Paraklesis
[‘encouragement’, ‘exhortation’, for life and ministry]
October 2024
Peter Adam
Dear friends,
Here are the damaging effects of sin on our bodies and through what our bodies do.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened [Rom 1:21]. They did not intentionally glorify God, or thank him. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another [Rom 1:24]. The degradation of human bodies is described in these vivid words:
[T]here is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes [Rom 3:11-18].
Yet through the atoning death of Christ, all is transformed. By God’s grace we are justified and redeemed through Christ’s sacrifice of atonement [Rom 3:24,25], and because we are justified, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ, and access to the grace in which we stand [Rom 5:1,2]. So ‘there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ [Rom 8:1].
But there is more! As we are ‘in Christ’, so we were buried with him in his death, so that, as Christ was also raised from the dead, we too may live a new life. Christ provides ‘double cure’ for sins, cleansing us from both its guilt and its power.[1] The only power we have to die to sin and live in righteousness comes from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The first imperatives Paul writes in Romans are these five in chapter 6.
‘[C]ount yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus’ [Rom 6:11].
‘[D]o not let sin reign in your mortal body…’ [Rom 6:12].
‘Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness’ [Rom 6:13].
‘Offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness’ [Rom 6:19].
And when Paul begins his major section of application of the gospel in this letter [chapters 12-16], he uses the same theme, of offering our bodies to God.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship [Rom 12:1].
John Calvin comments on this verse:
[A]ll who do not propose to worship God merely err and stray in a miserable condition. We see now the sacrifices which Paul commends to the Christian Church. Since we have been reconciled to God through Christ by His one true sacrifice, we are all by His grace made priests in order that we may dedicate ourself and all we have to the glory of God. [John Calvin, Commentary on Romans 12:1.]
This verse introduces and so shapes all the instructions in chs 12-16, as we offer our bodies to God and love and serve our neighbours, in every part of our lives. We offer ourselves as a ‘living sacrifice’ [Rom 12:1]. Paul uses the same theme to describe his own ministry in Romans 15. He writes of
‘the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit [Rom 15:15,16].
Do you worship your body, pride yourself in your body, neglect your body, despise your body, ignore your body, despair of your body, misuse your body, feel betrayed by your body, resent your body! Think again, and repent! Offer your body as a living sacrifice to God through Christ! It is a holy and pleasing sacrifice to God!
If we do not consciously and intentionally serve God, present ourselves to God, offer our bodies and all we do to God, then our default will be idolatry, as we serve our own needs, standards, expectations, aims in life and ministry, sense of purpose; or we serve the needs, standards expectations of others [the people we serve: or perhaps the people who have shaped our expectations of how we should be and what we should do; or perhaps the promises implied and even made by those who recommend a pattern of ministry which is sure to ‘be successful’, and which we have decided with ‘be successful’!]
Our self-offering of our bodies is enabled by God’s power in the gospel, both changing us at conversion, and continuing to transform us and enable us to do good works. What a dramatic transformation of a bodies! What a powerful God, what a powerful Saviour, what a powerful saving work, and what a powerful gospel!!!!! Let us praise and thank our gracious God together!!!!
You will also find application forms for people in College-trained full-time or part-time ministry of the Word for next year, for Preaching Training Groups, and for Prayer Training Groups.
