Three great "therefores" in Romans are the mountain-peaks of its doctrine. The teaching on justification which begins in the first chapter heads up in the fifth: "Being therefore justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5:1.) The teaching on sanctification (i. e. practical holiness in the Christian life) begins with chapter 6:1 and reaches its triumphant "therefore" at 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." And now at the close of all the doctrinal portion of the epistle, comes the grand concluding "therefore" of the whole: "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 service."

      Great and wonderful are these mercies of God which have been set forth in this epistle. It is upon the ground of these mercies that we are now called upon to present our bodies as a living sacrifice unto God's service. Who has not known or tasted the mercies of God cannot do this. Before we can do anything for the Lord He must do all for us. Furthermore, before the apostle calls upon us to devote ourselves to the Lord, telling us what and how to do in practical Christian living, he lays a foundation deep and wide in spiritual teaching. First he shows to us what God has done, is doing, will do. He tells of sin and ruin, and of forgiveness and justification; of faith, of grace, of the sacrificial blood of Christ shed for us, of love and joy and peace and power in the Holy Spirit, of mystical union with Christ in His death, and resurrection; of sonship and heirship, and the glory that is to be revealed, and the love from which naught can sever; of God's goodness and severity in His dealings with Jews and Gentiles, of His infinite wisdom and inscrutable ways. Then--not till then--he begins the "practical" portion of the epistle (Similarly in Ephesians and Colossians). No doubt there always have been professing Christians whose religion was merely "doctrinal"; but there are as many, perhaps more, who are so set upon the practical that they ignore and despise the deep teaching on which all life and practice is based. If there be some (to illustrate) who take pride in an orchard and in theoretic knowledge of trees and their culture, and forget that in the end the fruit is the great objective, and that all else is worthless if no fruit be forthcoming--there are also others on the other hand who say, never mind the orchard and the tree and cultivation, and all the theories about pruning, budding, grafting, spraying, etc.--just give us the apples and the peaches. These begin with the twelfth chapter of Romans and insist on obedience to it, while paying scant attention to the first eleven chapters. But none can live according to the twelfth of Romans who has not first known and believed and tasted the mercies of God taught in the earlier chapters.

      The first two verses of Romans 12 may be regarded as summary of all that follows. Here Paul beseeches the brethren (as though the Lord were entreating by him, 2 Cor. 5:20) first, that we present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice: this, he says, constitutes our reasonable (or "spiritual") service; secondly, that we be not conformed (made like unto) the world, but transformed (into the Christ-likeness) by the renewing of our minds;^* and that so we may test and find out for ourselves how good and acceptable and perfect the will of God is. Here we would wish to stop and expound and enlarge upon these precious, meaningful words. But let us go on.

      Under this general head Paul now enjoins a number of special things. First of all he inculcates a humility of a peculiar sort: namely that humbleness of mind which teaches a man to fill his own place, according to the ability which God has bestowed upon him. Let no one think he can do everything, or attempt to occupy places he is not fitted for. For every member of the body has its peculiar place and function. Let each one soberly find out what he can best do, and address himself specially to that--an exhortation which has always been needed in the church, and which, if heeded, will go far in building it up, in peace and harmony. (Rom. 12:3-8.)

      Then comes a series of separate precepts--twenty-four, according to my count, which call for much thought and humble resolve, but need little explanation. (Verses 9-21.)

      The last of these, an exhortation against taking vengeance, and against retaliation to enemies, occupies more space than any other of the precepts. (Verse 21, though I have counted it separately, really belongs to that.) From this the flow of exhortation passes over to the question of civil government--its function, and the Christian's relation to the same. Romans 12 is one of those chapters every Christian should "know by heart."

      What are the three great "therefores" in Romans? What does the first one (5:1) sum up? What the second? (8:1). What is summed up in 12:1? What is the first great fundamental thing for which Paul (rather Christ, through Paul) beseeches us? What the second? How can Christians become fashioned according to the world? How transformed? (Comp. 2 Cor. 3:18.) Among the special things that follow, what does he urge upon them first? How many particular precepts follow after that? Which of these takes up the greatest space? [53]

[LOR2 52-53]