Chapter # 12 Paragraph # 1 Study # 3
September 1, 2019
Humble, Texas
(006)
1769 Translation:
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.
2 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.
1901 ASV Translation:
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable to God, [
which is] your spiritual service.
2 And be not fashioned according to this
world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is
the good and
acceptable and perfect will of God.
- I. The Foundations of the Summons.
- A. The necessary "view finder".
- 1. Identity as "brothers" [See these notes (003)].
- a. The issue of Paul's use of "brethren" is the issue of a legitimate faith.
- 1) The meaning of "brethren" is "offspring of a common father"; but the significance in this text/context is focused upon "How" a person becomes a "brother": by faith (11:20; 12:3).
- 2) The force of this significance is that it is only by faith that a person can come to the point in his/her relationship with God that he/she would be able to follow through on Paul's "summons". No one outside of "faith" has the necessary provisions from God to abandon his/her own agenda in favor of the agenda of the enigmatic God. And no one "in the faith" has the ability to such abandonment without the strengthening of "faith" in the heart by God's gracious work.
- 3) This is the root of my objections to the notion of human reasoning that regeneration (the making of a person into a "brother" by God) precedes "faith". If a person is a "brother" before he is a "believer", this summons assumes the ability of commitment without faith; a nonsense notion.
- 4) Then there is this: the notion that one must either be a "Calvinist" or an "Arminian" in regard to this issue. This "notion" is ridiculous. The fact that a person is called either of these two epithets only proves one thing: men are, and have always been, strongly inclined to be "followers of men rather than followers of God". Anyone who claims that something said by God should be credited to "Calvin" or "Arminius" is simply nuts. Truth comes from God. Any man who echoes God in proclaiming His truth should be known as "a God follower", not a "Calvinist" (man-follower) or an "Arminian" (man-follower). The fact is that neither Calvin, nor Arminius, "got it right" when it comes to "God's generation of faith in the heart of a person". A person does not have to be "regenerated" before he/she can "believe" something God has made "believable", nor does a person have any right to claim to be the "author of his/her own faith" simply because God accepts their "faith" as "legitimate". Both of those positions ignore what the Scriptures present as "faith" as well as what it says about its origins.
- b. Paul is clearly making his "summons" to "commitment" to the degree of total abandonment (a body that is a "sacrifice") dependent upon this aspect of "identity": "brother" as "believer" (however he/she became such).
- 2. Identity as recipients of "the mercies of The God".
- a. This is the really crucial aspect of the "view-finder".
- b. It is only as a consequence of real experiences of the "mercies" of God that a person is sufficiently emboldened to give up his/her perceived sovereignty over his/her own body to a God Who is fundamentally a Very Large Enigma (His judgments are unsearchable and His paths cannot be anticipated).
- 1) God seeks a willing response to the summons, not a coerced one; thus both "love" and "faith" are in the picture.
- 2) The word Paul chose, translated "mercies", is not a widely used word in the New Testament (twice as an adjective [Luke 6:36; Jas 5:11]; five times as a noun [Romans 12:1; 2 Corinthians 1:3; Philippians 2:1; Colossians 3:12; Hebrews 10:28]; and twice as a verb in a single text [Romans 9:15]).
- 3) The two most illuminating uses, in terms of meaning, are Luke 6:36 (because of the extended context of 6:27-36 where multiple "mercies" are mentioned) and Hebrews 10:28 (because of the severity of the absence of "mercy").
- 4) The identifiable "mercies" that were in Paul's mind as he penned this "summons".
- a) In the only other reference to "mercies" in Romans (9:15), the focus is upon God's declaration of His "independence": He determines whether, or not, He will extend "mercies" to the children of Adam.
- i. The immediate context is the summons to a "theological conclusion" drawn from the truths revealed (this is the heart of the "What shall we say then?" of 9:14) .
- ii. The "options" for the "conclusion" are two:
- 1) "Is there unrighteousness with God?"; and,
- 2) "Upon what, in righteousness, is the expression of God's 'mercy' founded?"
- iii. Paul's answer to these options are:
- 1) "Absolutely not" (as a repetition of 3:5 and its declaration that God will "righteously judge the world"); and
- 2) the extension of "mercy" to sinners is entirely encompassed by God's "independence" from any/all external-to-Him "compulsions". These options are entirely reasonable since "unrighteousness with God" is not the issue for one simple reason: "unrighteousness/righteousness" are matters of "Justice" and the extension of mercy has nothing to do with "Justice" being, as the nature of the case, completely outside of the demands of "Justice/Law". God is not compelled by anything outside of Himself to extend "mercy" since "sinners" have absolutely nothing by which they might lay claim to "mercy", having jettisoned all "legal" claims to good treatment by God by sinning against Him. Alternatively, if God had rested the extension of "mercy" upon man's "legal" status, He would show no mercy to any man since all men have deliberately sinned against Him.
- iv. In this text/context, there are several identifiable "mercies": the Adoption, the Glory, the Covenants, the Giving of the Law, the Service, and The Promises (all given in 9:4). Additionally, there is the fact of God's activity to fulfill promises the He made without "legal" necessity, an activity that was absolutely necessary because of "the purpose of God according to election" and its need to "stand" (this is a "harmonic" of 4:16 where Paul declares that God cannot "root" the extensions of "mercy" in the behavior of men or there will be no such extensions and the "promises" will go begging because such "rooting" would have to be "legal" and "the Law works [only] wrath" when it is applied to "sinners": Romans 4:15).
- b) In the larger context of Paul's use of "mercies" in 12:1 we also find some "mercies".
- i. In a more detailed explanation of The Adoption in chapter 8, Paul calls for another "theological conclusion" (8:31) to the truths laid out in chapter 8 and identifies what that "conclusion" ought to be: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" This is expanded by multiple "mercies" laid out in 8:32-39 the chiefest of which is the last: nothing can separate us from the Love of God.
- ii. Then, in 10:13 a clear "mercy" from God is His willingness to be "rich" toward any/all who do nothing more than "call upon Him" for salvation.
- iii. And in 11:5 another clear "mercy" from God is His "production" of the remnant that is required for the promises to be fulfilled by Grace and in 11:25 there is an explanation of the "secret" mystery Plan of God to extend "mercies" to Gentiles as well as Israel.
- c. Given all of these details about how God has determined to show "mercies" to "sinners" as special objects of His Plan, Paul can now call for those "special objects" to recognize their high privilege and to present themselves to the Initiator of "The Plan" so that He may use their "bodies" and the "members" thereof to pursue That Plan.
- B. The actual nature of the summons.
- 1. A "presentation".
- 2. A "reasonable service".