NO and Yes

DEVOTION

ROMANS

NO AND YES

Rom 12:1-2

12:1 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. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.

NIV

Before we deal with offering our bodies as living sacrifices we should consider what the pattern of the world is. In order to fully understand this pattern we should first try to see what did that mean to the saints in Rome who first received the letter. What was Rome like in those days? What was the world like in those days? The Romans, like so many were polytheistic and in fact the Caesar was considered a god. There were sacrifices made to the many gods of the world, including in Rome. We do not offer sacrifices today as in those days, but we do have many gods. We may not call them gods, but they are objects of worship. We idealize certain things and people. We desire objects, spending much time looking at them, wondering about how nice it would be to have them. We hold certain attributes or achievements in great esteem. Success and wealth are held with respect and honored. We give praise to those who achieve higher degrees, making education a great path for life. But what about God? Is he in the forefront of the world? He makes it clear that we cannot serve both him and money. This money may not actually be money, although money seems to be the central theme of the world. Nothing happens without it. Yet the money could simply mean the way of the world. There is a pattern of the world, and it revolves around self-interest. Everyone is involved in advancing their own personal agenda, whatever that may be. It could mean wanting to achieve enough success that offers the ability to have all the things we want. It could mean doing something which brings us fame. The point is most people of the world are concerned first and foremost about themselves. That is the pattern of this world. Yes, there are a few that become famous by what seems doing some good deed, or humanitarian endeavor. Some have contributed to society. Our politicians are said to serve the people, being in public servant, but it would seem they only serve their own interests. We, on the other hand should not conform to any of that pattern for we have another pattern to follow after. That pattern is Jesus. We are not to think as the worldly people think. We are to renew our thinking to pattern ourselves after Jesus. This is what is meant by offering our bodies as living sacrifices. A dead sacrifice was offered throughout the Old Testament, but we are to be a living sacrifice. An animal or grain offering or sacrifice was completely used, either burnt in whole or partially and the rest eaten by the priests, nothing was wasted or held out. This is how we are to offer ourselves to God, not withholding any part of us. Being a believer is being all in, giving everything to God. Everything, not holding anything out means we cannot be half in the kingdom and half in the world. When a person follows a pattern for making an article of clothing, they have to use only one pattern in the article if it is going to look like what the pattern was for. They cannot use part of one pattern and part of another, whatever turns out would look rather funny and not very useful. That is our life. We can only follow one pattern, and his name is Jesus. It is so easy to get distracted by other patterns. We might think we can follow just some of the pattern of this world and some of the pattern of Jesus, but we would not be much use to God. We have to be transformed in our mind, in the way we think. It comes down to saying no to the world and yes to God. Let our no be no and our yes be yes.