Paul's letter has two sections: chapters. 1-11 and chapters 12-16. It is likely that chapters 1-11 fulfilled Paul's intention to "preach the gospel" (as he proposed to do at the outset of the letter in 1:15) and the exhortations and encouragement of chapters 12-16 fulfilled his desire for "mutual encouragement" in 1:12. Both request sections (12:1-2 and 15:30-32) are linked to the opening thanksgiving section and communicate Paul's desire that mutual benefit accrue to his Roman hearers and himself.
12:1
“I urge you”: Compare: “Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love” Philemon 9, where Paul’s leverages his request to Philemon by his longstanding friendship with Philemon and the many ways he has helped him in the past. Christ has every right to command us who believe in him. But he too “urges” us, in view of all he has done for us, to live as he did.
As living sacrifices: James C. Miller (Tyndale Bulletin 58:105) has pointed to the use of the singular "(as) a living sacrifice" (NRSV, ESV; not "as living sacrifices" NIV) in v. 1 to indicate that the believers 'offer' themselves collectively to God as one living sacrifice. Such an 'offering' constitutes their 'reasonable service of worship' (12:1).
In other words, what is in view here is not a multitude of individual sacrifices to God, but one corporate one. This fits what Das and others have tried to show, namely, that the audience is primarily—if not exclusively—gentile, and that Paul's argument in chs. 1-11 has shown the eschatological moment—predicted among other places, in Isa. 66:19-23—has come for the "offering of the Gentiles" (note the plural) (Rom. 15:16, the offering consists of gentiles offered to God). The "mercies of God" is therefore an eschatological term which triggers the offering of the Gentiles. In the OT God's "mercies" (frequently in the plural, Greek οἰκτιρμοί oiktirmoi reflecting Hebrew רחמים raḥămîm) refers to his faithfulness to his covenant with Israel even when they sinned dreadfully (e.g., see Neh 9:19-31).
Thus it is true that:
A literal temple with its sacrifices and priesthood is no longer necessary. God's people are his temple, the dwelling place of his eschatologically bestowed Spirit (1 Cor. 6: 19; 2 Cor. 6: 16). Christ's death on the cross was the climactic and, by implication, final Day of Atonement sacrifice (Rom. 3:25-26). The believer's ethical conduct is his or her "spiritual sacrifice" (Rom. 12: 1; cf. Phil. 3:3). Paul himself is a priest who offers the sacrifice of believing Gentiles to God (Rom. 15:16), and, in the process, he himself is poured out as a sacrifice to God (Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6). Thus, there is no more need to observe the vast body of laws regulating the temple cult (Thielman, Theology of the NT 446).
This is your spiritual act of worship: The offering of our whole selves ("bodies") to God is an act of profound collective worship (Greek λατρεία latreia). And because it involves every aspect of our daily work-week lives, much of it is public worship—the world of non-believers sees us in this act. Paul calls this kind of "worship" λογικά logika, which some Bible translations render "spiritual." But what is meant by that adjective? Surely there is no implication that it is non-material or non-physical, as his discussion of the workings out of this kind of worship by obedience in chapters 12-14 clearly shows. No, the adjective λογικός logikos, derived from the noun λόγος logos "word, reason," means worship which is "guided by the logos," i.e., by the word or revealed will of God. This may also be described as "spiritual" in the sense that it is the Spirit of God who opens believers minds to the truths of the word of God and leads them into all truth (1 Cor. 2:6-16; John 14:26; 16:13; 1 John 2:20). Another possibility must be entertained. Since from what we have said above the one collective offering of believing gentiles to God, as prophesied in the OT, is in view, then that act of worship is λογικά logika in the sense that it was predicted in God's Word (his λόγος logos).
12:2
Be transformed by the renewing of your minds: Lest we think that the offering of our bodies as “living sacrifices” is some mere gesture, Paul immediately informs us that this means a transformation of our lifestyles. It means not allowing the unbelieving world around us to dictate how we should live. Paul conformed to groups of people he wished to win for Christ (Jews, Greeks, etc.; see 1 Cor 9:19-21, and other passages), but that conformity was only in externals (dress, language, “innocent” variant forms of devotion), but never involving a compromising of theology or ethics. Like Jesus before him, Paul understood the mutual incompatibility of the “world” (as a system of thought and behavior) and God. The apostle John also mirrors his Master’s attitude in his own statements about “the world” (1John 2:15-17; 3:1, 13; 4:1, 3-5; 5:4-5, 19).
But that is only the negative side of the coin. The positive side is that we should allow God’s Spirit who lives in us to use the gospel and the scriptures to create in us a new outlook and attitude, one that is “counter-cultural” in the true sense of that word, instead of the trendy sense fostered by unbelieving media personalities. In fact, much that today goes by the term “counter-cultural” is nothing more than adolescent rebelliousness, and a knee-jerk conformity to a mindset that is frozen in the 1960s.
But the Christian “renewed mind” is something different. It is nothing other than bringing a new believer's ethical criteria in line with God's revealed law and word. Ridderbos puts it well when he writes:
Nowhere in Paul's epistles do we find anything of a spiritualism that with regard to the content of God's will makes an antithesis between the law and the Spirit, the decree coming from without and the inner disposition. The law itself is holy and spiritual (Rom. 7: 14), and thus cannot be placed over against the Spirit; it is not made superfluous by the Spirit, but rather established. "Letting oneself be led by the Spirit" consists also in learning anew to discern and prove the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God (Rom. 12:2), qualifications that with a little variation are elsewhere applied to the law (Rom. 7:12) [Paul: An Outline of His Theology, p. 283].
Making the mind of these Gentile converts new ("renewing") was necessary, because Gentile ethics were much inferior to the high moral standards of the Torah, inferior even to the less stringent Noachic commandments.
That this transformation of a believer's mind is a lengthy, day to day process is shown by the present progressive sense of the Greek verb μεταμορφοῦσθε "keep on being transformed". That the verb is passive need not mean that no effort on our part is required. But ultimately it is God who makes our ethical judgments and our life decisions to fit with his own mind.
And without in any way seeking to downplay the role of the Holy Spirit in the process, let me warn you that you should not make of this process something magical or mystical. Often it is accomplished by nothing less unusual and down-to-earth than meditating on passages that we read in the Bible. Thoughtful reading accompanied by intermittent short prayer can accomplish a great deal in the area of making our attitudes and priorities truly “new” in Christ.
Again, let me remind you of the centrality of Psalm 1 in Paul’s thinking in this chapter. “Don’t be conformed to this world” is Paul’s commentary on Psalm 1:1 “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.” And “but be transformed by letting your mindset be made new” is his comment on Psalm 1:2 “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in this law he meditates day and night.” The most important key to understanding Paul is to understand that for him the work of the Holy Spirit virtually always involves the use of the Bible in our minds and our motives.
In the rush-rush world we live in, with all the competing claims on our time and the lure of readily accessible information and entertainment, it is more difficult than ever before in history for us who believe in Jesus to make time alone with him in slow, thoughtful meditation on Scripture and in earnest prayer for the needs of others we know of. This “quiet time” is always in danger of being sidetracked by the glitzier ways we can spend “free time”. That is why the Christian life is so often portrayed in the Bible as a demanding discipline (Acts 20:24; 1Cor 9:24-27; Gal. 5:7; Phil. 3:7-11; 1Tim 4:7; 2Tim 2:3-4; 4:7; Hebrews 12:7-8). But just look at how hard professional athletes work and how much pain they endure, just to be able to play in the best competition and to gain fame and a big salary (see 1Cor 9 again). Is not what we are after much greater than this?
Notes:
On Rom. 15:16 see Bruce, NT History 353: “The collection [for the poor believers in Jerusalem] was not designed by Paul only as something that would forge a bond of fellowship between his Gentile mission and the mother-church, greatly as he desired this. In his eyes it was fraught with eschatological meaning. It was the tangible 'fruit' of the Aegean phase of his ministry which was now completed; his ministry thus far would be 'sealed' by the presentation of this 'fruit' at Jerusalem. In a sense the money collected might be called the offering of the Gentiles, but when Paul tells the Romans of his aim 'that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit', he is speaking of the Gentile believers themselves as the offering which he himself is presenting 'in the priestly service of the gospel of God' (Rom. 15:16). The collection for Jerusalem was but an outward and visible sign of this more sacred offering.” See also E. P. Sanders, Paul [1991], 2f., 50f., 118f.; E. Schnabel, Early Christian Mission [1991] 975f.; J. Stott, Romans [1994], 379; T. Donaldson, Paul and the Gentiles [1997], 255f.; W. Kaiser, Mission in the OT [2000], 10, 77;
See “He is like a tree planted [passive!] by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither” Psalm 1; believers are “filled [passive!] with the Spirit”.
No comments:
Post a Comment