Romans 12
The Christian’s Response to God’s Mercy
After establishing how God is fulfilling His promises to create one unified family of faith made up of both Jews and Gentiles (chapters 1-11), Paul transitions to teaching how this new family can be unified in love.
Uniting such drastically different people groups always brings its challenges, though. Paul addresses several of these issues in this last section of Romans and how this new family, the church, can learn to forgive, serve, and love another as Jesus called them to do. - paraphrase of Tim Mackie
It’s important to keep in mind that everything Paul says in Romans 12 (and everything from here on out in Romans), is his explanation of what a life lived in response to the gospel looks like. The hinge of the whole book of Romans is Romans 12:1: Therefore, in light of the mercies of God, this is what your lives should look like. - JD Greear
In contrasting chapters 1-11 with chapters 12-16 of Romans, perhaps the most important distinction is that the first part deals primarily with God’s actions for humanity, and the last part deals with people’s actions in response to God’s. This is an oversimplification of the book, but the distinction is a valid one. God’s provision contrasts with man’s responsibility to behave in a manner consistent with what God has done, is doing, and will do for him. The first part is more information for belief whereas the last part is more exhortation for action. The first part stresses right relations with God and the last part right relations with other people. - Thomas Constable
In View of The Mercies of God
Vs. 1 - Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you...
Whereas the heathen are prone to sacrifice in order to obtain mercy, biblical faith teaches that the divine mercy provides the basis of sacrifice. - Harrison
Because of the great mercy of God that Paul has just described in 11:32, the Romans are now compelled to a life of sacrifice and transformation. This is the drastic difference between Christianity and all other religions. Christians are called to respond to mercy rather than to earn it.
Gospel…the completely unique religious message that God accepts us not because of what we do or don’t do, but because of what Jesus has done and offers to us as a gift if we will receive it. That separates it from every other religious message in the world. Every religion in the world except for the gospel operates according to this claim: I obey, therefore I am accepted. The gospel reverses that: I am accepted, therefore I obey. - JD Greear
A Living Sacrifice
Vs. 1 - present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.
Paul chose a Jewish sacrificial offering to illustrate the way that Christians should respond to God’s mercy. In other words, the appropriate response should be worship, adoration, and sacrifice. This train of thought is consistent in most new testament epistles: “Look what God has done. Here’s what you should do.”
2 Corinthians 2:15 - And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.
Transformed
Vs. 2 - Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
As believers are renewed in the mercies of the gospel, they are transformed into the kind of people who obey God from the heart. Notice we are not conforming but rather transforming. This is not a mechanical change because of new determination. It’s an organic change because of new desires. - paraphrased JD Greear
Vs. 2 - so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
The point: When the gospel has transformed you into the kind of person who loves what God loves, you’ll start instinctively to do what God wants. You’ll naturally discern the will of God. - JD Greear
This is what the gospel does: it changes us. We behold and become. We see love and then be love.
One Body in Christ
Humility
Vs. 3 - For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.
As a part of a renewed mind, the Christian is to think wisely about himself and what his function is to be in the body of Christ. Paul exhorts Christians to be humble and to use what God has given for the good of the body. - Edwin A. Blum
Unity
Vs. 4 - Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function
One of Paul's favorite thoughts is of the Christian Church as a body (compare 1 Corinthians 12:12-27). The members of the body neither argue with each other nor envy each other nor dispute about their relative importance. Each part of the body carries out its own function, however prominent or however humbly unseen that function may be. It was Paul's conviction that the Christian Church should be like that. Each member has a task to do; and it is only when each contributes the help of his own task that the body of the Church functions as it ought. - William Barclay
Gifts
Vs. 6 - According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts:
Paul reminded these Christians that they had been uniquely gifted to love and serve one another and provided a few specific examples of how each member could serve the whole “body.”
Love One Another
Vs. 9 - Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them.
Nowhere else in Paul’s writings do we find a more concise collection of ethical injunctions. In these five verses are thirteen exhortations ranging from love of Christians to hospitality for strangers. Each of the thirteen exhortations could serve as the text for a full-length sermon. What they deal with are basic to effective Christian living. - Mounce
It’s possible for this section to read like an overwhelming “to-do list.” But a genuine love for others serves as the guiding principle for all the other commands that follow. Love produces the generosity, hospitality, honesty, and forgiveness Paul called the Romans to have for one another.
Galatians 6:2 - Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Romans 13:10 - Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.
