A blog post by Kevin Deane - www.valleyofdrychurches.webs.com
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. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:1-8)
Chapters 1-11 of Romans lay out some very important themes for understanding this passage.
Depravity
Right after Paul's introduction up until Romans 3:23, Paul is telling us who we are. He defines humanity, and its not a pretty picture. We have inherited everything that Adam was at the moment of the fall – we usurp authority, we flee from God's glory and we hate the true God. In Chapter 3 it says “None is righteous, no not one, no understands, no one seeks God.” This is one of the best verses we have to describe exactly what we are like. We are like people drowning on the bottom of the ocean. Christ must dive down and come up underneath us and drag us to the surface because we do not even have enough willpower to reach up and grasp a hold of him. This is how strong sin grips our hearts and how totally depraved we really are. Repentance is to forsake not only what you've done, but who you are.
The only thing you contribute to salvation is sin, so the only thing a Christian can say is 'the only good thing in me is Christ.' You do yourself no favours to overestimate your condition.
Christ's Gift
In Romans chapters 3&4, we see the doctrine of propitiation and the need for faith Christ's blood was put forward, so the wrath of God was appeased, and the favour of God was restored. It was entirely a work of Christ, it can be received only by faith. Christ took our sinfulness and gave us His righteousness. Christ didn't just make you right with God, but lavished His riches on you. He not only cancelled our debt but gave us many gifts. We are now rich in Him, haveing been made into someone new.
The Struggle Between Flesh and Spirit
Chapters 5-8 continue to contrast man's unrighteousness and God's righteousness. You have two natures – one of the flesh, and one of the Spirit. One from Adam and one from Christ. Victorious Christian living is defined by crucifying Adam and letting Christ reign. This is the content of chapters 5-8
Chapters 9-11 are about God's sovereignty in the matter.
Dealing With Adam
C.H. Spurgeon defined humility as 'thinking rightly of ourselves.'
The command in Romans 12:1 is to put yourself on the altar. That is, to die. A living sacrifice – the entirety of your being. It is pride in us that would suggest there is no need to die. The essence of pride in the Christian heart is to say 'I have come as far as I need to. I know and do enough.' Humility is the opposite. Humility recognizes that there is still work to do in me. Humility sees Adam and recognizes that he must be killed.
Humility feels no right to a better treatment than Christ received. On the contrary, humility recognizes who we really are, and desires to be united with Christ in his death. Christ's death was a complete death. It was a violent death. It is the call to the Christian to take every struggling bit of sin within your heart and have it thrown onto the altar, so that it will die as Christ did. You will never find victory over sin until you are so surrendered in the arms of Christ that you will let Him take every aspect of your life, lay it on the altar, and have the knife brought down.
“Jesus, all for Jesus, all I am and have and hope to be”
We are put on the altar like He was, because Christ will do more with you as a dead man then you will ever do with yourself as a living man.
New Life
It doesn't end here, but moves on to transformation and renewal in 12:2. He renews our minds. He doesn't leave us dead, but raises us to life as something greater than before. We are given new hearts, hearts that desire Him and hearts that are able to serve Him. We are no longer dead towards God, but able to discern His good will – a contrast to the verse about 'no one understanding' that we looked at earlier.
Humility
Then we move on to verse 3, which is about humility. Remember, Humility is to think of ourselves as we ought. It is not humility to think any more or any less of yourself than you ought to.
Humility is to recognize that which is in you that is from Adam, and kill it.
Humility is to recognize that which is in you that is from Christ and live it.
Knowing that the Adam in me is dead, and Christ is alive in me, I am not to think of myself more highly than I ought to. Simply act according to what God has given you. Humility is to serve Christ and to serve others with the heart for service that Christ has given you. It is to place no confidence in yourself, nor is it to belittle yourself.
It is not humility to feel you are the only gifted musician, or the best gifted musician, or that you have something great to offer.
It is also not humility to deny that you are musical, and feel you have no place serving the body of Christ.
Humility means not looking highly upon yourself, for without grace you will never seek God.
Humility is not to look too lowly on yourself, for that would be to belittle the Presence of Christ and His work in your life.
To walk in humility means that every day you should wake up, and seek that God would put to death in you anything that comes from Adam, and help you to live out that which comes from Christ. An example of this took place in my frehsmen year of college. Another frehsmen, Nori was a guy I didn't really get along with – I thought he was really cocky. One night, at a worship event, he approached me and stuck out his hand. 'I know I've never said anything to you,' he said, 'but I've secretly been jealous of you and have been thinking poorly of you, and I'm sorry.' At that moment it was like receiving a knife in my heart. Essentially, what he had just said to me was ' I've been looking at you through Adam's eyes, and thinking of you with a mind of the flesh. I want to do away with Adam, and love you as Christ has commanded to love brothers in the church.' I never been so humbled in all my life. Without his humility and ability to recognize his own flesh, I never would have seen my own. But I immediately became aware of the resentment in my own heart, I apologized to him, we made things right and have been friends ever since. We had viewed each other through Adam's eyes. The feelings I had towards him were Adam's feelings, and they needed to be dealt with. We worshipped together that night, and have attended every worship night together for the last 3 years.
Examine your relationships with others, and see if you are looking at other people through Adam's eyes or Christ's eyes. Examine your relationship with your significant other and see if you are looking at them with Adam's eyes, or Christ's eyes. Examine your devotional life and see if it is reflective of Adam's relationship to God, or Christ's relationship with God. How little you pray will show you how self-sufficient you feel. Examine the time spent learning about God – do you feel know it all, or are you hungry for more?
The rest of Romans 12 is a list of things to do according to the Spirit nature and not the Adamic nature.
Humility is to recognize that which is in you that is from Adam, and kill it.
Humility is to recognize that which is in you that is from Christ and live it.
What in your life is from Adam that you are letting live? What in your life has God given you that you are denying? Humility is to think rightly of ourselves. Not too highly, not too lowly.
It is Christ in me, the hope of glory. It is not 'me in me the hope of glory.' Neither can you forget that Christ is in YOU.
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