To truly live, we need to embrace reality. We must acknowledge the full picture of our lives and the profound truth of who God is. Paul spent the first 11 chapters writing a powerful treatise on the condition of all humankind. He reveals that creation itself serves as a witness, leaving everyone without excuse (Romans 1:20). He goes on to show that all have sinned, both those under the law and those who are not, because God has inscribed His law on our hearts—again, leaving no one without excuse (Romans 2:14-15).
The sobering truth Paul lays out is that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Each of us not only sins, but we continually wrestle with sin. Victory over this comes only through Jesus and His life, death, and resurrection. We are all deserving of death because of our sin, hopelessly enslaved without the power of Christ and His Holy Spirit. Jews and Gentiles alike find themselves in this same predicament, for it is only through faith—faith in Jesus—that we gain victory over sin, receive forgiveness, and secure our eternal place with God (Romans 3:22). This is all because of God’s love, demonstrated towards us even while we were His enemies, through sending His Son to die for us (Romans 5:8).
So, Paul says:
Romans 12:1
Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God…
In view of His mercy. We deserve death, we deserve the bondage to sin, we deserve the separation from God for all eternity, but now through faith in His Son, through the grace of God, in view of His mercy – we can truly live, live for Him and no longer to ourselves.
What seems like a difficult ask, it is no longer a hard thing when we are thinking in view of God’s mercy. When we think we deserve something, when we are entitled, it is really hard to sacrifice or to surrender to anything. But when we have a different view, when we keep in mind the truth of our situation, our hearts are full of gratitude and surrender and wonder and awe and love for our Saviour. Why wouldn’t we offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God, looking to please our redeemer and the lover of our souls in every way, in view of God’s mercy? He who has saved us from our sin and has given us a right standing before Him (Romans 5:1). Who welcomes us into His presence and offers us eternal life (John 3:16). The One who has called us His own and adopted us into His family (Ephesians 1:5). We were lost and enemies of God, bound for destruction because of sin, and in bondage to our sinful nature and without hope. But now we have been given mercy, and in view of it, we no longer worship ourselves and what we want, but we present ourselves as living sacrifices to God, and our desire is to worship Him with our lives, our surrender, and our obedience, all in view of God’s mercy.
Now we no longer want to live for ourselves, but to live for Him who died for us (2 Corinthians 5:15), in view of God’s mercy. Paul exhorts us:
Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
And so we don’t take our cues from this world, but from God and His word, in view of God’s mercy. We renew our minds with what is true and seek God and His Spirit to lead us so we may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
What are you looking at today? Are you looking at yourself, what you want, what you deserve, and what you should have been given? Or do you have a different view today? Are you living in view of God’s mercy? It will change your life, and let’s live in true reality and worship God with our very lives today – in view of God’s mercy.
