In the epistle to the Romans,
this great epistle of Paul's in which he sets forth the gospel
to us in doctrinal terms in such clarity, having done so in the
first five chapters and then having opened up rhetorical questions
which flow from that doctrine over the next few chapters from
chapter 6 through to the end of chapter 11, Paul comes to
the latter part of his epistle and concludes it with various
what we might call practical exhortations addressed to the
people of God in the light of the Gospel which he has set before
them. Practical exhortations regarding
their life and their life which they live as they journey through
this world as believers, as believers gathered together in the church,
in the ecclesia, to further the work of the gospel. The concluding
remarks here of Paul's are not some selection of random instruction
or laws or commands which describe a way that we should be striving
to live. but they are exhortations in
the light of the gospel which he set before them and exhortations
to further that gospel. He very much has in mind the
gathering of the people of God as one body, as one company,
as one people who have been delivered from sin by the gospel, delivered
by their head which is Jesus Christ, delivered by the sacrifice
of Christ, the blood of Christ, are people who have been slain
slain with Christ at the cross, who have died with him and who
have risen with him, a people who have been justified by God
and declared to be in Christ the very righteousness of God,
a people who have died and who have risen again. It is this
people and the life in this people that Paul addresses in the closing
chapters and it is very much in the light of that gospel that
he speaks to come at these closing exhortations as in any of Paul's
epistles and to come at them and to home in on them and to
pick up isolated instruction or exhortation and simply take
it as something that you will strive to keep is to utterly
fail to see the light in which they're given and the reason
for which they're given. but Paul having shown unto the
Romans the glory of the gospel which they have received in Jesus
Christ the glory of salvation says unto them having so been
justified by Christ having died to what you were and having risen
with Christ a new man walk this way. He says in Romans
12 and verse 1, 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 and be not transformed
to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind
that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. And he concludes towards the
end of the chapter If thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst,
give him drink. For in so doing thou shalt heap
coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but
overcome evil with good. But he beseeches the brethren
that they present their bodies a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice. What a term. What a term that is. To present
your body a living sacrifice. How can you have a living sacrifice? In many ways it presents before
us a great contradiction. A sacrifice generally understood
by definition is something which is slain. Which having been slain
is dead. The sacrifices of old that we
read of in the Old Testament were all taken and slain and
the blood was shed and the animal sacrifice died. And the blood
of the sacrifice was offered up before God. to atone for the
sins of the people. The lamb was slain. And yet here
Paul speaks of continually offering our bodies as a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice. And in so speaking of the sacrifice
we're to offer, in so referring to our bodies as a sacrifice. In so opening this section of
his epistle in which he exhorts believers with a reference to
a sacrifice, he places before us, Paul places before us a context
to our lives as believers which never strays from the gospel
of Christ. The doctrine that is presented
of Christ earlier in this epistle has set before us God's remedy
for sin, which was to send his own Son into this evil world,
into the darkness, to take the sin and the sins of his people
and to offer himself up in their place. The Gospel presents the
Son of God slain as a sacrifice for sinners. It presents before
our constant gaze the death of Jesus Christ, the blood of the
Lamb of God, the body of the Son of God, slain. It presents
the sacrifice of Christ ever before the gaze of faith. And
when Paul goes on to talk about the life of the believer, which
he lives as he journeys through this world as a consequence of
the offering up of Christ in his place, he speaks of their
life being lived as a living sacrifice. Sacrifice is always
presented before us. Don't take a step as a believer
except you step with the view of the sacrifice of Christ and
the sacrifice of yourself in the light of it. Everything is
seen in the light of the death of Jesus Christ. How can you
offer your body a living sacrifice? You cannot by nature. For by
nature we are spiritually dead. And our bodies are spiritually
dead. Our flesh is dead. So any offering
up of our flesh is to offer up death from the beginning. There's
nothing living in that sacrifice. Anything that you present in
the flesh unto God, anything you do before God naturally Any
attempt that you make to walk before God in your natural state
is to offer unto Him a dead sacrifice. There's nothing living. There's
nothing living to offer up. When Christ came, He came into
this world as the perfect Son of God, the perfect Lamb of God,
a Lamb of God, a man without sin. And when he was slain, he
offered himself up as a living sacrifice, a sacrifice which
was acceptable unto God. But by nature, sinners can offer
nothing but a wretched life of sin. They are dead already. They are under the wrath and
the judgment of God already. We are dead in trespasses and
sins. There is nothing we can offer
unto God by nature which could be described as living. There
is nothing that we can do which is acceptable unto God. None
of your religion None of your prayer, none of your Bible study,
none of your attendance at meetings, none of your listening to the
gospel, none of your good deeds, none of your goodness towards
your neighbour is acceptable when it is all full of sin and
all done in your natural strength to fervour your own pride. It's all just self-righteousness
and before God it's dead. then how can any offer their
bodies a living sacrifice? Not until God has brought them
by faith to bow before his sacrifice. Not until they've been brought
to an end of themselves, brought to see that they are dead by
nature. Brought to see that everything
they do and think and say is death by nature. Brought to see
that they are under the judgment of God by nature for all that
they have done and said since the day that they were born.
not until they've been brought by the gospel to an end of themselves,
an end of their doing, an end of their own righteousness, an
end of their own pride and arrogance in religion, an end of everything,
and been brought to the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ.
not until they've been brought to the sacrifice that God gave,
that God prepared, that God sent and that God slew in their place. If you're going about seeking
a way of making yourself righteous before God, if you're going about
trying to make yourself acceptable. If you're going about sacrificing
by your own deeds, giving up this and giving up that and putting
on a show of godliness, an appearance, a great show before men, but
one in which you have not been brought to see, that you are
dead already and that it is of nothing worth if you're going
about seeking to make yourself righteous and you haven't been
brought by faith to see the sacrifice of Christ and to know that that
sacrifice was not simply offered for sinners but was offered for
you. If you can't say that he died
in your place and he bore your sins and his blood washed away
your sins and made you clean, if you can't say that that was
your sacrifice which God offered on the tree at Golgotha, if you
by faith cannot stand before the foot of the cross and bow
the knee before the foot of the cross and say there's my sacrifice
there's my saviour there's my hope and I've nothing else then
you will never be able to offer your body a living sacrifice
before God for you are dead only when God has brought you by the
gospel and slain you and brought you in dead before him, and pointed
you to the rivers of blood which flow from the side of Jesus Christ,
and washed you in that blood, and taken that blood and sprinkled
it upon your heart, and breathed life into your soul. Only when
God has come to you who lay dead in the gutter and said unto you,
live, Only when God has come past your tomb in which you lay
stinking like Lazarus who laid dead in the tomb for four days
laid stinking. Only when he's come past your
tomb of death and cried out unto you come forth and you've come
forth with life in the heart. Only when you've been born again
of God the Holy Spirit will you ever offer your body a living
sacrifice? How can we? How can we? How can we until we're made alive? How can we until our old man
has been slain? How can we? But, having been
made alive by the gospel, If we are to offer ourselves as
a living sacrifice, how can we? How can we die again? Having
been slain with Christ at the cross, having seen that we died
with him, having seen that we rose with him, how can we rise
again? How can we live again? How can
we be a living sacrifice? Well it's a constant state. It's
a constant state and it's a constant state of mind. Every day we look
by faith to the death of Christ and our death in Christ. and our rising again with Christ. Every day that we look unto Him
and see ourselves slain with Him and rising with Him, we are
focused upon the sacrifice and by such we are made before God
ourselves a living sacrifice. Every day that faith looks to
the sacrifice of Christ, faith takes oneself. and lays it upon
the altar with Christ and says slay me O God crucify me with
him and bring me to life once more. There's a constant state
by faith of living and dying, living and dying, death and resurrection
every day. And we will only walk before
God in any way that is acceptable unto Him in the light of such
things. The moment that you take your
gaze away from the Gospel, take your gaze away from the death
of Christ, take your gaze away from the sacrifice, You will
just begin to walk in the strength of your flesh, your old man,
and all that you will do, say, think, and offer up unto God
will be a dead sacrifice of works in the flesh. People speak of
sacrifice. Most religious people speak of
sacrifice. They think they live a life of
sacrifice. They think that if they give
up this and give up that, they think if they're austere, they
think if they discipline themselves in this way and that way that
they have sacrificed and that there's some worth in it. But
if their gaze in so doing is ever taken away 100% from looking
at the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, if they are doing any of these
things in their own strength, then there's no sacrifice. There's
no living sacrifice. There's simply an offering up
of the dead works of their flesh. There's simply a coming before
God and saying, Lord, Lord, I did this in thy name. I gave up these
things and lived a life like this and went about like this
and spake of these things like this. I did this in thy name
and that in thy name. And he will turn unto them and
say, depart from me. I never knew you. present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is
your reasonable service. This sacrifice is always in the
light of the sacrifice. Always in the light of our old
man being slain and us rising again in Christ. We live every
day reckoning ourselves to be dead, dead with Christ and risen
with him. Paul says elsewhere, I protest
by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die
daily. Every day he was conscious that
he had been slain with Christ. Every day he was conscious that
in his flesh there dwelt no good thing. Every day he was conscious
that his flesh needed to die and be reckoned dead and that
he must rest in Christ alone. Paul writes that in 1 Corinthians
15 in a chapter about the resurrection. The resurrection of the saints.
He says, I die daily. There's no resurrection except
we die. You will know nothing of resurrection,
nothing of life except you die. The first step in the Gospel
is to be brought to an end of self, is for God to slay us,
is to know the condemnation of God against our sin. is to be
brought down low before him and there's no rising up in life
except we remain in such a state. Towards the end of Romans in
chapter 14 as Paul goes on in this section of exhortation he
says, for none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live
unto the Lord. And whether we die, we die unto
the Lord. Whether we live therefore or
die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ both
died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the
dead and the living. Paul sees his life entirely wrapped
up in Christ. It's not his. How often do we
hear in this world, and how often you and I may have been tempted
to say when we speak of our independence, how often do we hear, well it's
my life, I can do as I like, I will make my own decisions,
I will choose my own path, I will choose my own career, I will
choose where I live, I will choose my friends and my family, it's
my life, Paul said his life was slain with Christ. And all that he was, was in Christ. Whether we live, we live unto
the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether
we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's. It's not, as
believers, our life. It's his life, and we are his. and all that we do, all that
we say, all that we think is in relation to Him. He is our
all in all. Or is He? Is He? Can you say that? Or do you want
Christ and you want yourself and all your things as well?
Do you want to hold on to the old flesh and its desires and
its gratifications? Do you want to have Christ and
an entrance into glory whilst indulging the old man in this
world and keeping the old man alive. Do you want to walk before God with
a little bit of pride in your religion? Because you did some
things that others didn't do. You made some right decisions
when others failed. You discerned the truth when
others couldn't see it. You studied the scriptures when
others couldn't be bothered. You sought out the truth when
others didn't care. You stood up for the truth when
others failed. You gave up this sin and that
way and that practice when others carried on with it. You prayed
when they couldn't be bothered. You were at the meetings when
others were elsewhere. Oh, you did something, didn't
you? Is that the difference between you and everyone else? You're
more diligent, you're more sincere, you're more zealous. Is this
of you or is it of God? If there's anything of that of
you, then all you're bringing before God is a dead sacrifice. If there's anything acceptable
unto God, it was given to you as a gift. If he's given you
a hunger and a thirst after righteousness, he gave it to you. If He's given
you a discernment between right and wrong, He gave it to you.
If He's shown you the truth, He showed it to you. If He's
revealed His Son unto you, He revealed Him to you. And if He
revealed Him unto you, your heart will say, I'm nothing, I know
nothing, I saw nothing, I cared for nothing, I earned nothing,
but He came unto me, a wretched sinner, and He opened my eyes. All I know is that once I was
blind and now I see. Once I was dead and now I live. Once I was a fool and now God's
come unto me and saved me. Once I was filthy and wretched
in my sin and now he's washed me clean. I didn't do it, he
did. It's all of grace. All of grace. And we will say that our lives
are His. We offer ourselves up as a living
sacrifice. There's nothing of ourselves
to give unto God. Each day we offer up our flesh.
We see it slain at the cross in Christ. Slain. This is not a one-off thing.
It's not something that happened that we can say, well, yes, that
happened. I know Christ died. I know I died with him. But then
every day we get up wondering how we must live before him and
come into the scriptures as some sort of textbook to guide us.
Every day, Paul viewed his dying with Christ as central to his
life. He died and he rose, he died
and he rose. Every day he could say as he
says in Galatians, I through the law am dead to the law that
I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. I'm crucified with Christ, he
says. And he can say that every day.
Nevertheless he lives, yet he knows that the life, his life,
his living isn't him. It's not his flesh. It's not
his own strength. It's not his own ability that
lives. It's Christ that lives in him. The life which I now live in
the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. Present your body as a living
sacrifice. wholly acceptable unto God. You
see a sacrifice does nothing. It's offered. It's slain. But it does nothing. This offering up of our bodies
as a living sacrifice is not about doing anything in the flesh. It's about not doing. It's about
taking our flesh that wants to do and wants to be something
in religion and wants to work before God and wants to have
something to glory in and putting it to death and reckoning it
dead every day. And only when you walk in that
state and rest in Christ alone will your walk be in any way
acceptable unto God. Will your walk in any way further
the gospel? Will your walk in any way edify
the saints in the meetings? as we are brought to walk as
one people in that state and in that manner, all reckoning
ourselves to be nothing, all knowing we are nothing, all knowing
we were slain with Christ, all knowing that Christ is all, then
there is a love for one another which transcends everything that
could get in its way. Then the gospel has free course. Then the gospel is preached powerfully
unto us, unto one another, and unto the world outside, unto
those outside that God determines will hear. Then the light shines
forth from the church out into the darkness, and those in the
darkness that God would add to it come to see it. Whenever men
in the church walk in the flesh and bring something of their
own will and something of their own desire and something of their
own glory into it, then the light of the gospel is hindered, it's
darkened, they get in the way. they get in its way. They may
speak of the gospel, they may say that God saved them by the
gospel, but if they're then walking in the flesh, walking with the
law, living by works, they get in the way. And all their words
about the gospel are just words, there's no power Now there are
many places, many meetings, many groups who say we've been faithful
for many years, we have the truth, but our great lament is that
there's no power in the gospel. We have preachers. They come
and they go and they stand and they preach and we can say amen
to what they say, but oh, that the power would be there. Where's
the power? It's been hidden. by the flesh
and the works of men who have not truly come to an end of themselves
when the power of God in the gospel delivers you from sin
and lays you down in the grave and keeps you there then the
gospel that goes forth from the church will go forth in power
but if you get in its way then you may have the words, but the
power will not attend, because there's death in the camp. The sacrifice is not about doing,
it's about constantly looking to THE sacrifice Jesus Christ
and seeing ourselves sacrifice with Christ, reckoning ourselves
dead, ceasing from all our works and resting in Him alone. People speak of self-denial,
of denying self, denying the flesh. But self-denial and denying
the flesh isn't about denying our self or our flesh things. It's not about denying your flesh
the pleasure of this or the pleasure of that. It's not about living
in a very poor state, never buying anything. It's not about being
very humble, living like a monk as it were, as Martin Luther
once did. it's not about disciplining yourself
so that you get up early in the morning and spend hours in prayer
and hours in reading the scriptures and are very diligent and zealous
about your religion that is not self-denial That's what Martin
Luther thought was self-denial when once he was a monk and he
thought he would get closer to God if that's what he did. So
he set himself apart from this world, he set himself in isolation,
he denied himself any of the pleasures of this world and he
thought he'd get closer to God but he found himself sinking
further and further from God. And it's only when God came under
him in power in the gospel and made known the righteousness
of God under him that he came to know what that gospel was
what salvation was and what denial of self was for when he came
to know the righteousness of God that it had nothing to do
with the works of man that the works of man could not contribute
to it or add to it or affect it, that it came solely through
the death of Christ on the part of wretched sinners. When he
came to know what the righteousness of God really was in the gospel
and how it was revealed in the gospel through the death of Christ
and the faith of Christ, when he saw Christ dying in his place
and saw how wretched he was and how he had no strength and ability
outside of Christ, when he saw that his all was in Christ, He
came to see that denying self was to deny that there was any
good whatsoever in self. To deny that his self could do
anything or play any part in any of this. Self-denial isn't
a matter of denying self things, it's a matter of denying self
itself. It's a matter of reckoning ourselves
dead, reckoning the flesh dead. Reckoning ourselves slain with
Jesus Christ. It's a matter of coming to the
end of all things. In Genesis in chapter 31, we
read an interesting account of how Jacob had been serving Laban. He'd served him for many years,
seven years, in the hope of earning Laban's daughter, Rachel, as
his wife. But after seven years, Laban,
as it were, betrayed him and gave him Leah. And he had to
work another seven years, and eventually he was given Rachel. And eventually he could leave,
but then having been brought into this situation there was
a dispute between him and Laban because he felt betrayed by Laban
and he felt that Laban would do him ill and eventually they
come to terms and meet with one another and they make a covenant
with one another the son as it were with the father And as a
result of the covenant a sacrifice is offered and a pillar is raised
up and an altar is made upon which to offer this sacrifice.
And we read in verse 54 of Genesis that then Jacob offered sacrifice
upon the mount and called his brethren to eat bread. And they
did eat bread and tarried all night in the mount. And early
in the morning Laban rose up and kissed his sons and his daughters
and blessed them. And Laban departed and returned
unto his place. Now in that one verse, that short
passage, what a picture we see of the Gospel and of the people
of God and of their walk in this world. Then Jacob offered sacrifice
upon the mount and called his brethren to eat bread and they
did eat bread and tarried all night in the mount. And early
in the morning the father rose up, kissed his sons and daughters,
blessed them and departed. Now that's where we are in the
night of this world. We are there at the altar. upon the mount, offering up sacrifice,
gathered with our brethren, eating bread and tarrying all night
in the mount. We never leave the mount whilst
it's night. We're always at the place of
the sacrifice. There was Jacob, Jacob Israel
and his brethren, the people of Israel, God's people. Here
are the children of Israel and all night they're at the mount,
eating bread whilst offering sacrifice. And in our walk through
the darkness of this world, as the people of God, as the people
of light, as Israel, as spiritual Israel, as the brethren gathered
together, we tarry all night all the time all our sojourn
in this world we are as it were in the night in the darkness
a pool of light in the darkness and we tarry all night in the
mount offering sacrifice upon the altar and eating bread one
another with one another That's where we are, that's where we
remain and if ever you leave the mount and leave the sacrifice
and walk away and cease to gaze upon Christ and his sacrifice
and cease to eat bread, to eat of the flesh of Jesus Christ
and to drink of the blood of Jesus Christ, if ever you cease
to be there you leave the people of God and your brethren. That's
where Jacob and the brethren were. That was their walk. What is the walk of a believer?
How should you walk? If you ever say, I've been saved
by Christ, I want to know how to live. How do I live? You sit
upon the mount, around the altar. eating bread, eating the flesh
and drinking the blood of Jesus Christ with your brethren and
as such you offer your body a living sacrifice. Holy acceptable under
God because it's only holy and only acceptable under God as
it is offered up in Christ. It's your body slain with Christ
which is acceptable unto God because Christ died in your place
because he took your flesh, he took your sin, he took your sins
and he offered it up and he sanctified you. He sanctified his bride
by the offering up of himself. That's why your body sacrificed
in such a way is acceptable unto God and it is in no other way. Look unto Christ. Sit in the
mount. Eat bread with the brethren. Present your bodies a living
sacrifice. For what end? For this end. For the fervorance of the gospel. Why does Paul exhort these things
from chapter 12 to 14, 15, 16? Why does he exhort these things?
Why does he make exhortation in any of his epistles? some
kind of code or guide or rule by which you live. No. To further
the gospel to keep you in the mount and to keep the light of
the gospel shining forth from that place. The furtherance of
the gospel. If you read through from chapter
12 through to 16 you'll see that repeatedly. That's the purpose. says put ye on the Lord Jesus
Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the
lust thereof reckon it dead Romans 13 14 everything you see exhorted
here is in the light of the sacrifice of Christ and in the light of
a living sacrifice. They all involve, every exhortation
in all these chapters involves reckoning ourselves as nothing,
serving others and furthering the gospel. Paul goes on, just
in this chapter, to speak of many members in one body, each
having a different office. Some preaching, some prophesying,
some serving one another, some showing mercy. All to do with
the Gospel. All to do with the Gospel. And all to show forth the love
of Christ, the love of God in the hearts of his people. Owe
no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another
hath fulfilled the law. People love the law. They tell
us that Paul quotes the law. They tell us that Paul supports
going back to the law. They tell us that in Romans 13,
9 he repeats the law, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt
not kill, thou shalt not steal, as though he's telling you to
go back to the law and keep it, when he's not. He's telling you
your sacrifice, you're slain with Christ, you can do nothing.
But be there, live there by faith and love will flow forth and
love when it flows forth in your heart will bring forth life which
fulfills the law, not by ever looking at the law, but through
the gospel, through the gospel. as he reiterates in Ephesians
5-2 and walk in love as Christ also have loved us and have given
himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet
smelling savour. walk in love as Christ also have
loved us and have given himself for an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling Savior. Present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. Nothing's acceptable unto
God except Christ and when you see yourself sacrificed with
him, slain with him, dead with him, crucified with him, as Paul
makes plain in Galatians as we read, then that sacrifice, your
sacrifice in him, will be acceptable unto God, received by God, a
sweet-smelling savour before God. He will look upon it, and
he will breathe it in, he will smell it, and he will say, that
is wonderful. There's my son. He loved this
people. He gave himself for this people. He took their sins though they
hated him. He loved them when they hated
him. He took their sins. Oh see the
love of my son for my people. What a sacrifice. What a sweet
smelling savour. What love there is here. And
oh see their love as a consequence in return. You'll never know
love except you know His love. You'll never know love until
He loves you and you love Him in return. But when you know
His love, when you've seen His sacrifice, when you've been brought
by faith with Jacob and the Brethren to the mount and seen the sacrifice
and eaten bread, then you will say with awe, I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. Who loved me and gave himself
for me. Amen.