The Basis
We have been looking at eleven chapters in Romans over the past few months. But it is important to notice that Paul does not start in chapter 12. We must know the first eleven chapters to appreciate what Paul is going to tell us that we must do. So how should we sum up all that we have looked at over these chapters in the book of Romans? The apostle Paul has a simple phrase to sum up what he has taught to us. He calls them “the mercies of God” in Romans 12:1. It would probably be helpful for to scan back through through eleven chapters to remember the mercies of God that Paul proclaimed.
In Romans 1 we learned that the righteousness of God has been revealed from faith to faith because the righteous live by faith. In Romans 2-3 we see the mercies of God in that the sentence does not stop in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The sentence continues in Romans 3:24-25 that we are justified by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus who God put forward to be our propitiation, our mercy seat, and our sacrifice of atonement. In Romans 4 we see the mercies of God that David proclaimed, “Blessed are those who lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin” (Romans 4:7-8). We see the mercies of God in Romans 5 in which we were told that while we were still helpless, still enemies, and still sinners, Christ died for us to show God’s love for us. In Romans 6 we see the mercies of God that we are be considered dead to sin and alive to God, no longer presenting our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness, but instruments for righteousness. In Romans 7-8 we see the mercies of God because God has set us free from the law of sin and death and declares to us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. In Romans 9-11 we see the mercies of God that in spite of resistance and rejection, God hold his hands out to a contrary people. God will call a people who are not his people to show his staggering mercy and desire to have a people for himself.
Here is the point that I want to make as we begin this lesson. God has every right to tell us to do something because he is God and can command whatever he will of his creation. But God does not do this. Rather, God shows his compassion, love, and mercies for the world so that they will respond to him. This is how we must read the beginning of Romans 12:1. Paul is appealing to us. Paul is urging us. Paul is exhorting us in a particular direction. But this urging has a basis. This exhorting us to do something has reason. God is not asking you to just do it. God is urging us to see his many mercies as the basis for our response.
The Appeal
So what is Paul’s appeal and urging to us? Paul urges us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. This is quite a visual. Under the old covenant, the Law of Moses dictated the worshiper would present an unblemished animal to the altar as an offering to the Lord. In Christ, we are pictured as presenting ourselves to the altar as an offering to the Lord. It is a simple but clear image. We are to give our lives to God. The scriptures will tell us that we have been bought with the price of the precious blood of Jesus (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1 Peter 1:18-19). Therefore, we belong to Christ. This is what Jesus meant when he told us that if we want to be his disciples we must take romup our cross to follow him (cf. Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23). We are to dedicate our bodies and our whole lives to God because of his mercies toward us. The apostle Paul would simply say, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). When Paul tells us to present our bodies as living sacrifices, we are being told that it is the end of living for ourselves and now living in full dedication to the Lord.
The Presentation
Paul explains what our dedicated bodies look like before the Lord as we place it on the altar. We are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Every sacrifice was required to be holy and acceptable to God. You may remember the contrast between Abel and Cain’s offerings was that Abel’s was a more acceptable sacrifice (cf. Hebrews 11:4). While the people of Israel did not always follow through with this command, there was never a time when God was pleased with unholy and unacceptable sacrifices. You might also remember that in Malachi 1 God directly condemned his people for not wanting to give God proper sacrifices. But the picture of bringing a holy and acceptable animal to the altar under the old covenant was foreshadowing that we would bring ourselves to the altar as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him. Just as God did not accept unholy animals to the altar under the old covenant, we must not think that he will accept our unholy lives as we come to the altar.
Now it is important to talk about holiness for a moment. Sometimes we can narrow our definition of holiness to only refer to purity. Certainly, when God is calling us to holiness, he is calling us to live pure in his sight. But one of the descriptions of holiness in the scriptures is that something is being set apart for God’s use, not common use. When God gave the directions for the tabernacle, he instructed that various articles and utensils be set apart for use in his tabernacle (cf. Exodus 30). These things were now exclusively purposed for God’s use. They could not be used for other things. You were not to go into the tabernacle and take the lamp out and use it in your house. No, the lamp is holy. The idea is not so much that the lamp was morally pure but that is was dedicated to God’s use, not common use. For example, I have removed a couple of knives from our kitchen and placed them in my garage so that I can use them for various things while working on the car. I dare to say that no one would come over to our house and ask to eat with the knives that are sitting in my toolbox. Those knives have been removed from their special purpose, being clean for use to eat, and now are dirty and common, sitting in my garage.
You see that when God tells us that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, he not only wants us to see that we are to remain separated from sin but that we have been dedicated to a different purpose. Being holy and pleasing to the the Lord means that everything we do is to be for the purpose of serving the Lord.
The Motive
This is exactly what Paul tells us at the end of Romans 12:1. We are to present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to the Lord, because this is our means of worship. This is our true worship. This is our spiritual service of worship. This is our reasonable act of worship. Sometimes we only think of worship as what we do for one hour on Sunday morning or Sunday night. While it is worship when we come together in which we need to do things that are pleasing to the Lord, Paul wants us to think about our whole lives as a living sacrifice being offered up as worship to the Lord. Therefore, everything we do in life must go through the filter of determining if what we are doing is holy and acceptable to the Lord. Paul said it to the Colossian Christians this way:
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17 ESV)
Whatever we do in life, whether we are looking at the relationships that we have or the work that we do, is to be said and done in a way that shows us as living sacrifices that are holy and acceptable to the Lord.
But there is also the motivation that is being highlighted in our worship. We are being urged to present our bodies in complete dedication to the Lord because of the mercies of God. This is not only our spiritual act of true worship, but it is also our logical or reasonable act of worship. You might notice that translations either pick between calling this our “spiritual worship” or our “reasonable service.” The Greek word has both usages to it. So we want to also see that we are being told that offering up our bodies to the Lord is our reasonable response to him. It is interesting to me that there are many movies and television shows that are built around the idea of honoring the person who gave their lives for you. You will hear people who have had successful transplants that they not only want to thank the person who gave them a kidney or other life-saving organ, but they want to honor the person who gave them life by living in a way that is pleasing to them. So we understand this idea of logical or reasonable service. We have been given the mercies of God and it is rational to live for the Lord as a living sacrifice.
A Living Sacrifice
So I want us to think about life on the altar as we kick off this series which will be our theme for the rest of this year and into next year. I want us to think about this year what it means to live life on the altar. The first point I want us to see is that life on the altar is our worship to God and it is reasonable for us to live this way. We must see that living life on the altar is not something that we are to be dejected about. Rather, it makes sense because we are staring directly at the mercies of God. Life on the altar is a life of gratitude for all that God has done for us. We are being told to live a life pleasing to the Lord in gratitude and joy because we understand the mercies of God.
Second, life on the altar means that everything about who we are and what we do goes on the altar to the Lord. There is nothing that is to be excluded from our lives that is being placed on the altar. We are not able to place 50 percent of our lives on the altar. We are not allowed to place 75 percent of us on the altar. We are not even allowed to place 99 percent of ourselves on the altar and hold back one percent for ourselves. Our whole being is being put on the altar. This is what Jesus means when he tells us that we to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Nothing is held back. Nothing is left out. So this leads us to an important question for self-examination. Is there something in our lives that we have not put on the altar? Is there a one percent or a ten percent of our lives that we are refusing to put on the altar? Are we unwilling to give our schedules to the Lord? Are we unwilling to give our relationships to the Lord? Are we unwilling to put our passions and desires on the altar? Are we unwilling to give our bodies and how we use them to the Lord? Are we unwilling to give our job to the will of the Lord? Are we unwilling to put our time on the altar? Are we unwilling to put our money or our comfort on the altar? You see that it is reasonable and right to give God everything because of the mercies of God. Is there something in our lives that we will not put on the altar?
Finally, we need to ask how do we get ourselves on the altar. How do we fully devote our whole lives to the Lord? There is one picture of a person who was literally laid on the altar. In Genesis 22 Abraham is told to offer his son as a sacrifice to the Lord. Isaac, Abraham’s son, has a question while they are traveling to the place of the sacrifice. Isaac observes that they have the fire and the wood but they do not have the lamb for the sacrifice. What Isaac did not know was that he was going to be the offering. Have you ever thought about how Isaac got on the altar? Isaac submitting to what Abraham was doing. How did he do this? I believe the answer is what Abraham told Isaac when he asked about the lamb. Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb” (cf. Genesis 22:8). Abraham and Isaac believed the Lord would provide. The way for us to live life on the altar is to believe that the Lord will provide. The way to get the final one percent of your life on the altar is to believe that the Lord will provide. At the end of the day, the reason we do not give the Lord our comfort, our jobs, our relationships, our desires, or anything else is because we do not believe that the Lord will provide. Do we believe God will provide for you? Jesus became the one who did lay down on the altar for us.
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32 ESV)
What do you believe he will not give you? This scripture does not say to offer a sacrifice. This scripture teaches to be a sacrifice to the Lord. What is holding you back from living life on the altar?