Romans 12.1a-Paul Appeals To The Roman Christians On The Basis Of The Merciful Acts Of The Father To Offer Their Bodies As A Sacrifice
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday September 17, 2009
Romans: Romans 12:1a-Paul Appeals To The Roman Christians On The Basis Of The Merciful Acts Of The Father To Offer Their Bodies As A Sacrifice
Lesson # 395
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 12:1.
The apostle Paul in Romans 12:1 appeals to his Christian readers in Rome on the basis of the merciful acts of the Father on their behalf to offer their bodies as a sacrifice-alive, holy, extremely pleasing to the Father, which is their reasonable service to the Father.
Paul’s readers were to do this by appropriating by faith the Spirit’s teaching that they have been identified with Christ in His crucifixion, deaths, burial, resurrection and session.
In other words, they were to do this by appropriating by faith their new position in Christ, which would enable them to experience eternal life and sanctification and would make them extremely pleasing to the Father.
He completes his thought by teaching that this is their reasonable service to the Father.
The Christian who offers his body as a sacrifice to the Father by appropriating his new position in Christ is performing the only reasonable service or the only service that makes good sense because he was identified with Christ through the baptism of the Spirit for the express purpose of serving the Father.
The Father crucified His Son and had Him die a substitutionary spiritual and physical death on the cross and raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand and through the baptism of the Spirit identified the justified sinner with His Son in His crucifixion, His deaths, burial, resurrection and session.
All of this was to make it possible for the justified sinner to serve God.
This evening we will begin a three-hour study of Romans 12:1 by noting that Paul appeals to the Roman Christians on the basis of the merciful acts of the Father to offer their bodies as a sacrifice.
Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, 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.”
“Therefore” is the “inferential” use of the post-positive conjunction oun (ou@n) (oon), which denotes that what is introduced at this point is the result of an inference from Paul’s teaching contained in Romans 1:18-11:33.
This is indicated through a comparison with the command to follow in Romans 12:1 and what Paul has taught previously in Romans 1:18-11:33.
This word signifies that based upon what God has done for the Christian as clearly delineated in Romans 1:18-11:33, they were obligated to present their bodies as a living, holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is their spiritual service of worship.
“I urge” is the first person singular present active indicative form of the verb parakaleo (parakalevw), which does not denote an authoritative summons for several reasons.
First of all, if this was Paul’s intention then he would have not bothered to use parakaleo and instead would have simply used the imperative form of the verb paristemi, “present” as he does in Romans 6:13 and 19.
Secondly, the basis for the appeal in Romans 12:1 is expressed by the prepositional phrase dia ton oiktirmon, “by the mercies of God,” which refers to all that God has done for the Christian through His grace policy and faith in His Son.
He is not exercising his apostolic authority when he makes this appeal but rather he is appealing to his readers on the basis of what God has done for them as clearly delineated by him in Romans 1:18-11:36, which the conjunction oun, “therefore” in Romans 12:1 is recalling.
Thirdly, Paul employs the noun adelphos, “brothers and sisters” when making this appeal in Romans 12:1, which emphasizes the common relationship that Paul and his readers have with the Lord Jesus Christ through regeneration.
This word clearly suggests that Paul is attempting to connect with his readers through their common familial relationship rather than exercising his apostolic authority.
It suggests that Paul is not being hard nosed here but rather quite the opposite that he is appealing to them as a spiritual brother in a tender manner.
Paul uses a similar construction in Philippians 4:2 where he appeals to the Lord when requesting that Euodia and Syntyche earnestly resolve their differences.
Philippians 4:2, “I beg Euodia and Syntyche to make it a habit to think the same because of the Lord.”
The apostle Paul uses parakaleo in Philemon 9-10 when addressing a slave owner Philemon regarding his runaway slave Onesimus.
Therefore, in Romans 12:1, the verb parakaleo means “to appeal” since this word denotes asking earnestly for something on the basis of something, which is what Paul is doing here by appealing to what God has done for his readers as the basis for his appeal to present their bodies as a living, holy sacrifice, acceptable to God.
Paul is making his appeal to his readers to present their bodies as a living, holy sacrifice, acceptable to God on the basis of what God has done for them and not on the basis of his apostolic authority.
Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, 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.”
“You” is the accusative second person plural form of the personal pronoun humeis (u(mei$) (hoo-mice), which is a reference to Paul’s Gentile and Jewish Christian readers in Rome.
This form of the personal pronoun humeis is used in a distributive sense indicating that Paul is addressing “each and every one of” his Jewish and Gentile Christian readers.
“Brethren” is the vocative masculine plural form of the noun adelphos (a)delfov$), which refers to Paul’s Jewish and Gentile Christian readers in Rome who are related to each other and the Lord Jesus Christ through regeneration, thus, the word refers to a “fellow-believer, fellow-Christian, spiritual brother or sister.”
“By the mercies of God” is composed of the preposition dia (diaV) (dee-ah), “by” and the articular genitive masculine plural form of the noun oiktirmos (oi)ktirmov$) (oyk-tir-mos), “the mercies” and the articular genitive masculine singular form of the noun theos (qeov$) (theh-os), “of God.”
In Romans 12:1, the noun oiktirmos refers to the “merciful acts” that the Father accomplished in eternity past and through both His Son and the Spirit in time and are noted in Romans 1:18-11:36 and are expressions of the Father, Son and Spirit’s love for the justified sinner.
The noun oiktirmos in Romans 12:1 refers to the “merciful acts” of the Father in eternity past when He elected, predestinated and provided an eternal inheritance on behalf of every church age believer that expresses His love for the justified sinner.
The noun oiktirmos in Romans 12:1 refers to the “merciful act” of the Son at the Cross of Calvary, which expressed not only the Father’s love for sinful mankind but the Son’s as well.
The greatest demonstration of God’s love in history took place two thousand years ago at the Cross of Calvary when the Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily suffered both a spiritual and physical death as a substitute for every human being in human history-past, present and future.
The noun oiktirmos in Romans 12:1 also refers to the “merciful acts” of the Spirit, which express His love for the justified sinner.
Romans 1-11 presents many of the merciful acts of God.
God’s love is “merciful” meaning that God is compassionate towards His enemies and pardons them (Eph. 2:1-7).
Ephesians 2:1-7 teaches us that God’s attribute of love causes Him to be “merciful” meaning that God is compassionate towards His enemies and pardons them when they believe in Jesus Christ.
Mercy is God acting upon His policy of grace and withholding judgment.
The mercy of God is a manifestation of Who God is and is thus helps to compose His glory (Ex. 34:7).
The mercy of God as an expression of the love of God was manifested perfectly to the entire human race through the Father’s sacrifice of His Son at the cross of Calvary and the Son’s willingness to be that sacrifice.
The preposition dia is employed with the genitive form of the noun oiktirmos, “merciful acts” as a marker of efficient cause indicating the basis for Paul’s appeal to his readers to present their bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, which is acceptable to the Father.
In other words, Paul’s readers are to present their bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, which is acceptable to the Father “on the basis of” the Father’s merciful acts on their behalf, which are an expression of His love for them.
So thus far in our study of Romans 12:1, we can see that Paul appeals to his readers on the basis of the merciful acts of the Father on their behalf, which are presented by him in Romans 1-11.
These merciful acts would serve as the motivation for his readers to offer their bodies as a sacrifice to God by appropriating by faith their new position in Christ.