After 11 chapters of doctrine telling us what to believe, we now turn (perhaps with a measure of relief?) to the practical application — how we should live. This is a pattern Paul follows in many of his epistles. This pattern underscores the fact that doctrine (though essential) is not enough — there must also be devo­tion. Belief (though vital) is not enough — it must be followed by be­haviour. Learning (though impor­tant) is not enough — it must be ac­companied by living. Jesus says, `If you know these things blessed are you if you do them’ (John 13:17). James says, ‘Faith without works is dead.’

Though we enter a new section, the book’s theme and keyword of ‘righteousness’ continues. To sum­marise, what we have seen so far is: — Righteousness rejected (chapters 1-3). Righteousness revealed (chapter 3:21-chapter 5). Righteousness realised in salva­tion (chapters 6-8). Righteous­ness required by Israel (chapters 9-11). And now finally, Righteousness reflected in everyday life (chapters 12-15). The first two verses set the scene for the stan­dard of our conduct. William Tem­ple said, ‘Christianity is the total commitment of all I know of me to all I know of Jesus Christ.’ ‘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’ (12:1-2 ESV).

1. The Appeal to Commitment is Based on the Mercies of God⤒🔗

The appeal to holiness and obedi­ence is based on the mercies of God. This is vital for us to understand. We are called to holiness of life because of who God is, and what God has done. Paul has spent 11 chapters telling us about the mercies of God — our need of it, God’s provision of it and the blessed results of it. He mentioned it last in chapter 11:22, in the con­text of reminding Gentile believers that we are part of the olive tree by the sheer kindness of God. Never forget that! Now therefore he says, in light of God’s mercies: this is what you should do; this is how you should live; this is how you should respond. There is a parallel here to the Ten Commandments in the book of Exodus. Not only do the commandments begin with a preface, ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of bond­age’; but they are preceded by 19 chapters telling the story of what God did to redeem His people. Therefore in the light of God’s re­demption He therefore commands us, ‘You shall have no other Gods before Me,’ etc.

This is foundational. We need to understand this; even those of us who have been believers for many years. As in a marriage of many years — so in the Christian life — love can grow stale. We can forget what it was that once caused us excite­ment. We can become overly famil­iar with each other and there isn’t the same ‘spark’ or love or respect any more. Life can settle down to a peaceful and predictable hum­drum — a mere routine. The Christian life too can become a mindless pattern; a routine; a treadmill; more of a duty than a joyful response to the gospel. That’s why we need to bathe our minds and hearts in the gospel every day. We need to preach the gospel to ourselves each day. The psalmist prayed, ‘Satisfy us in the morning with your stead­fast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days’ (Ps. 90: 14). If we recalled God’s mercy to us every morning, it would provide a good start to the day. The Gospel (the mercies of God) is the greatest motivation to yield our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. ‘The animal sacrifices of an earlier day have been rendered forever obsolete by Christ ... the sacrifices of the new order do not consist in taking the lives of others, but in giving one’s own’ (Bruce). We are not our own; we are purchased by God; we belong to Him.

2. Commitment Means Offering our Body as a Living, Lasting and Logical Sacrifice←⤒🔗

A holy life will be expressed through our bodies. This should not surprise us. After all, it was through our bodies that sin first expressed itself. (See chapter 3: 13-18). But now as Christians the apostle says, ‘let not sin reign in your mortal body ... Do not pre­sent your members to sin as instruments for unrighteous­ness, but present yourselves to God and your members as in­struments for righteous­ness’ (6:12-13).

The Bible doesn’t buy the (Greek) mystical idea that the body is in­herently sinful; that the body is a mere tomb for the spirit. No! ‘Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit’ (1 Cor. 6: 18-20). When Jesus came to do God’s will, He came in a body. It was said of him, ‘Sacrifices and offer­ings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. Behold I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the volume of the book.’ Jesus went about doing good. Jesus of­fered up his body freely and lovingly as a sacrifice unto God. Jesus came not merely to save our souls but to redeem our bodies, too. Our bodies are therefore important.

The apostle says, ‘I want you to of­fer your body as a sacrifice to God. I want you to do it willingly and freely. I want you to do it decisively and definitely.’ (The verb ‘present’ is aorist active infinitive.). It’s to be done once and for all time. The commitment is to be absolute and unconditional.

One man who understood this was Jonathan Edwards. He wrote in his diary: — ‘I have this day been before God and have given my­self, and all that I have and am, to God; so that I am in no respect my own. I can no longer chal­lenge any right in myself, in this understanding, this will, and these affections. Neither have I the right to this body, or any of its members. No right to this tongue, these hands, these feet, these eyes, these ears. I have given myself clean away.’ Frances Ridley Havergal (1836­-1879) expresses the same idea when she wrote: — ‘Take my life (and my hands, my voice, my will and my love) and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee; take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise.’

As kids we perhaps used to sing, ‘O be careful, little feet, where you go, O be careful, little feet, where you go, for your Father up above is look­ing down in love, so be careful little feet where you go.’ As the song continues it mentions the various parts of the body — the eyes, the hands, and the tongue — and it is a helpful reminder how we should live. But it stops short of the most fundamental truth for the believer. The issue is not merely that we have a heavenly Father who is watching over us, but that we are actually united with Christ; because of that, how then can we drag Him into sin with us?

When we are grasped by this truth, ‘our feet will walk in His ways, our lips will speak the truth and spread the gospel, our tongues will bring healing, our hands will lift up those who have fallen and perform many mundane tasks as well as cooking, cleaning, typing and mending; our arms will em­brace the lonely and the unloved, our ears will listen to the cries of the distressed, and our eyes will look humbly and patiently to­wards God’ (Stott).

The kind of sacrifice we offer is ‘holy, acceptable and spiritual (or reasonable)’ (1). The word translated ‘spiritual’ or ‘rational’ is the Greek word ‘logikos’ from which we get the word logical. Cranfield says that Paul’s ‘point was that it was rational, as being consistent with a proper understanding of the gospel’. The offering of our bodies to the service of God is the only rational, logical and appropriate response that we can make in view of God’s mercy. A number of the commen­taries illustrate this with a quotation from the first century philosopher Epictetus: ‘If I were a nightingale, I would do what is proper for a night­ingale, and if I were a swan I would do what is proper to a swan. In fact, I am logikos (a rational being) so I must praise God.’

C.T. Studd (1862-1931) was a bril­liant cricketer and Cambridge scholar and heir to a great estate. He gave it all up to preach the gos­pel, first in China and then in Africa. This for him was the most reason­able thing to do, saying, ‘If Jesus Christ be God and he died for me, then there is no sacrifice which is too great for me to make for him.’

3. Commitment Means Having our Minds Renewed (2a)←⤒🔗

There is logic and progression here. If we are to present our bodies as a living holy sacrifice — it must begin in the mind. Our mind controls our body. Our thoughts control our ac­tions. Holiness begins in the mind. Some wag has said, ‘We are not what we think we are; but what we think; we are.’

There is a negative and a positive involved. The negative is: — ‘Do not to be conformed to this world’ which J.B. Philips has famously translated, ‘Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mould.’ Don’t let this world, whose idols are health, wealth and pleasure, be­come your idols. Don’t be swept along by the spirit of the age. Whether you realise it or not, our minds are being assaulted and influenced every day in many ways by the world. As D.L. Moody once said, ‘The ship belongs in the water, but if the wa­ter gets in the ship, it sinks.’ We are in the world — but if the world is in us we are in danger. This is very relevant for our own age. A generation has arisen in the church that claims to be Christian — but who are in fact worldly in their thinking. The church has become too like the world. The water is leaking into the ship. The tragic fact is that today in many cases there may be little difference in the life­styles of those who claim to be Christian and those who are not. They both fall into the same sex­ual sins. They are just as materi­alistic and pleasure loving. They spend the same time around the TV. They treat the Lord’s Day much as any other day of the week. Their language and laugh­ter are the same. They think and act similarly.

Don Carson gives us an insight into the mind of this Gen Y gen­eration. He says: —

‘...baby busters do not want to be lectured; they want to be entertained. They prefer videos to books; many of them have not learned to think in a linear fashion; they put more store than they recognise in mere impressions. As a result they can live with all sorts of logi­cal inconsistencies and be totally unaware of them. How many times have I tried to explain to a university-age young person who has made some kind of profession of faith that it is fundamentally in­consistent to claim to know and love the God of the Bible, while cohabiting with someone.’

As James says in a different con­text, ‘these things ought not to be, brothers!’ Hence the acceptance today of Christianity and homosexuality; Christianity and women’s ordination; Christianity and lawless (careless) living; the lone ranger Christian where ‘every man does that which is right in his own eyes.’

What is the answer? The positive. Paul says, ‘Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.’ Use your mind! A. W. Tozer said, ‘The mind is good — God put it there. He gave us our heads and it was not his intention that our heads would function just as a place to hang a hat.’

Scripture affirms that our hearts are to be renewed through our minds; and our minds are to be renewed as they are exposed and trained in the Scripture. We need to read it, study it, meditate on it, hear it, memorise it, repeat it, and practise it! (See e.g. Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1: 2; Psalm 119:15, 48, 105, 130, 148, 169; Psalm 143:5, Romans 8:5; Col. 3:2; Phil. 4:8, etc.).

4. Commitment Means Affirming, Doing and Enjoying God’s Will←⤒🔗

‘That by testing you many dis­cern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and per­fect’ (ESV). God’s will is knowing God’s word; doing it and enjoying it. The Devil would have you believe that God is a mean and niggardly kill-joy: that He will rob you of your freedom and your fun. It’s a lie. The opposite is true. Doing God’s will is not misery — but joy. God’s will is good, pleasing and perfect. It’s what we are made for.

The Shorter Catechism No. 2:

Q: What rule has God given to direct us how to glorify and enjoy him?

Answer: The word of God, which consists of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how to glorify and enjoy him.