“...present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God...”

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 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”   [Romans 12:1-2]

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“...present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God...”

Paul mentions here that we should present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. Our bodies stand for all our members and, by extension, our entire lives.  Total commitment is our reasonable service. It is our reasonable service in this sense: if the Son of God has died for me, then the least I can do is live for Him. “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me,” said the great British cricketer and missionary C. T. Studd,  “then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him.”

Reasonable service may also be translated “spiritual worship.” As believer-priests, we do not come to God with the bodies of slain animals as sacrifice but with the spiritual sacrifice of yielded lives. We also offer to Him our service, and our possessions.

Paul also urges us not to be conformed to this world. In other words, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold.” When we come to the kingdom of God, we should abandon the thought-patterns and lifestyles of the world. The world means the society or system that man has built in order to make himself happy without God. It is a kingdom that is antagonistic to God. The god and price of this world is Satan. All unconverted people are his subjects. He seeks to attract and hold people through the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. The world hates nonconformists—like Christ and His followers.

Christ died to deliver us from this world. The world is crucified to us, and we are crucified to the world. It would be absolute disloyalty to the Lord for believers to love the world. Anyone who loves the world is an enemy of God.  We should be transformed by the renewing of our mind, which means that we should think the way God thinks, as revealed in the Bible.

If tattoos were the pagan way, why would a god fearing Christian worship God through a pagan ritual? We are called not to be conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewing of our mind.  Which do you want - be like Christ or like the world? 


 



"...walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.."

 “You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.   You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.” [Leviticus 19:26-28]

 

If God is for us, who can be against us?

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 “David and his men left and killed two hundred Philistines. He brought back the proof and showed it to Saul, so he could marry Michal. Saul agreed to let David marry Michal. Saul knew that she loved David, and he also realized that the LORD was helping David. But knowing those things made Saul even more afraid of David, and he was David's enemy for the rest of his life. The Philistine rulers kept coming to fight Israel, but whenever David fought them, he won. He was famous because he won more battles against the Philistines than any of Saul's other officers. ”   [1 Samuel 18:27-30]

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“If God is for us, who can be against us?”

As David continued to win battle after battle, Saul became extremely jealous. When he heard the songs of the women ascribing to David greater exploits than to himself, he became livid with rage. God sometimes uses evil to chastise evil; that is why he allowed Saul to be tormented by a distressing spirit. Twice the king tried to personally kill David, but both times David escaped. Then Saul made him..captain over a thousand soldiers, perhaps hoping that David would be killed while fighting the Philistines. But the Lord was with David, and his exploits attracted the attention of all Israel. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” [Romans:8:31]

The king’s daughter had been promised to the man who would kill the Philistine giant, so Merab, Saul’s older daughter, was offered to David. However, more victories would have to be won first. Saul hoped David would be killed in the process. When David expressed his social unworthiness to be son-in-law to the king, Merab was given to another man, which perhaps Saul’s way of trying to humiliate David. But Saul’s younger daughter, Michal, loved David, and Saul agreed to give her to him, provided he produced a dowry of one hundred Philistine foreskins.

Again Saul hoped to kill David by the hand of the Philistines. But David was not to be eliminated so easily. “..no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me," declares the LORD [Isaiah:54:17]. He returned with the bizarre dowry in double measure and won Michal as his bride. As continual military success made it clear the Lord was with David, Saul’s hatred and fear of him continued to grow.
 


 

David was playing the lyre


Saul: I'll pin David to the wall

 “The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand  and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice.  Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with David but had departed from Saul. ” [1 Samuel 18:10-12]

Your Faith has Healed You

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 “Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging.  When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.”  Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. ”   [Mark 10:45-50]

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Your Faith has Healed You

The Lord and His disciples had crossed the Jordan and come to Jericho. There He met blind Bartimaeus, a man with a desperate need, a knowledge of the need, and a determination to have it met.

Bartimaeus recognized and addressed our Lord as the Son of David. It was ironical that while the nation of Israel was blind to the presence of the Messiah, a blind Jew had true spiritual sight!

His persistent pleas for mercy did not go unanswered. His specific prayer for sight brought a specific answer. His gratitude was expressed in faithful discipleship, following Jesus on His last trip to Jerusalem. It must have cheered the heart of the Lord to find faith like this in Jericho as He moved on toward the cross. It was a good thing that Bartimaeus sought the Lord that day because the Savior never passed that way again.

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” [Hebrews 11:6]

“He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.” [Luke 17:6]

Dear friend, do you have the faith in the Lord Jesus, who can save you from eternal damnation and give you eternal life? 


 

Blind Bartimaeus Receives His Sight


Blind Bartimaeus Reveives His Sight

 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”  “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. ” [Mark 10:51-52]

All I want is Christ and to know that I belong to Him

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 “All I want is Christ and to know that I belong to him. I could not make myself acceptable to God by obeying the Law of Moses. God accepted me simply because of my faith in Christ. All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life. I want to suffer and die as he did, so that somehow I also may be raised to life.”   [Philippians 3:8-11]

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All I want is Christ and to know that I belong to Him

In these verses, it sounds like as if Paul was still seeking to gain Christ.  Actually, he had won Christ when he first acknowledged His as Lord and Savior. But the present tense indicates that this is still his attitude—he still counts all else as rubbish when compared to the value of knowing the Lord Jesus. The great desire of his heart is : “That Christ may be my gain.” Not gold, or silver, or religious reputation, but Christ.
Paul had made his choice. He had abandoned all else in order to be found in Christ. The moment he believed on the Lord Jesus, he stood in a new position before God. No longer was he seen as a child of sinful Adam, but now he was seen in Christ, enjoying all the favor which the Lord Jesus enjoys before God the Father.
Likewise he had renounced the filthy rags of his own self-righteousness, which he had sought to win by keeping the law, and had chosen the righteousness of God which is bestowed on everyone who receives the Savior.
Righteousness is spoken here of as a garment or covering. Man needs righteousness in order to stand before God in favor. But man cannot product it. And so, in grace, God gives His own righteousness to those who receive His Son as Lord and Savior.
The apostle contrasts the heavenly-minded attitude of the true believer. Paul reminds the believers that their citizenship is in heaven. Not only we are citizens of heaven, but we also eagerly wait for the Savior from heaven!

Dear friend, have you got your ‘Heavenly Passport’—the Lord Jesus Christ?


 

Passport


But our citizenship is in heaven

 “For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.  Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.  But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,  who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. ” [Philippians 3:18-21]

Faith apart from works is head belief, and therefore dead belief.

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 “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead...As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”   [James 2:14-17,26]

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Faith apart from works is head belief, and therefore dead belief.

These verses are commonly misused to support the heresy that we are saved by faith plus works. In other words, we must trust the Lord Jesus as our Savior, but that is not enough.  We must also add to His redemptive work our own deeds of charity and devotion.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast. [Eph 2:8-9].

Grace is the principle upon which God justifies; faith is the means by which man receives it; blood is the price which the Savior had to pay; God is the active Agent in justification; power is the proof; and works are the result.

James insists that a faith that does not result in good works cannot save. There are two keys which greatly help in the understanding of verse 14.  First of all, James does not say “What does it profit… though a man has faith…” Rather he says, what does it profit…if someone says he has faith. In other  words, it is not a question of a man who truly has faith, and yet is not saved.  James is describing the man who has nothing but a profession of faith.  He says he has faith, but there is nothing about his life that indicates it. “Can that faith save him?” Such a faith is worthless. It is all words, and nothing else. 

It is not enough to believe in the existence of God. True, this is essential, but it is not sufficient. Even the demons believe in the existence of God and they shudder at the thought of their eventual punishment by Him. The demons believe the fact, but they do not surrender to God. This is not saving faith. When a person truly believes on the Lord, it involves a commitment of spirit, soul, and body. This commitment in turn results in a changed life. Faith apart from works is head belief, and therefore dead belief.

As soon as Abraham believed in the Lord, he was justified in the sight of God. But then, seven chapters later, God put Abraham’s faith to the test. Abraham demonstrated that it was genuine faith by his willingness to offer up Isaac. His obedience showed that his faith was not merely a head belief, but a heart commitment.




 

Rahab taken the two spies and hidden them


 

Rahab the prostitute considered righteous...

 “But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them.

...In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?  As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. ” [Joshua 2:4; James 2:25-26]