Romans 12:1

As I was reading my Bible today, I kept coming back to this one verse: Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”
I started thinking about what that really meant.
Well, the key words for me (the ones that seemed to stick out) were: Mercies, sacrifice, holy, acceptable, and reasonable. So I decided to go deeper and try to find out their real meaning.

mercy or mercies
1. compassion: kindness or forgiveness shown to an offender or to somebody a person has power over
2. compassionate disposition: a disposition to be compassionate or forgiving of others
3. something to be thankful for: a welcome event or situation that provides relief or prevents something unpleasant from happening
4. easing of distress: the easing of distress or pain
5. kindness in excess of what may be expected or demanded by fairness

That verse says that it is only by the mercies of God that we can even do any of those other things. Meaning number one says that mercy is forgiveness shown to an offender and number three says that it’s something to be thankful for (amen to that!). But I think I like what number four says the best. Easing of distress or pain. I had never really thought of mercy as that, but it sure is true. In definition number five, it says that mercy is kindness showed beyond what would be fair, which is absolutely true. If things were fair, then we would be here with no hope. But God did show mercy, and sent us His son. If it weren’t for the Lord’s mercies we would all be distressed and in pain. I don’t know about you, but I thank God for His mercies every day, and mean it with all of my heart!

sacrifice
1. giving up of something valued: a giving up, destroying, or foregoing, of something valuable or important for somebody or something else considered to be of greater value, importance, or having a more pressing claim
2. something valued and given up: something valuable or important given up as a sacrifice
3. offering to God: an offering to honor or appease God, especially of a ritually slaughtered animal or person
4. something or somebody offered to God: something or somebody offered to honor or appease God
5. symbolic offering: a symbolic offering made to God

Something I noticed while reading that is, you can’t sacrifice something to nobody. There has to be a purpose to your sacrifice, someone you are sacrificing to (God, of course).
What exactly are we sacrificing? The first two meanings of the word talk about giving up something of value. Well, we’re giving up ourselves (“I beseech you therefore…present your bodies a living sacrifice…”), into the loving hands of God. Giving up our fleshly lusts, our sinful desires, our whole human nature. Another thing: It says, “…a living sacrifice…”. Because until we give ourselves up to God, our sin nature is alive and well. We can’t fight it on our own--we need to let God help us. But after something is sacrificed, it dies.

holy
1. sacred: relating to, belonging to, or coming from God
2. saintly: devoted to the service of God
3. pure: morally and spiritually perfect
4. consecrated: dedicated or set apart for God

Whenever I would think of holy, these are the words that came to mind: God, Angels, Jesus. Though God, Jesus, and the angels are holy, we see in the first denotation of the word “holy” can just be belonging to God. But the things we do, even if we belong to God, may not be holy. Like Satan. When he was an angel, he was holy, but he still rebelled from God, giving up his holiness forever.
I think that to be holy meanings one, two, and four must all be put together. We must belong to God (otherwise how can we serve Him?), be devoted to serving Him, and set apart (and dedicated) to/for Him and only Him.
But meaning number three…well, only God and His son, Jesus, have fulfilled that. No human can be perfect, though that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive for moral and spiritual perfection.

acceptable
1. adequate: considered to be satisfactory
2. approved of: likely to gain somebody’s approval
3. welcome: likely to please the person who receives it

Well there’s only one way to be any these things to God, and that’s through Jesus Christ, who gave His life for this reason (of course He rose three days later). We see that Jesus is the only way in Isaiah 64:6, which says, “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” I think that that verse obviously states that we could never be “considered satisfactory” in God’s eyes unless we were covered by Jesus’ blood.

reasonable (n)
1. in accord with common sense: acceptable and according to common sense
2. not immoderate, not excessive, not unjust

“…which is your reasonable service." To me, this phrase states that it would only be logical, obvious, and sensible to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God”. Because He deserves your life and more. Apparently, the oppisite of reasonable would be unjust, unacceptable and nonsense. It’s only natural that we should give Him our all and our life, seeing how He gave us His all and His life.

Well, that went longer than expected. Would you add anything? What are your opinions? Comments are welcome = ).

E Sam

(most of these definitions came from Encarta World English Dictionary or Websters New Twentieth Century Dictionary)