A Living Sacrifice: How to Be Transformed by Christ | Romans 12:1-2

Romans 12 marks a major turning point in Paul's letter. After explaining God's mercy, grace, and salvation through Christ, Paul answers the question: How should Christians live? His answer is simple yet life-changing: Become a living sacrifice. 

In this sermon, we dive deeply into Romans 12:1-2 and discover what it truly means to offer our lives to God every day.

In this lesson you'll learn:

•  Why God's mercy is the foundation for Christian living 
•  What it means to present your body as a living sacrifice 
•  How everyday life becomes an act of worship 
•  The difference between conforming to the world and being transformed by Christ 
•  How renewing your mind changes your life 
•  Understanding God's will as daily sanctification—not just major life decisions 
•  Practical ways to live a life that is holy, acceptable, and pleasing to God 

God doesn't simply call us to attend worship—He calls us to become worship by living every moment for Him. Every decision, conversation, relationship, and action becomes an opportunity to glorify Christ.

Key Scriptures:

•  Romans 12:1-2 
•  Romans 5-11 
•  Romans 6:13 
•  Leviticus 1 
•  1 Corinthians 6:19-20 
•  Ephesians 4:20-32 
•  1 Thessalonians 4:3 

If this study encouraged you, be sure to Like, Subscribe, and Share this video with someone who wants to grow in their walk with Christ.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:05 Romans 12: The Practical Turn in Romans
03:45 The Mercies of God
05:20 Present Your Body as a Living Sacrifice
09:15 Old Testament Sacrifice and New Testament Worship
12:20 What Is Spiritual Worship?
17:40 Do Not Be Conformed to This World
21:10 Be Transformed by Renewing Your Mind
24:30 Understanding God's Will
29:10 Living the Transformed Life
32:20 Invitation

#Romans12 #LivingSacrifice #BibleStudy #ChristianSermon #Faith #Transformation #RenewYourMind #ChristianLiving #ChurchOfChrist #BibleTeaching #JesusChrist #Grace #Discipleship

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:02

Good evening. In Romans 12. Romans 12. We have verses 1 and 2. We've looked at Romans 9 and Romans 10 and Romans 11, chapter by chapter by chapter. Now, Romans 12, 1 and 2. So here we go. But let's start with Romans 11 and look at verse 36. Romans 11, verse 36 to provide some context because there's a therefore. And every time there's a therefore, we need to ask, what is a therefore, right? Romans 11, verse 36. For from him and through him and to him are all things. So powerful words when you think about them, because to him be the glory forever. Amen. That's how we ended this morning with the idea that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, that he is sovereign, he is greater than anyone and any nation. God is amazing. Nothing can compare to him. And so therefore, because he is that way, Romans 12, verses 1 and 2, I appeal to you. Now the Greek there is, I'm begging you, I'm pleading with you, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect. Some of the most popular verses in Scripture. At this point, Paul is beginning to make a shift in the book, though. Paul is beginning to take this book and show us that, yes, we talked about sin, we talked about grace, we talked about God and wrestling with sin and why we fall into sin. And so Romans 12 is that shift where it's like of all the doctrine and all the theology that we talked about, this is now how you live it. This is the application. And it follows through the rest of the chapter and really the rest of the book. But that's why he says, notice the mercies of God, not just referencing the sacrifice, Old Testament sacrifices, but mercies of God. Plural. And that's unusual there because he's giving a nod to everything that he's already talked about. Turn over to Romans chapter 5 and just look at verse 1 and look at some of the ways that God has been merciful so far in the book of Romans. The first half of Romans is just demonstrating God's mercy. Romans 5, verse 1 tells us we are justified and made right before God. Why? Because of his mercy. You look over at Romans chapter 6, verse 4, and when we are baptized, how we are unified with Christ. We are come up out of that water, a new creature, a new creation, because of his mercy. You look at Romans chapter 8, full of God's mercy. It begins in verse 1 with, and therefore those who are in Christ are under no condemnation. Why? Because of his mercy. We are adopted in verses 15 and 16 of Romans 8, adopted as sons. We have the Spirit interceding for us. Why? Because of his mercy. What we looked at today, Romans 11, verse 32. Salvation for all people, Jew and Gentile. Why? Because of God's mercies. All of this is because of his mercy. His mercies are new every morning. And so Paul is saying, because of his mercy, because of who God is, I need you to be a living sacrifice. I'm begging you to be a living sacrifice. And that's Romans 12. Everything from on there, from then on, is just, I need you to be a living sacrifice. This is how you're a living sacrifice. This is what your spiritual worship looks like. And the rest of Romans 12 and the rest of the book. The rest of the chapter even talks about that. That you, as an intricate part of Christ's body, need to be acting in a certain way and treating other people like Christ. Verse 5 of Romans chapter 12. Though you though there are men are one body in Christ and individually members one of another, right? And so verse 9 says, What are you to do? Be a living sacrifice. Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. And so you see how that flows from Romans 12, verses 1 through 2. That is the thesis, if you will, for the rest of the book. With that being said, we're going to look at these two verses and we're going to break this lesson down this evening into two halves. The first half is looking at verse 1, and the second half is looking at verse 2. And we're going to look at it phrase by phrase. We're going to look at it and go deep into some of these phrases to kind of help us understand what Paul is talking about. Because the point he wants you to walk away with, what I want you to walk away with, is that you are called as a Christian to a higher life, a better, more rich life, a living sacrifice. Let's look at verse one. Zoom in on Romans 12, verse 1. I appeal you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Now zoom in on that phrase, present your bodies, because he's already mentioned this idea of presenting yourselves before. It should spark in our minds a verse in Romans chapter 6, verse 13. What does Paul say in Romans 6, verse 13? Do not present your members, right? Your bodies to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been bought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. This is where you have to ask and look at yourself and ask, are you a slave to Zinn? Are you presenting your bodies and your life to sin? Because now for us as Christians, and that's who he's talking about, that's who he's begging change and be transformed. He says in Romans 12, Christians, Christians, I want you to be transformed. I want you to present your bodies to righteousness as instruments for God and his righteousness. So that's the idea that we're seeing in Romans 12, verse 1. You need to present yourself to God because you're going to be presenting yourself to whoever and whatever you are serving in this life. And the question is, who are you presenting yourself to? He says, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. And we're talking physical bodies here. And that's important to mention because we can read at the end of verse 1, we can read that word spiritual, and we can think, well, this is all just a metaphor. Now, bodies here is not a metaphor in the Greek. This is your physical body, this is your physical life. They are intricately connected, deeply connected. That is what we are sacrificing to God, giving your physical bodies to God as your spiritual worship. Your bodies are God's apostrophe S. And that they are belonging to God, meant to be set apart, holy, and acceptable to him. God wants to look at you and your life and see it as acceptable to him. Are you an acceptable offering? Ask yourself, right? Because through Christ we are. But ask yourself if you stood in God's throne room right now, would you be comfortable as an acceptable offering before him? We're glorifying him with our bodies, Paul's telling us. First Corinthians chapter 6, verses 19 through 20, as a cross-reference. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, right? Because of his mercy. For are you uh you are not your own, verse 20, for you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body. Sometimes we think that we can still believe in God, but then sin with our bodies. Like, yeah, I can love God over here, but I'm doing spiritual things. Like I'm praying and I'm reading the scripture, right? I'm coming to church, I'm doing all these things, but I'm gonna continue to indulge in fleshly pleasures, and I'm gonna indulge in things that really are not good for the body or the soul, therefore. And that's not your spiritual worship. So much of this passage is appealing to Old Testament language, things that are usually done in the Jewish mindset, but now they've changed. The expectation has been raised significantly where the standard has been raised, and the standard standard is Christ. By the mercies, you can say the compassions of God present your bodies as a sacrifice. This is Old Testament terminology. Turn over to Leviticus chapter 1 for a second. Leviticus chapter 1, and you can see some of the language, not going to read the whole thing, but you can see some of the language that Paul is borrowing here. In Leviticus 1, the what we should have in our minds when we read Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. And Leviticus chapter 1 have some highlighted here, but you look in verse 3, when they bring a burnt offering, right, as a sacrifice in the temple, it is to be holy without blemish. At the end of verse 3, when they bring it, it is to be acceptable before God. Same language as Romans 12. Everything here done in the temple, everything is before God. Everything is done for God. Notice that pattern here. Verse 4. It is acceptable for God, then it's going to be acceptable to me as the worshiper as well. And who's slaying the bull? Who's killing the bull? The priest? The worshiper? The one bringing the bull at the end there of verse five, beginning of verse five. Then it goes into all the little details of all what the Levites are supposed to do and the priests are supposed to do with the entrails and the blood and the incense. But then you get to the end of verse 9 there, and what is it? What is your sacrifice? What is our living sacrifice supposed to be? A pleasing aroma to the Lord, a connection with God. This is what should be on our minds when we read Romans 12. That is our spiritual worship today, but with Christ. We should be pleasing to the Lord. Our sacrifice should be a sweet, pleasing aroma to God. Our daily living should be a part of that relationship, that connection with God. The difference, of course, is that instead of sacrificing, instead of sacrificing bulls and goats, you're a living sacrifice. Not a sacrifice that is dead or burnt, a sacrifice that is dead to sin, but alive in Christ. And so when God says here in Romans 12, verse 1 that as a living sacrifice, I want you, he's saying, I want you to be completely 100% devoted to me. This is a part of your spiritual worship, he says. Now, spiritual worship is an interesting phrase because if you have a different translation, it might say reasonable service. And that is because these words here can be translated that way. Spiritual can be translated as reasonable, that is just pertaining to reason or pertaining to the mind in connection to verse 2 and the renewing of the mind here. And so what he's saying here is your service, your worship is reasonable to God. And that makes sense. It makes sense when you think about everything God has done for us. Randy gave a great example of that this morning. Talking about when we look at God's blessings, how they're overflowing, and we're we're drinking out of the saucer. That was beautifully done. A life 100% devoted to Him is the most reasonable thing there is because of who God is. It makes sense. It's spiritual at that point. What God is asking for is reasonable service, which is because of who I am, I want all of you. Yep, there's always this little bit we're unwilling to sacrifice. But being kind, for example, is reasonable if we are devoted to God. Holding a grudge is not reasonable if we are devoted to God. It's not reasonable at all. It's reasonable to our flesh. If we're not living for God, of course I'm gonna hold a grudge. That makes perfect sense. But no, if we're living for God, holding a grudge is not reasonable. What's reasonable? Forgiveness is reasonable. Love, genuine love is reasonable. That's part of your spiritual worship. And that word worship is also not your usual typical word for worship in the New Testament. Typically, when the word worship is used in the New Testament, you see the word prostaneu, which just means to be prostrate, bow, go prostrate. But here it's Litreia. This idea of Levitical service, priestly service in the temple, that's what's in mind here. The Levites did everything before the Lord. Remember that same idea is that we need to do everything before God. Every detail of our life as priests because of Christ is supposed to be done before God. The Levites did everything, every little detail from the blood to the incense to the entrails and what they did after, every little detail was for God. That should be our lives. Intimately for Christ, in service to Christ, reasonable service unto the Lord. Just like the old sacrifices. Now, sometimes, just like the old sacrifices, we can have the wrong motive. Sometimes we can you know just make sacrifices and we can think that you know we're doing godly things, but really it's in self-service, it's in service to ourselves. Right? I want to make sure I have the attention on me. I want to be recognized this way. I'm gonna do things in such a way that I make I'm making sure that I'm perceived as a good and godly person. But Paul tells us in Colossians chapter 3, verse 17 that whatever you do, whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Everything. My spiritual worship, my reasonable service is unto the Lord. It's for Jesus. And so I submit to my spouse, I love my spouse unto the Lord. If I'm a child, I obey my parents and I do so unto the Lord. I'm going to work alongside my co-worker, I'm gonna serve my co-worker unto the Lord. I'm going to give this prayer and I'm gonna do so unto the Lord. Down to the intricate detail, just like the Levites. That's the worship we're talking about. Every detail of life. I'm going to eat my breakfast, I'm going to scroll on my phone, I'm going to search the web, I'm going to send this text, I'm going to drive this car, I'm going to do all of that unto the Lord in service to God as my spiritual worship, as my reasonable service. That's the idea that Paul's getting at here. And so when you read Romans 12 again, verse 1, in light of what we just talked about, when you peel back and you look at some of the Greek here, he's saying, I'm begging you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, because of everything that he's done, present yourselves, your bodies, as a whole life to him, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship, your reasonable service. Verse 1 is all about that. I'm going to examine myself. So that by the time I get to verse 2, okay, now I need to understand how do I become transformed as a living sacrifice? He's going to tell us. By the renewing of our mind. Look at Romans chapter 12, verse 2. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. This idea of conform is this idea of patterning your mind or your character after someone or something. And so what Paul is begging them not to do is to pattern their lives or their mind after sin, after those who are rebellious toward Christ, those who are not in submission to Jesus. That's what he means here by the world. Because the world can mean different things depending on the context. In John 3.16, the world can mean all people. God so loved the world. In Psalm 90, verse 2, it can mean creation that he says is good. God formed the world, we're told there. But here in this context, the world is that realm, that that part of the world, including people who are not in submission to Christ in his reign. They don't recognize Christ as their Savior. They're rebellious to Christ and they're full of all sorts of wickedness, Paul tells us. And that's why Paul says in Galatians 1 chapter chapter 1, verse 4, this is the present age, he says. When I was thinking of some illustrations to kind of help us understand of what this idea of conform means, you know, just think of Romans 11 again. Conforming is like being grafted, grafted in. When you graft in a branch to a tree, it conforms to that, does it not? It becomes that, it takes that shape, it grows from it. We don't want to be grafted into the world. We don't. Not when we, as God's people, are already grafted into this church. A tree that is planted by streams of living water. Why would we want to do that? Another illustration I came across that was I thought was really good, but it's a little crude. And I didn't know this till I read this. But apparently, you can take a live frog and you can throw it in boiling water. Maybe you've heard this illustration, and it will jump right out. Because it's too hot. It's too hot. But apparently, if you take that same frog, and I don't know who was the first person to do this, you take that same frog and you put it in maybe room temperature, lukewarm water, and then you slowly over time dial it up, it becomes acclimated. It doesn't even realize that it's getting hotter.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

It conforms to the temperature until it's cooked to death. And that's what it looks like to conform to sin.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

You slowly begin to take shape of sin. And if you're not careful, I think that's how it often happens, we don't even realize it. It begins with just small compromises here and there, and then slightly bigger ones over there, and before you know it, you're not even the same person. God calls us not to be conformed to this world, but to what? But to be transformed. Right? And that's the Greek word where we get our English word metamorphosis. It's the idea of being transformed, completely changed, transfigured. It's used four times in the New Testament. Two times to talk about Jesus being transfigured on the Mount of Transfiguration, right? That's in Matthew 17, 2 and Mark 9, verse 2. If you remember, he goes on top of a mountain with Peter, James, and John, and he is what? Transfigured. His clothes are white, his body shining like the sun. Still Jesus, but transfigured. That's the idea that Paul's getting at here. That's what he wants for us. You see this also used the fourth place, 2 Corinthians 3 18. And we all with unveiled. Face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed, right? Transfigured into the same image from image of Christ from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transfigured. Transformed, one degree of glory to another, more and more like Christ. And that's great. The question is, how do we do that? How do we do that? Romans 12, verse 2. We do that by the renewing of our mind. And mind there just means this rational thinking, our processes. We need to renew it, make it new. Because our mind is where a lot of the battleground happens when it comes to sin. So much of compromise, if you think about it, happens within our mind. So when we give in, we decide, well, you know what, this lie over here is maybe not that bad. We don't really see the ramifications of it because it's in our mind. And what happens is we're going to give in to a pattern of thinking that's more like the world, conform to the world. An even deeper question then is, well, how do we renew our thinking? And that's the logical conclusion of Romans 12, verse 2. How do we renew our thinking? We renew our mind by living, living as sacrifices, bodily sacrificing ourselves to God's will. Look at Romans chapter 1, verse 28. Romans chapter 1, verse 28, because it's kind of the opposite, the antithesis, if you will, of Romans 12, 1 and 2. Where what does he say here in Romans 1, 28? He says, Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, since they did not see fit to what? Present their bodies to God, present themselves to God as a living sacrifice, what happened? God gave them over to a renewed mind, right? No, God gave them over to a debased mind. A debased mind. To do what ought not to be done, to conform to this world not to be transformed. That's what it looks like when we're conformed to this world. But if we renew our minds by aligning ourselves with God's will, we become transformed. And God's will is kind of where we want to end tonight. It's how Romans 12 verse 2 ends. Look at Romans 12, verse 2 again. Where it says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing, notice he says it in a weird way, testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Testing, you may discern the will of God. The will of God, I thought, should just be the will of God. Like, why do we need to test the will of God? Because when we think of the will of God, often what I think we have in mind is, well, what's God's personal plan for me? Which isn't necessarily wrong, but just a bit more narrow and not necessarily what Romans 12 is talking about, right? We'll be like, well, what is the path that God has for me? The other day I was at the gym and I saw this guy with a sleeve and he had tattooed on his arm. He had tattooed on his arm, Jeremiah 29, 11. All right, he had that verse there. He had for, I know the plans I know I have for you, right? Nothing like getting a tattoo out of context. It's not what it's talking about, right? It's talking about Israel as a whole and God's plan for them toward Christ. What we have in our minds though is sometimes that. Like, what job do I need to take? Who am I going to marry? And those are good questions, and God is active in those things. He absolutely is. But in Romans 12, that's not what we're testing alone. God's will for us is actually our sanctification. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 3 literally tells us that, and very, very similar to Romans 12, verse 2. For this is the will of God, very plainly. What? Your sanctification. And then he goes on to give a many Romans 12, all the things you need for that, to be holy and set apart, to be more and more like Christ. The will of God is your sanctification, your daily walk with Christ. It's a part of your holiness. Essentially presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice daily. You might read that though and think, well, that's not near as exciting. That's not really what I was hoping for. But it should be. Because that's the call, a call to a higher life, a much fuller, much richer life. To test the will of God is to ask, what am I doing right now that's good and acceptable and perfect? Because those are the attributes that Paul gives for God's will. That's the filter by which we test God's will. Testing there is the idea that I'm testing metal in the Greek. I'm looking to see if this is genuine or real. I'm going to look at this diamond. I'm going to see, is this a pure diamond? Is it real? This is how our everyday decision making should be. Is what I'm doing, whether I'm talking to my kids or I'm at work or I'm angry, is what I'm doing pure and holy before God. It's a part of our sanctification. Good, acceptable, and perfect. These words almost literally mean what they say. Is it good? Yes. The cake I had yesterday was good. Great, right? Like you say, that's part of God's will in a small way. Is it is it acceptable, right? And that is is it pleasing? The one that's a little different though is is it perfect? Almost every time in the New Testament that you see that word perfect, it comes with this idea is it finished or complete? That's the idea. As a grown adult, I am perfect because I'm finished growing. I'm certainly not perfect. But that's the idea that we're getting behind that word. So God's will, this is the idea, so much more active than we imagine at times. We sometimes think of God's will as something to be discovered, like a hidden treasure. Of I'm just gonna wait, I'm gonna see if when God speaks to me, and then I'll marry this person, and the signs will be obvious. Rather, what Romans 12 is telling us is that God's will is actually active in your life right now. God's will is more about patterning your mind, renewing your mind after his. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, right? Because he's been transformed, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. It's a living sacrifice. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion, because that's where God's will is, and every occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by living in sin, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption, verse 31. But let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you. Again, don't be conformed to this world, along with all malice, be transformed, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Why? Because Christ did so, we should do so. We do things unto him, for him. That is the life that we live. As living sacrifices. That's God's will for you. Sometimes we see all these though, and we think, do honest work, no corrupting talk, being angry and not sinning, that just seems like a little too strict. Like I don't know if I'm willing to go that far. I want to live for God, but that standard seems a little too high. As we grow in God's will and our sanctification, what we realize is that no, that's the life I want to live. That's the life I need. It's actually better, more reasonable service, a better, more reasonable life. Why would I not be kind and tender-hearted and forgiving if Christ is my Savior? If he's not your Savior tonight, you need to make him your savior. You need to make him your king. You need to get out of the world. You need to be not conformed to the world, but be transformed and change your mind. Change that pattern of thinking that's keeping you down in the pit and come up a new creation. Baptized. That's what you want this evening. Come forward now while we stand and we sing.