Walking with God: A Look Into Romans 12

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So we’re in Romans chapter 12, 12 verse 1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. Now I’m doing some recapping here, but it’s so important. You know, don’t you, that from chapter 1 onwards, right through chapter 11, Paul has in the background constantly referred or implied the sovereignty of God, that God has taken care of the salvation of the world, that God has brought Christ to the world for our righteousness, for our atonement for sin, that Jesus is the access to the Father because he’s the representative and the substitute for the whole human race. In him, we have life. In him, we have resurrection. In him, we have the atonement of our sins. All of that is God’s sovereign action. And more than that, we learn through the gospel and other passages of the New Testament that God is the creator of our faith. Not only does he bring Christ to the world as our atonement, but he also brings faith to us to believe it and to understand who he is, that he’s not a mere man, that he is God among men. So when you see that, when you learn all that, then it seems a little strange that Paul says, “‘I beseech you to present yourself to God.'” I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present yourself, present your bodies. So here he seems to imply responsibility on our part. If God is the saviour of the world, if he is the initiator of salvation, if he is sovereign… over our salvation and is able to bring the circumstances into our lives where we are at our wits end and we are down and out and we have come to the end of our resources, if he’s able to engineer all those things in order for us to be ready for mercy, then how is it that he beseeches us to do this and that, to present ourselves? Is it God, sovereign God, the Lord, or is it human beings who respond to God and bring about salvation? Does our choice for salvation depend on us, or does, that is, does our salvation depend upon our choice, or does our salvation depend upon God’s sovereign act? Well, the interesting truth is that these two realities, God’s sovereignty and then his beseeching us to respond to him, are both part of the action of God for salvation. How come, you say? Because it is God… who is sovereign and acting upon us while he is at that moment calling for us to respond. When God appeals for human beings to respond, that is the Holy Spirit speaking life into your soul. You say, but what about those who resist? Well, God knows those who resist, and he will continue to engineer the circumstances of their lives until they are at a place where they too have come to the end of their resources, a dead end, a cul-de-sac in their lives. And then he will bring them to call upon him for mercy. So you see, you need to bring these two realities together. It is not God or human beings. It is God working through human beings. Now, let me tell you what that also tells us about us. God does not disqualify us as human beings. He doesn’t bypass our mind and zap us. He energizes the mind. He brings it back to action. Before the gospel news and before the gift of faith, we were in bondage. We had no power of the will to accept God. The human condition is so bad that humanity of itself cannot choose for God because it is in a state of addicted suppression. That’s implied in Romans 1, verse 18. So once God… initiates the good news of salvation, and then gives the gift of faith to us, our will is activated, and we are able to respond to him. So when you come to Christ, don’t think it was your decision to accept Christ. Don’t think it is people’s decision to be saved or not, or to go to hell or not. but rather understand that when you make a decision, it was God working in you. You remember that verse where Jesus says, when you come before the magistrates, don’t think about what you will have to say, for the Holy Spirit will be speaking within you at that time. What an amazing verse that is, that Jesus, When we witness and when we give our testimony to Jesus or when we speak in defense of God and Christ, it is actually the Holy Spirit speaking in us, but we thought it was ourselves. You see that symbiotic close relationship between God and ourselves, so close that it is hard to define who’s acting, who’s doing the work at the time. This is why the message comes into the Bible, in the New Testament, work out your own salvation, for it is God who is working in you to will and to do of his good pleasure. So when we are working out our salvation, we’re not really saving ourselves. It is God who is working in us. So when you think of giving your heart to Christ, when you think of responding to God who beseeches you, then remember that It is God working in you. Because some people who have fallen into sin or who have become addicted after they become a Christian feel that they have lost their salvation because of all their failures and defeats. But you must remember when you’re in a struggle with addiction or any other state of depression or a state of loneliness or financial difficulty, whatever it may be, you must remember. that it is God who is working in you at that very moment when your spirit seems down. And so you can say to him, Lord God, Father, thank you that you are here with me in this mess, in this chaos, in this loss, to reveal yourself to me and to help me. So always lift up your heart, no matter what situation you’re in. Now notice the next thing. I beseech you. Paul is not saying, I command you. Why is he not saying, I command you? The Old Testament said, I command you, the Ten Commandments. Well, God, Paul is saying, I beseech you, because he has revealed all the good news about God from chapter 3 to chapter 11. And the good news is so great that God treats us as righteous when we are ungodly, that God reconciles us while we are enemies, that we are resurrected in Christ, everything coming through Christ. The gift is so great that he therefore says, doesn’t have to command us. He appeals to us. He appeals to us because we see how reasonable and beautiful God’s mercy is. We see that he’s not laying on us a rod that cannot be borne. We see that he is not unreasonable. God is so gracious, so full of mercy, that Paul says, come on now, let’s respond to this wonderful God of ours. And so that’s how you need to see your Christian life as you go forward. When you become resistant or reluctant or lazy or depressed or detached from the Lord… Allow yourself to beseech yourself, not command yourself. Don’t be strict. Don’t condemn yourself. Don’t try to move forward with guilt or shame or fear, but move forward with the love of God. I beseech you, beseech yourself. Hey, George. Hey, Harry. Hey, William. I’m appealing to you. Walk with God today. Love him because of how much he has done. So I love this part of Paul. He’s beseeching us because of the gospel. These verses, these chapters from chapter 12, verse 16, are an appeal to us based upon the love and the grace that is already given to us. Look how that differs from so much preaching. So much preaching tends to be law, even though it appears to be in the context of grace. It’s telling us what we must do, and we’d better do it, and if we don’t, terrible things will happen. But that’s not what Paul is doing. He’s appealing based upon God’s mercy. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies. Now then, suppose you’re in the struggle with sin, in the struggle with addiction, and maybe it’s cigarettes, maybe it’s vodka, maybe it’s pornography, maybe it’s gambling, maybe it’s Twinkies or some other kind of food, and you just want to lose weight, you want to lose that 50 pounds and you get defeated every single time. And you say, how can I overcome this thing? Well, shift the focus, shift the paradigm. What Paul is doing here is to say to us, present yourself to God. It’s as if you’re saying, here I am, Lord, I’m available. Yes, but you say, what if I say that and I get defeated? You still say it. I’m available in my strengths and my weaknesses, in my victories and my defeats. Don’t you see that God’s grace operates even in our defeats? that God is with us even when we’re down. You can say to your Heavenly Father, Father, I feel so depressed today, and I thank you for this feeling, because this shows me, this reveals to me that you are with me in the darkness, and my depression is a reminder to praise you, that you are my God in the darkness as well as the light. Everything that we experience is an opportunity to lift our hearts to God in praise and gratitude. Remember that praise is the opposite of ingratitude, resentment. There are hidden resentments within us that can be broken down by the very act of giving thanks to God. So we present our bodies sometimes successfully to God. We present our bodies sometimes in defeat. But we keep presenting ourselves before Him because He’s our Father and He is our Savior. Friends, I want to make a serious appeal to you today. This is Colin Cook here, by the way, and how it happens. You’ve been listening to my broadcast that you can hear any time of the day or night on your smartphone. 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