Romans 12:1-5

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (2) And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (3) For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. (4) For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: (5) So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another.

In order to a right apprehension of the Apostle's meaning, we must carefully keep in remembrance, all that went before. Paul begins at this Chapter to shew, what gracious consequences must follow, in the life of a child of God, brought into the blessed enjoyment, of being justified freely before God, in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. He had in the foregoing Chapter s, very fully displayed the electing love of God the Father, the redeeming grace of the Lord Jesus Christ; and the regenerating work of God the Spirit, upon the souls of God's people. Having therefore shewn, both the ground-work, and superstructure of the Church's mercies, and traced them up to their fountain-head, in the Covenant-love and faithfulness of Jehovah, in his three-fold character of Persons; he now calls upon the Church, with all the earnestness and affection of a brother, to live by faith, in the daily, hourly enjoyment of those glorious privileges. I beseech you therefore brethren, (saith he), by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

It becomes a point of infinite importance to the peace and comfort of every child of God, to have a right apprehension of what is here meant. My views, I confess, differ from all that I have heard or read upon the subject. I therefore, very affectionately, entreat the Reader to look up to the Almighty Author of his holy word, who guided his servant the Apostle's pen, that the Lord the Spirit may be his teacher in the perusal of it. And my soul is looking also to the same matchless Instructor, that both the Writer and Reader of this Poor Man's Commentary may together be taught of God.

I will first beg to observe, what appears to me cannot be the sense and meaning of the passage, according to true scriptural grounds of faith, before I venture to offer, what appears to me to be, the real meaning of it. And when I have presented both before the Reader, I shall very humbly leave him to form, under the Lord, his own conclusions.

And here I begin with observing, that the living sacrifice, which the Apostle calls upon justified believers in Christ to present unto God, cannot possibly mean anything of their own; for Christ is the One only sacrifice before God, and by that one offering of himself once offered, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, Heb_10:10; Heb_10:14. Neither can the holiness the Apostle speaks of, in which they are to present their bodies, mean any holiness of their own; for there is none holy but the Lord; and the Church hath no holiness but in Christ and from Christ, 1 Samuel 2:2; Isaiah 54:17. And Paul could not be supposed to mean the holiness of the creature; for he had told the Church but just before, in this Epistle, that his body was a body of sin and death, Romans 7:14. He could not mean, therefore, that the Church was to present their bodies a living sacrifice, and holy, unto the Lord. And equally foreign to the Apostle's meaning must it have been, to suppose, that the Church was to look for acceptance in themselves before God, in any righteousness of their own; for Paul himself taught, under the Holy Ghost, that it is to the praise of the glory of God's grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, Ephesians 1:6. So that upon none of those grounds, could Paul be supposed to recommend the Church to present their bodies before God.

Having shewn, and I hope upon true scriptural authority, what cannot be supposed to be the sense of the Apostle's words, I will now venture, and upon the same authority, to bring before the Reader what appears to me to be his meaning.

Let it be again remembered, that the Apostle had before fully established the doctrine of the Church being elected, called, justified, and sanctified by God in Christ. He begins an exhortation from these premises. And that little word, therefore, as an illative particle, he useth, as deducing all he had to say, and all he entreated from them, in consequence thereof. / beseech you therefore brethren, brethren in Christ, and as he elsewhere calls them, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, partakers of Christ, interested from an union with Christ, in all Christ's communicable holiness, grace, and glory. See Hebrews 3:14; John 15:22

Next, I pray the Reader to observe the Apostle's expression, when be saith, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of Goo, What mercies did the Apostle mean? All are mercies we have from God. But I humbly conceive Paul alluded to what the Prophet taught the Church, and which Paul himself afterwards explained, the sure mercies of David. If the Reader before he prosecutes the subject further, would consult the scriptures on this point, I venture to believe, that he will be inclined to conclude with me, that such God the Holy Ghost referred to in this passage. (Compare Isaiah 55:3 with Acts 13:32.) And, if this be supposed, Paul's exhortation will amount to this, that he desired the Church by the mercies of God in Christ, to come to God in Christ, and make this the one, and the only foundation in coming.

Now then we arrive at the main subject of enquiry, concerning this presentation of their bodies, which is to be, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, and (saith Paul) your reasonable service. Holy scripture reveals no sacrifice but one. And this indeed is, a living sacrifice; for Jesus ever liveth to make it effectual, as a life-giving principle to his people. Having opened a new and living way by his blood, he ever liveth to keep it open by his intercession. And God the Holy Ghost by putting forth the efficacy of it, unto the persons of the redeemed, makes it truly living in their hearts and consciences. In this new and living way we are commanded to come, and very blessed are the consequences promised to our coming; when our hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Compare Hebrews 10:19 with Ezekiel 36:25. (I need not tell the Reader, that the waters here spoken of by the Prophet, means the blood of Christ; for the blood of Christ is called the blood of sprinkling, Hebrews 12:24. And the Holy Ghost is never said to be water sprinkled, or put upon us, but a well of water in us, John 4:14.)

If, therefore, the Apostle had in view, (as it should seem from all that he had said before in this Epistle he had), Christ the living sacrifice, in whom, and by whom, the Church alone is justified; then in that living sacrifice and Person of her Lord, she was to present her whole body. And this, indeed, is a living and life-giving sacrifice, truly holy, acceptable unto God, and our reasonable service; for it is most reasonable that the services of spiritual worshippers, acting under the Spirit's constant influences, should thus present themselves continually before the Lord. But unless the words of the Apostle be considered in this sense, it is impossible to conceive, that Paul should direct the Church to do, what he himself could never perform, to present his body a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable unto God, when he groaned daily under a body of sin and death. Yea, he had before said to the Church, if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness, Romans 8:10. And how shall a body dead because of sin, present itself a living sacrifice?

Reader! The Lord give you a right understanding in all things, 2 Timothy 2:7. And, if under divine teaching, your views and mine correspond, we shall both see and through grace be enabled to follow, what the Apostle so affectionately recommends, when justified in the Person and work of Christ, by those mercies of God, to present our bodies indeed as well as our souls, daily, and hourly, upon the Altar of that living sacrifice, which is holy, acceptable unto God, and our reasonable service. For Christ is our New Testament Altar, (neither is there any other), our sacrifice, and the sacrificer. And, as the whole person of every child of God, both soul and body, is united to Christ, both are included in this presentation. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:17. And the Lord Jesus himself saith, speaking of the persons of his people. That they all may he one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, John 17:21. And, while we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us, we know also, that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in us, 1 John 3:24; 1 Corinthians 6:19. And, as it is by consequence of this union in our souls with Christ as regeneration, we are made partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust; and at the separation by death of soul and body, the soul joins the society of the spirits of just mm made perfect, until the morning of the resurrection; so, from the same union with Christ, the body at death sleeps in Jesus, until the last day, and equally one with Christ in body as well as soul; the body will be raised by virtue of it, to live with Christ both body and soul forever. The Holy Ghost bears sweet testimony to this most blessed truth in his word. For if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you, Romans 8:11. See 2 Peter 1:4

I do not think it necessary, after having so largely stated what appears to me to be the Apostle's meaning of the daily presentation of the child of God in the first verse of this chapter, to offer anything more on what follows, in relation to the effects which arise out of it. No one who is a child of God, and who daily lives in acts of faith and grace upon the Person of Christ and his living sacrifice, will be conformed to this world. A conformity to this world, and its vanities and customs, is wholly the reverse of a life of grace. For it is expressly said, that God in his foreknowledge of his children the Church, did predestinate them to be conformed to the image of his Son, Romans 8:20. So that the very predestination of the children is to this conformity to Christ, that Christ may be both the head to his body, and the first-born and brother among many brethren. And where this is the case, all such will be transformed, by the daily renewings of God the Holy Ghost. And, as each regenerated soul is a member of Christ's mystical body; so, through grace, each will be led into the suited office of that membership, being manifestly a part of the one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another.