CCC Livestream - It's All About The Gospel - Romans Romans 12:1-2

Live Worship Gathering: 10/19/2025

Preaching: Jason Purdy

A Living Sacrifice

Jason Purdy

It’s All About The Gospel / Romans 12:1–2

I invite you to turn with me to Romans 12.

I hope the children grabbed a sermon activity sheet in order to follow along as well.

Today, we are going to consider only verses 1 and 2.

And the reason we are only considering two verses is because of the great weight these two verses hold in the book of Romans and for our everyday lives as followers of Jesus.

It is important for us to note that as we have studied through eleven chapters of Romans and taken 31 sermons to do it, we have come across very few commands.

If you are looking for practical passages of what God tells you to do in order to live the Christian life, Romans 1-11 provides very little of that.

There are only a few commands in Romans 6 like:

Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God.

Do not let sin reign in your mortal body.

Do not present your members to sin but to God.

And then in Romans 11, we heard the command: do not be arrogant toward the branches (meaning toward Jewish unbelievers).

But that’s it.

It is extremely significant to note that Paul writes eleven chapters all about the truths of God and the gospel before He begins to give us commands about how we are to live the Christian life.

You see, some people are tempted to boil Christianity down to the lowest common denominator.

Just give me the bare minimum information that I need and tell me what I need to do.

Or they think, as long as I know the simple facts of the gospel, I’m good to go.

Doesn’t anymore theology just lead to division and debates anyway?

But that is not how God’s word would lead us to think about theology, doctrine, and the truths of God.

For one, Paul makes clear that all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that we may be complete, equipped for every good work.

You see, in order to be equipped and empowered to live out the Christian life, you must be taught, reproved by, and trained in all of the Scriptures, not just the popular parts.

And for another thing, you are never going to be filled with the power of God’s grace to actually walk out the commands of God without being deeply rooted in the truths about God and the gospel.

What is it that keeps us from following hard after Jesus day in and day out?

Is it not our confusion over our remaining sin and doubts, our shame that we feel when we don’t measure up, our lack of clarity on how God and the gospel declare us free from condemnation, filled with the power of the Spirit of God, and predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, for whom he predestined, he called, and whom he called, he justified, and whom he justified, he glorified, as if the work was already completed?

The other thing that keeps us from following hard after Jesus after our own confusions and doubts due to remaining sin is our relationships with others and the way we are influenced by others.

And it is takes a deep and theological understanding of God and the gospel to understand how God reconciles us not only to himself, but to one another in the church.

That’s why the pattern we see in Romans is really a pattern that is common in many of Paul’s other writings.

The book of Ephesians lays out three chapters worth of good deep truths about God and the gospel before then finally in chapter 4-6 saying, now here is how you are to live in light of that truth.

Galatians and Colossians all follow a similar pattern.

It is essential to be rooted deeply in God and what He has done for you in the gospel if you ever hope to have the power to actually follow and obey His commands to you.

In other words, your heart must first be rooted deeply in what God has done for you to experience the power to do what God tells you to do.

So, after eleven chapters and 31 sermons on gospel truths of what God has done for us in Christ, we come to the hinge of the whole book, where Paul says, “In light of all God has done: here is what you are to do by the power of the Spirit of God in you.”

And then the rest of the book of Romans and all the commands will fall under these two verses.

Would you follow along as I read God’s word?

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 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.

1. In Light Of God’s Mercies, Present Your Bodies As A Living Sacrifice

Paul begins with the strongest appeal and exhortation possible.

I appeal to you. I urge you. I advise you earnestly!

Therefore brothers by the mercies of God.

In other words, I am going to make the strongest of urgent pleas based on the weightiness and glories of the mercies of God that have just been expounded upon for the past eleven chapters.

I cannot spend long in review, but because while you were a sinner worshipping created things instead of the Creator God, you deserve to suffer under the perfect wrath of God for eternity.

Yet, while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you.

And because Jesus took all the punishment of your condemnation, he can offer you all the righteousness of his commendation as a gift to all who repent of sin and believe in Him.

When you repent and believe, you are saved from the wrath of God.

And those who are saved by faith are regenerated, meaning their dead hearts are now made alive to God.

And while we still struggle with sin, God has declared us righteous with absolutely no condemnation.

And God is growing us to be more like His Son Jesus.

And God promises all those who have been called to be His children that he is working even the hardest and worst parts of their lives and the entire universe toward the end of His glory and our good.

And there is absolutely nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

And God’s promises have not failed His Old Testament people and they will not fail us for from him and through him and to him are all things. To Him be glory forever amen!

So, with the strongest plea due the great, glorious, and eternal hope brought on by the mercies of God, here is the command:

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

You know, when you read the Old Testament law, and consider all the sacrificing of animals that had to be done, you start to ask the question: how did the people have time for doing anything else?

I’m so glad that Jesus Christ has come to be the perfect sacrifice so that we don’t have to spend our whole lives doing all that sacrificing anymore!

And while that is absolutely true when it comes to animal sacrifice, I actually think we are missing the point when we say something like that.

Yes, the point of those animal sacrifices was to point us to our need of the perfect Lamb of God to be sacrificed in our place, in order that we might believe and be made alive by the Spirit of God so that we would live as sacrifices for the rest of our lives.

Consider

2 Corinthians 5:15 ESV

15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

So, the point is not that Jesus died so that we don’t have to sacrifice anymore.

The point is Jesus died and rose again and gave us spiritual life so that our whole lives would be a sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to God.

You see, without an understanding of salvation leading to new spiritual birth and life, the words living sacrifice would be an oxymoron.

They don’t go together, because sacrifices die.

That’s the whole point of a sacrifice is to die.

So, what could it possibly mean to be a living sacrifice?

We know, because we have studied the first eleven chapters.

In Christ, we are now alive to God by being born again to spiritual life, yet we still carry around this body of sin that we must die to continually.

Our souls are now saved, regenerated, born again to new spiritual life, yet we still carry around this body of sin,

Which is why we must present our bodies as a living sacrifice.

As we have already seen in Romans, the body is not just referring to our physical bodies but also our minds.

It is all the parts of ourselves that are still fallen and corrupted by sin, so everything other than your saved and redeemed soul.

This is why we must present our bodies as living sacrifices, because it is our bodies that we must still learn to submit fully to God in a way that is holy and acceptable.

A right sacrifice in the Old Testament was said to be pleasing to God.

Jesus’ sacrifice was ultimately pleasing to God.

We who are saved are now called to present our bodies as living sacrifices, in order to live out our days in a way that is pleasing to God.

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Yet, once you have placed faith in God, your whole existence should be motivated by pleasing God.

That which is acceptable and pleasing to God.

You know, sometimes we as Christians will hear stories of people martyred for their faith, and we will think: I wonder if God would give me the courage to die for my faith?

But the real question should be, is God giving you the courage by his grace to live out your faith?

Because, like George Washington’s character says in the musical Hamilton: Dying for something is easy. Living is harder.

Do you consider your whole life as a sacrificial offering that is pleasing to God?

When Paul wrote in Thessalonians that true conversion to Christ is turning to God from idols in order to serve the living and true God, He doesn’t just mean that you begin attending church services once a week.

No, he means your whole existence was based around love of self and love of created things.

You gave all your time, talents, treasures and efforts toward those things for 24 hours per day and 7 days per week.

Yet, now, you present your bodies as a living sacrifice to serve the living and true God 24 hours per day and 7 days per week.

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Do you know how to eat and drink as a sacrifice for the glory of God?

How to work in your particular profession as a sacrifice for the glory of God?

How to live in retirement as a sacrifice for the glory of God?

How to serve in the nursery as a sacrifice for the glory of God?

How to raise children as a sacrifice for the glory of God?

How to love your spouse in your marriage as a sacrifice for the glory of God?

Nothing in your life is excluded from this.

And verse 1 ends like this: this is your spiritual worship.

Our culture thinks spiritual worship has to do with an exciting experience of worship in a church service or Christian concert.

The Bible says spiritual worship has to do with giving every single moment and ever single aspect of your life to please your Lord and Savior.

To find a man or woman who understands spiritual worship, do not look for someone with their hands raised during a service.

Look for a man or woman who is laying their life down to love and serve their spouse, love and train their kids, does their work as unto the Lord and not to men, and serves Jesus’ church selflessly.

The same word translated “spiritual” in the ESV is translated “rational” or “reasonable” in some other versions, which is still getting to the core of the word.

Not only is living your whole life as a sacrifice pleasing to God spiritual worship, it is also reasonable and rational.

It only makes sense that a God who created us for himself, and gave his son to buy us back, would save us into a whole hearted whole life relationship with himself.

So, how in the world are we to know if we are living in the way of presenting our bodies as living sacrifices and in a way that is holy and acceptable to God?

How do we know if we are and what that is supposed to look like?

2. In Light Of God’s Mercies, Be Transformed By The Renewing Of Your Mind

Verse 2: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

When Paul writes about this world, or this age, he is talking about the present day age of men who are separated from the Lord Jesus following the course of evil and Satan and disobedience to God and living out their days in the futile ways of worshipping self and sin which leads to eternal destruction.

If you are not in Christ through faith, this is your way.

This is your course.

You are conformed to the worldly patterns of the day.

You may think about an unbeliever in your life and think, well, they aren’t much different than I am, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Now, of course, not all people who don’t know Christ are obvious degenerates spending their days murdering or stealing.

Many own homes, get married, raise families, go to work, and go on vacation just like you do.

But make no mistake, the very disposition of their hearts motivations and affections and their minds beliefs and convictions are vehemently opposed to your own.

For the heart of sin and self that is following the course of the world and the mind set on the things of the world is completely opposite of the heart alive to God and righteousness and the mind set on the things above.

Jesus taught that you are either of your Father God or you are of your Father the devil.

And because we are creatures and not the Creator, we are all always either being conformed or we are being transformed.

The world is constantly working to conform humanity into more and more godlessness, where we would worship and serve ourselves and other created things instead of the Creator God.

Consider just how strongly their is in this world a pull toward self and selfish desires,

a pull away from the fear and reverence of God,

a pull away toward the value of human dignity,

a pull away from the value of proper respect for proper authority,

a pull away from the value of marriage,

the value of family,

a pull away from the value of God’s design for men and for women,

a pull away from service, and honor

humility, and self control.

You are either being conformed, or you are being transformed.

I must warn us against becoming too consumed with the things of the world.

Maybe for some of you, you grew up in a form of legalism where it was considered sinful to go to a movie, play with a deck of cards, or listen to a song with a beat.

But, I find that is not where we usually find ourselves today in a church that like ours that loves and treasures the gospel.

And while legalism is deadly in its own way, I want to warn us that too many times our pendulum has swung toward license.

Too many times, in the name of Christian freedom, we don’t say “no” to any of the things of the world especially when it comes to media and entertainment.

But you need to understand that the world uses media and entertainment to shape and conform a society.

Just consider how much our media seeks to normalize disrespect, normalize homosexuality as something right to embrace instead of sin to reject, normalize violence and revenge, normalize all kids of sexual immorality and perversion, normalize selfishness and materialism.

Consider how news media and our digital platforms on our phones seek to conform us to patterns of thinking based on our preferences and patterns.

Consider how the world seeks to isolate us from community to believe we have all we need through AI* and social media.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

This transformation began at the moment you were saved.

The apostle Peter writes that in salvation, we were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from our forefathers.

We were saved out of the futility of our sinful minds and bodies, and we were filled with the Spirit of God, indwelled with the spirit of holiness and godliness.

Indwelled with the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Yet, we still carry around the old man of the flesh and the mind bent toward sin.

So, you current existence is like having two lions in a fight.

The lion of the flesh,  the world, and sin and the lion of the Spirit that is alive to God and righteousness.

And in a fight, which lion wins? It is the one that you feed.

Are you feeding the lion of the flesh, or are you feeding the lion of the Spirit of God?

Philippians 2:12–13 ESV

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Will you note with me that your salvation and your transformation is a work of God that he works in you for His good pleasure.

So, what is your responsibility? Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

As God works in you, you work with him.

You partner with the Spirit of God inside of you to feed the Spirit and starve the flesh.

I fear we sometimes grow tired of being told that the means of this grace of transformation and the renewal of the mind comes by the practice of the regular means of God’s grace, which is God’s word, prayer, and worship and fellowship through God’s church.

But no matter how many times we say it, it is still true.

Being transformed by the renewal of your mind means you need your Bible intake to be greater than your screen intake.

The psalmist writes

Psalm 1:2 ESV

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

That is a lot more than a ten minute reading out of a devotional book.

And if you would say to me, “I just don’t get a lot out of my Bible reading, and I don’t know enough to really know what’s going on.”

Here’s the thing, the Bible is not a text message or a tweet.

The power is not in just knowing the most famous verses.

The Bible is a treasure to be mined.

And you have more access to good and helpful biblical resources to help you understand the context and what is going on than any other time in human history.

So, let me just say plainly, if you are being faithful to the responsibilities that God has placed in your life, and you are being faithful to be transformed by the renewal of your mind through God’s word, prayer, and worship, fellowship, and service to his church, you are not going to have time for much else.

You have given me a great gift and privilege in that you offer me a salary in order to support my family that I may spend time in God’s word and in prayer for the sake of my own soul, and for this church.

And it is my goal to feed you the Word of God in the clearest and deepest way so that you may come to treasure His word and his gospel, but coming to hear me preach is woefully insufficient for being transformed by the renewal of your mind unless you are also yourself meditating on God’s word day and night.

Back to verse 2: 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.

We talk often as Christians about finding the will of God for our lives.

I just want to know God’s will for my life, then I will do it.

But listen, finding God’s will is not some kind of mystical experience.

Finding God’s will is found in being transformed in your mind by God’s word.

We talk about finding God’s will, but it’s not lost.

God’s lays out his will for you in His word.

Now, of course, you are not going to find the address to the house God wants you to buy in the Bible, and you aren’t going to find a verse that tells you exactly what career field to go into.

But, the beauty and power of God’s will is that as you soak yourself in God’s word and obey the commands that He does make clear, then you will have everything you need to test and discern what the will of God is even in the things he doesn’t spell out for you in a verse.

Because as your mind is transformed in Christ and renewed daily by the truths of God’s word, you are able to test and discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Jesus taught us this when he said:

Matthew 6:33 ESV

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

The rest of the book of Romans is going to address how we walk out the will of God in using our spiritual gifts to serve God’s church, living in harmony with others while doing good, submitting to the God given authorities in our lives, walking in holiness by keeping God’s commands, and living amongst others who have different preferences and spiritual sensibilities than our own, these are all commands that, if we obey, provide much help and clarity for God’s will for our lives.

Consider other passages like:

1 Thessalonians 4:3 ESV

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;

1 Thessalonians 5:18 ESV

18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

God’s will is not lost.

As you soak in God’s word and meditate on it day and night, you are empowered by the power of God’s grace to obey His commands that are good and acceptable and perfect,

And as you commit yourself to obeying in those ways, God leads you to discern His will in all areas of your life.

Now, I understand that after eleven chapters and 31 sermons about what God has done for us in Christ, this sermon feels like a lot of what you must do.

But may we always remember, it is God that works in and through us by His grace.

God did not just save us by His grace so that we could go to heaven when we die.

God saved us by his grace out of a corrupt life of sin and self in order that we might be empowered by His grace and His spirit to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to Him.

It is all grace.

Grace does not end the day you are saved.

It begins the day you are saved and leads you into a life of grace that empowers you to love God’s word, believe his promises, and obey in light of them.

If you are here today and you are not a Christian, please do not believe that if you start living really sacrificially and reading your Bible a lot that you will earn a good standing with God.

The good news of God is that we are all selfish sinners deserving God’s wrath, but God sent His son to bare the wrath of God in your place because of his great love and mercy, and if you would repent of your sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved.

And the Spirit of God will fill you by God’s grace and empower you to live a life of love toward God through obedience.

It is all a work of God’s grace.

Let’s pray.