Romans 12:1: A Living Sacrifice

Romans 12:1: A Living Sacrifice

Please turn with me in your Bible to Romans 12. If you’re using one of the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 785. We’ve been working our way passage by passage through Paul’s letter to the Romans, and this morning we come to Romans 12:1. So yes, we’re just looking at a single verse today. Romans 12:1: “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.”

L. Moody famously said that “the Bible was not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.” And one of the places where we see that taught most clearly in the Bible is the verse we’re looking at this morning—Romans 12:1.

For the past eight months or so, we’ve been studying the first eleven chapters of Romans. And in those chapters, we’ve seen a lot of theology. In chapters 1-3, we learned that all of humanity exists in a state of sinful rebellion against God. Then in chapters 4-5, we learned about how we can be made right with God or justified by grace and through faith. Then in chapters 6-8, we learned about sanctification—how God shapes us as Christians to be more and more like Jesus—and about our future glorification one day in heaven. Then finally, in chapters 9-11, we learned about God’s faithfulness in his interactions with Israel. So these first eleven chapters have been full of rich theological truths. 

And now, in Romans 12, Paul begins to draw some practical conclusions about the truths he’s been teaching and connect those truths to our lives. That’s the significance of the word “therefore” in verse 1. Look how Paul starts the verse: “I appeal to you therefore.” In other words, “Therefore, in light of all these theological truths I’ve been explaining for eleven chapters now, I appeal to you to do something. Let these truths drive you to live in a certain way.” And as we’ll see in the coming months, Paul’s going to spend the rest of the letter instructing them about how they should live. So we might say that chapters 1-11 of Romans are all about right beliefs, while chapters 12-16 are all about right living on the basis of those beliefs. And that’s actually a pattern in many of Paul’s other letters as well. For example, in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul spends chapters 1-3 talking about theology. But then, in chapters 4-6, he once again shifts gears and spends the rest of his letter talking about how his readers should live in light of that theology. So right beliefs naturally lead to right living. 

The Bible says it like this in James 1:22: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” In other words, don’t be someone who just hears the word but then doesn’t do anything with it. If that’s you, James says, you’re just deceiving yourself. You’re deceiving yourself into thinking that you’re so spiritual and that you’re such an amazing Christian because you know all these deep biblical truths, but you’re really not that spiritual. You think you are, but you’re not. You’re deceiving yourself. And honestly, that’s very easy to do. Especially if you’ve been a Christian for a while and have had a chance to acquire a good bit of knowledge, it’s very easy to overestimate your spiritual maturity and think you’re more spiritual than you really are. Understand, though, that the real measure of spiritual maturity isn’t how much you know but rather the degree to which what you know has transformed you. 

So be on your guard against that tendency to acquire knowledge that never translates into godly living. That kind of unapplied knowledge can actually be very harmful to you. 1 Corinthians 8:1 states that “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” What does that mean—that “knowledge puffs up”? I think it means that knowledge, when it’s not used the way God intended and applied to your life, has a way of growing sour within you and making you proud. Imagine food sitting endlessly in your stomach without ever being digested. I’m not sure if that ever happens, but imagine if it did. You ate food and that food just sat in your stomach without ever being digested. That would be really bad. I’m sure that, given enough time, that food would begin to rot inside your stomach and cause all kinds of problems. So instead of that food helping you—as nourishing food typically does—it would be harming you. And I believe that’s what biblical knowledge does to us whenever we fail to apply that knowledge to our lives. It just sits there and rots. It makes you proud, it makes you self-righteous, and it causes you to grossly overestimate how spiritually mature you really are. 

That’s why our main verse of Romans 12:1 is so important. Let me read it again: “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.”

So here’s the main idea of this verse and the main idea will be looking at this morning: Paul appeals to his readers to respond to the truths he’s taught them by presenting their bodies as a living sacrifice. Let me say that again: Paul appeals to his readers to respond to the truths he’s taught them by presenting their bodies as a living sacrifice. And I believe we can identify two parts of Paul’s appeal in this verse, and we’ll spend the rest of our time looking at these. Number one, the motive for Paul’s appeal. And number two, the essence of Paul’s appeal. 

The Motive for Paul’s Appeal

So first, the motive for Paul’s appeal. Notice that in verse 1, Paul appeals to his readers “by the mercies of God.” He says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice….” So us doing what Paul says here and presenting our bodies to God as a living sacrifice should be motivated by “the mercies of God.” When we were sinful and deserving of nothing but condemnation and wrath for all eternity, God had mercy on us. He saw our wretched condition and showed us unbelievable mercy and compassion. He did this by sending his own Son Jesus to come to this earth in human form and then die not for any sins he had committed but for our sins. Somebody had to pay for our sins—somebody had to suffer the penalty our sins deserved—and that’s exactly what Jesus did. Jesus suffered the penalty our sins deserved so that we wouldn’t have to. Then three days later, he won a decisive victory over sin and death by rising from the grave. And he now offers forgiveness and salvation to anyone who comes to him and puts their trust in him to receive it. So instead of receiving the wrath we deserve, we can receive the mercy we don’t deserve. 

And that mercy, according to Paul, should be the motive behind our devotion to God. We, as Christians, should be devoted to God and strive to obey God not because we’re trying to earn anything but because we’re grateful for what we’ve already received. Tim Keller puts it like this: “Religion says, ‘I obey. Therefore, I am accepted by God.’ The gospel says, ‘I am accepted by God through Christ. Therefore, I obey.’” So as gospel-believing Christians, our obedience is driven simply by gratitude. We’re not trying to earn God’s acceptance or deserve his love. We’ve already received these things through Jesus. And we’re so grateful we’ve received them that our gratitude overflows in obedience. That’s where the obedience comes from. It’s an overflow of our gratitude. So in the words of Paul in verse 1, “the mercies of God” are what motivate us to do the things we do. 

That’s why we should never have the mentality that the only people who need to hear the gospel are those who aren’t Christians yet. Christians also need to be reminded of the great gospel truths of God’s mercy. Unfortunately, I think a lot of Christians view the gospel kind of like kindergarten. I don’t know about you, but I personally don’t feel the need to go back to kindergarten and learn those things again. I think I understand the alphabet and that “A is for apple” and how to count to 100 and things like that. I don’t need to go back and review any of that stuff. Now please don’t ask me any questions about high-school level math or chemistry or anything. I’m not so confident that I’ve retained all of that information. But if we’re just talking about kindergarten, I’m pretty sure I’ve got it. I don’t need to revisit any of that. And I think a lot of Christians view the gospel that way. 

But…if you’ll allow me to be blunt, that’s actually a terrible way to view the gospel. The gospel is the primary thing that motivates us to live for God. And so the last thing we want to do is lose sight of this primary motivation. That’s why, here at Redeeming Grace, we come back to the gospel again and again. If you attend here regularly, that’s why you’ll hear the gospel in virtually every sermon I preach. I do that not only because I hope non-Christians will be saved but because I know that I need to hear the gospel and you need to hear the gospel as well—even if we’re already Christians. We need to be reminded of the gospel again and again in order to be properly motivated in our worship of God and service to God. So that’s the motive for Paul’s appeal.

The Essence of Paul’s Appeal

Then after that, we see, point number two, the essence of Paul’s appeal. The essence of Paul’s appeal. Again, Paul writes in verse 1, “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.” So the essence of Paul’s appeal is for his readers to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice.”

In the Old Testament, God had commanded the Israelites to offer animal sacrifices as a visible representation of their sins being atoned for. Now, in reality, Jesus is the one who ultimately atones for sin through his death on the cross, but these animal sacrifices pictured and foreshadowed that atonement. And here in verse 1, Paul’s using this Old Testament practice of animal sacrifice as an illustration of the way Christians in the New Testament are supposed to relate to God. Of course, Paul doesn’t mean that we should intentionally harm or kill ourselves. Notice that the phrase Paul uses isn’t just a sacrifice but a “living sacrifice.” So he’s not implying self-harm here. And also, presenting ourselves in this way isn’t an attempt on our part to atone for our sins. Jesus already accomplished that. So what’s the similarity then? How are we called to be similar to those Old Testament sacrifices? Well, just like those animals were totally dedicated to God on the altar, we should present ourselves to God without holding anything back. That’s the similarity. An animal that was sacrificed was presented to God in its entirety. It had to give up everything—even its very life. And likewise, Paul says, that’s the kind of mindset Christians should have in presenting themselves to God—a mindset of absolute surrender, total devotion, and a readiness to suffer the loss of whatever God might call them to give up. Presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice means that we’re not holding anything back. 

So if you’re a Christian, let me just ask you, are you giving yourself to God in this way? Think about your life. Are you presenting yourself to God and to God’s purposes on this earth without holding anything back? Now, it would be very easy at this point to try to illustrate what being a “living sacrifice” looks like by telling you the story of some missionary in a far-away land enduring incredible hardships for the sake of the gospel. And I believe those stories have their place. I’ve shared them in the past. But I think it would be even more helpful at this point for us to remember that you don’t necessarily have to become an overseas missionary in order to be faithful to this passage of Scripture. Maybe God is calling you to go overseas, and if he is, you should certainly follow that call. But even if your place is right here in Pittsburgh—even in the comfortable, middle class suburbs of Pittsburgh—it’s still possible for you to be faithful to this passage and present yourself as a living sacrifice to God. Radical devotion is possible for you also. In fact, I believe there are some good examples of people in this church who are doing just that. And I’ve asked their permission to say what I’m about to say. 

One person who comes to mind in this regard is Caitlin, who does our missions moment. Caitlin has chosen to devote herself full-time to caring for displaced children here in Pittsburgh. These children are from other countries and have arrived here because of a variety of circumstances and need to be cared for until the authorities make a decision about where they’ll spend their futures. So Caitlin works for a religious organization that cares for them and seeks to minister not just to their physical needs but also to their spiritual needs. Now Caitlin has a college degree and could probably find another job making a lot more money and that wouldn’t have the emotional weightiness of her present job, but she’s chosen this job because she wants to make an eternal impact on these children. And beyond her job, Caitlin also serves in all kinds of ways behind the scenes at our church. Of course you see her doing the missions moment, but she also brings the pastries for before church each Sunday and serves as a greeter at the door and also often gives somebody a ride to church. And I really could go on and on. 

In addition, another person in our church who I believe exemplifies what it means to be a living sacrifice is Paul. Paul worked for decades as an engineer at nuclear facilities and was able to retire fairly comfortably at the age of 60. And most people would view such a retirement as a chance to “live it up” and enjoy the fruits of their labor to the fullest extent possible—going on some really nice vacations multiple times a year, driving the latest model Mercedes, purchasing a nice vacation home in another part of the country, and of course playing lots and lots of golf. And Paul could probably do that if he wanted to. He’s in pretty good health and probably has a decent number of years left that he could enjoy in that way. But look at the way he lives. Even though our church doesn’t pay him, Paul puts in as many hours of ministry at our church as a part-time staff member typically would. He serves as an elder, he’s been hosting and leading a Community Group, he coordinates our guest follow-up efforts, he helps with music, he serves in the nursery, he helps out with the hospitality team when we need him, he hosted our church-wide prayer meeting this past week, and there are probably even more ways he serves that I’m missing. And apart from our church he does things like the jail ministry for a whole day each week and helps out as a disaster relief chaplain whenever there’s a need for that. This man is using his retirement not for endless leisure but for eternal impact, and in that way I believe he’s presenting himself to God as a living sacrifice. 

Then finally, one last person I’d like to mention as an example is Meghan. Meghan is a stay-at-home mom who devotes the majority her time to caring for her four children. And her ministry to her kids goes far beyond keeping them alive and taking care of their physical needs. Meghan and her husband Matt are two of the most deliberate people I know in teaching their kids about Jesus and instilling biblical values and biblical truths within them. Meghan also puts in the extensive time that’s required to homeschool her kids. And understand that Meghan graduated from a very prestigious Ivy League university, so she could probably have a very successful career out in the marketplace if she wanted to. And there would be nothing wrong with that. But she’s chosen to invest her life in the way that she believes is the most valuable way she can invest it according to what God is calling her to do. In addition, Meghan’s also very active in serving in various capacities in the church. For example, Meghan and Matt host a Community Group in their home each week. And even beyond hosting a Community Group, I think it’s accurate to say that Meghan and Matt probably invite more people over to their home for informal get-togethers than anybody else in the church. When it comes to living in community as believers, they’re leading the way.

So I believe these three individuals are good examples from within our church of people who are presenting themselves as living sacrifices to God. Now of course, I’m not trying to put them on some pedestal and say that they’re perfect or that they’ve arrived. I’m sure they themselves would affirm that they’re still works in progress like the rest of us. And, like the rest of us, they’re sinners saved by grace. But I believe their lives demonstrate that you can still present yourself to God as a living sacrifice even if you’re not an overseas missionary enduring incredible hardships. Even if you live in relatively ordinary circumstances as a middle-class American, presenting yourself as a living sacrifice is still possible for you. It’s within your reach. 

Conclusion

And it’s not only something you can do, it’s something you must do. At least, I hope you feel that way. I hope “the mercies of God” that we talked about earlier have come to grip your heart and make you so profoundly grateful and joyful that you can’t keep your gratitude and joy within you. You feel like you must let them out by presenting yourself to God as a living sacrifice. Oh how I pray that God would raise up more people in our church who feel that way! 

And hopefully you’ll not only feel that way but actually live that way. Let me ask you something: what in your life are you holding back from God? Earlier in the message, we discussed how the phrase “living sacrifice” communicates the idea of giving ourselves entirely to God and God’s purposes. Just like an animal that was sacrificed was dedicated entirely to God, we also should be dedicated entirely to God. So is there anything in your life this morning that you’re holding back? Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. What has God been calling you to do that perhaps you’ve been resisting? What sin does he want you to forsake? What unhelpful or unedifying habit does he want you to leave behind? What kinds of purchases does he want you to severely limit or even stop making entirely? What person does he want you to apologize to or what relationship does he want you to make right? What calling or what endeavor does he want you to embrace even though it seems a little scary? What spiritual gifts or natural abilities does he want you to start using for his glory? What person in the church does he want you to take the initiative to personally disciple? What person or family does he want you to invite over for a simple meal? And I’ll even ask this, although I hope you know my heart in asking it: what money—that you perhaps have been holding onto for whatever reason—is God calling you to give in order to support our church’s efforts at advancing the gospel? Being a living sacrifice involves asking ourselves every one of these questions and not keeping back any part of our life as if it were off-limits to God. 

And according to our main verse, giving ourselves to God in these ways is a form of worship to God. Notice what the very end of verse 1 says. It talks about presenting your bodies “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” So as we give ourselves to God as a “living sacrifice” without holding anything back, that’s one of the most important ways in which we worship God. In fact, it’s essential. Worship isn’t just something we do with our lips as we sing songs to God. It’s something we’re called to do with our lives as we present our whole selves as a “living sacrifice” to God. And that’s a mindset we have to cultivate day after day. One author has said that “the problem with a living sacrifice is that it can choose to crawl off the altar.” Maybe there was a time in your life when you genuinely were presenting yourself to God as a living sacrifice, but as the years have gone by, you’ve grown a bit complacent. This morning is your opportunity, by God’s grace and through the power of his Spirit, to get back on track. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.” Let’s live that way. Let’s live like people who belong not to ourselves but to God because we’ve been bought by him.