We are beginning our look into the mystery spoken of by Paul in his letter to the Romans, a small book full of interesting tidbits of spiritual information which causes our growth by Graces wisdom and understanding. In the first portion of this passage he tells the readers that he does not want anyone to remain ignorant of this mystery but sadly the religious world over millions if not billions of faithful followers of the church or a denomination of it remain in ignorance of all things now spiritual. This understanding came to us while we were part of the church of denominationalism. Later on we find that many had moved on by way of separation from the LORD's disciples to form their own sect's of religion. While the LORD's church remained to this day a group of interrelationship with the LORD as its head. For this reason I will pick up this study by looking at the last portion of Romans 12:1-2 as opposed to the first of 11:21-24 which references the Lord Jesus' teaching of Himself being the true and trustworthy Vine of John 15:1-11. By way of review lets look at 12:1-2 of Romans 12, here is what it states; "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 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." Now here are the areas of interest that I would like to cover before returning to the first portion of our passage, they are follows; mercy, consecration, mortifying of our flesh, self-sacrifice, acceptable offering, unworldliness vs worldliness and spiritual renewal. I must say that allot of this has been looked at and if possible I will sort these out to find the most recent studies of these targeted areas.
First for some general references for GOD's mercy,
Deuteronomy 4:24- 25-31; 2Samuel 24:14; Psalm 86:5 "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
"When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. For the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. It is there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. It is from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find Him, if you search after Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey His voice. For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that He swore to them."
2Samuel 24:10-14 "But David's heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly." When David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, "Go and say to David, 'Thus says the LORD, Three things I offer you. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.'" So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, "Shall three years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now consider, and decide what answer I shall return to Him who sent me." To this David said to Gad, "I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man."
Psalm 86:1-10 "Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in You—You are my God. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to You do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of Your servant, for to You, O LORD, do I lift up my soul. For You, O LORD, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon You. Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace. In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for You answer me. There is none like You among the gods, O LORD, nor are there any works like Yours. All the nations You have made will come and worship before You, O LORD, and will glorify Your name. For You are great and do wondrous things; You alone are GOD."
Eternal,
Psalm 103:14, 15-18 with 106:11 "For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear (who are dreadful of) Him, and His righteousness to children's children, to those who keep His covenant and remember to do His commandments.
Psalm 106:6-12 "Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness. Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider Your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of Your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. Yet He saved them for His name's sake, that He might make known His mighty power. He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and He led them through the deep as through a desert. So He saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy. And the waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left. Then they believed His words; they sang His praise."
Boundless,
Psalm 108:1-6 with 119:64 "My heart is steadfast, O God! I will sing and make melody with all my being! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn! I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the peoples; I will sing praises to You among the nations. For Your steadfast love is great above the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let Your glory be over all the earth! That Your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by Your right hand and answer me!"
Heth.
Psalm 119:57-64 "The LORD is my portion; I promise to keep Your words. I entreat Your favor (grace) with all my heart; be gracious to me according to Your promise. When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to Your testimonies; I hasten and do not delay to keep Your commandments. Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget Your law (the direction one is to take in life). At midnight I rise to praise You, because of Your righteous rules. I am a companion of all who fear (reverence) You, of those who keep Your precepts. The earth, O LORD, is full of Your steadfast love; teach me Your statutes!"
Prolongs Life,
Lamentations 3:19-38 "Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in Him." The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. For the LORD will not cast off forever, but, though He cause grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love; for He does not afflict from His heart or grieve the children of men. To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the LORD does not approve. Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the LORD has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?"
Encourages to Penitence,
Joel 2:1-17 "Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations. Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them. Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run. As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle. Before them peoples are in anguish; all faces grow pale. Like warriors they charge; like soldiers they scale the wall. They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths. They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path; they burst through the weapons and are not halted. They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls, they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief. The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The LORD utters His voice before His army, for His camp is exceedingly great; he who executes His word is powerful. For the day of the LORD is great and very awesome; who can endure it? "Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster.
Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, "Spare Your people, O LORD, and make not Your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"
Forgives Sin,
Micah 7:14-20 with Luke 1:50 and Ephesians 2:4 "Shepherd Your people with Your staff, the flock of Your inheritance, who dwell alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land; let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things. The nations will see and be ashamed of all their might; they will lay their hands on their mouths; their ears shall be deaf; they will lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth; they will come trembling out of their strongholds; they will turn in dread to the LORD our God, and they will be in fear (dread which brings reverence) of You. Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as You have sworn to our fathers from the days of old."
Luke 1:46-55 "Mary said, "My soul magnifies the LORD, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked on the humble estate of His servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is for those who fear (those who are reverently obedient to [Deu 18:15-22]) Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever."
Ephesians 1:15-2:10 "For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which HE has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that HE worked in Christ when HE raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And HE put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. For you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But GOD, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which HE loves us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages HE might show the immeasurable riches of His Grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of GOD, not a result of (Laws) works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good (faith and love) works, which GOD prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Make Salvation Possible,
Titus 3:1-11 "Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. For when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, HE saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, Whom HE poured (the imbeding that stains and indwells, saturates us) out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of Eternal Life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed GOD may be careful to devote themselves to (His) good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned."
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