Reflections on Romans 12:1-2

Paul apparently wrote the book of Romans to address friction that existed between Jewish and Gentile Christians. Originally, the church in Rome was likely primarily made up of Jewish Christians. However, the Jewish expulsion from Rome meant that for all intents and purposes, the church was now a Gentile church. When Nero allowed the Jews to return in A.D. 54, the returning Jewish Christians came back to a very different church, one in which they were now the minority. Therefore, Paul wrote the letter to bring these two groups together into one coherent, unified community of faith. All of Paul’s thinking and all of his ethical instructions served one primary purpose – the establishment and maintenance of the Christian community. Paul believed that the success of the mission of the church is directly tied to the cohesiveness and unity of the church.

And so, in Romans, Paul sought to bring both Jews and Gentiles together by laying out his basic theology of salvation by grace through faith. One of the major themes of the first 11 chapters is that all Christians, regardless of ethnic or religious background, are united in the death of Christ and in their new status as a new creation in Christ. Believers' participation in this new creation calls for a distinction between life lived according to the ways of the present age and life lived by the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:5-8). Romans 6:1-10 makes it clear that baptism into Christ means baptism into his death, in order to live with him and for him. Christians enter into fellowship with Christ in his total self-surrender to the will of the Father in order to find acceptance with the Father through his atoning work on their behalf. The moral implication of this is to live out the new obedience which baptism into Christ's death entails. We are consequently challenged to offer ourselves to God 'as those who have been brought from death to life,' recognizing that the purpose of this self-dedication is holiness.

In Romans 12, Paul begins his description of what it looks like for Christians to walk by the Spirit. Verses 1-2 initiate this discussion by using the language of worship and sacrifice – Christians are to offer their bodies as ‘living sacrifices,’ which is an act of daily worship. Paul's intent is not to separate "spiritual" worship from "earthly" or inner experience from outer. Rather, he aims to sacralize everyday conduct and thus to remove the barrier between worldly and "spiritual" behavior for those in Christ. For Paul, the way that we offer ourselves as living sacrifices is through a radical life of discipleship marked by high standards of moral and ethical behavior. There is a danger of accenting the inwardness of Christian worship and not taking sufficient account of the fact that we are to yield our bodies to God's service; and the service God calls for is the obedience of faith expressed by those whose minds are being transformed, so that they will no longer be conformed in lifestyle to the values, attitudes and behavior of 'this age,' but rather demonstrate the life of holiness that glorifies a holy God.

But what does Paul mean in vs. 2 that Christians are to be transformed by the renewing of the mind, and how does that relate to the ability to discern what the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God is?

The renewal of the church mind is a thorough reorientation of life in accordance with the truth learned in Christ. It is a call for community ethical discernment. Paul probably did not refer to the renewal of individual minds but to the way the church as a community perceives God and tests his will. (Elsewhere Paul calls on the church to be “united in the same mind” so they can judge together what is right, 1 Cor. 1:10; see also Phil. 2:1-4). Remember that the critical issue behind the writing of Romans was how Jewish and Gentile Christians could together discern God's will for their lives.

Interestingly, Paul relates the individual’s call to daily worship through a sacrificial life to the renewal of the mind of the church. In other words, if the church wants to discern God’s will and find its way in the world, it must first begin by making an intentional and deliberate decision to live sacrificial lives. When the community joins together in such an undertaking, it has the effect of transforming us as a group and making clear how God wants us to carry out God’s mission. I am not sure how all of this practically happens, but I affirm that it does, and I am grateful for the mystery of God’s continued action in the life of the church.