CRITICAL NOTES
Romans 12:1.—St. Paul sums up the argument of the foregoing part of the epistle with plain rules for Christian living, and advisedly calls religion a reasonable service. Pythagoras required intelligent worship; and much more does the great Spirit demand worship in spirit. The soul stands as the priest; the body is the offering to be consecrated by the High Priest.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Romans 12:1
The importance of our bodies.—If a man have a true feeling of spiritual relationship, he will not be able to refrain himself. The thought of the divine connection will rise above all the seemings of the present. He will say in effect: God is my father; I must love and serve as a son. God is my creator, and I must give that which is due. God made me in every part, redeemed me in body as well as soul, crowned with continuing mercies, and I must yield every part to His service. I offer myself not in mere sentiment. I give not some vague notion called “self,” but my body—the living, acting frame, the organ and instrument of the soul’s working—in evidence of the fact that my design to offer is sincere.
I. Our bodies are important.—The shape and fashion of man’s physical frame testify to its divine origin, but we here refer to its importance as enforcing the exhortation that it be presented on God’s altar as a living sacrifice. The body is important as an offering, for it is:
1. The avenue of sin. There may be sin committed in the secret chambers of the soul, while the body seems to move in the sphere of outward moral respectability. The fallen angels had no bodies, and yet sinned. A soul free from a physical nature might sin; but a soul fettered with physical entanglements has great difficulty in preserving moral purity. Soul and body are in constant warfare. Our physical sensations are the avenues along which the tempter travels. Surely it were easier to keep from sin if there were no body; the eye would not engender lust; the ear would not enthral with siren sounds; appetite would not dethrone man’s reason. And yet the soul might not be so noble. Let us ask, not to be set free from the body of this flesh, but to have grace given, so that we may present the body a living sacrifice. Let the soul do priestly work.
2. The soul’s instrument. St. Paul indirectly draws a distinction between “you” and “your bodies.” They are not the “you,” though mysteriously joined. The body is the instrument by which the man works and expresses himself. You are to “present your bodies.” You must stand as kings having power over your bodies. The soul finds its outlet and touches the external world by means of the body. There may be such a thing as soul touching soul—the unseen “you” coming into contact with another unseen “you”—but for the most part we influence and are influenced by the help of material organisations. Thought works by means of brain currents and by the method of language. The spiritual life force works through and in a measure by the material frame. Where there is high spiritual surrender in the soul, it will show itself in a beautified physical nature. The body is ennobled by being presented a living sacrifice.
3. The sure signs. Offered bodies are signs of the completeness of the offering. The soul throws open the temple of the body for the use of heaven’s King, and thus gives a token that the man is willing to serve God and to promote His glory. It is the token of a full surrender. It is an ample dedication. God lays siege to us with the sweet train of His abounding mercies. We yield to the besieging force, and give our bodies as signs of the fact that we have no reserve, that all which we call ours is God’s now and for evermore.
4. The proof of a right view, which is that the gospel has to do with man’s material and moral nature. The spiritual life is a divine force shaping our thoughts and pulsating through our bodies. Soul and body must be consecrated upon God’s altar; and it must be an ever-recurring dedication. We are priests standing daily and offering up our own bodies. The richest thoughts must be embalmed in material forms. The spiritual life expresses itself to others in outward actions. Goodness dwelling in the soul will irradiate the body.
II. God’s claim is important.—God demands, but it is put in the form of entreaty. He woos the offering as lover might beg some token of love’s return. God made the body, not only to toil on the farm, to grind in the mill, to be tossed on the ocean, to groan on the battle-field, to feel the rush of commercial strife, or to be pampered in the lap of luxury, but to be presented on His altar as a living sacrifice. Human bodies are of small account in the world’s metropolis. London is the slaughter-house of humanity. The centre of Christendom is untrue to Christianity’s great lesson that the physical nature has a noble aspect being made by God and being claimed as an offering. Thus low views are not to be taken of man’s physical nature. By our bodies we are connected with the earth, and yet even by our bodies we are connected with heaven. The body governed by the soul may minister in highest service.
III. God’s mercies are important.—Let us not ignore the mercies of God, for they are important factors in the life of man. They are still evident to observant natures. Nature still smiles through storms and tempests. Our bodies are touched by God’s mercies—charmed by sweet music, refreshed by welcome odours, nourished by many products. God’s mercy shown in redemption. The Saviour’s redemptive work had for its object the welfare of the body as well as of the soul. He spent more time in healing than in teaching. His miracles are more than His sermons. Rich as was the stream of mingled water and blood that flowed from the Saviour’s side, richer still was the stream of mercies that flowed from heaven. Jesus gave His body an atoning sacrifice; let us give our bodies a living sacrifice. Let our bodies be responsive. As they answer to outward, so let them answer to inward influences. Let them respond to the soul’s voice, to God’s voice. If the soul be strong, then the body will yield. The body, through the soul, will answer to the high voice of the divine mercies. If God have poured Himself out in mercies, shall we not answer in living sacrifices?
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Romans 12:1
A servant of Christ truly reigns.—Very touching is the incident related in the Old Testament story when Joseph’s brethren stood before him and he could no longer refrain himself. His brethren were before him, and they silently but effectually called forth Joseph’s deeper feelings, and he could no longer feign himself the foreign despot. If a man have genuine faith, true love to God, the inward feeling of spiritual relationship, he will not be able to refrain himself. His soul will rise upward to the supreme good; he will present himself a living sacrifice. Here is noble work for the soul. Sin’s power is lessened if I stand as a priest at God’s altar and am there continually offering up the body a living sacrifice acceptable to God. Egerius the Roman asked of the conquered people, “Are you the ambassadors sent by the people of Collatia that you may yield up yourselves and the Collatine people?” And it was answered, “We are.” And it was again asked, “Are the Collatine people in their own power?” And answered, “They are.” It was further inquired, “Do you deliver up yourselves, the people of Collatia, your city, your fields vour water, your hounds, your temples, your utensils, all things that are yours, both divine and human, into mine and the people of Rome’s power?” They answer, “We deliver up all.” And he replies, “So I receive you.” Thus when a man presents his body a living sacrifice, it is a sign, unspoken but certain, that he delivers up all unto the service of God. He treats us as free agents, for we are morally free, and asks for our gifts and our services. Seneca, the heathen philosopher, declared that to serve God is to reign; and surely we can feel this as he could not. We are told that a prince abandoned the pleasures and splendours of his own court, then retired and assumed the name of Christodulus—a servant of Christ—accounting the glory of that name did outshine, not only that of other illustrious titles, but of the imperial diadem itself. A servant of Christ is he who serves with body as well as soul. A servant of Christ is he who truly reigns. Better than all titles is the title “servant of Christ.” Æschines the philosopher, out of his admiration to Socrates, when divers presented him with other gifts, made a tender to him of himself. Can man have such noble thoughts of his fellow man, and can we raise no lofty thoughts to God? Shall we not give ourselves to God? Let body as well as soul be consecrated to this divine service.
In every sacrifice a death.—It has been said there is in every sacrifice a death, and in this sacrifice a death unto sin, out of which there arises a new life of righteousness unto God. Thus the living sacrifice is that in which, though the natural life is not lost, a new life of holiness is gained.
The moral instruction the pendant of the doctrinal.—This moral instruction is therefore the pendant of the doctrinal instruction. It is its necessary complement, the two taken together from the apostle’s complete catechism. It is because the rational relation between the different sections of this part has not been understood that it has been possible for the connection of this whole second part with the first to be so completely mistaken. The practical part which we are beginning corresponds to the second kind of sacrifice, which was the symbol of consecration after pardon had been received (the holocaust in which the victim was entirely burned), and of the communion re-established between Jehovah and the believer (the peace offering followed by a feast in the court of the temple). The sacrifice of expiation offered by God in the passion of His Son should now find its response in the believer in the sacrifice of complete consecration and intimate communion. Is it not this promise which explains the choice of the word, λογικήν, “reasonable,” of which undoubtedly the true meaning is this—the service which rationally corresponds to the moral premisses contained in the faith which you profess? (Godet.) The word rendered “reasonable” is variously explained. The simplest interpretation is that which takes the word in its natural sense—namely, pertaining to the mind; it is mental or spiritual service in opposition to ceremonial and external observances.—Hodge.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 12
Romans 12:1. Indian gives himself.—A missionary tells of an Indian chief who came to him and offered his belt of wampum that he might please God. “No,” said the missionary; “Christ cannot accept such a sacrifice.” The Indian departed, but soon returned, offering his rifle and the skins he had taken in hunting. “No,” was the reply; “Christ cannot accept such a sacrifice.” Again the Indian went away, but soon returned once more with a troubled conscience, and offered his wigwam, wife, child, everything, for peace and pardon. “No,” was still the reply; “Christ cannot accept such a sacrifice.” The chief seemed surprised for a moment; then lifting up tearful eyes to the face of the missionary, he feelingly cried out, “Here, Lord, take poor Indian too.” That present was accepted, and the chief went home full of joy.