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Sermon #3300

Present Your Bodies

A Sermon on Romans 12:1-2

Originally preached Oct. 29, 1965

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Scripture

Romans 12:1-2 ESV KJV
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. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may …

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Sermon Description

The Bible offers many commentaries about the spiritual, but how can we glorify God with our physical bodies? Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones provides 3 key points to why and how we must Glorify God with our bodies in his sermon on Romans 12:1-2. First, that the whole person is to be saved, not just a man’s mind and spirit. Dr. Lloyd-Jones states that we must never leave out the body in our ideas of redemption because it is the “temple of the Holy Ghost” and should be treated as such. Although we will someday leave the body, it is not simply flesh that houses our soul. It is instead, a temple for the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. Secondly, we must glorify God with our bodies because the soul must have a body to express itself. We are not just souls floating around inside of bodies. No, we are intelligent beings that can think, see, and do physical acts. The body, soul, and mind are all intertwined and when combined, they make us who we are. Thirdly, we must not disregard the eternal importance of our physical body because it is one of the chief sources of temptation and sin. Dr. Lloyd-Jones states, “The greatest fight for every Christian is the fight against the temptation of the body.” Sin is lurking around every corner. We must always be on the lookout to protect ourselves from bodily temptation. To counteract our sinful tendencies, we must present our bodies as a “living sacrifice.” Like Paul states, we must sacrifice our own sinful desires for eternity. We want to preserve our bodies to be “holy and acceptable to God”. If we strive for this, then we will be ready when we must inevitably present them to God.

Sermon Breakdown

  1. The apostle Paul is explaining why and how Christians should live the Christian life in Romans 12:1-2.
  2. There are two great motives for living the Christian life: understanding God's mercies and having a heart touched by them.
  3. Paul says to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This means offering ourselves as slaves to God.
  4. The body refers to the physical body. The Christian life involves the whole person - body, soul and spirit. The body will also be redeemed.
  5. The body is the instrument through which the soul acts and expresses itself. The body needs to be offered to God.
  6. The body is a chief source of temptation and sin. Sin takes advantage of the body. Christians must fight against sin in the body.
  7. Christians are to glorify God with their whole being, including the body. They are to offer their bodies as living sacrifices.
  8. A living sacrifice means offering your body continually, not just once. It is an ongoing process.
  9. A holy sacrifice means a sacrifice without blemish, set apart to God.
  10. An acceptable sacrifice is pleasing to God, like the sweet smelling sacrifices of the Old Testament.
  11. Many Christians today neglect offering their bodies to God, but it is essential. Some teach that what you do with your body does not matter if you are saved in your spirit. But this is false and dangerous.
  12. Christians are to glorify God with their bodies through living and holy sacrifices acceptable to Him.

Sermon Q&A

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Romans 12:1-2: Presenting Our Bodies as Living Sacrifices

What does it mean to present our bodies as a living sacrifice according to Romans 12:1-2?

According to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice means offering our physical bodies to God as an act of worship. He emphasizes that when Paul writes "present your bodies," he is referring to our literal physical frames. Lloyd-Jones explains that this is not merely a metaphorical expression referring to our whole being, but specifically focuses on surrendering our actual physical bodies to God. This offering is described as "living" (unlike Old Testament sacrifices of dead animals), "holy" (set apart and without blemish), and "acceptable to God" (well-pleasing like a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord).

Why does Paul specifically emphasize the body in Romans 12:1 rather than just the soul or spirit?

Dr. Lloyd-Jones provides several key reasons why Paul specifically emphasizes the physical body:

  1. To stress that the whole person is saved - "in the christian salvation the whole of men is saved, isn't merely a man's mind that's saved, isn't merely a man's spirit that is saved...The body is also saved. It is a complete salvation."

  2. To remind us of the interrelationship and unity of our being - we cannot separate our bodies from our souls and spirits.

  3. Because the body is the instrument through which our souls act - "the soul...expresses itself and can only express itself through the body, the physical frame through the brain, the understanding through the organs of speech, through the eyes, through the hands, feet."

  4. Because the body is one of the chief sources of temptation and sin - "sin is always there, lurking in the body...it always wants to assert a mastery."

  5. Because we are meant to glorify God with the whole of our being - "You are to glorify God with your body also. The body as much as the spirit, the entire being, is to live and minister to the glory of God."

How does Dr. Lloyd-Jones explain the term "living sacrifice" in Romans 12:1?

Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains that the term "living sacrifice" has two important contrasts with Old Testament sacrifices:

  1. Unlike Old Testament sacrifices where dead animals were placed on the altar, Christians are to offer their living bodies to God: "we don't present dead bodies, we present our living bodies, a living sacrifice."

  2. It emphasizes continuity and persistence - "He wants to remind us that we have to go on doing this." While Old Testament sacrifices were one-time events, our presenting of our bodies to God must be continuous: "You go on presenting it. You do it day by day. You do it hour by hour, if you like. It's a continuous process, and you never stop doing this."

Lloyd-Jones warns against the error of thinking that the Christian life involves just "one great decision" where we "put ourselves on the altar" and then live as we please. Instead, presenting our bodies as living sacrifices is "a continuous process" that we must maintain throughout our Christian lives.

Why does Dr. Lloyd-Jones warn against neglecting the body in our Christian walk?

Dr. Lloyd-Jones warns that neglecting the body in our Christian walk is dangerous because:

  1. We cannot divide ourselves into separate parts - what affects our body affects our soul and spirit.

  2. Sin often attacks Christians through the body - "sin most frequently attacks the Christian and gets him down through his body."

  3. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

  4. Fleshly lusts "war against the soul" (1 Peter 2:11).

He warns against the dangerous teaching of "deceitism" (or docetism) that claims "that as long as I am saved, well, what I may do in the body doesn't matter at all." Lloyd-Jones strongly refutes this, saying: "Oh, the danger of dividing ourselves up into some false kind of dichotomy and saying, doesn't matter what I do with my body, I'm saved. It's what I do with my spirit. Not at all."

He closes with a strong warning against modern trends of loosening moral standards, calling it "of the very devil, dangerous to the individual soul, dangerous to the life of the church, dangerous to those who are outside."

The Book of Romans

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.