Romans 12:1-2 Phillips. 1 With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. 2 Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.
Romans 12:1-2 MSG. 1 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Observation
This chapter 12 of Romans could be titled, “The Universal Practical Guide to Worshipping God in Your Living.” Paul has spent the previous 11 chapters explaining how only faith in Christ provides forgiveness of sin and redemption, and that faith is not based on or evidenced by the adherence to any Jewish religious rules, practices, or The Law. Living by faith in Christ transcends culture and religious rites, rituals and rules; it is based on:
- 24/7 worship,
- our glad obedience/submission to God’s will, and
- allowing Him the freedom to change us in order to fulfill His plan in and through us – “bring the best out…develop well-formed maturity”.
This might require us to be as counter-cultural as Paul is asking the Jewish believers to be regarding new Gentile believers – by accepting that faith in Christ is not proven by works, but, rather, weighing all against the heart of God to redeem and restore relationship with all of His creation. With this heart, we can embrace others in the Body of Christ in spite of differences in practice as long as Jesus is their Lord and only Savior. Paul lays out the bottom line for all believers here in chapter 12:
- submit (“give Him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to Him and acceptable by Him”),
- be changed and matured by the Holy Spirit (“Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within”)
- serve with humility trusting in God’s plan/purpose for you (“Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it”), and
- let your love be sincere, motivated by mercy, grace, and redemption generously poured out to all (Romans 9-end).
Impact on Me
The book of Romans is cram-packed with teaching by Paul on what really happened on the Cross, Who Christ is, what His sacrifice really provides for all mankind, and how I should respond to/show my gratitude for this free gift of redemption.
Here Paul is saying that I need to:
- submit myself to God, giving the Holy Spirit freedom to search me, know me (without reserving any private areas),
- allow the Holy Spirit to bring areas that need changing to my attention, and
- give the Holy Spirit freedom to work the change in me that makes me ready and able to fulfill God’s will and purpose for me.
This requires me to have the courage to trust Him with my secret places of pride, shame, sorrow, guilt, stubbornness, fear, selfishness, criticism, and all the other ugliness I have hidden away in the locked closets of my soul. I am then shamefully faced with the question of how much I really do trust Him. Would I really be willing to let Him be in charge of cleaning out those closets, truly putting my past, my present, my future under His scrutiny and in His hands regardless of the cost to me? Am I willing for Him to reveal my deepest darkest secrets if it serves His purpose to heal and release me or others? It all comes down to the bottom line – how much do I really trust Him?
Prayer
Lord, my desire is to trust You so unconditionally that I will have no secret places, no locked closets in my soul full of shame, guilt and unforgiveness. I want to cooperate with You in the process – “be changed from the inside out”–so I “may prove in practice that the plan of God for you (me) is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.” Help me to hear the song You sing over me – that it may ring in my flesh, my heart, my spirit so I may worship You with my “everyday, ordinary life…and place it before God as an offering.” I want to live in Heaven’s culture, having my actions determined by what You see with Your eyes and how You love with Your heart. I pray this all in Jesus’ name. Make it so.
Pressing On In His Footsteps 
I want to live in heaven’s culture. Well said.
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