Sermon26-36 Rom12 "The Life of Worship"

Romans 12:1-2 theme verse Romans 12:1

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

On this thirty-first Sunday of the year 2026, I pray that the grace of the Holy Spirit, who applies to us all the benefits Jesus accomplished for our salvation, and His power to proclaim the good news of the gospel to the whole world, may be full in you. Last week through Colossians chapter 3 we looked together at how we, having received the grace of God, have to be filled with Christ and live a life of thanksgiving to God. Yet, this week, through Romans chapter 12, we would like to look at how we have to live a life of worshiping God together.

1)    The Epistle to the Romans was written by Paul around AD 57-58 in Corinth, after he spent about three years in Ephesus and traveled through Macedonia and Greece, while staying in Corinth for roughly three-months to the church in Rome.

Through this epistle, Paul wanted to make it a base for the mission to the West, visiting on his way to Spain and anticipating that Judaizers who had troubled his ministry might also spread their false teaching to the Roman church, he wrote this letter to defend the gospel of grace.

Romans is made up of two complementary parts, I mean, a part of theological foundation and the practical life that follows from it.

The first eleven chapters are doctrinal that after, in Chapters 1-8 he explained the doctrine of the salvation by faith, and then in the chapters 9-11 he dealt with Israel's disobedience yet God's plan for redeeming the remnant of the Israelites.

And then in the following Chapters 12-16, he explained the practical life, to show how the doctrines Paul taught in the first eleven chapters had to be applied in real life to the ethical question of "how then shall we live," teaching that if we have been made righteous through faith in Jesus, we have to live a holy life in our daily life.

As such, since the doctrine and its practice are doing together and the theology and ethics are woven into one, so the belief of what God has done for us in Christ has to be proved in our actual life as what we believe and love becomes the foundation of how we act.

2)    Especially in the practical life as chapter 12 started, today's text says that the first thing we have to do is our devotional life to God,

which is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship.

And then in the following verse 2, since the outward change of our behavior requires a renewal of the mind, and also only a mind renewed in this way can discern God's will and obey to it, so he goes on to say that we have to be transformed first. Yet, since the command "be transformed" is in the passive voice, we can understand that God will transform us into a new person by changing the way we think, as the New Living Translation renders it, to mean.

So, among today's text, we would like to learn few things together by looking at a few things in today's text in details.

3)    First, we would like to think about what the worship is.

In the second half of verse 1, Paul says, "present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

Here, the Greek word λογικός (logikos), has a meaning of "spiritual," as the Korean Revised Version and the English Standard Versions and the New Revised Standard Version translated it, yet this word also carries the meaning of "reasonable" or "thoughtful" or "proper" as the KJV translates it as "reasonable," and the NIV renders it "proper." So we can understand that "offering our bodies as a living sacrifice" refers to the "proper worship" that we ought to offer.

And also "offering our body" means that by offering our body through which we see with our eyes, hear with our ears, walk with our feet, speak with our mouth, and help with our hands, in other words, by offering our whole life to God, we have to live the life for God's eternal purpose and His good and perfect will.

As such, since Scripture uses the word "worship" to mean both a special activity and a whole way of life, so praising God, bowing before Him, and expressing reverence—whether in public or in private—are all acts of worship. Therefore we can know that in the narrow sense, worship refers to the public worship service we hold on Sunday, but in the broad sense, worship refers to an entire way of life that serves God, gives Him glory, and reflects His glory to others.

And then to look at the words related to worship in Scripture, in the Old Testament, the Hebrew words related to worship include חוה (hawa) in Genesis 24:26, avad עבד (avad) in Exodus 3:12, and yare יָרֵא (yare) in Deuteronomy 10:12, which means each to bow down", and "to serve" and "to revere" and also in the New testament, the Greek words include proskuneō (προσκυνέω) in Mt 2:2, latreuō (λατρεύω) in Rom 1:9, and sebo (σέβω) in Acts 13:43, which likewise mean "reverent submission," "devoted service," and "reverence and honor," so that we can know that the worship means submitting to God, serving God, and revering God in both our actions and our whole life.

4)    Then, sisters and brothers! What do you think the purpose of our worship is?

We usually say that we worshiped well when we feel moved, or gain some insight, or sense that we have received grace through the worship service or the sermon. Of course, there is grace we receive from worshiping. How could we not receive grace when we attend the glorious worship of God, dwell in His glory, and are clothed with His glory? But if we look at verse 1 of today's text, Paul tells us that the purpose of worship has to be, first of all, to please God.

In other words, Paul is telling us that in order to please God, the devotion we offer with our whole being and our whole life is itself the worship, and that the grace we experience in worship and in the Word is the result of that worship which pleases God with our whole being and our whole life, not the primary purpose of worship.

For example, the Old Testament sacrifices show us most clearly that worship must be offered so that God delights to receive it. If we look at the burnt offering, which is the most important of the five offerings in Leviticus, we see that the worshiper had to bring a male animal - an ox, sheep, goat, or bird, according to the worshiper's means, lay hands on the animal so that the burnt offering would be accepted for atonement, and then slaughter it, skin it, cut it into pieces and wash it, even though all the rituals including contact with the altar, I mean, sprinkling the blood on the altar and burning the offering, were carried out by the priests. But all the preparation of the sacrifice should be done by the worshipers, to express a whole-hearted devotion of giving everything completely to God and then the Scripture says that at that time God was pleased to receive that burnt offering.

In this way, the purpose of worship is said to please God by offering all of the best with their heart, with materials and body to God.

5)    And then Paul also says in verse 1 that we have to offer our bodies as a holy, living sacrifice. What do you think Paul means by this "holy, living sacrifice"?

Here, a "living sacrifice" means, unlike the animal sacrifices offered in the Old Testament, not a one-time act but an offering that continues to be given, alive, for a whole lifetime. This means that we have to offer our whole body with our soul as a sacrifice to God and to His work.

And a "holy sacrifice" means consecrating everything we offer to God and devoting it in obedience to God's work and His will.

In other words, in order to offer worship that pleases God, we ourselves have to be alive both in spirit and body and set apart to God. But the problem is, we cannot obtain true life on our own and also cannot set ourselves apart to God.

So, in order to offer true worship, we have no choice but to rely on Christ. Because Christ achieved final, once-for-all sacrifice on the cross, gave new life by faith in Christ, made us holy people by consecrating us before God. Therefore we can draw neat to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need as Heb 4:16 says.

Therefore, we can know that offering ourselves as a living holy sacrifice means that we, who have been born again by the Spirit and the Word and set apart from the world, offer both our whole being and our whole life and live the life of obedience.

6)    By the way, sisters and brothers! Why do you think we have to worship God with our whole being and with a whole life lived according to His will?

Paul says that the reason why we have to worship God is simply because of God's mercy.

Here, God's mercy can be defined as "the goodness or love of God shown to those who are in misery or distress, irrespective of their deserts" as Louis Berkhof said. In other words, as Romans 3:22-25 says, His salvational work that when all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, God sacrificed His only begotten Son as a propitiation and accomplished the vicarious atonement work and justified those who believe in Christ by His grace is said to be God's mercy. And here, since the preposition "dia" marks "cause" or "reason," "Through the mercies of God" can mean "since God has shown us great mercy."

Therefore Paul says that the reason why we have to worship God is because of the salvation we received freely, in the mercy of God.

7)    In this point, there's one more thing we want to think about. I mean, in verse 1, it is said that the proper worship is offering our bodies as a holy, living sacrifice that pleases God, that is, living a life of obedience with whole being. So then, what do we do in order to worship God with our bodies, I mean, through our lives?

We can find the answer in verse 2, I mean, since it says that "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."

To elaborate it in more details, in order to offer the proper worship to God, first our hearts have to be born again by the Holy Spirit to become new (Jn 3:3). Then, when God works within us to stir up in us the will to live according to His will (Phil 2:13), yet since we do not have the ability to do good, so we have to live by the Spirit. Then, we become able to live in His will by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we could worship God through our whole being and a life of obedience.

8)    In that sense, we can see that the official worship on Sunday and the worship we offer through our lives during the week are joined together.

I mean, when we come to the Sunday worship, since having received His grace, we come to the Sunday worship service in response to that grace, giving thanks to God and praising Him with hearts of love and adoration. And in this worship, we receive the glory of God that comes down upon us, and return to the place of our daily lives, reflecting God's glory back there and living according to God's will. This is exactly the proper spiritual worship we offer through our lives.

Therefor, I pray that this year, all of us who have been chosen in the love of God, have received the grace of Christ's atoning work, and have been born again by the Spirit into new being, would live as worshipers of life, giving thanks and praise to God because of His great grace and mercy, to glorify God.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today's text, we came to know that we have received the grace of God's total salvation, given by His mercy, and that all of us, now filled with Jesus Christ, must now live our lives worshiping God. So, after reflecting on our lives and checking whether we are truly living a life of proper worship, I hope we could share our thoughts and experiences with one another in our small group.

Q2 And also, we came to know that worship is not only the public worship service we offer on Sundays, but also something we must offer to God during the week through our whole person and a life of obedience. So, after reflecting on our lives and checking whether we are truly living such a life of worship, I hope we could share our thoughts, experiences, and the grace we have received with our team members.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.