1. The exhortation here in Romans 12 is based upon the apostle Paul's proclamation of the Gospel of God (1:1).
2. Romans 12:1 says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren..." Therefore...because you are saved, justified, and sanctified...therefore you should present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
3. There are three very important verses in the book of Romans that are marked with the word "therefore."
4. Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
5. This is the "therefore" of justification.
6. Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
7. This is the "therefore" of sanctification.
8. Romans 12:1 says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."
9. This is the "therefore" of consecration.
10. W.H. Griffith Thomas says, "This is the order: Salvation, Sanctification, Service.  Only thus can the Christian life be realized and truly lived" (St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans).
11. Salvation must come first. This exhortation is for "brethren" (12:1).   It is an appeal to Christians.
12. The unsaved man must first get saved.  He becomes a brother in Christ when he is born again into God's family (John 1:12).
13. First, make sure you are saved (cf. Romans 10:9-13).
14. Now, after we are saved, the Bible has much to say about living the Christian life, and that is what we see here in Romans 12 -- "therefore..."

I. A LIFE THAT IS YIELDED TO GOD (12:1)

1. The first eleven chapters of the book of Romans concern the condition of the Christian; here in chapter 12 it is the consecration of the Christian.
2. The idea behind the word "present" here is to "yield" (Scofield margin). The same Greek word translated "present" in Romans 12:1 is translated "yield" in Romans 6:13, 16, and 19.
3. Romans 12:1 is talking about being totally yielded to God.
4. Romans 12:1 is talking about being totally surrendered to God.
5. Romans 12:1 is talking about being totally consecrated to God.
6. We often sing: "Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee," but do we really understand what that means?
7. If we look at the references to yielding in Romans 6 we see this means:

• not yielding our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin
• yielding ourselves unto God, and yielding our members as instruments of righteousness unto God (6:13)
• It means not yielding to sin, but to obedience (6:16).
• It means not yielding to uncleanness and to iniquity, but yielding to righteousness and to holiness (6:19).

8. Romans 6:13 says, "Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead."
9. This is the key -- "as those that are alive from the dead."   The Christian has died with Christ.   Colossians 3:2 and 3 says, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."
10. The Christian has died with Christ, and is called upon to live a new life to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11-13).
11. Romans 6 explains that living the Christian life involves yielding to God and making the right choices (Rom. 6:12-23).
12. Defeated Christians, and discouraged Christians, and lukewarm Christians, and backslidden Christians, and carnal Christians feel they cannot live the victorious Christian life.
13. They feel they are incapable.  They cannot live for God in the flesh, but they can live for God in the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Romans 8:9).  We must "walk in the Spirit (8:1, 4).
14. Romans 12:1 speaks of yielding to God, not to the flesh.
15. Romans 12:1 speaks of sacrifice and service to God.  This means total sacrifice, for in Scripture a partial sacrifice is unacceptable to God.
16. King Saul tried that and Samuel rebuked him and said, "Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" (I Sam. 15:22).
17. There are many Christians who are saved and on their way to heaven, but they have never presented their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God (Rom. 12:1; cf. 13:11-14).
18. One preacher put it this way: "What does the text of Scripture mean when it says, 'present your bodies?'  Well, our body is our being in relation to the world.  Our being in relation with the world, He's not so much interested in our body, as the fact it is by our body that we have a relationship to the world.  And He would life for use to present our bodies in the sense that He would like the keys to our life.  To our house, in which we live, so that He may have control over us.  If we were to think of our body as a kind of house, and our life as a kind of house, and giving God the keys to it; does He have the key to the dining room?  Do you eat under the direction of the Holy Spirit?  Does he have the key so far as what you eat is concerned?  Have you given him the recreation room so that the things that you do in recreation are things that are pleasing to him?  What about the library?  Are the things that you read the things that are pleasing to him?  And so one, he wants our bodies.  He would like to have that, which is used in relationship to the world so that He may use us for His glory.  It's a very unreasonable thing that we often do, to give Him our spirits, but to give our bodies to the service of that which opposes Him.  But many of us find that that's often the case.  We've given our spirits and our souls to the Lord God.  We've given our bodies to others" (S. Lewis Johnson).
19. This is "your reasonable service" (Rom. 12:1).  The apostle Paul does not command us to yield to God.  He "beseeches" us (12:1).

II. A LIFE THAT IS TRANSFORMED BY GOD (12:2)

1. Living the Christian life means living a life that is yielded to God.  It also means living a life that is transformed by God (12:2).  You are either being transformed by God or you are being conformed to the world.
2. "And be not conformed to this world" -- do not become worldly in your thinking.  In this context, the "world" refers to the system man has built in order to make himself happy without God.
3. It is a system antagonistic to the things of God, and it is contrary to the Word of God.
4. It is in allegiance to Satan, whom the Bible calls "the god of this world" in II Corinthians 4:4.
5. We are not to be conformed to this world because I John 2:15 says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
6. To be conformed to this world means to yield to it, but the Bible says we are to yield to God, and we cannot do both (cf. James 4:4).
7. Some Christians fail to realize that to go along with the world, and to be swept along by the world means eventually being conformed to the world.
8. I do not usually care for paraphrases of the Bible, but this one is interesting: "Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold" (J. B. Phillips).
9. Many Christians are getting squeezed by the world, and consequently they think like the world, look like the world, dress like the world, act like the world, etc.
10. "But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."  There is only one way to renew your mind, and that is by studying God's Word, and obeying God's Word.
11. The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to transform us (cf. Titus 3:5; II Cor. 3:18).
12. "That ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."   When we yield to God, and allow Him to transform us, we understand "that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
13. When a person gets saved he is born again.  A change starts to take place. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
14. If this is not real in your life, you need to make sure you are genuinely saved.  And if you are genuinely saved, then you need to get into the Word of God and ask God to transform you.
15. How are our minds renewed?  They are renewed through feeding upon the word of God.  Reading the Bible (not reading about the Bible) is God's way of renewing us and transforming us.
16. The mind of Christ is expressed in the Word of God.  We are transformed by the renewing of our minds through the Word of God.
17. The mind is very important -- our Lord said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."
18. And our mind is to be renewed through the word of God.
19. The devil is confusing people's minds, but God says our minds are to be renewed.

III. A LIFE THAT IS HUMBLE BEFORE GOD (12:3)

1. A Christian whose life is yielded to God, and whose life is being transformed by the Spirit of God will be humble before God.
2. "Humility is the direct effect of consecration" (W.H. Griffith Thomas). A right relationship with others will follow when we have a right relationship with God.
3. Romans 12:3 speaks of a sober self-appraisal -- we are to think "soberly."
4. Strong's Concordance says this means "to put a moderate estimate upon one's self."
5. We must not think too highly of ourselves, but pride is always a problem because there is this inherent tendency to exalt self.
6. The valet of an emperor said, "I cannot deny that my master was vain.  He had to be the central figure in everything.  If he went to a christening, he wanted to be the baby.  If he went to a wedding, he wanted to be the bride.  If he went to a funeral, he wanted to be the corpse" (Enjoying the Proverbs).
7. Hell is full of proud sinners.  Pride keeps sinners from humbling themselves and getting right with God.
8. Psalm 10:4 says, "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts."
9. "I" is right in the middle of "PRIDE"
10. "I" is right in the middle of "SIN."
11. Spurgeon said, "Pride, the first-born son of hell, is indeed like its parent, all unclean and vile, and in it there is neither form, fashion, nor comeliness."
12. In Proverbs 8:13, God says He hates pride.
13. Pride is always destructive. Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."
14. Proverbs 29:23 says, "A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit."
15. James 4:6 says, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble" (cf. I Peter 5:5).
16. Thank God, He "giveth grace unto the humble."  To the Christian   whose life is yielded to God.
17. And to the Christian, whose life has been transformed by God.
18. D.L. Moody said, "If we are full of pride and conceit and ambition and self-seeking and pleasure and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God; and I believe many a man is praying to God to fill him when he is full already with something else."

CONCLUSION:

1. Dr. James M. Gray was the president of the Moody Bible Institute, and one of the editors of the Scofield Study Bible.
2. A number of  years ago, he was preaching on Romans 12:1, and he said, "Have you noticed that this verse does not tell us to whom we shall give our bodies.  It says simply that we're to present our bodies a living sacrifice, and that will be acceptable to God."
3. He went on to say, "It's not the Lord Jesus who asks for our bodies because He has a body," and further he said, "It is not the Father who asks for it, because He remains seated upon his throne."
4. Now he said, "Another has come to earth without a body, and that is the Holy Spirit.  God could have made a body for Him as he did for the Lord Jesus, but He did not do so."
5. "So God gives us the indescribable honor of presenting our bodies to the Holy Spirit to be his dwelling place on earth."
6. That is a wonderful illustration of Romans 12:1. All of us who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
7. We pastors preach about sacrificial living and sacrificial giving, and so on, but it must start right here with Romans 12:1-3.
8. We must first offer our bodies as a living sacrifice.  May the Lord enable us to do that.