This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. Romans sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 2, 1990.

This morning, our scripture reading is from Romans chapter twelve. Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter twelve. Listen to the word of God. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed 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.

For I say through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one member is one of another.” having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness, let love be without dissimulation, Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good, be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honor preferring one another, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to the necessity of the saints, given to hospitality.”

Bless them that persecute you, bless and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another, mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceit. Recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for his written vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, 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.”

Father, your word brings life to us by the hearing of the word we have been made alive and now we are sustained by that word and receiving that life from you as gift, may we treasure it understand that there is nothing more precious. We pray, our Father, that you will bless us as we hear the Word. May we be enabled by your Spirit to store up what we have heard in our hearts and souls and live before you in accordance with those things that are spoken to us. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Right on cue. He must have been waiting for this moment.

Romans 12. Romans 12 is one of those marvelously transparent passages. If we give it simple, careful attention, it opens up for us. It’s basic proves its simple truths, profound to be sure, but yet At the same time, those profound truths easily grasp through simple and careful attention given to the passage. Romans 12 has a direct structure given, and the teaching that is presented in this passage is no less direct. It is virtually unencumbered, unadorned. So simple, so direct, so clear.

It helps, it helps at the same time to have a passage like this so wonderfully and powerfully composed. so beautifully written. There is something of poetry to it as you move through it, a wonderful cadence to the whole thing that carries you along from one phrase to the next, so that as you move through the text, you are built up emotionally and come to that conclusion that overwhelming twenty-first verse, do not overcome, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. There are certain things here that we wish to take note of in reviewing now this simple text and passage. The first thing is how powerfully and cogently the text is introduced for us. This takes us back into chapters 9 through 11.

Paul has been wrestling with a severe problem. He has been struggling with a severe difficult. The fact that Israel has rejected the Lord’s Messiah, and now it appears as if Israel is rejected and God’s promises to Israel are overthrown. This problem is accentuated because, as you know, Paul himself is part of Israel. He is himself a Jew. But you come then to the end of that eleventh chapter and Paul’s conclusion to this section of his epistle. And what a marvelous, marvelous conclusion it is.

I’ll pause here and ask if anyone is so distracted by the noise that they would prefer me to close those windows. So I will do it. Okay. If I get a head shake from anyone, I’ll close the windows. All right. All right. That means you have to pay attention now. Spook now or forever? Well, you know how that goes. We are dealing then with the introduction to this twelfth chapter, as we find it in chapters nine through eleven, and the conclusion of that eleventh chapter as we make our way then into the twelfth chapter.

Paul, in wrestling with this severe difficulty, namely Israel’s rejection of the Messiah and the apparent rejection of God of Israel, his own implication in that, because he also is a Jew, brings him to the point where he concludes that even this rejection of Israel by the Messiah, even this rejection by Israel of the Messiah, is part of God’s purpose and within his sovereign plan.

That is an unavoidable conclusion as you read through these chapters. That conclusion has driven many to the point where nothing less than the Reformed faith will satisfy Nothing less than that faith that upholds the sovereignty of God in all circumstances, over all the affairs of men. Only that will satisfy many. A person has come to reformed and Calvinistic conviction simply because they could not get around chapters 9 through 11 of Romans. unavoidable.

Even this rejection by Israel of the Messiah, even God’s rejection of Israel, is in keeping with God’s purpose and his sovereign plan. All to what end, though? You may want to look at verse 25 of chapter 11 in Romans. This is how Paul begins his conclusion.

For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. The Apostle Paul then sees this rejection in the case of Israel as part of God’s plan by which he then intends to bring in the fullness of the Gentiles.

But he goes on in verse 26, lest any despair with regard to the state of Israel, he says, thus all Israel will be saved. Now that doesn’t mean that every Jew that has ever lived will be saved, or that all Jews presently will be saved any more than the fullness of the Gentiles means that all Gentiles will be saved. It means that these two representative groups, these categories in which we can then subsume all nations These will be brought, according to the sovereign plan of God, to their eventual destination, that which he has predestined for them. All of God’s elect will then be redeemed. And the economy of salvation, as it is working itself out, namely the rejection of the Jews for a time, you see, is in order that God’s grace then may be manifest to all. And that’s specifically what Paul goes on to tell us. You note verse 32.

For God has shut up all in disobedience, that is, Jew and Gentile alike, that he might show mercy to all. The purpose of God’s plan then is to bring to the fore His mercy, His grace, that truly before Him there would be no vain boasting. It is the accentuation of God’s grace upon those who are undeserving, be they Jew or be they Gentile. God, then, says the Apostle, has shut up all Gentile and Jew alike in disobedience, exposing their sin and their unworthiness. that together that he then might have mercy and grace upon them all.” Now, having considered that grace and mercy, having come to that point in Paul’s argument, he cannot contain himself, for verses 33 through 36 are an explosion of praise predicated upon that grace and mercy which he has just set before these Romans.

Is there anything that comes close to this hymn of praise to God? Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became his counselor, or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again? For from him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.

And to that you can add your own amen, can you not? Are you not startled afresh by the mercy of God? What of your lineage? What of your heritage? There may be a few of you here this morning who have fine Jewish blood coursing your veins, but not many. Do not you hail from Gentile lands, nations, tribes? Aren’t you? The rescued remnant out of the mass of humanity coming from the four corners of the earth? Should we take a little poll this morning? How many from Eastern Europe? How many from Northern Europe? How many from Southern Europe? How many from Africa? How many from Asia? How many from the various corners of the earth?

Even in this congregation you see something of the marvelous, marvelous substance of what Paul has in mind when he writes. You truly a congregation that is assembled from various nations, tribes, tongues, And will you thank yourself for your good sense to be a part of this assembly? Will you thank yourself for being so bright and intelligent as to see a good thing and not pass a good deal when it presents itself? Or will you praise God with the apostles for such mercy and grace to such sinners as us. Praise is not the only thing that the Apostle would set before these Romans.

So he can’t conclude with the end of chapter 11. He pushes on. And with what he says next, we are led into the perfect appeal. The perfect appeal. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, do you see that upon which that appeal is built? Do you understand its foundation? The man has just exploded in praise of God for His grace and mercy, and now he’s going on to speak to these Romans and setting before them a way of life that is consistent with that praise and appreciative of that grace.

How will you live if you’ve grasped grace? How will you live if you understand Do you say you understand it, but yet don’t quite grasp it? Do you say you understand it, but yet inside you know you don’t? Because when the apostle is ready to explode in praise, you’re not with him. And when he’s ready to go on and spell out the kind of light there is for us to live, you’re not with him. You find yourself possessed of a spirit of supreme indifference and apathy. Motivating yourself is an extreme chore. There’s no joy, there’s no delight in your faith.

If you’re not up to the mind of Christ, at least be up to the mind of Paul. Push on with him. Let it settle in upon you. God’s grace. Do I need to set it starkly for you? I’m damned without it. Have you considered recently eternity in hell? Let us see.

The tact that the apostle is taking at this point in his letter is not to terrify you into faith, not to constrain you and force you out of fear, but to appeal to you on the basis of the mercy of God. to appeal to you on the power of that note and hymn of praise which he offers up to God’s inexplicable grace.”

And thus it is, wonderfully, marvelously constructed, a perfect appeal, one based upon an exaltation of God’s mercy. Here is the appeal, verses 1 and 2. A simple structure. A very simple, straightforward structure. Here is the appeal, verses 1 and 2.

You having this appreciation of God’s mercy, then what? What do I do in gratitude for Him? I urge you, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service or reasonable service of worship.

Can you see the altar? Can you see yourself placed upon it? You are a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Everything in you, everything about you, all that you are, placed on that altar. He goes on. Not only are you one placed upon an altar, this in gratitude for Him, for His mercy, but you now reject the world, refusing to be conformed to it, and choose out of that gratitude to set yourself upon that course that means your transformation, the renewal of your mind, They’re marvelous words. There is an irony to them. Did you catch it as you listened to those verses? You’re a sacrifice giving your all, but you’re alive. You’re a whole burnt offering, but you live. You’ve placed yourself upon that altar, but you survive.

Not only that, coupled with this language about sacrifice is language about transformation, being changed, language about renewal, as if you were coming to life again, as if you were being reborn. Destruction, yet life, death yet survival. All of this possible because of the mercies of God. And you know where those mercies are focused? They are focused in Christ, the one who literally gave himself, sacrificed himself, laid himself upon the altar, and yet lives. The one who by that act was transformed and renewed by resurrection and is ever alive now for your sake, guaranteeing your salvation. There’s the appeal. And that, upon the foundation of mercy and grace, and the inscrutable wisdom of our God. But there’s something else in this appeal that I want you to note. And we’ve already suggested it, in a way.

So we’ve spoken about the transformation that’s come to Christ by way of His sacrifice. The language then that Paul uses in verse 2 reminds us of the end times, of the conclusion of things. For you see, there’s the ultimate transformation that’s coming. There is that transformation that comes in which the world as we know it, this present evil world, will be done away completely. There is the renewal that is promised by our Savior, a renewal in which we shall participate the coming day when he shall return in the clouds of glory with his holy angels with him, and we shall see him. The language here used by Paul is reminiscent of language that applies to the end times, but it’s spoken out as a reality now, as something that is occurring presently, in the here and now. End time reality coming to you as you are transformed now, as your mind is renewed now, in keeping with what? in keeping with that which stands over against this world. Namely, that which is in keeping with the world to come.

So what Paul is saying is that heavenly mindedness is the way. A mind set upon heavenly things, a heart set upon heavenly treasures, a soul concentrating upon that which is above. That’s the way. Do you remember what he says in another one of his epistles, Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 and 2? If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth. There it is. The appeal out of gratitude. Yes, a sacrifice. We all sacrifice. Yet living, we’re still alive. And in our living presently, we become those in whom there dwells a heavenly mindedness.

The mindset of glory, the mindset of the kingdom above. If that is true, how ought you to think? How ought you to behave? The heavenly mindedness or the transformation, the renewal that the apostle has in mind does not set you apart in such a way that you have no effect or impact upon the world around you. We do not retire to a cloister. We do not retire to nunneries or monasteries.

If you are in a quandary, as to what this heavenly mindedness is all about. If you are in a quandary as to what it means to be transformed, to have your mind renewed, if you are in a quandary as to what it means for you to be a living sacrifice, read on.

There it is. And that’s what I mean. The structure of the whole thing is so simple. It’s so simply and beautifully laid out for you. The appeal comes. And then if you’re wondering about the meaning of the appeal, Paul goes on and tells you. Here is how godly, heavenly mindedness acts, behaves, lives.

You don’t think of yourself more highly than you are. How can you? You have a heavenly mind. Can you conceive of it? You’re in the presence of the angels. You’re in the presence of Christ. You’re in the presence of God himself. Are you going to think of yourself more highly than you are? Get serious! In fact, it becomes an impossibility, doesn’t it? You go on.

You’re called to remember that you’re not in heaven alone. There are multiple members of this body that belongs to Christ. And as we’ve already pointed out, they come from various walks of life. They come from various stations. They come from various regions of the world. Do you exalt yourself at their expense? Do you look down your notes? Do you deny them a place in the assembly? Do you say you have no place here because of your origins?

He talks about service. He talks about gifts given for the good of all. He calls you to use those gifts in keeping with the measure of faith that has been granted to you. He tells you to love without hypocrisy. Is there hypocrisy in heaven? Clear as glass. Everything transparent. Clear as glass. No hypocrisy. And you go right on through this 12th chapter. You don’t even stop there. You go on to the end of the 15th chapter.

It’s all an exposition by Paul about what it means to be a living sacrifice and to have that transforming power within you and be at work at renewing your mind so that your mind is conformed to the world above. not to the world alone. So, I have a story that I often tell in connection with this text. And with that I’ll conclude. It brings up and illustrates the difficulty that many Christians are having presently when they come to a text like this.

It’s prayer meeting night in Philadelphia. Wednesday evening. And the faithful few have assembled. We’re going to have Bible study and pray some together. But the text tonight happens to be Romans 12. And the pastor, a very astute fellow, very clear-headed, capable with the text, is reading through Romans 12 and laying it out along the lines that I’ve just laid it out for you. And at the end, here is a Christian woman struggling with her own Christian life. When he’s done, she says, but what are we supposed to do? Now, an entire market of Christian nonsense has been produced upon the basis of that statement. People producing volumes, not only books, but tapes. Men going on the lecture circuit. We have conferences to reveal to you the mysteries that Paul wasn’t willing to reveal to you. He won’t tell you, but I will. That’s what they say.

It’s no mystery the exposition of the heavenly-mindedness or the transforming power of God, the renewal of the mind. As the apostle sets it before you here, what it means to be a living sacrifice is laid out for you. You don’t even need a commentary. All you need is the Bible.

Now the real question is, will you in gratitude be that living sacrifice? Will you in gratitude forsake the world and commit yourself to the world above with renewed mind, a mind which is like unto heaven itself? And in that, you will please God. Let’s pray. How we thank you, our God, for the richness of your mercy, its depth and its extent. How we ourselves have benefited from the love of Jesus. And now, Lord, we ask that we might explode in praise of you and that we may hear the appeal and then see our lives lived out in keeping with what your word given to your apostle has stated so clearly, so unambiguously for our good. We pray our father that we too then may have the renewed mind, the heavenly mind that is set about doing your will We being living sacrifice.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.