The Christian Sacrifice, Part 1 and 2

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.

– Romans 12:1

In a brief moment of sanity, a famous man once said, “You are gonna have to serve somebody, yes, indeed. You are gonna have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord. But you are gonna have to serve somebody.” That is true. Every unbeliever serves the devil, and every true Christian serves the Lord Jesus Christ all of life.

Romans 12:1-2, one of the best-known passages in the New Testament, speaks of the Christian life. What is the Christian life? It is serving all of life our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, Paul received apostleship “to call people . . . to the obedience that comes from faith” (Rom. 1:5). These verses serve as the introduction to the practical section of Romans. The Christian theology of salvation in chapters 1 through 11 leads to the Christian ethics described in chapters 12 through 16. Indicatives lead to imperatives; doctrine points to life. Holiness is the point to which the entire epistle to the Romans is leading. If there is no difference in the life of a person who claims to be justified, then he is not truly a Christian. He is still serving the devil.

Jesus is both righteousness and holiness for his people (1 Cor. 1:30). Therefore, justification must always lead to sanctification. Paul exhorted Timothy, “Watch your life and doctrine” (1 Tim. 4:16). Elsewhere he wrote, “For [God] chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Eph. 1:4). Holy living in this evil age is the Christian response to God’s grace given to us in Christ.

With his depraved mind, the unbeliever worships the devil and creation, and lives a life of perversion. But true believers in Christ have renewed, redeemed minds with which they worship the triune God and serve him alone in holy living. So the one who lied now tells truth, the former thief now works with his hands to give to the needy, and the old John, Mr. Drunkard, becomes Mr. New John, who is sober and loves his family and provides for them.¹ The Puritans insisted that all life and relationships must become holiness to the Lord. Robert Murray McCheyne said, “My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness.”²

“I Exhort You, Therefore, Brothers”

“Therefore” points back to the first eleven chapters of this epistle, especially Romans 3:21-26, which speaks of our redemption and justification through faith on the basis of the atonement of Jesus Christ. “Therefore” points to the objective reason for our glorious salvation. That reason is Jesus Christ.

As the ambassador of Christ, Paul is telling us how then we should live in this present evil age. God himself is exhorting us through the apostle to live holy lives in response to his glorious, gracious salvation.

Notice, he calls us brothers. If we have been born of God, we are brothers and sisters who belong to the one family of God. As such, we love one another, as John teaches in his first epistle. We walk in love, in the light, in wisdom, in the Holy Spirit, in truth, and in faith. Whether Jew or Gentile, black or white, brown or yellow, man or woman, slave or master, rich or poor, tall or small, there is no discrimination. Jesus Christ died for all sinners.

“Through the Mercies of God”

The ground of Paul’s exhortation is the mercy of God. Paul spoke about God’s mercy four times in Romans 11:30-32. We were all disobedient, but God showed mercy to all. We did not merit God’s salvation; in fact, we merited eternal damnation. But God saved us by his grace, mercy, and love.

Earlier Paul wrote, “Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden” (Rom. 9:18). There are vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, but there are also vessels of mercy prepared in advance for glory. Praise God! We have been foreloved, predestinated, effectually called, and justified forever, and are being sanctified to be glorified. It is all due to God’s mercy.

Paul writes, “Through the mercies of God. . .” The Greek word is plural: mercies. Paul calls God the Father as “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3). Mercy means God does not give us what we deserve (i.e., eternal death). Grace means God gives us what we do not deserve (i.e., eternal life). God shows mercy to pitiful sinners.

Mercy presupposes sin. God showed mercy to the publican who called himself “thesinner.” God showed mercy to Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee who declared, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-of whom I am the worst” (1 Tim. 1:15). God showed mercy to John Newton, a wretched sinner and slave trader who himself became the slave of an African woman. He was forced to eat scraps of food from a dusty floor and was almost killed in a terrible storm as he pumped water from the ship’s hold. But eventually he remembered the words of his godly mother, cried out to God, and was saved. He became a great preacher of God’s mercy and grace.

Only great sinners who have received rich mercy and confess Christ will enter the kingdom of heaven. God sends the rich away empty to eternal hell. We need the mercies of God! The Bible tells us that his mercies are new every morning (Lam. 3:22-23). The psalmist proclaims that this merciful God “daily bears our burdens” (Ps. 68:19). He gives us our daily bread and forgives us daily (Matt. 6:11-12). The psalmist also declares, “If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared” (Ps. 130:3-4). We are saved by grace and live by grace. Christ is the vine; we are the branches. Without him, we can do nothing. Heathens sacrifice to their false gods in an attempt to obtain mercy. Christians sacrifice to the true God because they have been given great mercies.

“Present Your Bodies”

Then the apostle exhorts us to present our bodies in sacrifice to God. We are to put our very selves-all that we are and all that we have-unreservedly at his disposal, for his exclusive service.

In the Old Testament, the worshipers offered animals that were ceremonially killed in sacrifice to God. But we are exhorted to offer, not a substitute, but ourselves in gratitude to God for our salvation.

We are God’s possession by creation and by redemption. We are not our own; we are born of God. We have a new divine nature and the Holy Spirit dwells in us. We have been justified and are now being sanctified. We used to serve the devil, but now we have new power to serve God.

Having been united with Christ, we are God’s adopted children and heirs. The devil is no longer our master. The Bible says the one we obey is our master. We confessed our faith when we confessed Jesus is Lord. Now we obey our Master Jesus, worshiping and serving him only.

So now we present our bodies to God in sacrifice because we are priests of God. Every believer is a priest, offering his body in service to God. Peter explains, “As you come to him, the living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him-you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. . . . But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Pet. 2:4-5, 9). John writes about believers, “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth” (Rev. 5:10).

We believe in the priesthood of all believers. In the name of our high priest Jesus Christ, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence at any time and anywhere. What do we offer to God? The service of our bodies. Paul exhorts, “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness” (Rom. 6:13). As Christians, we have no right to sin.

We offer our bodies as a sacrifice, that is, in service, to God. This sacrifice is not propitiatory but gratitudinary, a term that I coined. Gratitudinary means expressing our gratitude for mercies received. When Abraham offered up Isaac as a sacrifice, it was not voluntary on Isaac’s part. But we offer ourselves gladly to our God. We delight to do God’s will. We have great joy in serving Jesus, because Jesus is our righteousness and redemption. Because he is our propitiation, we serve him with gladness.

Love gives, love sacrifices, love serves, and love obeys. Paul says, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor. 5:14-15; see also 1 Pet. 2:21). Our sacrifice is our obedience. This is not a new idea; we find it throughout the Bible. When Saul disobeyed God and tried to justify his disobedience by claiming he saved the best animals for sacrifices, Samuel told him, “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams” (1 Sam. 15:22). David said, “The sacrifices of God are³ a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Ps. 51:17). So Paul exhorts us to present our bodies as sacrifices to God. We are not our own; we were bought with a price, the most precious blood of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 6:19-20; 1 Pet. 1:18-19). In body, soul, and spirit, we belong to Christ. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives in us always. He is delighted when we do righteousness with our bodies and grieved when we sin with them. Christians become depressed and confused when they sin and grieve the Holy Spirit. The solution to such sin-caused depression is repentance, not just taking pills. Paul asks, “Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!” (1 Cor. 6:15). So he says, “Offer your body to God in sacrificial service. Honor God with your body. Serve God with your body.”

We cannot abuse our bodies or use them for our own purposes. In Romans 1:1, Paul introduces himself to the Romans as doulos Christou Iêsou (a bondslave of Jesus Christ). A bondslave must think his master’s thoughts, will his master’s will, and feel the way his master feels about everything. He must run to do the will of his master.

We must use our minds in the service of God. As believers, we have renewed minds. Before, we had depraved minds (Rom. 1:28) and were hostile to God. We were enemies of God in our thinking and did not understand spiritual things. But now, with our renewed minds, we understand the gospel. We judge all things correctly from a divine point of view. It is very important what we think. “For as [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7, KJV). The Bible says we have the mind of Christ. Our minds matter. We must put our minds at God’s disposal by studying God’s word.

What about our eyes and ears? What are we watching? Job said, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl” (Job 31:1). It is adultery. David did look upon a woman lustfully, to his eternal shame. What about you? Do you watch pornography? What is on your computer? What about television? Watching most television programs is a waste of time. Watching televangelists can be hazardous to your health. What are you reading? To whom are you listening? What are you hearing with your ears? May God help us to hear the preaching of the word and godly counsel. We must offer our eyes and ears to the service of God. What about our mouths? Are we eating the word of God and proclaiming it? Do we praise God with our mouths? Are we praying and singing, or gossiping? Are we are anorexic or obese? If so, we are abusing our bodies, putting our mouths to wrong use instead of sacrificing them to God. Paul exhorts, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). Are our bodies physically fit? If not, we are not worshiping God with our God-given bodies.

What about our tongues? Are we using them to curse or to bless? Romans 3:13-14 describes how we used our tongues before we became Christians. Jesus said out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (see Matt. 12:34). If we store up good things in our hearts by a lifelong study of the holy Scriptures, we will speak good things to profit our hearers.

What about our hands? Paul rebuked some of the Thessalonian believers for being lazy and refusing to work with their hands. Our state and federal governments should listen to the counsel of Paul: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat” (2 Thess. 3:10). Paul calls for total and radical change for Christians: “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need” (Eph. 4:28).

What about our feet? Proverbs 7 speaks about a young man going down to the house of an adulteress for his own destruction. Are we walking in the way of Jesus, in the highway of holiness, to the city of God? Jesus said, “Deny yourselves, take up the cross, and follow me.” Are your feet taking you to people, that they may hear the gospel? Are your feet beautiful, though covered with dust? Through a shipwreck, Paul arrived at Malta to preach the gospel to them. We must speak the gospel wherever our feet take us.

What about our sexuality? It also should be offered in sacrifice to God. Paul says to flee youthful lusts and sexual immorality (2 Tim. 2:22). Single people, consecrate your bodies in service to God. Married people, obey God’s word as revealed in 1 Corinthians 7, Proverbs 5, and the entire book of Song of Solomon Present your bodies to God as a sacrifice. This we do in all of life, not just on Sunday for one hour. Paul is speaking of the post-conversion life. Married life, family life, work life, church life, vacation life, financial life-every aspect of our Christian life is to be lived for God’s glory.

The chief purpose of human existence is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Paul writes, “Whatever you do . . . do it all in the name of our Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col. 3:17).

A holy life is not optional for a Christian; it is a must. Without holiness, the Bible says, no one can see God (Heb. 12:14). Therefore, an antinomian Christian is a monstrosity. Paul asks, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Rom. 6:1-2). John writes, “Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:3). He also says, “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). Jesus said his yoke is easy and his burden is light (Matt. 11:30).

Love fulfills the law. God pours his powerful love into our hearts so that we may do the will of God. I summarize below what Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones teaches about worshiping God with our bodies:

1. Do not sin with your body.
2. Do not view your body as your own private property.
3. Do not pamper your body.
4. Do not live for your body.
5. Do not turn your body into an idol.
6. Do not abuse your body. It is not your body; it is the Lord’s!
7. Don’t let the body dictate to you; you dictate to the body to do God’s will. “Bless the Lord, O my soul; bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul.” Command your body to do what is right. Don’t eat too much. Don’t sleep too much.
8. Keep your body fit to serve God. Mens sana in corpore sano (“a healthy mind in a healthy body”).
9. Do not live for physical fitness. That is idolatry. Such people parade their bodies for others to see.⁴

John Chrysostom, the great preacher of the early church, said, “How can the body become a sacrifice? . . . Let the eye look on no evil, and it is a sacrifice. . . . Let the tongue utter nothing base, and it is an offering. . . . Let the hand work no sin, and it is a holocaust. . . . We must actively exert ourselves for good, the hand giving alms, the mouth blessing them that curse us, the ears at leisure for listening to God.”⁵

Jesus lived such a holy life, making his invisible Father visible to us by his life. So Paul says that Jesus Christ “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Col. 1:15). Jesus gave us the classic example of how we should serve God, when he said, “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him” (John 8:29).

We likewise make Christ visible to the world by living a life of Christian sacrifice, doing what is pleasing to God. Paul says, “So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it” (2 Cor. 5:9). We must please God in all of life. And if we fail to glorify him, God will not hear our prayers. Peter exhorts, “Husbands, in the same way, be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life so that nothing will hinder your prayers” (1 Pet. 3:7). If we are unrepentant, if we do not get right with our brothers or sisters, if we do not forgive others, our prayers will not be heard. (PGM) Not only that, we may experience suffering in our bodies. Paul wrote to the disorderly Corinthians, “That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 11:30). Do you see a connection between your suffering and your sin? We have no option but to live in the service of our God.

We are able to live holy lives because the Holy Spirit dwells in us, instructing and empowering us to kill sin and obey God. Paul writes, “If by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live” (Rom. 8:13). We are not alone: we have the Holy Spirit and the holy Scriptures to help us fight against sin. So if your right eye causes you to stumble, employ radical treatment. Don’t massage it; gouge it out! Kill! Show no mercy! Paul exhorts, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature-sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5).

“A Living Sacrifice”

Our sacrifice is a living sacrifice. It is living because Christ died for our sins so that we may live for him in holiness by his life. We have been brought from death to life eternal. Now we offer our bodies in holy service to God all our life, both here and hereafter. Paul says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. . . . Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness” (Rom. 6:4, 13).

This living sacrifice comes from our new life in Christ. Christ is the vine; we are the branches. So our fruit of obedience comes from the life of Christ in us. Because we are united with Christ, his life comes into us, and we live for him.

“A Holy Sacrifice”

Our sacrifice is also a holy sacrifice. Having been set apart to God, we now live holy lives in obedience to God. The Holy Spirit enables us to do so, for he dwells in us to make us holy.

Holiness is integral, not optional, to the Christian life. Having renounced the sins of our old, miserable life, we are to be “blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which [we] shine like stars in the universe” (Phil. 2:15). Paul elsewhere calls this age “this present evil age.” In this present evil age, we are to live holy lives.

John says, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)” (Rev. 19:7-8). He is speaking of the good works we do here. Yet antinomianism is the prevailing idea in the churches today. Antinomians say, “Since we have been saved by faith alone, we can go home and sin all we want.” In fact, antinomians say they glorify grace by their sin. But such people are not Christians.

“Pleasing to God”

Our sacrifices are offered pleasing to God (euareston tô Theô). Do you worship in a way pleasing to God, or do you worship in a way that only pleases yourself and conforms to your own standard? We are to worship based on God’s standard of his own holy word, which is the regulative principle, the preceptive will of God.

God does not ask us to live the way we want; he has given us a book to tell us how to live. We must read it and conform to it. If we do not, God will not accept our worship. We cannot live the way we want. If we are Christians, then our married life, work life, devotional life, and church life must all be regulated by the Scripture.

In Ephesians 5:17 Paul tells us not to be “foolish but understand what the Lord’s will is,” and then act on it. When we do not study the Bible, we are going to do wrong things. We will become culturally conforming (see Rom. 12:2). We don’t have to study the culture; we absorb it. But the world’s culture is opposite to God’s word. For example, we speak to single people about living a sexually pure life, because that is what the Bible says. But the culture says something else. Suppose you get married and then want to divorce. Today’s culture says you can have a no-fault divorce. But the Bible says God hates divorce. What if you don’t like to work? You are a rebel and are not worshiping God aright. The Bible says we must work six days; a true Christian thrives in working for God. What about students? You say you are a Christian; what are you doing in your dorm? What we do matters. We can never please God by doing what we want to do.

Pagans live their lives to please the devil. Christians live to please the Lord. We must please God first of all, and our Christian brothers and sisters second. Paul says, “We make it our goal to please him” (2 Cor. 5:9). Paul also states, “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: ‘The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me'” (Rom. 15:1-3).

Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, “Thy will be done.” When we do the will of God, we please God, and he will bless us. It is always that way. When we live our lives-in thought, word, and deed, in public, in home, and in private-to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, God will be delighted with our worship and life. So Paul writes, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 5:1-2, see also Phil. 4:18). God smells our sacrifice, is pleased, and all of a sudden a blessing from his heart comes to us. So examine yourself. Is your life sending a fragrant aroma, pleasing to God?

“Your Logical Service”

Paul concludes his exhortation: “This is your spiritual act of worship” (tên logikên latreian humôn). True worship is not irrational, emotive, or mystical; rather, it is the intelligent, spiritual, logical, reasonable service of a redeemed child of God, whose mind is renewed by the Spirit. So when we sing, we must sing with understanding. Don’t be taken up with the music, although it can be uplifting. We should be taken up with what the words say.

Christian worship should be regulated by the Scriptures and by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said the Samaritans worshiped what they did not know. Likewise, the worship in many sacerdotal, sacramentalist churches is unintelligent. There may be much incense and ceremony, but no one knows what is going on, and the gospel is not clearly proclaimed. Paganism is also filled with superstition and irrationalism; it is demon worship. But true Christian worship is intelligent, reasonable, logical, spiritual service to God.

Jesus said true worshipers worship the Father in spirit and in truth. If you go to a church and notice that the pastor is not preaching the Bible, you should leave. It is a crime to worship in a church where the gospel is not proclaimed. We are to worship the Father in spirit and in truth; God’s word alone is truth. That is why we say sola Scriptura. Scripture alone is God’s word. We come to worship so that we may hear God’s word, not to be entertained or to have someone meet our felt needs.

We worship God that he may be glorified and pleased. Paul says we worship by the Spirit of God, we who “glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,” in human ideas or achievements (Phil. 3:3). We worship God, not mechanically, ceremonially, or ritually, but from the heart, with our mind, will, and affections all surrendered to Christ.

Our worship is not superstitious. It is intelligent, spiritual, reasonable, of the renewed heart and mind, well-pleasing to God.

Worship that pleases God comes from a broken spirit and contrite heart. Isaiah tells us, “This is what the high and lofty One says- he who lives forever, whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite'” (Isa. 57:15).

God delivered Israel from slavery to the taskmaster Pharaoh so that they could serve the Lord, as we read several times in Exodus. There was a purpose for their redemption. We are slaves either to the devil or to the Lord. We must serve somebody. The choice is to serve either sin and the devil, or the living and true God, who saves us and frees us from all evil. If we are redeemed, our new slavery to God is joyful enslavement and the only true freedom. Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus came to give abundant, eternal life to his people. Therefore, out of gratitude, we serve Jesus in life and in death. So Paul said, “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed but will have sufficient courage so that now, as always, Christ will be exalted in my body whether by life or by death” (Phil. 1:20). He also declared, “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God” (Gal. 2:19). All of our post-conversion life is living for God.

True freedom is found only in bondage to Jesus-in hearing and doing his will exactly, immediately, and with great joy, out of gratitude. God saved us, freed us, gave us eternal life, and adopted us into his family. We are sons of God, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. As the bride of Christ, we are seated with Christ. What dignity! What position! What freedom!

There is no greater freedom than serving as a slave to Jesus Christ. This service covers the entire range of our life. Whatever we do, we are to do it all for the glory of God. Through Christ we have been called, justified, and glorified. Now we enjoy peace with God and have access to him as his holy priests. We don’t stand at a distance, while only the bishops and pope can come close to God. No, all true believers are priests. We can come to God in the name of Christ to offer sacrifices, and God will accept our sacrifices. Every Christian is a priest, and we are all invited to come. So we read, “Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:16).

What do we offer as priests? The Hebrews writer instructs, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise-the fruit of lips that confess his name” (Heb. 13:15). When we sing in the presence of God, whether in church or at home, we are acting as priests offering sacrifices of praise to God. Then he adds, “Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Heb. 13:16). So when we see someone in need and help that person, we are making a sacrifice God accepts.

Peter says, “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5). Spiritual sacrifices are sacrifices offered by the Holy Spirit and acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Paul writes, “I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God” (Phil. 4:18). Paul calls the church’s gift an acceptable sacrifice to God. We are to keep giving, and God will keep giving to us. Whatever work of service we do in the church is a sacrifice acceptable to God.

“Whether you eat or drink or whatever you, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col. 3:17). May God help us to live all of life to please him.

¹ P. G. Mathew, “Steps to Holiness, Part Four,” http://www.gracevalley.org/sermon_trans/2009/Steps_to_Holiness_4.html

² Quoted by J. M. Boice, Romans, vol. 4, The New Humanity: Romans 12-16 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995), 1505.

³ Or “My sacrifice, O God, is”

⁴ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans: An Exposition of Chapter 12, Christian Conduct(Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2000), 65-68.

⁵ Ibid., 68-69.