The Christian life does not begin with our faith, but with God’s mercy. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome:
For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all (Romans 11:32).
The word here translated “bound” (Greek sygkleiō) literally means, “to shut together, shut in on all sides.” The term is used of fish caught together in a net. The meaning is that everyone has been convicted of rebellion. All have been judged, without exception, and all have been found guilty, without exception. That’s why mercy is on equal terms for everyone, without exception. It is freely available to all, through faith in Christ. But what is my response?
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:1-2).
The appropriate response to God’s mercy, according to this passage, is to live my life as a sacrifice to him. Not die – live. It’s one thing to say that I’ll die for Jesus, especially when I’m not immediately faced with any such danger. Peter said he would die for Jesus too, shortly before denying he even knew him. But the call in this Scripture is not to die for Jesus (although that may one day be required) but to live in his service.
It’s very easy to tell myself that I’d die for Jesus, should the situation ever arise. And then, having imagined myself making that supreme sacrifice, I can justify not sacrificing very much of my time or comfort or money right now. But if I’m not willing to live my life as a sacrifice today, why should I imagine that I will do any better if someone puts a gun to my head tomorrow? Rather:
If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord (Romans 14:8).
The question I need to ask is, “am I living my life as a sacrifice to God, or to myself?”
What offering myself as a living sacrifice looks like is transformation. If I have received God’s mercy, my life should not look like the lives of those who do not follow Christ. More importantly, it should not look like it did before I became a believer. That visible difference comes out of having a renewed mind. In other words, it’s my attitude and my mindset that the Holy Spirit is most concerned about changing. When I let God change the way I think – through his word, and through prayer, and through giving my attention to the things of God rather than the distractions of this world – then my actions will follow.
The ultimate result of offering my life as a living sacrifice, and of letting my mind be renewed, is that I will be able to discern the will of God. And I think that’s the key insight of this passage; knowing God’s will comes after I begin to obey, not before. God doesn’t reveal his will for me so that I can sit in judgment on it, or decide for myself which parts I’ll obey and which ones I won’t. He doesn’t give me a road map; rather, he shows me the kind of man I should be. Knowing God’s will is not about figuring out who to marry, or what job to take. Rather, knowing God’s will for my life means developing Christ’s character in my life. If I focus on that, the Holy Spirit will take care of everything else in its proper time.