Introduction

Romans 12:1-2 is a classic New Testament passage. It is very familiar, well known, and memorized. And rightly so because this passage stands at a distinct juncture in the book of Romans and gives a very penetrating summary of Christian duty in light of the gospel to the Romans. In Romans 12:1-2 we have a transition from the doctrinal to the practical sections of the book.

Of course, chapters 1-11 have practical bearing on the Christian life since all doctrine is practical as the wisdom of God that frames our worldview. But we can say that the emphasis in the early chapters is on the gospel of righteousness by faith in the context of the great purpose and providence of God. Within this emphasis there are just a few direct exhortations (i.e., Romans 6). Thus the duty we have emerging from these opening chapters is to know the truth and to put it in place as a framework and structure for living. That is very practical. All doctrinal study and meditation is also very practical as the place of fellowship with the triune God to whom we have dedicated ourselves as disciples in baptism.

But there is a shift from doctrine to practice as an accent (from practical structure to practical specifics). So let me ask you this question. If you were Paul and came to this point in the book where you were about to take up many practical duties, what demands of mercy would you cite first? What would you cite first to set the stage for all that you are now about to say in a practical vein before you close your letter? To say this another way, if Paul gives a shotgun blast in 12-16, then how does he load the gun and fire in 12:1-2? Or, what is the firing pin from which this cloud of pellets of practical proverbs and exhortations emerges?

Paul gives us two demands of mercy. They are broad, sweeping and penetrating. They are summary in nature and set the stage for the development of a multitude of practical duties. In a word, mercy demands worship and mercy demands godliness. These overlap but they can be distinguished. Today I will focus on "mercy’s demand of worship."

The kind of worship demanded is discussed in the following ways. We have 1) the call to worship, 2) the focus of worship, 3) the character of worship, and 4) the depth of worship.

1A. The call to worship

A tone is set by the way Paul summons us to the duty of worship. 1) He speaks in words of fervent and earnest entreaty (I beseech you, I entreat you). 2) He addresses the people of God as family: "brothers" and thus as brothers and sisters in the Lord. The call is couched in such a way that it reminds us that we are members one of another in the family of God. Here worship, though a duty, is a matter of privileged fellowship with the saints in the Holy Spirit as brothers and sisters with God as our Father. And 3) His basis takes us back in thought through the preceding chapters to reflect on the tender mercies of God given us in Jesus Christ, the risen Lord of glory ("therefore" and "by the mercies of God").

Romans 1-11 can be highlighted by two crescendo’s. Like a great orchestration, its music increases in volume, intensity, and fervency at the end of Romans 8 and at the end of Romans 11 (8: everything/nothing-everything is worked for your good believer; nothing can separate you from the love of Christ; 11: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God-so deep that no man can fully comprehend His mind; so free that no one can counsel Him and He is debtor to no one; He is originator, sustainer, designer of all-to Him be the glory forever, amen.).

There is a shift from a crescendo of blessing to a crescendo of praise. Therefore, when you reach Romans 11:36, you either end the book or you get down to brass tacks and come down to earth calling for the praise of lip to become praise of life.

It is clear what Paul does. The book does not end at Romans 11:36. Instead, He goes on to exhort us with the demands of mercy.

Recall the marvelous little phrase, "but kindness to you" (11:22). God’s loving kindness has given you justification by faith and thus the righteousness of God, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life. You are called, all the called will be glorified, so you will be glorified. Everything is being worked for your good. Nothing can separate you from His love. Christ has won safe passage to heaven for you. You know your journey’s end: heaven, with Christ, in worship of the triune God.

So Paul says, on the basis of these manifold and tender mercies, I warmly entreat you fellow family members who make up God’s household, to go to a new temple with a new sacrifice and worship the Lord your God. Next he tells us what to take to the altar as a sacrifice in worship. For lack of a better word, let’s call this the focus of worship.

2A. The focus of worship

On the basis of God’s tender mercies Paul focuses the worship to which he calls us. There is sacrifice when you come to the altar in worship. The sacrifice to be presented is "your bodies." Do you see how foundational and sweeping this is?

The demand of worship has a very pointed focus. Paul centers attention on an act of worship in which we present our bodies to God (v. 1). This is interesting to think of worshipping God by a focus on the body. You are not merely a body. You are a body-soul unit, a material-immaterial whole. But Paul puts accent on the body. He says in effect that you are to present yourselves to God in terms of that by which you touch the physical world and live in God’s creation over time. It is a "living" sacrifice.

Every day you present your body to various activities and tasks. As you do so, the duty is to present your body, in these activities and tasks, to God. It is both a presentation to God and a presentation to the various activities and tasks. In other words, worship is very earthy, very down to earth. It is bodily. It involves all that we are and do wherever we go. Where your body goes you go (at least, that is the case for most of us but for some it might be said, "they aren’t all there"). What your body does, you do. Wherever you present your body to the activities of life, there you are to present yourself in worship to God in all that you are and all that you represent. This is very practical; worship is relevant and touches down where the rubber meets the road (it is life-living-worship).

I suppose Paul could not be more inclusive, more wholistic, or relevant than he is here in this focus on the body. Obviously, he is not speaking narrowly about gathering for corporate worship or even private worship. These are included but his focus is much more comprehensive. His focus is on the body, your body, as a presentation to God in worship.

This shows, of course, that Scripture does not direct us to a negative view of the body. There is no spiritual versus physical compartmentalizing of the Christian life. The body is not the prison house of the soul (as it was in much of Greek thought). We are so much a body-soul unit that the mysterious separation of the soul from the body in death is an unnatural state, an anomaly, a state of exposure like being unclothed (2 Cor. 5 ). Our salvation includes the body. This is now and not yet. The not yet will occur in the resurrection. Now the body is Lord’s and we worship by presenting our bodies to Him as a sacrifice on the altar. This is a new sacrifice on a new altar that demands my body and thus "my life, my soul, my all."

This focus on the body reminds us of how much of our sinning takes place through acts of the body. We sin in the heart but we manifest and work out our sinning in bodily actions. For example, with our hands we take hold of the possessions of someone else and with our feet we steal away in the night. In Romans 6 Paul tells us that formerly we presented the parts of our body to sin as instruments of wickedness; now he says, "offer the parts of your body to God as instruments of righteousness" (v. 13).

That is the focus of worship: present your body to God as a sacrifice. Present your aches and pains, limitations, abilities, desires, hungers, emotions, organs of speech, organs of sight and organs of sound (vocal chords, lips, eyes and ears) all to the Lord who has given and given and given again in Christ. In sum of His gifts: your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

3A. The character of worship

Let’s now characterize this worship. It is described by the adjectives that describe the sacrifice we are to present. It is to be not only a living sacrifice but also a holy, and an acceptable sacrifice.

Holy. There are different ways you can start off the day. You might say in prayer: "Lord, I dedicate this day to you." Or, "I dedicate myself to your service today." What this passage does is focus that prayer in the presentation of the body, which is very fundamental, comprehensive, and concrete: "Lord, I present my body to you today in all I do wherever my feet take me."

It continues through the day task by task. You carry with you a sense of the sacredness of the task for it is worship. At times when the going gets rough, you may utter that commitment again: "here, in this office, on this scaffold, in this store, on this fork lift, I present my body to you." This is a great summary way to focus the use of your body in all that you do.

Another way to think through the implications of the body on the altar in worship is to remember that there is no longer a particular place where God is to be worshipped as formerly when worship took place at the temple in Jerusalem. Now it is in Spirit and truth. Back then there were priests who were set apart to mediate the worship. Now each one of you is a priest; you are set apart by God, so, give your body to His service. You are a believer-priest. And your work in life whatever it may be is to be done as a priest. Your work at home, for K-Mart, for Edison, for Northwest Airlines, and so forth, is the work of a priest. When you go to your place of employment, you take your body there. You take your body as an offering to present to God there. What does that tell you about your place of employment? It tells you that it is the new temple where you do your priestly service. All of your work must therefore be viewed as a sacred calling; there is no going out to the secular realm to simply endure the passage of time there in something unspiritual. It is your vocation, your calling in the providence of God as a priest with an offering, the offering of your body as a living and continuous sacrifice to your Father in heaven.

It is decisive at the beginning but it is reiterated repeatedly remembering who we are and where we are going. We are pilgrim priests in transition. We are on a journey to the heavenly temple. Now our temple service takes place wherever we pitch our tent, wherever we go and whatever we do. This is simply to say that the acknowledgement of Romans 11:36 touches down in a very physical way in whatever you eat, in whatever you drink, and in whatever you do: "do all to the glory of God."

This living commitment is therefore to holiness of life. Does this look back to the life lived before coming to the altar as one might look back to the fact that lamb on the altar was without blemish? Because it is living it must look backward and forward. Looking back, we are to come to God in special acts of public and private worship out of a context of holy living. Looking forward, we are to commit ourselves to holy living as a daily living sacrifice to God.

Obviously, this does not mean that we attain ethical perfection in this life. It is a call to strive for holiness of life in repentance and faith. It means pursuing holiness for dear life. It means plundering the storehouse of divine truth for its treasures. It means taking the kingdom by storm with determination, forceful and relentless determination, to seize the kingdom as a prize and to live by its rich and unfailing resources.

Acceptable. Here is an encouragement. It is pleasing to God. It is acceptable to your loving heavenly Father. In other words, taking up this pursuit and commitment pleases the Lord despite our failings. He is pleased with the presentation of our bodies to Him in an act of worship and prayer and in a life committed to His glory.

It is a pleasing thought to know that this is pleasing to our loving Lord. He bought us with His own blood to make our bodies the temple of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, by His sacrifice He made us priests and the whole world His temple. Wherever we go we are His temple and we are in His temple. So wherever we go we are to commit ourselves to priestly offering of our bodies to God-right there where the age to come has invaded the present evil age. This offering in prayer, this acknowledgement, this commitment, this living work as a sacrifice to God pleases the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

4A. The depth of worship

The focus on the body is comprehensive and thus includes our whole being. After making this emphasis, Paul narrows his attention to the inner depth of this down to earth and body-oriented worship. He says it is "your reasonable service" (KJV; NIV has "your spiritual worship.").

The word translated "spiritual" directs our attention from the outer man of the body to the inner man of the heart. Additional to what has already been said about the comprehensiveness of this down to earth worship, we are further directed to the realm of thought and refection deep within ourselves. Worship is to be thoughtful. It is not a matter of simply going through the motions, of being there in the body and acting out worship as an outward performance. It is a matter of the heart and mind.

There is a constraint here, a reasonableness. This is the right thing to do the reasonable thing in light of all the facts. Thus we are motivated to worship. Pondering the mercies of God, the great realities that stand over us in all of our existence upon this earth, and the mystery of our very being as body and soul, we are to present our bodies to God.

But it goes beyond motivation to implementation. Life-body-living worship is a matter of thoughtfulness. It is a matter of concentration that dovetails with reverence for the Lord our God. Thus discipline of the body goes with its presentation as a sacrifice to God. This simply translates into a disciplined life. We are back to the basic fact that the Christian life, the Christ-like life, takes work. It takes hard work and diligent effort. That is what we are called to do in this presentation of our bodies as a living and thoughtful sacrifice to God. It is only reasonable, it is right, it has a depth, it is spiritual, it is continual and it is thoughtful. Thus mercy’s demand of worship is a demand that is as deep as it is comprehensive.

This is a call to salvation, to entrust your body to God giving yourself away to be His (it is the commitment made in baptism). And this is a call to sanctification, to holiness of life in the flesh.

Some final thoughts

1) This exhortation that opens the way to practice points us back to doctrine. Concrete worship is reasonable and thoughtful. Just think about what you have received in Christ and the implication is that you must worship God. A little more thought reveals that you must worship Him in every act of the body. Thus, your body is made a living sacrifice to serve the living God in a way that reaches deep within where you think God’s thoughts after Him. Thus, in corporate worship our singing should be thoughtful (use of vocal chords, tongues, lips and mouth expressing the impact of truth on our whole person).

2) Second, this inner depth yields submission, acceptance, and discipline regarding the outer man. The outer man is dying daily due to the curse of sin, and this is not removed by saving grace while we remain here in this present age. So, we consciously face and submit to the way appointed, to things beyond our control. And we work through the pain, the problems, the blessings, and the mercies to service by disciplining ourselves for godliness.

3) Worship can be characterized in at least three ways that gives a profound depth to the Christian life. It involves private worship in personal devotions, public worship at the gathered assembly, and public-public worship wherever we go in whatever we do as believer-priests.