Christian Action, 1of39

~ Commit All ~

Series Note  ~  In just the single chapter of Romans 12 the Apostle Paul gave believers a list of 39 things which are part of the Christian life which pleases God.  This chapter is crying out saying, “If you name Jesus Christ as your Savior then please act like a Christian!”  It is Paul’s “To Do List” for us.  The key principle is that while you and I cannot change God’s character (who He really is) we have the clear potential to damage His reputation (what others think He is). 

Scripture to Meditate On  ~  “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). 

Comment  ~  This first To Do is a fitting prolog to the chapter since it encompasses all that is to follow.  Notice that this passage not only tells what To Do but also provides the reason for presenting your all to God: it is “your reasonable service.”  This passage is all about who is the Lord of your life.  In most Christian circles today we rarely hear the term Lord Jesus Christ—but often hear Jesus!  Someone has wisely said, “The problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar.”  Perhaps this is why the rest of the chapter goes into specific instructions. 

Related Passages  ~  “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.  For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?’” (Matthew 16:24-26).  Jesus also said, “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38).

“So Jesus answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.  But many who are first will be last, and the last first’” (Mark 10:29-31).

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

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