WE now come (chap. 12.) to the practical exhortations of the epistle; and it is important to notice that even here all thought of law and legal obligation is entirely absent.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,” &c. (ver. 1). Nowhere under the Mosaic economy could such language be found? The thunderings and lightnings of Sinai could never have been prefaced by such words as “I beseech you.” And yet the practical standard of living under grace is not lowered in the smallest degree; may we not rather say, that it is infinitely higher than that under law?
Firstly, let us observe that the apostle here is not addressing himself to the world at large; “I beseech you therefore, brethren.” Those to whom he writes already stand in close relationship to God; they are in His family, and as such are brethren. But further, they have been introduced into the circle of divine favor.
The doctrine that has been so fully developed in the previous part of the epistle is here taken as the ground of exhortation — “the mercies of God.” The gospel of God in all its blessed simplicity had been unfolded; divine grace, the alone ground upon which the guilty sinner can stand before a holy God had been clearly established. No depths of human guilt were too great for the love of God to reach in saving power; “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (chap. 5:20). Not only this, but dispensational barriers were no obstacle, the Gentile might be saved as well as the Jew, and the Jew must be saved, if saved at all, in the same way as the Gentile; mercy was free to all alike, on that ground alone could any be saved in the present; and in the future, as we have seen (chap. 11.), Israel will be saved on the selfsame principle — “God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all” (chap. 11:32).
On the ground, then, of all this undeserved and infinite mercy of God, the saint is besought to present his body as a living sacrifice to God.
What an answer is this to the base ingratitude that would argue that, because all was right with the soul for eternity, therefore we might do what we like with the body here on earth!
Those to whom the apostle was addressing himself, both Jew and Gentile, were familiar with the thought of sacrifice; but in their case it was that of a dead animal where was no question of a walk well pleasing to God. The Christian is besought to present his body as a living sacrifice; this had been unfolded as a doctrine in chapter 6, here it is enforced by way of exhortation. “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord;... yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead,” &c. (chap. 6.). Nothing short of this entire yielding of ourselves becomes those who have been the recipients of such favor — “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, your reasonable (or, intelligent) service” (chap. 12:1). Yet it is not by way of legal effort, such as a daily mortifying of this or that lust or evil desire. It is rather an act completed once for all, in the power of which the Christian seeks to walk to the end of his earthly journey. Such infinite mercy on God’s part demands by the constraining power of love divine, that we should present our bodies a living sacrifice. This involves holy living, and a walk well pleasing or acceptable to God; unlike that which characterized the legal dispensation, it will be an intelligent service. What distinguishes Christianity is that intelligent entering into the mind of God as revealed in His Word, an intelligence which should ever grow and deepen according as the Spirit of God is ungrieved. In Judaism were found forms and ceremonies which were unintelligible to him that did the service; in Christianity God is worshipped in spirit and in truth.
How much that bears the name of worship in Christendom to-day is really a going back to Judaism, a return to the shadows of the law and a refusal of the substance, Christ! Yet is it not of deepest importance to press upon one another, that growing intelligence in the revealed will of God should ever be accompanied by increasing devotedness to Him? How sad if mere knowledge should be aimed at. We would not weaken the importance of progress in the knowledge of God’s Word, but desire to bring home to our own hearts as well as to the reader’s the necessity of whole-hearted consecration to the Lord. “Present your bodies a living sacrifice.” May every member of our ransomed being — hand, foot, eye, ear, and tongue — be yielded in loving service to God!
But we are surrounded by the world, a world which is in every department astray from God: then, “be not conformed to this world.” The world crucified Christ, it still seeks its pleasure apart from Him, even where sin in its grosser forms may be refused. A walk in separation from the spirit and ways of the world is enjoined; and yet not a mere outward separation which would leave the heart still seeking for as much of it as possible, but “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
It is just here where many come short, and so miss the joy of the Christian path. The world may be refused from a just sense of its sinfulness and alienation from God, but unless that positive path of submission to the will of God be chosen, the heart will never be fully satisfied. This path was trodden in its perfection by the feet of our blessed Saviour, and He has marked it out for His people here on earth. He came to seek and save the lost; He always did the things that pleased the Father. “The Son, of God could bring down heavenly motives on earth, and live a life of grace and separation from all evil in the midst of all the evil in the world, holy and obedient, displaying a new and divine character on the earth, heavenly in its nature, yet adapted in grace to man, such as he was on the earth. This way we have to learn, to prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God — that will Christ came to do, and in which He has walked in the midst of the evil; a way not only right, but of obedience.”
What blessed experience will be ours as we tread this path in communion with our Master and Guide! We shall prove — this is practical and experimental — what is that “good and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”
Under the law God forbade this and that; but in Christianity God imparts a new life, showers upon us infinite and unmerited mercies, and puts before us a heart-captivating object.