Rom 12:1 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. NIV
Beginning
with this statement in chapter 12, the apostle Paul lays out a treatise on
Christian living. The rest of his letter to the Romans describes how we should
approach life as a believer in Christ. The therefore, in this case, is to
remind the reader that he has spent eleven chapters explaining in great detail,
God’s mercy.
This is an
important concept for all of us to grasp. When we are having difficulty living
in obedience to God, we should always remember God’s mercy. Paul is telling us
that there is good reason to follow the instructions that he will be laying
out. He is saying that we should be motivated by the knowledge that God has
been so merciful (sometimes translated as compassionate) to us.
As we begin
to look at the many instructions that Paul will give, we can say to ourselves,
“Why should I do all these things? Because God has been so merciful to me!” If
you need a reminder of how merciful He has been to you, just go back to the
beginning of Romans and read the first eleven chapters.
Paul’s
first instruction to us is the blueprint for all of the other points he will be
bringing to our attention. He tells us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices
to God. The Greek word used for body here is soma. Though it does mean our physical body, the reader, at the
time this was written, would understand that it meant more than that. It would
mean your whole being, everything you are.
Why does
Paul say a “living” sacrifice? I believe He was contrasting this with the
“dead” sacrifices of the Jewish religion. Remember that offering the sacrifice
of animals to be killed, was an act of worship to God for the Jew. What does
Paul say here? That offering your living body, to be used in God’s service, is
now the preferable act of worship. Why? In view of God’s mercy.
God, in His great mercy towards us, has
completed the sacrifices that involved killing. It was the sacrifice of His son
on the cross, once and for all. (Rom 6:10
The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives
to God.) No other sacrifice that involved death would be necessary.
Instead, we give up our lives on a daily basis, in service to our Savior. In view of His mercy, we should desire to
live lives that are “holy and pleasing” to our Lord.
As we
follow Paul’s instructions, let’s begin with taking time each day to thank God
for His mercy toward us and then, offer ourselves up to Him, to be used as He
sees fit! When we do that, we are truly worshipping Him!
God bless
you
Coach
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