In the first eleven
chapters of Romans, Paul describes in detail what God has done for us because
of His mercy and love. He wrote of man’s rebellion, his great need to be
rescued from his sinful condition, and what Jesus did to accomplish this on the
cross and afterward. Then with chapter 12 he turned his attention to how we are
then to respond.
We read in Romans
12:1-2, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is
your spiritual [reasonable or logical] service of worship. And do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so
that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable
and perfect.” (NASB)
For those who have trusted in Jesus Christ for
salvation we no longer live in fear of judgment for sin because Jesus took care
of that at the cross. In response to what He has done we are to lives that
reflect who He has made us to be. Specifically, we are to present our bodies,
which means the entirety of who we are, back to Him as living sacrifices. It’s
the reasonable [Greek: logikos] or spiritual thing to do as we put off living
as we once were and put on living as we now are according to what His Word
declares to be true of both. Paul describes the path of this new way of
responsive living as doing that which is good and acceptable as we remember
that our God is perfect and His ways for us could never be any less.
God knows that we all stumble, but His grace is
sufficient even for this as we get back up and follow Him.
(Written on 9/12/18 for Sherman County eNews Spiritual Matters)
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