God’s Will: A Transformed Life

A sermon preached from Romans 12:1–2 by Ps Phil Hunt

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Take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Romans—Romans chapter 12. This morning I want to speak to you on this subject: God’s will, a transformed life.

What you believe will determine what you do. It is what we believe that moves us to action. As we come into Romans chapter 12, we are entering a new section of Paul’s letter to the Romans. In chapters 12 through 15, it is all about action. What is it that God is asking you to do?

Here is the question—Paul’s question: After everything that God has done for you, what is the right response? How are you to live a productive and satisfying life? John MacArthur’s comment on this transition is particularly helpful. He wrote: “The key to a productive and satisfying Christian life is not in getting more; it is in giving all.”

The instructions in Romans 12–15 are rooted in what God has already done for us in Christ, which Paul discussed at length in chapters 1–11. Everything that follows in this letter flows from a heart that is filled and overflowing with worship.

Notice the text:
“I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

From this text, I want you to see that the key to a productive and satisfying Christian life is not in getting more, but in giving all. In these two verses, I want you to see three great, overwhelming truths.

I. God’s Mercy Deserves a Response (v. 1)

Do you see it in chapter 12, verse 1? “I appeal to you, therefore, brothers… by the mercies of God.” God’s mercy deserves a response. And what is that response? Look at the second part of verse 1: “to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.”

Notice that word “appeal.” It literally means to come alongside someone, to urge them toward a particular action. It is the idea of a beloved advisor who comes alongside and gives direction, expecting a positive response. This is not a command in the sense of “you will do this.” Rather, it is the only reasonable response to God’s mercy. Brothers and sisters, when you fully understand the glories of God’s mercy and grace that have been freely bestowed upon you, the only reasonable response is to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

Paul is saying, in effect: Stop for just a moment. Look at what God has done for you. This response in verse 1 is motivated by mercy—the heart of a person responding in glad willingness to give everything over to God: body, mind, and will.

Remember what we have learned in the preceding chapters. In chapter 1, verse 18, through chapter 3, verse 20, we saw that God in his mercy came to us when we were in darkness and in our sin. We were not looking for him, and he opened our eyes to see that we were all guilty before him, enslaved to sin and under his wrath.

In chapter 3, verse 21, through chapter 5, verse 21, we saw that because of Jesus we are forgiven and at peace with God—not because of anything we did, but because of what he did for us. What mercy!
In chapter 6, verses 1–14, we learned that by God’s mercy we were joined to Jesus. When he died, we died; our old self died. When he rose, we rose. We have been set free to walk in newness of life with Jesus. What mercy!

In chapter 6, verse 15, through chapter 7, we saw that we have been set free from the reign of sin and from the bondage of the law. This new life we enjoy does not come by trying harder to keep the rules.
In chapter 8, we learned that the Holy Spirit lives in every child of God, changing us now to be more and more like Jesus, and guaranteeing us that one day we will be with Jesus forever. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our future inheritance. What mercy!

In chapters 9 through 11, we discovered that God’s mercy never runs dry. It never runs out. Because God is sovereignly in control of everything, his love and his grace cannot be stopped. It is abundantly overflowing to his children. What mercy!

This is mercy given to all who have been justified by faith. The salvation we have received from God through the sacrificial death of his Son Jesus is not merely fire insurance—it is not just so that he will keep us out of hell. No, this is a salvation that radically transforms our lives. It gives us a new vision, a new future, a new life that begins now and lasts through eternity. This is the mercy God has bestowed upon all who have been justified, and it is this mercy that ought to fuel a Christian to live for Jesus, to action.

Are you a man or woman of action?

But notice that right before this call to action in chapter 12, verse 1, there is a call to worship. Look at chapter 11, verse 33. Paul writes: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” When we catch a glimpse of all that God in Christ has done for us—the overflowing, abundant mercy he has bestowed upon us—our hearts respond naturally in worship, and worship responds in work.

A Response of Sacrifice

Not only is this response motivated by mercy, but notice something else in verse 1: this is a response of sacrifice. “I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies”—a living sacrifice.
The word “present” carries the idea of the Old Testament priest preparing the lamb for sacrifice: slaughtering the lamb, catching the blood, ordering the sacrifice, and laying it upon the altar in the prescribed way. This was to be a lamb without blemish and without spot, every aspect of the sacrifice according to the Mosaic law. Then the fire would be started, the sacrifice completely consumed in the flames, and the smoke would rise to heaven as a sweet-smelling aroma in the nostrils of God.
That is the idea here. It is the work of the priest, bringing the sacrifice to God. This idea of presenting your body is a decisive, once-and-for-all commitment that is lived out every single day. It means presenting to God your flesh and blood, your will and your emotions—everything that you are, everything that you possess—placed on the altar of sacrifice before this holy God as an act of worship, as a response of the heart overwhelmed by the mercies of God.

Unlike the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament that died and were burned to ashes, this is a living sacrifice—a giving up of our life to the worship and service of God who is worthy. It means recognizing, gladly, that God is free to ask anything of us and do anything with us. He is completely right, completely just, completely fair, and completely free to take our bodies and do absolutely anything he chooses—to send us anywhere, to require anything that pleases him.

Notice also that it is a holy sacrifice. “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy.” The idea of holy here is not about sacred relics or special places. Earlier this month I was in Cairo and visited one of the oldest Coptic churches in the city—the Hanging Church. I stood in their worship center, built in the second century, and watched the faithful come in to rub their foreheads on hanging cloths and kiss the bones of saints, believing that these relics could bring extra blessing. That is not the word here.

The word “holy” here means to take something that is normal, everyday, and common—something with no inherent special value—and set it apart for God’s use. Think of the Old Testament sacrifices. They needed a knife. Some dear woman who loved the Lord goes into her kitchen, pulls out the knife she uses to prepare the family’s food, and gives it to the priest to be used in the sacrifices. What has she done? She has taken something common and ordinary and set it apart for the use of God. That is what it means to be holy.

“Present your body a holy sacrifice”—to take your common ordinariness, your everyday nothing-special self, and set it apart, giving yourself wholeheartedly to God for him to do whatever he chooses to do for his glory. What do you have, by the way, that you were not first given? You take what is common and ordinary—nothing intrinsically of any value—and yet you set yourself apart and give yourself wholeheartedly to God.

We sing it: “Take my life, and let it be, consecrated, Lord, to Thee.” That is an easy song to sing on a Sunday morning. But it is quite another thing to actually live the words and say: “God, here is my life as a living sacrifice. Use me, do anything you want with me. I have no demands, no agenda, no self-directed future. You are my everything. You are God. You are sovereign. You saved me when I was not even looking for you. You came and loved me and wrapped me in your love, gave me a new life, forgave me of my sins, and gave me a future in heaven—and I want to worship you and serve you acceptably. Take my life.”

That is what makes us saints—not because we are particularly nice people, not because we are pastors, not because we do good things. We are saints because God in Christ set us apart for himself. There is nothing special about any of us. God is not looking for talented, brilliant, beautiful, wealthy, or well-credentialed people. He asks us to present our bodies a living sacrifice—to set apart that which is ordinary for his service.

This is illustrated by the sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22. God came to Abraham and said, “Take your son, your only son, go to the mountain I will show you, and offer him as a sacrifice.” Early the next morning, Abraham saddled his donkeys, took Isaac—who by this time was likely around thirty years old—took his servants, the knife, the fire, and the wood, and set off. After three days they reached the mountain. As they climbed, Isaac said, “Father, I see the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb?” Abraham answered, “God will provide for himself a lamb, my son.”

At the top, they built an altar, laid the wood, and then Abraham said to his son, “You are the sacrifice.” And Isaac willingly got up on the altar. Abraham tied him, raised the knife—and just as he was about to bring it down, the voice of God came from heaven: “Abraham! Stop. Now I know that you have been willing to offer the thing most precious to you, your only son. Take Isaac off the altar.” And there in the thicket was a ram caught by his horns. Isaac came down off the altar as a living sacrifice. That is exactly what Paul means when he says we must present our bodies as a living sacrifice.

Acceptable Worship

Notice what verse 1 calls this: it is “your spiritual worship” or, more precisely, your reasonable act of worship. Worship here is not primarily a ritual in church, a set of songs and readings, or a liturgical ceremony. Worship is the whole-life offering of ourselves to God. That is the worship God demands.
God is not interested in what you can do for him or what you can give to him. God wants you—all of you. God doesn’t want your money; he wants you. And if God has all of you, he has everything in your pockets, your car keys, your checkbook—everything. That is the acceptable worship.

We can make the mistake of thinking that singing a few songs in a gathering is worship. But when the all-seeing eye of a sovereign God looks past our lips and into our hearts, what does he find? A heart that is fully consecrated as a living sacrifice—or a heart with locked boxes, some open and some firmly shut, with God allocated only certain compartments of our lives?

This completely redefines worship. God does not want a token from your pocket. God does not want one and a half hours of your week on a Sunday morning. God wants it all. It is the reasonable response to the mercy he has bestowed upon you, Christian.

Give us men and women who will go to the end—to death if needed—because they have already died to self and presented themselves alive unto God. Give us men and women at Kitwe Church who are all in for Jesus, nothing held back. When you offer yourself on the altar to God, everything changes.

II. God’s Will Demands a Transformed Life (v. 2a)

Notice verse 2. You cannot give your whole life to God and keep on living like the world. Verse 2 contains a negative and a positive.

First, the negative: “Do not be conformed to this world.” The word “conformed” means to take the shape of—to be shaped by the environment, the culture, the context you are in. Consider a container of water: when you pour water into any container, it takes the shape of that container. Pour it into a tall jar and it becomes tall and narrow. Pour it into a wide bowl and it spreads out. This is how some of us are living our lives. Pour us into our workplace on Monday morning and we take the shape of the people around us. Pour us into a different environment and we take on that shape. But when Sunday comes, we’re singing “glory to his name.”

A life that is a living sacrifice, that is acceptable worship, does not conform to the world around it. The world will keep trying to pour us into its mold. The question is: have you spent enough time in the presence of God that you have a shape of your own—the shape of Christ? The world is continually pressing upon us to conform. Galatians 1 says that the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age.

The world has its own values, its own priorities, its own ways of thinking, its own assumptions. When you live in light of the mercies of God, you do not allow the world to make you think as it thinks. Do not conform to the values of this age, to its priorities, its ethics, its religion. Why? Because there is another world to come—an eternal one. This one is passing away. As 1 Corinthians 7:31 says, “the present form of this world is passing away.”

This point was illustrated vividly by a news story I read this week. A presidential candidate who identifies as a Christian announced he would not attend the burial of Paramount Chief Pizinini—not because he was ill, not because he was out of the country, but because as a Bemba traditional chief holding the title of Mwikamukulu, he is forbidden by custom from coming into contact with death for fear of, as the article put it, “spiritual contamination.” His advisor on chiefs and traditional affairs explained that the restriction is intended to preserve the sacred status of traditional leaders and protect chieftainship from spiritual contamination.

Here is a man who claims the name of Christ—who claims to belong to the one who conquered death and rose from the grave, who holds the keys of death and Hades—yet who stayed away from the funeral of a friend of thirty-six years for fear of being spiritually contaminated by death. That is what conformity to the age can look like. It does not always look like open rebellion against God. Sometimes it looks like a man trying to be a Christian while still holding on to the traditions of the world at the same time.
Paul says, do not be conformed to this age. The child of God does not fear spiritual contamination from death, because the one who lives in us has already defeated death.

Now notice the positive: “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The word translated “transformed” is the word from which we get “metamorphosis.”

When I was a little boy, I learned about metamorphosis in school. I went home, got a glass jar from my mother, clipped a branch from a bush, placed it inside, and went searching until I found a caterpillar—a little creature with all its legs, crawling along on the plants. I put the caterpillar in the jar, poked holes in the lid for air, sealed it, set it on my dresser, and watched every day. One day the caterpillar was gone. In its place, attached to the branch, was a chrysalis—a round, grayish cocoon woven from thread. Days went by. A week or two, I believe. Every morning I ran to check. Then one morning I found inside my little jar a beautiful orange-and-black monarch butterfly. I picked up the jar, ran outside to show my mother, took the lid off, held it up, and that butterfly rose on beautiful wings into the sky.

“Do not be conformed”—do not take the shape of the world you are in. Rather, be transformed from the inside out. This is what happened to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Matthew 17:2 says he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And Paul says this is happening to us too. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “As we behold the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”

This transformation takes place in a renewed mind. This renewed mind is necessary for us to think correctly, in line with truth and not error. It is not merely a changed behavior; it is a resurrection mind—a mind focused on what is eternally real and of eternal value. A renewed mind is not just intellect but the whole capacity to understand, perceive, and evaluate things from the perspective of God’s truth.
Paul describes the unregenerate mind to the Ephesians: “You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of ignorance due to their hardness of heart” (Ephesians 4:17–18). Romans 1:28 says God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. The unregenerate mind is a darkened mind. But the regenerate mind is being renewed in God’s image. A regenerate mind does not think like the world. A regenerate mind does not go to the world for solutions to life’s problems.

“Be renewed in the spirit of your minds” (Ephesians 4:23). The means of transformation is the Word of God, and the agent of that transformation is the indwelling Spirit of God. The Spirit transforms us through the Word. That is why, beloved, what you put into your mind every day matters. You cannot be transformed by a mind that is being fed by the world.

III. God’s Purpose Develops a Discerning Mind (v. 2b)

But transformation is not the end of the story. Look at the end of verse 2. A person with a renewed mind can now do something they could never do before. Notice the third truth: “that by testing you may discern what the will of God is—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

The word translated “testing” or “proving” here is the word for an assayer. An assayer is an expert who takes ore—copper ore, gold ore—runs it through chemical tests, and determines its value. He can tell you whether it is real gold or fool’s gold, and precisely what percentage of gold is in that ore. He proves it. He tests the product to see if it is genuine.

That is the word here. It means to live out in practice, to approve, to discern. The man or woman who has given their body as a living sacrifice will be able to evaluate ideas, opportunities, and circumstances, and make decisions that align with eternal values. But when we take the shape of the world, we react to whatever is immediately in front of us—whatever looks like an opportunity, whatever seems convenient in the moment. Worldly thinking says: “I’ll marry the first person who comes along and trust they’ll get saved someday.” Or: “I’m going to force this situation by whatever means necessary.” Or: “This relationship isn’t working out the way I want, so I’ll simply walk away.”

When we give ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, when we are set apart for him, when our mind is being renewed every day by the Word of God, we are then able to look at a circumstance, a situation, or a decision and have the mind of Christ.

A transformed mind is able to discern the will of God. And look at the three adjectives that describe this will of God.

First, God’s will is good. Not merely good for us in some subjective sense, but objectively good in God’s sight. God’s will cannot lead us wrong. His ways are always best. He is sovereignly in control of every circumstance, every situation, at every moment. His will is good because God is good. And we will be able to discern that it is good, even when everything in our immediate circumstances looks bad. “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28). God’s will is good.

Second, God’s will is acceptable—the same word used in verse 1 of an acceptable sacrifice. The consecrated life and the discerning life are one and the same. This is the place where every Christian should rest. God’s pleasure is poured out on his child who is consecrated to his will and discerning of his will.

Third, God’s will is perfect. That means complete. It lacks nothing. God’s will does not leave gaps in our lives. It is sufficient for every situation we will encounter.

Conclusion

Worship in verse 1 and discernment in verse 2 go together. Doxology is the natural response of the justified person who recognizes the wonder and the work of Christ accomplished on the cross. Worship is the response of a man or woman who has come face to face with Christ.
Here is the point: God’s mercy deserves everything you have. God’s will demands everything that you are. And when you give him everything, you will discover that his will is good, pleasing, and perfect.
So what should you do now? What is the right response to the overflowing, abundant mercy of God that has been bestowed upon you, Christian?

Let me ask you three questions.

First, have you placed yourself on the altar as a sacrifice to God? Romans 12:1–2 is written to Christians—notice Paul addresses “brothers and sisters.” If you are not yet a child of God, you are not yet in the game. Repent of your sins and believe in Jesus. But Christian: have you placed yourself on the altar? Or do you have locked boxes in your heart, telling God he may have some things but not others?

Second, have you allowed the world to press you into its shape? Will you repent, and do something about that this week?

Third, are you feeding your mind on the Word of God? Are you giving the Spirit of God the material he needs to renew your thinking?

“I appeal to you, therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercy of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may discern what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, do a work in our minds. Humble our proud hearts before your glory. Drive us to our knees to cry out to you for the forgiveness that is freely available. Forgive us for thinking that our lives are about ourselves—what we like, what we want, our comfort and convenience. In light of your mercies, Lord, may we present our bodies anew as a living sacrifice. Renew our minds. Help us to think biblically. Where we have been conforming to the world, may we repent and surrender to you. Through the inner work of the Holy Spirit, may we hold our God-given shape in a wicked and perverse world, and by so doing shine as lights that lead others to Jesus. In whose name we pray. Amen.