Romans 12:1

Romans 12:1. I beseech you therefore, brethren Paul uses to suit his exhortations to the doctrines he has been delivering. So here the general exhortation to universal holiness, grounded on, and inferred from, the whole of the preceding part of the epistle, is contained in the first and second verses. Particular advices and precepts follow from the third verse to the end of the epistle. By the mercies Δια των οικτιρμων , the bowels of mercies, or tender mercies of God The whole sentiment is derived from chap. 1.-5.; the expression itself is particularly opposed to the wrath of God, Romans 1:18. It has a reference here to the entire gospel, to the whole economy of grace or mercy, delivering us from the wrath of God, and exciting us to all duty. “The love,” says Macknight, “which God hath expressed in our redemption by Christ, and in making us [true] members of his church, is the most winning of all considerations to engage us to obey God; especially as his commands are calculated to make us capable of the blessings he proposes to bestow on us in the next life. We should therefore habitually recollect this powerful motive, and particularly when any difficult duty is to be performed.” That Instead of the animal victims, whose slaughtered bodies you have been accustomed to offer, either to the true God, or to idols, you would now present As it were, at his spiritual altar; your own bodies That is, yourselves, as he expresses himself, Romans 6:13, a part being put for the whole; and the rather, as in the ancient sacrifices of beasts, to which he alludes, the body was the whole. These also are particularly named, in opposition to the abominable abuse of their bodies, of which the heathen were guilty, mentioned Romans 1:24. And several other expressions follow, which have likewise a direct reference to other expressions in the same chapter. To this we may add, that having taught, Romans 7:5; Romans 7:18; Romans 7:23, that the body, with its lusts, is the source and seat of sin, he exhorted the Romans, very properly, to present their bodies to God a sacrifice, by putting the lusts and appetites thereof to death. It may be proper to observe, also, that the word παραστησαι , here rendered to present, is the word by which the bringing of an animal to the altar to be sacrificed was expressed. A sacrifice Dedicated to God entirely and irrevocably; (for in the ancient sacrifices, the animals were wholly given, and were not taken back again;) made dead to the world and sin, being slain by the commandment, (Romans 7:9,) or by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and is quick and powerful to effect this death, (Hebrews 4:12,) and living by that life which is mentioned Romans 1:17; Romans 6:4, &c.; that is, by faith in the gospel, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus; and thus made a living sacrifice indeed; holy A sacrifice such as the holy law requires, and the Holy Spirit produces. This is spoken in allusion to the sacrifices under the law being required to be without blemish. Acceptable A sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour. The sum is, Let your whole souls, with all their faculties, and your bodies, with all their members, being sanctified and animated by divine grace, be dedicated to, and employed in the service of him to whom you are under such immense obligations. Which is your reasonable service Such a sacrifice is reasonable, not merely because, as Beza observes, it is the sacrifice of a rational creature; whereas the sacrifices of birds and beasts, &c, were sacrifices, αλογων ζωων , of irrational animals; but because the whole worship and service is highly, nay, infinitely reasonable, being the worship and service of faith, love, and obedience, the objects of which are divine truth and love, and wise, just, holy, and kind commands: or, in other words, affections and dispositions, words and actions, suited to the divine perfections, and the relations subsisting between us and God, as our Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, Saviour, friend, and father in Christ Jesus. And as the sacrifice is thus reasonable, it is equally reasonable that we should offer it, being under indispensable, yea, infinite obligations so to do. So that in offering this sacrifice, and in all things, a Christian acts by the highest reason, from the mercy of God inferring his own duty.