[The theme of this great Epistle is that "the righteous shall live by faith" (1:17), and its grand conclusion is that those who seek life this way find it, and all who seek it in other ways fail (9:30-33). But the popular way of seeking it was by obeying the precepts of the great moral or Mosaic law. If, then, Paul's letter overthrows all trust in morality, of what use is morality? And what bearing has his doctrine on life? May one live as he pleases and still be saved by his faith? Such are the questions which have ever arisen in men's minds on first acquaintance with this merciful and gracious doctrine. The carnal mind's first impulse on hearing the publication of grace is to abuse grace (6:1. Comp. Jas. 2:14-26). Anticipating the questionings and tendencies of the weak and sinful natures of his readers, Paul proceeds to first define the life of faith (12:1, 2). It is a sanctified, sacrificial life. He then illustrates the workings of this sanctified life in the two grand spheres of its activities, the spiritual kingdom of God or the church (12:3-8) and the civil kingdom of the world (12:9-21). But the faith-life [484] is not defined didactically, but in an impassioned, hortatory manner, for Paul is not content that his hearers should know theoretically what it is; he wishes them to have experimental knowledge of it, to actually live it. In fact, it has been for the purpose of making the exhortation of this section that all the previous chapters have been written, for no Bible doctrine is a barren speculation, but a life-root, developed that it may bear fruit in the lives of those who read it. And here is the hortatory definition of the faith-life.] XII. 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual [more correctly, "logical"] service. [I entreat you, brethren, in the light of all that I have written you about this faith-life, making as the motive or ground of my appeal to you these mercies of God¹ which purchased for you the privilege of this life by the death of his Son (3:23, 24), which pardoned your iniquities that you might receive it (3:25, 26), which cast out his chosen people that your access to it might not be hindered (11:12), etc., etc., that you continuously consecrate your lives to God as living thank and peace offerings, keeping them ever holy and acceptable to God, which is the service you should logically render in the light of the truth presented to you and comprehended by you. The word "mercies" here used (oiktermos) is a stronger word than that (eleos) used in verbal form in the eleventh chapter, expressing the tenderest compassion. God's main mercies in the gospel are of that sort. If we are not saved by works, why is sacrifice demanded? The answer was plain to the Jew. Of the four sacrifices demanded by the law, two were offered before propitiation and to obtain it. These were the sin and trespass offerings. Christ, who is our propitiation, offered these expiatory sacrifices for believers, so that they are pardoned, [485] justified and saved not by their own merit, no matter what their sacrifice, but are redeemed by his purchase in the offering of his priceless blood, and saved by his merit as acknowledged by the Father. If the Jewish program of sacrifices had stopped here, there would have been no Biblical symbolism showing that Christians are called upon to do anything in a sacrificial way. But there were two other sacrifices offered after propitiation and expiation. These were the burnt-offering, offered as an act of worship daily and also on occasions of joy and thanksgiving (2 Chron. 29:31, 32), and the peace-offerings, which spoke of restored fellowship and communion with God. Now, the faith-life was exempted from the expiatory or sin and trespass offerings by the cross of Christ, but it was not relieved of the burnt and peace offerings, the former of which required that the entire carcass of the victim be consumed in the flame (Ex. 29:38-42; Num. 28:3-8) as a symbol of the entire consecration of the offerer or devotee to the service of God, for the life of the offering stood for his own life.² Here, then, is the true basis or foundation principle on which the faith-life rests. Here is the supreme fundamental law which must govern its every action. Though the purposes and motives of its sacrifice may be changed so that expiation gives place to thanksgiving and communion, yet it is still essentially and intrinsically a consecrated, sacrificial life, and is as far removed from antinomianism as it was when under the Mosaic law. The force of this marvelous instruction is not weakened, but rather strengthened, by being couched in hortatory form. Let us note, in passing, the continuousness of [486] sacrifice implied by the term "living." The animal sacrifice was over and ended when its body was consumed. If perfect and accepted as without blemish, then (Deut. 15:21; 17:1; Lev. 1:3, 10; 3:1; 22:20; Mal. 1:8), it had passed all danger or possibility of future rejection at God's hands. But not so the Christian's sacrifice. In presenting himself he is to "reckon himself dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (6:11-13). For the Christian's dying leads at once to his being alive (6:2; 7:4; Gal. 2:19, 20; Col. 2:20; 3:5-10; 1 Pet. 2:5), and therefore, as Bengel says, "it is an abomination to offer a dead carcass." The Christian, therefore, as a living, never-to-be-recalled sacrifice, is required to keep up and perpetuate his holiness and acceptability, as "an odor of a sweet smell" (Eph. 5:2; Phil. 4:18; Lev. 1:9), lest he become a castaway. For this reason Paul lays emphasis on the "body," as the corpus or substance of the sacrifice, for our fleshly nature is spoken of in Scripture as the seat of sin, which is to be transformed into a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). Moreover, this direct reference to the body corrects the heresy that the faith-life is purely mental or spiritual, and devoid of bodily sacrifice or works (Gal. 5:13; Jas. 2: 14-26). "How," asks Chrysostom, "can the body become a sacrifice? Let the eye look on no evil, and it is a sacrifice. Let the tongue utter nothing base, and it is an offering. Let the hand work no sin, and it is a holocaust. But more, this suffices not, but, besides, we must actively exert ourselves for good; the hand giving alms, the mouth blessing them that curse us, the ear ever at leisure for listening to God." Moreover, the sacrifice of the body includes that of mind, soul and spirit, for "bodily sacrifice is an ethical act" (Meyer). The comment of Barnes on this verse is very practical. "Men," says he, "are not to invent services; or to make crosses; or seek persecutions and trials; or provoke opposition." Romish and Mohammedan pilgrimages, Catholic and Oriental penances, thorn-beds, juggernauts, [487] flagellations, and man-made ordinances of sacrifice, are worthless (Col. 2:20-23). Moreover, the designs of many to wait till sickness or old age overtakes them before presenting their sacrifice are misplaced, for such conduct is analogous to presenting the maimed and halt and blind to God. Finally, it is taught elsewhere, and so it is indeed true that the Christian's sacrifice is a "spiritual [pneumatike] service" (Phil. 3:3; 1 Pet. 2:5; cf. John 4:24), but the apostle has here conveyed that idea in the word "living," and he does not repeat the thought. Hence he does not say pneumatiken service, but logiken service, or, literally, logical or rational service. Logiken links itself with "therefore" at the opening of the sentence. Therefore your logical service (the one rationally expected of you by reason of the truths revealed in this Epistle, especially chapter 6) is to present your bodies, etc. In short, the very purpose for which the apostle wrote this Epistle was to convince his readers that they must render this service, and this exhortation enforces that conclusion.] 2 And be not fashioned according to this world [or, literally, "age"]: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. [Here the apostle shows in general terms by what manner of life the demanded sacrifice is rendered or accomplished. To each soul there was presented then, as now, two models for character building, the standards of the world-life and the Christ-life, the first represented by the imperative suschematizesthai, which means to imitate the pose or attitude of any one, to conform to the outward appearance or fashion of any one. The demands of the world require no more than an outward, superficial conformity to its ways and customs. As these ways and customs are the natural actions and methods of the unregenerate life, the sacrifice-resenting, fleshly nature of the Christian has no difficulty in conforming to them, if given rein and permission. Attainment to the Christ-life is, however, represented by the imperative [488] metamorphousthai, which demands that complete and fundamental inner change which fulfills and accomplishes regeneration, and which, in turn, is accomplished by the renewing of the mind. The natural mind, weakened, trammeled, confused and darkened by sin and Satan, can neither fully discern nor adequately appreciate the Christ model, so as to metamorphose the life to its standards. But in the regenerated man the mind once fleshly (Col. 2:18; Rom. 7:23), but now renewed by Christ (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 4:21-24) and the Holy Spirit (Tit. 3:5), and strengthened to apprehend by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 3:16-19), is able to so discern and love the Christ model as to be gradually metamorphosed into his image (Phil. 3:8-16). With this recovered capacity to discern and appreciate the life which God wills us to live, as exemplified in the incarnation of his Son, we are exhorted by the apostle to set about exploring, investigating, proving or testing the excellence of the will of God in selecting such a pattern for us, that we may have experimental knowledge that his will was devised in goodness toward us, that its choice for us is really well pleasing and acceptable to us; as our minds have become enlightened to truly understand it, and that considered in all ways its purposes and ends for us are the perfection of grace and benevolence, leaving nothing more to be asked or even dreamed of by us. Thus the renewed mind tests by experience the will of God, and knows it to be indeed the will of the Holy One of Israel (John 7:17), to be admired, followed and reduced to life. It remains to be shown how the word "age" comes to be translated "world." The Jews divided time into two divisions; viz., before the Messiah, and after the advent of the Messiah. The former they called "this age"; the latter, "the age to come." Thus the term "this age" became associated with those evils, vanities and Satanic workings which the Christian now calls "this world." Both terms are used by Jesus (Matt. 12:32. Comp. Heb. 6:5), and the [489] expression "this age" is commonly used after the advent of Jesus to describe the moral and spiritual conditions which then and still oppose Christ and the age which he is developing--Matt. 13:22; Luke 16:8; 20:34; 1 Cor. 1:20; 2:6; 2 Cor. 4:4; Gal. 1:4; Eph. 6:12; 2 Tim. 4:10; Tit. 2:12].

[TCGR 484-490]