Christ-Centered Worship
In view of God's mercy,
we are humbly to acknowledge
His sovereign grace and worship Him
by offering all parts of our bodies
as a living sacrifice.
Here's Dr. Gene Getz:
To set the stage for the truth
that's in this Principle,
we have a reference to God's mercy and grace.
And what I want to do is to take you
back to the grand doxology leading up
to what he's going to say
in Romans chapter 12, verse 1,
about presenting our bodies to the Lord.
And I've called this a hymn of praise.
And it's really a culmination
of everything he has written about
in Romans chapter 1 through 11.
And particularly what's he's
written about in 9, 10, and 11.
And here's what he said.
And I referred to this in an earlier Principle
to illustrate that God's thoughts
are beyond our thoughts,
in many of these areas.
Particularly when it comes to
God's sovereign grace and our human responsibility.
So here is Paul's grand culmination here:
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and of the knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgements
and untraceable his ways! ...
We've been reading about that
in Romans 9, 10, and 11. And all the way
from the beginning of Romans.
Unsearchable. Untraceable.
Beyond our comprehension:
...For who has known the mind of the Lord?
[Nobody. That's the answer.]
Or who has been his counselor?
[Nobody. That's the implication.]
And who has ever given to God,
that he should be repaid?
[Nobody. He's God.]
For from him and through him
and to him are all things. ...
Even those things that we
don't understand or comprehend.
And so Paul says:
...To him be the glory forever. Amen.
And I think Isaiah perhaps
was thinking these thoughts
or Paul was thinking Isaiah's thoughts.
Here were Isaiah's thoughts:
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
[this is God speaking,]
and your ways are not my ways."
This is the LORD's declaration. [Isaiah said.]
"For as heaven is higher than earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts."
That's why we have to be
very, very careful that we don't claim
to understand who God is
and all there is to know about him.
And even his plan of salvation.
That can lead to arrogance
if we think we have the answers
to everything that God has done.
To me it's beyond comprehension.
And I believe that's what Paul is saying here.
Now what happens is he segues.
Paul segues from this great hymn
of just praising God for who he is,
to Romans chapter 12.
If you don't get that segue
you can't get the impact of what
he's saying here. Because he goes on
immediately and says--after this great hymn:
Therefore, brothers and sisters...
That is those of you who've
put your faith in Jesus,
whether your Jew or Gentile:
...Therefore, brothers and sisters,
in view of the mercies of God...
What are the mercies of God?
Everything that he's written
up to Romans chapter 12.
Not just Romans 9, 10, and 11, but everything
that has to do with the redemptive plan
for our lives:
...in view of the mercies of God,
I urge you to present your bodies
as a living sacrifice...
Look what Jesus has done for us, he's saying.
He's died for us.
I'm going to ask you to live:
...to be a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God;
this is your true worship. ...
What is true worship?
It's presenting our bodies to Jesus Christ.
And he goes on to explain what that means:
...Do not be conformed to this age,
but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind,
so that you may discern what is the
good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Now as I said, this takes us all the way back.
So let me just review that
a little more specifically. All the way back
from the beginning of the letter:
In view of God's mercy and grace:
What is it? Well first:
All human beings are sinners
and we need a Savior
because the wages of sin is death
physically and spiritually. Chapters 1 to 3.
Secondly, what is God's mercy and grace:
All people can be righteous
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
whether we look forward to the cross
or back to the cross.
It's a message of hope for all humanity.
Chapters 4 and 5.
And next:
When we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and are born again, we can live a godly life
because of our new identity with Christ
in His death and resurrection
and because of the indwelling presence
of the Holy Spirit. Chapters 6 thru 8.
And then: All believers have been
chosen in Christ before the
foundation of the world, not only for salvation
but to live a godly life.
And that leads us in to a concept that is
beyond our comprehension, but it's true:
We were chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world.
And yet the gospel is for all.
And that's the mercies of God.
And so when Paul says here,
in Romans 12:1 and 2,
"consider God's mercy," he was saying this.
Now let me summarize:
In view of God's marvelous mercy and grace,
clearly taught in the first 11 chapters,
we are to "discern what is the good, pleasing
and perfect will of God."
How? By Romans 12:1:
Surrendering completely to God's will.
Lord, I belong to you.
Does that mean we're going to be
living like Jesus totally?
No. That's a process.
And he goes on to explain this:
Not living by the standards
of a godless secular culture.
Don't conform to this world. But he says:
Allowing ourselves to be
profoundly changed through the
ongoing sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.
And we're in process if we are
believers in Jesus Christ.
We've been set apart,
which is sometimes called
positional sanctification. We're set apart.
God sees us in Christ. Not only sees us in Christ,
but he sees us already in the heavens
because of who he is.
But we are now becoming, or should becoming,
progressively sanctified.
That is, the word "sanctified" means holy.
Progressively holy. Not conforming
to the world, but being transformed.
How? By the renewing of our mind.
And then Paul goes on to explain
how we can know the will of God,
and what is the will of God,
from Romans chapter 12 through 16.
But here we have a
Reflection and Response question:
In view of all that God has done
for us through Jesus Christ,
why do some Christians continue
to "walk according to the flesh"
rather than "according to the Spirit"?
And we do know that
there are Christians who purposely
or deliberately chose to walk
according to the flesh
rather than according to the Spirit.
But I think we need to go back
and answer that question.
From the biblical story,
we see this happening to the Corinthians.
Why were the Corinthians walking in the flesh?
Simply because they needed to be taught.
And when Paul really taught them
and confronted them, they began to change.
There are a lot of people out there
that are still infants. They're still babies
because they've received Christ
but they don't know what it means
to walk with Christ.
And that's one of my great burdens, by the way.
That's one reason that I'm doing all these
videos for the Life Essential Study Bible.
And actually redoing them all
using a translation
called the Holman Christian Standard Bible
and now the Christian Standard Bible.
And I did 1500 Principles to Live By.
And then God chose to use that,
particularly because of the QR code technology
and the fact that people could access
these Principles all over the world.
And so what's happening is, we're seeing
people's lives being transformed.
How? Through the teaching of the Word of God.
Though there are so many believers around the world
who are floundering because they
don't understand the will of God.
They understand salvation,
but they don't understand the will of God.
And one of my commitments,
should the Lord tarry, is to give the rest of my life,
as long as I can, to getting this
message around the world.
And for those of you listening,
I'd invite you to be a part of that.
To help us to achieve that goal.
And if you want to know how you can do that,
just go on our website:
BiblePrinciples.org
And you can learn far more about our goals
and how you can be a part of this concept
of taking the Word of God to believers
who know Jesus but they're still infants.
And they're floundering.
They're floundering theologically
because they don't understand the Scriptures.
And they certainly are not walking in the Spirit
because they don't understand what it means
to walk in the Spirit.
So that's a big reason why a lot of Christians
are still walking in the flesh:
they've not been taught.
Now, the other point of course, we need
to acknowledge is that there are
some Christians who simply continue
to be carnal or fleshly,
making decisions to walk in the flesh.
And we see that illustrated
in the lives of the Corinthians.
In fact we see it illustrated
in all the New Testament churches
until they were taught.
And through the Spirit of God
and the Word of God, they began to mature
and to grow into the image of Jesus Christ,
personally and collectively as a body of believers.
So here's the Principle to Live By:
In view of God's mercy, we are humbly
to acknowledge His sovereign grace
and worship Him by offering all parts
of our bodies as a living sacrifice.