Thoughts of a Pastor-Historian

This is Paul’s pattern in several of his letters. He first teaches what God has done for us through Christ. He then tells us what we should do in response to what God has done. This is the pattern in Galatians, where after four chapters explaining our freedom in Christ because we have been justified by faith alone, Paul states in Galatians 5:1,

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

The same is true in Ephesians, where Paul has articulated our glorious position in Christ in the first 3 chapters, then in Ephesians 4:1 Paul states:

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

Paul follows the same pattern in his letter to the Romans. After spending 11 chapters magnifying God’s gracious purpose in salvation, he begins in 12:1-2 to call us to live in response to that gracious purpose. This, he says, is our reasonable service.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

I. The Basis of Your Service: The Mercies of God, v. 1a.
Paul begins by urging the believers at Rome to present their bodies as living sacrifices to God. This, he says, is their “reasonable service.” But what kind of service is this? And, what makes it so reasonable? The answer to the first question is that the word translated “service” in verse 1 is word related to the service of worship performed at the Old Testament Tabernacle. It is a reference here to the specific act of worship of offering a sacrifice to God. But here, instead of offering an animal, we are told that we should offer our own bodies as a sacrifice to God! Now to the second question, what makes this service so reasonable (since it is called our “reasonable service”)? It is reasonable in light of the mercies of God! In this verse Paul outlines for us the basis of our “reasonable service” to God. The basis is “the mercies of God” by which he beseeches us to present our bodies as living sacrifices.

To what mercies is Paul referring? The answer is seen by Paul’s use of the word “therefore”. Although it is only a conjunction, it serves a very important point in this text. It connects the practical appeals of Romans 12:1 and following with the theological arguments of Romans chapters 1-11. It is on the basis of God’s mercies that we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices. These mercies are the mercies which Paul has expounded over the last 11 chapters. They are the mercies of forgiveness of sins, justification by faith, peace with God, union with Christ, freedom from sin and the law, adoption as sons, possession of the Spirit, election to salvation, no separation from Christ’s love, inclusion of the Gentiles and the future salvation of Israel. In light of all these mercies, Paul urges us to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God.

There is an important lesson to be learned here. Much of today’s preaching places an emphasis on the “how to’s” of Christianity, without an equivalent emphasis on the theology that forms the basis for the practical aspects of Christianity. This is getting the cart before the horse with disastrous results. This is trying to preach Romans 12, before Romans 1-11. The gospel of grace is thereby distorted into a message of moralism and perverted into a religion of legalism. The end result is that God’s truth is not honored, nor are Christians enabled to live the Christian life. Instead, we must first see the glories of God’s grace, before we can properly do our duties as Christians. It is only when the child of God meditates on the manifold mercies of God that he will be enabled by God’s grace to live the Christian life in a practical, God-honoring manner. This is what I mean when I say that the mercies of God are the basis for our service to God!

II. The Nature of Your Service: Total Surrender, v. 1b.
But how is this “reasonable service” based on the mercies of God described? It is described in what must have been shocking terms to the first century reader. The language used by the apostle here is the language of the sacrificial system. Those of us living in the 21st century, who have never had the experience of taking an animal to be thrown on a flaming altar as a sacrifice, can hardly appreciate the significance of what Paul is saying here. He is not saying that we must bring a sacrifice, but that we ourselves must be a sacrifice!

Excursus: But you may say, “I thought all sacrifices ended with the death of Christ on the cross. Was not God satisfied with the one sacrifice for sin forever.” You’re exactly right all sacrifices ended with the death of Christ on the cross! He was, in the words of the author of Hebrews, the “one sacrifice for sin forever”! All sacrifices for sins involving the death of an animal have ended with the death of Christ on the cross. There are, however, sacrifices in the New Covenant. 1 Peter 2:5 states,

You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

And as Hebrews 13:15 declares,

Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.

Here, in Romans 12:1, Paul clarifies that he is not talking about a sacrifice that deals with satisfying sin’s penalty by designating this sacrifice as a “living sacrifice,” not one involving death.

What then is Paul saying? He is simply saying that we are to offer all we are as a continual living sacrifice to Him. In other words, God doesn’t just want your heart, He wants all of you! This is the meaning of the “body” in this passage. It is a reference to the totality of our being. It is a “living” sacrifice (which distinguishes it from the OT sacrifices), a “holy” sacrifice (which indicates that like the OT sacrifices it is set apart to God), and it is an “acceptable” sacrifice (which indicates that it is well-pleasing to God). Isaac Watts well expressed this idea in the words to When I Survey the Wondrous Cross when he wrote,

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

III. The Means of Your Service: Renewal of the Mind, v. 2a.
But what does all this language of sacrifice mean? What does Paul mean when he says that we must surrender the whole of our being to God? I believe the first half of verse 2 explains what Paul means by the second half of verse 1. In other words, the means of total surrender is having a renewed mind. Therefore, the surrendering of our whole lives to God begins on the inside (in the way we think) and works its way to the outside (in what we do).

This renewing of the mind involves both a negative and a positive aspect. The negative aspect is that we are not to be “conformed to this world” The positive aspect is that we ware to be “transformed by the renewing of [our mind.” The word “conform” has the idea of being pressed into a mold, an outward conformity to an external form. But the word “transform” has the idea of changing the inward reality.

What is shaping you? The present evil age (which is what the word “world” refers to in this passage) has the ability to “conform” you to its image. Are you mindlessly drinking in from the fount of the world? What kinds of things do you meditate on?

The Word of God has the ability to “transform” you from the inside out. Are you constantly exposing yourself to its teaching. This is the means of total surrender to God: renewal of the mind. Is your mind being renewed by the power of God’s Word on a regular basis?

You are conformed to the world by what you uncritically digest from the world. You are transformed by the renewing of your mind by what you meditatively digest from the Word. Are you reading God’s Word daily? Are you memorizing God’s Word? Are you meditating on God’s Word? Are you reading authors whose writings are permeated by the Word of God? How else do you expect to have your mind renewed?

In this passage, Paul expects that believers will present the whole of their beings to God as a sacrifice to Him based upon His abundant mercies toward them. How much time do you spend meditating on God’s mercies as revealed in His Word? This is both the basis and the means for our service to God! You tell me how you’re spending your time and I’ll tell you what you are being shaped into!

So, find a way of Bible Intake (reading or hearing the Word of God). Commit to Memorization of and Meditation on the Word of God. Then allow the Word of God to make a difference in the way that you think! It’s not enough just to hear and read the Word of God if it doesn’t change our minds!

Let me ask you a question, does your mind ever get changed because of your reading and studying of God’s Word? Or do you merely find confirmation for what you’ve always believed? We must allow the Word to change us as we encounter areas where we are wrong!

IV. The Result of Your Service: Discernment of God’s Will, v. 2b.
What will the end result be of this kind of service to God? The end result will be a mature discernment of God’s will. The word “prove” has the idea of testing and approving. The Christian who commits the whole of His being to God as a sacrificial offering, based on the mercies of God, by renewing His mind through meditation upon God’s Word will gain an increasing ability to recognize God’s will (that which is good; acceptable, i.e. well-pleasing; and perfect). These three adjectives for the will of God: “good”, “acceptable” and “perfect” are not three different levels of God’s will. The will of God is all three of these things at the same time.
This is a level of Christian maturity that few of us (if any) have attained.

According to Ephesians 5:10, believers are to be “Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.” Romans 12:1-2 tells us how to do this. This has nothing to do with how to find God’s will for your individual life as in: “Who should I marry?, What job should I have?, etc.” Instead it has to do with God’s moral will, i.e., what is pleasing to Him. The believer whose mind is being renewed by God’s Word will be able to identify God’s will in the moral issues of life.

Conclusion:
Do you want to be able to discern what is pleasing to God? The Christian’s response is yes. Then, put yourself in the offering plate by changing the way you think through the Word of God. Then, and only then, will you have the ability to discern the will of God properly.

God was working in my life at that time in a number of ways. It was around this time in my life that I was reading The Holiness of God and Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul, Ashamed of the Gospel and Reckless Faith by John MacArthur, and The Pleasures of God by John Piper. And I was listening to God-centered music with lyrics like these:

The composer and conductor of the universe
Steps before the orchestra of God
Creation lifts their finely crafted instruments
As all in heaven wildly applaud

The seasons well rehearsed begin with His downbeat
And on his cue the sun trumpets the dawn
The whirling winds swell in a mighty crescendo
With each commanding sweep of His baton
The oceans pound the shore in march to His cadence
The galaxies all revolve in cosmic rhyme
The fall of raindrops all in wild syncopation
As lightning strikes and thunder claps in time

The symphony of praise
Conducted by the Ancient of Days
May each creation great or small
Lift their voices one and all
In the symphony of praise

Heaven waits in hushed anticipation
The great I AM then turns to mortal men
A massive chorus robed in spotless garments
Offer up their song of praise to Him
The glories of God explode in full orchestration
As all creation joins the thunderous refrain
“Worthy, Worthy
WORTHY IS THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN”
Lyrics from http://www.stevegreenministries.org

Finally, here was music that matched the theology that I had been reading. The greatness of God that I was studying in Scripture, I was now hearing sung in praise to God. This was a pivotal moment in my life! The day when theology became doxology.

In Romans 11:33-36, the apostle Paul moves from theology to doxology. Theology is the study of God, doxology is the worship of God! This is where all theology should end up, in praise to God! As Paul seeks to bring to a conclusion the first eleven chapters of doctrine before moving to practical Christian living in the remaining chapters, he can think of no greater note on which to end than that of praise to God!

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! (34) For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? (35) Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? (36) For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

First, true worship is filled with awe about God’s purpose and plans. As Paul meditates on the focus of chapters 9-11 (God’s redemptive plan in history concerning the inclusion of both Jews and Gentiles in His family), he is moved to a point of awe at the mystery and majesty of God’s plan.

In these chapters Paul has shown that God is faithful to His Word and that He has a saving purpose that will not fail! He has a gracious purpose in election, choosing a remnant of Jews in this age, while blinding the majority. He has a sovereign plan for the inclusion of Gentiles in His saving purposes! Yet, those who reject Christ remain responsible for their unbelief. The gospel is freely offered to all who will “call upon the name of the Lord.” Both Jews and Gentiles are invited to come and all may be saved. There is also in chapter 11 the mystery of God’s continuing plan for the nation of Israel. There is coming a day when the blindness from Israel’s hearts will be removed and they will embrace their Messiah with faith and so “all Israel will be saved.”

When Paul thinks of the lofty truths that he has just communicated to his Roman audience, he is struck with awe! This is a proper response to God and His sovereign purposes. He begins this section with the exclamation, “O!” That might be easy for us to pass over but it used in the Greek to express very strong emotions. Can you sense that Paul has become overcome with emotion as he meditates on the greatness of God and His plan? But he doesn’t stop there . . . “O the depth of the riches . . .” Paul is exhausting human language to express the greatness of God. “Both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.” God’s knowledge is His active involvement in the affairs of men. Not merely knowledge about, but causation. God’s wisdom is the execution of that knowledge in the world.

God’s judgments are unsearchable and His ways are incomprehensible! Here Paul gives praise to God, not just for what he knows but also because of what he doesn’t know! For the apostle Paul, not being able to understand what God is doing was not a reason to abandon the faith. Instead it was a reason for praise. A “god” that we can fully comprehend would not be much of a “god”! As God Himself declares of Himself in Isaiah 55:8-9,

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. (9) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Not only was Paul filled with awe at the greatness of God’s plan, he was also speechless at God’s greatness! In verses 34-35, Paul asks three rhetorical questions in a row. All three have the assumed answer of “No one!” These questions have the effect of silencing all who hear them:

• Who has known the mind of the Lord? Silence, because the answer is no one!
• Who has been God’s counsellor? Silence, because the answer is no one!
• Who has first given to God? Silence, because the answer is no one!

This series of questions serves to shut the mouths of all those who might seek to boast in God’s presence. In verse 34, the apostle uses the language of Isaiah 40:13 (which in its context is dealing with the return of the nation of Israel from the Babylonian captivity). The implication is that no one could have foreseen God’s deliverance of the nation of Israel from their Babylonian captivity. No human could have devised this plan. In a similar way, Paul uses this verse in Romans 11 to highlight that no human could have devised the plan for God to turn again to the nation of Israel in the last days and remove their blindness that they might experience salvation, but this is exactly what God has done.

In verse 35, the question is reminiscent of God’s question to Job in Job 41:11. The question is who gave first to God, tell us and He’ll pay you back! Silence! There in the context of chapters 40-42, God questions Job and Job is reduced to silence! See Job 40:1-10; 41:11; 42:1-6.

This is the response of those who have encountered the greatness of God. They’re not hooping, hollering and running the aisles. They are silenced at His majesty! Some people get nervous if it gets quiet in church. Instead, why don’t you use those moments to meditate on the greatness and majesty of our God!

Finally, in verse 36, Paul was struck by the centrality of God in all things! This is the basis of doxology, God Himself! God is shown here to be the source of all things, the means of all things, and the goal of all things!

• He is the source of all things: James 1:17
• He is the means of all things: 1 Chronicles 29:14
• He is the goal of all things: 1 Corinthians 15:24-28

A little over a year ago, John Piper preached a sermon on the supremacy of Jesus Christ. No one I know living today is a better example of blending theology with doxology than John Piper. In this message he said of Christ:

He is supreme in every admirable way over everything:

• over galaxies and endless reaches of space;
• over the earth from the top of Mount Everest 29,000 feet up, to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean 36,000 feet down into the Mariana Trench;
• He is supreme over all plants and animals, from the peaceful Blue Whale to the microscopic killer viruses;
• over all weather and movements of the earth: hurricanes, tornadoes, monsoons, earthquakes, avalanches, floods, snow, rain, sleet;
• over all chemical processes that heal and destroy: cancer, AIDS, malaria, flu, and all the workings of antibiotics and a thousand healing medicines.
• He is supreme over all countries and all governments and all armies;
• over Al Qaeda and all terrorists and kidnappings and suicide bombings and beheadings;
• over bin Ladin and al-Zarqawi;
• over all nuclear threats from Iran or Russia or North Korea.
• He is supreme over all politics and elections;
• over all media and news and entertainment and sports and leisure;
• and over all education and universities and scholarship and science and research;
• and over all business and finance and industry and manufacturing and transportation; and over all the internet and information systems.

As Abraham Kuyper used to say, “there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’”
Sermon manuscript available at: http://www.desiringgod.org/library/sermons/04/092604.html

It’s all His! That’s what Romans 11:36 tells us!

So, what’s our response! We put a hand over our mouth and bow before His majesty! And when we’re finally able to speak, we speak of His greatness!

These words assume that Israel’s place in God’s plan is ultimately tied to a tiny strip of land in Palestine. The idea behind these words is a mistaken focus on the modern political state of Israel instead of her spiritual place in the kingdom of God.

Now, let me affirm that God did promise the land to Abraham and his descendants. This land was to belong to the physical descendants of Abraham as long as they remained faithful to God. However, because of their rebellion against God and rejection of the Messiah the nation as a whole has forfeited its divine right to the land. I believe that God will remain faithful to His promises to the believing remnant within Israel. Even Gentiles who place their trust in the Jewish Messiah will also receive the inheritance of the land. The promised land, though, has been expanded to include the entire earth which all believers (Jews and Gentiles) will inherit at the Second Coming.

It’s both very interesting and instructive that in this New Testament passage that most clearly deals with Israel’s place in redemptive history, the land is not mentioned once (contrary to the teaching of many which use this chapter to argue for Israel’s divine right to the land of Palestine). On the other hand, instead of physical blessings, the spiritual blessings of “life from the dead”, “salvation” and “mercy” are clearly the focus of this text.

So, what is Israel’s place in redemptive history? In Romans 11:11-32, the apostle Paul first states, then illustrates and finally explains Israel’s place in redemptive history.

So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. (12) Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! (13) Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry (14) in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. (15) For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? (16) If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. (17) But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, (18) do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. (19) Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” (20) That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. (21) For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. (22) Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. (23) And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. (24) For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree. (25) Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. (26) And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; (27) “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” (28) As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. (29) For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (30) Just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, (31) so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. (32) For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

There are three major sections in this text of Scripture. In each of these three sections, similar themes are highlighed. First in verses 11-15, Paul states Israel’s place in redemptive history. Next in verses 16-24, Paul illustrates Israel’s place in redemptive history. Finally in verses 25-32, Paul further explains Israel’s place in redemptive history and its great significance.