“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.” Romans 12:1
William Sangster introduced Romans 12:1 by saying:
Theologians who are convinced that men are polluted through and through, and believe with [Richard] Hooker that the best thing they ever did had something in it to be forgiven, must take account of this: that all through the Word of God these exhortations to holiness appear. They are not sporadic, occasional, or tempered by doubt concerning God’s ability to do this thing in us. Underlying them all is the confidence that God can do something more with our sins than forgive them. Wesley would have said in his own way that “God’s commands are enablings” and that, by grace, it is possible for Christ to present us “holy, acceptable to God. . . .” “Holy,” with Wesley, meant ethical perfection, and where he met the term in the Old Testament, or the New, he understood it that way.((Sangster, The Path to Perfection, 40.))
The Christian congregation in Rome would have been conspicuous by the absence of sacrificial rituals. In contrast to the Old Testament sacrifices, which were ceremonially holy and accepted by God, the Christian is holy and acceptable at a higher, ethical level. Our consecration is a rational act. Ritual has been replaced by reason. In fact, Paul says that such commitment is logical. The Greek word for reasonable (KJV) or spiritual (ESV) or true and proper (NIV) is logikos—based on the word logic.
In view of the mercies of God just extolled in Romans 11:31–32, Paul reasons with believers. Under the old covenant, sacrifices were put to death. But since Jesus has become our perfect sacrifice, we no longer need to put anything living to death. But although God took the blood out of sacrifice, he did not take sacrifice out of worship. Therefore, we are urged to offer ourselves as living sacrifices because God in his mercy offered his own Son as our substitute. The term living sacrifice is actually a paradox since the Greek word for sacrifice means to kill or slay. Without this divine mercy, we are as good as dead anyway!
The transforming grace of God begins by awakening the sinner. As we are enabled to cooperate through preliminary [prevenient] grace, through saving faith we are renewed. This is called regeneration in Titus 3:5. But the renewal which began when we were born again was not completed. What God has done is good and acceptable, but it needs to be perfected. While sin no longer reigns, it still remains. We are not entirely changed; we are not wholly transformed into the image of him who created us.((Wesley, The Repentance of Believers, Sermon #14, 3.2.))
Francis Asbury preached that in Romans 12:1–2 Paul addressed Christian believers, not those who lived in conformity to the world’s manners and maxims. Paul had in mind the devotion of the whole person, body and soul, to God. Without abstaining from the practice of all sin and the unlawful use of lawful things, we cannot be a perfect and entire Christian. We ought to make the faculties of our bodies subservient to the worship and service of God—our eyes to see for God; our ears to hear; our hands to be liberal; our feet to move for God. This is our reasonable service. If we are properly excited over the mercies of God, we will not be conformed to this world. The renewal of our minds implies that all the power of the soul is given in love and service to the Lord, in conviction over indwelling sin, as believers repenting of that sin, in sanctification, persevering grace, perfect love, and its fruits—perfect and eternal glory. We prove the will of God to be good, to be acceptable to our own souls, and to be perfect in our Christian perfection.((Asbury, Journal, 2:464–465.))
Born-again believers are now commanded to stop being conformed to this world. While the followers of Christ are not of this world (John 17:16), our separation from the world is not complete. Once more we are commanded to present ourselves to God. This is a deeper surrender based on the awareness of a deeper need. Clarence Bence recalled how Dr. Dennis F. Kinlaw preached this in the Asbury College chapel. He observed that sinners turn to Christ and yield themselves in order to escape the punishment of hell. Their motive is largely fear. However, those who have experienced God’s mercy are now beseeched to yield themselves to God based on their love toward God.((Bence, Romans: A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition, 195–196.))
While the sinner submits to God through repentance, the believer submits through consecration. While believers are convicted of pride, self-will, the love of the world, and covetousness, there is no condemnation. They are justified and therefore not under the condemnation of death.((Wesley, The Repentance of Believers, 1.16.))
Daniel Steele explained:
The one cries, “God be merciful to me a sinner;” the other prays, “Father, glorify thyself in me.” The consecration of the latter is far more intelligent, deliberate, and in detail, because of his superior self-knowledge under the illumination of the Holy Spirit.((Steele, Love Enthroned, 21.))
However, the act of consecration does not, on its own, sanctify us wholly. Entire sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit. Wilson T. Hogue (1852–1920), a bishop in the Free Methodist Church, wrote:
Consecration, in the sense of separation and dedication unto God, is our part of sanctification; but it is very far from being the whole of the experience. Hence those who are taught to consecrate themselves to God, and then to rest in that act of consecration, on the supposition that they have put themselves upon the altar, and that “the altar sanctifieth the gift” . . . are being misled, and are apt to rest in their own doing instead of resting alone on the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. Our own consecration no more saves us than any other work in which we might trust.((Hogue, The Holy Spirit, 274.))
In fact, Wesley taught that we must come to the point of utter helplessness in regard to removing sin from our hearts and lives.((Wesley, The Repentance of Believers, 1.17–19.)) The rest of Romans 12 describes the characteristics of a Christian who is entirely sanctified:
- Humility
- Generosity
- Purity
- Fervency
- Positivity
- Consistency
- Sympathy
- Unity
- Integrity
- Victory
Sermon Suggestions
- The revelation of a deeper need
- The necessity of a deeper surrender
- The believer’s deeper sanctification