All for Jesus - Romans 12

In our final meeting of 2013, Trevor Matthews drew attention to the word 'present' in the opening verse of Romans 12. At this time of the year, gifts and presents are given as a token of love, and we also rejoice in the greatest gift that ever was given, when the Lord Jesus Christ came from His home in heaven to die for us on earth.

In this first verse, and the proceeding verses, the Apostle Paul pleads with his fellow believers, and us as modern-day Christians, to 'present', to offer as a gift, our own lives and bodies to the Lord. Paul had explained the mercies of God in previous chapters of the book, and now he refers to these mercies as the reason why we are able to give ourselves over to Him.

The mercy of God, which justifies a believer and sets them free from the power of sin, gives every child of God the strength and the desire to hand our lives over to Him. 'By the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies...'. And by the mercy of God, it is His right to expect that we give our lives to Him. 

The Lord did not come only to save our souls from sin, but to keep our bodies from the harmful influence of sin. Our minds, our hands, our eyes, our mouths and our feet in the places we attend, can be so easily destroyed and distracted from the work of the Lord by the sinful things of this world. God asks that we offer our bodies to Him, that we might not fall into the dangers of sin.

He asks that we give it wholly, and actively for Him. 'That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice'. Our daily lives, in full, must be dedicated to the glory of God. Whatever we do, we should be doing all to the His honour and His glory.

The opening verse then closes by reminding us that the Lord does not ask anything unreasonable of us. Having laid down His life for us, and suffered the punishment of the sins of the world, upon His own body, for us, surely the least we can do for Him is to give our redeeemed bodies back into His hands. It is our 'reasonable service'.

In doing so, He will transform us, by the renewing of our minds, that we will no longer be conformed to the world, but instead be changed into believers whose desire is to do the perfect and acceptable will of God (verse 2).