Romans 12:1

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,.... The apostle having finished the doctrinal part of this epistle, proceeds to that which is more practical; and enforces the several duties

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.

ROMANS CHAPTER 12 Paul exhorteth to holiness and conformity to God’ s will; and to think soberly of the gifts allotted every man respectively. ,5 We are all members of one body in Christ, and should diligently exercise our several gifts for the common benefit. Sundry practical duties recommended, Revenge is specially forbidden, and to do good for evil enjoined. Hitherto the apostle hath discoursed of matters of faith; in this and the following chapters he sets down precepts of holy life. By the mercies of God: he useth the word in the plural number, to amplify and set forth the manifold mercies of God, in election, justification, adoption, &c.: q.d. Seeing you Gentiles have received so many and so great mercies from God; seeing he hath preferred you to his ancient people the Jews, and hath chosen and called you, when he hath rejected them; as you value these mercies, let the consideration of them engage you to all manner of holiness and new obedience. That ye present; that you give, dedicate, and offer up, as spiritual priests. Your bodies; yourselves, or, your whole man; a part is put for the whole; the body is named, because it is the soul’ s instrument in the service of God. A living sacrifice; the sacrifices of old were presented alive to God, and their blood was shed at the feet of the altar: a beast that died of itself, or was torn by wild beasts, was not so much as to be eaten, . Conformable hereunto, God will have us offer up ourselves a living sacrifice; i.e. we must be quickened and alive to God, and not dead in sins and trespasses. Holy; as the sacrifices under the law were to be without blemish or defect, . Acceptable unto God; or, well pleasing uuto God. So were the appointed sacrifices under the law, ; so was the sacrifice of Christ the Lamb of God, ; and so are all spiritual sacrifices under the gospel, . Which is your reasonable service; or, which is agreeable to reason; nothing is more reasonable, than that you should devote yourselves to God in this manner. Some think this is added, to show a difference between the sacrifice here required, and that of the Jews, which was of unreasonable beasts. Others, by reasonable service, understand spiritual service, and expound this place by , where you read of spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Others think, that by reasonable you must understand such service as is according to the word of God; and this suits best with the Greek phrase in the text, logikhn latreian. The same word is used, , and there it is rendered the milk of the word, and not reasonable milk. And so the service or worship here spoken of is opposed to that will worship, of which you read in .

1 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. Ver. 1. I beseech] Volumus et iubemus we wish and we order, became the pope’ s style, A. D. 606. By the mercies of God] His manifold mercies, διατωνοικτιρμων. Per miserationes amplificationis causa. (Beza.) We that have received so many mercies, must not only servire Deo, sed et adulate, serve God but even worship him, saith Tertullian. Mercy calls for duty; deliverance commands obedience, and there is so milch disingenuity in the contrary, that holy Ezra thinks heaven and earth would be ashamed of it, Ezra 9:13-14. The cords of kindness are called "the cords of a man," Hosea 11:4; rational motives befitting the nature of a man. So that to sin against mercy is to sin against humanity; it is bestial, and fits a man for destruction, Romans 9:22; like as when medicine which should remove the disease, doth co-operate with it, then death comes with the more pain and speed. No excess more dangerous than that of bread: no judgment more terrible than that of mercy despised and abused. Abused mercy turns into fury. Patientia laesa fit furor. That ye present] As they of old did their sacrifices at the altar. With the burnt offering, which signified the sacrificing of the flesh, was joined the sin offering, that is, Christ. Faith applies Christ to the believer, and the believer to Christ. Your bodies] That is, your whole person. Cainistce sunt, saith Luther, offerentes non persoham, sed opus personae. They are Cainists that offer to God the work done, but do not offer themselves to God. A living sacrifice] In the old law they had many kinds of sacrifices killed and offered. Now, saith Origen, instead of a ram we kill our ireful passions; instead of a goat our unclean affections; instead of flying fowls our idle thoughts, &c.

XII. (1) At this point the Apostle turns from the speculative, or doctrinal, portion of his Epistle, and begins a series of practical exhortations to his readers as to their lives as Christians. In the first two verses of the chapter he speaks of this in general terms, but then goes on to give a number of special precepts in no very distinct arrangement or order. Therefore.—We may well believe that the Apostle having brought his argument up to a climax at the close of the last chapter, would make a pause in his dictation, and perhaps not resume it until another sitting. The one prevailing impression left on his mind, both by the argument just ended and by the whole previous portion of the Epistle, is a profound sense of the merciful and benevolent purposes of God, who, out of seeming evil, only educes the highest good. This sense is still strong upon him, and he makes it the link of transition by which the earnest practical exhortations which follow are bound to what precedes. The sequence is as much one of feeling as of ratiocination. Your bodies.—Not merely a periphrasis for “yourselves,” but in the strict sense “your bodies,” i.e., the very part of you which is apt to be “an occasion of falling.” The Apostle takes the two main parts of human nature separately. In this verse he deals with the bodies of men, in the next verse with the “mind,” or the intellectual and spiritual faculties. A living sacrifice.—“How is the body to become a sacrifice? Let thine eye look upon no evil thing, and it hath become a sacrifice; let thy tongue speak nothing filthy, and it hath become an offering; let thy hand do no lawless deed, and it hath become a whole burnt offering. But this is not enough, we must do good works also; let the hand do alms, the mouth bless them that despitefully use us, and the ear find leisure evermore for the hearing of Scripture. For sacrifice can be made only of that which is clean; sacrifice is a firstfruit of other actions. Let us, then, from our hands, and feet, and mouth, and all our other members, yield a firstfruit unto God” (St. Chrysostom). The idea contained in sacrifice is that of dedication. We are to dedicate our bodies to God. But there is to be this distinction between the old Jewish sacrifices and the Christian sacrifice: the one was of dead animals, the other of the living man. The worshipper must offer, or present, before God, himself, with all his living energies and powers directed consciously to God’s service. Holy, acceptable unto God.—The qualification sought for in the Jewish sacrifices was that they were to be unblemished, without spot. In like manner the Christian’s sacrifice must be holy and pure in God’s sight, otherwise it cannot be acceptable to Him. Reasonable service.—The English phrase is somewhat ambiguous.

CHAPTER XII. Such displays of God's mercy as Jews and Gentiles have received should induce them to consecrate themselves to Him; and not be conformed to the world, 1, 2. Christians are exhorted to think meanly of themselves, 3. And each to behave himself properly in the office which he has received from God, 4-8; Various important moral duties recommended, 9-18. We must not avenge ourselves, but overcome evil with good, 19-21. NOTES ON CHAP. XII. The apostle having now finished the doctrinal part of this epistle, proceeds to the practical; and here it may be necessary to take a view of his arguments in the preceding chapters. The election, calling, and justification of the believing Gentiles, and their being admitted into the kingdom and covenant of God, and having an interest in all the privileges and honours of his children. (1.) That they have a clear and substantial title to all these he has proved in Rom. 1, 2 and 3. (2.) That this right is set on the same footing with Abraham's title to the blessings of the covenant he proves Rom. 6. (3.) That it gives us a title to privileges and blessings, as great as any the Jews could glory in, by virtue of that covenant, Romans 5:1-12. (4.) He goes still higher, and shows that our being interested in the gift and grace of God in Christ Jesus is perfectly agreeable to the grace which he has bestowed upon all mankind, in delivering them from that death of the body brought on them by Adams' transgression, Romans 5:12-21. (5.) He fully explains, both with regard to the Gentiles and Jews, the nature of the Gospel constitution in relation to its obligations to holiness, and the advantages it gives for encouragement, obedience, and support, under the severest trials and persecutions, Rom. 6, 7, 8. (6.) As to the pretences of the Jews, that "God was bound by express promise to continue them as his only people for ever, and that this was directly inconsistent with the election and calling of the Gentiles, on the condition of faith alone;" he demonstrates that the rejection of the Jews is consistent with the truth of God's word, and with his righteousness: he shows the true cause and reason of their rejection, and concludes with an admirable discourse upon the extent and duration of it; which he closes with adoration of the Divine wisdom in its various dispensations, Rom. 9, 10, 11. Thus, having cleared this important subject with surprising judgment, and the nicest art and skill in writing, he now proceeds, after his usual manner in his epistles and the apostolic method of preaching, to inculcate various Christian duties, and to exhort to that temper of mind and conduct of life which are suitable to the profession of the Gospel, and the enjoyment of its privileges. - Dr. Taylor. Verse 1.

Ch. Romans 12:1-8. Christian practice as the result of Christian truth: self-dedication to the service of God in the Christian Church1. I beseech you therefore] The Doctrinal Part of the Epistle, strictly so to be called, is now closed. Not that Doctrine, in the special sense of dogmatic revelation, is absent from the remaining chapters; for morality is always in Scripture traced to dogmatic truth, and constantly occasions statements of it. But the main object, by far, in the remainder of the Epistle is instruction in the application of truth to life—Christian practice.therefore] i.e. in view of the whole previous argument, in which gratuitous remission of sin, and acceptance of the guilty, for Christ’s sake, has been explained; and the consequent gift and influences of the Holy Spirit; and the assurance of glory: in which, too, the closing sections have reminded both Gentile and Jewish believers of the special aspects of sovereign mercy in their respective cases.the mercies] the compassions; His motions of tenderness and pity. The same word, or cognates, is used Romans 9:15; Luke 5:36; 2 Corinthians 1:3; Philippians 2:1; Colossians 3:12; Hebrews 10:28; James 5:11.This gracious word is doubly noteworthy here, just after the unqualified assertion of Divine Majesty and Sovereignty in Romans 11:33-36.present] Same word as Romans 6:13; Romans 6:16; Romans 6:19; where E. V. “yield.”your bodies] i.e., practically, your energies. The soul, in the present state, works through the body; so that its action for its Master can take effect only through the dedication of the body to Him—hands, feet, eyes, tongue, and brain.a living sacrifice] A metaphor used elsewhere of the Christian’s tokens of thanksgiving: Philippians 4:18, (of liberal gifts, for Christ’s sake, to the Apostle;) Hebrews 13:15, (of praise, the “fruit of the lips;”) 16, (of beneficence for Christ’s sake;) 1 Peter 2:5, (of tokens of thanksgiving of any kind, offered up by believers, who, as such, are “a holy priesthood.”) See below on Romans 15:16 for further sacrificial metaphor.reasonable] rational, of the reason. Same word as 1 Peter 2:2, where render “the rational pure milk;” i.e. the pure milk which has to do with the mind not the body. So here:—the “service” which is not of “meats and drinks and washings,” but is the dedication of the inmost self with its energies; spiritual service, not mechanical.service] Same word as Romans 9:4. See on Romans 1:9, where the cognate verb occurs. In Hebrews 12:28 the words “service” and “acceptable” reappear, in another but kindred connexion.—Meyer renders the Gr. word here by Opfer-cultus.

I beseech you - The apostle, having finished the argument of this Epistle, proceeds now to close it with a practical or hortatory application, showing its bearing on the duties of life, and the practical influence of religion.

B. THE ETHICAL : and .1. ETHICAL , Romans 12:1 to Romans 15:14.I. THE ACT OF ENTIRE SELF- FAITH IS THE FOR ALL OF HEART AND LIFE, 1, 2.1.