Thoughts on Romans 12:1-2

"I appeal to you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual (logikon) worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." ~Romans 12:1-2

There are lots of things to notice here.  First of all, "present your bodies as a living sacrifice."  The Christian life is not a cakewalk.  It is a sacrifice.  It is dying to self daily and following Jesus, because He is the focus of Christianity.  There is no point in doing things half-way.  Jesus demands my all.  My life is to be holy and acceptable and pleasing to God, yes, but also a sacrifice--a bloody, gory mess---that's what a sacrifice is.  It's not one of those little platitudes "Oh, this is my cross to bear, just gotta suck up and deal with it." NO! "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." [Dietrich Bonhoeffer]  Come and die! This is not a pretty picture.  It's not a golden cross to hang around my neck and say, "Oh, look, I'm a Christian."  It's in my attitudes and actions.  It's in the choices I make in my heart every second.  These choices must be holy, and they must be acceptable to God.

Why?

Because they are my spiritual worship.  When I lay myself on the altar before Christ, and give myself to him, I am not doing something pointless and without reason.  May it never be! The word for spiritual is actually the Greek word logikon, from which we get the word "logic" and all its derivatives.  So why translate it spiritual? The word has a broad meaning, but Paul must have a purpose for using it here.  Jesus Christ is the logos. He is the word-become-flesh.  He is rationality personified.  The one who is ineffable came and took on human form so he could explain himself and his love to me.  And he did this partly through his life and miracles, yes; but most especially through his sacrifice.  So, when Romans 12:1 tells me to present my body as a sacrifice, it is as a Christ-like act of service-worship.  Rational and yet spiritual, not one or the other.  God doesn't demand my heart and then ask me to abandon my brain.  He asks that I present all to him that I might be conformed by him into his image.

As verse 2 states, I cannot, must not be conformed to this world.  I must be transformed in the renewal of my mind. The focus of these two verses is the mind, the intellect, the reason which God gave me.  It must be used to one purpose, that is to discern God''s will for my life.  Oh@ How I need this reminder on a daily basis!  What is good and acceptable and perfect will be clear to me when I am consistently presenting my body as a sacrifice before God in a way that pleases Him, that is, after the manner of the logos, the God-man, the word-made-flesh.

Anything else is but a cheap perversion of the Christianity to which God calls me..  May he give me the strength and the will to do this each and every day, nno matter how my sinful frame may rebel against it.  Only when I have done this will I be able to discern what is the will of God in my life.