"..be His sacred living sacrifice" Romans 12:1

Paul writes to the Church gathering in Rome to give them a definition of the “what and why” we meet together.  But first a brief history.

Most New Testament scholars agree that there are unanswered questions about how the Church in Rome started.  However, it is evident that “visitors from Rome” were among those who heard Peter’s sermon on that first Pentecost that the Church began as evidenced in Acts 2:14-36, It is usually thought that the gospel may have first reached Jewish synagogues in Rome through some of these witnesses.

Paul is addressing a mixed racial crowd of both Jews and Greeks (Jews and Gentiles) in his letter to attempt to bring unity. 

In 41 A.D. the emperor Claudius restricted the public meeting of the Jews in Rome. The reason seems to relate to trouble within the synagogues in Rome. While the cause of this trouble is not specified, it seems to be that it involved disputes over Jesus as the Messiah. 

The Book of Acts 17:1-9; 18:4-8, 12-17) that this was a major cause of, not only disruption in the synagogues but civil disruption as well. The Roman writer Suetonius states that Claudius “expelled the Jews from Rome because they kept rioting at the instigation of Chrestus.” Although the correct form for Christ in Greek would be “Christos,” many biblical scholars think that Suetonius simply got the name wrong. This statement, as well as the evidence from Acts, suggests that the synagogues in Rome were experiencing the same kind of conflict going on in synagogues throughout the Roman empire regarding the proclamation of Jesus as the Christ.  The Church in Rome at the time Paul wrote this letter was mostly Greek due to the expulsion of the Jews.

To further appreciate the situation Paul is addressing, one other historical/cultural insight is important. When we talk about the “Church in Rome,” we are not referring to a single congregation that meets in a large public building somewhere in the city. Nor are we speaking about a “megachurch” in the sense that some might think of today. Rather, we are speaking of a number of groups of people meeting throughout the City of Rome, either in houses or apartment (tenement) complexes. 

Paul’s greetings in Romans 16 are instructive regarding this point. Paul notes that some Christians meet with Priscilla and Aquila “in their house” (Rom. 16:5) Besides this group, Paul mentions several other groups meeting in Rome (Rom. 16:10-12). Along with these groups, Paul mentions a number of individuals but does not cite what group they may be meeting with. 

Rome was a city of one million people in the first century and Christianity was not a legal religion, therefore, Christians could not meet in a public building.

“Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies?” Paul is addressing both the Jews and the Greeks together to bring unity in the revelation of God’s mercies to all men, for there is no distinction between the racial divide between any culture, for all are equally loved by God and have the same inheritance available to every man or woman.

“I encourage you to surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices.” There is a distinction here concerning sacrifice, when a sacrifice was offered in the Old Testament an animal was sacrificed for the atonement of sins and was killed, that sacrifice was now dead and the net effect of it was temporary.  

What is inferred here is we now have a new sacrifice which was offered to us in the form of Jesus Christ who died much like a sacrificial lamb on the altar of God, Jesus died but came back to life again and defeated the power of sin and death on our behalf permanently, for the power of sin is death, and it was done away with in the body of Christ Jesus.  If we believe Jesus has become our sacrifice we live unto God with the assurance of sins forgiven.

So now we are “sacred living sacrifices” which live to obey and please God by our devotion to Him for sin no longer has power over us.  

“And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart.” As new creations in Christ, we are now holy, living a life of separateness from the world.  

We are also aware that God not only delights in us as His own sons and daughters, but we now have a permanent connection to access to the heart of the Father through Jesus and we can know and experience everything that delights His heart because we are filled with His love which creates a symbiotic relationship through the Holy Spirit which creates in us delight for Him also, this is known as the joy of the Lord. 

“For this becomes your genuine expression of worship.”  We have a genuine expression of worship as we delight in Him, He delights in us, it is reciprocal. 

Paul desired this kind of unity for these gatherings in Rome that they become focused on the true prize which is Christ in them, and that they are all one in Christ with no divisions because of racial background or heritage, (Jew or Gentile) for we are all called to live lives which are separated to God and for His purposes in us.

As God’s children, we are also to take delight in one another as God delights in us. 

Be Blessed;

Stephen Barnett