BIBLE PASSAGE:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, 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.
(Romans 12:1)
MEDITATION:
When Paul says, “in view of God’s mercy”, what does he mean? We
need to look at the absence of mercy to fully understand His mercy.
We tend to be a generation with an attitude of,
“I’ll get even with him or her for that”
and
“I want them to get what they deserve for what they did”.
There seems to be a growing attitude in many to have harsh feelings
of criticism and sometimes hate, which feeds our desire to see others
get what’s coming to them, and then some. God, however, is merciful
to even the worst offenders, sinners, and lawbreakers.
This means that even though He knows of our guilt, God doesn’t
always issue punishment in proportion to what we deserve (at
least from our way of thinking). In the simplest terms, we are all
sinners and none of us meet the standards of righteousness God
intends for us to have.
But, through His mercy and grace, God provided a way for our sins
to be forgiven (even though we don’t deserve it) through our belief
and acceptance of Jesus Christ. Coupled with grace (which is God’s
free gift of forgiveness although we’ve done nothing to deserve it),
His mercy is shown because of His great love for us; and all He asks
from us in return is to accept His Son, Jesus by faith.
We were dead in our transgressions and sins, in which we used to live
when we followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom
of the air (the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient).
All of us were grouped with the worst of sinners at one time as we were
gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and
thoughts.
Why were we grouped with them? Because God is binary when it comes
to sinfulness. He doesn’t have different degrees of sin; all sin is sin in His
eyes. We might say to ourselves, “My sins aren’t as bad as those of others”,
but that’s our view of sin, and not God’s.
As sinners, we all deserve God’s wrath, but because of his great love
for us, God, who is rich in mercy, gave us all an opportunity to be
transformed from one who is ‘dead in transgression’, to become a
new person who is ‘alive in Christ’. That’s grace from our Heavenly
Father – He gives us what we don’t deserve.
Do we have a choice regarding this ‘transformation’? We don’t have
a choice in its availability, because it’s a free gift from God, but we
do have a choice of whether we will accept His gift of mercy. It’s not
a gift we earn, but one that must be received if we are to be changed
from ‘dead’ to ‘alive’.
Paul’s point is, since we were dead and yet made alive again, we
should feel indebted to the God of creation. We should become
motivated by ‘love’ and ‘gratefulness’ (rather than an obligation),
to live a righteous life that pleases the One who saved us from death.
When we commit to doing the things that please our Savior, it is an
act of worship (adoration) as our spirit strives to please His spirit.
God showed His love for us, and when we please Him, we show our
love for Him. How? By living a life governed by His guidelines and
not ours, or the world’s standards.
That means changing our lives from being controlled by our natural,
sinful desires, to being guided by the One who rescued us from death.
As transformed individuals, we will have a desire to do the things He
wants of us, and to avoid what He considers sinful things.
Anytime we start replacing our natural desire with Godliness, it can
create many challenges for us. In some areas where we are not quite
as susceptible to sin, it might be an easy transition, but there can be
areas where it is a quantum leap to break free of sinful desires that
are so strong, and some that have been a part of our life for a long time.
ACTION:
Questions to consider:
– Have I offered my body as a living sacrifice for God?
– Am I showing praise, thankfulness and worship to the God who
saved me, by doing the things that are holy and pleasing to Him?
– Am I willing to allow the Lord to change my natural, sinful
desires to a Godly attitude of pleasing and serving Him?
– When I assess the motivation for the things I do and say, are
they under my control, or have I surrendered them to His control?
– What areas of my life have I surrendered to the Lord, and which ones
am I still holding onto? (God wants total commitment; partial
commitment means we still have areas of disobedience).
Pray,
“Heavenly Father, I could never thank You enough for giving me
life and hope, when I was dead in my transgressions. However, I
now know that I can show my love and appreciation by sacrificing
my desires for worldly pleasures, and offering my life as one that is
holy and pleasing to You. Help me to separate myself from the things
that prevent me from being holy and righteous. Convict me whenever
I justify anything I do (or don’t do) that does not fulfill Your guidelines
for holy and righteous living. Remind me that I might be appeasing
myself and others, but not You. You gave everything for me and my
prayer is that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I will live a life that
is totally committed to You as an expression of my love, praise,
adoration and appreciation.”
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Discussion
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