Romans 12:1 - Homiletics

Christian sacrifice and worship.

In commencing the practical part of this Epistle, St. Paul adopts a tone of gentle and affectionate persuasion. He might have addressed his readers as disciples, and have used towards them the language of authority and command. But, on the contrary, he calls them his "brethren," and he "beseeches," entreats them, as employing the appeals of love to enforce the precepts of duty. At the same time, his language implies that compliance with his admonitions is not a matter optional and indifferent. He beseeches them because they are brethren, and because he has a right to expect that they will not only listen with respect, but obey with alacrity. Before entering upon the specific duties of the Christian life, and depicting in detail the Christian character, the apostle exhibits in this verse the general ,and comprehensive principle of practical Christianity. As religious men, these Roman Christians must, as a matter of course, offer a sacrifice and a service of worship. And they are here told that the presentation to God of themselves is the one great act in which all specific acts of obedience are summed up and involved. Let them enter into the temple of God, and bring with them a living sacrifice; let them join in offering to Heaven a reasonable, a spiritual worship; for with such the Father will be well pleased.

I. Consider THE MOTIVE WHICH THE APOSTLE URGES in order to induce to consecration. "By the mercies of God." To every sensitive and appreciative mind this is a cogent motive. The mercies of God have been, and are, so many, so varied, so suited to our case, so unfailing, that we cannot meditate upon them without acknowledging the claim they constitute upon us. The word used here is peculiar; the apostle speaks of the pity, the compassions, of the Lord. Language this which brings out our condition as one of dependence, helplessness, and even misery, and which brings out also the condescension and loving-kindness of our heavenly Father. There is, no doubt, an especial reference to the spiritual favours which have been so fully and powerfully described in the earlier portion of the Epistle. The mercies of God are nowhere so apparent as in redemption; and human sin requires a great salvation. In exhibiting the marvellous interposition of Divine grace on behalf of sinful humanity, in explaining the reconciling work of Christ, in depicting the immunities, privileges, and hopes of those who receive the gospel, the apostle has laid a good foundation for the appeal of the text. Mercies may well excite gratitude, for they are undeserved, sovereign, and free; and gratitude in the mind of the Christian, who is under the influence of the Holy Spirit, is a motive of no mean order. And gratitude to such a God, and for such gifts, can only be a motive to virtue and holiness.

II. Consider WHAT THE APOSTLE ENJOINS US TO PRESENT TO GOD . "Your bodies." The vigorous understanding of St. Paul preserved him from that sentimental form of religion which many, professing to be his followers, have adopted and advocated. It will not do to treat men, to regard ourselves, as possessing only a spiritual nature. We have body as well as soul. The most ethereal and ecstatic spiritual experiences do not prove a man to be a true Christian. God requires that body, soul, and spirit should be consecrated to him. For the bodily nature is intended to express and manifest the character, the spiritual life, the true man. If the spirit be renewed and purified, the effect of this Divine work within will be apparent in the outer life. Thus it is that the new creation, which is the work of the Holy Spirit, extends to the whole nature and life. The body, therefore, shares in the death unto sin, and in the new life unto righteousness and holiness. The body is consecrated to him who has redeemed the body as well as the soul; and its members are employed as weapons or instruments, not of sin, but of righteousness. It cannot be supposed that the apostle intends us to understand that bodily service alone is sufficient. Nothing would have been more alien from his whole teaching, or from the spirit of the New Testament, than such a doctrine. Christ has taught us that worship, in order to being acceptable, must be in spirit and in truth; and St. Paul himself has assured us that bodily exercise profiteth nothing, that circumcision avalleth nothing, but a new creation. In presenting our bodies unto God, we offer the praises of our lips and the service of our hands. The body is the instrument of toil. The Christian's daily activity is consecrated to his redeeming God; and this is so, whatever be the employment to which Providence has called him. The body is also the agent of spiritual ministry. Accordingly, the Christian's special efforts to do good, his teaching and preaching, his ministering to the wants of his fellow-men and relieving them from their sufferings, his evangelistic journeys in order to seek the lost and to proclaim the gospel,—all are instances of his consecration of the body as well as of the soul to his redeeming Lord.

III. Remark that such PRESENTATION ON THE PART OF THE CHRISTIAN IS REGARDED AS SACRIFICE . From a study of the religions of mankind, we learn that the sacrifices, alike of the heathen and of the Jews, may be regarded as

Now, as far as expiation, propitiation, is concerned, we, as Christians, know that there has been one, and only one, real and acceptable sacrifice of this kind—the sacrifice of himself offered to the Father by our Lord Jesus Christ. This was the substance of which all that went before was merely the shadow, and which can neither be repeated nor imitated. But as far as the tribute of thanksgiving, adoration, and obedience is concerned, we are taught that this is to be offered to God continually ( Hebrews 13:15 , Hebrews 13:16 ). It is in this respect that all Christians are priests unto God; all, irrespective of the position they hold in the Church, or the special services they render in the congregations of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jewish sacrifice, which this perpetual offering most closely resembles, is the burnt offering, which the Hebrew worshipper brought to Jehovah as the expression of his personal devotion and consecration to Heaven, as the public declaration that he owed everything to the Lord, and that he withheld from him nothing which he possessed. In like manner Christians present their bodies—their whole nature and life—to him who gave himself for them. "Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God with your bodies, which are his." Of this sacrifice, in which all Christians unite, the apostle reminds us that it possesses three qualities.

1. It is living. The sacrifices which the Jews offered were either living creatures, or substances which by their nature ministered to life; and in offering such gifts the worshipping was presenting a symbol of his own life. But ordinary sacrifices were slain; the life was consumed in the offering. The Christian's life is not forfeited in being presented to God. Yet in the presentation there is both death and life. It has been said, "There is in every sacrifice a death, and in this sacrifice a death unto sin, out of which there arises a new life of righteousness unto God. Thus the living sacrifice is that in which, though the natural life is not lost, a new life of holiness is gained." What a privilege is ours, who are expected to bring unto God, not the bodies of brute animals, not the blood of bulls and goats, but our own bodies—our very selves, our living nature—and gratefully and willingly to lay this sacrifice upon the altar of God!

2. It is holy. The animals which were presented under the Mosaic economy were, according to the prescribed regulations, to be free from blemish. This was doubtless an ordinance intended to impress upon the mind of the worshipper a sense of the holiness of the Being who was approached. All who officiated were to be ceremonially clean. The substance, of which these symbols were the shadow, was holiness, spiritual purity, freedom from iniquity. There is nothing upon which greater stress is laid than the requirement that every offering to God shall be such as a Being of perfect purity can accept. A sprinkled body is not sufficient; a pure heart is the demand of him who is himself the all-holy Lord.

3. And such an offering is well pleasing to God. This, indeed, may be inferred from a consideration of God's moral character as a truth-loving and holy Governor, who cannot endure dissimulation and hypocrisy. The enlightened among the ancient Hebrews saw clearly enough that ceremonial purity and ritual correctness were not enough to secure Divine acceptance and favour. And none who enters into the teaching of our Saviour, and sympathizes with the spirit of his religion, can fail to discern the necessity of a living and holy sacrifice in order to please the Searcher of hearts, and satisfy the requirements of Christ.

IV. The offering of the Christian is further represented as A REASONABLE SERVICE OR WORSHIP . The Revisers have, in the margin, "spiritual." It is a service rendered by the intelligent, reasonable, spiritual part of our nature. Though the body is presented, he presentation of the body is the expression of inner, spiritual worship. For the word means "worship"—"an outward act of religious worship." Worship is a universal expression of the religious nature of man. The heathen practised their ritual of ceremony, sacrifice, prayer, adoration; and the Jewish religion imposed an elaborate system of public worship. The superiority of Christian worship is marked. Obedience is the highest and most acceptable form of worship which can be offered to God. This "reasonable worship" is distinguished from worship that is merely mechanical and formal. It is similarly distinguished from all substitutionary worship. It is personal, not representative; not by a priest who worships for the congregation, and professes to offer sacrifice as their representative, but by each individual Christian who has his own tribute to offer, his own service to render.

APPLICATION . The language of the text appeals to those who neglect or withhold this sacrifice, this service, and reproaches them as unreasonable, ungrateful, indefensible, disobedient, self-destructive. It urges them to yield what God asks, through Christ, who makes obedience and praise acceptable offerings to God.