"In view of His Mercy...."

"Therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies a living and holy sacrifices, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:1-2)

I have been thinking alot about my life and the direction that I know the Lord is leading me in regards to my personal life as it relates to the way that I lead and serve my wife and children; especially as it relates to the roles of the man and the woman in a marriage relationship. Obviously, I could talk about Ephesians 5, I Timothy 2, and Titus 1-2, until I am blue in the face, but it means nothing unless you and I are looking at them from the same paradigm. "We interpret Scripture through presuppositions of what we 'think' to be true" So basically, if you (or I) are not basing everything that you do (every facet of your day to day life) on the revealed truth found in the scripture than you are, simply put, living your life according to what you think to be true, which has been influenced / saturated by the every element of the world specifically designed to present a truth in direct contrast to the Word of God, and henceforth you interpret passages such as the ones listed above from a presupposition of truth that has no foundation or root in the revealed truth found in the Word of God. So, these verses regarding the roles of the husband and the wife, are foolishness to you because you are not reading them from a presupposition that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible, complete, revealed truth of God useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that you will be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Having said that, I could not begin to instruct or comment on the roles of the husband and wife, which clearly do not conform to the pattern of this world (Rom 12:2) unless I first present, through scripture the "view of God's mercy".
I do feel like this part of the verse can get overlooked or less emphasized, but as I was sitting here in prayer thinking about these verses in Romans 12, I kept coming back to this phrase, (In view of God's mercy). I believe that this is the foundational phrase from which you can understand not only the rest of that chapter, but pretty much the whole New Testament and God's instructions for living an unashamed, non-conforming, righteous-seeking life. The verse says, "...in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices..."; throughout the Old Testament sacrifices were made as repentance for sins, in honor to God, and as acts of worship. When Christ came He did away with the earthly sacrifices as a means of justification for sins. He became the justification / propititation for my sins. He looked at me: wretched, dead in my trespasses and sins, worthless (of my own merit), abominable, damnable to hell, and through His grace gave the gift of salvation sovereignly to an object of His wrath (me). Basically, He is just. Therefore, before Him, I deserve eternal wrath in hell, but He by His Sovereign saving grace showed mercy on my soul, giving me a saving faith that was from Him (Eph 2:8-9) so that I could spend eternity with Him. THAT is mercy (very short version)! So now back to the verse in Romans 12: "...in view of God's MERCY..." He tells us to offer our bodies (our lives -- the totality of them) to Him as a spirtual act of worship. Another thing to note, in the Old Testament, when they offered sacrifices they did not offer to the Lord defiled offerings, they were required to offer to Him the best of the best. Now back to Romans....He doesn't want us to offer Him defiled lives. "...in view of God's MERCY..." when you begin to see THAT, how could you possibly not want to do everything possible to offer your very best to Him! Well, what is your very best? Read the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5,6,7) and keep reading in Romans 12 --> "Do not conform anymore to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" ...Hebrews 12 :1 says, "...let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run the race that is set before us..." I will let the Word and the Holy Spirit direct you to what those verses are talking about in your life. So once your "view of God's mercy" is broadened and your understanding, from The Word, is deepened, you begin to realize that the things of this world grow strangly dim in the light of His glory and grace! So the long and short is that you cannot understand the freedom in the Lord's order for the family unit and each one's role until you have sought His Word and He has revealed himself, through His Word, to you in such a way that His mercy overwhelms you and His grace leads you to the cross.

"The Cross (of Christ) does not give us a minor shift or two with regad to a few of our ethical and moral and religious values. The cross radically disrupts the very center and citadel of your life from self, to Christ" (http://www.illbehonest.com/)


All His Love and Grace
Matt