Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (44 page)

We said that the first key to accurately interpreting Scripture is content. That is based on observation of the text. So let’s start with that.

The first thing that grabs me about this text is its sense of urgency. “I urge you,” verse 1 begins. “I beseech you.” “I implore you.” I love J. B. Phillips’ rendering: “With eyes wide open to the mercies of God.” So Paul comes at his readers with a sense of urgency.

The first word in the paragraph is that key word,
therefore
. That’s essential. Remember our motto: whenever you see a therefore, stop to see what it’s there for. Here, it compels us to go back and check out the preceding context. So let’s take the suggestion of the writer and step back to get the big picture of Romans.

Investigation shows that the book of Romans finds its theme in 1:17, where the writer tells us that he is talking about a “righteousness of God”— not our own righteousness, but one that He provides.

Moreover, there are three major divisions to the book. The first eight chapters deal with a righteousness that God has revealed but we must receive. Then chapters 9–11 turn to the subject of Israel, where Paul says the righteousness from God was rejected by His people. Finally, beginning in
chapter 12
(where we find our passage, beginning with
therefore
), we come to the practical section of the book that talks about a righteousness reproduced in the believer’s life.

So, on the basis of one connective, we’ve already got a good overview of the book.

But there’s an additional phrase that forces us to see the connection: “by the mercies of God.” That is to say, the mercies of God become the basis for Paul’s urgent appeal. In effect, that phrase summarizes the first eleven chapters of the book. Paul is saying, essentially, “On the basis of what God has done for you, I want you to do something.”

That’s an important spiritual truth. God never asks us to do anything for Him until He fully informs us of what He has done for us.

What is it that He wants us to do? Verse 1 states it plainly: “to present your bodies.” What does that mean? The word
present
is a key term, and we need to make an effort to understand it. Actually, it’s a technical term. It was used of the presentation of a sacrifice to God in the Old Testament Temple. It has the idea of giving something over to another, to relinquish one’s grip on it. To “present” something means you can’t give it and then later take it back. There’s an element of decisiveness involved.

¹
I urge you therefore, brethren,

          
by the mercies of God,

    
to present your bodies

          
a living and holy sacrifice,

               
acceptable to God,

          
which is your spiritual service of worship.

²
And do not be conformed to this world,

  
but be transformed

    
by the renewing of your mind,

    
that you may prove what the will of God is,

       
that which is good

                   
and acceptable

                   
and perfect.

Now as we’ve seen, whenever we find a term like that, we need to make extensive use of a concordance. So let’s do that. A concordance tells us that the same word,
present
, is used in Luke 2:22:

So Jesus was presented to God in the temple by His parents. This gives us a little insight into the life of our Lord, given the meaning of
present
. His parents were giving Him to God, with no thought or possibility of taking Him back.

The concordance also tells us that
present
is used elsewhere in the book of Romans. That’s helpful, since the same term used by the same author in the same book provides a lot of insight. It’s like having brothers and sisters in the same town, as opposed to distant relatives far away. In Romans 6:13 this is what we find:

Here Paul is giving you an option: You can either present your body as an instrument of righteousness, or you can present your body as an instrument of sin.

Let me illustrate. Consider a surgeon’s scalpel. It is sharper than a razor, light to the touch, and sterile. In short, it is perfect for the purpose for which it was designed. But the real question is, in whose hand is it placed? In my hand it would mean butchery. But in the hand of my skilled surgeon friend, it brings healing and health to the patient. That’s what Paul describes in Romans 6: Present your body to the right hands, to the Person who is going to use it skillfully to accomplish His purposes.

But notice: Paul is talking about the presentation of your body—the same as in Romans 12. What is “the body”? A word study reveals that it stands for the total person, the total being. It also represents the instrument for sacrifice. In fact, it’s really the only instrument of sacrifice that we have, the only thing we can give to God. (You’ll find two other uses of
present
in that same section of Romans [6:16 and 19]. I’ll let you investigate those on your own.)

          
a living and holy sacrifice,

               
acceptable to God,

          
which is your spiritual service of worship.

²
And do not be conformed to this world,

  
but be transformed

    
by the renewing of your mind,

    
that you may prove what the will of God is,

       
that which is good

                   
and acceptable

                   
and perfect.

Present
also appears in Ephesians 5, in the passage about husbands and wives:

Again we find the same word. If you are a husband, the Bible charges you with the responsibility to
present
your wife to God. You are accountable for the relationship with the woman God gives you.

There are several more passages we could look at, but let’s take just one of them, Colossians 1:28:

What was Paul’s purpose in building into the lives of others? To
present
every one of them to the Lord, so that they might come to full maturity.

Back in Romans 12, we need to notice several things about the presentation of our bodies to God. First, we are presenting a “living sacrifice.” That’s a contradiction in terms—except in the spiritual realm. You see, we’re not talking about offering a dead body but a very alive body. It is to be sacrificed to God. And it must be both holy and acceptable.

Paul gives a conclusion about doing this in the expression, “which is your spiritual service of worship.” What does that convey? It shows the expectation that presenting ourselves to God is really the least we could do, the most logical thing we could do, in light of what He has done for us.

Now we come to verse 2: “And do not be conformed to this world.” We’ve used the interpretational principle of comparing Scripture with Scripture to investigate the meaning of
present
. Here we can use it to learn something about being “conformed” to the world.

If we look up
conform
in a Bible dictionary, we discover that it has the idea of pouring something into a mold. Perhaps you’re familiar with the process of dissolving a box of Jell-O in some boiling water and pouring it into a Jell-O mold. When it cools, it retains the shape of the mold.

That’s the idea Paul uses here. “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold,” Phillips paraphrases it. Don’t take on the shape of the world. Don’t allow the world to do the opposite of what God wants to do.

You see, we have an option, according to this passage. The little word
but
indicates a contrast, and we’ve learned to pay close attention to things that are unlike. Our option—the alternative to conforming to the world’s pattern—is to “be transformed.” That, too, is a grabbing term. It actually indicates a metamorphosis, a complete makeover. It’s like the little caterpillar that builds itself a cocoon. After a time, it begins to wiggle and gradually work its way out, revealing a completely changed form as a butterfly.

But note: the transformation of the chrysalis comes from within. So it is in Romans 8. Paul indicates that by saying, “Be conformed
by the renewing of your mind
.”

Another principle we looked at was consultation. That is, having made our own exhaustive study of the text, we can then go to secondary sources, perhaps to a commentary, to find out what light they might throw on the passage. Consulting a commentary on this passage, we gain some profound insight. We learn that the word for “be transformed” is actually the passive form of a verb, whereas the word for “renewing” is active.

Now we may have to go back to our high school English and dust off the cobwebs. Anything passive is being acted upon; if it’s active, it is doing the acting. So Paul is saying that we don’t do the transformation; God does that. We can’t do it, so He does what we can’t do. Is there anything we can do? Yes, we can renew our minds. That’s our job. In fact, the overhauling of our thinking is what allows God to effect the transformation.

In my early days as a believer, I was heavily influenced by Donald Gray Barnhouse, the pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. In effect, he served as a mentor for me. I spent a lot of time with him, and I remember asking him once, “Dr. B., how can I find the will of God?”

I’ll never forget his response. In his typical, brusque way, he whipped around and said, “Hendricks, 90 percent of the will of God will be found from your neck up!” And he turned around and walked off. I was a bit stunned. But all of a sudden it dawned on me why it was that Dr. Barnhouse spent so much of his time “brainwashing” my mind with the Word of God. That’s where God begins to do His work of conforming me to Christ—in my mind.

Unfortunately, most of us are conformed to this world. For the most part, we do not sit down, think through all of our options, and then make an informed decision. No, we act because our culture does it. Our society squeezes us into its mold. How? By working on our minds. That’s why it’s so dangerous to throw our minds into neutral and just go with the flow.