Brothers and sisters, in view of all we have just shared about God’s compassion (mercy), I encourage you to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, dedicated to God and pleasing to him. This kind of worship is appropriate for you.
Romans 12:1
I have hammered away making the point that you should always look for the connections in Scripture. Make sure you pay attention crossing chapter boundaries. Just because there is a chapter boundary does not mean the thought or theme has stopped. Look for the links! Well how did you get on looking for the links to Roman 12:1? Where do you think those links are? How far back did you go?
I am sure you connected Romans 12:1 to 11:33-36. It is obvious Paul’s euphoria in singing the song whether aloud or in his heart has influenced his comments in Romans 12:1. But there is way more to it than that. Make sure you pick on theme words that cross chapter boundaries. If you do that you will see that the comment “in view of God’s mercies” links directly to Rom 11:30-32 and his focus on the mercies of God there. But I am confident you would have got that one. After all we did it just the other day.
But take the link back further than that. What about the fact that you Gentiles are in grafted branches. Remember he is writing this to the Roman church. They are not all Jews. He is putting it in perspective for them. Why are Israel suffering like they are? Don’t neglect the mercy that has come to you as a result. All of the discussion related to Israel has resulted in the Gentiles “stumbling into grace” when they were not looking for it. Wow. That is the Roman church. That is You, that is me. Now that is something to marvel at.
But it goes further back than that. Go back to Paul’s earlier mercy theme found in Romans 9:14-18. Can you see that Paul is keeping all this in mind as he reasons his way through Israel’s situation and the current blessings coming to the Gentiles. After all he is the apostle to the Gentiles but he is Jewish and has a strong burden for his own people. This notion of God’s mercy is upper most in his mind all the way through this passage.
Go back further: what about the argument related to God’s sovereign choice. How He decides who will be chosen and who will be rejected? Who will be loved and who will be “hated”? Praise the God of all heaven that you have been chosen. Never let the wonder and the grace of it escape you.
And yes, I am sure you don’t need me to tell you now that the connection between Romans 12:1 goes all the way back to Romans 8:35. Paul has been focused on the one theme since Romans 8:35. Is it true that nothing can separate us from the love of God? He has proved it beyond doubt in his argument from Romans 8:35 all the way up to Romans 12:1. When Paul says in Romans 12:1 to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, he is doing so “in view of God’s mercies”. I like the God’s Word version at this point – “In view of all that we have just shared about God’s compassions . . .” In the light of all that he has been discussing. Because of all that he has said the only reasonable thing to do is to worship Him with your whole living body. Give it back to Him all of you for Him to use as He pleases. It’s the least you can do.
In fact we could probably include it all from Romans 1:1 but the specific links are the ones discussed above and listed below.
Here are the links again in summary form:
- The hymn before it. (Rom 11:33-36)
- To the references to “mercy” and “kindness”. Rom 11: 22, 30-32.
- You Gentiles have been grafted in. (Rom 11:17 ff)
- Paul’s earlier mercy theme. (Rom 9:14-18)
- God’s sovereign choice. (Rom 9:8 ff)
- “nothing can separate us”. (Rom 8:35)
Now doesn’t that make you want to sing with Paul?
Doesn’t that make Romans 12:1 come alive even more? I hope so.
If not you need to check whether you are “in the faith” or brain dead. Sorry, that comment might be a bit strong but you get my point. No wonder Paul breaks out in song. Do you want to sing right now? Maybe you don’t sing, even in the shower. Well go and put on your favourite worship CD and sing along in your heart. But you get the point I am sure. Let your heart soar with all that Paul has been saying. It is pretty majestic stuff.
When you remember where you were you’ll be grateful for where you are.
Anon
When we walk by faith He gets the glory, because we know we couldn’t have done it.
Anon
Until you know how God feels about you, you’ll know neither your worth as an individual nor your life’s purpose.
Anon