Living Sacrifices
Read Romans 12: 1-2.
Chapters one to eleven explain God’s great mercy in His saving us by justification by grace through faith. Paul now goes on to explain how the saved should respond.
• What is our motivation for Christian living? (Verse 1)
• What is the force of Paul’s instruction in verse one?
• What does ‘offering’ or ‘presenting’ our bodies involve?
• Why are we to think of ourselves as a ‘holy’ and ‘pleasing’ sacrifice? (Verse 1)
• Which Christians are to be totally given over in this way?
• The word translated spiritual or rational in various translations implies that this is a logical action. Why does it make sense to do this?
• Our worship of God is not confined to the time we spend together on Sundays. What does that mean for our lives and sense of vocation? (Verse 1)
• How are we to understand Paul’s instruction not to conform to the pattern of this world or age? (Verse 2)
• The word for ‘transformed’ (Verse 2) should remind us of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Where does the seat of our transformation take place?
• What do you think is necessary to cultivate this transformation?
• How does this help us not to become too frustrated when we stumble?
• Verse 2 speaks of ‘knowing the will of God’. What will of God can we come to know? Will we know every intention God has for us?
• What fruit do you think knowing and carrying out God’s will would bear in our lives?
Some notes:
The logic applied is that the explanation of God’s mercy in chapters 1-11 demands this response.
Offering ourselves is not a suggestion or an option, it’s really the only action that someone who has been saved by God takes.
There is a concious desire to have God first in life that is spoken of. Being a holy sacrifice does not simply speak of purity, but being set apart. Being an acceptable offering is astounding, because the only acceptable offerings to God are those which He indicates He is pleased to receive. That’s us. Each and every one of us.
The word often translated ‘spiritual’ is translated ‘rational’ in the King James. It has a root related to logic or logical and helps us see the point made above, this is a supremely smart and sensible response to God’s love.
All of our lives and activities are part of this offering, this worship. Each action, every day is part of this, in addition to what God commands we do when we gather as the church on Sundays.
This transformation is driven by our minds, learning from Scripture, with the Holy Spirit enabling and encouraging us to put to practive that which we have learned.
We should study God’s Word as part of this offering of ourselves. When we stumble and do the wrong thing we can be encouraged to know this is a process that is continuous.
We can know God’s revealed will from the Scriptures. This is in contrast to God’s unrevealed will, which we only come to know as we live it out. Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
We will see the fruit this bears out in our lives in the verses to follow.
It enables us to live in relationships of wisdom and love with other Christians.
mgpcpastor's blog 