Worship Is All of Life

Romans 12:1-21
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, November 16, 1997
Copyright © 1997, P. G. Mathew

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

Intelligent Worship

If you asked people today what the term worship means, many would answer that it means a service, specifically one conducted on Sundays. And no doubt most would also say that worship is the service that lasts for one hour, beginning at 11 a.m. and ending at noon. That is the narrow understanding of the word worship today.

And if we ask further, we will discover what happens during that worship hour in many churches today. In the minds of most people, that service is designed for the entertainment of the worshipers, and in his commentary on the book of Romans, Dr. James Boice gives us a description of such services. He says, “In the vast majority of church services today there are virtually no pastoral prayers, while there is much brainless music, chummy chatter and abbreviated sermons. Preachers are told to be personable, to relate funny stories, to smile, and above all to stay away from topics that might cause people to become unhappy with the church and leave it. They are to preach to felt needs, not necessarily real needs. This generally means telling people only what they want to hear.” (Boice, Romans, Vol. 4, [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1995], 1537). But as we examine this passage from Romans, we will discover that this is not the spiritual act of worship Paul is speaking about. We must study the Bible to find out what God wants for his people. This is intelligent worship.

I recently heard of a person who was interested in having all the churches in a city unite. What did this person say? “Doctrines divide, so we must abandon doctrines. We must evangelize instead.” Do you see the contradiction between these two statements? How can we evangelize without doctrines? How can we lead people to Christ without declaring to them the teachings of the Scriptures? When we meet people, should we say nothing about Jesus Christ, but rather join them in chanting their mantras and claim we are practicing the evangelism of silence? If we do so, we will be contributing to the takeover by the East of the West. If we do so, we will be promoting subjectivity in the name of church growth.

We must study and proclaim the doctrines of the Bible. Have you ever studied this book of Romans? It is full of doctrine! In fact, perhaps that is why many people today do not want to study it. I am sure they would say this book does not address the felt needs of modern people. But the book of Romans addresses the real need of every person who ever lived. It sets forth of the gospel of God which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes–to the Jew first and also to the Greeks. That is why we must study it, especially if we want to evangelize.

Biblical Understanding of Worship

What, then, is the biblical understanding of worship? Worship is not a one hour service in which we are entertained by the preacher. According to the Bible, worship is all of life.

The Puritans had this view of worship. In his book A Quest for Godliness Dr. J. I. Packer gives us an understanding into the Puritan idea of worship as he quotes a Puritan named George Swinnock: “Worship comprehends all that respect which man oweth and giveth to his Maker. . . . It is the tribute which we pay to the King of Kings, whereby we acknowledge his sovereignty over us, and our dependence on him. . . . All that inward reverence and respect, and all that outward obedience and service to God, which the word [sc, godliness] enjoineth, is included in this one word worship.” (Packer, A Quest for Godliness, [Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1990], 249).

In The Elizabethan Puritan Movement author Patrick Collinson also wrote about the worship of the Puritans: “The life of the Puritan was, in one sense, a continuous act of worship, pursued under an unremitting and lively sense of God’s providential purposes and constantly refreshed by religious activity, personal, domestic and public.” (Collinson, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement, [Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967], 356).

According to the Puritan understanding of worship, therefore, worship is all of life. Yes, we must also understand worship in the narrow sense of our personal devotion, our family devotion and our public gathering to worship God. But this kind of worship understood in its narrow sense is designed to strengthen and nourish believers so that they can go out to worship God in every aspect of our lives. We come together to worship in the church, but then we go out to worship in our daily service to God.

The Puritan idea of worship, of course, was taken straight from the Bible. In his book, Paul: An Outline of His Theology, professor Hermann Ridderbos sets forth the New Testament view of worship. “The New Testament,” he says, “knows no holy persons who substitutionally perform the service of God for the people of God, nor holy places and seasons or holy acts, which create a distance between the cultus and the life of every day and every place. All members of the church have access to God (Rom. 5:2) and a share in the in the Holy Spirit; all of life is service to God; there is no profane area.” (Ridderbos, Herman, Paul: An Outline of His Theology, translated by John Richard De Witt, [Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1975], 481).

In this sense, therefore, we must understand that when Paul says “a spiritual act of worship” in Romans 12:1 he is not speaking about something that takes place in the holy hour from 11 a.m. to noon on Sunday. No, Paul is speaking about a Christian’s devotion to God, service to God, praise of God, and worship of God–all of one’s life, in other words.

Why should we worship? The answer is clearly given to us when we study this book of Romans. In Romans 1:1 through Romans 3:20 we learn the fact that all have sinned and all are under God’s wrath. And in Romans 3:21 through Romans 11:36 we learn of God’s plan of salvation for sinners from his wrath which the gospel presents. And then in Romans 12:1 through Romans 16:27 we see that, in response to this great salvation granted to us in Jesus Christ, it is our responsibility and bounden duty to serve God all of our lives.

Why should we worship? Because God in his Son has saved us from our sin! And when we realize the magnitude of what God has done for us, our logical question is, “How then shall we live?” And in this passage Paul answers that by exhorting us to live all of life in service and worship to God. We are to come together as an assembly of God and worship him in the narrow sense of that term in order that we may go out to worship him in the broad sense in our every day lives in the world. This is the biblical idea of worship.

The Apostolic Appeal

Let us, then, examine this passage. Paul begins, “Therefore, I urge you,” meaning, I beseech you, I appeal to you, I exhort you–the Greek word is parakaleo. This is an apostolic exhortation. Although Paul, as a slave of Christ as well as an apostle of Christ, was able to command these Roman believers, he instead appealed to them, exhorting them and beseeching them to offer their bodies once for all–the verb is in the aorist tense–as living sacrifices to God which is their intelligent service of worship.

This call by the apostle, therefore, is a call to worship and serve God with our whole being, body and soul, in every area of life. Paul was definitely not speaking about worshiping exclusively during the holy hour on Sunday.

What is the reason for this apostolic appeal? Paul says it is to be found in what God has done for us as sinners in his Son Jesus Christ. So in the English text we find the word “therefore,” which refers back to the first eleven chapters where the good news of the gospel was set forth. What is the heart of that good news? That Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification; that we have received righteousness from God and of God; and that clothed in Christ’s righteousness, we have been given access to come into the very presence of God to worship him, to adore him, to praise him and to live for him all of our lives.

“In View of God’s Mercy”

Paul makes his appeal “by the mercies of God.” In other words, he is appealing to us to live a life of devotion to God because of God’s mercies shown to us personally. The Greek word for mercy is in the plural, meaning great mercy. This mercy is God’s grace shown to pitiful sinners.

In 2 Corinthians St. Paul depicts God the Father as the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Certainly this is true. As unbelievers, we were in the most miserable, pitiable condition possible. But praise be to God, he is the God of all mercies, and wave after wave of God’s mercy descended upon us to deliver us from our pitiful condition. God himself lifted us up and seated us with Christ that we may worship and serve him in praise of these mercies. This is the amazing grace that saves a wretched sinner like me!

As I said before, Romans 1:1 through Romans 3:20 described our former wretched condition. We became creature worshipers with depraved minds. We suppressed God’s truth and refused to worship God and glorify him. All, both Jew and Gentile, sinned and came short of the glory of God. We were unrighteous, deserving only God’s wrath. And yet, as we read in John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have eternal life.” Those without any righteousness are now given freely the righteousness of God and righteousness from God on the basis of faith. How great is the mercy of God!

Remembering the Mercies of God

But do we really appreciate this mercy God has shown us? We must remind ourselves of what God has done. In Romans 3 we find a glorious depiction of the gospel, beginning with verse 21: “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished–he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” And in Romans 4:5 we find this amazing statement: “However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.” God justifies the ungodly and the wicked on the sole basis of the righteousness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Throughout the Bible we see demonstrations of God’s great mercy, beginning with the first man, Adam. Desiring to be like God, Adam sinned, and in Genesis 3 we find him full of fear, alone, alienated, fragmented, running, guilt-ridden, naked, and under the judgment of God. And then he heard the voice of a seeking God: “Adam, where art thou?” I am sure when he heard that Adam expected to be judged instantly and vaporized. But instead God showed mercy to Adam. He clothed him with the skins of animals and gave him the promise of a Savior, the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15). That is great mercy, isn’t it?

We see God’s mercy demonstrated in the life of St. Paul himself. He was an unrighteous murderer, a violent man, but God showed him great mercy. Paul never forgot about what God had done and in 1 Timothy 1:15-16 he wrote, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners–of whom I am the worst! But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.” God’s mercies are wide and great.

In Romans 5:6-8, 10 we read about the condition in which God found us and showed us mercy. We were powerless, ungodly sinners. More than that, we were enemies of God. But God shows great mercy to such undeserving people.

The Motivation of Mercy

The mercy of God, then, is presented by Paul here as our greatest motivation to worship God. If we think about the mercy God has shown us, it should melt our hard hearts and cause us to serve and worship God all of our lives. This is why St. Paul introduces the idea of mercy here.

In Luke 7 we read of a sinful woman who came and washed the feet of Jesus. Jesus was criticized for allowing such a woman to touch him. But Jesus told his critics, “I know this woman is a great sinner. But her great sin has been forgiven, and therefore she loves much.” If we have any problem worshiping and serving God, we should understand what great sinners we have been and how great the mercy is that God showed to us. When we begin to understand these things, there should well up within us such great love for God that we want to serve him all of our lives.

What is our problem? We know we have been forgiven, but we think there was very little to forgive. There enters into our understanding this alien idea of self-righteousness, but that is not the reality. We were powerless, ungodly sinners, enemies of God, wicked and unrighteous. The wrath of God was revealed against us. And yet in the midst of that, God showed us mercy.

Pray that God will give us an understanding of the sin we committed, of the hell we deserved, of the wrath we were under, and the mercy God showed to us. That understanding will help us to obey him completely.

Offer Your Bodies

So Paul says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers . . . to offer your bodies.” In the Greek the word for offer is paristhmi, meaning to place beside, or to set before God. This word was used in secular Greek writings for offering sacrifices and it appears several times in the book of Romans, including Romans 6:13, 16 and 19. It means to put our bodies at God’s disposal, to utilize them for the exclusive service of God.

Now, we must understand clearly that the bodies to be offered are not the bodies of unbelievers but of believers. No unbeliever can worship God. But by the mercies of God we have been brought from death to life as we read in Romans 6:13 and now we are to offer our bodies to God. Before, we were slaves to sin, offering our bodies in wholehearted service to sin and unrighteousness. But God’s salvation changed all that, and we have been set free from slavery to sin (Rom. 6:22). And brothers and sisters, we must realize this important truth: If we have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, we can never go back to our former condition. In other words, we shall never again be slaves to sin. We died to sin, and we are united with Jesus Christ permanently. And now, by his virtue flowing to us, we can do righteousness, bearing fruit to God in service to him.

Christ has set us free! And in this freedom we are exhorted by the apostle to offer our bodies voluntarily once for all in service to God. Let me tell you, Paul’s gospel is the power of God unto salvation. It raises the dead and makes them obedient to God and worshipers of God. Therein you find the power of the gospel, which is the power of God. If the gospel has not done that to you, you have not experienced its power. The gospel transforms a rebel into a responder, a servant, a worshiper, a devotee of the true and living God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Called to Obedience

The gospel calls us to obedience. In Romans 1:5 we read, “Through him and for his name’s sake we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.” Paul received a commission to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.

Therefore, if you say that you are a Christian and have been saved by Jesus Christ, you are called to the obedience that comes from the gospel and from experiencing of the power of the gospel. (PGM) You cannot be saved and be a rebel at the same time. It is an impossibility.

In 2 Corinthians 5:15 we read, “And [Christ] died for all,” meaning all the elect, “that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” This is the obedience of faith that Paul was speaking about in Romans 12:1,2.

In 1 Peter 1:14 we read, “As obedient children, do not conform to the desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.” And in 1 Peter 4:1 we read, “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.” We died with him, we were buried with him, and we were raised with him to live a new life, as we read in verse 2, “As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.”

A Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

We are to offer our bodies as sacrifices. Now, Jesus Christ voluntarily offered himself as a sacrifice of atonement, suffering in our behalf the wrath of God against us. His sacrifice was substitutionary and propitiatory. It effected our salvation and we are now asked to offer our bodies in sacrifice. But we must always recognize that our offering of ourselves to God is not propitiatory or substitutionary. It is a sacrifice of thanksgiving, a response to God for what he has done for us in his Son.

Now do you understand how foolish it is for people to say, “Get rid of doctrine; let us evangelize”? Let me tell you what will happen if you do that. You will not be evangelizing and, in fact, you will be damning people. The purpose of evangelism is to produce worshipers of this kind and biblical doctrine is essential for evangelism. Preacher, you can build up a big church without doctrine, but you are damning people when you don’t preach the gospel.

So in Hebrews 12:28 we read, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.” There we see the same word, latreuo, for worship. In gratitude for what God has done, we worship him acceptably with reverence and in awe.

In Hebrews 9:14 we read that we are redeemed for the purpose that we may worship: “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”

Our Bodies Are Sacrifices

What is this sacrifice of thanksgiving that we offer? Our bodies. Paul is not saying to offer first our money, but rather our bodies. By body Paul means body and spirit–the believer in his totality, in other words. Now, in ancient times the Greeks depreciated the body but the Bible appreciated it, calling it good because God created it. The death of our physical bodies is abnormal, according to the Bible, and salvation affects not only our soul but also our bodies. This is why we believe in the biblical doctrine of the resurrection of the body. Salvation is salvation of the body as well as the soul.

We live our lives as Christians through our bodies. In Romans 6:13 we read that our bodies are tools of righteousness and in 1 Corinthians 6:15 we read that our bodies are members of Christ, not something that we can unite with prostitutes. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 6:19 we read that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Our bodies have been bought with a price, as we read in 1 Corinthians 6:20, and that price is the precious blood of Christ, as we read in 1 Peter 1:18,19. In other words, in our totality–in our souls and in our bodies–we are the purchased possession of Christ. We are not our own; we belong to Jesus Christ.

We are God’s, and, therefore, God cares what we do with our bodies. In 1 Corinthians 6:13 Paul tells us the body is not for fornication, meaning the body is not for sin. Rather, the body–the mind, affections, will, tongue, eyes, ears, hands, feet, and so on–is for the Lord, meaning for the service of God to do his will. And then Paul declares the Lord is also for the body, meaning for its salvation, its welfare, its resurrection, and its eternal life.

That is an amazing statement. Not only is the body for the Lord, but the Lord is for the body. What does God do to the body? In Ephesians 5 we read, “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish but holy and blameless.” God is for our bodies, and he cares for our physical as well as our spiritual welfare. All these years he has taken care of our bodies.

Therefore, what we do with our bodies has eternal repercussions. In 2 Corinthians 5:10 we read, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ”–this is speaking about believers–“that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

Never think that we can do anything we want with our bodies and not experience eternal consequences. The body is for the Lord, and what one does in the body matters.

Living Sacrifices

Therefore, we are told to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God. We do so because Christ has raised us up from sin and death and granted us eternal life. We died with Christ, were buried with him, and are raised with him for the purpose of living new lives of service and worship of our God.

Is God still looking for dead sacrifices? No. When Christ died on the cross he eliminated the need for animal sacrifices. Now God is looking for living sacrifices, meaning people who have been made alive to live for him. Therefore, we now live and will live forever in the service and worship of God. Both on earth and in heaven we will offer our bodies in service to God as thank offerings.

Not only that, the offerings of our lives should be holy, meaning separated to God. What is the purpose of redemption? To make us holy by the shed blood of Jesus Christ that we might then come and worship God. He is holy; therefore, we must be holy also. God has made us holy and called us to be saints.

We read about this in Ephesians 1:4, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” That is God’s purpose and he will accomplish it. God’s business is to make us holy in Jesus Christ. And in Romans 8:29 we read that we should be conformed to the image of God’s Son. “Be ye holy because I am holy,” we read over and over again in the Bible. Therefore, there cannot be any compromise with sin. We cannot sin and worship at the same time. It is an impossibility for a true believer, although a person may be able to do so in the many churches which no longer preach the gospel.

The Purpose of Pleasing God

What is the purpose of this offering of our bodies as living, holy sacrifices? To please God. As we worship and serve God there is only one question we must ask: Did my worship please God?

Now, isn’t that an intelligent question? But more frequently today the question is, “How did you like the service?” And what will be the response? “Oh, the singing was very nice,” or “The stained glass windows were very nice,” or “The parking lot was very nice,” or “The flowers were very nice.” This is the anthropocentric subjective view which pervades our modern society. Journalists ask, “How did you feel about it?” The politician who doesn’t want us to think will ask, “How do you feel about it?” And then we see people crying, weeping, and moaning. We are always being told to feel, not think, in other words.

But if we are Christians, we must ask, “Did my worship please God?” This is important because I am redeemed for this very purpose. Was God pleased with my praise, my prayer, my singing, my giving, my hearing of the word, my repentance, and my confession? What about my service as a father and husband, or as a wife and mother, or as a child? What about my spending of money, my eating habits, my sexuality, my work, or my studies? Would God be pleased with my behavior in all these areas? That is the question we must ask.

Let me tell you, a sinner, an unbeliever, is serving Satan when he serves himself all his life (Eph. 2:1-3). But the moment we are redeemed by Jesus Christ, we are made able to serve another–our Savior, in all areas of our lives.

Intelligent Service

In the English text we read, “this is your spiritual act of worship.” The Greek adjective is logikos –meaning logical, intelligent, reasonable, rational service. Now, that is also spiritual service. Why? God created us in his image and likeness to fellowship with him and worship him. All intelligent rational beings–angels and people–are created for the purpose of communing with God.

Now, we know that God is a person. He is infinite person with infinite intelligence. He wills, he feels, he loves and he communicates. We are also persons. Unlike animals we have a mind, a will and affections. We are self-conscious moral beings who desire communion and relationship.

But something has happened to us. Because of the fall of Adam and sin, man is now an enemy of God. Having no fellowship with God, man is a worshiper of creation and Satan. He is a materialist who declares that the cosmos is all there is, all there was and all there ever will be. He is a pleasure seeker. He accumulates things for pleasure, worships money to get things to get pleasure, and works hard to make money to buy things to get pleasure. Now, this materialistic view is not the original intention of God for man. This degraded, perverted view of man’s purpose is a product of our own depraved minds.

But when we are saved by the power of the gospel, we are turned around. We cease to worship the cosmos and Satan and begin to worship God. Why? We have been made able to think straight. Let me assure you, no unbeliever can think straight, especially in the moral and religious dimension. But when God saves us, he straightens us out. We now can think God’s thoughts, love God’s ways, and will God’s will. And thus we become able to render God worship that is intelligent and spiritual.

We can prove this from the Scriptures. In Romans 8:5 we read, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires. . .” And in verse 6 we read, “The mind of sinful man is death. . .” and verse 7, “The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.” Do you see the perversion, the twistedness of the sinful mind? Romans 1:28 tells us it is a depraved mind, a God-rejected mind. In 1 Corinthians 1:18 we read, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. . .” again, because of the twistedness and perversion of the mind. Sin twists and perverts, “but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”

Our natural minds are twisted. First Corinthians 2:8 tells us, “None of the rulers of this age understood [God’s wisdom], for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” And in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them.” This is twistedness.

How, then, can we render intelligent worship to God? We must be born again. Only through regeneration can we understand the gospel. First Corinthians 2:10 tells us, “But God has revealed to us by his Spirit. . .” And in 1 Corinthians 2:16 we read, “‘For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”

The miracle of regeneration grants us a new disposition and orientation. It turns our twisted minds, affections, and wills around to function in the way they are supposed to function. Only when we are regenerated can we know God’s truth, love God’s truth, will God’s truth and do God’s truth–in other words, worship and serve our God. And so we now render understanding worship, intelligent worship, heart worship, and true spiritual worship to God. God, we are told, is seeking worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth, meaning the worship of our spirit rendered in our body by the power of the Holy Spirit in response by our mind to the truth communicated to us in God’s word.

True worship, therefore, is not mere emotionalism. It does not consists of barking, crawling on the floor, shaking or uncontrollable laughter. True worship is the spiritual activity of the whole being of man who is led by an understanding mind. This is intelligent, whole life worship. Do you now understand the importance of thinking?

What Are You Worshiping?

In conclusion, then, we must ask ourselves: What are we worshiping? Are we working hard to get more money to buy more things? Are we materialists? If so, I warn you: Materialism is absolute sin. We are created for a highly elevated purpose–to worship and serve God.

May God forgive our sins and help us to worship him in all of life in view of the rich, wide, great mercy he has shown us in Jesus Christ. May we rejoice in our redemption from slavery to sin and Satan and seek to freely serve our God, praising God always for his great salvation and worshiping him in spirit and in truth, with our minds, in great jubilation. Amen.