Total Surrender
Romans 12:1-2 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. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Intro: Paul is writing to a church that is trying to find itself. The Jews are saying that following Jesus looks very Jewish while the Gentiles are saying, “He saved us without us having to become Jewish in name or practice.” There is no doubt a power struggle going on, and possibly a little “one upsmanship” as well. So Paul has responded in the first 11 chapters by saying that the gospel is the power of God that leads to salvation – both for Jews and for Gentiles. Then he paints a very vivid picture of how sinful human beings are – both Jews and Gentiles. In fact, last week we learned that God has bound every human being over to disobedience so He could have mercy on them all! He has told them over and over again that the only way to get right with God is to trust in Jesus and what He did on the cross – Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that He died and rose again and you will be saved! He continues to level the playing field. Nobody has a monopoly on God! We all come to Him humbly, believing on His Son. God is a merciful God who does not give us what we deserve! And now, in light of God’s mercy, what should be our response to God? Complete surrender! God doesn’t care how much we think we have to offer or how gifted or smart we are. If we are not surrendered to Him, then all the talent or charisma in the world will not help people come to know Him!
-So, maybe part of Paul’s message here could be, “Roman believers, Jews and Gentiles: Stop fighting against each other and demanding your own way! We’ve all blown it but have been included in God’s family because of what Jesus has done – not because of what we have done! Ours is to surrender completely to God, not demand our own way! So, forget about what you think you can do for God for a moment and make sure you are surrendered to Him! Service must flow out of surrender. If it doesn’t it can turn into manipulation or self-service. Therefore, give yourselves completely to God!”
-God is calling each of us to do the same: give ourselves completely to God. Paul will talk about our service to God in the verses that follow, but we’ll get to that another day. Let’s look a little deeper into the meaning and implications of these 2 verses.
I. Because of God’s Mercy…
-Based upon the entire argument in chapters 1-11, we should fully surrender our lives to Him. The immediate context is found in the words of praise at the end of chapter 11: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond finding out…for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory! Amen.”
-Based on all that God has done and the mercy He has offered freely, Paul says, “I urge you, brothers…” Even though Paul could have used a command here, he instead makes an appeal. He does a similar thing in Ephesians 4:1: “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” This word means to “call near” or “to invite.” Notice that he refers to them as “brothers,” indicating his affection for them as members of God’s family. He’s begging believers, not unbelievers, to do something that has not yet been done.
-He makes this plea “in view of God’s mercy.” The original word used here for “mercy” is actually plural and refers to God’s multitude of mercies. He is not merciful just once but again and again. He is consistently and constantly full of mercy. God has demonstrated so much mercy to us that it should be the natural unrehearsed response of the Christian to fully surrender our lives to Him. But don’t get too hung up on it coming naturally. It didn’t seem to be coming naturally for the Roman Christians, and there’s a good chance it won’t seem to come naturally for many of us. We do struggle with the person we used to be who keeps wanting to take over. That doesn’t mean you’re schizophrenic, it just means you’re human and you are engaged in a battle that God wants to help you win!
-It’s interesting that Paul doesn’t say, “In light of God’s grace” but instead focuses on mercy. Why is that? God’s grace is demonstrated when we get what we don’t deserve, whereas His mercy is what keeps us from getting what we do deserve. Micah 7:18: “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.”
-There was a man who stormed into a photo studio complaining about the quality of his photographs. He smashed his fist on the counter and fumed, “Sir, these pictures do not do my looks justice.” To which the photographer responded, “Sir, with a face like yours, you don’t want justice, you want mercy!” We need to be careful about asking for justice, because we might just get it! If I received what I deserved I’d end up in hell, and so would you. It’s God’s mercies that we want. Lamentations 3:22: “Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not” (NKJV).
-Paul now goes on to give us three ways to fully express our surrender to God:
2. Offer your body
-We are urged, in view of the many mercies of God “to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.” This word “offer” is a technical term that was used to describe the bringing and presenting of an animal for sacrifice on an altar. To “offer” means, “to present once and for all.” In the Old Testament worship included sacrifice. A live animal was brought to the priest and the owner would lay hands on the beast to symbolically say, “This animal takes my place.” The animal was then killed and the blood was sprinkled upon the altar.
-This idea of a “living sacrifice” must have been a novel idea to the Jews of that day. This was something they had not heard of before, except perhaps in the case of Abraham offering Isaac upon the altar. They were used to offering dead sacrifices. Once a sacrifice is offered to God, you can’t take it back. When we are called to present our “bodies” to the Lord, we are exhorted to offer our total being to Him, not just bits and pieces. God does not just want to be a “part” of our lives; He wants us to be completely committed to Him. As someone has said, the problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar!
-God isn’t interested in dead meat. He’s looking for live bodies and spirits of believers who will be sold out to Him. He wants us to be living sacrifices, not dead offerings. When an offering was made to God, it was set apart and was completely devoted.
-A young boy came to church one cold winter day to get out of the blowing snow. He had been trying to sell newspapers but not a single customer had passed by because of the weather. He slipped into the back of the church, just hoping to get warm and catch up on his sleep. Though the Sunday crowd was slim, the boy really paid attention to the sermon and was greatly moved by it. When the pastor was done, he called for the offering. The ushers went from row to row, and when the offering plate came to the boy, he stared at it for a while and then put it on the floor.
-He then did something very strange and very beautiful. He stood up and stepped right into the offering plate. By then, all the people had turned around and were staring at the boy. When he looked up, he had big tears running down his face as he said, “Pastor, I don’t have any money because I haven’t sold any newspapers today. But, if Jesus gave His life for me, then I will gladly give my life to Him.” The person who has nothing to give but himself is able to give the greatest gift of all.
-Paul continues by saying that our life offering is to be “holy and pleasing to God.” Sacrifices were to be without blemish or defect. In like manner, we are to offer to God our best. When we give our best to Him, it will be pleasing, or agreeable to Him. This is then our “spiritual act of worship.” Worship is not just what we do here on Sunday mornings. True worship is the presenting of our bodies as living sacrifices to Him and living holy and pleasing lives, every day of the week.
3. Offer your mind
-Verse 1 calls for a decisive commitment to fully surrender. Verse 2 tells us how we can maintain that commitment by renewing our mind and not following the fashion and pattern of the world. The world’s way of doing things is built on selfishness, not selflessness. The tense of this verse implied that the Romans were to stop conforming, giving the idea that this was something they were doing. If we’re serious about surrendering fully to Christ, we must focus on being transformed, not being conformed to those things the world values. He who controls the mind, owns the person.
-The word “conformed” is the word that we get our English word “scheme” from. It’s sometimes translated “fashioned.” Paul is urging us to stop being pushed into the fashion of the world. Sometimes we are so conformed to the world that there is little noticeable difference between Christians and non-Christians. A conformist is afraid to be different and feels a need to be like everyone else. A Christian is not supposed to be a chameleon!
-Some of you might be facing some incredible temptations right now. You feel yourself being pulled to conform, to go along with the way your friends are leading you. Don’t give in! Unfortunately, some of us have internalized the world’s values and fashions so much that we don’t even recognize it anymore. It’s like walking into a dark theater in the middle of the day. When you first go in, everything is really dark. But after a while, you can see normally, that is, until you walk back outside. Some of you are in a similar situation today. If you spend enough time conforming to the world, you become so accustomed to the darkness that you think it’s now normal.
-The word “transformed” refers to an inner change. We get the word “metamorphosis” from this Greek word. A metamorphosis is not something we can do on our own. If we present ourselves as living sacrifices and reflect upon the mercies of God as evidenced in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will transform our minds.
-There is a story told of a very ugly man with a hideous face. He was good and kind, but people were terrified of him and would not stay in his presence. As you can imagine, he was very lonely. The thing he wanted most was to marry the mayor’s pretty daughter and to be loved by her. So he decided to wear a mask of a handsome face so that he could win her love. He kept this mask on 24/7. Soon he was married to the mayor’s daughter and living the happy life he had always wanted.
-After a number of years his wife began to notice that his handsome face was indeed a mask and asked him to show her his true face. And because he loved her, and could not bear to refuse her, he slowly took off the mask, bracing himself for the gasp of horror he knew would soon be coming. But instead of screaming, his wife just smiled. The man ran to a mirror and realized that the years of wearing the disguise had transformed his face into the handsome features of the mask. When we put on Christ and wear his face, we find our lives transformed into his likeness. 2 Corinthians 3:18: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
-It is by the renewing of our minds - trading the old pattern of selfishness for the new pattern of Christ’s kingdom values that we are transformed. I like how the Living Bible translates Romans 12:2: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a newness in all you do and think.”
4. Offer your will
-Notice the last part of verse 2: “Then we will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” Isn’t it great that God allows us to test and approve his will for us? God will not force us into anything. He does not dominate our wills, but allows us to choose His will.
-But it’s no use sitting around waiting to have the will of God revealed to us. This is an active verb. We learn His will by doing. When you wonder what God’s will is for your life, the first place to start is by living out Romans 12:1-2. Until you offer Him your body, your mind, and your will, you won’t understand His good, pleasing, and perfect will. We tend to focus God’s will on the what (our occupation), or the where ¬(our location), but God is more interested in our transformation. Have you presented yourself to Him in complete surrender? The answer to this question will determine your ability to tap into God’s limitless resources. (Portions of the sermon body adapted from Brian Bill.)
Conclusion: So, what do we do with this information? We have the ability to agree with it, but then forget all about it after we say amen. But I don’t think that is what you want, and I know it is not what God wants from you. So let’s try this: In the next few moments, would you have a silent conversation with God, through His Holy Spirit? Would you ask Him 2 questions: 1) Lord, what areas of my life have I not fully surrendered to You? 2) Will You help me change?
-Maybe those questions don’t work for you because you’ve never really surrendered yourself to God. You find yourself believing He is real and it appears that the Bible is indeed true, but maybe you’ve never called on Him, asking Him to forgive you and be the leader of your life. If you’d like to take that step today, it would be an honor to help you with that. If that is you, just begin to talk to God from your heart and tell Him that you want to do life with Him. Let’s all take a few quiet moments to talk with God.
