There is a deliberate mistranslation in the first verse of our reading from Romans. In the original Paul urges the brothers to respond to God’s mercy; in this latest update of the NIV the translators have take the view that Paul would have addressed himself today to the brothers and sisters. At the same time they have corrected a glaring error in the earlier version, which read “offer your bodies as living sacrifices”. This narrowed our understanding of what Paul was trying to say. So my first point, slightly at a tangent, is that translations are an embodiment of the Word. We do not worship the text and read it only the original languages, and brook no alterations. Rather we see Jesus as the Messiah, the embodiment of the promises of God, and the words of this book as the record of different people’s dealings with him. They are inspired by God and point to the truth of God, and we depend on them absolutely, but each generation has to wrestle with their meaning.
Our reading starts with the word “therefore”, and so we should see what it is there for. Paul has been explaining for eleven chapters how merciful God has been, how we are brought salvation as we trust in Christ, as we allow his Spirit to guide us, as we depend on his promises. Even in the admittedly difficult case of the nation of Israel who seem largely to have rejected Christ, Paul argues that God is full of compassion and mercy.
Therefore, in view of God’s mercy, we should offer our bodies, each of us as individuals, as a living sacrifice. In chapter six Paul reminded us that we should each offer our bodies in service to God, or we would find ourselves forced to serve a different master – sin. So your body is important. Do not be fooled by the thinking that suggests that the body is merely a husk, of no importance, while your soul, the inner you, will live forever. Understand that your body means all of you, your personhood, and you cannot separate these things out. Who you are on the inside, in the realm of your thoughts, is reflected on the outside in your actions. In Romans 1, we are told about how people rejected the truth about God, and this led to the degrading of their bodies, which led in turn to their minds being darkened. In chapter four we read of Abraham who had faith, even though his 100 year old body was as good as dead. I heard about a man who apologised to his pastor: “I cannot get to church on Sunday, but I will be with you in spirit.” The pastor replied: “It’s your body I want, not your spirit.” A dear lady I knew in Woking used to urge us to pray and pray, but then she would add that we needed to put legs on our prayers; in other words what we think and pray is important, but so are our actions. It is of crucial importance that Jesus was born into a body, lived a real life in his body, acted only obedience to his Father; his body died and was buried. On the third day his body was raised to new life and is now in the heavenlies. This is our incarnation, salvation faith. Romans 8: 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
Paul urges us to get this new perspective. We are in one sense passive in this process. This another of the NIV’s debateable translations, and perhaps should better be read as “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed, by the renewing of your mind.” People are concerned that if they start to investigate spiritual things they will end up being brain washed. The opposite is true! Those who do not believe the truth end up believe any old thing. Even Christians who have not firmly made the choice to serve Christ as Lord find themselves, as Robert reminded us recently, blowing like feathers in the wind. The messages we receive from parents and others, the power of advertisements, the need to keep up with the Joneses, the desire to get ahead, all these and many others, conspire to warp our thinking. It is not very different from chapter one, where Paul reminds us that all that we need to know about God is revealed in nature, but that we substitute our own versions of the truth and therefore are led astray. We sometimes seem helpless to serve God as we would like, in an echo of chapter seven. How can we change ourselves?
We cannot. We lack the power. But we can be led by the Spirit of God. We can offer our bodies to him, and allow him to work in us. This is our spiritual, or logical, or reasonable service. In other words, it takes no intelligence at all to live a sinful life that we are coerced into. Rather, we make a deliberate, informed choice, out of the freedom that the Holy Spirit brings us, to follow Christ. In contrast to the puzzles we might have about God’s will as revealed in the previous three chapters, here we are invited to test out on a daily basis God’s will in the minutiae of everyday life.
The bible has lots of advice about how to use your body. At various times we are told about our eyes, tongue, ears, hands, feet, and reminded to live pure lives because our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.
In this passage I think it is important that we are told to offer our bodies as a “living sacrifice”. In other words, we each offer ourselves, and together constitute the body of Christ in this place. We make Jesus real and present by the way that we live.
Obviously this has implications for how we get along. “Do not be high-minded, thinking above yourself, but think with sober judgement.” In other words, there is a sort of madness that can infect us, where we see ourselves as more important than we really are. Paul says that the sober judgement that comes from self-offering leads to that same saving faith that we share with Abraham. We discover new ways to use our bodies in God’s service. The gifts he gives us of prophecy, faith, service, teaching, encouragement, giving, leadership or showing mercy, are all intended to be used by us to build up the body of Christ. I might have started out wanting to preach because I enjoy being in front of people, but I have to learn that it is a privilege to serve in this way and, as we will find out from verse 9 next week, if I preach with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am nothing.
Similarly, if I do not take my part in serving, out of a misplaced sense of modesty and not wanting to put myself forward, I am neglecting the gifts and calling that God has given to me, to each one of us.
Each of us is called, urged, to respond to the mercies of God, to allow him to begin that process of changing us to be like Jesus, and to take our place in the renewing and building up of his body, the church.
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