Romans 12:1-8
March 30, 2025

1 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.
•       Paul is directing his fellow believers to do one thing: present our lives as a sacrifice.
•       To the first audience, this of course evokes thoughts and images of the sacrifices that the Jews made for thousands of years. The killing of an animal, shedding its blood to atone for their sins, was required by God according to His law.
•       How do we set ourselves apart? Our model is always Jesus; we look to him as our example of how to live.
o       There was no living sacrifice quite like Jesus and how he lived and died.
o       He gave his life to do the will of the father here on earth.
o       Matt 22:37 “You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole mind.” He needs our whole self, every part of us.
o       The sacrifices of the Pharisees weren’t enough, for their hearts were far from him

2 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.
•       Scripture confirms, to be set apart is to not conform to the world, we are to be separate from the things of this world. Hard to do, since we have no choice but to live here, in the world. To conform would be to have similar values and interests.
•       “be transformed”. Two important notes.
o       Transformed means it was one way and now it needs to be another. All need this
       We ourselves never had a godly mind; we were born in sin and never knew anything different prior to the spirit entering us.
o       “be” transformed, it is not us doing the work! Who else could it be?
       In his great mercy he transforms us.
       We are not the ones powering the engine. We are the ones being transformed; it is a command but it is also passive. A tough line to walk.
o       But we are told another outcome of this transformation is that we Christians “may discern what is the will of God”. We are given a compass or a barometer, a way for us to tell what is good and perfect.
o       cool check; how to know if you’re being transformed? Do you know more about what is good and acceptable to God today than you were yesterday? There is always more; “be transformed” is ongoing. Becoming more Christlike

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
•       Self-assessment is good. Sober judgement means being clear eyed. Luke 6:41
o       “Why do you see the spec that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
o       Jesus tells us to examine ourselves, desire to see our faults. It can be difficult to see our own sin which is why it is so critical to have fellow Christians around us. Paul will make that connection in the very next verse.
•       Be humble in your self-assessment. Judge with the right scale. Understand that it is not of our own goodness and ability that we can do anything. In (v3), Paul, who is undoubtably one of the most renown Christians in the history of the faith, says about himself that it is through grace that he can even teach this.

4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
•       You have many parts that compose one overarching object. In a courtroom, a confession, video recordings, sworn testimonies: they each serve a different function but they all contribute to the strength of the case, building the body of evidence.
•       Each component is distinct; it is recognizable on its own. However, that distinct component is out of place when it is alone. One piece of evidence is weaker and less effective by itself. It might not win the case.
•       The results are less drastic for a body that is missing a part, but still very impactful. A person without a part, like a hand, might not die, the body certainly feels the absence. It can do less. That person is disabled because of a missing part.
•       According to verse 5, it is in Christ that we are one body. We are not united because we like each other, because we get along. We are not united because we live in Atlanta. Nor because we have kids that are the same age or similar interests. We are one in CHRIST JESUS. That is the primary and ONLY relevant piece of information that binds us together.
•       When we unite over other things, it can and does cause partiality. Inevitably when we don’t have the same personal connection with other members, we think of them as less important to the body. When we see people for anything other than the image of God with Jesus living inside them, we love them with human, earthly love, and not the love of the spirit.
o       Earthly love will always fail, will never go the distance, and is not how we love

6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
•       As different parts of the body, we love one another the way we love Jesus and we sacrificially serve the body with our different gifts.
•       Two points to make:
o       We all have distinct gifts that God gave uniquely to YOU
o       Use our gifts, don’t sit on them
•       This is the point of having distinct members. We are not cult members, all interchangeable. We the body can feel when there is a lack of a particular spiritual gift.
•       This is a relevant command this morning; please today examine your gifting. How has the Lord gifted you?
•       There is a phenomenon in animals and humans alike: when a man loses his sense of sight, his hearing increases. The body compensates.
o        Fact is, our body has less people who are able to teach the word of God to others than we did 2 weeks ago. So, what gifts do you have, are you using them?
•       This is not a complete list of what gifts exist; it is meant to exhort us to use what God has given us for his unique purposes.
•       Are you using your gifts as a member of the body of Jesus Christ?
•       The cool thing about the body metaphor is that it ceases to be a metaphor. Jesus left his disciples with his spirit and said “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8.
•       We Christians have the spirit in us and we are given the incredible responsibility to be Jesus’ hands and feet, his physical body.
•       Is Jesus Christ acting in the world today through the unique gifts that he has given you?

2 Corinthians 1:5-6
“For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort.”

We are not here at this church to merely absorb. We are to pour in to others, it is supposed to cost us something. But the promise of the scriptures is that we will be better for it, better Christ followers. We are to be a living sacrifice to those around us and to Christ who lives in us all.

We are called to use our lives to worship God with our actions and our lives.

Application
Being the body is to be the hands and feet of Jesus. How are you serving?

What have you sacrificed, specifically for other Christians and for Jesus?

Are you self-assessing with God’s scale? Do you have others that can speak in to your life to help you see the plank?

In what way is your life distinct and set apart for God, or are you living just like everyone else?

Have you accepted the grace God has shown you?

Heidelberg Catechism (1563) #1
Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A. That I am not my own, but belong—
body and soul, in life and in death—
to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,
and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
He also watches over me in such a way
that not a hair can fall from my head
without the will of my Father in heaven;
in fact, all things must work together for my salvation
Because I belong to him,
Christ, by his Holy Spirit,
assures me of eternal life
and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready
from now on to live for him.
Q. What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
A. Three things:
first, how great my sin and misery are;
second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery;
third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance.

Phil 2:1-3
2 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus