesus has done and how we live are connected with this inevitable, unbreakable “therefore”! It is as inevitable and inseparable as a man and his shadow on a sunny day! Jesus is the Person standing in the bright sun of a brand New Day and how we live is His shadow. How we live is not the Gospel but it is the shadow of the Gospel. Presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice is not the Gospel but it is the inevitable shadow that the Gospel casts in the light of God’s saving grace!
But what kind of salvation is this if we have to offer ourselves as a sacrifice? Isn’t it like being saved from a slaughter house only to be sacrificed at the temple? Well, we shouldn’t underestimate the importance of where we die. There is a huge difference between dying in the bed of a brothel and dying in the battlefield, defending one’s country, isn’t there?
But what I want to bring your attention to now is the fact that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice is not slaughtered to die when it is offered; it goes on to live, to live abundantly and eternally!
You can imagine how radical this idea must have been to the Romans. Almost invariably in all ancient religions, a sacrifice was slaughtered at the altar. This was true of the Jewish religion as well. When Paul used this expression of “a living sacrifice”, he must have had in his mind the people’s such understanding of conventional animal sacrifices. He was counting on that. With this expression, “a living sacrifice”, he was declaring that a new day of worship had dawned upon redemptive history! In this new age of worship, we no longer sacrifice dead animals to God! God now desires a living sacrifice! The only acceptable worship to God is a breathing, moving, thriving and living sacrifice, which is our life wholly given to the service of God.
Of
course, this idea of a living sacrifice was implicit even in the Old Testament.
What was one of God’s major complaints against the people of
How is it then that animal sacrifices are no longer necessary? The answer is clear, of course. It is because the animals never had the power and efficacy to forgive us our sins: “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb. 10:4). The animal sacrifices were meant to be a sign and a type of the Lamb of God, who would come to take away the sin of the world. The Lamb of God did come in the fullness of the times. Now that the true Lamb of God has come, the animal sacrifices are no longer necessary. With the animal sacrifices gone, the need for offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to God has become even more pronounced and clearer.
But
there is another aspect to a sacrifice: the idea of consecration. When an
animal is selected for a sacrifice from its flock or herd, it is lifted out of
the ordinary realm into the sacred realm of worship and sacrifice. So we can
see why Paul goes on to say in v. 2, “Do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your
mind….” When we are saved, we are lifted out of the secular, common realm of
this world into the sacred, holy realm of God’s temple.
This does not mean that God removes
us from this world. First of all, the word translated as “world” here literally
means “age”. The main idea here is not so much the world as a place as it is an
anti-God principle and spirit of this age. As a place, this world is fallen in
Adam but it still manifests God’s glory as the work of His hands, though marred
by the Fall. It is still sustained by God’s common
grace both to the evil and the good. God designed this world to be the common
arena, in which both the just and the unjust live together, side by side. So
Christ did not pray that God would take us out of the world but keep us from
the evil one (John
Living out our life as a living sacrifice to God means, by definition, not conforming to this world, to the spirit of this age. What is the spirit of this age? By “this age” I do not just mean the twenty-first century post-modernistic philosophy, which denies the existence of absolute truths, except the truth that there is no absolute truth, and thus flirts with all kinds of personal and relative truths. When Paul speaks of “this age”, he refers to the totality of all anti-God, anti-Christian philosophies and ideas and attitudes and actions.
Paul
himself spoke of the essence of what the spirit of this age is in the first
chapter. “Claiming to be wise,
they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images
resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles” (
How does such spirit of the age confront us each day as we live in this world?
· We see it in the utter obsession with ourselves. This obsession with ourselves is a moral black hole: it has an insatiable appetite, which demands and desires more and more while never satisfied; and this insatiable appetite is so strong that it can even bend the light rays of what is right and wrong, true and false. Oh, how we justify and rationalize our way through all kinds of moral compromises and deeds that are downright wrong! How about the advice being given all the time? “Never mind what other people say! What do you want? Do whatever makes you happy! As long as it makes you happy, it is OK!”
· We see it in the rampant and blatant materialism (as if our happiness and success depend on how much “stuff” we can own)?
· How about the priority of the body over the mind and spirit, appearance over substance, fun over significance, feeling over commitment and honor, the immediate over the things to come, the here and now over the eternal?
We are not to be conformed to such spirit and practices of this age. What does this command say about what we are up against? If we are not to be conformed to this age, it is because there is a force at work in and around us to conform us to the spirit of this age. That means, we cannot expect our spiritual life to be an easy ride. The moment we are saved, the moment we are given a birth from above, we can no longer live like a lifeless lea floating down the stream. No, we are given that life from above and we are given the new urge to swim upstream against the flow. It requires much energy. At times the currents can be quite strong, requiring far more than all of our efforts and energy. When we had a surf camp a few weeks ago, the waves were quite high and the currents quite strong. The waves kept pushing me away from where Andre told me to stay. I had to keep fighting to stay in the area where I was supposed to be. An hour into surfing, I was getting cramps all over my legs! It reminded me of the very thing we are talking about--what it means, what it takes, not to be conformed to this age!
But this is only a half of the command. Paul goes on to say, “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind…!” This command is in the passive voice. A command in the passive voice? How can that be? As a command, it requires our obedient response. But as it is given in the passive, the main action has to be done by someone else! For example, imagine someone telling you, “Be lifted up!” He is not asking you to lift yourself up! He is asking you to be lifted up by something or someone else! Then, someone else has to lift you up and yet the command is given to you!
This passive command has a deep theological significance, doesn’t it? This passive command is an enormous encouragement to us since it assures us that Someone is transforming us! The real work is done by God, not us! God is the One, who is transforming us! God is the One, who is transforming us by renewing our mind!
But this does not mean that we do not do anything! This is a
command given to us, after all! This passive command shows how our
Christian life is a mystery! But we have a glimpse of how this mystery works in
God’s natural revelation. Paul says in 1 Cor. 3:7, “So neither he who plants nor he who
waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” Does the act of
planting make something grow? No! You can plant a rock, a TV, or a $100.00 bill
as much as you want and as carefully as you can but I assure you, it won’t
grow! In the same way, you can water it until all the rivers and streams of the
world are drained but I assure you, it won’t grow. You see, it is not the acts
of planting and watering that make things grow; it is God who gives the growth,
both by His original, creational design as well as by His ongoing, providential
care of the world. Moreover, take the farmers out of the equation for a moment.
Would plants and trees stop growing because man is not there to plant and water
them? Have we overestimated our role in the world?
We cannot
give growth. Yet God has made us the caretakers of His world and thus gave us
the privilege to take part in the ongoing development of the world. The same is
true of our spiritual life. Ultimately, it is God who transforms us by renewing
our mind. But we are given the privilege to take part in this wonderful
process. So we are commanded to be transformed by the renewal of the mind.
Our transformation starts with the renewal of our mind, resulting in the change of our words, behavior, attitude and worldview. Such a change is possible even by positive thinking. But the source of the change is what makes all the difference! Is our change based on, and prompted by, the fairytale of man’s infinite potential or is it based on, and prompted by, a true history, by the historical reality of God’s redeeming work in Jesus Christ? Our transformation is an outworking of our new birth in Jesus Christ, a birth that is not just metaphorical (and spiritual in some vague, mystical sense) but real, true (and spiritual in the sense of being related to the powerful work of the Holy Spirit), a birth that is from above. Our transformation, then, is like that of a chrysalis turning into a butterfly. Our transformation is inevitable. It is in our new, spiritual genes to break out of the chrysalis into a beautiful butterfly that can fly through the air!
Are
we being renewed in our mind? Are we renewing our mind according to the true
Word of God? “The grass
withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isa. 40:8). The renewal of our mind must be more than just
being exposed to and familiar with God’s word. The renewal Paul has in mind is
something that is strong enough to resist the power of this age to shape us and
mold us into its likeness; vibrant and powerful enough to transform our life! What
better illustrates this point that Jesus’ parable of different soils and His
explanation?
“When anyone hears the word of the
kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what
has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what
was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately
receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while,
and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately
he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the
word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the
word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the
one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in
one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty” (Matt.
Jim Dennison once said that there are only two different kinds of soil, not four: the one, which fails to bear fruit, and the other, which bears fruit. Oh, how we must take heed! As we live in this Information Age, we are being bombarded with all kinds of information through commercials and talk radios and cable TVs, etc. So many things flash through our minds without ever striking our hearts. Even when a story touches you enough to make you shed some tears, even when an event shakes you up in a profound way, it is quickly and easily forgotten by the next flurry of most trivial gossips and chores. So we have all kinds of shallow knowledge about many things but few deep knowledge and convictions. But a tall tree must have deep roots. As we glory in multi-tasking, the need of digesting an idea in deep contemplation into deep conviction and cultivating it through regular practice disappears more and more.
Such shallow knowledge cannot be what Paul means by the renewal of our mind according to the Word of God. Wouldn’t you agree that what Paul has in mind is more than vaguely remembering that we have heard something before, though we cannot even begin to articulate what it is? It is more than saying, “I know what the Bible says but….” The renewed mind does more than finds himself in full agreement when he hears, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth” (Ps. 119:103); he actually craves for the time to read and meditate on God’s word and makes it happen not matter what the cost! The renewed mind does more than nod in approval when he hears, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2-3); he actually counts it all joy when he finds himself in the midst of a trial, a difficult trial! When the world tells you that you are miserable and worthless because you don’t have what others have--the brains, the looks, a good education, a plush job, influence, a nice house, a spouse and children--the renewed mind clings to Christ all the more and finds her worth in His eternal love for her, in His heavenly blessings, in His surpassing value! The renewed mind not only affirms that God is good when he sings, “God is so good! God is so good!” and even manages to shed some tears over the words, but he also makes it his comfort even when his beloved wife and son die in the mission field (as in John G. Paton’s case, saying that His good God would never do anything that is not good for His dear servant according to His infinite wisdom).
Doesn’t God deserve such a living sacrifice from us? The renewal of mind that Paul speaks of is not some kind of mental manipulation, is it? For it is based upon the reality of God and His love for us, the reality of the actual, historical life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! Your faith is not some kind of wishful thinking for some romantic ideal that sounds good to you--something that seems true when you feel good but of no use when you feel otherwise. No, our life is built upon the undeniable, irrevocable, historical manifestation of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ! Even if you doubt it, it is still true! Even if nobody believes in it, the reality and truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection does not change!
Consider this please! If Christ indeed lived on this earth and died for our sins and rose again for our justification, as the Scriptures testify, then serve Him, present your bodies as a living sacrifice with all gladness and joy and love and devotion! If Christ did not, then conform to this age and live like the world! How long would you waiver between Christ and this age? If Christ is what the Bible says He is, can we drag our feet in following Him? Can we withhold anything from presenting to Him as a living sacrifice?
The Bible you are holding in your
hands is the Word of God, which is powerful, true and eternal. One word from it
can fell Satan and all of his hosts! One word from it can save a hell-bound
sinner, renew his mind and transform his life in a most radical way! Hold on to
the Word you heard today with your dear life and by it renew
your mind. As you do so, may God bless you with heavenly-mindedness--to brim
with heavenly affections and heavenly convictions and heavenly desires and
heavenly drive and motivation. And may your life be a
holy and acceptable worship to God, a fragrant aroma pleasing to Him!
© Copyright 2008 by Jeong Woo "James" Lee
All Rights Reserved.