A Minigesis of Romans 12:1-2

INTRODUCTION
In 1813 King Frederick William III of Prussia instituted what would become one of the most prestigious military awards a soldier could receive: the Iron Cross. There is a story, perhaps not historically accurate but illustrative nonetheless, that the first recipients of the Iron Cross were not soldiers, but the patriotic women of Prussia. The financing of war and country and proven too big a burden for the nation’s treasury, so the king called upon the ladies of the land to donate their jewelry of gold and silver, which would then be melted down and used to serve the greater good of the country. In return for their patriotic actions the women would be given an iron cross. King and country had served the citizens well, and in light of this Prussia’s women responded in droves, gladly giving up their gold for iron. In fact, fancy jewelry became unfashionable; iron crosses, however, were highly prized.
The call of Christ to his people is not unlike this. Christ the King has given much and cared well for his people, and so He asks his people to turn in their “jewelry,” these ornaments and trinkets of life which human nature and especially American culture highly prizes and receive in its place a gift from the king. To some it doesn’t look like much (an iron cross does not glitter like a gold ring), but for those who know what has been given for them and to whom they are giving, it is highly prized.
Paul, as one sent by Christ the king, brings this message to the believers in Romans 12:1, saying “I beseech you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, well-pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service of worship.” Just as the women of Prussia had renewed priorities after trading their gold for iron, so too the believer is to have transformed priorities after having presented themselves, as Paul says in the next verse, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well-pleasing and perfect.” What is so amazing about this passage, beyond the exhortation itself (which is indeed amazing and powerful) is that the power to carry this out, the power to sacrifice what the world has given and received what God has given and so be transformed, is couched in the exhortation itself. To see it though it is important that the reader understand the context.
That this letter was written by Paul is not really up for debate; as proving this is not the point of this paper, it will suffice for now to say that the evidence in favor of Pauline authorship is “overwhelming” (Hendriksen 25). The letter was, as the name implies, written to the church in Rome, which had not been founded by an apostle (Catholic claims not withstanding) and consisted of both Jewish and Gentile believers. These were not easy times for Christians. The believers were unpopular, accused of such things as cannibalism and incest; Tacitus makes reference to Christians in his Annals as “enemies of the human race” (Bruce 19). Besides being assailed from the front by enemies of the church, they are being attacked on the sides by the influences of the world; the inherent tension of integrating two worldviews (Jew and Gentile) into one (Christian) did not make church life any easier. With all the challenges facing the Roman Christians the church was at a pivotal point (Faber 2001).
Paul, too, had reached a pivotal point in his ministry. Dating the letter to AD 57 (Arnold 3), Paul had reached the end of his third missionary journey. “From Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum,” Paul tells his readers, “I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ” (15:19). In his time he has gained knowledge, wisdom, and experience, as well as an unbridled passion for those who would believe, both Jew and Gentile. He, as a “Pharisee of Pharisees” and the “chief of sinners” understands better than most the mercies of God, and Paul, better than most, lived a life demonstrating what it truly means to believe and respond to those mercies; it is this knowledge and passion that Paul tires to communicate to the Roman Christians.

OUTLINE
Paul’s thesis for this letter is that the gospel “is God's power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it God's righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith” (1:16-17). The first 11 chapters of the book are Paul’s treatise on orthodoxy, an examination of this gospel. The final chapters relate his view of orthopraxy, an explanation of how the righteous will live by faith.
Paul first makes a declaration of guilt, for the Gentiles (ch 1), the Jews (ch 2), and finally the whole world (ch 3). Justification, illustrated by Abraham and explained in Adam take up Romans 3:21-5:21, followed by sanctification in the flesh (ch 6), in the law (ch 7) and by the Spirit (ch 8). Paul then speaks to the scope of God’s redemption (9-11) before finally coming to the second part of his epistle in Romans 12, the fruit of redemption which is service and transformation. Specifically, Romans 12:1-2 looks like this:

Brothers:
I. An exhortation to holy living (12:1-2)
A. Present your bodies as a sacrifice (1)
1. A living sacrifice
2. A holy sacrifice
3. A well pleasing sacrifice
B. Do this because of God’s mercies to you
C. Do this as your act of worship
1. It is a reasonable response
II. A command (2)
A. Stop conforming to this world
B. Keep being transformed
1. By the renewing of your mind
2. So that you can prove the will of God
a. His will is good
b. His will is well-pleasing
c. His will is perfect

Paul finishes his letter by talking about the Christian’s duties in life (12-13),
Christian liberty (14), and final conclusion and salutations (15-16).

EXEGESIS
“Therefore I beseech you, brothers, by the mercies of God”
A famous axiom of Bible study is that whenever the reader encounters a “therefore” he must ask himself what it is there for. In this case, it refers the reader back to the aforementioned mercies in the previous chapters (Phillips 181). These mercies include God’s kindness (2:4), grace (4:16), love (5:5), patience (9:22), and chiefly the message of the gospel itself, namely justification by faith in the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ (3:24-25).
Paul is directly addressing the believers and uses the word parakalw, which can be translated as exhort, beseech, or urge. It is stronger than asking, but it is not a command; God does not compel those whom he loves to respond, and yet, as will be shown later, there is little else to do but respond in love and obedience when considering the mercies of God. “God has saved us from sin, from its penalty and its power. He has saved us from self in all its features and all its forms. He has overruled the destinies of nations. He has triumphed in his grace and multiplied His mercies. He has, as it were, besieged us with His mercies, brought them up against us in countless number, built the bulwarks of His grace against our souls, poured a ceaseless cannonade of kindness in upon the breaches of our hearts” (Philips 181). It is because of these reasons that Paul is driven to beseech and exhort the believers; to “urge” is not the best translation as it does not carry the strength in English to fit the context.
“to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, well-pleasing to God”
The original recipients of this letter, being either Jewish or acquainted with Jewish practice, would have noted the contrasts between the sacrifice Paul is calling for and the ones they have witnessed or heard about in Jerusalem. First, it is not an animal that is being presented, but the body of the very believer himself. This is at once a harder sacrifice to make, for one is being asked to give up something he dearly loves, for “no one ever hated his own body” (Eph 5:29). It becomes further differentiated from and more difficult than Old Testament sacrifices with the word zwsan, which is translated as “living.” The form of the word (not to mention context) is present and active. Simply put this is a sacrifice that is continual and never dies; one cannot lay it on the alter and be done with it, but rather he must lay himself on the alter again and again and again.
It is not too much of an inference to say that when Paul refers to the sacrifice of the body he means more than flesh and blood. In 13:14 the apostle says to “make no put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no plans to satisfy the fleshly desires.” Perhaps the best picture of the depth and breadth of this sacrifice in 6:11-14, telling his readers, “you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law but under grace.”
Such a sacrifice, which includes a death to sin and a life lived for Christ, is both holy and euarestion, which can be translated either as acceptable or well-pleasing. “Well-pleasing” is the better choice as for the English reader what is acceptable in his or her life is not necessarily well-pleasing, yet for God this is not the case.


“which is your reasonable service of worship.”
The Greek logikhn, which is here translated as “reasonable,” also carries the meaning of “spiritual;” indeed in the only other place it is used in the New Testament it is translated thus, as Peter makes reference to “spiritual milk” (1 Peter 2:2). In the context of 1 Peter the best translation is obvious-the context of the verse doesn’t allow for the English word “reasonable.” The best translation for logikhn here in Romans must likewise submit to context. “The emphasis of 12:1 is on the word ‘Therefore’” (Hendriksen 402), which, as mentioned, refers the reader back to the mercies of God. In light of these mercies, the apostle says, it is only reasonable and rational that the believer should present his whole body to God.
Paul calls this the believer’s latrein, that is, he calls it the believer’s service or divine worship. There are several Greek words for worship, and while each emphasize a slightly different form of worship, each also shares the similarity of “humble service and a total life submitted to God, honoring him with what he values—this is the essence of true worship” (Christian Standard). latrew is the most service oriented of the words, for example true believers “serve (λατρευοντες) by the Spirit of God” (Phil 3:3). All of life is (or should be) an act of worship before God (Arnold 74), and much of American worship, be it traditional, contemporary or blended, is foreign to the Bible.
“And do not be conformed to this world”
“It is one thing to point out a goal to a person and encourage him to try to reach it. Paul has done this in verse 1. It is a different matter to show him what he should do to reach that goal. The apostle does not fail us at this point” (Hendriksen 404). The conjunction kai, translated “and,” links these two thoughts together. The idea of presenting one’s body as a living sacrifice, and the command not to conform but to transform go hand in hand and both are a response to the mercies of God.
Paul chooses to use the word mh, a strong negative, telling his readers to NOT be conformed to the world. Moreover, the word conformed, suschmatizesqe, is in the imperative mood, or mood of command. In other words, Paul is not making a suggestion, nor is he even beseeching as in verse one, but rather he is commanding. What makes this command particularly interesting is that it is in the middle voice (the passive voice is a possibility, but context suggests the middle voice as a better option). The middle voice implies that the readers were not actively conforming, but neither were they actively avoiding. The best translation of this verse would read: “stop allowing yourself to be conformed.” J.B. Phillips puts it this way: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold” (Philips 182). Paul also offers a commentary on himself: “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals’” (1 Cor 15:33).
The apostle does not use the simple kosmos, or world, here, but instead says tw aiwni toutw, “to this age.” The culture surrounding the Romans bore striking similarities to today’s American culture in its corruption and immorality (Faber 2001), which can and does subtly makes its way into the church and the lives of those called out for Christ. Not only does yielding to the temptations of the world conflict with the desires of the Spirit and the purpose of the church, it only leads to disappointment and death, for “the fashion of this world is passing away” (1 Cor 7:31).
“but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”
Here the apostle presents a strong contrast: Don’t be conformed, be transformed. The same Greek verb translates as transformed is used also in Matt 17:2 at the transfiguration of Christ, and the transfigured Christ stands in sharp contrast to fallen human nature. Here again is another command, the command to be transformed, and Christians from AD 57 until present day have worked hard to follow this command, finding on one extreme the ascetics, whipping themselves into a renewed mind and on the other end mega-preachers touting the psychological path to “Your Best Life Now.” Both, however, miss what Paul is saying. The verb metamorfusqe (transformed), is first in the present tense, meaning this transformation of which Paul speaks is continual. Second, it is in the passive voice, meaning that the reader, the one being transformed, cannot (nor should he) do this himself. Finally, it is in the imperative mood, the mood of command. The best translation would be “continue to let yourselves be transformed.”
Implied in this command is the amazing power for transformation mentioned earlier, namely, the Holy Spirit. Paul explains, “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” (2 Cor 3:18). The duty of the Christian is to allow the Spirit to change him, for God will not force change on him, and in allowing the Spirit to work in his life the believer will fulfill the command to stop allowing himself to be conformed.
Paul presents the renewing of the mind as the means by which the transformation takes place (Lenski 515), but to leave it at that is not satisfactory because the rest of scripture rejects intellectual faith as being of much value in and of itself, so it stands to reason that Paul means something more, and indeed while the renewal of the mind begins with right thinking it does not end there. In 7:22-25 Paul relates the mind to the inner man, which “is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor 4:16). How is it being renewed? “through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
“that you may prove what the will of God is”
Here is the reason for the command: that the believer may prove (in themselves) what the will of God is. dokimazein, which can be translated as prove or approve, is in the present, active form, which again stresses an action happening in present time and continuing to happen. This statement of the apostle’s shows that “in order to discern the will of God for their lives the believers cannot just depend on conscience. Conscience is indeed very important, but it must constantly be sent back to the school of Scripture to receive instruction from the Holy Spirit. It is in this manner that the believers become and remain aware of God’s will” (Hendriksen 406). Whole tomes are written on finding the will of God for one’s life, but Paul sums it up in a verse: stop being conformed to the world and allow yourself to be transformed by the Spirit. Then you will know the will of God.
“that which is good and well-pleasing and perfect.”
Just to make it a little easier, Paul tells the reader what the will of God is: that which is good and well-pleasing, and perfect. The word translated as “perfect,” teleion, may also be rendered “complete” or “mature,” all of which would do well here, each implying the other to be true. The goal of a life lived in accordance with God’s will is not salvation, for that has been freely given, but rather it is perfection, as Jesus himself commanded: “you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt 5:48). That this will happen in this lifetime is not likely, that this will happen in the next is a beautiful assurance. “Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is” (1 John 3:2).

SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES
1. The believer is to respond to the mercies God has shown him. “The Christian life does not mean to stand still, but to move from that which is good to that which is better” (Luther 167). To put it another way, “Jesus loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way” (Lucado 15). Much of the focus of the church is on getting people through the door, getting the commitment, and then unfortunately many new believers are then left hanging without discipleship. This is part of the reason for the prevalence of the vending machine god, the god that gives but never asks for anything in return. This is not the God of scripture; while God never asks His people to repay Him (for they never could) He demands that they respond to Him; doing so is the reasonable and rationale thing to do.
2. The believer is to respond with his whole person. Another unfortunate plague of American Christianity cheap grace, which is made possible when one gives only their intellectual consent, agreeing that Christ is who He says He is. As James says, even demons believe that. God asks for the whole person: body, mind, and soul; to submit anything less is to not submit.
3. If the believer does not maintain his guard, he will be just like the world. The Bible says that Christians are sojourners in this world, visitors waiting to go home. It is easy and convenient to adopt the ways of the culture in which one finds themselves, and in fact human nature is to imitate that which is constantly in his presence. Therefore, the believer should see to it that it is Jesus who is constantly in his presence. It is not enough to declare oneself different, one must actively be different.
4. The Spirit does the work if the believer lets him. It is not often that one can say that God is capitulating to the will of man, but in this case it is true. God is ready, willing, anxious, and able to wrought change in the life of His people, and indeed He is the only one who can do it, but He will not do it until the believer is open to it.
5. The will of God is knowable. It is both a grievous sin and intellectual and spiritual laziness when Agnostics say that the will of God is unknowable, and a tragedy when Christians say it. But like the idea of grace freely given, a knowable will of God (and thus a knowable God) is a concept that is hard to accept. But Christians can know the will of God and have peace in pursuing their ambitions when they are open to the transformative work of the Spirit.

APPLICATION
“I went into church and sat on the velvet pew. I watched as the sun came shining through the stained glass windows. The minister dressed in a velvet robe opened the golden gilded Bible, marked it with a silk bookmark and said, "If any man will be my disciple, said Jesus, let him deny himself, take up his cross, sell what he has, give it to the poor, and follow me” (Kierkegaard 90). The irony of Kierkegaard’s observation in unmistakable, so too is the sadness. Orthodoxy is useless if not accompanied by right practice, which is probably why the scriptures don’t teach doctrine just for fun. Rather, doctrine is always taught with a mind towards application.
The passage examined above is a command to transform. On it’s face it seems so hard to do; after all, if it were easy everyone would be perfect and mature, and yet no one reaches that goal until they see Jesus. But in fact the command given does not put the burden on the believer but on God-it is He who transforms. What the believer is asked to do, in the end, is simply believe.
In his book Blue Like Jazz Donald Miller relates a statement made by his friend Andrew the Protester, who says “You don’t believe what you say you believe.. you believe what you do.” Christians, especially the good, church-going Christians, speak often about the Holy Spirit and regeneration and transformation and changed hearts, all while warning themselves and their young about the dangers of the world, with its liberal media and sex-saturated ways, and yet very few things change. This is because words don’t equal belief and intellectual consent does not equal faith. There are several applications of this passage, but the most important is this: The believer must open his heart to the transformative power of the Holy Spirit and then live as one transformed. Live it, and it will be so.











BIBLIOGRAPHY

Faber, Charles. Class Notes: Romans. Boise Bible College. Boise, ID: 2001

Arnold, Clinton. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. Grand Rapids,
Zondervan, Grand Rapids: 2002

Bruce, F.F. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Romans. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans:
1985

Hendriksen, William. New Testament Commentary: Romans. Grand Rapids, Baker
Books: 1980

Kierkegaard, Soren. The Essential Kierkegaard. (Edited by: Howard and Edna Hong).
Princeton University Press: 2000

Lenski, R.C.H. The Interpretation of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans.
Columbus, Ohio: Wartburg, 1945

Luther, Martin. Commentary on Romans. (Translated by J.T. Mueller). Grand Rapids:
Kregal Publications, 1976 (reprint)

Lucado, Max. Just Like Jesus. Thomas Nelson Pub, 1998

Philips, John. Exploring Romans. Moody Press, Chicago: 1969

http://www.christianstandard.com/articledisplay.asp?id=24 Accessed November 28, 2007