So in the previous chapters of the Book of Romans, namely Chapters 10 and 11, we’ve been brought to consider how God’s mercy is.
Actually, before that, let’s remind ourselves, as we’ve been reminding ourselves so much: Of how God’s mercy is eternal and fresh: That is, it never comes to an end, how it is new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23); And also, let us remind ourselves of how this same mercy is infinite: That is, it is as high as the heavens are infinitely higher than the earth (Psalm 103:11), and great, even ABOVE the heavens (Psalm 108:4, KJV).
Okay. With that said, let’s go back to Romans 10-11, because I dare say that because God’s mercy is eternal, infinite, and fresh, this gives us cause to keep on trusting Him, even in moments where our human minds would see how unmerciful He may seem.
We’ve seen the examples of Pharaoh and the nation of Israel itself; We read it mentioned in those chapters, and especially in Exodus 7:5 that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, for the Egyptians to know that God is the God above their own gods, when He unleashes the plagues, and rescues Israel. As per the nation of Israel, He used their rejection of Christ for the Gospel to be unleashed upon the Gentiles… So, when the Gentiles were reconciled and received salvation, they would be brought to jealousy, and eventually be saved, themselves.
And I suppose these are a whole bunch of other reasons for other adverse situations to happen; Paul explained these two, and there may be realizations as to why other events unfolded as they should… but in the end, we realize that God’s mercy is present in ALL these circumstances – no matter how challenging they may be to us.
Now, with God’s great sovereignty and His infinite and eternal mercy in mind, we can look at the next chapter from that lens.
Before we actually jump into it, I do want to say that (1) this next chapter was one of the very first chapters of the Bible that really spoke to me, way back when I took an actual interest in the Scriptures, and (2) as we’re about to find out, the dynamism of God’s goodness is seen in that we may read the same chapter again and again, but the meanings we derive, and the revelations we receive just continue to be given to us in the light of who we are as individuals, and also all that we’re going through, at any given moment.
In other words, I may be reading this for the nth time again today, but there are still so many new things to draw out… and I think that’s just wonderful.
Finally, let’s go.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
I’d like us to take more notice to the first half of the verse, where Paul does a ‘therefore’. What precedes?
Well, we go back to Romans 10-11: We have more cause to trust in our God because of His great mercies towards us, which are infinite, eternal, and new every morning; His mercies may be confounding and unfathomable, but ultimately reliable and trustworthy.
THEREFORE, this mercy of God is the reason, the inspiration and motivation for us to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God.
I’ve seen, time and time again, how we LOVE to just take this verse, especially the part mentioning living sacrifices, as a charge for us to continually be in the act of worship to our God. Your experiences may vary, but ultimately that’s the part we have the greatest propensity of focusing on.
And, truth be told, there’s really nothing wrong with that. In fact, it sort of supplements with something else that I like to share, regarding how our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:18-20) – with this, not only are we able to flee from sexual immorality with the realization that we are temples, but in the process we also affirm how we are holy and acceptable, because we OURSELVES are sacrifices presented to Him.
Did that make sense? Our bodies are both temples of the Holy Spirit, AND living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. As temples, we’re not only representations, celebrating the sacrifice of Jesus Christ; As living sacrifices, we’re the opposite – celebrations, representing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
From yet another perspective, we are living sacrifices TO God (man to God), AND temples OF the Holy Spirit (God to man), both at the same time.
As Darth Vader tells Obi-Wan, ‘The Circle is now complete’. And wow, this is still just the first verse. Exciting.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
By the great mercy of God, we are to present ourselves as living sacrifices to God. And I feel that the more we realize how holy we’ve been made through Christ – rather, how ‘set-apart’ we’ve been made – we see that by default, without any effort on our part but through the finished work of Christ; yes, by default we are not conformed to this world.
Also, when we realize how we’ve also been made acceptable to God, through the sacrifice of Christ, that’s what ushers in the renewal of our mind.
By the mercies of God, freely made available to us through the finished work of Jesus Christ, we are reconciled, made holy and acceptable, set apart and grafted into our God, whom we call our Father.
I believe it is this reconciliation which serves as the catalyst for the renewal of our mind, which ushers in transformation for the rest of our being; and the goal of said transformation is that we – that is, our entire beings – would discern the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
I feel like we need to stop here for now, especially considering we’ve been consulting these two specific verses on their own… And while I may just be throwing in my own opinion along with the countless other ministers, writers and speakers regarding Romans 12:1-2, I’d like to just stress that we haven’t seen these two verses in a vacuum; By the power of the Holy Spirit, we’ve taken what was mentioned in the previous chapters, into consideration. I think that’s really important because it adds that much more value to our analysis… and, well, it just makes us appreciate God’s mercy, and therefore Jesus Christ, so much more.
Actually, let me just add in one last thing before we go. I couldn’t help but mention that, in our church in particular, we really HAVE placed emphasis on ‘being transformed by the renewing of our mind’. Much has been said specifically about ‘the renewing of our mind’, and its Greek ‘metanoia’, and how any change we see in the world ought to begin with the changing of our mind, and so on.
The only problem is, with all that we’ve gone through today, I’ve noticed that we’ve made too much stress on ‘renewing of our mind’ towards ‘being transformed’. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with that, but that’s the only side of the coin that we’ve focused on, revealing how, again, in our church in particular, we still have the propensity to make it all about us.
You want to transform yourself? It’s up to you to renew your mind.
You want to change the world? Maybe you should take a look at renewing your mind first.
All I’m saying is that it is my sincere prayer that we would look at the other side of the coin – the other statement:
You want to renew your mind? Behold the mercy of God! For by HIS mercy, Jesus Christ has reconciled us to Him, making us holy and acceptable!
I believe we would all benefit from a greater emphasis on the other side of the coin: That it is God’s mercy in Christ that enables us to renew our minds and experience transformation. May we never lose sight of the grace that underlies our growth.
And as we behold the mercy of God in Christ, we find ourselves empowered to respond – not just with an obligation to obey, but with a newfound ‘response-ability.’ The same grace that saves us also enables us to live out the transformation God calls us to.
Sorry, I needed to let that out of my chest.
Until the next post, God bless us all.
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#Romans #GraceBehindWorks #DivineMercy #Repentance #Metanoia #Bible #BibleStudy #Encouragement #HolySpirit #JesusChrist #Truth #Reflections #Revelations #PracticalChristianity #BenefitsOfSalvation
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