Unwrapping Your Spiritual Gift with Romans 12:1-3
Discover the importance of presenting your body as a living sacrifice, understand the transition in Romans 12:1-3 from doctrine to practical living, and learn about the call for sacrificial presentation in serving the Lord within the body of Christ.
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Your Reasonable Spiritual Service Unwrapping Your Spiritual Gift
Prompting Questions Do you know your spiritual gift in the body of Christ or in the Church? How are you using it? Are you expediting the building up of the Church or are you paralyzing the body of Christ? What are the preliminary conditions to fulfill to discern that good, acceptable and perfect will of God? My Purpose: To prepare you to unwrap your spiritual gifts by fulfilling some pre-conditions to discovering your gifts.
Romans 12:1-3 Verse 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 (or logical ministry). 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.
Context of Rom 12:1-3 Romans Chapters 1-11: exhortation on the prime fundamental doctrines of Christianity (salvation by grace, justification, predestination, election, calling, mercy, being established in the faith) Romans Chapters 12-16: practical teaching in serving the Lord in the church and among believers, living under authority of the government, following the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. Transition. Romans 12:1-3 is a transition from the teaching of doctrine to teaching of practical living. That transition presents preliminaries in knowing the will of God and knowing the spiritual gift/s of the Holy Spirit (vv. 4-8) given to each member of body of Christ.
The Transition Rom 12:1-3
Call for Sacrificial Presentation Basis for the call for Sacrificial Presentation Paul: I plead with you urgently, by the mercies of God (v.1a). The Gentiles piggybacked on the Lord s mercy to Israel. Rom 11:29-30 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief. What s a Sacrifice? In the OT, a sacrifice is an animal slain and offered on the altar of burnt offerings. In the altar of burnt offerings, the animals being sacrificed are bound down by flesh hooks to keep them from sliding away. When you are offered as a sacrifice, you stay in the altar. It means you give up your all for the Lord. The Lord will not accept half a sacrifice. When you are sacrificed, you have no more rights of yourself, your ambitions, your education, your business are all in the Lord s disposal.
Do You Know The Lords Will and His Spiritual Gifts For You? The reason many do not know the will of God and are not used by the Lord or they neglect or fail to fan alive their spiritual gifts : oThey are not willing to offer their SELF as a living sacrifice. oThey do not want to be involved, bound down or committed to stay on the sacrificial altar. Christians by convenience, i.e., sacrifice is offered only when it is convenient. oThey have never put themselves at the Lord s disposal and they are not ready to accept what the Lord has indicated as where and how He desires to engage them. This bespeaks one s kind of commitment or no commitment at all.
Self-Examination Have you presented yourself to the Lord and say, Here I am Lord. Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth. (1 Sam 3:9-10), or Have you acknowledged, He is Lord of all and All are thine servants. (Acts 10:36; Ps 119:91; Phil 2:9-11) Has the Lord consumed all there is of me? (Mk 12:30) If not, you are just playing church. You come as a Sunday benchwarmer thinking you have done the Lord a reasonable service. (Just a form of godliness 2 Tim 3:5) When you are committed to stay bound down on the altar until the sacrifice is fully consumed, then this becomes your reasonable spiritual service you are like a sweet savor of Christ. (2 Cor 2:15)
Result: Holiness and Transformation Do not neglect sanctification (be ye not conformed to the world). You are conformed to the world by what you uncritically digest from the world. Any use of the gift which give rise to strife, contests, ecstasies and unaccompanied by holy living will result to our condemnation: Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Mat 7:22-23) Of primary importance to the Lord is what you are than what you do.
Transformation of Mind You are transformed by the renewing of your mind by what you meditate and digest from the Word of God. Transform (Gr., metamorphoo), derived metamorphosis (caterpillar- cocoon-butterfly). Inner nature of the ugly creepy caterpillar? A beautiful butterfly. Ugly nature of a natural man that is born again is replaced by the beauty of Jesus Christ. So when the natural man dies when sacrificed and the spiritual man is revealed, he is transformed (metamorphized) into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. (2Cor 3:17- 18). The Jesus that is hidden in him (we are created in the image of God) is the Jesus that will eventually be revealed in him.
Transformation of Mind When you are transformed, you have the mind of Christ. Paul then says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. (Php 2:5,3) Paul further reinforces it saying, 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. (Rom 12:3) You will never really discover your spiritual gift without a renewed mind which is the mind of Christ.
Discovering Your Gift To know the good, acceptable and perfect will of God, one must, first, present himself as a sacrifice unto death of the old ugly nature, be ye not conformed to the world (holiness), then be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ from glory to glory by the Holy Spirit and, lastly, have the mind of Christ. It is by the death of our SELF and a closer communication with the Lord through a renewed mind that the Spirit can convey to us His power. If we are prepared to pay the price of dying to self and yield ourselves to the Lord, the Spirit will reveal to us the different spiritual gift/s according to the grace given to us and in proportion to our faith, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
