Romans 12:1-2 PHILLIPS 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. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-mold 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 Ultimate Practical Guide to Christian 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 and submission to God’s will regardless of the cost to us, and allowing Him to change (mold) us so He can fulfill His plan and purposes in and through us – “bring the best out…develop well-formed maturity”.
Paul is begging each of us here to recognize that becoming mature and offering true worship requires a sacrifice – choosing heavenly culture over our worldly one. 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 what we do, but, rather, by the extent of our surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Like clay molded by an artist’s hands, Paul is begging us to rest in God’s hands and let Him mold and shape us for His purposes. Do we dare? Can we submit to letting Him choose our best use?
Impact on Me
The book of Romans is cram-packed with teaching by Paul on what really happened on the Cross, Who Christ is and what His sacrifice really provides for all mankind. Additionally, he now addresses how I should respond to what Jesus has done for me in order to show my gratitude for this free gift of redemption.
If and when I a willing, Paul tell me I need to submit myself unconditionally to God, giving the Holy Spirit freedom to search me, know me (without reserving any private areas), bring areas that need changing to my attention and then, as I allow, work the change in me that makes me mature – 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.
Here I am face-to-face with the bottom line 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, present and future in His hands regardless of what I think it might cost me? Am I willing for Him to reveal my deepest darkest secrets if it serves His purpose to heal and release me or others? How much am I willing to sacrifice to be mature in my worship?
Prayer
Lord, my desire is to so trust You that I will have no secret places, no locked closets in my soul, that 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 not only my ears, but also resonate through my heart and 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 how You love with Your heart. I pray this all in Jesus’ name. Make it so.
Pressing On In His Footsteps 