Romans 12

Posted on Jun 29, 2017 in Bible (NT) in a Year |

Thursday

This chapter is probably one of my favorite chapters in the bible. There is just so much good stuff in it that it’s hard to talk about in just one blog. But lets see what we can uncover.

Paul is giving us directions on how to live the Christian life. He is asking us to make a choice. Bring your bodies as a living sacrifice to the altar of God. If you remember the old testament, what was brought before God for sacrifice had to be perfect, without flaws. So you ask, how can we, who are so imperfect bring ourselves before God? Well, the truth is WE can’t. But by Christ’s redeeming work on the cross and defeating sin and gaining victory over death in the resurrection we are now able to present ourselves before him.
 

So what is a living sacrifice? Have you ever wondered exactly what it means to give your body as a livings sacrifice? I mean.. sacrifices sound a little harsh to me. My mind conjures up images of slaughtering lambs and doves… so does that mean that God wants me to sacrifice my life, as in being burned at the stake or attacked by lions or any number of other nasty ways people have been put to death.

Well, remember we are called to be living sacrifices.  Whewww. But in a way we still need to die. It’s just not a physical death. To offer our bodies as a living sacrifice means to not be conformed to this world. So what is “this world”? Look at 1 John 2:15-16 and Colossians 3:5. These are just a few verses in scripture that talk about how to not conform to the world.
 

All that the world has to offer can really be reduced, I believe, into three things. Desires of the flesh, which are things that appeal to our appetites, like sex and alcohol, drugs and oh yeah… food (gluttony), also anything that satisfies our physical wants.  Then there is greed, greed covets what we don’t have and envies those who have what we want, materialism.  And the third thing is pride. Pride is self-centered, pride makes it all about us.

So those are the things we are not to be conformed to… the things of the world.

How then can believers NOT be conformed to the world? The answer is… by being “transformed by the renewing of our minds.” And we can do this by the grace of God, through prayer, the power of God’s Word, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

It is also by His grace that we have been given different gifts to help us do certain things well. (vs 6) That means that we all have a part in God’s plan to spread the gospel, all of us have a job to do. I believe this is also part of our living sacrifice. Offering ourselves as willing participants in God’s plan.

Paul goes on to tell us how we can live godly lives. It’s a great plan for holy living, one that I think we should all keep in mind. I wonder what the world would look like if we all lived Romans 12:9-21?

Grace and Peace

Pastor Kathy