Agreeable to God

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

AGREEABLE TO GOD

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

Once again, we have arrived at one of the more quoted passages within this letter to the church in Rome. There are several theological truths within this short statement, but first, we pay attention to the, therefore. Paul is making the conclusion as to how we should respond to everything he said about Israel and the Gentiles in relation to the grace of God. Now, we need to respond to the fact that God has shown us his mercy, compassion, and his love, by sending Jesus to die in our place, to take our sin upon himself, although he was without sin, as he was fully man, capable of sin, he was also fully God, who could not sin. But because of the love of God for his people, both the Israelites and us Gentiles, God did what no man could do. He fulfilled his own justice, thus setting us free from the powers of his dark world and bringing us into his wonderful light. Therefore, we are urged, because of the mercy of God, we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God. First, we must see this as a spiritual act of worship, thus this is not about being a victim on a cross, which constitutes harm to our bodies. We think too many believers take this verse to mean they must put certain restrictions on their bodies, such as that list of don’ts that we have often heard over the years. However, what is pleasing, or as the Greek word translated as pleasing carries the meaning of agreeable to God, we need to know what is agreeable to God in order to know how we are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices as a spiritual act of worship. Is it agreeable to God that we make a list of what we think are things we should not do, although the scriptures are silent regarding our list? Over the years we have heard such things that a Christian does not smoke, drink, dance, go to movies, or roller rinks, with women having long hair, men short hair, and absolutely no mixing of boys and girls at the pool or beach, oh yes, we almost forgot, at one time the list contained a ban of women wearing slacks. As the culture changes, then so does the list, as it either evolves or it becomes outdated and useless. However, the list from the start is useless, and it will continue to be for our list has nothing to do with being agreeable to God, being holy, or being a spiritual act of worship. So, then what is pleasing or agreeable to God? We want to deal with this conforming and being transformed at some point, which we may have to wait until the next day because the importance of being agreeable to God sets the stage for the rest of what happens in our lives, the not conforming and the transforming that exists within us. This being agreeable to God has but one central point of accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. When we turn from our idol worship and worship Jesus, we are on the most agreeable terms with God. We have pleased God and therefore he declares us holy and pleasing in his sight. If for one millisecond we think we can be holy on our own by what we do and don’t do, we are sadly mistaken. Jesus is our righteousness, and He is our holiness. Apart from him, we cannot attain anything even close to being holy. Again, we return to that question regarding what must we do to do the work that God requires, so that we would be in agreement with him. The only answer to that question is to believe in the one He sent. So then it is our believing in Jesus which brings us into agreement with God, or pleases him. This is in fact our spiritual act of worship.