Romans 12:1-2 A New Interpretation

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Tuesday, January the seventh, twenty twenty five. It is currently ten forty five am Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Well, yesterday we talked about it being a brand new year and I offered a brand new interpretation. Now I didn't receive a lot of feedback from that. I think that what we did was pretty important, pretty significant. I think it was pretty interesting.

0:47 So hopefully people are still processing it, still trying to figure out if they agree with my new interpretation. So I did that yesterday, and then I came here today and I was like, well, you know, what do I do today? And I had some ideas. I was looking at an article that was claiming of you know, that was trying to outline the five different ways Satan tries to keep Christians from going to church, and there was a lot of logical issues with it, and I'm like, well, I could probably take this apart, and I want to do that. Then I saw that there was a brand new sermon on the sermon's two point oh app I believe on Psalm one thirty five, and I'm like, oh, that could be interesting. I could listen to a little bit of that. Maybe I could do a we could do like a chapter summary method of some one thirty five live on the air. That would be interesting, and so I kind of wanted to do that, but then I was like, well, you know, if you really go back to the message from yesterday, A New Year, A New Interpretation. I didn't really get to the new interpretation to almost fifty minutes into that broadcast because we were reviewing a sermon. I think there the sermon review really set everything up for the new interpretation perfectly. But a lot of people will see the episode entitled A New Year, a New Interpretation. They'll start listening to the beginning of it, going oh, this is just a typical sermon review, and they'll turn it off and they'll never get to the new interpretation. And I really want people to hear the new interpretation. So I'm like, well, let me spend some

2:19 more time fleshing out trying to create an exegetical study based off my A New interpretation, and then let's just do an entire hour plus working through it. So that's what we're going to attempt to do, and hopefully it's going to be beneficial and we'll get to all of that, but first we have to do something. We have to do something here. All right, just as I was going live on the air, literally, I mean I think I had just hit the button to go live, I received an email. All right. I received this at ten thirty five, so just right before. So I guess, technically, if I'm being as accurate as I can be, right before I hit the button to go live, press the button to go live, I receive this email. This email begins this way.

3:18 Are you ready? Here we go? Here's the email, right because it's entitled sermon and I'm like, oh, okay, is someone sending me a sermon? What's going on here? So here is the email? Happy New Year. Just want to drop you a note of encouragement to let you know I really enjoy your teachings. Well, thank you so very much. It's always good to open your inbox and get a note of encouragement. Trust me, it is because you get it. Look, sometimes if I'm either on looking at comments on YouTube or comments here whatever platform, because there's a lot of different platforms where people can leave comments, and a lot of times I don't even see them till like six months later, and I'll stumble upon the comment, going, whoa, they definitely did not like what I had to say.

4:02 So it's always good to open up your email box and be like, ah, good, a little bit of encouragement. So that's great. Then they go on to say, having said that, though, oh no, oh no, no no no. As soon as I that's basically saying, hey, I want to send you a note of encouragement, but which you know what that means? That negates everything that comes before. So having said that, though, uh oh, what's going to come next? It seems like you have started spending much more time critiquing other sermons as a part of your interpretations of Biblical passages. I understand what you're doing, but it takes away from the time that we get to hear your insights on the scriptures. Okay, I understand this.

4:57 A couple of things I just want to point out. Number one, the sermon reviews obviously increased in number in twenty twenty four because what was the key of what was the theme of twenty twenty four. What was really the thing that drove the entire podcast in twenty twenty four, It was the Sermons two point oh app sermon challenge. I was getting everyone to download the sermons two point oh app look for random sermons. I went through all of the things I told everyone to do, and if you were listening to random sermons, I told everyone I would be doing the exact same thing for the exact same challenge. The only difference is I would be listening to my sermons live on the air. So if I was going to actually participate in the challenge, then there was going to have to be a considerable number of reviews.

5:43 In fact, if I look back in twenty twenty four, the thing that probably I felled at as I should have done far more reviews because that was the theme of the entire year. Really it became about that. But if you but here's what you have to take note of. Many of those so called critiques, and they weren't even supposed to be critiques. They were really just supposed to be, Hey, I'm listening to a sermon. You're listening to a sermon, and then we're discussing it. More than a critique. I don't necessarily, like I tried to constantly say, this is not about me critiquing the sermon. It's about us listening and talking about it, all right, But even if you refer to them as critiques, how many of those critiques turned into hours and hours and hours of me actually studying the text. Our entire study of Isaiah forty through fifty five came from, quote unquote a sermon critique. All everything we did with Psalm eighty three came from a sermon critique. So you hear the sermon critique, but what follows in many cases, it's hours upon hours upon hours upon hours upon hours of me discussing the text, analyzing the text, exegeating the text, interpreting the text. So I don't know if I think, you know, yeah, you may hear the sermon review, look at everything that follows from it, that flows from it, because that's kind of what I feel that you know, you're getting both. And why do

7:15 we do the sermon reviews in the first place, Because the whole key of the sermon review is allowing you, the listener, to hear two different perspectives, the perspective of the sermon and in my perspective in one broadcast, so I think that there's a lot going on there. They say, I understand what you're doing, but it takes away from the time we get to hear your insights on the scriptures. I don't think it takes away from the time. It increases the time you're going to hear me. You just got to listen to what comes next. That's what I would say. I guess what I'm saying is I miss you just preaching without including other preachers. Take I hope this comes across as a compliment and not a complaint. Great, keep up the great work. Either way, I'm going to keep listening. Well, thank you, SOB. I do appreciate that.

8:00 That's awesome someone that would prefer me to do it this way, But I like the idea they say, I'm going to keep listening either way. I do appreciate that, because typically the email is you do this or I'm never going to listen to you again. I always get those threats, and it's always like, okay, well then stop listening, Like I can't stand those threats. They clearly if you make threats to me, you clearly don't know me, okay, Because if you make a threat to me, I'm like, oh, you don't like that, Well, for the next fifteen hours, I'm going to do exactly what you dislike. I know that's probably a rebellious spirit, but I definitely have a tendency to do that. So I would just say I understand the I won't call it a criticism, will I understand the suggestion. What I would say is it is the sermon critiques that leads to more and more discussion about a particular passage of scripture. And what do I offer as evidence? Well, what's about to take place? This all started with critiquing quote unquote, I'm using that term critiquing listening to a sermon, a New Year sermon, and the text was Romans chapter twelve one through two. Well, that led to me offering a brand new interpretation of Romans twelve one through two. See, in a roundabout way, what is happening is you're hearing it all live on the air. I could be listening to these sermons in private, then come to the microphone and say I'm going to offer a brand new interpretation of Romans twelve one through two.

9:32 But you would not have the full context of how the new interpretation came about You're going through the entire process live on the air, which I think makes it more interesting. Now that's my take, and I just have to kind of do things the way I think is best. I just think I think that adds something to it. You're seeing everything from the beginning to the you're listening, Oh, that's the sermon he was listening to. And this this led to a complete new interpretation of Romans twelve one through two. You get to walk through everything. So look what happened yesterday we reviewed a sermon. What did that lead to a complete new interpretation of Romans twelve one through two. I probably would have never been led to the new interpretation of Romans twelve one through two if I was not listening to that sermon. And I don't know if I'd have been listening to that sermon if I wasn't doing it live on the air. So you see how it all kind of fits together. And then guess what, we did a new interpretation yesterday while reviewing the sermon, and guess what. Now here we are and we're going to spend an hour fleshing out that new interpretation because of that that one sermon review now is going to lead to, well, now what you said, the discussion, the preaching, the teaching of the text. Now, I'm still going to utilize a little bit of the audio from the sermon we reviewed yesterday, because that's really the starting point.

10:56 So I hope this all makes sense. I hope. I hope that adds kind of a better understanding of what I have been trying to do. Some people will like it, some people will not, But I knew that from the beginning. I knew I all have always known. Some people love sermon reviews, some people hate them. I have always known that, and there's just no way to please everybody body. But I hope everyone can kind of see what I'm trying to do, and hopefully what I'm about to do here you'll kind of see the benefit of doing those sermon reviews. So are you ready? Here we go, let's put it all together. It's January seventh, twenty twenty five. We have entered into a brand new year. And when you enter into a brand new year, what do you get? You get New year sermons? Sermon after sermons saying it's a brand new year, and almost all of them turn into it's a brand new year, and we need to do this, and we need to read our Bible more, and we need to pray more, and we need to go to church more, and we need to give more money, and we need to do this, and we need to do this, and it's always like, do do this, do this, do this, do this. In fact, weld classify it from a thiological perspective.

11:57 The sermons are very law based. Do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, or don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, all right, So I kind of was already expecting that. So I saw one of those New Year sermons on the sermon's two point oh app and I'm like, Okay, this will be a good example to review. So I started reviewing it. The main reason I did is because I saw that the text was Romans twelve one through two. The text was Romans twelve one through two. I'm going to read it from the Bible I have here in front of me. It reads like this, Romans twelve one through two. You probably should be able to state this from memory. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And those New Year sermons that typically use Romans twelve one through two, it will go something like this, You're about to enter into a new year. We have arrived at twenty twenty five. And what we need is we need Christians who will sacrifice themselves, lay themselves down as a living sacrifice. They will give all of themselves, their mind, their speech, their heart, their desire. They sacrifice it to God and they will be used by God and they will be a year dedicated to God. We need dedication, we need a commitment, we need sacrifice. We need to do this, We need to do this, and it will turn into that type of sermon, and then the people

13:27 in the pew will be like, amen, Amen, I'm going to be a living sacrifice. Yes, I'm going to dedicate myself to God. I'm going to do all of this now. I think typically within about three weeks, everyone's already forgotten. They're all the supposed dedication, and we can talk about the futility of it, and we can talk about how law based it is versus not being very gospel based. All right, So I knew then that this could possibly serve as a good example. But as I was listening to the sermon, there was a couple of things that struck me, that kind of bothered me, because the basic assumption in the sermon, the basic presupposition from which the pastor was operating from, was this is that he's preaching to people who, in his mind, have the ability to love God with all their heart, mind, body, and soul.

14:18 They have the ability to completely present themselves as a living sacrifice, that they can be completely dedicated to God, completely love God. And I, from a thiological perspective, disagree with that. We cannot. We will. Let me make it very clear, no Christian will ever truly love God with all their heart, mind, body, and soul. No true Christian will ever even reach anything up that appears to be like a living sacrifice where you're truly sacrificed to God. The reason why is we still have a sinful nature. So we are never going to truly love God. We're never going to be truly dedicated to God, We're never going to be truly a living sacrifice. We're going to fall short continual because we are still sinners. And so I see many of these passages as presenting a law, a standard in which we it's going to reveal that we cannot do it. Therefore we have to flee to Christ, and we have to trust in Him by faith alone, and then his obedience. His doing all of these things correctly is imputed to my account. And this is more of a law gospel law grace distinction that I think is missing in most theologies and the evangelical fundamentalist world, and which is kind of bizarre because my concept here, this law gospel distinction flows right from the Reformation. It was so critical. It was key to Luther's arguments against Roman Catholicism because Roman Catholicism was a more workspace law

15:49 base was a salvation by an infused righteousness, not an imputed righteousness. So it all becomes it just becomes a mess, I think in how most pastors handle it. So as I was listening, I'm like, well, there's got to be a new way to interpret There's got to be a better way to interpret Romans twelve one through two. So I put forth a new interpretation. So what we're going to do here is I'm just going to play a little bit more of the sermon where he's going to be talking about basically Romans twelve one through two. Dedicate yourself. Do this. It's going to be very law. And then I'm going to come in and offer a complete new exegetical interpretation and exegetical study of Romans twelve one through two based on my new interpretation, and I hope this all proves to be beneficial. But we are going to listen to a little bit of the sermon because this sermon led us there so and because this sermon really captures the way most people preach Romans twelve one through two.

16:42 So I want you to hear how the standard way the text is approached, and then you can contrast that with the way I'm going to approach it. I hope that makes sense. I hope. So. I know that was a lot to say in sixteen minutes, but I hope it all makes sense. Are you ready? Here we go. Romans twelve to one gives us a progression of dedication. First of all, be sacrificial. You're gonna be. If you're going to live a dedicated life to God, you're going to have to sacrifice. You're gonna have to sacrifice. Listen, you are willing to sacrifice for what you really love? Let me say that again. You are willing to sacrifice for what or who you really love? Amen, God wants your heart. How does God know if he has your heart?

17:38 One of the ways is you're willing to sacrifice to follow him. Oh, Pastor, this isn't gonna cost me time. You know what God calls that worship. You know, throughout the whole Bible there was no such thing as free worship. Let me say that again. In the Bible, there's no such thing as free worship. Hmm okay, that that that's interesting, all right. So I'm gonna do something. Now. We've been talking about artificial intelligence. That's gonna be a big theme in twenty twenty five. So I'm gonna utilize artificial intelligence here. Is it true that in the Bible there is no no such thing as free worship. I'm gonna I'm gonna see what AI has to say here, all right. It's thinking, it's processing this, all right, So let's let's let's see what we we want to get to Romans twelve one through two. But we have to at least address this, right. I wasn't prepared that we were getting ready to hear that state, But here we go, all right, Ai says, the idea that there's no such thing as free worship in the Bible can be nuanced and depends what is meant by free worship. Let's explore

19:09 the question biblically and philologically, examining whether worship requires cost and what kind of cost is in view? Worship in the Old Testament cost and sacrifice, the sacrificial system Leviticus one through seven. Worship under the Mosaic Covenant required specific sacrifices, animals, grain, and offerings to approach God. The people of Israel were instructed to bring their best without blemish as an act of obedience and reverence. Now, please note worship under the Mosaic Covenant there were specific rules under that Mosaic Covenant.

19:49 We know we're not operating under that Mosaic Covenant today. Don't even we're not bringing the sacrifice was provided for us. We don't have to bring a sacrifice. The sacrifice was provided for us. The reason they brought the sacrifice, we would argue, was to picture the ultimate sacrifice was to come. So we got to be very we don't want to put ourselves back under that covenant, right, I think so? Second Samuel twenty four to twenty four. When David wanted to offer a sacrifice to God, he insisted on paying for the threshing floor, saying, I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord, my God. That costs me nothing. This is often cited to support the idea that worship should involve cost or sacrifice. Worship in the Old Testament involved tangible cost, animal time, and effort because sin required atonement.

20:35 Now I do agree, and the Old Testament it did. It costs something, but all of that cost pointed to the cost that was going to be paid for us. God gave his son to die for us, so that we want to be back in a system where now it's going to cost me something because the cost has already been paid. Right, all right, but all right, how about worshiping the New Testament. With the coming of Christ, the nature of worship shifted Hebrews ten ten through fourteen. We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all, Christ, once for all sacrificial ended the need for repeated sacrificial offerings. John four twenty three through twenty four. Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that true worship will well. True worshipers will worship in spirit and truth, not tied to a physical place or offering.

21:30 Worship is no longer about bringing a costly sacrifice, but about the heart and relationship with God. The cost of worship in terms of sacrifices, have been fully paid by Christ. Believers are invited to approach God freely through his grace. So do we want to institute going wait? Wait? Wait? And the Old Testament they had to pay a cost. So in the New Testament there is no such thing as free worship. Who slow down, now, You're right. On one hand, it wasn't free in a sense. For me to be able to worship in this sense, someone had to pay something, and that was Christ sacrificing himself dying for me. It costs his blood. But because he paid the price, can I not now freely worship? Now? How about worship as self sacrifice? While physical sacrifices are no longer required, Paul calls believers to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice.

22:36 This cost is not about earning favor with God, but about a response of surrendering gratitude to God's mercy. This kind of sacrifice is about dying to self effort and living independence of Christ righteousness. It's not about material costs, but about spiritual rest and obedience. Worship is costly in that it requires a willingness to surrender self reliance and law based thinking, not because believers must pay to gain access to God. See now that's Ai is going in the direction of my interpretation of a living sacrifice. He's gonna argue it sounds like a discernment. Hey, it's got to cost you something. You've got to sacrifice yourself. And I believe being a living sacrifice means to I die to self effort, I die to law based thinking. I simply surrender to the mercy and grace of God. Now does worship cost time, effort, or money. Worship today often involves time, attending services, studying scripture, and sometimes financial giving. However, these acts are not payment for worship, but voluntary responses to grace. It's not that we are paying something. We are showing gratitude, all right. The idea that worship must cost something in the sense of sacrifice can drift into legalism.

24:02 It implies that God only accepts worship if it involves hardship or external cost. Ephesians two eight through nine emphasizes that salvation and access to God are free gifts through faith, not human effort. Therefore, worship as an extension of our salvation flows from the freedom granted in Christ. So I think, I think there's a problem right here. Let's see what he has to say. But this is getting us right into Romans twelve one through two, which I'm going to offer my new interpretation right here. So already we're running into somewhat of a problem here. Let's see where he takes it.

24:45 It costs time, it costs money in the Old Testament, it costs you wealth in terms of animals, because you cannot, honestly from a true heart of integrity and honesty go to God and say you are worth my admiration and it costs you nothing. Oh, I so disagree with that. I go to God and say you are worthy of my admiration because of your mercy and sending your son to die and pay all the cost for me. In that Romance twelve one through two, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. It's God's mercy that leads me to then lay myself down as a living sacrifice. And what am I sacrifice? I am dying too, law based self effort.

25:47 I'm dying to all of this because Christ has done it for me. I don't have to pay anything. It doesn't have to cost me anything because the cost has already been paid. Is a radical different approach than I'm putting forth? And well, I think, but you can determine how you view this. Sorry, let's see what else he has to say. We live in a generation today, by and large, that wants to live this shallow Christian life where worship costs them nothing. Oh, catch it online? Okay, Well, if you're dealing with some health issues and you really, truly honestly can't come, maybe, but catching it online does that cost anything?

26:39 Now? I would I have a hard time with this. He's he's griping about people catching worship online. Guess where his sermon was found online? Guess what they do? They stream their services online, so like you can, you can, on one hand, be a part of Hey, we will live in a generation what people don't't have to pay a cost and just catch the worship online? Well, then would stop putting your worship online? A lot of pastors complain about people just listening or attending worship online. Yet they continue to put their worship online if you don't want people to listen. It so seems contradictory to me.

27:24 I know they would offer, go, well, we put it on there for people who can't make it because they're sick. If you put it off out there, it's for anyone. All right, I'm assuming you don't start your message. If you're watching us online and you're currently not sick and you can actually drive to this church, please turn us off because we don't want you watching. Very few people. I don't think there's any churches doing that. They're like, watch us online, and if you like what we hear, please give us some money. Okay, all right, I'm not saying this church does that, but I'm saying, come on now. I just find it ironic so many times when I hear these sermons complaining about online while they are online, Okay, I just like, come on now. Or they're like these podcasters.

28:05 Your sermon is online, it has an RSS feed, it's a podcast. Okay. If I can go to the sermon's two point zero app and get your RSS feed, I can then take your I can go take that RSS feed, put it in any podcasting app and guess what your sermon is going to be delivered to me as a podcast. You may not want to consider yourself a podcaster, but you are a podcaster. And guess what. You may not want to consider yourself an online ministry, but if you're putting your sermons online, you're an online ministry. So you're contributing to the fact that people catch it online. I mean, it's just come on now, guys. It doesn't even cost your attention. Yeah, cost nothing. That is not honoring to the Lord. Pastor.

28:53 How can you say that you. There for a brother by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies. A living. Sacrifice be sacrificial? Dedication is not always easy. I have a question, does God want you to be more sacrificial this year? See his whole interpretation of a living sacrifice is sacrifice sacrifice? It has to cost you something. Your worship is of No, it's nothing, it's dishonoring. Your worship is dishonoring to God unless it costs you something. So I guess if people have to drive forty five minutes to church, well they are a more sacrificial worshiper than the people who drove ten minutes. The people who give one hundred dollars versus the person who gives five, they are a more sacrificial worshiper, So their worship is more honoring to God. For the people who didn't drive as far or give as much, your worship is not as honoring to you. See what that creates. So then we've got to I've got to find a way to make sure my worship costs me something that's that has straight legalism, ladies and gentlemen, and that I'll come You don't want to say what that does?

30:05 That dishonors the sacrifice of Christ. So I have problems with all of this. But let's go to now my exegetical work on Romans twelve one through two, and what I believe is a plausible, possible interpretation based on theology, the text, and church history. All right, we talked about it yesterday. Let's flesh it out. Are you ready? All right? Here we go, No, I utilize in the spirit of twenty twenty five and our series on AI. I used AI. One of the great features about AIS. You can have a conversation with it, right, you can go back and forth, so I can come up with a hermeneutical hypothesis or a theory or a thesis, and we can just go back and forth. It may disagree, and we go back and forth and we can try to flesh it out.

30:59 So what you're about here is the conclusion of hour or so maybe two hours of going back and forth with AI over Romans twelve one through two to kind of flesh out my idea. All right, So here we go. AI helped summarize it this way. Here is a detailed exegesis of Romans twelve one through two, based on your suggestion suggested interpretation that the living sacrifice is about dying to self effort, law based thinking, and simply resting in christ finished work and imputed righteousness. So first it offers a textual breakdown, an exegetical look at my interpretation. Let's first start with Romans twelve one. I'm going to use a different translation. Now, I appeal to you, therefore, brethren or brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. All right. Now, this person is saying, well, if it's going to be your spiritual worship, you've got to sacrifice, or your worship is dishonoring to God.

32:22 And I will argue all of that work and all of that effort is the opposite of honoring God and the opposite of worshiping God, because I am worshiping God by declaring his worth because of what He has done for me, his mercy, his grace, and the sacrifice of his son. So I'm approaching it from a completely different perspective. Here are some of the key terms and phrases. I appeal to you, I beseech you. Depending on your translation, this idea is Paul's making a strong exhortation, but not from a place of harsh com rather from my heartfelt appeal grounded in God's mercy and grace. This indicate that Paul is not calling believers to a moralistic striving, but to our response rooted and gratitude and trust. So it's like, it's not like I command you, It's like, I beseech you. Brothers, listen to me. He's coming at it with It's a heart felt appill Brothers, listen, brothers, sisters, Christians, listen to me.

33:31 Based on the mercies of God. I want to I want to I want you to listen to me, and I want to I want to press, I want to Our starting point is God's mercy. Now remember eleven chapters and the Book of Romans is all about that. We are justified by grace alone, faith alone. Apart from works. We are justified by faith. We are justified by an imputed righteousness. Now all of that murcy, see, listen to me. Remember, based on all these things that God has done for you, he's not calling for a moralistic striving. He's calling for them to respond to this mercy and to this grace.

34:14 And I think it's calling for gratitude, it's calling for trust. I beseech you. Therefore, Brethren the King James, I beseech you. Therefore, I think even in other translations, I beseech you. I appeal to you. Therefore, therefore isn't found I think most of the English translations. This therefore links the command to the preceding chapters Romans one through eleven, where Paul lays out the gospel. The gospel, he points out humanity's sinfulness, and Romans one through three he points out justification by faith. In Romans four through five, he talks about life through the spirit in Romans eight, God's sovereign mercy and Romans nine through eleven. This there four signals that this is a call to sacrifice as a response to God's mercy, not an effort to earn them. That therefore points us back to everything God has done. And he's like, now, based on God's mercy. Therefore He's gonna call us to something.

35:18 But he's not calling us in order to earn that mercy. We're not earning anything. We're doing it. We're gonna do something flowing from that mercy. What should that mercy lead to? Well, that's the question. Most people say that mercy should lead me to do this and do this, and it should cost me something. But God's mercy should not lead me to have to pay a cost, because God's mercy tells me God has already paid the cost right by the mercies of God. Paul roots the Christian response and God's abundant mercy the believer. The believer offers themselves not to gain mercy, but because mercy has already been received. This mercy is the basis for rejecting self effort and resting in Christ's completed work. That's my whole thing. Hey, because of God's mercy, present yourself as a living sacrifice. This is not you've got to do something now, No, it's me because of God's mercy, I need to finally surrender myself to what God has done for me. I think that's a I think that's what it should lead to.

36:24 Everyone else is like, no, it should lead you to do this and do this and do this, and do this, and do this and do this and do this and do this and do this. Well, the problem is all these things you say I should do, do do I can't do because guess what God's mercy save me by an imputed righteousness, not an infused righteousness. And guess what I still have is a sinful nature. So if you tell me to do this and do this and do this, guess what I'm going to find that I fall short fall short fall short fall, short fall short You're just leading me to a persistent state of failure. Present your boy, all right, it's the next idea, all right? That Traditionally this is interpreted. This is how it's typically interpreted as surrendering one's whole life, mind, heart, and actions. That's how it's typically viewed. Present your body, gets so in many, many sermons, I'll say, take your mind. How can you present your mind as a living sacrifice? Your speech? And it gives you all these things you're going to strive to do. I've heard those sermons a million times, especially for teenagers. Teenagers constantly hear these. You need to give your mind as a living sacrifice. What are you thinking about?

37:38 What are you filling your mind? Your speech? What do you say? How are you talking? Your ears? What are you listening to? And it just this moralism, moralism, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this. Well, that means God's mercy just becomes irrelevant because it's all, well, God may have been merciful, Jesus may have paid the price, but now I have to do this, do this, do this, and guests one, all those things you're told to do, nobody does them, so it just becomes a perpetual state of failure. That's the problem. If you go with this idea, you have to go with the Basically, the presupposition has to be that people can do these things. You can't because you are a sinner and you still are even after salvation. And if you deny that, well I'm sorry you've got bigger spiritual problems than denying it because you're self deceived. So traditionally this present your body is interpreted as surrendering one's whole life, mind, heart, and actions. However, in this view, present can be understood as acknowledging that we are what we already are, and that we already are united to Christ. Romans six thirteen, present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.

38:55 This is not about offering human effort, but presenting ourselves in faith has those already justified and sanctified in Christ. So let me read this again. Present your bodies. Everybody just typically, oh, you gotta present, you gotta it's gotta cost you something, You've got to do something. But this idea of present it can be understood as acknowledging that we are already united to Christ. And again they quote Romans six thirteen. If we go to Romans six thirteen, we go to Romans six thirteen, we have this. I'm gonna read it from the King of New King James, and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness.

39:46 I'm dropping my pencil, and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin. But present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Or, as this translation reads, present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. This is not about offering human effort, but presenting ourselves and faith as those already justified and sanctified in Christ. What I'm doing is, I'm presenting myself to God, the positional reality to God. Wait here is what I am because of Christ and Christ. I have been crucified, i have died, I have buried, I've been resurrected, ascended with Christ. I'm seated with Him in heavenly places.

40:38 I am presenting to God and my positional reality. This is what I am positionally. I am dead, I am alive to God. I'm a new creature all positionally because practically I'm still a sinner. I still have a sinful nature. This is not about offering human effort, but it's simply I'm presenting to you as a living sacrifice in faith of what I am positionally, A living sacrifice instead of a dead one or a one time sacrifice. Is in the old covenant the believer is a living sacrifice. This can be understood as daily dying to self effort and legalistic striving and living in the freedom of christ finished work. See, this is dying. This is dying to self effort. See.

41:33 Most people will say no, no, no, no, no, no. This is living sacrifice. This is me dying to this and this and this. But in Romans one through eleven, it's all about understanding. It's not about works. So here now, because of God's mercy, what am I going to do? I'm gonna die to those works. I'm gonna die to that self effort. I'm going to die to a law base mentality. I'm gonna die to self effort and a legalistic striving, and I'm going to live in the freedom of Christ's finished work. It is a paradox in a sense. We live by dying to our works. We live by dying to a law based righteousness. We live by dying to self justification. I'm presenting myself as a living sacrifice, dead to all of this other way because I am I have been crucified in Christ. I am dead positionally.

42:33 I am recognizing that I am dead in Christ, the oldest God I am no longer going to try to do this, and do that, and do It's not about moralism, it's not about law keeping. It's not about justifying myself. I am presenting myself as what I am in Christ, holy and acceptable to God. Holiness and acceptance does not come from our works, but from Christ's imputed righteousness. We are holy because we are in Christ. This phrase emphasizes that believers can rest in their accepted status because they are already declared holy through Christ. See what most people read Romans twelve one through two. I'm gonna set my pencil aside before I drop it again. All right. I always have a pencil in my hand, but when I pick up too many things, then I drop it. All Right, here we go. I beseech you there, for brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God. See how many people preach this is Hey, You've got to sacrifice yourself so that you will be wholly acceptable to God. Ladies and gentlemen, you can sacrifice yourself five hundred different ways.

43:43 You can do this. You can stop watching TV. You can not listen to this, not read this not go here, not do this, not do that, not do this. Not You can come up with five hundred things. After you do all five hundred things, you're still not wholly acceptable into God. Because the only way to be wholly acceptable unto God is not by anything you do or don't do. It's because of an imputed righteousness. I surrender, I die to self, and I surrender myself to the truth of what I am in Christ. I am dead, I'm a new creature because of imputed righteousness. That's how I'm wholly acceptable unto God. Not because of what I do, but because of what Christ did. Holiness and acceptance do not come from our works, I cannot state it again, but they come from Christ imputed righteousness. This entire phrase holy and acceptable to God emphasizes that believers can rest in their accepted status because they have already declare holy through Christ.

44:52 Spiritual worship the Greek here implies something rational or reasonable flowing from the truth throughout than external. Ritual worship in this sense is not about outward acts of piety or sacrifice, but an inward resting in the truth of who God is and what Christ has accomplished. This worship is reasonable because it is not self made. It is a grateful acknowledgment of grace because of God's mercy. I present myself as dead in Christ, dead to the law, dead to law keeping, self righteous, self righteousness, workspace, self effort. I'm dead to all of that. I'm olivia sacrifice, and that's wholly inacceptable into God. You know why it's wholly acceptable into God because in Christ, I'm a holy inacceptable into God.

45:45 In Christ, I've been declared holy and righteous because of an imputed righteousness, not infused righteousness. And this is my reasonable service, This is my reasonable act of worship. How do I show worship to God by surrendering to law keeping all of this works based idea, and surrendering to what Christ has done, his mercy and his finished work. So we completely broke down Romans twelve to one. We looked at each phrase, I beseech you, Therefore, by the mercies of God, present your bodies living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God spiritual worship. We literally broke the entire verse down and looked at it from a completely different perspective. Now, how does that lead to Romans twelve two? Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That by that, by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, which is good and acceptable and perfect. Let's break down this verse.

46:54 Do not be conformed to this world. The word conformed suggests being shaped or mold by external patterns. Well, this is often interpreted as avoiding sinful behavior. It could refer to rejecting worldly mindsets, such as a performance based or transactional approach to life and worship. The world often preaches self reliance, moral achievement, individualistic striving. This command invites believers to reject those patterns. Now, as a Christian, don't bring this transactional, transactional idea into your Christianity. Don't bring this performance based idea into your Christianity. We need to no longer be conformed to the world's thinking. Christianity. It goes against the way the world thinks. The world is all about transaction. You do this, you get this, you don't do this, you get this. It's about behavior, it's about transaction, earning, not earning. We are not to be conformed to that way of thinking. Because of God's mercy, We've surrendered, we have died to our self, our self effort. We've died to this transactional concept, and we are trusting completely and the mercy of God, and we are relying on an imputed righteousness. And imputed righteousness is an idea completely foreign to a world way, a world's way of thinking. We are no longer to be conformed to that, we are

48:25 to be transformed. Word is this idea means to undergo a fundamental change. And this interpretation, transformation is not self generated. It is something God accomplishes and believers as they rest in His truth. This aligns with Paul's teaching and Tewo Corinthians three eighteen, where transformation happens as we behold the glory of Christ, not as we strive for moral improvement. We are being transformed by by our changing and our thinking, and by trusting in what Christ has done by the renewing of your mind. The mind is renewed not through human effort, but by meditating on the truth of the Gospel.

49:08 Renewal involves rejecting the mindset of earning righteousness and embracing the mindset of grace, living out our identity in Christ rather than striving to become holy in our own strength. We renew our minds. We're not We're no longer going to be conformed. If I'm gonna lose my voice, We're no longer going to be conformed to this world's way of thinking. We're gonna renew our mind by focusing on the Gospel and what God has done for us, that we may be able to discern. The renewed mind is able to discern God's will not by self effort, but by resting in his revealed purpose. This means discerning that God's good, acceptable, and perfect will is not burdens burdens burdensome, but an invitation to trust Him fully and to live in peace. We begin to understand God's will is that I believe in his son. God's will is that I trust in his completed work. God's will is that I understand that the sacrifice has been made, the cost has been paid, and I can trust and rest in that good, acceptable, and perfect. This describes the completeness of God's will. When believers stops striving and rest in His grace that begin to experience his good purposes. This renewal is a process of continually dying to the belief that our worth or holiness comes from our performance, and we instead rest and

50:39 the sufficiency of Christ. Now let's try to put all of this together. Now that's working through. We work through every single phrase of Romans twelve one through two, and we completely offered an interpretation that goes against every other interpretation you're going to hear in Romans twelve one through two. You don't believe me, well, get up the sermons two point oh app start downloading sermons or start streaming sermons on Romans twelve one through two. Find and see how many go completely the opposite direction of what I'm trying to lead you into. Now you may go with all the other sermons and say that I'm completely wrong, and that's perfectly okay. Just remember when you go with Romans twelve to one through too, the way everyone else teaches it.

51:26 You know what you're going to find yourself. You're going to realize, over and over and over you fall short. You will never truly be a living sacrifice. You're going to fall short over and over and over because guess what, you are still a sinner. You have a sinful nature. So you're still going to send in your mind, You're gonna still sin with your mouth. You're going to still sin in your heart and with your desires. You're still going to sin in your actions. You're never truly going to be a living sacrifice. You're never truly going to love God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. And you're going to be in a perpetual state of failure sin, and if you even remotely care, you're going to become disillusioned, discouraged, depressed, and you may start deconstructing.

52:06 Or you can just pretend that you pull it all off and that you're better than everyone else, and you can just go find some people who are really bad, compare yourself to them, and you can pat yourself on the back and say, I think the God that I'm not like this person and this person and this person. Well, you can do that if you want. But guess what. Now, you're not a living sacrifice because you're not showing that you are dead in Christ. You're showing that you're very much alive, and you're basing everything on your self effort, your lawkeeping, and your works. So let's look at this idea. How about dying to self righteousness? The living sacrifice is not an act of surrendering it. Okay, I'm sorry, I read this. Let me read this again. Dying to self righteousness.

52:54 The living sacrifice is an act of surrendering law based thinking and resting in Christ's righteousness. It means dying to the idea that our holiness or closeness to God is dependent on our performance. The living sacrifice in Romans twelve to one is an act of surrendering law based thinking and resting in Christ's righteousness. It means dying to the idea that our holiness or closeness to God is dependent on our performance. Transformation by grace, the transformation Paul describes as not a call to try harder. It is a call to be renewed by the truth of the Gospel.

53:39 It is a shift from I must do more to Christ has done it all. Freedom from legalism. This interpretation frees believers from the burden of trying to maintain or prove their holiness. Instead, they're invited to abide in Christ's love and live as accepted sons and daughters. So what are the practical implications rest in christ finished work? Believers can approach each day as a living sacrifice by rejecting the mindset of earning God's favor and resting in the reality that Christ's righteousness covers them fully renew the mind.

54:26 Daily renewal involves preaching the Gospel to yourself, reminding ourselves that we are accepted, beloved, and justified by grace, not works, freedom and worship. Worship becomes less about ritual and obligation and more about gratitude and awe. True spiritual worship is trusting that Christ's sacrifice is enough. Rejecting self effort. Believers are freed from the exhausting cycle of spiritual performance. Instead of striving to become more holy by checking boxes of spiritual achievement, called to rest and the holiness and the imputed righteousness that comes from Christ. That's the practical implications that flows from my interpretation. So my interpretation of Romans twelve to one through two is a call to rest in Christ's imputed righteousness. It's the idea of dying from all of this effort, realizing that I'm crucified in Christ and I am dead in Christ. I have died. I'm accepting that of acknowledging that I'm resting that I have been crucified. I'm resting in his mercy. I'm resting in His finished work. Romans twelve one through two is a call to rest in christ imputed righteousness and a die to self effort. It shifts the focus from external moral improvement to inward renewal through the Gospel. The living sacrifice is not about trying to become holier through our efforts,

55:57 but about surrendering our striving and trusting compleatly in the finished work of Christ. This approach emphasizes worship that flows from rest, transformation, rooted in grace, and freedom from the burden of legalistic performance. There is the new interpretation of Romans twelve one through two. I beseech you, come on, guys. I plead with you. I beg with you, guys, by the mercies of God. It's God's mercy, which I want you to grass. It's God's mercy which I want you to understand. It's God's mercy which you need to see.

56:40 Everything I'm about to say, I beseech you. Therefore, brethren, everything that I've been talking about for eleven chapters is I'm speaking as Paul here. Eleven chapters. I've talked about how sinful you are. I've talked about how we are saved by grace alone, faithful one, we justify apart from works. I've talked about God's sovereign grace and mercy, especially as it relates to Israel. It's all about God's mercy, his grace. It's not about your works or your efforts. So, brethren, I beseech you, by these mercies that you now present yourself as a living sacrifice. Die to all of that law based thinking, Die to all that law based righteousness, Die to all of that self righteousness, Die to all of that human effort and trying to do good works.

57:28 Die to all of that, and rest in the finished work of Christ. Am I saying that we don't strive to do good. I'm not saying that, But we have to stop seeing Christianity as a performance based faith and see it as a faith that trust in what Christ has done. And when you present yourself as a living sacrifice, you're resting in christ righteousness. This is holy inacceptable unto God. Why is it holy inacceptable unto God? Because you are resting in the only that's wholly and acceptable unto God is the imputed righteousness that comes from Christ. And this is your reasonable service this is your spiritual act of worship.

58:10 You're declaring God worthy because of what he has done, and don't be conformed to this world. Stop thinking like the world. This transactional idea works. Base mentality be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Change your mindset by preaching the Gospel to yourself every single day, and then you can prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, which is trust in his son, Believe on his son, rest in him. Now, I hope that worked. I know that with a lot of Oh that was a lot. Probably could have broken that down into smaller pieces, but then it would be hard to put it all together again. That was a work that was a combination of my working with artificial intelligence to flesh out this new interpretation. I kind of wrote out all everything AI then put it together in a very nice organized way. So it was a combination of my effort with AI putting it together in a nice Now I could have organized it probably a little better, but we work through every single phrase. Now is it perfect.

59:35 I'm not saying it's perfect yet. Remember we're less than twenty four hours from really developing this new interpretation. We're only about twenty four hours into this. This is like, you know, this is an infant as far as a new interpretation is concerned. We still got to work. Is it perfect? No, But let me make it very clear. All of these sermons that preach that, hey, you make yourself a living sacrifice, do this, do this, do this. You may love sermons, and you may come up with all of your list of the things you're going to do, but if you're even remotely honest with yourself, you know that all it leads to is a perpetual state of failure. You're never going to accomplish it. You never will. You're going to fall short over and over and over and over and over and over. And how is it ever going to be wholly and acceptable under God? Because no matter what you do, it's tainted by the sin that is inside of you. Unless you believe in the eradication of the old nature, you are still a sinner. You are still sin. Everything you do is touched by your sin.

1:00:31 All of your good works is nothing more than filthy rags before a holy God. You fall short. If you can just take one command right, be holy as God is holy, You're never going to pull that off. You're never going to be a living sacrifice. You're never going to love God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. And as long as you considered, continue to think that you that you can, you're going to live in a land of self denial. You are a self deceit. I should say, you're going to live in a land of self deceit. You're going to be You're going to be yourself and you're gonna have to pretend and pretend and pretend. But guess what, you know the reality. You know what's going on inside of you. You know what you do, you know what you think, you know what you desire.

1:01:13 And other people see that sin inside of you. They see your selfishness, they see you, they see it. The other system is going to lead you into a perpetual state of despair if you're even remotely honest with yourself. Oh, I'm gonna be a living sacrifice. I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this. Well, then what was the point of God's mercy the living sacrifices you you are realizing I'll go to the same author Paul, see if I can find it really quick. I have been crucified with Christ it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the Faith and the Son of God. I am dead. Positionally, I present myself as a living sacrifice by every day acknowledging I am crucified.

1:02:13 I have died. I am in Christ Jesus. I'm dying to self effort. I'm dying to self righteousness. I'm dying to all of this. And I'm presenting myself to God that I have died and that I am in Christ Jesus, and I am am saved because of mercy and because of an imputed righteousness. And then I am wholly an acceptable into God because that is wholly an acceptable unto God as a person who's who the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to their account. I have died and I am in Christ Jesus. I am going to acknowledge. I'm going to present myself to God based off that positional reality. Then I'm wholly acceptable into God. And this is my reasonable act of worship because I'm declaring God worthy because of what He has done, not because of what I am doing. I know that's a radically different approach.

1:03:06 I know that, But there we have it. That was a lot of work, and I'm sorry I dropped a pencil in the middle of all of that. I'm sorry I was reading probably way too fast. There's all I can. I can do a million critiques of my own sermon right there, but I was working as fast as I could, because I mean, look, going as fast as I did, it still took sixty three minutes. I didn't want to break that down. Now, maybe we can. Maybe I can clean it up a little bit. Maybe I'll clean it up a little bit, and maybe i'll present this at church in some capacity, and and and you'll hear maybe some repetition. But maybe I can break it down even more so. But hey, now it's I've handed it to you, so we'll classify my new interpretation as a hypothesis. Now, what I want you to go do is listen to all the others. I want you to go to the sermon's two point oh app and go crazy listening to sermons on Romans twelve one through two, and just ask yourself, come on, first, are these very much legalistic, law based do this do this type messages? And second, can anyone truly ever accomplish that, if it is true that we still have a sinful nature, and then you and then you can say, well if that, if that interpretation doesn't work, maybe that crazy guy in Theology Central offered a interesting alternative, and you can determine which one works in a practical

1:04:37 philological way. Thanks for listening everyone, have a great day. God bless