Today let’s look at the last main point that amplifies the focus of the book of Romans: the practical outworking of salvation, found in chapters 12-16. Paul begins this section with the word, “Therefore,” indicating what follows grows out of what went before. Then he says, “I urge you.” He could have commanded them as an Apostle, but he appeals to them on the basis of God’s mercy.
What he’s asking for is a spiritual act of worship, or your reasonable service. If you accept what we have discovered in the first 11 chapters, then it is most reasonable for you “to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.” The word “offer” is in a tense in the original language, which means, “Offer once and for all, not repetitively.” Resolve that the commitment of your body to God is a “for the rest of my life commitment.”
In verse 2 the verbs are in the present tense, ongoing. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but (continuously) be transformed by the (continuous) renewing of your mind.” Don’t let the world pressure you into its mold or mind-set. Rather, remind yourself every time you’re faced with a decision, that “you belong to God, you are a Christian.
The word “transformed,” means, “what is inwardly true will be outwardly manifest.” This happened to Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. His deity became outwardly displayed.
When we continuously do what Christians should do, we will “test and approve what God’s will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
