“1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.”
Paul begins Chapter 12 with “Therefore”, indicating we are to look back to his previous statements to gather context. What did Paul just finish saying? The immediate context comes from 11:33-36, where Paul has just concluded his thoughts on the current relationship between God and His people Israel. Why hasn’t Israel believed? How has salvation come to the Gentiles? Has God rejected Israel? How is it that God is glorified through the rebellion of the Jewish people? Paul answers each one of these questions in chapter 11, but his final conclusion is: We ought to praise God and give Him glory in exactly the way that He requires because He made everything! God owes us nothing. We owe God everything.
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.” — Romans 11:36
For those who are saved by grace, through faith in Jesus, we want to serve God and declare His glory. Not because this is what saves us, or that these actions will somehow earn us any merit, but because we want to live for Him who saved us from our sins! How does one praise God? How does a sinful human being reflect God’s glory? Paul will tell us in chapter 12.
For some additional context, consider this. Paul’s poem of praise in 11:33-36 does not just end cap his thoughts on Israel from chapters 9-11, but really his entire line of thought throughout the entire letter to the churches in Rome thus far. Here’s a summary of where Paul has taken us:
| Chapter | Summary |
| Chapters 1-3 | All have sinned; God’s judgment is just. |
| Chapters 4-5:11 | Justified by faith, not by works. |
| Chapters 5:12-6:23 | Salvation through Christ alone. |
| Chapter 7 | Relationship to the Law. |
| Chapter 8 | Giving and work of the Holy Spirit. |
| Chapters 9-11 | God’s relationship to Israel. |
In chapter 12, Paul is going to tell us what we should do now; how a sinner, saved by Christ, justified by faith, by the work of the Holy Spirit, should honor, praise, and glorify God.
With everything Paul has told us thus far in view, he urges us to “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice…”. (v. 1) What does that mean? Some other portions of Scripture may be appropriate here to help interpret. The writer of Hebrews uses a very similar phrase:
“Therefore, through him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.” — Hebrews 13:15
Here in Hebrews, to offer a sacrifice of praise to God means to use our lips to confess His name. Remember what Paul told us back in chapter 10:
“If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” — Romans 10:9
Paul has already told us that confessing with our mouth is the fruit of salvation, but this is not a one time event. Yes, we are only saved once, but as fruitful, faithful Christians, we will continue to confess, “Jesus is Lord” our entire lives! That is one of the ways it means to “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice…”. (v.1)
Secondly, our body is a temple of God now that the Holy Spirit dwells within us. What we do with our body matters!
“Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.” — 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
This is one way we truly worship: By presenting our bodies as a sacrifice to God, being careful to treat our bodies as a temple of God, not offering it as a weapon to be used for sin, but as a vessel for righteousness, one that glorifies God and confesses His name.
“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.” — Romans 6:12-13
Paul is not just talking about sacrificing the old sinful body on a continual, daily basis. He is also speaking about a continual use of the body in a way that will bring glory to God by active obedience to God’s will and abstention from sinful behavior. In light of these verses, let us be determined to treat our lives and our bodies as a “…living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God;…” (v. 1), for this is our true worship!