Living Sacrifices

Romans 12:1-2 (p. 1763)
November 5, 2017

Therefore, I urge you, in view of God’s mercy,
to offer your bodies as living sacrifices,
holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual
act of worship. Do not conform any longer
to the pattern of this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind.
Romans 12:1-2

Text and Context

It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire of effort,
but on God’s mercy.
Romans 9:16

The “therefore” is about _________________ (plural)
The imperative begins in the _______________
My worship is also my _________________

Living sacrifices

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Psalm 51:17 (p. 890)

Even living sacrifices have ______________
Holiness is a _____________________ issue
Sacrificial living is ____________________

The world

Do not love the world or anything in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15 (p. 1900)

Something to . . . .

Stop:_____________________________________
Continue: ____________________________________

God wants me to know . . . .

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is –
his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2b (see Ephesians 5:10, p. 1822)

_______________ precedes __________________
God’s will really is ____________________
I don’t know the pleasure until I _______________

Romans 12:1-2 from Hendriksen’s Romans

I exhort you, therefore, brothers, in view of God’s great mercy, to offer yourselves as sacrifices, living, holy, and well-pleasing to God, (which is) your spiritual worship. And stop allowing yourselves to be fashioned after the pattern of this (evil) age, but continue to let yourselves be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the will of God, namely, that which is good and well-pleasing and perfect.^[1]

More study resources for Romans 12

Tim Browning’s messages at https://www.monergism.com
/thethreshold/articles/onsite/mp3/romans_browningpdf.html

Bob Deffinbaugh’s sermon “Road to Renewal” at https://bible.org/seriespage/29-road-renewal-romans-121-2

Ligon Duncan’s messages at http://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/greetings-from-an-apostle

Michael Horton’s “Romans from 30,000 Feet” from “An Overview of the Book of Romans”, http://www.reformationtheology.com/
2011/04/romans_from_30000_feet_by_mich.php

Sinclair Ferguson’s “The Great Exchanges of Romans” at
http://www.ligonier.org/blog/great-exchanges-romans/

F.F. Bruce’s paraphrase of Romans at https://biblicalstudies.org.
uk/pdf/eq/1958-2_bruce.pdf or Paternoster Press (1965); Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free (Eerdmans, 1977); and The Epistle of Paul to the Romans (Eerdmans, 1963). I like Bruce’s poem on page 162:
To run and work the law commands,
Yet gives me neither feet nor hands;
But better news the gospel brings:
It bids me fly and gives me wings.

Tim Keller’s Romans For You (The Good Book, 2014).

William Hendriksen’s Romans in BNTC (Baker Books, 1980).

James Boice’s Romans, Volume 4, (Baker Books, 1991). See
p. 1515 for Boice’s argument for “reasonable” over “spiritual”.

Earl Palmer’s Romans series notes “The Greatest Book”, Winter 2002, University Presbyterian Church, Seattle, Washington.

^[1] Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 12-13: Exposition of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. New Testament Commentary (399–401). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.