My Thought’s for 4 September 2013 We are temple, priest, and sacrifice Romans Chapter 12 The grace of God teaches us, in general, to live "godly, soberly, and righteously;’’ and to deny all that which is contrary hereunto. We are temple, priest, and sacrifice, as Christ was in his peculiar sacrificing. This is nothing every Christian I have every encountered is not aware. However I find it amazing as to how short we all fall in fulfilling these three heads of Christian living. So let’s ask the questions we all should ask everyday for every decision we make. 1. Am I keeping my body or life clean of those things which defile my Godly character and image? 2. Am I a priest for God? i.e. is my character and actions an acknowledgement that honours God? 3. Am I a sacrifice to God? Our duty to God - the faith that justifies is a faith that "works by love.’’ And there is no other way to heaven but the way of holiness and obedience. Despite this knowledge, how many of us are truly a temple of Christ; A priest for Christ, and a sacrifice as was Christ? How many of us truly know what it means to be temple, priest and sacrifice? We see what is godliness. 1. It is to surrender ourselves to God, and so to lay a good foundation. We must first give our own selves unto the Lord, 2 Co. 8:5. This is here pressed as the spring of all duty and obedience, v. 1, 2. Man consists of body and soul, Gen. 2:7 ; Eccl. 12:7 (1.) The body must be presented to him, v. 1. The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body, 1 Co. 6:13, 1 Co. 6:14. The exhortation is here introduced very pathetically: I beseech you, brethren. Though he was a great apostle, yet he calls the meanest Christians brethren, a term of affection and concern. He uses entreaty (a desperate plea, a serious and passionate request); this is the gospel way: As though God did beseech you by us, 2 Co. 5:20. Though he might with authority command, yet for love’s sake he rather beseeches, Philem. 8, 9. The poor useth entreaty, Prov. 18:23. This is to insinuate the exhortation; that it might come with the more pleasing power. Many are sooner wrought upon if they be accosted kindly, are more easily led than driven. Now observe, [1.] The duty pressed-to present our bodies a living sacrifice, alluding to the sacrifices under the law, which were presented or set before God at the altar, ready to be offered to him. Your bodies —your whole selves; so expressed because under the law the bodies of beasts were offered in sacrifice, 1 Co. 6:20. Our bodies and spirits are intended. The offering was sacrificed by the priest, but presented by the offerer, who transferred to God all his right, title, and interest in it, by laying his hand on the head of it. Sacrifice is here taken for whatsoever is by God’s own appointment dedicated to himself; see 1 Pt. 2:5. There were sacrifices of atonement and sacrifices of acknowledgment. Christ, who was once offered to bear the sins of many, is the only sacrifice of atonement; but our persons and performances, tendered to God through Christ our priest, are as sacrifices of acknowledgment to the honour of God. Presenting them denotes a voluntary act, done by virtue of that absolute despotic power (using power in a cruel and unreasonable way) which the will has over the body and all the members of it. The body has been an instrument of sin (ch. 6). Now it is to be presented to God as a channel through with righteousness of God is manifested. We see what is sobriety. To ourselves - It must be a free-will offering. Your bodies; not your beasts. All the disciples and followers of the Lord Jesus must be nonconformists to this world. Me syschematizesthe —Do not fashion yourselves according to the world. We must not conform to the things of the world; they are mutable, and the fashion of them is passing away. Do not conform either to the lusts of the flesh or the lusts of the eye. We must not conform to the men of the world, of that world which lies in wickedness, not walk according to the course of this world (Eph. 2:2 ); that is, we must not follow a multitude to do evil, Ex. 23:2. If sinners entice us, we must not consent to them, but in our places witness against them. Nay, even in things indifferent, and which are not in themselves sinful, we must so far not conform to the custom and way of the world as not to act by the world’s dictates as our chief rule, nor to aim at the world’s favours as our highest end. True Christianity consists much in a sober singularity. Concerning our duty which respects ourselves; this is sobriety. 1. A sober opinion of ourselves, v. 3. It is ushered in with a solemn preface: I say, through the grace given unto me: the grace of wisdom, by which he understood the necessity and excellency of this duty; the grace of apostleship, by which he had authority to press and enjoin it. "I say it, who am commissioned to say it, in God’s name. I say it, and it is not for you to gainsay it.’’ It is said to every one of us, one as well as another. Pride is a sin that is bred in the bone of all of us, and we have therefore each of us need to be cautioned and armed against it.—Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. We must take heed of having too great an opinion of ourselves, or putting too high a valuation upon our own judgments, abilities, persons, performances. We must not be self-conceited, nor esteem too much our own wisdom and other attainments, not think ourselves to be something, Gal. 6:3 . There is a high thought of ourselves which we may and must have to think ourselves too good to be the slaves of sin and drudges to this world. But, on the other hand, we should think soberly, that is, we must have a low and modest opinion of ourselves and our own abilities, our gifts and graces, according to what we have received from God, and not otherwise. We must not be confident and hot in matters of doubtful disputation; not stretch ourselves beyond our line; not judge and censure those that differ from us; not desire to make a fair show in the flesh. These and the like are the fruits of a sober opinion of ourselves. The words will bear yet another sense agreeable enough. Of himself is not in the original; therefore it may be read, That no man be wise above what he ought to be wise, but be wise unto sobriety. We must not exercise ourselves in things too high for us (Ps. 131:1, Ps. 131:2 ), not intrude into those things which we have not seen (Col. 2:18 ), those secret things which belong not to us (Deu. 29:29 ), not covet to be wise above what is written. There is a knowledge that puffs up, which reaches after forbidden fruit. We must take heed of this, and labour after that knowledge which tends to sobriety, to the rectifying of the heart and the reforming of the life. We see what is righteous: The presenting of the body to God implies not only the avoiding of the sins that are committed with or against the body, but the using of the body as a servant of the soul in the service of God. It is to glorify God with our bodies (1. Cor. 6:20 ), to engage our bodies in the duties of immediate worship, and in a diligent attendance to our particular callings, and be willing to suffer for God with our bodies, when we are called to it. It is to yield the members of our bodies as instruments of righteousness, ch. 6:13. Though bodily exercise alone profits little, yet in its place it is a proof and product of the dedication of our souls to God. First, Present them a living sacrifice; not killed, as the sacrifices under the law. A Christian makes his body a sacrifice to God, though he does not give it to be burned. A body sincerely devoted to God is a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice, by way of allusion-that which was dead of itself might not be eaten, much less sacrificed, Deu. 14:21; and by ways of opposition—"The sacrifice was to be slain, but you may be sacrificed, and yet live on’’—an unbloody sacrifice. The barbarous heathen sacrificed their children to their idol-gods, not living, but slain sacrifices: but God will have mercy, and not such sacrifice, though life is forfeited to him. A living sacrifice, that is, inspired with the spiritual life of the soul. It is Christ living in the soul by faith that makes the body a living sacrifice, Gal. 2:20. Holy love kindles the sacrifices, puts life into the duties; see ch. 6:13. Alive, that is, to God, v. 11. Secondly, they must be holy. There is a relative holiness in every sacrifice, as dedicated to God. But, besides this, there must be that real holiness which consists in an entire rectitude of heart and life, by which we are conformed in both to the nature and will of God: even our bodies must not be made the instruments of sin and uncleanness, but set apart for God, and put to holy uses, as the vessels of the tabernacle were holy, being devoted to God’s service. It is the soul that is the proper subject of holiness; but a sanctified soul communicates a holiness to the body it actuates and animates. That is holy which is according to the will of God; when the bodily actions are no, the body is holy. They are the temples of the Holy Ghost, 1 Co. 6:19. Possess the body in sanctification, 1 Th. 4:4, 1 Th. 4:5. The righteousness of God will cause the believer to conduct himself in humility in the local church (vv.3-8). When we seek to discern the will of God we must also be committed to doing the will of God as it is written in the Word of God. References: The Holy Bible – King James Version Liberty Annotated Study Bible ©1988 Liberty University Mathew Henry Commentary - Romans Chapter 12
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 18:47:14 +0000
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