RELATIONSHIP TO
GOD
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 [Rom. 12:1].
In
other words: Therefore, I beg of you, brethren, by the mercies of God that
you yield your bodies—your total personalities—a living sacrifice, set apart
for God, well-pleasing to God, which is your rational or spiritual service.
Notice that the “therefore” ties it into everything that
has come before it. Although it has immediate connection with that which has
just preceded it, I am of the opinion that Paul is gathering up the whole
epistle when he says, “Therefore.”
“I beg of you” is the language of grace, not law. There
is no thunder here from Mount Sinai. Moses commanded; Paul exhorts. Could
Paul have commanded? Well, he told Philemon that he could have given him a
command, but he didn’t. Paul doesn’t command; he says, “I beg of you.”
“By the mercies of God”—the plural is a Hebraism,
denoting an abundance of mercy. God is rich in mercy; God has plenty of it,
my friend. He has had to use a lot of it for me, but He still has plenty of
it for you. “Mercy” means compassion, pity, and the tenderness of God. His
compassions never fail.
We are called upon to “present”—to yield. This is the
same word we had, you recall, back in chapter 6. Although some expositors
suggest that there it refers to the mind while here it refers to the will, I
think it is a false distinction. The appeal in both instances is to the
will. In the sixth chapter, the way to Christian character is to yield to
Him. Here yielding is the way to Christian consecration and conduct.
He says to yield “your bodies,” your total personalities.
The body is the instrument through which we express ourselves. The mind, the
affections, the will, and the Holy Spirit can use the body.
Vincent has assembled the following Scriptures which
reveal this wide latitude. We are told to glorify God in our bodies. “For ye
are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your
spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:20). “According to my earnest expectation
and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness,
as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be
by life, or by death” (Phil. 1:20). “Always bearing about in the body the
dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest
in our body” (2 Cor. 4:10).
By an act of the will we place our total personalities at
the disposal of God.
This is our “reasonable service,” our rational service,
and it is well-pleasing to God.
McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible
Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997,
c1981, S. 4:728-729