Dying We Live
Romans 12:1 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.
Narrative from The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals YouTube site, the source of this sermon:
“A paradox may be defined as a statement that seems to be contradictory but may–in fact—be true. The Trinity is a prime example—one God existing in three persons. An even greater paradox is that to be a Christian, we must die in order to live. Join Dr. James Boice on The Bible Study Hour as he delves into this great truth of the faith.”
In the process of his sermon, Dr. Boice makes 4 points: 1) we are redeemed via the blood of The Lord Jesus Christ; 2) we are joined to the Holy Spirit and become new creatures; we cannot return to our former lives; 3) the paradox: it is by dying that we live; and 4) the sacrificial life as stated in Romans 12:1 is explained in terms of the other points.
Dr. Boice’s presentation of this most foundational aspect of the Christian life is very understandable and worthy of being heard many times and meditated upon.
Highlight points are below video. The video is 28 minutes long, but a minute or so on each end is ministry identification:
HIGHLIGHT POINTS:
[Bracketed statements, emboldening and underscoring are mine]:
- Dr Boice explained the term ‘paradox:’ dying we live
- He chose the dictionary definition, ‘a statement that seems to be contradictory, yet may be true’
- Trinity used as an example of paradox: 1 God; 3 persons
- The great paradox of the Christian life is that we must die in order to live
- Luke 9:23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
- To take up your cross is to willingly proceed in the direction of your execution
- Boice recited the part of a prayer that was thought to have been by St Francis of Assisi: O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen
- Romans 12:1 conveys such an idea:
- Romans 12:1 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. 2 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
- In Paul’s day, a sacrifice was always offered by a priest: the priest killed the sacrifice; the priest then burned it on the altar
- Paul, in 12:1 above, is calling believers to present their ‘self’ on the altar; to die to self: the sacrifice is the thing that dies…
- In other words, if you are living for yourself, then you’re on the sure path to death
- This is the first principle that Paul is developing in these final chapters of Romans
- BECAUSE THIS IS THE FIRST PRINCIPLE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, WE MUST UNDERSTAND THE TRUTHS UPON WHICH THIS PRINCIPLE RESTS
- First: we are not our own, but we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ; we must die to self in order to truly serve Him
- 1 Corinthians 6:19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body
- 1 Cor. 7:23 You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men
- That is, do not become slaves of the culture What was that price with which we were bought?
- 1 Peter 1:18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot
- To make sense of Peter’s words, we must consider that much of the commerce of the ancient world revolved around slave trade
- The word ‘ransom,’ ‘redemption’ is of the realm of slavery
- In our natural state, you and I are slaves of sin
- We are also slaves in the realm of the world; it bids for us with its wares [it attempts to buy our heart, our affections, our time, treasure]
- That is, people sell their souls for what the world has to offer:
- The world bids for our heart by offering fame; people will do about anything to become famous; it offers money, millions of people see it as the most important thing in life; it bids with power…; with pleasure…
- Into the midst of this vast ‘vanity fair’ of the marketplace of sin, comes the Lord Jesus Christ and He bids by paying the price of His blood for sinners such as you and me
- And God the Father, Who is in charge of this auction, just as He is in charge of everything else, when He hears that bid, says, “Sold to the Lord Jesus Christ for the price of His blood,” and so you became His
- That is the meaning of Peter’s words above
- ***The Christian life begins with that recognition and everything flows from that
- This is the application part of Romans; we are talking about redemption which was defined in the doctrinal portion of Romans, chapter 3
- As I said last week, we cannot have application without doctrine; it is impossible to have ethics without the gospel
- [He must be saying that we cannot be talking about redemption, forgiveness… without Christ’s atoning work at Calvary and His having lived a life of perfect righteousness which is imputed to the sinner at the time of justification; if such doctrines had not first been established as in the concept of root-tree-fruit. I think that he might also be poking a finger at ‘Christian’ Liberals, because they deny foundational things about the Christian religion and believe they can still become righteous, they cannot. We must know about and believe in Jesus atoning sacrifice…]
- The second underlying truth that upholds and makes possible the Christian life of self-sacrifice, is that we’ve died to the past by becoming new creatures in Jesus Christ
- Paul taught that clearly in Romans 6:2
- Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
- Ours studies have taught us that we died to sin and because of that are unable to live in it any longer, therefore,
- Romans 6:19 …For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification
- When we were studying about dying to sin, I pointed out a lot of things it did NOT mean to correct your misconceptions:
- Dying to sin does NOT mean: that we have become unresponsive to sin; Christians are still tempted; that we should die to sin, though that is true; or that we are dying to sin day by day, though that is also true; or that we have died to sin’s guilt…
- The verb ‘die’ is in the aorist tense in the Greek and it refers to something that has happened in the past and that has abiding consequences
- It says, we have died to sin
- In what sense?
- In that we have died to our past sinful life; that is, we cannot go back to being what we were
- The only thing we can do is go forward
- ***The way you go forward is by presenting yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ as a living sacrifice
- Brief review of points by Dr. Boice in different terms than he previously stated points:
- DYING TO SIN DOES NOT MEAN: that it is my duty to die to sin; that I am commanded to die to sin; that I am to consider sin as a dead force within me; that I am dead to sin as long as I am gaining the mastery over it
- Paul was teaching that we HAVE ALREADY DIED TO SIN in the sense that we cannot successfully return to our old lives
- Since that is true, we might as well get on with the task of living the Christian life
- The third truth that underlies the [potential reality] of learning to live the Christian life of self-sacrifice is that by dying to our desires in order to serve Christ, we actually learn to live
- That is not difficult to understand: to put serving God and others ahead of serving ourselves
- The difficulty is in BELIEVING GOD’s promises
- So, what is being considered presently is our own perceptions [of blessedness]
- In the beatitudes, Jesus DECLARED the nature and reality of blessedness when He uttered the following statements:
- Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
- If the greatest men of this culture were to write a list of those states that constitute blessedness or happiness, their list would be opposite; such as, blessed are the rich; blessed are the powerful…; blessed are the beautiful and famous…
- Does the ‘me-first’ philosophy lead to happiness?
- This is an important question you must answer: examine the facts: when you spend much time gratifying the lusts of your heart, do you become happy or feel blessed? When you get all the material objects that you have desired; do you become happy? And so on
- Is self-indulgence the answer? No
- Paul describes that as ‘believing the lie’ in Romans 1:25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen
- Before we talk about the final point, brief review: God worked the initial two points for us: redeeming us via Calvary; joining us to God’s Spirit, making us new creatures, such that we cannot go back to our former lives; and the principle / paradox: it is by dying that we live
- The fourth and final point is an appeal, something we must respond to: offer our bodies to God as living sacrifices
- Earlier in the letter we spoke of the obedience that comes by faith, we are back to that point now
- [The post that directly preceded this one explained faith, it is linked at the bottom of this post. Faith believes God’s word, not the lies of the world. I posted that because faith is seemingly the central concept of this sermon and must have been covered more fully in a prior sermon by Dr. Boice? The next post will also focus on faith]
- As stated earlier, a sacrifice is something offered to God by a priest: the priest would kill the sacrifice and then carry it to an altar and burn it there
- That is, there were two separate entities: the priest and the sacrifice
- Paul’s imagery in Romans 12:1 is a picture of one entity, the priest (us) and the sacrifice (us) are one
- A picture of the Lord Jesus Christ: He was our high priest and simultaneously, our sacrifice
- Two types of sacrifices discussed in the Old Testament are the sacrifice for sin and for thanksgiving
- We are called upon to make the offering of thanksgiving to express our gratitude for being redeemed by His own blood; because He has joined Himself to us, and we have a glorious destiny
- Our culture disdains the term, ‘sacrifice’
- We are taught to be busy acquiring things, not sacrificing – giving things away
- The question you must answer, whom will you trust as having rightly defined true blessedness / happiness?
- God or your culture?
- Have you begun to look into the matter?
- Added 2-20-24: to hear the sermon that followed the one of this post, Living Sacrifice, Its Nature, click link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im6p9HKO2SA&list=PLq5LVxh1Goi4gbm8rpMOXmWDg9-weIHpH&index=1
- The most recent sermon in Boice’s sermon series, Living Sacrifice, Its Motive [not yet loaded at YouTube]: https://www.alliancenet.org/the-bible-study-hour
FOR FURTHER STUDY:
***In this blog, you can learn more about the beatitudes in the CATEGORIES of Beatitude Life (narrative form) and True Kingdom citizen (via video excerpts)
It is important to know what faith accomplishes in the believer’s life, especially since we grew up believing the lies our culture fed us about wherein the states of blessedness and happiness are actually found. Jesus, God, the creator of reality, declared the states of blessedness in the beatitudes. Those are worthy of meditation.
***ECCLESIASTES: Solomon was the wisest man on earth who also had his own kingdom; much wealth; many wives and concubines… and apparently spent a few decades exploring and meditating upon the things we are discussing; we know that he wrote Ecclesiastes in his old age; therein he tells us that the things of the earth are given to us by God; that we are to worship Him, not the things He gives us, to paraphrase.
Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals website: [once there, the menu at to top of the page under ‘broadcasts’ offers the sermons of several pastors. I particularly like Dr. Boice, The Bible Study Hour; and Rev. Eric Alexander, Hear the Word of God]
Narrative and links from Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals at YouTube:
Source:
https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-iqrsw-…
Link to Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals’ video page at YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@Alliance-Video/videos
Link to Playlists at Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals:
https://www.youtube.com/@Alliance-Video/playlists
Link to Podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/@Alliance-Video/podcasts
Two pastors from Alliance that are very worth hearing, based on my having heard numerous of their sermons: the Rev. Eric Alexander and Dr. James Boice.
Rev. Eric Alexander
[Bio from Ligonier Ministries] Rev. Eric J. Alexander was a minister in the Church of Scotland, most recently serving as senior minister of St. George’s Tron, Glasgow until his retirement. He was also a council member of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. He authored several books, including, Our Great God and What Is Biblical Preaching?
Bio of Rev. Eric Alexander, from President of Westminster Seminary, UK, New Castle, England, Ian Hamilton
On 13 January, Eric J. Alexander passed from this life into the nearer presence of the God he loved and served for over seventy years.
When Martyn Lloyd-Jones retired from Westminster Chapel in 1968, a church member said, ‘Doctor, you will surely miss preaching.’ The Doctor replied with, ‘I have never lived to preach.’ Such was Eric Alexander. Paul’s literal words in Philippians 1:21 were his life’s motto: ‘For me to live, Christ; to die, gain.’
Rev. Alexander has numerous preaching series on YouTube, including Ephesians, and Romans, just plug in his name there.
Following playlist from Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq5LVxh1Goi41cJW11uvS1J_UUIN0ETQn
Dr. James Boice:
Ministry: The Bible Study Hour
His sermons for the past year or so have been in Acts and Romans:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq5LVxh1Goi4gbm8rpMOXmWDg9-weIHpH