This article is based on the notes from the devotional given at Redeemer Baptist Church's member's meeting on October 30th, 2026.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)
I recently looked through my records and could not find a time that I directly taught on this passage of Scripture – this well known, pointed, incredibly helpful pair of verses. I've quoted it lots, I've prayed it over us lots, but I've never really taught through it. And so, I made a point of teaching these verses to the Redeemer Youth at our recent Night Hike. And because it was helpful there, I thought it might be helpful here. I mean, surely teenagers aren't the only ones who need to renew their minds and resist worldly pressures to conform. These are issues common to man.
I think the reason it is so helpful an exhortation is because of its context. Paul hinges his great letter to the Romans here. Everything before was gospel and passive as far as we are concerned. It was about that alien righteousness apart from the Law, apart from our obedience, a righteousness credited to our accounts by grace through faith in Christ. Great gospel indicatives. God did this, God did that. Glorious truth is found in Romans 1-11. In fact, Paul agrees. He ends 11 with this:
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34 "For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counsellor?"
35 "Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?"
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)
And he doesn't just look at that and say, "Wow… well, anyways", and move on, end of book. No, he takes all that glorious truth of God's indicatives – and he puts them immediately to work. We have talked before about Credenda and Agenda. Things to be believed, and things to be done. That's what this is. Romans 12:1-2 is the hinge of the book where we go from Credenda to Agenda. Ephesians does a very similar thing from Credenda in 1-3 to Agenda in 4-6. Both there in Ephesians and here in Romans we have a therefore clause to make that connection clear.
Ephesians 4:1 - I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
And here in Romans 12 - I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice
We must not miss that connection. It's not just as some translations have it, in view of God's mercies, but literally by the mercies of God. Greek: dia, meaning by or through. It's an instrumental phrase implying that your action is done in dependence and connection to this other thing. So, how do we obey? We obey this command by the mercies of God. Through the power of this glorious gospel. That's important.
And what is it exactly that we are called to here? To present your bodies as a living sacrifice. This means obedience to God's revealed will. It is not a one-time sacrifice in view here, but a continual one, a living one. Not something external to yourself, like a monetary offering or some animal, but the most personal thing you could give, namely, your person! Offer your body. Present yourself. That's your worship. It's your holy, reasonable, service to God.
Again, we offer ourselves to God wholly and completely, because we belong to Him wholly and completely by His grace.
As the Heidelberg Confession has it in the famous question and answer:
Q: What is your only comfort in life and death?
A: That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ…He makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him.
What is our response to the gospel? Is it not to live our lives for the glory of Christ in every conceivable way, in every corner of our existence? It absolutely is. And that's exactly what Paul is saying to the church at Rome. That's what the Spirit of God is saying to you.
For the sake of time we won't get much into verse 2 tonight – but just consider this. It is worldliness that is opposed to this holy worship. Living for God will mean no longer living for sin and for self. This world is devoted to these things. We often talk of our threefold enemy – the world, the flesh, and the devil. We must do battle with them. We must follow the text here and not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
The world will tell you to live for yourself, to play it safe, to take it easy, to explore your every whim and desire, to find fulfillment and satisfaction in all that is earthly and even in what is base. But the Word of God says otherwise. Seek the things that are above, Colossians 3 says.
Jesus' core teaching on faith and discipleship is this:
"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it (Mark 8:34-35).
The world says let loose and find yourself, Christ says come to Him and die to self. This is what we would call an irreconcilable difference. You must choose for yourself what you will do. Who will you serve?
There are many applications to be made from this text. In a way that's what the next five chapters of Romans are all about. But let me leave you with this tonight. To be a committed church member, coming to worship God on Sundays, committing yourself to the body of Christ, giving generously, serving faithfully, loving sacrificially – this is utterly foreign to the world's way of doing things, and it is exactly what God's Word prescribes for you. It is evidence in you of a transformation by God's grace in conformity to His Word. It's not the world's mold that is shaping you anymore, it's God's mold. To step up and serve sacrificially, to take on an office of deacon or elder, to give time and money to the Lord's work, even on a Friday night – the world doesn't understand you people. And that's perfect. Whoever said a Living Sacrifice would look normal? A life given to God, burning bright for His glory, burning but not consumed, dying but yet so completely alive, that's the miracle of what God does in His redeemed.