Note to teachers: this lesson has two objectives. The first is to make the student aware that the concept of sacrifice changes within each generation. It is too easy to substitute the concept of our generation for God's concept. It is simple for each generation to make an inconvenience a "sacrifice." Being God's living sacrifice involves much more than enduring inconvenience. The second is to lead the student to understand that a Christian makes his or her body God's living sacrifice daily by placing himself or herself on God's altar. Through serving and godly behavior he or she gives self each day to God's purposes. God's purposes are honored in all of that day's activities.
To you, what is the meaning of the word "sacrifice"? How do your mother and father define "sacrifice"? How do your grandparents define it? How did your great-grandparents define it? How did family members in the World Wars, the Korean Conflict, or the Vietnam War define it?
If you lived in circumstances that provided no TV, no microwave, no "fast food," no washing machine, no vacuum cleaner, no telephone access, and no computer access, would you sacrifice? Did your grandparents consider those circumstances to be a sacrifice?
If you lived in circumstances that provided one means of transportation [that the husband used in his work], no electricity, and no running water in the house, would that be a sacrifice? Did your great-grandparents consider those circumstances to be a sacrifice?
If you lived in circumstances that required "hand-carried" water to the house, a wood-burning stove for meal preparation, and an "outhouse" for a toilet, would that be a sacrifice? Did relatives living in the late 1800s consider those circumstances to be a sacrifice?
Each age changes the human concept of sacrifice. Time reshapes the human concept. God is ageless. Time does not reshape His concept. Human material and technological progress never alter God's concept of sacrifice. Changes in human lifestyles alter the way people make sacrifices. However, those changes never alter God's concept.
Help your students grasp this understanding: I cannot substitute my concept of sacrifice for God's concept of sacrifice. The human focus of my generation does not define the concept God wants the Christian to accept and understand.
Paul wrote the letter we call Romans to Christians who did not understand God's actions. Obviously, their concept of God was flawed. That is understandable. The religious background of most first century Christians was Judaism or idolatry. In both Judaism and idolatry, similar animal sacrifices were offered in similar ceremonies. Both had sacrificial altars, a temple or temples, priests, and concepts of "acceptable worship." Both tended to regard God or the gods as "procedure centered" [observing the proper sacrificial process was the key to making God or the gods happy]. Following the correct procedures and knowing the proper system made deity content. God or the gods were seen as inflexible, distant, and demanding, but not as kind and benevolent.
The following is a "thought flow" the author sees in the structure of the letter to the Romans. Do not use the class period for an in-depth examination of Romans. The purpose is to demonstrate that this letter naturally falls into two sections. Section one deals with basic concepts about God and His behavior in saving people. These Christians struggled with some of Christianity's basic concepts (such as grace, the basis for God's forgiveness, the purpose of obedience, and God's objectives in Israel). Their misunderstanding of God's actions was an evidence that they did not understand God's person. Section two focuses on the behavior of the Christian who properly understands God and His behavior. A correct understanding of God's behavior in extending salvation to people changes people's behavior.
The first eleven chapters of Romans dealt with basic concepts, concepts that were strange to most converts. Romans 1:16,17: God provides salvation to the person who places his or her confidence in the "good news" about God's forgiveness in Jesus Christ. The foundation of righteousness is not correct acts that follow proper procedure. Righteousness results from trusting God.
They found it extremely difficult to understand that a person could not make himself or herself righteous by performing the proper human acts. The enduring concept [in spite of the teachings of Israel's prophets] in Judaism and in idolatry was this: righteousness is produced by human religious acts. The Christian does not achieve personal righteousness through obedience, but the Christian responds to being made righteous by obediently serving God.
Romans 1:18-2:29: Every person needs a way to be saved that is based on trust rather than human achievement. Human failure condemns every person including the godless and the expert.
Everyone from the most ungodly person to the most knowledgeable expert of scripture needed forgiveness. Forgiveness could not be granted to anyone on the basis of human merit or human deservedness. Regardless of how one human fared in comparison to another human, all humans were [and are] failures when compared to God. Faith was the means for anyone to be righteous before God. Everyone from the ungodly to the moral judge could become a believer. Regardless of one's past or present evil condition or activities, everyone could become righteous by placing his or her confidence in Jesus Christ.
Romans 3:1-18: The Jew's advantage is not found in a special relationship with God. The Jew's advantage is the result of his awareness that God was and is at work.
Paul's teaching that God could accept anyone who placed his or her trust in Christ offended many Israelites. They argued this concept destroyed their advantages of being God's chosen people. Paul declared that their advantages were not to be seen in their past history, but in their awareness of God's identity and work.
Romans 3:21-31: Through Jesus' death, God made it possible for every person to be righteous before God by placing his or her confidence in Jesus who is the Christ.
To the author, this is the most concise and complete statement of how God made salvation possible. It focused the reader on what God did (and does), not on human heritage or achievements.
Romans 4: Abraham is the proof that God always used faith [trust, confidence] to provide salvation.
Paul declared the teaching that God extended salvation through faith was not a new idea. It was as old as Abraham. God considered Abraham to be righteous because Abraham trusted God.
Romans 5: Justification [a forgiven person standing before God as if he or she was sinless] is the result of faith in Jesus, and the combination of justification and faith produces personal peace.
No person can stand before God and declare himself or herself to be sinless. Every person is guilty of being and doing evil. How can a holy God with no sin accept into His family people who have been and are guilty of evil? The holy God can do that by justifying (regarding as sinless) a person through forgiveness. The Christian stands pure before the holy God because he or she is continually forgiven. He or she is continually forgiven because he or she places his or her confidence in Christ. The Christian's peace does not come from his or her religious achievements. It comes from trusting his or her forgiveness. He or she trusts forgiveness by trusting Jesus Christ.
Romans 6: God's goodness allows us to be justified by placing our confidence in Jesus. The Christian who understands God's goodness refuses to abuse it. He or she became a Christian to destroy evil within self, not to excuse his or her evil. He or she refuses to allow evil to rule himself or herself. He or she allows God to rule by obeying God.
The purpose of being baptized into Christ is to destroy evil within me by accepting God's forgiveness. It is not a "magical act," but a conscious choice based on faith in Jesus and an understanding of God. The baptized person who seeks to exploit God's goodness does not understand his or her baptism. He or she sought a way to escape evil, not a way to condone and continue evil. The baptized person places God in control of his or her life. God rules. He or she demonstrates a willing submission to God's rule by being obedient.
Romans 7: Law condemns ungodly behavior. My determination combined with my will power cannot end my ungodly behavior. When I of myself seek to defeat my inner evil, I confirm the power of evil.
Law is powerless to help me escape evil. Law reveals to me the truth that I am evil by confirming my failure to be pure and holy. Law exists to condemn, not to forgive. [Law convicts violators. Courts exist to convict those who break the law. Law does not exist to commend law keepers.] No person can rescue himself or herself from evil by combining law with will power. The more determined the person becomes, the more hopeless his or her situation becomes.
Romans 8: There is no condemnation in Christ because there is perfect forgiveness in Christ. In every way the rule of Christ and the indwelling Spirit is superior to the control of law.
The combination of the Christ's work and the Spirit's work within us rescues us from evil. Christ forgives. Christ does something the law never does. The Spirit works with us as we learn how to surrender our sinful but forgiven selves to God.
Romans 9 and 10: Paul: "With all my being, I wish everyone in Israel understood God's accomplishments in Jesus."
These teachings irritated many Israelites. They viewed them as destroying the privileges of their ancient, special relationship with God and destroying their perceived privileges of that relationship. They became so obsessed with their perceived loss that they never recognized their God-given blessing.
Romans 11: By making reconciliation possible between Himself and believing people who were not Jews, God did not reject Israel. Instead, God challenged Israel to recognize and accept His perfect reconciliation through Jesus.
From the moment that evil was the reality of the human condition, God's objective was to reconcile people to Himself. Evil alienated people from God. God wanted to reverse this basic consequence of evil through reconciliation. Using reconciliation to accept people who were not Israelites did not constitute a rejection of Israel. People who were not Israelites were reconciled to God because they trusted what God accomplished through Jesus. Israelites needed the same reconciliation because Israelites also were the victims of evil. The same reconciliation was available to them. Reconciliation rests in God's power, not in human heritage. That power works in any person who trusts what God did in Jesus.
In chapters 12 through 15, Paul emphasized the relationship between an understanding of these concepts and the Christian's daily behavior. Romans 12:1,2 is full of significance.
Paul urged them to present their bodies to God as a living, holy sacrifice.
The sacrifice should please God. The sacrifice was not given to please themselves.
The words that address the relationship between the sacrifice and worship are not easily translated into English. The problem is this: what English words best convey the concept of the Greek words? The KJV translation: "which is your reasonable service;" the RSV translation: "which is your spiritual worship;" the TEV translation: "This is the true worship that you should offer;" the NIV translation: "which is your spiritual worship;" the JB translation stresses a call to worship that is worthy of thinking beings; the NEB translation: "the worship offered by the mind and the heart." Remember, the sacrifice in this verse was an act of worship. As an act of worship, the sacrifice was placed on the altar. Understanding what Paul said in the first eleven chapters and realizing God's incredible mercy in their forgiveness, reconciliation, and justification, their only reasonable response was to give their bodies to God on His altar as a living, holy sacrifice. It was a living sacrifice because the presentation of their bodies to God was evident in their behavior. It was a holy sacrifice because each person separated his or her body from ungodly behavior to devote it exclusively to God's purposes. His or her body was set apart for God.
An animal sacrifice was killed and placed on the altar. The basic difference was this: the animal placed on the altar was dead; the Christian placed his living body on the altar. If I give my body to God as a living sacrifice, I make the choice to place my body on the altar every day. Every day I devote my life to God's purposes.
First, I refuse to conform to the behavior and purposes of people who are not ruled by God. Second, I commit myself to renewing my mind. I renew my thinking through educating myself about God and Christ. This education changes my understanding of life and my perspective on existence. That transforms me as a person. It changes the way that I use my life and body.
As I seek to discover, understand, and implement God's will, I am concerned about (1) what is good [according to God's concepts], (2) what is acceptable to God [or pleases God], and (3) and what is perfect [what is spiritually complete, spiritually mature with God Himself being the standard of completeness and maturity].
Worship is not a "once a week" activity. It is daily godly behavior. Worship's roots are daily behavior. "The body's" collective praise of God on Sunday is meaningful when Christian individuals give their bodies in sacrifice to God all week long. Christians cannot confine worship to an event. Worship is a combination of Sunday praise and daily behavior. Neither godly behavior without praise or praise without godly behavior is worship.
The separation of the "secular" from the "spiritual" is a human concept based on human perspectives. The Mosaical code that governed all aspects of Israel's existence acknowledged no such separation. While the New Testament makes it plain that the Christian [who belongs to God and is ruled by God] does not belong to the world [those who do not belong to God and refuse to be ruled by God], this is not a separation of the "secular" from the "spiritual" in the individual's life. The concepts of Romans 12:1,2 do not suggest that public worship assemblies are spiritual and that daily behavior is secular. Everything a Christian does and is expresses or demonstrates that he or she is spiritual. The concept that the activities of a worship assembly are "spiritual" and the daily activities of the body are "secular" is foreign to Romans 12:1,2. God is to be praised and glorified in a worship assembly, and He is to be praised and glorified in the daily activities of the body. The obvious: only a life surrendered to Jesus can be God's living sacrifice.
Link to Student Guide
Quarter 3, Lesson 6