Sermon Series: BEHAVING LIKE A CHRISTIAN
Subject: How Should We Then Live?
(Part 3)

Romans 12:1-3
"I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world (this age) [fashioned after and adapted to its external superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude which is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].
For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance), but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him.

Christian life begins with an acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. That is the beginning point of a life-time of loving and serving and obeying the teachings and commands of our Christ! Our Christian faith is something that affects our lifestyle, our value system, and our purpose and goal in living.
Romans 12 is a chapter which describes the commencement of our Christian life by a presentation of our bodies that are to be surrendered and committed to holiness and righteous living. Verses 9 through the end of the chapter give us some very practical areas of life that will be affected by this commitment.
"If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
For you died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry." (Colossians 3:1-5)

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"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age." (Titus 2:11-12)
"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Verse 16
"Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness." (Romans 6:12-13, 16)
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
In our Romans 12 text, Paul urges us to present our body as a living sacrifice to God. It is called a LIVING SACRIFICE, in distinction from the sacrifices under the Old Testament form of worship, in which the animal offered was put to death. Our lives are to be given to God in active, continuing service. Our bodies are all we have to offer--we live in bodies. The body enfolds our emotions, our mind, our thoughts, our desires, and our plans. Thus, the body represents the total person; it is the instrument by which all our service is given to God. In order to live for God, we must offer Him all that we are, represented by our body.
The word OFFER has also been translated GIVE, YIELD or PRESENT.
Self-sacrifice!
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her." (Ephesians 5:25) The husband is head of the wife--true, Paul said that; but he also said that the husband must love his wife as Christ loved the Church, with a love which never exercises a tyranny of control but which is ready to make any sacrifice for her good. Real love loves not to extract service, nor to ensure that its own physical comfort is attended to, it cherishes the one it loves. Chrysostom, one of the ancient Church fathers, wrote these words: "Hast thou seen the measure

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of obedience? Hear also the measure of love. Wouldst thou that thy wife shouldst obey thee as the Church doth Christ? Have care thyself for her as Christ for the Church. And if it be needful that thou shouldst give thy life for her, or be cut to pieces a thousand times, or endure anything whatever, refuse it not...He brought the Church to His feet by His great care, not by threats nor fear nor any such thing; so do thou conduct thyself towards thy wife."
Self-sacrifice!
"By this we come to know (progressively to recognize, to perceive, to understand) the [essential] love: that He laid down His [own] life for us; and we ought to lay [our] lives down for [those who are our] brothers [in Him].
"But if anyone has this world’s goods (resources for sustaining life) and sees his brother and fellow believer in need, yet closes his heart of compassion against him, how can the love of God live and remain in him?
Little children, let us not love [merely] in theory, or in speech but in deed and in truth (in practice and in sincerity)." (1 John 3:16-18)
Self-sacrifice!
"[Aroused] by faith Moses, when he had grown to maturity and become great, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, because he preferred to share the oppression [suffer the hardships] and bear the shame of the people of God rather than to have the fleeting enjoyment of the sinful life." (Hebrews 11:24-25)
And Paul says: "I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice..."
Paul urges this commitment by Christians as a rational, intelligent and reasonable thing to do!
It is reasonable because of what God has already done for us! THEREFORE refers back to everything Paul has discussed in the previous chapters. He discussed our need as sinners. We are under the wrath of God, on a destructive downhill path and unable to save ourselves. God intervened to save us by the work of Jesus Christ, who died for us, and by the work of the Holy Spirit, who enables us to understand what Jesus has accomplished, repent of our sin, and trust Him for our salvation. So now, when he gets to chapter 12, Paul says: "Look what God has done. Is it not reasonable to give yourself to such

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a wonderful God Who has given Himself so utterly and sacrificially for You?"
It is reasonable to offer our bodies in surrender and sacrifice to our Lord Jesus Christ because of what He is continuing to do in our lives. The salvation of a Christian is not just a past thing...it is also a present experience because God is continuing to work in those whom He has brought to faith in Jesus Christ.
Let's take one more look at the phrase..."reasonable service." The Revised Standard Version reads, "your spiritual worship." Phillips says that living as this verse calls us to do is "an act of intelligent worship." Most modern Greek scholars unite in giving the word a figurative meaning that brings it into the domain of spiritual things and out of the sphere of reason. A life of yieldedness to the Lord God in order that He may live His life in us is, therefore, a spiritual worship. True worship is the offering to God of one's body, and all that one does every day with it. Real worship is not the offering to God of a liturgy, however noble, and a ritual, however magnificent. Real worship is the offering of everyday life to Him, not something transacted in a church, but something which sees the whole world as the temple of the living God. "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31) "Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]." (Romans 12:2)
Some verses in the Bible are enriched when we read them in several translations, and Romans 12:2 is one of them! In the New International Version the first part of this verse reads: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world."
This verse has two key words: WORLD, which in Greek literally AGE, meaning this present age in contrast to "the age to come." DO NOT CONFORM, which is a compound having at its root the word SCHEME, could result in the following translation..."Do not let the age in which you live force you into its scheme of thinking and behaving."
The Jerusalem Bible says, "Do not model yourselves on the behavior of the world around you."
The Living Bible reads, "Don't copy the be-

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havior and customs of this world. J. B. Phillips translates our verse thusly: "Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold."
"Do not love or cherish the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one's own resources or in the stability of earthly things]--these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself].
And the world passes away and disappears, and with it the forbidden cravings (the passionate desires, the lust) of it; but he who does the will of God and carries out His purposes in his life abides (remains) forever." (1 John 2:15-17 Amplified)
James 4:4
"You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God. Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."
In one of Jesus' parables, He talked about the effect which loving the world had on the seed of the Word in the soul. "As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the Word, but the cares of the world and the pleasure and delights and glamour and deceitfulness of riches choke and suffocate the Word, and it yields no fruit." (Matthew 13:22)
The term "world" refers to the realm of Satan's influence, the system made up of those who hate God and His will. Believers should love the people of the world enough to share God's message with them, but they should not love the morally corrupt system in place in the world. Satan controls this evil world. His world opposes God and His followers and tempts those followers away from God and into sin.
"For Demas has deserted me for love of this world and has gone to Thessalonica, Cresens [has gone] to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia." (2 Timothy 4:10)
How do people "love" the world? They do so by greedily and selfishly loving all that it offers them, such, as riches, power, and self-indulgence. People cannot love both God and the world--such "loves" are mutually exclusive. The word for "love" here does not mean the self-sacrificing love that believers are to have for God and others; instead, it means taking pleasure in something, in this case, taking

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pleasure in what is opposed to God. John wanted to show his readers that to attempt to love both God and the world would be as impossible as trying to combine light and darkness". Therefore, when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. God and the sinful world are such opposites that it is impossible to love both at once.
"If then you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth.
For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:1-3)
In our Romans 12:2 text, Paul says: "Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]."
The Greek word for "transformed" is the root for the English word METAMORPHOSIS. Believers are to experience a complete transformation from the inside out. And the change must begin in the mind, where all thoughts and actions begin.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:22-24)
"For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things or the Spirit." (Romans 8:5)
"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking

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the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. " (Philippians 2:3-8)
Sin has deeply affected our minds! "But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them." (1 Corinthians 4:3-4)
The prophet Isaiah wrote: "Like the blind, we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes. At midday we stumble as if were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead." (Isaiah 59:10)
"This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." (Ephesians 4:17-24)
In our Romans 12:2 text, Paul has told us that something happens in the way we think when we present ourselves to Christ and trust Him as our Savior and Lord...we now have the mind of Christ! "But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ." (1 Corinthians 2:15-16)
To think like Jesus, to have His mind...what does that mean? When we read through the gospels, what becomes very obvious is that Christ displayed the beautiful characteristic of a SERVANT. In fact, the entire Christ story is the story of a servant!
The great Messianic passages predicted Him as a servant: "Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold: My chosen One in Whom My soul delights." (Isaiah 42:1) The suffering servant of Isaiah 53 was a "righteous servant": "As a result of the anguish of His soul, He

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will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities" (Isaiah 53:11).
Unlike the world system, in Christ's kingdom, servanthood, not position, is the key to greatness. Here spiritual stature is implicit in servanthood. This surprisingly reverses all the values we have learned on earth. Yet it could not be any other way if heaven is to be heaven. The unity of the spirit Jesus expects in His Body is impossible in a stratified society of important and unimportant persons, such as the earthly society we live in. Genuine oneness of spirit is feasible only if every member in society is submissive to all the others. We do serve Christ as our Master supremely, but we also are to serve one another. You were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." (Galatians 5:13)
Obedience is the hallmark of a servant! Jesus was obedient unto His Father. He claimed, "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38). His incarnation is itself an act of obedience. At the end of His life, He could confidently assert, "As the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do" (John 14:31). That allegiance led to Gethsemane, with its struggle, and to the cross.
Obedience is one part of the mind of Christ that is solely our responsibility. No one can obey for you. Obedience is total or it is not genuine obedience. We cannot choose when we will obey if we have the biblical quality of obedience as Christ has it.
In the parable of the servant attending to the master before attending to his personal needs, Jesus emphasized that servants must go beyond duty (Luke 17:7-10) Obedience is not enough if we are to qualify for the mind or Christ. He ended the parable by saying "So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, "We are unworthy slaves, we have done only that which we ought to have done." (Luke 17:10)
The consummate example of going beyond duty is the cross. Death is the highest penalty anyone can pay. "He laid down His life for us" (1 John 3:16). This attitude--going beyond duty--is the highest challenge we have yet met in our attempt to have the mind of Christ. "For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross." (Hebrews 12:2) Service leads to joy! Being a servant is one of the loftiest privileges of the Christian life. Serving God and others is the mind of Christ.
In our text, Paul is telling us that genuine commitment to Christ transforms our mind!