Romans 12:1-8
You
might say, “Haven’t we already learned how to live the Christian life in
earlier parts of Romans?” Well, yes, to some extent. In Romans 6 through 8, we
learn that, by having faith in Christ, we have been set free from slavery to
sin. We also learn that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. And we learn
that we should count ourselves as slaves to righteousness.
I
certainly do not wish to minimize in any way these powerful truths. But as we
shall see, Romans 12 gets very practical. Before we jump into the passage,
though, I want you to think for a minute about what you would say to someone
(even yourself) if you were asked to explain how to live the Christian life. What
would you say? I think some common answers might be the following:
Read
your Bible every day. Pray every day at a set time and in any special
“situation”. Memorize Scripture. Do not forsake having regular fellowship with
other believers. Open up with other believers so they can pray for you and
provide loving accountability.
I
believe these are all excellent answers. All of these are strongly supported by
Scripture. But Romans 12 says something you don’t hear so often.
This
chapter begins with the word “therefore”. As we have talked about in the past,
when you see the word “therefore” in the Bible, a good question to ask is “What
is the ‘therefore’ there for?”
Well,
Paul has just finished a three-chapter section of the book that deals with the
question of salvation for the Jews. He has explained that while the Jews’ have
been mostly resistant to the gospel, God has opened the gospel to everyone
else, to the Gentiles. And though the Jews stand in disobedience, they are
still eligible for God’s mercy, if, like everyone else, they too repent and
come to Christ in faith. Paul ends the section with great praise of God:
Oh, the depth of
the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His
judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the
Lord? Or who has been His counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay
them?” For from Him
and through Him and for Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.
– Romans 11:33-36
In
full view of God’s amazing wisdom and knowledge, in full view of His amazing
gift of His Son, in full view of His creative power, His sustaining power, and
His worthiness to receive worship, in full view of all these, we have the
therefore in Romans 12:1:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s
mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to
God—this is your true and proper worship. – Romans 12:1
This is the ultimate secret about how to live the Christian life! All
these other good things, reading
your Bible, praying for yourself that you will not sin, having an
accountability relationship with someone, can turn into being about your
self-effort or about getting something to help you. But Romans 12:1 says to
offer your body, your very self, to Him. It is direct. It is a gift to
Him to use as He pleases. John MacArthur says of this verse, “The key to
spiritual victory is not getting all you can get, but giving all you have.”
Peter writes in I Peter 2:4-5, As you come to Him, the living Stone—rejected by
humans but chosen by God and precious to Him—you also, like living stones,
are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy
priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ. Indeed, we are a holy
priesthood; we are priests. But much like Isaac asked his father Abraham, we
have to ask, “Where is the sacrifice for the altar?” The answer is that it is
us. We are the sacrifice.
Believers
often say they want to be like Christ. Well, this is the most important thing
that Christ did. He put Himself on the cross. He became the sacrifice. He gave
Himself. He told us to pick up our crosses and follow Him. And this is what we
must do, if we are to really live in all its fullness the Christian life, if
you want to experience real Christian growth, if you want to overcome your sin
and change who you really are.
Now,
what does this mean? What is our “body?” It’s everything other than our soul.
We know Paul is speaking to believers in this verse, because he calls them
“brothers and sisters”. As believers, God already has our soul. As Paul wrote
earlier in Romans, nothing can separate us from the love of God. But at the
same time, our bodies are still subject to sin. Romans 8 says that we wait
eagerly for the […] redemption of our bodies. Scripture says it hasn’t happened
yet – and we know this by the fact that we continue to sin.
But
Paul says to offer these sin-directed bodies of ours as living sacrifices. What
happens to such a body? While it stays there upon the altar, it is – what does
the passage say? – it is holy! It is pleasing to God! Romans 6:13 said
something similar: It said to offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument
of righteousness. That passage was less explicit than this one, as it seemed to
leave open the possibility that we had to “righteous”-up our body first. But
Romans 12:1 makes it clear that the very act of putting it on the altar is the
act that makes it righteous.
What
is a “living” sacrifice? It starkly contrasts the sacrifices in the Old
Testament, which were dead sacrifices. Even Isaac, if God had allowed Abraham
to sacrifice him, would have been a dead sacrifice. The living sacrifice would
have been Abraham, who would have had to say, “God, I continue to follow
You even though you have me sacrifice my son, whom I love, indeed, even though
through his death I no longer see how I can be a father of a great nation or
any nation at all.”
Being
a living sacrifice, offering our bodies as living sacrifices, is a moment by
moment thing. Now, it’s not just our physical bodies we offer on the altar:
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test
and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. –
Romans 12:2
It’s
not just our physical bodies; it’s also our minds. The first Greek word of this
verse is literally, “Stop!” Stop conforming to the pattern of this
world! Stop it! The world seeks to pattern you, to get you to think in a
secular way. Satan has been quite effective at doing this in America. Daily
life in our country is unbelievably secular! When you read or watch a news
story, God is absent. When you talk to or email people at work, it is a breach
of protocol to even hint at matters of faith. Remember Romans 1? Evidence for
God, evidence through His handiwork is everywhere, but all throughout the
earth, people close their eyes and cover their ears and say, “La la la, I can’t
hear You! I don’t see You!” We talk among each other as if God does not exist!
Why
is talk about God limited to special buildings (called churches) at special
times only once or twice a week? The “pattern of the world” roars in our ears
and fills our sight. It never sleeps,
never lets up. And we become conformed to it. We do as we are trained. We act
like secular robots. And we become uncomfortable even when someone else,
another believer, breaks the “rules” and talks about Christ. “Don’t talk about
Jesus” has become the most cardinal rule of all.
Stop!
Stop conforming to it! Resist! Instead, be transformed by the renewing of your
mind. How? By breaking the cardinal rule. Pray. Praying silently to God is one
way to break the cardinal rule without anyone noticing. But go beyond this.
Read God’s Word. Ideally do this not only at home, where the world can’t see
you, but during the day, at work or at school. Do it wherever you are. And talk
to others, both other believers, and those who are not yet believers, in ways
that don’t break absolute rules but maybe raise some eyebrows. Be wise in your
disobedience of the cardinal rule, but don’t be so “wise” that you don’t
disobey it at all.
On
Wednesday this past week we had a Faculty Commons “bring your own lunch”
meeting in a meeting room in the Bioengineering building. I was invited to
share my testimony of how I came to Christ, and so for the next hour or so that
is what I did. The door was open a crack. When we finished, we opened the door
to leave and I saw the hallway was filled with students who likely were
listening – there was some kind of student meeting immediately after our
reservation of that room. I love how God helped me break the cardinal rule – I
didn’t even know I was doing it!
The
Greek word for “be transformed” has metamorph as its root, the same root
that is used to describe Jesus in the transfiguration. The transfiguration is
actually a good analogy of what should be going on within us. When Jesus was
transfigured, his outside began to match his inside; that is, His being the
glory of God, of being God, began to reveal itself in His body. In the same
way, our minds should be transfigured so that they too begin to match our saved
inside, the soul inside us that has been saved through faith in Christ.
Put
your bodies on the altar and be transformed by the renewing of your minds. The
Greek tense of the verbs is to keep on doing these things, continually. Every
day. Every hour.
For by
the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself
more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment,
in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. – Romans 12:3
Verse 3 is an extension of
verse 2. It is a fundamental way to you view yourself, to think of yourself.
And it is in direct contrast to how the world thinks of itself and how the
world teaches you to think of yourself.
Think of yourself with sober
judgment. This means to think of yourself with a right mind. Do not
overestimate yourself. Do not be prideful of yourself, because no pride is
warranted. Remember that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
This is not a manufactured
false kind of humility, you know, where the hero says, “Oh, it was nothing.”
This is nothing like that. It is about giving yourself an honest assessment.
Think about the implications
of verse 3 on verse 1. If we put ourselves on the altar as living sacrifices,
we must do so honestly. We need to admit to God our failings and rightly
attribute them to our own choosing to not remain as a living sacrifice,
choosing our own immediate pleasure over serving God. We also need to thank God
for our successes, and rightly attribute them to God who equips and gifts and
empowers us.
The world sees all of this
as silly. When we fail, it tells us that we are victims and all of our failings
are not our fault, OR, it tells us that we didn’t really fail, that we did
“good enough,” better than some others. When we succeed, the world tells us
that we are wonderful and did it ourselves, OR, it tells us that we didn’t
really succeed, that we are focusing on the wrong things and that too much
“religion” is dangerous. Renew your mind! Think of yourself honestly, soberly,
judging yourself with the measure that God judges as revealed in His Word.
For just
as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have
the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one
body, and each member belongs to all the others. – Romans 12:4-5
These verses may just be the
hardest for us to resonate with, because our culture is so individualistic. What
do you mean I belong to others? No, I don’t!
When you put yourself on the
altar as a living sacrifice, you are no longer your own. You are Christ’s. You
are a part of Christ’s body. And just like your finger is a part of your body
and cannot go off and do what it wants, so too you are a part of Christ’s body,
and you are subject to Christ.
Furthermore, just as the
parts of your body have different functions and purposes and assigned tasks, so
too are you designed by God with certain specific functions, and so too are you
assigned by God to carry out certain specific kinds of tasks.
And the hard part for us: We
are all connected through Christ, just like all the parts of a human body are
connected, and therefore every part belongs to every other part. This is true
for our physical body, but it is also true for our position in Christ.
This was also hard for the
original recipients of Paul’s letter, but for a different reason – honor and
shame. This community in which each member belongs to all the others, in which
everyone is to think of oneself honestly, in sober judgment, is a community in
which individuals no longer are able to seek their own honor. Instead,
individuals seek to serve, to be used by God in whatever way He has intended
for them. The goal is not to earn honor for yourself, but to earn honor for God
who is the Head of His body.
Does this mean that the
honor “hierarchy” of people is “flattened,” that everyone is equally honorable?
No. Some roles are still more honorable than others. But it is God who gifts
and assigns people to the roles that they are to have. To try to increase one’s
own honor at the expense of another is now to be in defiance of God, to be in
disobedience to His plan.
Can you accept the fact that
you belong to other believers? Indeed, you belong to all other
believers, not only in this local body, but in the global church of God. You
have a God-given role to play in this body. Actually you have many such roles.
Your job, while keeping your body on the altar as a living sacrifice, while
continually renewing your mind, is to serve the rest of Christ’s body in
whatever way God gives you.
We have
different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift
is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it
is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is
giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if
it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. – Romans 12:6-8
Now,
I know the question lots of you are asking. It is, how do I know my gift?
I
will answer this question, but first I want to point out that answering this
question is not the point of this passage. Do you see that? The point of the
passage is not even to enumerate or list out the gifts. Nothing in this passage
says that these are the only gifts. And we have other lists in Ephesians 4 and
I Corinthians 12 that have some overlap with this list, but they are not the
same.
Furthermore,
there is nothing in this passage that indicates that you have one and only one
gift for all time. Ultimately, because God made you unique, your gifts are also
unique, or to maybe put it better, the way your gift or gifts is expressed will
be unique to you. Amanda has the gift of Amanda-ness, Joseph has the gift of
Joseph-ness, and so on. The Greek word used here is charismata, from
which we get the word charisma. What does charisma mean? It means
to have a compelling charm or attractiveness that can inspire devotion in
others. The Biblical use of charismata on the other hand simply means
gift, something you are given because it is the will of the giver to give (as
opposed to something that is earned, something that in any way depends on what
the recipient has done). The modern word is interesting, because in its
original use, it described a quality of the gifts – the person using their
gifts was attractive, not a physical attractiveness, but there was something
about the person that made you want to be around them, to follow them. The word
has since been secularized (like everything else), but originally it meant
Christ-likeness. When you use the gifts God has given you, you become
attractive like Christ. People see Christ in you and want to be with you
because they are drawn to Christ.
Beyond
the idea (which we have already discussed) that the gifts, and therefore the
recipients, are different, what is the point of this passage? It’s like
the old Nike commercial: Just do it! If your gift is [whatever your gift is],
do it. Do it! Do you remember my statement at the beginning of this message? It
was that today we would learn the ultimate secret about how to live the
Christian life. That message, I told you, was to offer your body as a living
sacrifice. Here we see an essential practical step: do your gift! Practice it.
Keep on doing it. Do it well, diligently. Do it gladly, cheerfully.
I
received a phone call yesterday while working on this message. It was an
opportunity for me to encourage someone in spiritual things, to use God’s gifts
to me. What the person was going through was far from a little thing, and with
my “spiritual eyes” I could see that this “work” could be used by God in a
significant way. But because part of me wanted to get back to working on the
message, it was also an opportunity to offer my body as a living sacrifice. It became
a long call, and I was tempted to try to get myself off the altar. But I
didn’t. (It probably helped that I had these verses running around in my mind!)
It certainly gave me an opportunity to reflect on the verse that says each
member belongs to all the others.
Let’s
talk about the “how do I know my gift” question. First of all, understand that,
because God gives these gifts to build up the church, your gifts can expand or
change at any time. So you will never have the “once and for all” answer to
this question. If you are holding off on really serving God because you don’t
know your gift, you are on really shaky ground. The way you discover your gift
or gifts (and keep on discovering them) is to serve God. Just do it! Simply
follow the need and seek to die to self and serve at the point of need. As you
serve, others can watch you, and they may end up with insight as to where your
gifts lie. Ask them! But if you wait to serve, until you somehow figure
everything out, the reality is that you will probably never find out.
Let’s
get into the specific gifts listed in this passage. Prophesying is telling
spiritually received truth. I believe that it is everything from having insight
into a particular person’s condition or situation or having spiritual insight
about “the times” all the way up to predicting future events. The last, greatest
type of prophecy is much rarer than the others, and there are some who would
say that it is no longer given in the church. The reason I believe there is
such a vast range of meaning is that it implies it right here in this passage.
Do it in accordance with, or to the measure of, your faith. Prophesy is never
made up by the prophet. Remember that in the Old Testament, prophets were never
wrong; more accurately, they were never wrong twice, because false
prophets were to be stoned. So never be tempted to make stuff up! When you have
insight that you don’t feel comes from you, that is not wrong – objectively so,
not just because you refuse to entertain the possibility that you are wrong –
then you may have been given this kind of gift.
Serving
– the Greek word is diakonia. You may view this as a “lesser” gift, but
this word is used to describe the role of deacon, which comes from this word.
This is one who carries out the instructions of others, but can do so with
responsibility, with autonomy. It is someone who can be trusted to fully carry
something that is important to do well, that requires wisdom and perhaps
organization. I suspect most of you have had the situation where you have tried
to assign a task to someone (for example, a coworker or one of your children)
for which it wasn’t done, or wasn’t done properly, and you had to go over it
and check it and have them do it again. Along the way maybe you wished you had
never given the person the task, because you now realize that you could have
done it yourself with far less work than it is taking you now. That is how not
to serve. Serving means getting it done, and done right, the first time.
Is
this really a spiritual gift? Yes. Some people become supernaturally equipped
“right hand men” (or women), people for whom you rely on and would do anything
to keep them there, because their service is so invaluable. Such people
multiply the effectiveness of an entire group. With such a person in your
midst, it is miraculous how much a small group of people can do. And through
service, you do what Jesus said anyone must do to become “great.” The kingdom
of God is upside down – the least will become greatest. I believe that those
who use their gifts of service will have the highest honors in heaven.
Teaching
is didaskalia. From this word we get the word “didactic,” which has come
to have a negative connotation – in the “world,” people don’t want to be
taught. They just want to do whatever they want. In James 3:1 it says that
teachers are held to special account, to a higher standard. This is meant as a
warning. I guess it is not quite as bad as being a false prophet!
Teachers
explain the truths of Scripture. They show how to apply it. They bring
Scriptures together. They don’t add doctrine that is not there in Scripture.
They don’t go beyond Scripture. They treat the Scriptures with reverence and
respect. Through their teachings, they help the body to avoid the false
teachings of their flesh, the world, and the devil. They help younger believers
to grow in their faith, and they help older believers to keep their faith from
growing cold.
Encouragers
are next. Is encouragement all that important? Absolutely! The Greek word is parakaleo,
from which the word paraclete comes. This word is used to describe the
Holy Spirit. Do you think the Holy Spirit isn’t all that important? Biblical
encouragement is not like some kind of self-help book. In fact, Biblical
encouragement is about as far from “You can do it!” as you can get. Biblical
encouragement gets us to take our eyes off of ourselves and fix them on Jesus. Kaleo
means “to call”, and para means “alongside.” Encouragers build deep
loving relationships with body and through these relationships, help people in
countless ways to cling to Christ and to not cut oneself off from the rest of
the body.
Next
are givers. The Greek word is metadidomi, those who impart great things.
Givers not only give material possessions, but their time, their other talents,
themselves. The word translated as “generously” also means purely or simply (as
in not expecting something in return), in contrast to the honor-shame dynamics
in which gift giving is carefully calculated to increase one’s own reputation
and honor, to become known as a great patron. The giver is the opposite of
this, seeking only the glory of Christ, even giving anonymously at times,
certainly never doing it for personal gain. Again, like encouragement, in the
Kingdom of God, giving is a great thing; think of the parable of the Good
Samaritan to see this.
Leaders
are in Greek proistemi, those who preside over others as protectors,
guardians, caregivers. The Greek word is used to describe husbands, which,
recall that Christ said are to love as Christ loved the church, laying down His
life for her. Leaders are to lead with spoude, which means with
diligence and haste. Picture the landlord who is slow to fix your apartment,
and you have the exact opposite of what a Biblical leader is to be. Leaders run
to take care of your needs. They are sensitive to what you need, perhaps
even knowing what you need before you do. This is the Biblical model of a
leader.
And
last (but certainly not least) we have mercy-showers, eleeo, those who
show compassion, who care for others, who alleviate suffering in others. I
picture the perfect nurse when I think of eleeo. How are they to do it?
Cheerfully. The Greek word is hilarotes, from which we get the word
hilarity. Mercy showers meet people where they are, people who are in pain, or
sad, or depressed. Mercy showers should make those they help smile or laugh.
They relieve the pain, they bring back joy, they reconnect people to the joy
they have in Christ.
Each
and every one of these spiritual gifts is amazing! They are fantastic! Imagine
a church body full of people in which each and every one of these gifts is
utilized in fullness! That is what God intends and what He desires for us.
Become a living sacrifice. Lay yourself down on the altar. Renew your mind in
the things of Christ. Judge yourself honestly. And then allow God to use you as
He sees fit. Let Him use you powerfully with His gifts to change this body and
change the world.
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