TEXT: "_I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that
ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service._"--Romans 12:1.
There is perhaps no chapter in the New Testament, certainly none in
this epistle, with which we are more familiar than this one which is
introduced by the text; and yet, however familiar we may be with the
statements, if we read them carefully and study them honestly they must
always come to us not only in the nature of an inspiration but also
with rebuke, especially to those of us who preach.
Paul's intellectual ability has never been questioned. Yet, giant
though he was in this respect, he was not ashamed to be pathetic when
he likens his care for his people to the care of a nurse for her
children. He is not ashamed to be extravagant when he likens his
sorrow and pain at their backsliding to the travail of a woman for her
child. He is not ashamed to be intense when in the ninth chapter and
the first, second and third verses he says, "I say the truth in Christ,
I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I
could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my
kinsmen according to the flesh."
We must also be impressed with the fact that he was not at all afraid
of public criticism. He not only sat at Gamaliel's feet but the great
lawmaker might well have taken his place at his feet, and yet he says,
"I am willing to be counted a fool if only I may win men to Christ."
He is not bound by custom. He not only preaches in the synagogue and
in the places set apart for the churches of the early days, but he goes
about from house to house entreating people to come to Christ. He is
not ashamed to weep, for he sends his messages to the people and
exclaims, "I tell you these things weeping"; and here in this text he
is strikingly unusual, for he is not a preacher speaking with dignity,
nor an Apostle commending obedience, but a loving friend beseeching in
the most pathetic way the yielding of themselves to Christ.
There are two things to remember about Paul in the study of such a
subject.
First: He was a Jew and he knew all about offerings. Sacrifices were
not forms to him and a living sacrifice was not a meaningless
expression. He had been present on the great day of Atonement when the
scapegoat bore away the sins of the people. He had heard the chimes of
the bells on the high priest's robe as he moved to and fro before the
entrance to the holy of holies, and he had waited with breathless
silence for him to come forth giving evidence in his coming of the fact
that Israel could once more approach Jehovah. The text to him was
throbbing with holy memories and was full of significance.
Second: He received his instructions concerning these things of God,
not from men, for when he writes to the Galatians he says: "But I
certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not
after man, for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it,
but by the revelation of Jesus Christ" (Galatians 1:11-12). And so,
since he is a heaven-taught man, we must listen while he speaks and
give heed to his entreaties.
I
_The context_. We shall not appreciate this striking text unless we
take into account its setting.
The first chapters of Romans present to us a black cloud indeed, for
when the first sentences are spoken we shudder because of their
intensity. We read in the twenty-fourth verse that God gave the people
_up_ to uncleanness; in the twenty-sixth verse that he gave them _up_
to vile affections, but in the twenty-eighth verse that he gave them
_over_ to a reprobate mind. With this awful condition of affairs we
start; and yet for fear that the man who counts himself a moralist
might read these verses and feel that they did not apply to him, Paul
writes in the third chapter and the twenty-second verse these words,
"Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto
all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference." But
when the cloud is the blackest the rays of light begin to appear, and
they are rays of light from heaven; looking on the one side at mystery
and catching a vision on the other side of grace, Paul exclaims, "I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is
your reasonable service" (Romans 12:1).
The word mercy is of frequent occurrence in the Bible. "From
everlasting to everlasting is God's mercy," we read. This gives us
some idea of duration. "New every morning and fresh every evening are
his mercies." This reveals to us the fact that they are unchanging.
"He is a God of mercy." This is his character. "Let the wicked
forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return
unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him." This is the invitation
of God given to all the world! But Paul is not speaking of mercy in
general; he goes on in his masterful argument outlining the doctrines
of grace and on the strength of that he uses the text.
First: We are justified. The fifth chapter and the first verse,
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ." In justification our sins are pardoned and we are
accepted as righteous because of the righteousness of Christ, which is
imputed unto us and received by faith alone. And yet to him this
definition in every day language means that, being justified, we stand
before God as if we never had sinned. No wonder that in the light of
such a doctrine Paul could say, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by
the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service" (Romans
12:1).
Second: _We are kept safe_. Romans 5:10, "For if, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Literally the
closing part of this verse is, "We are kept safe in his life." A child
in its mother's arms could not be so secure as we in his life.
Underneath us are the everlasting arms and around about us the sure
mercies of God.
Third: _We are baptized into his death_. "Know ye not that so many of
us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?"
(Romans 6:3). "The wages of sin is death." This is God's irrevocable
statement, but Christ died for our sins and Paul's argument here is
that we died with him, so the demands of the law have been met and we
are to go free. No wonder Paul could say, "I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."
Fourth: _We are alive unto God_. Romans 6:11, "Likewise reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord." Not only are we justified and kept safe and
crucified with him and buried with him but in the plan of God we are
risen with him. What a wonderful mercy this is!
Fifth: _We have deliverance from the self life_. The seventh chapter
of Romans is just the cry of a breaking heart and reaches its climax in
the twenty-fourth verse, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver
me from the body of this death?" But the deliverance is in the eighth
chapter, especially in the second verse, "For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."
What a mercy this is!
Sixth: _For those of us who believe there is no condemnation_. Romans
8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Judgment is past because he has been judged. We have nothing to do
with the great white throne; Christ as our substitute has met sin's
penalty and paid our debts. What a mercy this is! No wonder Paul is
thrilled with the thought of it.
Seventh: _No separation_. Romans 8:38-39, "For I am persuaded, that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." So that for time we are safe and
our eternity is sure. Was there ever such a catalogue of mercies? In
the light of all this the Apostle exclaims, "I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service"
(Romans 12:1).
It is a good thing to study Paul's "_therefores_." He is a logician of
the highest type.