Our Act of Spiritual Worship
Background Scripture: Romans 12
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices,
holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1
This is the second in a four part series. Our topic is the Biblical command to not be like the
world in which we live. The essence of this command is to be a nonconformist. Last time we
focused on the mercy God as being our motivation in offering ourselves to God in all we are and
do and think. Today we want to examine the characteristics or qualities of our “sacrifice” to
Him.
Paul tells us under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the true believer’s sacrifice to
God has three distinct qualities:
First, it is said to be “living.” Compare this living sacrifice to those offered to God by the
Israelites in the Old Testament. The sacrifices offered by the Israelites were either living
creatures, or items which ministered to life. The idea again was that the one offering the
sacrifice was presenting something to God which represented the worshiper’s own life.
Normally, however, the offerings were slain. In contrast, when the Christian truly discovers the
enjoyment of true life, that is, an intimate and pleasing fellowship with God Himself!
Nevertheless, in presenting one’s self as a living sacrifice to God and for God there is both death
and life. The believer is constantly dying unto sin and entering into a new life of righteousness
unto God as he makes the living sacrifice referred to by Paul in Romans 12:1. It is by making
this living sacrifice that we are obedient to Peter’s imperative found in chapter one, verse 15 of
his first letter wherein he states: “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.”
Second, the text of our Scripture tells us that our sacrifice is “holy.” As we study the Old
Testament system of sacrifices, what do we see emphasized time and time again? Everyone who
officiated had to be ceremonially clean. The sacrifices themselves had to be without blemish.
The idea being that every offering to God shall be one which a pure, perfect, and holy God can
accept. What does this say to the modern day believer? It informs us that a sprinkled body is not
enough! God, the holy, sovereign Lord of all things, demands that His chosen people have a
pure heart. Is this not what our Lord Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount?
Third, we see that our living sacrifice is “pleasing” to God. Even in the Old Testament, we see
that the “true believers” understood clearly that ceremonial purity and ritual correctness alone
were not enough to obtain Divine favor. Is not the same true today? Does not the follower of
Christ understand the necessity of a living and holy sacrifice in order to please our God, and to
fulfill the requirement of our Lord Jesus as taught over and over again in the New Testament?
Paul then says that our “living sacrifice” is our “spiritual act of worship.” Though the “body” is
presented, this presentation is the expression of inner, spiritual worship. Listen carefully
Christian, all people worship! Worship is not something unique to followers of Christ. Pagans
worship. They have ceremonies, sacrifice, prayer, adoration, etc. One need only recall the
offering of Faye Ray to King Kong to realize that all human beings worship! Today we see
worship of material possessions. We see worship of people like the now deceased Princess Di.
Yes, worship is common to all people. Long before Christ came to earth until today, Judaism
has demanded an elaborate system of public worship right down to chatting in ancient Hebrew.
What makes the worship of Christians any different? Paul tells us. Obedience is the highest and
most acceptable form of worship which can be offered to God. This “spiritual act of worship” is
distinguished from worship which is merely mechanical and formal. It is also distinguishable
from all substitutionary worship. It is personal, not representative; not by a priest who worships
for the congregation and professes to offer sacrifices as their representative. No, it is worship by
each believer who has his own praise to give, his own service to render. Praise Him who has
made all this possible!
Christian, is your worship living and holy and pleasing to Him? Will you not yield to what God
asks, through Christ, who makes obedience and praise acceptable offerings to the Living God?
The first thing we note is that worship is a response. Paul says this spiritual act of worship is “in
view of God’s mercy.” The text is compelling us to make a rational move based on what God has
given us. What has God given us? Mercy. How has God given us His mercy? The answer is the
cross of Jesus. Jesus’ death on the cross was the wrath of God due to humanity because of our
sins. Instead of us experiencing the full wrath of God, Christ experienced it on our behalf. He
had mercy on us. Worship is a response to this act of mercy. To articulate it fully, we can say
that worship is a lifestyle response to the Gospel. The way we live considering our knowledge of
God’s goodness and mercy is our worship. It begs us to ask if our worship is grateful and sincere
or if it is ungrateful and insincere.
Secondly, we note that worship is a sacrifice. The text says, “Offer your bodies as living
sacrifices.” Paul’s language here compelled the readers of his time to remember the sacrifices of
animals on the altars, especially in the temple. An animal, like a lamb, would be killed. Its
carcass would be placed on the altar, and the fire would consume the animal. These sacrifices
were done to God. The animal’s death would represent the punishment for the sins of the ones
offering the sacrifice. Now, Paul compels his readers to make a similar sacrifice. The only
difference is that ours is a living sacrifice. As long as we are alive on this planet, we qualify to be
living sacrifices. We ought to figuratively place ourselves on the altar of God’s word and let it
burn us. The problem with a living sacrifice is that when it feels the heat, it jumps off the altar.
Paul is asking us to die to ourselves. He is asking us to let the fire consume us. Let it burn away
the fears, worries, doubts, lusts, pride, envy, and every sinful part of us that is still alive and
kicking. It is also interesting that Paul says, offer your bodies. It is with our physical bodies that
we interact with our sinful world. Our bodies are receptacles. They are the ground contact with
this world. If Christ gave up his body on the cross, we can give our bodies for him on the earth.
If He died for us, we can live for Him. Anything that prevents our bodies from making the
requisite sacrifice so that we can live godly lives, ought to be burned up on the altar. Worship is
a sacrifice of denying the fleshly desires of our bodies.
Finally, we see that worship is holy and pleasing to God. In the book of Leviticus 2:1-2 God
gave instructions on the kind of worship that was holy and pleasing to him. Leviticus 2:1-2
“When someone brings a grain offering to the LORD, his offering is to be of fine flour. He is to
pour oil on it, put incense on it and take it to Aaron’s sons the priests. The priest shall take a
handful of the fine flour and oil, together with all the incense, and burn this as a memorial
portion on the altar, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.” (NIV, 1984).
Look at the kind of sacrifice that was holy and pleasing to God, according to Leviticus. This will
help us understand Romans 12:1c more.
Firstly, the sacrifice was of fine flour. Fine flour did not form lumps. Fine flour represents
absolute devotion to God. There is no half-heartedness in that devotion. The thing that makes our
hearts half-hearted is our selfish nature. We kinda want God’s will but we also kinda want our
selfish plans. We live in a world that is so obsessed with self. Paul would even later write to
Timothy that in the last days before Christ returns, people would be inordinately narcissistic (2
Timothy 3:1). Worship that is holy and pleasing to God must be God-centered, not man-
centered. It must not be about us but about Him. Friends, no self-obsessed person can worship
God. Their lifestyle decisions will always be about them. Their sacrifices will always be about
them. They are never selfless. God says, if your lifestyle responses to the Gospel and sacrifices
are all about you, then your flour is grainy – unholy, unpleasant, and unacceptable to God. God
cannot be worshipped by a selfish heart. A spiritual act of worship is fully devoted and selfless.
Secondly, Leviticus tells us that the offering had oil on it. Oil represents the Holy Spirit. The
Holy Spirit dwells inside the believer. For our worship to be holy and acceptable to God, we
must be led by the Holy Spirit. For starters, that means that you must be born again. You must
repent and believe the Gospel. Unbelievers cannot offer holy, pleasant, and acceptable worship
to God because they are spiritually dead (see Ephesians 2:1). Even if their flour looks fine, it is
dry without the oil. A believer’s worship is holy, pleasant, and acceptable because of the Holy
Spirit. Please note that the believer cannot boast on this account. Why? The believer did nothing
to merit the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was given freely by grace. The Holy Spirit is not a
reward for righteousness. His gifts are not medals of honour. The Holy Spirit is God living inside
of us out of His love for us. And his gifts are merely tools for the job. He is the oil that makes
our worship stick together. Without Him, our flour is dry- unholy, unpleasant, and unacceptable.
Therefore, the worship of a believer can be rejected if it is not led by the Holy Spirit but rather
by our own selfish motives. How do we know what kind of worship is spirit-led? All worship
that is led by the Holy Spirit will align with God’s word. A believer who has the Word of God as
the authority of their life is an oily believer. A believer who has the authority of the Word of God
as an option will have their worship rejected (like Cain). Our grain must have oil. A spiritual act
of worship is spirit-led.
So in summary, let us ask ourselves:
Is our lifestyle a show of gratitude to the cross of Jesus?
Are we sacrificing the sinful desires of our body by aligning with God’s word?
Are we pleasing God with absolute selfless devotion to him?
Are our daily lives being led by the Holy Spirit?
Romans 12:1-2 “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. 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.”
Paul is urging the believers in Rome to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice, “holy” and
“acceptable” to God and saying, this is your spiritual act of worship. What is a living sacrifice?
Often when we think of a sacrifice, we relate it to an act of slaughtering an animal or person or
surrendering a possession as an offering to a deity. The Oxford dictionary also gives another
definition of sacrifice as “an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else
regarded as more important and worthy:”
As a believer in Jesus Christ, how do we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God? In the Old
Testament, God accepted and required the sacrifice of animals for the remission of sins. These
sacrifices were put in place as a foreshadow of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.
Once Jesus came to this world, he became the everlasting sacrifice by dying on the cross. And by
doing this, the Old Testament sacrifices were no longer of any effect and remission of sins is
only possible through the acceptance of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 9:11-12 “But Christ came as the High Priest of the good things to come, with the
greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with
the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for
all, having obtained eternal redemption.”
Now that we are in Christ through faith, the only acceptable worship is to offer ourselves
completely to the Lord. Romans 6:12-13 says “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body
so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of
wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to
life; and to offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.”
Paul through his letter to the Romans has shown what our spiritual act of worship is, and that is
by offering ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to the Lord. Romans 12:2 show us
how we can apply this to our lives today.
1. DO NOT BE CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD (Romans 12:2).
The Bible clearly defines what it means by the “World” and re-iterates the importance of not
being conformed to this world in 1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or the things in the
world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world-
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but is of the
world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides
forever”
Through this verse we can break down what the world has to offer to 3 things:
1. Lust of the flesh:
The lust of the flesh includes everything that appeals to our appetites and involves excessive
desires for food, drink, sex and anything else that satisfies our physical needs.
Lust has as its focus pleasing oneself, and it often leads to unwholesome actions to fulfill ones
desires with no regard to the consequences. Lust is about possession and greed, but the Christian
faith is about selflessness and is marked by holy living. The goal of each person who has put
his/her faith in Jesus is to become more and more like him each day. This means to put off the
old way of life of which sin was in control, and conforming one’s thoughts and actions to the
standard put forth in scripture. It is important to remember that no one is perfect but it is a goal
we should strive for daily.
1 Thessalonians 4:7-8 “For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who
rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.”
2. Lust of the eyes:
The lust of the eyes is the desire to possess what we see or to have those things which have
visual appeal. Coveting of money, possessions or other physical things that are from the world
around us. John emphasizes that these physical things do not last; they will pass away. In
contrast the child of God is guaranteed eternity.
Exodus 20:17 commands, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your
neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor
anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Coveting includes a desire to have people, possessions and status.
Satan uses the lust of the eyes as an avenue of temptation. Genesis 3:6 “So when the woman saw
the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes…”, this show us that the fruit was
pleasing to the eyes. Satan tried the same tactic against Jesus in the desert. In Matthew 4:8
“Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the
kingdoms of the world and their glory.” But Jesus resisted the devil and we too must follow his
example, and in the power of the Holy Spirit to resist the lust of the eyes.
3. Pride of life:
The pride of life can be defined as anything that is of this “world”. That is anything that leads to
arrogance, ostentation, pride in self, presumption and boasting. The pride of life comes from the
love of this world. Again Jesus was tempted in a similar fashion, in Matthew 4:5-6 “Then the
devil took Him up into the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If
you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give his angels charge
over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'””.
The devil was daring Jesus to cast himself from the roof of the Temple in order to prove he was
the Messiah by display of power.
Jesus resisted the devil and used the Word of God to ensure victory over him.
Hebrews 4:15 ” For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
Jesus was able to experience and overcome all of the things we go through daily, and we have a
God who understands and know our situation. He is able to provide a way through the help of the
Holy Spirit so that we too can live a holy and pleasing life for Christ.
2. BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND
The mind is the key to the Christian life. The reason why non-Christians do not respond to
Christian truth is that they cannot discern spiritual truth.
1 Corinthians 2:14 “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
The gospel is a call for the unbeliever to repent of his sin and embrace Christ by faith. We are
transformed from our old self and seek the things of righteousness.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have
passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Out thinking must change from old ungodly ways of thinking into new, godly ways of thinking.
The only way to replace the our worldly minds is by replacing it with God’s truth, the Word of
God. The only infallible source of God’s truth is his revealed Word, the Bible. We must fill our
minds with God’s Word.
John 17:7 “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
We also need the help of the Holy Spirit to renew our mind. Titus 3:5-6 says “he saves us, not
because of our works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the
washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly
through Jesus Christ our Savior,”.
Paul here is saying God saved us, not because of our works done by us in righteousness, but
according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. The
Spirit renews our mind. It is first and decisively his work. We are totally dependent on him and
our efforts follow his initiatives and enabling.
The Holy Spirit also enables us to renew our minds by enabling us to “behold the glory of the
Lord”. 2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are
being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from
the Lord who is Spirit.” In order for the Holy Spirit do this, he must do 2 things:
1. Work from the outside in:
The Holy Spirit must work from the outside in, by exposing the mind to Christ. That is, he must
lead us to hear the gospel, to read the Bible and to meditate on the perfections of Christ. This is
exactly what the enemy does not want us to do according to 2 Corinthians 4:4 “In their case the
god of this world [Satan] has blinded the eyes of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing, the
light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
By the Holy Spirit’s help to, help us truly see the light of the gospel is what will renew our minds
and transform the life and produce unending worship.
2. Work from inside out:
The Holy Spirit must work inside out by breaking the hard hearts that blinds and corrupts the
mind. The Spirit must work from the outside in, through Christ exalting truth and from the inside
out, through truth-embracing humility. If the only work from the outside in presenting Christ
exalting truth to our minds but not breaking the hard heart and making it humble, then the truth
would be despised and rejected. And if he only humbled the heart, but put no Christ -exalting
truth before the mind, there would be no Christ to embrace and no worship would happen.
So by the help of the Holy Spirit we must pursue Christ exalting truth and pray for truth
embracing humility. In this way we will be able to follow what Romans 12:1-2 has commanded
us, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” This must be our
spiritual act of worship, holy and pleasing to the Lord. By not conforming to this world and
being transformed by the renewal of our mind.
READINGS: Matthew 5 and 6; Luke 6:43-49; Essential Truths of the Christian Faith by R.C.
Sproul, Readings 86, 87, 88, and 89.
