Romans 12:1-2

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
Series: Romans (Acts)

Rusty's Notes

Paul turns to much more practical, everyday Christian life issues beginning in chapter 12.

• In 12:1–15:13 then we have Paul dealing with a series of issues about what it means to live out the gospel in everyday life.
• The good news of Jesus Christ talks more broadly about how, through Christ, God is reestablishing His reign over His rebellious creation.
• Then in 14:1–15:13 we find Paul centering on one particular issue that apparently was a real problem in the Roman church.
• This division, these arguments between what he calls the “strong” and the “weak.”[1]

 
A LIVING SACRIFICE
Romans 12:1-2
1 Therefore,

• “Therefore,” reminding us that what Paul is now about to say depends on everything he has been doing to this point in Romans.
• Everything we have been talking about since January 24th (26 weeks).
• In grace, as Paul has taught, he has enabled us to become righteous persons, right before God.
• In light of that and all of the mercy of God, then we are to respond.[2]
• But what has Paul ben having to deal with?
• If he spends the next 3.5 chapters on Christian ethics… there is a reason for it!
• I’m pretty sure it may have looked a little like this…

 
The Honest Preacher Video
 
brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God,

• “mercies” – Paul has spent the last 3 chapters explaining this mercy of God.
• If God has mercy on us… why can’t we have mercy on others?
• We don’t always have to be right.
• And when we are right… just leave it alone.
• “told you so”
• Just give a little room to be wrong to others sometimes, because you are going to need it as well.
• And if you don’t agree with that… then you are wrong!

I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God;

• Wait… what? That is what the animals are for!
• No… Christ changed all that.
• You are the Temple now.
• The Holy of Holies is where the Spirit once dwelled.
• Jesus died on the cross, rose again and made you holy now for a reason.
• The Holy Spirit lives in you now.
• “Body” is a word that Paul likes to use to talk about human beings in terms of their concrete interaction with the realities of this life.
• He’s addressing us as human beings generally, but as human beings who are embodied—that is, human beings who do have an existence here in this world, and people who therefore have abilities to live a certain way in the world where God has placed us.[3]

this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.[4]

• The secret to being not conformed is to be transformed—to be changed from within in our very basic ways of thinking.[5]
• Paul says it’s by engaging in this process—offering ourselves as living sacrifices, not being conformed but being transformed—it’s by doing all of those things that we will be able to test, approve, and actually carry out the will of God.
• We Christians are always wondering, “What is God’s will for me?”[6]
• The odds are, you are not going to discover God’s will for your life through your emotions and feelings.
• The most important things in our lives (the values we live by) have been revealed to us by God.
• And it’s by engaging in this process of transforming ourselves, allowing God’s Spirit to pattern our ways of thinking, that we will be able to do God’s will, to put it into practice, to be people who daily walk in the way God has laid down for us.[7]

 

• Worship that comes from beings who have been given by God the capacity to understand Him and His purposes.
• Paul here is talking about our very lives—day in, day out—as ways of worshiping God.
• The worship of God in everyday life is what Paul is calling upon us as His people to be engaged in here, worship that honors God in the decisions we make day in, day out—worship of God as we do our jobs, as we engage in conversations with neighbors, as we enjoy ourselves in various entertainment contexts.[8]

 
Renewing of the Mind

• When Paul talks about our being transformed, he says it’s to take place by the “renewing of the mind.”
• The same phrase … one Paul uses also in Eph 4, and I think it kind of gets at the heart of what we might call “Paul’s view of Christian ethics.”
• How is it that Christians are to live in ways that please God? All of us struggle with that.
• All of us struggle with the fact that we know what God wants us to do at times, but don’t always feel like we want to do it, or [we’re] frustrated sometimes even in carrying it out.
• This idea of the renewing of the mind I think should be central in the way we think about living as Christians.
• In Paul’s way of looking at things that we don’t make the commandments too centrally important for us.
• We are deeply and appropriately concerned that Christians live out their faith in the specifics of life.
• And we’re often surprised/not surprised to find Christians aren’t doing that, ourselves included.
• And one, in a sense, easy answer to that problem is to order people what they’re to do, to give them the impression that they need to live by a series of do’s and don’ts.
• However, I think the essence of new covenant ethic is rather an internal transformation of the person.

 

• First of all, that this is a constant process.
• Paul does not say, “Be transformed by your mind already fully renewed.”
• He says, “Be transformed by a continuing renewing of the mind”—in other words, a process that we’ll be engaged in from the moment of conversion to the moment of death.
• My personal mind is being renewed as well.
• I still struggle with fleshly thoughts.
• I still seek wisdom from Godly people.
• But it is this inner transformation that God is working by His Spirit that is the key to leading a faithful life in glory to God.

 

• The Corinthians seem to be people who are so excited about the Spirit working in them.
• They claim to have special wisdom and insight, and yet Paul again and again has to tell them, “No, at this point if you think you are being guided by the Spirit, you are wrong. You are breaking a commandment of God relevant to your situation.”

 

• It is not that we don’t need law in some form anymore. We do.
• In my view God has given us law and specific commandments in the NT Scriptures to give us an indication of right and wrong, but these should never be a replacement of the more fundamental, internal work of God’s Spirit as it transforms our hearts and minds and leads us to become people who think rightly about the world in light of the values of the kingdom of God.[9]

 
Let me try to bring this home for you…

• The Chosen…
• Matthew 4:23-25 - Now Jesus began to go all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 Then the news about him spread throughout Syria. So they brought to him all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics. And he healed them. 25 Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.[10]
• Jesus is dealing with people in the midst of their crisis.
• In the show, Mary (Jesus’ mother) and other women disciples are a part of Jesus’ disciples.
• The brand new disciples are exhausted and sitting around the fire.
• This is the writer/producer’s vision of what it looked like…

 
The Chosen Video
 

• Now… in the midst of my current week…
• Where our families are dealing directly with COVID
• We’ve had a Leavener death
• We are walking with people who are losing their jobs because of their addictions
• We are dealing with families being broken over divorce.
• We are consoling a community that has lost 3 teenage girls to a drunk driver.
• We are ministering to a family who lost their child just 10 months ago.
• We are consoling parents and students who going away to college… some many hours away.
• We are trying to figure out how to minister to a lady coming home from rehab and still has a long road ahead of her.
• We are ministering to a Pinheads employee who is disable for a season.
• Just to name a few… in the midst of our own personal chaos.
• We are not looking for sympathy… this is our calling.

 

• But at the same time… these are the conversations I am hearing sitting around the camp fire…

 

•  Masks – “Opinions are good… take a stand”
•  Vaccine – “were they vaccinated?”
•  School Curriculum
•  School Boards
•  Library Books
•  Politics
•  Prophecy/End times
•  Afghanistan
•  Racism/ Reverse Racism
•  Gender Equality
•  Gender Identity Issues
•  Sexual Identity Issues
• Social network posts where you air out your personal issues and throw the name of Jesus in there to make it look like it is God approved.

 
I get it… real day topics… this is the world we are swimming in right now.
 
I care… but I don’t care!

• I have enough chaos in my own life, that I don’t need to focus on the fallen world.
• My focus is going to be on Jesus.

 

• I will hang out with people who pursue Jesus.
• I’m not interested in the sideshow.
• “But you need to be a light in the world and taka a stand on these issues!”
• No! I don’t! I am a light in this world because the Spirit is living inside of me and directing my paths.
• The Spirit is constantly renewing my mind to the things that are important to Him… Which become important to me!

 

• I don’t have time for the foolishness of this world!
• I want to sit around the camp fire and talk about the things Jesus did today.
• We were meant to have an abundant life in the midst of the chaos.

 
Paul writes…
Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.[11]

[1] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[2] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[3] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[4] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Ro 12:1–2). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[6] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[7] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[8] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[9] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[10] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Mt 4:23–25). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[11] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Ro 12:1–2). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.