"Because of God's Mercy" November 3 Readings: Romans 12-13

 

Reading the Bible Chronologically in 2024

This year, instead of reading from Genesis to Revelation, we will read the Bible as the story flows, as it happened and was written. There are several plans out there and I have worked to combine them into a plan that lets the Bible tell its own story "as it happened." Remember, the Bible is inspired, but not in the order the books appear in our Bibles.  The Old Testament is approximately 3/4 of the Bible, but we will give more emphasis to the New Testament, spending half the year in the Old Testament and half in the New. 

Bible Readings: Romans 12-13

Background:  

This is actually the turning point in the book of Romans, as the devotional will spell out. The first 11 chapters have been doctrinal, spelling out the great salvation we have in Christ. Now, chapter 12 turns to practical commands based on the mercy of God, beginning the most important - to give our bodies as living sacrifices. The rest of the book is a series of practical commands based on the "mercies of God" - the great salvation laid out in the first 11 chapters.

The admonitions of the Christian life continue in chapter 13, with two primary teachings - the first about how to relate to the government and the second how to live out the root command to "love one another."

Daily Devotional: Because of God's Mercy

Romans 1-11 is all about the amazing salvation God won for us through the work of Christ on the cross - the righteousness that he achieved that becomes ours through faith, not by works. Romans 1-3 plumbs the depths of human sin and concludes that there is no hope of righteousness for anyone - Jew or Gentile - by their own works. We are all under sin and facing God's just judgment. But starting in the middle of chapter 3 and going through chapter 5 he details the glories of our justification, how God demonstrated his love for us in the death of Christ, and how his righteousness comes to us through faith. In chapters 6-8 the effects of a righteousness received by faith on the life of the one who receives it. It is a glorious life free of slavery to sin and the condemnation it brings, one in which we are more than conquerors over all of that which comes against us. Finally, Romans 9-11 explores God's eternal purposes in Israel and the church. It all ends with a glorious song of praise in the last few verses of chapter 11. 

It is an amazing story of love and redemption, truly the "greatest story ever told." And it is a story that demands a response. We cannot simply receive this great gift from God and then continue in life as if nothing has happened. Such would be unthinkable, evil, and an insult to the work of Christ. 

But what must we do in response? How do we react to "so great salvation" as God has given us through Christ. Romans 12:1 makes that clear. It tells us what to do "by the mercies of God." In other words, in the light of all that has gone on in the first 11 chapters, in the light of the mercy of God displayed in justification by faith, here's how you respond. Verses 1 and 2 explain the response. 

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.

We are called in these verses to respond in two ways. First, we are to present our bodies to Christ. He doesn't ask for my money, or some of my time, or even a measure of my loyalty. He wants me. My whole body - yielded to him and his service. You cannot respond to the amazing grace of Christ with anything less than the complete surrender of myself - body, soul, and spirit - to him. 

The final verse of "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" says it so well. If I owned the whole earth, it would be a present far too small to respond to the grace of God. Instead, the writer says, 

"Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all." 

Nothing else but complete surrender will suffice.

But a surrendered life is also a transformed life. No longer can we simply drift with the tide of this world, going along with its ways, succumbing to its standards, and imitating its behaviors? We must instead be transformed through the renewing of our minds which is accomplished in us by the work of the Spirit, primarily using the power of God's word.

Christians must be counter-cultural, living as citizens of God's kingdom in the kingdom of man, listening to him instead of following others or even our own hearts, and being shaped by the Spirit's work and not anything else. We must submit to God and seek him, resist the devil, reject sin and walk in the power of the fullness of the Spirit.

In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul says it clearly and directly. "You do not belong to yourselves. You were bought with a price." When someone does for us what Christ did for us, we are obligated to respond appropriately. The only appropriate response to God's love and mercy is a body surrendered fully to him and a mind renewed by his word!

Father, take all of me. Renew my mind with your word and my heart with your love. 

 

Consider God's Word:

Stop to consider the great love, to amazing gift of Christ.
Have you given the appropriate sacrifice in response? The only appropriate response is your body as a living sacrifice. Have you given that?