Romans 12:1 “Words”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹I am urging you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your (pl.) bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] well-pleasing to God, [which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship..

This verse ends with the thought, “…which is your logical/reasonable act of worship.” This line gets translated a number of different ways. The old KJV translated it, “which is your reasonable service.” The NIV translates it “this is your true and proper worship.” The NASB says, “which is your spiritual service of worship.” The ESB has it as “which is your spiritual worship.” In these cases, I always try to study and figure out why there are these differences. I want to record what I’ve found, so I can remember it.

This assortment of translations is largely due to some variety in the meaning of the Greek words. The word translated logical/reasonable/true and proper/spiritual is “logikos.” It is rather obviously the word from which we get our English “logical.” In fact, if you look up the word in a secular Greek dictionary, that is what they say it means, simply “logical/rational,” which is why I expressed it that way above in my “fairly literal” translation.

One wonders why then it gets translated as “spiritual.” How can it be both “logical” and “spiritual.” It turns out the word only occurs one other place in the New Testament and that is in I Peter 2:2, where, in the KJV, we’re told “as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word.” Interestingly, you end up seeing the same problem again, as others will translate it as “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk.” There you go again, the milk is “logikos,” so is it the “milk of the word” or “spiritual milk?”

I personally suspect this verse is what is causing the problem with our Romans 12:1. There, to me, it’s quite reasonable to translate it as “logical/reasonable,” just as one finds it in a Greek dictionary. However, to translate it as “logical” milk in I Peter 2:2 doesn’t make good sense. So that is really where the translators’ struggle is coming from.

The KJV translators decided to call it the “milk of the word.” In my own mind that is quite a stretch – to get from “logical milk” to “milk of the word.” I like that translation and I wish the original said, “gala tou logou,” which would be clearly “milk of the word,” but it is not. It is “gala logikos,” “milk logical,” or “logical milk.” So we’re left still trying to figure out what on earth it means. As you can see, here and then back in Romans 12:1, the translators have settled on “spiritual.” My problem with that is that there is also a very clear word for “spiritual,” “pneumatikos,” but that is not the word here.

So no one’s translation seems to express what Peter specifically meant in 2:2. My bottom line suspicion is it’s “none of the above.” In both Romans and I Peter, we see exactly the same word, “logikos,” so the assumption is it must mean the same thing in both verses. That itself is a very poor assumption. We’re talking about a language from half way around the world and 2,000 years ago! In fact, in English, we have a LOT of words spelled exactly the same, yet meaning something very different.

Here are several examples:

• bat — a flying mammal / a piece of sports equipment
• bark — the sound a dog makes / the outer covering of a tree
• bear — an animal / to carry or endure
• bow — to bend forward / a curved weapon or ribbon
• compact — small and dense / a makeup case or agreement
• desert — dry land / to abandon
• fair — just or reasonable / a carnival or market
• lead — to guide / a metal
• minute — 60 seconds / very small
• refuse — to decline / garbage
• row — a line / to paddle a boat

Can you imagine someone 2,000 years from now trying to translate an English sentence where a man is “swinging his bat,” if they thought the only meaning of the word “bat” was “a flying mammal?” Obviously, that poor future translator would be left scratching their head.

I suspect that is exactly what is happening here. Whatever the word meant in I Peter 2:2 is actually lost to us 2,000 years later. Obviously, Peter wants us to desire “pure good milk,” but we simply don’t know exactly why he chose “logikos.” He knew why. The people he wrote to understood, but even the Greek language itself has lost that other meaning, rather then “logical.”

Back to Romans 12:2, I have no problem translating it “logical” or “reasonable.” Because of the sympathies of God, you and I should present our bodies as living sacrifices – that is our very logical or reasonable response to those sympathies. It just doesn’t mean exactly that in I Peter 2:2. Period. I actually like the translation, “which is your reasonable service.” It is completely “logical” that we should do that.

Just so I note it, we also see the difference of whether it is our “service” or our “act of worship.” In this case, it is no problem. Now we’re translating the word “latreia,” which does mean “service,” but especially in the sense of the “service” you offer as you worship. So it can easily be simply called "service" in the context of presenting your body a living sacrifice, or you can call it an “act of worship.” Either is obviously a very appropriate translation.

So now, having recorded why I believe Romans 12:1 should be translated “your logical/reasonable service,” I’d like to explore what that means. However, this is long enough, so I’ll have to consider the words in another post.

 

Romans 12:1 “Living Sacrifices”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹I am urging you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your (pl.) bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] well-pleasing to God, [which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship..

Continuing through this verse, Paul would urge us to present our bodies as “a living sacrifice, holy, and well-pleasing to God.” Just for the sake of context, we should realize that pretty much all ancient religions involved actual sacrifices. Certainly, the Jewish Christians were intimately familiar with animals being killed as sacrifices. However, it was true of the Gentiles as well.

In ancient cultures, basically “religion” equaled “sacrifices.” In fact, that was so true, it sometimes led to human sacrifices and even parents sacrificing their own children. Such a thought is a horror to us, but remember that is the culture of the people to whom Paul was writing. I’ll stick to discussing animal sacrifices, as the thought of human, and especially child, sacrifices is too horrible to even consider.

How strange this “new” religion must have seemed and even felt, where there are no sacrifices. You’ve always understood that religion meant you bring some animal, even as small as “two young pigeons” (Luke 2:24) and watch it slaughtered. You come to this Christianity and learn that Jesus was “the Lamb of God,” that He was a final sacrifice, that no more are needed. Suddenly you don’t have “sacrifices” to make you feel religious. It must have seemed very strange to them.

Get yourself in their mindset, and then hear Paul tell you to offer your own body as a sacrifice! Of course he qualifies it as a living sacrifice, yet still it is a sacrifice. When it comes to that word “sacrifice,” I suspect we’ve lost their sense of death, and pain, and bloodshed (and even smell!) which the word would have conjured in their brains. So, here they are, in this religion with no more sacrifices, yet it turns out you are the sacrifice!

Into that world, Paul calls them (and us) to be “a living sacrifice, holy, and well-pleasing to God.” In Philippians 2:17, he calls himself “an offering being poured out upon the sacrifice and service of your faith.” You and I are the offering. That really is no surprise. What is it the Lord has always truly wanted? Is it not we ourselves? Paul said of the Macedonians, “They did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us” (II Cor. 8:5).

Even under the Old Testament Law, Micah understood this truth. He said, “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (6:6-8).

As we’ve noted before, you and I are both the least and the most we have to offer God. Like the Macedonians, the absolute least you or I can give Him is ourselves. We can say to Him, “Lord, I feel like I have so little to give, but whatever little that may be, I give it to you. Though they could only find five loaves and three fishes to feed the thousands, what did Jesus say? “Bring them to Me.” On the other hand, you and I are the most we can give, No matter what else we do, or how much “greatness” we may think we can accomplish, it actually means nothing if we don’t first give ourselves! “Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love, I am nothing.”

However, then what does it mean to give ourselves? What sort of answers does He give? “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess His name. ¹⁶ And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Heb. 13:15,16).

What He desires from us is a living sacrifice. It is a sacrifice of our living. I like what D.G. Dunn said of this offering of our bodies here: Body here “is the physical embodiment of the individual’s consecration in the concrete realities of daily life,,,his concrete relationship within this world; it is because he is body that man can experience the world and relate to others…It is as part of the world and within the world that Christian worship is to be offered by the Christian.”

The Lord is not calling us to hide away in a cave somewhere. He wants you and me to live. For a chosen few, His call may mean some form of full-time ministry, but God’s intent for the vast majority of Christians is for us simply to live. Paul told the people, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands” (I Thes. 4:13).

In that passage, especially note how Paul goes on to tell them why they should live that simple life: “…so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders” (v.13).  In Titus, Paul tells workers to “be subject to their bosses in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” (2:9,10). The loudest voice the world should hear from us regular Christians is our lives. You and I are “the gentle rains” that “soften the earth,” so that when God’s seed is sown, it might find good soil to grow in people’s hearts.

The key then is that we live for Him. All day every day, as you and I go to work and do our jobs, as we interact with people, as we go home to spend the evening with our families, as we mow the grass and change our babies’ diapers, He wants us to do it all for Him.

He loves every one of those people. He would draw them to Himself with His love. He could do it Himself, but He is offering to you and I the wonderful privilege of being the immediate expression of that love into the lives of people – everyone in our family, our friends, the people at work, the people at our church, our next-door neighbors, the cashier at the grocery store. As you and I go about living, we are exactly where the Lord wants us to be.

All of this then feeds into how else Paul describes our offering – “holy, well-pleasing to God.” “Holy” means first of all “consecrated.” As I go out into my day, my heart should be reminding me, “I am a servant of the Most High God.” With all of my life, “My meat is to do His will and to finish it.” However, it is His will. Circling back to the idea of a living sacrifice, you and I need to let our ambitions be driven by Scripture, that we might in fact be “well-pleasing to God.” We mustn’t let our lives be driven by even “church” traditions,” but rather by our knowledge of the Word. 

Paul warned the Colossians, “See to it that no one takes you captive through deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition rather than on Christ” (2:8). This then will lead into Romans 12:2, “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed…,” but we’ll have to be patient and consider that next.

A living sacrifice. May, in fact, our living today be truly for Him. May all of our believing lives, we His church, together be a beautiful symphony, drawing the world into the loving arms of our Jesus!

Romans 12:1 “Me?”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹I am urging you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your (pl.) bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] well-pleasing to God, [which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship.

Continuing to work through this seemingly simple passage – what is it the Lord wants us to offer? Our bodies. This one thought bursts with so many applications, I hardly know where to begin.

Just think for a second about this verse itself. After the most thorough and glorious presentation of the Everlasting Gospel of God, then turning to think about our appropriate response, what is the first thing Paul would say to us? “Present your bodies a living sacrifice…”

Now stop and think, how would you or I answer the question, “Based on all Jesus did for us (Romans 1-11), what should we do in return?” I suspect we’d come up with a thousand different answers, yet what is God’s answer? “Live for me.” “Make your life, your living be for Me.” There are 168 hours in a week. We may sleep 56 of them, but what about the other 112? Living for Him is so much more than just “religious” activities. It is a life lived for him – a life of family and work and community and, yes, church, but a life of it all. In 1:27, Paul told the Philippians, “Live your lives worthy of the gospel of Christ.” It’s specifically about how we live our lives.

Interestingly, what then does that involve? It is specifically “our bodies.” Back in chapter 6, he told the Romans, “Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness…Just as you used to offer your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.”

In that passage, we see Paul intertwines the words “body,” “parts of your body,” and “yourselves.” It is a matter of offering yourself, but clearly, there is value in us thinking about it in terms of the body itself.

What is our body? In a sense, it is simply the earthly vessel in which our spirit lives. We live inside our body. It is our body, yet we are all very aware that, somehow, I exist apart from this body. People who claim to have had “near-death” experiences often relate how they rose above their body and were looking back down at it. Whether or not that’s true, it expresses the point I’m making – we all know that somehow we are someone living in our bodies. We take comfort from verses like II Cor. 5:8: “We would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”

The catch is that our body is our connection with this material world. Without a body, we would be unable to see or hear or touch the things in this material world. It is of some amusement to me to think of people as “the person behind those eyes.” We all know there is a huge difference between looking at a person’s eyes and looking into those eyes. When we look into their eyes, we are suddenly aware of the person we’re talking to. We’ve “connected” with them. I would suggest that is because, through our eyes our spirits actually connect.

So we can see that, when Paul refers to our bodies, he is referring to the “all” of us -- yet somehow he specifically wants us to think of our lives with the idea that we’re talking about our body, this thing we use to connect with this material world.

This leads in myriads of different directions. I’ll try to ponder a few.

As I sit here typing, I am doing so with my mind, my eyes, and my fingers. I am connecting with (hopefully) you – but I couldn’t be doing this except that I live in a body. It’s this body. As I sit here, I am too keenly aware it is not the body I had at 26. This body is old and tired and frankly doesn’t work very well. Even as I simply sit here, I can feel aches and pain. This body doesn’t see very well or hear very well. This guy who, when young, had an almost photographic memory, now finds he can’t remember people’s names, though I’ve known them for years! However, this verse reminds me, in spite of all that, God still wants me to offer it to Him. I have no other body. If I don’t give Him this old, tired one, then I have nothing to give!

When He asks me to present my body, I wish I could offer him that bright, young, strong one. But I cannot. This one is the only one I have to give. I must accept that it is not a 26-year old body. It can’t do what it once did, yet the Lord asks me to present it anyway – just as it is today. That means I have to accept what I no longer can do. I have to learn to accept this body and not be dreaming of something that no longer exists. God says to present to Him this one.

It also amazes me that the Lord asks us to present our bodies, knowing it is exactly the body that Paul earlier described in Romans 7. As he described there, this is not a body that wants to honor God! Jesus warned Peter, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” This is an Adamic body. It might be a bit of an overstatement, but it seems to me, according to the Bible, that the body itself really is the seat of our sin natures. Obviously, that sin nature also contaminates our spirits. I suspect the word “flesh” embraces the totality of that problem, so that it is not limited to the body, but sees us in the totality of our rebellious, lustful selves – contaminated body and spirit. Yet, again, it seems the body is the seat of the problem.

God tells us to present that body! When Jesus comes, we know He will “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). However, in the meantime, while we may be born again, yet we go on living in these Adamic bodies. We cannot escape this constant battle of “the flesh warring against the spirit.” It should be of some comfort to us to know the Lord is quite aware this is the body He is asking us to present. If I gave my son a bent screw-driver and asked him to use it anyway, I would not be surprised or even disappointed to find him struggling to make it work. Rather, I would be honored to watch him struggle, seeing his obedient heart that really is trying!

I don’t want to serve God with a bent screw-driver. I could do so much better if I didn’t have to fight my own self all day every day, but He knows. He knows I have no other body to serve Him with – at least for now. And so, we go before Him every morning and say, Here am I. Send me. Heal me. Carry me – then head out into a world where Jesus wants to shine even through our brokenness!

I guess one more thought I’d like to record is that this body is what it is. What I mean is I am who I am. There are things I’m “good” at and things I simply am not. I can beat myself up over all the things I see other people doing so much better than me. Or I can accept that I am who I am – and I’m the only “me” I can present to God – for better or for worse! I could list all the things I wish I was “better” at, but anyone reading this is more than aware of their own personal list. We all have to accept that we are who we are.

There may be a few things we can get “better” at by applying ourselves, but I am personally convinced that is usually a waste of time. God wants me to present this body. My efforts will pay far higher dividends if I focus on my strengths and let others fill in the gaps of my weaknesses. Here again, we have to accept that it is this body.

And so…we turn our hearts to the Lord and say, “Okay, Lord, here am I. I’m sorry this is all I have to offer. I think you deserve far better. However, here’s my bent screw-driver. May You be glorified even in my struggle. In fact, may Jesus today through me everywhere be “a savor of life unto life.” May You help me today to “abide in the vine,” and “bring forth much fruit.” Here am I. Send me.

Romans 12:1 “God Cares”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹I am urging you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your (pl.) bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] well-pleasing to God, [which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship..

The old KJV translated this verse beginning as “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God…” The NIV today begins, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy…” You will notice above in my fairly literal translation that, rather than “mercy/mercies,” I have used the word “sympathies.”

As it turns out, the Greek word being translated “mercies” is not the word one would expect. There is a word “eleos,” which very specifically means “mercy,” and is, almost without exception exactly the word you would have expected to find. However, the word we do find here is “oiktos.”

When a person is scratching around in the ancient languages, after a while you get used to certain words you expect to see. When it’s something else, it is always a good idea to pause. No two words mean exactly the same thing. The differences may be slight, but still, one wonders why Paul would choose oiktos rather eleos, if all he meant was “mercies.”  

Here’s what I want to suggest. Mercy is certainly a wonderful thing. As the old saying goes, “Grace is when God gives us what we don’t deserve; Mercy is when He doesn’t give us what we do deserve!” All of us thank Jesus from the bottom of our hearts for His mercy. However, mercy, in and of itself, can be, in a sense, a cold thing.

What I mean is, it is something you choose to do. There could be a judge who wants to be known as a merciful judge, so he plans that, about every tenth case he tries, he’ll let the person off. So at around that tenth case, the person is found clearly guilty, but the judge chooses to say something like, “In light of the circumstances, I’m simply going to drop your charges. You’re free to go.” If it were you or me, we would thank him profusely and definitely tell our family and friends about what we saw as his kindness.

In that case, even though the judge really doesn’t care about the person, yet he can show “mercy” in a very official sort of way. That would be the usual word “eleos.” “Eleos” itself is almost never used in such a cold sense, but it could be. And that is where “oiktos” comes in.

“Oiktos” is definitely a more emotional word, which I believe is better translated “sympathies,” as I did above.  In typical usage, I would say there is no difference between the words, just as we would see no big difference between “mercies” and “sympathies.” However, there is a difference, and once again, I think “mercies” are more about something you do, while “sympathies” are more about how you feel. Now go back and think about this verse and read it as “sympathies” rather than “mercies,” and what do you find?

What I see is that what Paul is referring to is not primarily what God has done, but what He feels. What is sympathy after all? Sympathy sees another person’s sorrows or afflictions and simply “feels sorry” for them. Sympathy does not consider what that person does or doesn’t deserve. Sympathy doesn’t consider if they got themself into this or not. It just sees their misery and feels sorry for them. It may express itself in being merciful. But can you see, there is a fine line between the feelings of sympathy and the action of mercy?

That fine line is what I’m talking about here in Romans 12. “I urge you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your body,,,” Think with me for a second not just about God’s great mercies, but about His sympathies! For me personally, this is another one of those atom bombs of truth I get from studying the Bible! Paul isn’t just asking us to think back about what God has done, but what He has felt. He’s taking us behind the curtain of God’s acts…to actually see His heart!

Have you ever thought about how the great God of heaven, the Creator, the King of the universe, the infinite, eternal I AM feels sorry for you? He looks down from heaven and sees you in your miseries (even those that are self-inflicted!), sees all of us in the miseries of this sin-cursed world, and His big eternal heart is moved to sympathy! Completely apart from questions of who deserves or doesn’t deserve whatever. Completely separate from matters of justice and judgment and all of that judicial sort of business, He simply feels sorry for you.

Someone may be objecting at this point, thinking I’m somehow suggesting something below God’s great regal dignity. Actually, that is exactly what blows my mind – to see past all the “regal,” judicial business and see His heart. Consider yourself -- do you ever just “feel sorry” for someone? Where do you get that from? Is it not rising from a heart that was “made in the image of God?” You have those feelings of sympathy precisely because God does.

In our case, feeling sympathy might lead us to be foolishly merciful, whereas, even with those feelings, God will always still do right. That is true enough, but, once again, we’re distinguishing between those feelings and the acts that follow. We can look back over those first eleven chapters of God’s amazing mercies, the whole great Plan of Salvation, and be literally awestruck at what He has done for us through Jesus. However, Paul is here calling you and me to look even deeper and see not only God’s acts of love on our behalf, but to see His heart of love! This isn’t just official. It’s personal.

Have you ever paused to consider that the Lord feels sorry for you? Have you ever really thought of how, as He sees you in your miseries, that even though you may deserve them all (and worse), that you bring them on yourself, while others tell you, “You made the bed; You’ll just have to sleep in it,” that all of that aside and regardless of what He may have to do, behind it all He simply feels sorry for you?

My own heart just reels with those thoughts. I feel like Paul has taken me to a depth I’ve never gone before. No wonder Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” Even from the Cross, He was seeing you and me in our misreies and His big heart was moved to sympathy!

What to do? I want to dwell more on these thoughts, to deliberately see God’s sympathies as I read the Bible, to see more of His heart as I read. And then, I want to deliberately let sympathy happen in my own heart. As I see people, I want to be wise, but I want to let my heart see their miseries and, like my Father, allow myself feel sorry for them. Maybe I still need to say, “No,” or, if I was a judge, I might have to pronounce them guilty, or as a parent administer discipline, but under it all, I want to feel what God feels. I want to be like Him. I want to be like Jesus. I want to have His heart.

If you’re reading this, even as I type, I know your life is very hard in many ways. Some you deserve and some you don’t, but I hope it encourages you as much as it does me to know that God cares.

Romans 12:1 “Urging”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹I am urging you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your (pl.) bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] well-pleasing to God, [which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship.

It seems, as I have been studying this verse, that almost every word is an atom bomb of truth. That should actually come as no surprise, following eleven chapters proclaiming the glorious Gospel of grace!

Clearly, Paul here moves to the natural question of, “How shall we then live?” This is especially imperative, having presented that Gospel of grace and, having emphatically stated, “We are not under law, but under grace.” Understanding what this means would be particularly important for Jewish Christians, used to living under the Law, with all its very specific rules. On the other hand, I would maintain it is critical for all of us to ponder, understand, and let God weave these thoughts into our souls.

What do I mean? It is very easy for us today to look at the people of Israel and see their legalism. The Hasidic Jews (modern counterparts to the Pharisees of Jesus’ day) are probably the most visible consequence of people supposedly pursuing a relationship with God, based on OT law. That approach to “religion” expresses the idea that knowing God is a matter of meticulous rule-keeping. Supposedly, if you try really hard to keep all of the rules, you can persuade others that you are a “religious” person and that God likes you.

Turning from the Jews and looking around, is that not what all “religion” is about – keeping some specific set of rules or ceremonies? Each “faith” is distinctive not only for the beliefs that they hold, but visibly for their unique practices. A prime example is “Seventh Day Adventists.” To join their company means you go to church on Saturday, not Sunday. To be any kind of Protestant means you go to church on Sunday, repeat the Lord’s Prayer and perhaps the Apostles’ Creed, maybe teach Sunday School, etc. What distinguishes every “religion” is their unique rituals and practices and standards.

That, I have come to understand, is because we are all obligate legalists. Our natural inclination all day every day is to think life is somehow about “keeping the rules.” Making people happy usually comes down to keeping (their) rules. and certainly, we think making God happy comes down to keeping His rules. Then Jesus comes along and tells us it all comes down simply to “love God/love others.”

We try to come to God with our obligate legalism, only for Him to slap it out of our hands! Actually, even for OT believers, what did He say is the sum of it all? “To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God” (Mic. 6:8). I know it was true of me and also that it was so with others – that when we really came face to face with grace, it caused a strange nakedness as we stood before God. “But, but, but…if you take away all these things I’m ‘doing,’ what is my relationship with God???” Then one marvels to realize all the Lord ever really wanted was you. “Nothing in my hand I bring…”

If a person has read and truly understood the first eleven chapters of Romans, and if we have truly drunk deeply of the wonder of His grace, then as we come to Romans 12:1, Paul is answering the very question our hearts long to ask: “How shall we then live?” If I’m not under Law, but under grace, what will my life look like? What kind of person will I be?

“Ah,” Paul replies, “I’m so glad you asked!” Actually, the very simple answer to that question is Jesus. God saves us for the specific purpose of “transforming us into His image, from glory to glory” (II Cor. 3:18). As we stand together at this point, I believe we would see any direction the Lord gives us not as a “set of rules to keep,” but as the very heart of Jesus and this God of grace with whom we have fallen deeply in love.

So, then, the wording of Romans 12:1 should come as no surprise at all. Consider how it starts, “I urge you, brothers…” Urge? “But shouldn’t it be, ‘I command you, Christians…’” No, it shouldn’t. Born again hearts do not sit at the foot of Mt. Sinai hoping God will give them Ten Commandments. They don’t grovel peevishly shouting, “All the Lord commands us, we will do.” He doesn’t need to get out His whip for us. “Obedience” isn’t about keeping the rules. It’s about knowing His heart, wanting to please Him, about wanting to be like Him. So how would an Apostle speak to such people? “I urge you, brothers.”

The word translated “urge” means literally something like “to call beside.” It might refer to that kindly grandfather who puts his arm around you and says, “Here’s the way to do this,” or perhaps the kind coach who sits beside the struggling athlete and shows him he’s doing better than he thinks.

May we all be reminded that is the way of grace. Grace does not command. It draws. “Commands” tell us, “Do this and live.” Grace instead steps into our heart and says, “Live, and do this!” All of this brings us back to what we learned from Daniel – “the unassailable citadel of the human heart.” “Commands” are a power word. In this world, if you have enough power, you can basically get anyone to do anything.

Nebuchadnezzar could threaten people with a raging fiery furnace and get them all to bow down and worship his idol. Essentially, the entire Babylonian Empire would bow before his idol – except three young Hebrew fellows. However, think about all those other people. Was their bowing real? Was it not clearly forced upon them? Obviously, it was not real, and, in fact, it proved nothing except that Nebuchadnezzar was a brutal bully.

There again, you may have the power to threaten people into doing almost anything, but have you changed their heart? No. It has always been true of even the most powerful kings who ever lived, there is one thing they cannot do. They cannot change a human heart.

To “call beside,” to urge, to appeal are all words that communicate respect. They are words that woo, words that draw. That is how you can speak to people with “good” hearts, people you are confident want to do right, and that is what is true of every real believer. At this point in the book of Romans, if you have to command people, it only proves they haven’t really understood those first eleven chapters.

Now, I have to insert an excurses on this business of commands. Someone may object, “But what about all the commands in the NT? That word has not disappeared. What about Jesus’ words, ‘A new command I give you…?” First of all, yes, the word “command” is still clearly present in the NT. However, stop and consider that it appears in its various forms about 800x in the OT, but drops to only about 100 in the New. In this Church age and with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, believers simply don’t need to be constantly “commanded.”

However, as we are all too aware, while I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit and sincerely want to do right, my Adamic sin nature is still quite present and ever longing to drag me back down to hell. Paul addressed this soundly in chapter 7. “So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me” (vv. 22,23)

Although we are born-again, we still have that sin nature. Personally I like to think of the “commands” of the NT as like guard-rails on the highway. Although I certainly want to stay in my lane, I am also keenly aware of how easily I can lose concentration or fall asleep at the wheel and plunge myself over a cliff. Those guard-rails are there to keep me on that “straight-and-narrow.” I want there to be guard-rails, and so it is in my Christian life. Precisely because I want to obey God, I actually appreciate the “guard-rails” of God’s commands.

So, yes, they are still there. To me, anyone who has ever been required to supervise people knows it’s true. You can have one very compliant student or worker who actually wants to please you and whom you can give a great deal of freedom, confident they want to do right. Then you can have another person who seems to have been born with what I would call a wanderlust. They take a lot of watching, a lot of commanding, but it is precisely because they don’t want to obey. If you and I are truly born-again, we have become that first person, and so the 800 commands drops to only 100. You and I only need “commands” as guard-rails, while those yet outside of Christ can only be commanded.

End of excursus. What I am saying is all supported by the very next phrase, “because of the mercies of God.” Paul can urge us “because of the mercies of God.” The “mercies of God” is basically those first eleven chapters of Romans -- because of the Gospel, because of grace, because, from the very bottom of our souls we thank God for our salvation, we need only urging, not someone standing over us with a whip.

There is much more to say, but I will stop here. I would suggest, if we should take away anything from these words, it would be to simply re-commit in our hearts to being submissive to our Lord’s will. Though that battle rages within us, and perhaps even because of that battle, we can look up to Jesus in the very deep gratitude of our hearts and say, “Yes, Lord, I do believe,” then add, “help my unbelief!”

I hope as I wander through the rest of the book of Romans, I can constantly keep in mind, every word that is written is written for people who want to obey. Although the Spirit within in me makes me one of those people, I am also keenly aware my sin nature is alive and well. And so I hear the Lord calling to me, “Do not be like the horse or the mule, which must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you,” rather, “Let me guide you by My eye” (Ps. 32:8,9).

Yes, Lord, help me not be a stubborn mule You have to constantly command. Help me to be that person you can guide simply by Your eye. May I only require of You urging.