BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND
Rom12_1_2_DG_2026
Romans 12:1-2

Happy New Year. Welcome back to Romans chapter 12. It might be the third or fourth time to review this part for some who went through Romans with us last year. This time the passage is very short, but has several instructions that Paul wants the Roman believers to implement. They seem to Paul, the reasonable result of the salvation plan he wrote about in the previous chapter. Many commentators feel these instructions follow all chapters from 1-11, like the transition from theological principles to the practical effect of new life he describes here. Let’s consider each part of two verses in detail as guidance for our lives and ministry in 2026.

(SLIDE Key Verses) Let’s read key verses together. 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. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The first word in verse 1, “therefore” indicates the natural progression from ideas and principles Paul previously described to the result or practical application. (SLIDE 11v30-32) The discussion of God’s salvation plan in Christ found in chapter 11 could be the main idea. There he explained to the Gentiles that God has leveled the field for all sinners by sending Christ. The majority of Israelites rejected his son, to continue in their legalistic way of worship so God cut them off to welcome people from every nation when they trust Jesus for salvation and seek his mercy.

Rom11:30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. 32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

Now that Christ has mercifully provided redemption for all people from everywhere in the world who trust him, Paul wants everyone to experience God’s grace. (SLIDE in view of mercy) He urged them to act, “In view of God’s mercy.” Researching this part made me worry about words because the Greek word mercy in this verse is different from the one describing God’s plan to forgive sins. This one has a meaning closer to God’s compassionate motivation for inviting everyone to take advantage of his plan. It gives verse one a sense of need, like saying, “don’t miss the chance to experience God’s wonderful grace.” And, since God is being so generous and kind, let’s show our thanks in the following ways.

(SLIDE offer your bodies) Then he shares several instructions. The first one says “to offer your bodies as living sacrifices.” This is very odd to consider, since all we know about mosaic sacrifices relate to killing animals for various reasons. (SLIDE Leviticus 7) There were various sacrifices defined by Moses in Leviticus chapter 7: “the burnt offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, the ordination offering and the last one, fellowship offering which could be made for thanksgiving, a vow, or a freewill offering.  Except for fellowship offering, these primarily atone for sin, but also to redeem children, purify someone for uncleanness and then the fellowship offerings are an opportunity to provide for the priests and show thanks to God. (SLIDE Romans 8v1&2) Now the Mosaic sacrifices are out of the picture because Christ provided once for all atonement and forgiveness. Even Jesus told them the temple would be destroyed, leaving them with no opportunity to meet the laws’ requirements. This leaves the Jewish believers in a quandary, wondering if they need to visit Jerusalem for Passover, or practice some other form of offering wherever they are living. Curiosity over Jewish rituals and law-keeping was also on Roman believers’ minds, and discussed in chapter 4-6.

(SLIDE v1&2 “offer”) Paul realized the dying animal sacrifice worship system was on the way out, so he came up with the ground breaking new covenant way to worship: offering their own bodies as living sacrifices. It is unheard of, and hard to imagine by comparison with the old covenant practices. But we got a hint of the purpose from the previous message that defined “offer” in this verse as something like making ourselves available and ready to the master. It’s cozy and likeable if it means praising God and being thankful for Jesus’ sacrifice, and presenting ourselves for worship service sometimes. (SLIDE v1&2 “sacrifices”) But the idea of sacrifice has implications that make us think twice if we want to go through with following Jesus. The most dreadful is the feeling that it entails a lifelong commitment. What about my free time and my retirement plans? One missionary was suffering terribly because nobody in the land of mission likes the same sports he loved back home. This kind of implication, giving up some comfort or glory dreams to help God’s salvation plan is troubling. Does it really mean, that as long as I am alive I should be waiting around for God to let me do something? It seems to imply giving up our freedom so we struggle to appreciate Paul’s idea. Why didn’t he let us offer our firstborn sheep to god as a source of wool as long as it lives. We could do that since it is just one sheep and we can get some more. Jesus was uncompromising on this topic. What he said may be even more shocking. (SLIDE Mark 8) In Mark’s gospel he told the crowd “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it …” It is saying, follow my example, be ready for execution if that is God’s plan for you, but be assured, nothing in this world is worth missing out on the kingdom of God in eternity. Living sacrifice looks scary, but it is actually way, way better than dying in our sins. So Jesus told them, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world if he loses his soul?” Jesus, Paul and the other apostles serve as basic examples of offering themselves to God and there are countless more in history. Some are famous for impressive ministry work, some were martyred and the vast majority were little known outside of their own communities on earth; but all of them are holy and acceptable to God.

(SLIDE v1&2 holy) Thinking of the holy, god pleasing life is also worth careful consideration because we fear missing out on some fun times or sensual kind of happiness that the world offers. We dread being ridiculed, outcast or treated as naive for hoping a Jewish rebel who failed to start a kingdom can show us the way to eternal life. Even his own people handed him over for execution as a lawbreaking crackpot. Nevertheless, such faith is just what makes the living sacrifices holy to God. It is amazing mercy to gentiles, and unimaginable grace to Jews that sinners can be holy without strictly implementing all sorts of Mosaic rules and Jewish traditions. (SLIDE Romans 1) Paul wrote about it like this at the beginning of the letter 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of god for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the jew, then for the gentile. 17 for in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “the righteous will live by faith.” It is the righteousness from God that makes the living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God.

(SLIDE v1&2 act of worship) This translation describes such faith and trusting God day by day as the spiritual act of worship. Paul knows it can unite the multi-ethnic community of believers to serve God well, with common knowledge and simple faith as the foundation for fellowship. Other translations called this offering their bodies their “true and proper worship”, or “reasonable service.” It’s because the term spiritual is a little ambiguous to translate as it relates to conscious thought and spiritual motivation for actions. It even looks like “logical” when spelled in English. The important thing to understand is Paul describes a natural response to understanding his previous theological discussions. People who realize God saves them by faith will experience the freedom from law-keeping and self-righteous thinking that only causes condemnation in their mind and produces pressure from snobby hypocrites that leaves God out of the picture. It is what the Jewish establishment morphed into until it raised Paul into a terrorist. Now he wants all believers to share his own intellectual and spiritual freedom to worship God and be a blessing to as many nations as himself.

(SLIDE v1&2 pattern of the world [worship]) If verse one focused on the heart and mental reaction to God’s mercy, the next verses seem to be the practical and observable results of offering your body to God. Verse 2 says, “2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.” In the immediate context of worship style, the pattern of the world is like the rich man in the temple who dropped a small portion of his billions in the treasury compared to the poor widow who put in all she had to live on. Along the line of what makes one holy and pleasing to God, the pattern of the world resembles the proud Pharisee who prayed so confidently thanking God he was not like the publican who hid in the corner humbly asking God to forgive his sins. In both cases Jesus recognized the humble worshippers who trusted God as the ones who did right. Roman believers might be the most affluent since they live around the empire capital. They may be easily tempted to feel proud of their position, success, influence and connections. But Paul warns them to seek humility and humbleness as they worship God.

(SLIDE pattern of the world Romans 1) Outside of worship, in the cultural, social and political contexts, Paul described the pattern of the world from Romans 1:22 into chapter 2 with cringing, horrific words.

1:22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images …
24 … degrading of their bodies with one another
25 … worshiped and served created things …
26 … shameful lusts. …women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
27 … men also … inflamed with lust … committed indecent acts with other men …
28 … a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
29 … every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity …envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice … gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
2:1… pass judgment on someone else …you who … do the same things.
…
4 … show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

It is just a condensed list from one part of the letter. Paul shared many other examples of the worldly pattern to transform away from through renewal. We might think those are obvious bad behaviors that we can easily turn away from, but conforming to the pattern of the world is very deceptive. Teenagers might be most tempted to pass judgment on others for all kind things and peer pressure leads to participating in ungodly adventures and approving of those who do them. It all gets magnified and causes intense pressure on university students, especially when political issues and “cancel culture” cause anxiety. We might think it is safer among a group of believers. But there are examples in history where fellowships or denominations turn self-righteous, despising and judging other believers. When they get political power they can advocate and carry out all manner of ruthless, murderous behaviors that Paul listed. No one is immune from the temptation to invent all kinds of evil, yet we strangely find ways to justify everything even with the Bible.

(SLIDE be transformed) Paul urged them to be transformed. It will happen as they meditate on Paul’s gospel, realize their real need of salvation and logically devote themselves to the spiritual / reasonable worship lifestyle we studied. Based on the previous New Year’s message, reading the Bible and practicing what we learned is useful for renewing our mind, because the Holy Spirit will lead us to the truth that the worldly way is not so good or fun as it looked. It might be a dramatic effect for someone who does not know much about Jesus. It was that way for me when I was conforming to the pattern of the world in Las Vegas, playing a slot machine and reading advertisements about sinful pleasure seeking entertainment places. I thought I accidentally picked up a small book with Bible verses in it but one word renewed my mind. It told me I need every word that comes from the mouth of God if I want to live. From that day on I found myself kind of hungry for the word of God and I put my hope in eternal life through Christ many months later. As time went by, I noticed the way of the world became less and less exciting. So, it seems like renewing our mind should not be a one time event. That might lead to becoming corrupt, old wineskins. Paul once told a church that he died everyday, it could be his experience of offering himself as a living sacrifice. In that sense, maybe it is not hard to imagine renewing our mind as often. It can continually happen over time, even after many years. One day a Silver Missionary surprised me by sharing a story about renewing his ultra-conservative mind through Bible study at the seminary. He was surprised how judgmental, fingerpointing and self-righteous he became after sharing the word of God for many years. Thank God he was able to escape conforming to the worldly pattern of holier-than-thou thinking. He found himself a lowly sinner again who must be ready to humbly serve the worst of sinners whom he would not think of associating with before that. We heard another amazing story yesterday of how 1am Bible study helped one shepherdess renew her mind and transform from an angry complaining old crow into a smiling sparrow who could praise the lord for all he did through her last year. Amen.

(SLIDE v1&2 test and approve) Let’s read verse 2 again. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will. The last part is a gracious result of following the advice in verse 1&2. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good pleasing and perfect will. What could be God’s good pleasing and perfect will for Roman believers? The rest of chapter 12 might be a kind of checklist that could be compared to the previous list of worldly patterns. (SLIDE Romans 12) I tried to condense this list too. It is even longer, so there are many amazing, wonderful things believers can pursue rather than the ungodly things.

5 … in Christ we who are many form one body …
6 We have different gifts, … prophesying, … serving, … teaching, … encouraging, … contributing to the needs of others, … leadership, … showing mercy, …
9 Love … Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
10 Be devoted to one another … Honor one another above yourselves.
11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
12 Be joyful … patient … faithful in prayer.
13 Share with God’s people … Practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. … do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
18 … as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
19 Do not take revenge,
20 “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

We could summarize by saying the Romans will realize God’s will for them is to help out in the harvest for eternal life, love one another deeply and experience the joy of being Jesus’ hands and feet in the lost world when they renew their minds. Doing these things with a living sacrifice attitude has a surprising result. We experience joy unspeakable and full of glory as God works through our labor. This weeked everyone was most joyful thanks to prayer mothers and student team disciples offering their bodies to serve snacks and a bountiful buffet. Praise God for their offering and thanks to them for their humble service for Christ.

(SLIDE v1&2 test and approve) What could be God’s good, pleasing and perfect will for us in 2026? Of course, we hope he guides each one with a key verse that renews our mind to refocus on transforming day by day. It seems based on the 2 Timothy study and Mark’s gospel previews that we should pray for transforming into heavenly level servants who can share the good news to help the students meet Jesus and grow as disciples together. The most obvious thing however is that God wishes we all will offer our bodies to him as living sacrifices, made holy by the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice and acceptable to God now and forever by faith alone. Let’s take Paul’s advice and put his words into practice everyday in 2026. Amen. Let’s read the key verses again and pray. 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. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.