Paul’s Letter to the Romans: Chapter 12–Priests, Sacrifices, and What is Good–and a Few Burning Coals (Part 18)

With all that “Gospel theology” in Romans 1-8, and then the questions regarding ethnic Israel now explained in Romans 9-11, Paul turns his attention to explaining the practical application of all that to the everyday lives of the Christians living in Rome. This is the focus of Romans 12-16.

By extension, what we find in Romans 12-15 very much applies to us as Christians living in America today. For here in Romans 12-15, Paul essentially gets to where the rubber meets the road. Talking theology is all well and good (and obviously quite necessary!), but living that theology out in the everyday world is what matters. If your theology isn’t actually lived out, then what you have isn’t faith…it’s just facts and arguments.

The way the next few chapters in Romans are laid out looks like this:

• Romans 12:1-21: Paul addresses what it looks like to live the life of the Holy Spirit within the Community of Faith
• Romans 13:1-14: Paul addresses what it looks like to live the life of the Holy Spirit within the Pagan World
• Romans 14:1-15:13: Paul makes an appeal for the Jewish-Christians and Gentile-Christians in Roman to accept one another

With that introduction, let’s get to Romans 12…

Priests, Living Sacrifices, the New Age, and What is Good (Romans 12:1-2)
Romans 12:1-2 set up everything else that comes after it in the chapter. One thing should be clear: Paul is not talking about individualistic Christianity. He is talking about the corporate people of God—the Church. This is something that highly-individualistic American Christians have to get their heads around. God’s goal of salvation is not simply to “save” individuals, so that those individuals can “go to heaven.” God’s goal of salvation is to re-create a people for His Name—the People of God. Therefore, by virtue of being the People of God, we must take care that we live as the People of God—we must take care that we are living out Christ-like relationships with other Christians within the Body of Christ. This is what Paul is getting at here in Romans 12.

Now, we need to spend a little time with these first two verses in chapter 12. First, Paul begins with what will be for some people to be a very famous verse: “Present your bodies as living sacrifices. This is your sensible act of worship.” In case you don’t get it, “living sacrifices” is an oxymoron. Paul is using the language of the animal sacrificial system and applying it to the daily life of the believer. In addition, since the one who offers the sacrifices is a priest, Paul is basically saying that believers are to offer their own bodies, just as Christ our high priest offered his, as a sacrifice that will help bring about the reconciliation of the world. Just as Christ was both priest and sacrifice, so are believers to be. Believers have a job to do: be priests, and that starts with offering themselves. Believers are called to be imitators of Christ: and that entails sacrificing ourselves for the reconciliation of others.

In addition, Paul then calls presenting your bodies as “living sacrifices” as the believers sensible act of worship. This is important to note, because some translations like the NIV, NRSV, and ESV have spiritual act of worship. The Greek word here is λογικὴν (logican) (from where we get the word “logic”), not πνευματικὸν, which actually does mean “spiritual.” Now, although in a sense offering your body as a living sacrifice is spiritual, that’s not what Paul is talking about—he is saying that offering your body as a living sacrifice is the logical and sensible thing to do for a believer. This is completely opposite of how Paul described the senseless thoughts of the Gentiles in Romans 1:22-23, when they worship created things, and not the Creator.

Verse two also contains another horrible translation job by many translators. It should read “Don’t be conformed to this age,” not “Don’t be conformed to this world.” The reason why this is important is because Paul is specifically referring to the present old age (in contrast to the new Messianic age that was ushered in at Pentecost). This “already/not yet” worldview runs throughout Paul’s letter, and needs to be seen here as well. The reason why the believer can choose to not be conformed to this age is precisely because he has died to “the old age way of things,” and has been empowered by the Holy Spirit of the new Messianic age. And so, not only are believers not to be conformed to this age, but they are also to be “transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Simply put, they must continue to walk in faith and by doing so, develop a new way of looking at things. It is this new Spirit-empowered worldview will make it possible for you to “discern the will of God”—not on the sense of “Does God want me to get this job or marry that person?” But rather to discern what is good. And note, Paul doesn’t say “discern what is right.” There is a huge difference sometimes between what is good and what is right. We need to realize that sometimes, even if you are right about something, it is not good to insist on your way, because you might hurt someone else. And if you knowingly hurt someone else simply because you have to prove that you are right, then what you’ve done is actually evil. And the aim of Pauline ethics is to determine and do what is good. We’ll see this play out in the next few chapters.

So Tell Me, How Do You Think About Yourself? (Romans 12:3-8)
So what is the outgrowth of “offering your bodies as living sacrifices,” “not being conformed to this age,” and “transforming your minds in order to discern what is good”? Paul articulates this in 12:3-8. It comes down to this:

• Have a sober estimation of yourself
• And do everything in the context of one another

Now, let’s get this straight. Paul is not saying that you should think of yourself as a worthless nobody. He’s saying be honest with yourself about yourself: know your weakness, your strengths, etc. Don’t think of yourself too highly or too lowly. And when he talks about “the measure of faith” given to you, he’s not talking about “saving faith” here. He’s simply saying that you should live out and practice the things you have been gifted with, with the purpose of using your gifts to serve others. That is why he talks about “one body/many parts” in 12:4-5. You are part of the one body of Christ, but you have been uniquely gifted in a special way, so use your unique gifts to serve others and strength the body of Christ.

This doesn’t mean you have to use your gifts in a literal church service or something like that. It means that you should use your gifts to build up other Christians. Paul essentially says this very thing in 12:6-8: wherever you are gifted, do that, whatever that may be: prophecy, service, teaching, encouraging, giving, caring, showing mercy…the list can go on. But we should realize that “being spiritual” does not mean you have to do one specific thing. My gift, for example, is teaching—therefore, Paul would tell me, do that. But I do not really have the gift of either being a pastor, or caring for people in need—therefore, Paul would probably tell me, “Joel, don’t be a pastor! And when someone is going through a tough time, let someone who is naturally more sympathetic and caring go to that person…you tend to be a little cold!” And that’s okay—there are certain things I don’t do too well, there are other things I really do well. Paul’s advice is really just common sense: do the things that God has wired you up for, and don’t try to be someone you aren’t.

Life in the Spirit within the Church (Romans 12:9-21)
The rest of Romans 12 (verses 9-21) now consists of a series of imperatives/participles that act as a description of life in the Spirit. Simply put, Paul is saying that a “Holy Spirit community” should look like what he describes. First, in 12:9-10, Paul says that love within such a community will look like people putting others ahead of themselves. Now, it’s worth noting, that Paul doesn’t mean that you should try to think the other person is actually better than you. He is simply saying that you should put other people’s needs ahead of your own. Simply put, practice love that is self-sacrificial for the sake of other people’s needs. Second, in 12:11-13, Paul spells out a description of love within the community: doing what is good. And, directly applied to the Roman community’s situation, “what is good” means living together as one people of God. Paul wants Jewish-Christians and Gentile-Christians to be one people of God, not two. (I wonder that says about the over 20,000 Protestant denominations out there?)

The rest of 12:14-21 simply elaborates on what is good: bless those who persecute you, don’t curse; rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep…the list goes on. But ultimately, it can be summarized by these two commands: “Live in harmony with one another” (v. 16), and “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (v. 18).

Let’s face it, such things are easy to read, but hard to put into practice. We love to talk about living in peace, but oftentimes we don’t want to actually have to work at it. We tend to want to have the Gospel, but then not to have its effects in our lives. We tend to want to hold on to our pain when someone hurts us, and then make that person pay! Believe me, I know exactly how that feels. But Paul won’t let us do that. A Holy Spirit community forgives wrongs and works toward peace and harmony with each other. That is a huge challenge for any Christian, but it is something that is essential to do.

One More Thing: What’s Up With the Burning Coals? (Romans 12:20)
There is one last thing to note in chapter 12. What does “heaping burning coals on his head” mean (v. 20)? Well, Paul is not saying, “Hey, if someone sins against you, be really nice to that person so he’ll feel bad!” as if “making him feel bad” is the ultimate form of revenge! (In reality, such a mindset is just completely petty and passive-aggressive—and yes, I’m sure we all know people like that). Rather, what Paul is saying is this: when you do the Christ-like thing and repay evil with good, your “enemy,” when he sees your goodness in response to his evil, will find that his conscience is affected. “Burning coals” will be on his conscience—and hopefully he’ll respond to his conscience and repent. That is why Paul ends with, “Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good” (v. 21). When you respond to evil with goodness, that person might be saved from his evil—you will have worked toward peace, and will have overcome evil with good.