Romans 12: The transformed life. In the preceding 11 chapters, Paul has thoroughly developed all six key points of his great argument. He has systematically demonstrated that there is no salvation in the Mosaic Law and that Jews and Gentiles are equal before God. He has repeatedly shown that our initial salvation is only by grace through faith in Christ. Paul is now free to focus exclusively on the sixth point of his great argument. Point 6.
Whether we are Jew or Gentile, after our initial salvation, God requires us to walk faithfully with Christ, producing godly fruit for the remainder of our lives. However, we do not do this solely on our own strength, for we have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. As Paul will be demonstrating in this chapter, God does not require less of us under grace than He required under the Mosaic Law. He requires more from us. That is because we have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
Back in Romans chapter 6, Paul had explained that we died to the old man in baptism and rise to walk in newness of life. What does newness of life look like? Paul will also be explaining that in this exciting chapter. Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2, living sacrifices. Verse 1," Therefore, I beseech you, brothers, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship, a living sacrifice.
Under the law, the Jews regularly brought animal sacrifices before the Lord. Those sacrificial animals were living when they were brought to the altar, but they were dead thereafter. In the previous chapters, Paul has explained that those sacrifices under the law have ended. Those sacrifices pointed to the one great sacrifice that Christ offered of Himself. The blood of Christ makes them obsolete. So we might imagine that God requires no further sacrifices from Christians.
However, Paul says in this passage that instead of offering up animals, God calls on us to offer up our very selves as a sacrifice to Him. Paul calls it a living sacrifice because we sacrifice ourselves to God while we are still living. We do not do this to atone for our sins or obtain forgiveness. Rather, we do this out of love for our wonderful God. At the same time, this is not a suggestion. It is a command. Unlike the sacrifice of Christ, our living sacrifice is not a one-time event.
We must offer up ourselves daily to God. This means renouncing everything that is not of Him and allowing ourselves to be completely possessed by Him. We must recognize daily that our primary purpose in life is to live our lives to please Him. If we value anything on earth more highly than Christ, then we need to lay that thing down for Christ. This also means putting to death the sins of our flesh. Theodoret comments," The body itself is not to be slain.
Rather, it is to become dead to sin." However, if our bodies are not dead to sin, it means they are dead in sin. If we offer to God a body steeped in sin, we are offering Him a dead sacrifice. Ambrosiaster writes," Bodies subject to sin are considered not living, but dead, and without hope for the promised life." Chrysostom asks," How do our bodies become a sacrifice? Let our eyes look upon nothing evil, and they have become a sacrifice. Let our tongues speak nothing filthy, and they have become an offering.
Let your hands do no lawless deeds. And they have become a whole burnt offering. Yet this alone is not sufficient, for we also must have positive works. So let our hands give alms. Let our mouths bless those who curse us. Let our ears always find pleasure in listening to the reading of Scripture. And Ambrosiaster exhorts," The work of grace must not remain fruitless in us." Holy, acceptable to God. Our sacrifice is holy because the Holy Spirit dwells within us.
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy Him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. So as Paul warned the Corinthians, being a temple of the Holy Spirit carries with it responsibility. If we defile our bodies through ungodly conduct, the Holy Spirit will withdraw from us.
Irenaeus writes," Receiving the Spirit, let us now walk in newness of life, obeying God." Without the Spirit of God, we cannot be saved. Therefore, the apostle exhorts us through faith and chaste living to preserve the Spirit of God. Otherwise, if we do not participate in the Divine Spirit, we will lose the kingdom of heaven. This is why Paul implores us to offer up our bodies as a holy sacrifice. It is not something that comes automatically.
Furthermore, the only living sacrifice that is acceptable to God is a Holy One, which is your reasonable worship. Origen explains why Paul calls this our" reasonable worship." It is reasonable because it is possible to give a rational explanation for such worship. We can show that it is worthy of God to make such sacrifices. However, no honest and respectable reasons can be given to offer rams, goats, and calves to an immortal and incorporeal God.
God had rhetorically asked the Israelites," Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High." As Hebrews tells us, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. When we offer up our very selves to God, Paul calls this our worship. That is because He is likening our consecrated life to the sacrificial worship performed by the Old Testament priest.
Romans 12:2," And do not be fashioned after this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God." A person who is fashioned after this world has adopted the attitudes, values, morals, and worldview of society around him. Tertullian writes," So long as you call yourself a Christian, you are a different man from a pagan. So give him back his own views of things, since he certainly does not learn from yours.
If we love the world, we can be sure we are fashioned after it." John writes," Do not love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world.
Most English Bibles today translate Romans 12:2 as" do not be conformed to this world." Although this conveys the general meaning of the Greek, it misses the subtlety associated with the word" Syschimatiso," which Paul uses here. Chrysostom explains the significance of Paul's word choice:" There is nothing abiding or stable in this world.
That is the reason Paul calls it a fashion schema." In another passage, Paul says," The fashion of this world is passing away," 1 Corinthians 7:31." For the world has no durability or stability, rather all that is in it is only for a limited duration." Paul does not tell us to change the fashion, but to be transformed. He wants to make it clear that the ways of the world are only of fashion. They are filled with trickeries and trends of outward things. They no sooner arrive than they disappear.
In other words, the things of this world are like the fashions we see in clothing. They are only temporary, forever changing to suit the whims of society. Theodoret adds," Future things are real substances. They alone are permanent and satisfying." So the Holy Apostle admonishes us neither to gape at the fashion of this world nor to love it. Rather, we are to seek those things that advance eternal life.
In short, since Syschimatiso has the sense of fashion, William Tyndale quite properly translated this phrase:" Do not fashion yourselves like unto this world." Cyprian writes," Whatever things that are earthly, whatever things have been received in this world, they will remain here with this world. Therefore, they should be disdained, just as the world itself is disdained.
For we have already renounced its ceremonies and delights when we came to God." He writes again," We should always reflect that we have renounced the world and are in the meantime living here as guests and strangers." Origen comments," It is not possible for anyone to enter into the kingdom of heaven who has not been turned away from the affairs of this world and become like the little children who possess the Holy Spirit, but be transformed." Not being fashioned after this world is not sufficient.
We must also be transformed metamorphu into the image of Christ. In short, we must go through a spiritual metamorphosis. The Jewish Essenes rejected the world, but they were not changed into the image of Christ. The same thing can happen to professing Christians who reject the world, but are not transformed into Christ-like persons. Origen writes," From the very beginning, Jesus inculcated this precept among his hearers.
We are to shun the life that the multitudes seek and earnestly live the life that resembles that of God." He writes further," He who zealously imitates the prophetic life and attains to the Spirit that was in the prophets will be dishonored in the world and in the eyes of sinners. For the world imagines that the life of the righteous man is a burden by the renewing of your mind.
Origen comments, our minds are renewed by the exercise of wisdom, by meditation on the Word of God, and by grasping the spiritual understanding of the law. The more someone progresses daily in the reading of the Scriptures, the more deeply his understanding grows. Every day his mind is always renewed, and every day a new understanding is grasped. But I doubt if it is possible to renew your mind if you are slothful concerning the divine Scriptures.
Concerning this renewal of our minds, Chrysostom writes," We are to renew ourselves from day to day." This is similar to what we do with houses. We constantly keep repairing them as they grow old. Likewise, you must do the same with yourself. Have you sinned today? Have you made your soul grow old? If so, do not despair, do not become despondent, rather renew it through repentance, tears, and confession, and by practicing righteous things, that you may prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
The English word" prove" Greek Dokimazzo is used here in its original meaning of to test or examine. Origen comments, of course, the mind cannot prove what is the will of God unless it has been renewed with complete knowledge. It must be enlightened with the entire wisdom of God. For people imagine various things to be the will of God when they are not.
Christians who are not well-grounded in the Word of God are often guided merely by their feelings, and they mistakenly think all sorts of things to be the will of God. In fact, they even imagine things to be God's will that are specifically condemned in Scripture. As Jesus said," The time is coming when whoever kills you will think that He offers service to God." The perfect will of God. God permits many things that are not His ultimate or perfect will.
Origen writes," To be sure, it was God's will for Saul to be king, but it was neither well-pleasing nor perfect." God allowed the Israelites to have their wish for a king, and he even selected a king for them, Saul. However, this was merely his permissive will, not his perfect will. That is why God told Samuel at the time," Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me as the king over them.
However you shall protest solemnly to them, and shall show them the way of the king who will reign over them." Accordingly, just because God permits something to happen does not mean that it is his ultimate or perfect will. Man's ability and his free will. We should note that Paul directs these commands and exhortations to us as something that we must do. He says," Present your bodies.
Do not be conformed to this world and be transformed." Later in this chapter, Paul gives us a whole list of commands: abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. In honor, give preference to one another. Do not be slothful as to diligence. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Persevere in prayer. Supply the needs of the saints. Pursue hospitality. Romans chapter 12 verses 9 through 13.
Paul does not say that all we need to do is simply believe, and then God will do all these things for us. No, Paul commands us to do them. So fallen humans are not totally depraved or cursed with total inability. Furthermore, if everything was predestined, it would be pointless and cruel for God to command us to do something He had predestined for us not to do.
Theodoret writes," By commanding us to renew our minds, Paul points to the freedom of the will that our soul possesses." Yet Paul is not saying that we must do all these things in our own strength. We must never forget that Jesus said," Apart from Me, you can do nothing." John 15:5. So we need the indwelling of Christ to live the Christ life. Yet Christ does not do our obeying for us. We must cooperate with divine grace.
That is not because God needs our help, but because He wants our salvation to be a joint project with Him. He wants us to demonstrate that we truly love Him. Clement of Alexandria writes," A man by himself, working and toiling at freedom from desires achieves nothing." But if he plainly shows himself very desirous and earnest about it, he obtains it by the addition of the power of God. For God conspires with willing souls.
However, if they abandon their eagerness, the Spirit who is bestowed by God is also restrained. For to save the unwilling is the part of one exercising compulsion, but to save the willing is that of one showing grace.