Theology for Everybody: RomansSample

Rebels With a Cause: Die to Yourself?

Christians are to be rebels with a cause. As everyone else rebels against God, we rebel against the world. As they pick up a bottle, we pick up the Bible. As they picket and protest, we worship and pray. We have our own countercultural rebellion as God’s people. At some point in life, we must decide what kind of people we will become, what kind of lives we will live, and what kind of legacy we will leave.

The first eleven chapters are primarily about our vertical relationship with God—how He loves us, seeks us, saves us, forgives us, pursues us, adores us, and never leaves nor forsakes us. In chapters 12 through 16, the apostle examines our horizontal relationship with one another. Once you have a relationship with God, you now have an example and a resource for your human relationships. He forgives us, so we forgive one another. God loves us, so we love one another. He pursues us, so we pursue one another. God is generous toward us, so we’re generous toward one another. The way He treats us is how we treat one another and set our culture as a family and church family.

This overview of Romans may sound familiar because Paul echoes the Lord Jesus. The first five books of the Old Testament contain over 600 laws —lists of dos and don’ts. People asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was, and He replied: "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these" (Mark 12:28–31).

Jesus said it’s all about your relationship with God, and then your relationship with God informs and transforms how you relate to others.

The first thing Paul teaches in Romans 12 is how we die to ourselves and live for God. This is countercultural and revolutionary because if you don’t know Jesus, you live for yourself. You wake up every day, look in the mirror, and wonder, What do I want? What do I need? What do I feel? Once you meet the Lord Jesus, you wonder, What does He want? What does He think and feel? What does He command? We shift from living for ourselves to dying to ourselves and living for God.

"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" (Romans 12:1). First of all, Paul calls believers “brothers,” meaning we are to love each other like family. His next phrase, “by the mercies of God,” is a good news reminder of God’s mercy. We don’t always get things right the first, second, or hundredth time, but God’s mercy never runs out.

“Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (v. 1). How do we worship the God who has saved us? We will examine what worship is and what worship is not, but first, let’s start looking at worship myths more in-depth tomorrow.

Today’s Reflection

How is following God countercultural in today’s society?