Today, we dive deep into Romans 12, a chapter that offers profound insight into how we, as followers of Christ, should live out our resurrected life. Exploring the depths of Romans 12 reveals a profound blueprint for living a transformed life in Christ. The discussion begins with a reflective question: How then shall we live? This isn't merely a rhetorical inquiry; it serves as a practical guide for believers aspiring to embody their faith in everyday life.

The conversation reviews the first pillar of this transformed life: the act of presenting our bodies. The host highlights that this presentation is rooted in gratitude for God’s mercies rather than guilt-driven compliance. It's about recognizing that our physical existence is not just ours but a vessel for God's work. The discussions range from the significance of our energy and time to how we express ourselves through our speech and body language. Each practical application serves to illustrate that our bodies are instruments of worship, reflecting our inner transformation and commitment to live for God’s glory.

The episode culminates in a powerful reminder that living sacrificially is about offering our strengths, time, and very presence to serve others, thus embodying the resurrected life of Christ in a tangible and meaningful way.

The heart of Romans 12 shines a light on the transformative power of the gospel, prompting a deep introspection on how we live out our faith. The host opens the floor by addressing the critical question: How then shall we live?

Throughout the episode, the focus shifts to the practical implications of this sacrificial living. The host highlights various aspects of daily life—our interactions, habits, and even our routines—that must be offered to God. By presenting our bodies, we are called to consider how we use our time, energy, and even our voices in a manner that glorifies God. This perspective challenges the cultural norm of self-indulgence or the pressure to perform religious duties, positioning our embodied existence as a means to express our faith authentically.

The dialogue further emphasizes the interconnectedness of our physical actions and spiritual commitments, reminding us that true transformation begins in the mind. As we renew our thinking, we can align our behaviors with the principles of the Kingdom. The episode beautifully ties together the idea that living sacrificially is not an extreme form of Christianity but a reasonable response to the incredible mercies we’ve received—a compelling invitation to embody our faith in every facet of life.

Moreover, the episode delves into the necessity of renewing our minds as a foundational aspect of this transformation. It underscores the idea that true change begins internally, shaping our desires and ultimately guiding our actions. By engaging with Scripture and seeking God’s wisdom, we can cultivate a mindset that reflects His truth, enabling us to navigate the complexities of life with grace and purpose. The episode concludes with a call to action, urging listeners to offer their entire beings—mind, body, and spirit—as living sacrifices, thereby participating in the transformative story of redemption.

Takeaways:

• Presenting our bodies as living sacrifices is not about guilt, but gratitude for God's mercies.
• The transformation of our lives begins with renewing our minds, changing the way we think.
• Romans 12 provides a practical blueprint for embodying our faith in everyday situations.
• Living as a sacrifice means our whole life—energy, time, and relationships—should reflect God's purpose.
• We are called to engage our bodies in service, expressing love and kindness through our actions.
• Our habits, routines, and how we treat others speak volumes about our inner spiritual state.

Good day to you and thank you for joining in with our study.

We are going to be looking at Romans 12 and the lessons that we learned from that wonderful chapter.

As we think about presenting our bodies as living sacrifices and not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our mind, it occurred to me, as we think about what God's people, who they are, is, how then shall they live?

So I asked the question, based on Ezekiel the prophet, how then shall we live?

This is the pattern or the ensample of resurrected life.

According to Romans 12.

When Scripture says how then shall we live?

It is not inviting us into some sort of vague spirituality or some religious performance.

It is expressing a very practical question onto people who have already been united with Christ in His death and resurrection.

So we're not trying to be somebody that we're not.

If we are new creatures and we have been raised with Christ, what does that life actually look like?

What does it look like on Monday morning and Tuesday morning?

What does it look like in traffic and at work or when going to the restaurant and coercing and talking with the waitress?

What does it look like around the dinner table, and what does it look like inside a broken religious culture?

Romans 12 is one of the clearest, most concentrated answer to that question in all the New Testament.

Paul has spent 11 chapters unfolding the mercies of God, the righteousness of God revealed, the justifying work of Christ, the gift of adoption, assurance, the mystery of God's dealings with Jew and Gentile.

Then in Romans 12, the letter shifts from what God has done for us to what that new reality produces in the lives of his people.

Romans 12 is not a list of religious duties to help us climb our way up to God.

It is a blueprint, or it is a pattern, an ensample of what resurrected life looks like when it starts to work its way out of our hearts and through the mind and into the body and into relationships.

And so in this chapter we see at least five pillars of how then shall we live?

I will try to get to all of them.

I don't know that we'll get to them all today or not, but we will make it our effort, at least in the next two.

The first one is presenting our bodies.

Romans 12:1.

Second, renewing the mind.

Third, non conformity to the age, that is the world in which we live.

Romans 12, 2, 4, sober assessment of ourselves, verse 3.

And finally, the mutual life in the body as being members one of another.

Romans 12, verses 4 through 8.

Now these are not five unrelated topics.

They are essentially five angles on the same reality, the resurrected life of Christ being worked out in his people.

So let's take the first one that is presenting our bodies as living sacrifices.

And so when Paul makes his appeal, he says, I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.

Now notice the logic when he starts this.

The life of the Christian does not begin with an appeal to guilt or fear.

That's already been taken care of.

The new creature has been established already by Romans 12.

But this begins with an appeal to mercy.

Paul is not trying to squeeze service out of people who are resistant to do anything.

He's showing how the mercies of God can create a new kind of person because it emits a sense of ought.

It's just a sense of debt.

It's just the right thing to do because of a heart full of gratitude and thanksgiving.

And so he calls us to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

In the Old Testament, a sacrifice was killed and laid upon the altar.

Now it was dead before it was offered in Christ Jesus.

The age of dead sacrifices has ended.

But the analogy in the illustration is very real.

The sacrifice that God now calls is for a living one.

And to present our bodies is to bring the whole of our embodied life under his claim.

Our physical bodies is the measure of expression.

Think about that.

When we hunger, we eat, the body is fulfilled.

When we are cold, we cover ourselves.

When we're hot, we uncover ourselves.

When we're hurting, we cry.

And so the expressions of the body cover the whole gambit of the heart's condition and the heart's desires, all the way from sex to every natural appetite, to pain and discouragement and dismay.

But now that the old man is dead, we're not our own.

Paul would say we've been bought with a price, another figure of speech.

We have been.

Well, it's not a figure of speech in the sense that it is reality in the spiritual realm, but it is used to express that which we can relate to in the physical world.

So we've been raised from the dead, not physically, but raised from the dead spiritually with a new heart and thus a new mission for the body.

And so in another type, Paul talks about being bought with the price.

So the body should now be an expression of thanksgiving, of worship, humble service, diligent work.

In short, it should be offered as a living sacrifice.

And so when Paul says, present your bodies like that, he isn't just Talking about flesh and bone in the abstract sense, he's talking about the embodied life, that life that you live every day.

How you use your strength, where you put your time, what you choose with your appetites to fulfill, how you relate to other people.

Let's look at some of these and illustrate what we mean by it.

You don't have an unlimited energy tank.

God has designed you with a limitation.

That's the way he made you.

He designed you that way on purpose.

And thus, presenting your body means recognizing that your physical strength belongs to God, not to your ego, not to other people's expectations.

It belongs to God.

And so asking, lord, how do you want me to spend the strength I do have today?

Is a question that we might ask every day we live.

Accepting your limitations as part of your stewardship, not as failures.

But that's part of presenting your body.

You have that in mind.

You're presenting your body with that understanding.

You know, there are two ditches here.

There's self indulgence that says, I'll use my energy only for what I want to do and what I enjoy.

And then there's that religious overwork that if I run myself into the ground for service, then I have to be godly, as if that's the way to demonstrate my loyalty.

But you see, a living sacrifice doesn't mean burning out.

It means that even in your tiredness, you are his.

You rest unto the Lord and you work unto the Lord.

You are the Lord's.

First Corinthians, chapter six teaches this.

And so we have to understand our energy and our fatigue.

That all belongs to the Lord.

So what we become are stewards of the body and its use.

Then, of course, there is also our time and our schedules.

Your calendar is one of the clearest mirrors of what you worship and what you value.

Presenting your body includes how you structure your mornings and your evenings.

It would include your weekends and what you do on them.

It would include your downtime, your commitments and margin.

Now, this doesn't mean that we live under a rigid religious schedule.

I don't even mean to apply that at all.

It just means that we stop pretending the time is ours to waste on whatever we feel.

It means that we ask, what has God actually given me to do in this season?

It asks or recognizes that we leave room for interruptions, interruptions that he may send.

Not just emergencies of other people's making, but interruptions in our own life.

So offering your time is really offering your availability.

It is saying, I am ready for service.

Speak, Lord, your servant Hears, command and I will obey.

Offering your time is really offering that.

It's saying, I'm available, Lord, my day is yours, so show me.

We're to say yes, we're to say no, and we're to be still.

And then of course, it's also very applicable in our habits and our routines.

Most of life is not big dramatic moments, it's patterns.

Habits are like grooves in our nervous system.

Over time, they train your body to move towards certain things kind of in an automatic way.

What you reach for when you're stressed are habits.

What you do the first thing you do in the morning are habits.

What you do, the last thing you do at night are habits.

And where your hands and eyes go when nobody is watching are habits.

So presenting your body here just means to identify bodily habits that feed sin.

Perhaps late night scrolling that leads to temptation.

Perhaps it's constant snacking for comfort or compulsive entertainment around the television.

Presenting your body here may mean deliberately putting off those bodily routines and replacing them with ones that support renewed thinking, like reaching for scripture or prayer.

Instead of endless distraction on your phone or on Facebook, it may mean choosing a walk to reflect instead of collapsing into mindless media.

It may involve setting simple rhythms, like at this time, I pause and turn my attention to my God in thanksgiving.

Thank you Lord.

And thank him for the things in life that you're most grateful for.

Your routines are like rails.

You either lay them in the direction of the flesh or you lay them in the direction of obedience.

But you have some control over that.

They form your habits.

But then there's our speech and our reactions that are included.

What your body does with your tongue or your face or your posture, that's all part of presenting your body.

You might think, well, I don't know, you're getting a little too specific here in your applications.

You just give me the principle and I'll apply it.

Like one brother told me years ago while I was preaching, well, I think there's biblical precedent for this.

You know, in Colossians 4, 6, Paul, he speaks to us about how we ought to answer each one as we think about the use of the tongue and the value of words that are profitable and useful.

He doesn't say that we ought to be concerned about what we say, but how we speak to each one.

The tone of one's voice will certainly say something about what's in the heart at the time, our facial expressions.

Even the Lord recognized the expression on Cain's face.

If you do well, then why is your Countenance fallen, his facial expressions revealed his thoughts, the thoughts of his heart at the time, and the discouragement that he felt when his brother was favored over his sacrifice.

His facial expression revealed the thoughts of his heart.

Bodily language is also seen when you disagree with other people.

Or it can be.

There's instant reactions when you feel attacked and you want to defend yourself.

And those expressions are seen by the body's facial expressions or in other ways.

But out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks and the mouth is still that instrument that delivers it.

And so presenting your body here looks like bringing your tongue under Christ lordship.

It means choosing not to lash out, even when the words are right there on the tip of your tongue and you're momentarily thinking it, but you refuse.

To do means refusing to gossip or even to listen to gossip.

It means to refuse any shady story to make yourself look a little bit better.

Not only is bringing your tongue under Christ's lordship included in the presentation of your body as a sacrifice to God, but it's also letting the spirit retrain your first reactions.

In other words, instead of slamming the door when you're upset, or sighing loudly when you don't approve of something and rolling your eyes at some authority figure who has given you some wise counsel, you pause and reflect and think.

You learn, you see, to own your body, to control it when there's conflict, rather than letting your anger drive those expressions and drive those words to you are in control.

That's meekness, by the way.

You might even literally pray at the moment.

Tempted.

Lord, I present my tongue to you.

Let my body not be used as a weapon to tear down, but as an instrument to bless and speak truth in love.

Also, I think included in this presentation of our body is our sexuality, that there are physical boundaries that we recognize.

This is one of the most obvious ways to present our bodies to God.

There's nothing sinful about sex.

God gave that.

It's a beautiful expression experienced in a marriage.

That's the boundary.

That's the place in which God intends for those to be fulfilled.

It's God given.

But it's not just sexual activity that is limited in a marriage, but everything else related to it.

Sexuality is not just about acts.

It's about where your eyes go.

It's about what you allow your mind to dwell on, what you fantasize about, if you fantasize at all.

How you touch others of the opposite sex and how you allow others to touch you, how you carry your body around others, including your attire.

This would also include Flirting and teasing and maybe even withdrawing.

Presenting your body sexually certainly begins with acknowledging the fact that God, not culture, God defines what is holy.

God defines what is pure and what is good.

And marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled.

But whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge.

Presenting your body sexually means that then that you recognize that you acknowledge God and His will you acknowledge refusing to treat your body or someone else's as an object for your personal use and satisfaction, setting physical boundaries consistent with a renewed mind, where you go and where you will not go, for instance, might be included.

Where you're alone, who you're alone with, and in what situations you're alone with them, what you watch, what you read, and what you entertain yourself with.

Now, this is not prudishness, it's stewardship.

You're saying, essentially, my body is not a canvas for my own impulses.

It's the temple of.

Of the living God.

It's the place where Christ and his Spirit or the Holy Spirit can have commune with my spirit, where there is true fellowship between spirits, and I will not present it to sin as an instrument of uncleanness and break that breach and break that sweet fellowship.

And then, of course, there is our work and our rest.

In fact, we could just look at another area, and that is our relationships.

Our work, our rest, and our relationships are all deeply tangled together in embodied life.

Work uses your body, your hands, your eyes, your brain, your back.

It uses your body as a means of providing for your family, doing your tasks.

You do it as unto the Lord and not just as a to get a paycheck or for human approval or to prove yourself better than somebody else.

It's just simply a means to an end.

And you use your body to provide that need, refusing to use your body to cut corners.

You would refuse the use of your body to deceive or to exploit others.

No matter how common that might be in your trade, you'll refuse to do it.

It's letting Christ shape how you show up, whether you're punctual and honest, whether you're diligent and fair.

It moves you from how little can I do and get by to how can I honor Christ and.

And how I work today?

But not only is it related to work, but it's also related to rest.

And that's something that we have not always given attention to.

I myself being one of those.

Rest is something you do with your body.

Presenting your body here means receiving rest as a gift from God, not a guilty indulgence it's refusing both laziness and constant overdrive.

That workaholic is what I'm talking about.

There's different kinds and types of rest that actually restores rather than numbs you.

But scrolling mindlessly for hours or binge watching to escape life is not the same as a restorative rest.

And sometimes presenting your body is as simple as going to bed at a decent hour or maybe taking a walk with your wife or your husband.

Just breathing the fresh air and acknowledging God's presence and the beauties of the created world around us.

These are restful moments.

And then, of course, this also pertains to one's relationship.

Relationships always involve bodies in space.

Their presence, the time that you're there, the touch of individuals, the shared meals, the eye contact, all of that is a part of relationships.

And presenting your body and relationship just means showing up physically for people instead of hiding behind the scenes or making excuses for not being there.

Using your body to serve includes being present.

It means carrying loads that are too difficult for others to carry to bear their burdens.

It means making meals and being hospitable and sitting with the grieving and playing with the children, even listening rather attentively to others.

So recognizing when your body language is not listening is something we should be aware of.

I haven't always been aware of that, but it probably has been an expression of what I was thinking at the time, and therefore I expressed that thought.

Maybe when I cross my arms or when there's cold silence and nothing is said, or perhaps in some avoidance.

And a lot of those kinds of body language is preaching a message that you would never say out loud, but you're saying it nonetheless.

You're saying, lord, my presence is yours to use in the lives of others, and so let me be a servant.

I want my hands and my feet and my voice and my time to belong to you.

And so it's not my will, but thine be done.

So when you put all that together, when we talk about presenting your bodies as living sacrifices, we're not talking about punishing the body as was true with asceticism, or even glorifying the body with hedonism and trying to do whatever it is that feels good, but it's offering the whole embodied life to God, whether it's your energy and how you spend your strength and you accept your limitations.

How I structure my days for his purposes, the automatic patterns my body falls into my routines, how my tongue and my posture expresses my heart.

I will be giving some thought to How I steward, desire and touch under his rule and his guidance, and how my embodied presence is used in the world.

Now, when you look at all of those, this is certainly not intended to be an exhaustive list by any means, but there are examples and a fair representation of the way that we present our bodies, that we understand that they all require some previous thought, some preparation for how the body will be used.

All but a few of them, the natural habits that just has its way of working in our lives.

All of them support that which we have said before.

And that is the mind is the battlefield.

That's where the decisions are made.

That's where the commitments are made and the changes occur.

The body is just the visible instrument that carries them out.

It is the channel of carrying out the mind's decision.

The body is not the battlefield.

Our inner person, our spirit, is where the real battle is fought.

But since the body is the visible instrument that reveals which side is winning, it would do us good to examine ourselves.

What we present our bodies to do, what we present our bodies to, that is what we commit to doing, will show what has captured our hearts and our minds.

To live as a living sacrifice means we stop acting as owners and start living as stewards.

My body is not my own.

My appetites are not ultimate.

Even my desires are not sovereign.

Instead I simply say, lord, all that I am is this embodied life at your disposal today.

Use me.

Use my hands, my tongue, my eyes, my feet.

Use them for your purposes.

This offering is called your spiritual worship.

It is called reasonable service.

In other words, this is not extreme Christianity.

Now, to the carnal mind, the mere churchgoer would look at this and say, wow, that's really extreme.

And they don't want any part of that.

They don't want to have their homes open for brethren to come in and to find leisure and comfort at any time.

They want to go somewhere where they can punch a clock and leave it and go home and forget, wash the brethren off to the next time they see one another.

They don't want this.

This is too extreme.

But this is simply what makes sense in light of the mercies of God.

When you see that you were dead and have been made alive, it is only logical that your entire embodied existence belongs to the one who raised you.

So how then shall we live?

It starts here, doesn't it?

We live every ordinary day as people whose bodies are on God's altar.

Not as dead victims, but as living sons and daughters of God who gladly yield our members to serve others.

Secondly, as is seen in verse 2 we have the statement, another angle of this transformed resurrected life is the renewing of the mind.

This is the engine, this is the thing that drives us.

And so we ask the question, when we think about the life that we now shall live in Christ, are we trying to allow the world to form and fashion?

Is that the driving force?

Or is it the change of heart, the change of mind?

Immediately after calling us to present our bodies, Paul turns to this.

And not being conformed to the world, but being transformed.

And as we noted last time, transformation is not some kind of mystical fog.

It's not something that just happens to us while we remain passive like a lot of people want to present with regard to the spirits coming into our lives.

Nor is it just mere willpower where we just kind of have these white knuckled fists where religion is for us.

Just trying to behave differently without ever thinking differently, just forcing ourselves to change who we are and what we are.

A true transformation is a spirit worked word shaped change in the way we think.

The battlefield for transformation is the mind.

What you dwell on, what you believe, the scripts that run in the background of your thoughts.

And I like that.

I think we all have them, we all play them back in our minds.

These things that, these scripted things in our mind and our heads shape our desires and, and eventually your behavior.

This is why we need to deliberate, make a deliberate renewal of the mind.

And this is where your put off, put on replacement framework fits very powerfully.

We find it in Ephesians 4.

Every sin has a lie underneath it.

We don't disobey God simply because we know the truth and decide.

We prefer rebellion.

Instead we believe something false that makes sin seem more reasonable or more safe, maybe even necessary.

We want to come back to this and drive this point home.

In our second point of Romans 12, the renewed resurrected life begins with the renewing of the mind.

I thank you so much for listening.

I hope you have a good day and a pleasant week ahead.