A Response To God's Mercies - Romans 12:1-8 (Sermon)
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WELCOME
It is great to be with you today. We are continuing our study of the letter to the Romans. The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome 2000 years ago. His point was that God’s people would “Live together in the power of the gospel, for it saves everyone who believes.” The first portion of the letter laid out a theological framework; the second applied it. In Paul’s day, a great divide existed between the Jews and non-Jews. Paul, the apostles, and Mary were all Jewish, and the good news about our reconciled relationship with God came first to and through the Jews, then it went beyond. More and more non-Jewish people were coming to faith in Paul’s day. That was part of his mission in life. But there was a problem. The church was divided. What if our God-given differences are meant to bring us together instead of dividing us? We can think of our church, theology, and politics as superior and look down on those who disagree. We can disdain those who don’t share our point of view. We can be self-serving, self-focused, and forget how we got here in the first place. Chapter 12 of Romans turns the corner from deep theology to practice, from a heart of conceit to being meek, from a life of arrogance to a life of service. Let’s dive in.
TEXT
Turn in your Bibles to Romans Chapter 12, verse 1. I am going to have K. Z. read for us. Would you please stand with me in honor of God’s Word?
I appeal to 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. 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.
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:1–8, ESV)
PRAY
Thank you, Kesley. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word. It is light and life for us. We need you. I need you. Use this time for your glory, honor, and praise. Equip us to apply your truth to our lives today. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.
STRUCTURE
Chapter 12 begins with the word “therefore.” This word ties in with the previous eleven chapters and shifts the focus to application. Verses 1 through 3 are the floor joists holding up the rest of God’s commands. The structure of these eight verses breaks down into two parts,
Part 1: Worship God with your all of who you are (12:1–3)
Part 2: A worship that involves a humble use of one’s gifts for others (12:4–8)
Paul was making the argument that “The proper response to God’s mercy is a life of worship and service by grace through the faith that God has given.” This is the opposite of ignoring God, becoming a closed, self-serving, cliquish community, and boxing out those who are different.
SECTION 1:12:1–3 Worship God with your all of who you are
Look at verse 1:
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers” (Romans 12:1a, ESV).
Let’s stop there. I am sure we said this before: the ESV writes “brothers,” but the intended audience and application are broader than that. It includes sisters. The ESV adds a footnote on the Greek word “Adelphos” (brothers) to let us know that, in this case, it includes sisters.
MERCY
Keep reading:
“By the mercies of God” (Romans 12:1b, ESV).
Paul prefaced his application of the eleven chapters with a means. Before we begin, he answers the question, “How can we truly obey God?” The answer is by the mercy of God. It is by the mercies of God that we obey. Mercy is God not treating us as we deserve. By birth and ancestry, we deserve to be children of God’s anger. Our genetic DNA is corrupted with a viral load called sin. Sin is a rebellious disposition that bumps God off the gold medal platform and puts our last-place selves in his stead. But it is worse than that. Our offensiveness is so bad that God says the just outcome of our thoughts, words, and actions is death, physically and spiritually. Yet, God simultaneously retains his goodness, kindness, and love. He chose before time to interrupt our trajectory, open our eyes, and show us his compassion. And through his Son’s death, which we memorialize in communion, we have God’s loving kindness gifted to us. Jesus is our hope to reconcile our wrongs. And through him, we, non-Jewish believers and Jewish believers, unite into one spiritual family. God frees us from the tyranny and shackles of sin. He pours his Holy Spirit into our hearts, empowering us to obey him and live rightly before him. That is what Paul meant by God’s mercy.
WORSHIP
So what is the application? Verse 1:
“To present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 1:1c, ESV).
Paul wrote something similar to this a few chapters before:
“Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness” (Romans 6:13, ESV).
We are to offer up our lives as a sacrifice to God. He wants us to lay down our plans at a proverbial altar. We are to be the worship instruments that play the melody of God’s praise with our lives. Jesus said to his followers,
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24–25, ESV).
Are we laying down our lives and submitting ourselves to God? How are you doing, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being outright rebellious and 10 being in perfect alignment with God’s will, this minute? Why would you say that? Where might you be holding back? God wants us to submit to him with all of who we are. He wants all of our attention and affection. God wants all of us. If you think of yourself as a 1, go back to God’s mercy. It is there for you as well as the ten.
CONFORMED
Paul explained,
“Do not be conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2a, ESV).
When I was a kid, I played with Play-Doh. I got this from the preschool room. I will return it. How many of you played with that? Did any of you make Play-Doh from scratch? Raise your hands. Did any of us eat it? Don’t try it, it is salty. Don’t ask me how I know that. Anyway, we shaped that Play-Doh into people, animals, and objects. The world can do that to us. Have you ever experienced that? I have. Here is what happens to me. When I read a book that has foul language in it or watch a movie with that in it, those words are more in my consciousness. When something goes poorly in my life, those words are easier to grab and use. Similarly, if I hang around a crowd going the opposite way from God, when I am faced with decisions, my decisions tend to take on a similar mold. God tells us, “Bad company ruins good morals” (1 Corinthians 15:33, ESV). Our actions often flow from what is shaping us. What shapes you? What influences you? Are you okay with how that is working? What might it look like to allow God to change that?
RENEWAL
The passage offers an alternative:
“Do not be conform to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2b, ESV).
God wants us to invest time in reflecting on life, not just go with the flow. How? Psalm 119 provides direction,
How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:9–11, ESV)
Paul penned, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5, ESV). We can capture our thoughts and resist living by appetites, habits, norms, and impulses that are inherent or imposed by the world. Through God’s Word, capturing our thoughts for Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be free from wrecking our lives with sin. Jesus’s half-brother wrote, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14–15, ESV). Jesus said, “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person” (Matthew 15:18, ESV). Friends, sin begins inside our hearts and minds. It can begin with a suggestion from Satan or the world, but we choose to give it power. If we want to change our actions, we need to consider each conviction.
WILL
Paul will give us the why next. Jump back to Romans 12:
“That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2c, ESV).
God’s will is good, acceptable, and perfect. There have been times in my life when I desperately wanted to know God’s will.
What school should I go to?
What major should I pick?
What job should I seek?
And who should I marry?
Here we see how to find God’s will. Renew your mind. What that means is get into this book (Now, a disclaimer: The Bible teaches principles and truths that help us navigate the choices we make, not dictate a step-by-step guide to what you will eat in an hour. Robert James from our church often reminds me that the BIBLE stands for
Basic
Instructions
Before
Leaving
Earth)
I love that. This book will help you. It won’t spell out everything you want, but it will give you a direction. That is why we build our teaching and preaching on this book, not a psychological, cultural, or philosophical trend.
HUMILITY
We gain God’s perspective by renewing our minds. It results in verse 3:
“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Romans 12:3, ESV).
Renewing our minds results in humility. The church should be a rehab center more than a country club. None of us is perfect. We all have issues. I have issues, talk to my kids and wife. If you think you are fine and perfect, you are wrong. We are all works in progress. And if you know you have failed. Don’t think you have to have a clean life to be a part of this church. Paul was reminding the church that we are to live in sober judgment of who we are and what we have done. Pride has no place at church. Maybe you are smart, strong, and accomplished. You have some things to brag about. Way to go! That is awesome! Just know, nurture and nature have a place to play in getting you to where you are today. You and I are contingent beings. Lots of things have had to fall into place for us to be where we are. And Paul is telling us that it is God’s mercy that we are in the situation we are in today.
PAUL
Therefore, he wrote elsewhere,
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of man, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:3–8, ESV)
God said to the prophet Micah,
“What does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8b, ESV).
How are you walking, with a swagger or with gratitude? God wants the latter, not the former, in us. God’s mercy leads to humility.
SECOND POINT: 12:4–8 Which involves a humble use of your gifts for others
The output of mercy and humility is the optimization of our diversity for the greater good of our church community. Go to verse 4:
“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Romans 12:4–5, ESV).
Paul frequently compared the church to the body. If you put your faith in Jesus, you truly trust in his saving work, not just the facts, then regardless of your membership status, you are a member of the global Body of Christ. You are part of the community of faith. You are an eye, ear, hand, or foot. Each has a different role to play. Jesus gathers a diverse group of people to worship him and to spread the news of God’s mercy.
APPLICATION
Paul went on to unpack the various gifts that God gives each member to bless the local church. One Bible scholar sums it up, “Paul’s central point… is that each believer has something to contribute to the proper functioning of Christ’s body” (Craig S. Keener, Romans, New Covenant Commentary Series (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2009), 146). So how does this work? Look at verse 6:
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them:
if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;
if service, in our serving;
the one who teaches, in his teaching;
the one who exhorts, in his exhortation;
the one who contributes, in generosity;
the one who leads, with zeal;
the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:6–8, ESV)
This list is not exhaustive. There are other lists of gifts in the Bible. For example, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4. They overlap but not exactly. The implication is that if you don’t see your gift here in Romans 12, take heart, there are others. Know this: you are gifted. You have a place in God’s family, brothers and sisters. You belong to God and in the church through your trust and his grace. You are as important as having a hand and a foot. So, let’s look at each gift that Paul brings up.
PROPHECY
What is this gift of prophecy? To the Corinthian church, Paul wrote,
“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:1, ESV).
We often think of prophecy as a prediction. It can be. There was a Christian prophet in Acts named Agabus. He predicted the future. However, prophecy was more than that. Paul wrote,
“On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation….For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged” (1 Corinthians 14:3, 31, ESV)
So, those who have this gift build up, encourage, console, and educate. Historically, many in the church viewed this gift as preaching but different from writing Scripture or a “Thus Saith the Lord.” This gift needs to sync with the Bible. Paul wrote,
“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:19–21, ESV).
We test things by checking them against God’s Word. There were and are false prophets who baptize their teaching with “God told me” or the “Spirit’s leading.” You can find a number of them online. I like how Wayne Grudem clarifies this gift in his systematic theology,
So prophecies in the church today should be considered merely human words, not God’s words, and not equal to God’s words in authority…. Paul is simply referring to something that God may suddenly bring to mind, or something that God may impress on someone’s consciousness in such a way that the person has a sense that it is from God. (Systematic Theology 1055–1056)
Let’s look at the other gifts. They need less explanation.
SERVICE
The next gift was service. Every one of us is a servant of God and called to serve. We exist for service. Paul began his letter introducing himself as a servant of Christ Jesus (Romans 1:1). To another church, he wrote, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13, ESV). Yet, Paul describes this as a gift that some people have in a special sense. If that is you, know you are gifted to serve.
TEACH
Some of you are teachers. God says, “If teaching is your gift, teach.” There are formal and informal ways to do that. Look for ways to exercise your talent. I am sure Kesley could use help in the Children’s ministry. You may be able to assist with adult Sunday school. If that is the case, talk to me. Many of our congregation teach in homeschool and public school settings. Bring your gift to the service of God. Now, you may recall the gift of prophecy and wonder, “What is the difference between teaching and prophecy?” Wayne Grudem points to the spontaneous versus prepared nature (Systematic Theology 1058).
EXHORT
Paul then talked about exhorting. During the Puritan era, there was a person in service called the Exhorter. In the book, Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea for Preaching, Al Mohler wrote,
Isaac Backus, the great Baptist, was first an exhorter before he was a preacher. In revolutionary America, the exhorter had a particular task in the congregation, and this one was not likely to be popular. After the preacher had preached, it was his responsibility to apply the message. This might mean going up to somebody and saying, “This is going to be how you change behavior.” Now Backus was 15 years old when he took on this assignment. (p. 25–26)
That is not how we interpret the text here, but I found it fascinating. This exhortation is more like coaching, cheerleading, and mentoring. If that is you, don’t let up, give up, but keep up for Jesus.
CONTRIBUTIONS
Paul then talked about the gift of generosity. You don’t have to be wealthy to participate. I think of Jesus commending the widow, who had basically two pennies. This is a generous church. We have met and exceeded our mission giving goal this year. We have wonderful teams of people who steward money on our behalf. We accept benevolent offerings to help with people’s food and utility bills. The other day, a gentleman was stuck and needed fuel to get going. He and I talked for a bit, and I gave him a gas card and a blessing. I wouldn’t have done that if it weren’t for your generosity. It is a blessing to bless, so bless as God provides. Let’s be cheerful about it.
LEADS
Some of you have the gift of leadership. Leadership can be exhibited in various ways. Use your influence for good, not evil. Lead with a passion to honor the Lord.
MERCY
The last gift was mercy. That fits because the passage began with mercy. We have a merciful God. We should be merciful as well. Let us all not be begrudging, arms folded, grumpy givers. Let us be merciful in our listening and caring. And if you have an extra capacity for mercy, press on, friend.
APPLICATION
Here are some questions that Pastor Mike shared with me (I modified them a bit):
What does it look like for you to worship God with all your life? (Mod)
“Where are you tempted to conform to the world?”
How can you be renewed by God’s truth this week? (Mod)
What gifts has God given you to serve the body? (Mod)
We are a community of believers with different gifts and talents that God wants us to use to bless each other. This is exciting. Your life has a purpose. We get to discover what that is. If you don’t know, try out your gifts and see what happens.
PRAYER
Thank you. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, help us, me included, to worship you with all that we are. Lead us not into conformity with the world. Renew our minds with your Word by your Holy Spirit. And multiply the gifts in our local church community for your glory and our joy. We pray all this in Jesus’s name. Amen.
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