"I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God" (Rom. 12:1).

The first lesson to be learned
here is a very important one—the apostle’s style of address. How graciously and
tenderly he entreats the saints at Rome as brethren! Great apostle as he was,
he places them all on the same level with himself. This, of course, is true of
all Christians as regards their pardon and acceptance in Christ, however varied
their condition may be as to the manifestation of the divine nature. "One
is your Master, even Christ, and all of you are brethren" (Matt. 23:8).
But how endearing is the apostle’s manner, compared with the high, imperious
style of many who profess to be His successors, or at least to be ministers of
Christ! "I beseech you therefore, brethren." This is true humility
though accompanied with divine authority. Only nearness to the Lord can give
both. But what an example for all Christians when having to do with the poorest
of the flock!

"The mercies of God."
This is the foundation on which the exhortation rests. True Christian
devotedness evidently flows from the devout consideration of the mercies or
compassions of God to the poor outcast sinner. The apostle appeals to the
hearts of the brethren as being happily acquainted with the riches of divine
mercy to lost and ruined souls. The effect of meditating on this aspect of
God’s character is transformation to His image, and devotedness to His glory,
as our holy, acceptable, and reasonable service. Most blessed, precious
privilege! And this holy imitation of the divine character, be it observed, is
not the result of our own efforts, but flows naturally from the blessed truth
that we are made partakers of the divine nature, as taught more fully by the
apostle elsewhere. "Be therefore followers [or imitators] of God, as dear
children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given Himself
for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor"
(Eph. 5:1,2). Here pause for a moment and meditate deeply; the subject is vast
and most practical. Talking of devotedness, of holiness, of consecration, what
is your standard? Is it your own possible attainments by unwearied watchings,
fastings, diligence, or what? Self in a thousand ways may be your governing
object, but wrong in all. Could God present a lesser or lower object to His
children than Himself, as morally displayed in the Person and work of His
beloved Son? Impossible! As another has written:"It would dishonor
Himself and the grace He has shown us; and it would be the most grievous loss
to His beloved children whom He would train and bless yet more and more even in
this scene of evil and sorrow, turning the most adverse circumstances into an
occasion of teaching us what He is in the depths of His grace…. Neither law
nor even promise ever opened such a field as this. The very call so to imitate
God supposes the perfect grace in which we stand:indeed, it would be
insupportable otherwise" (Lectures on Ephesians by W. Kelly.)

Returning to Romans 12, the word
"mercies" is here used in the plural because it signifies, not mercy
as an attribute of God simply, but the compassions of God that have been fully
manifested to us in so many different ways. It may have a special reference to
verse 31 of chapter 11 where we find Jews as well as Gentiles concluded in
unbelief that God may have mercy upon all. It was pure mercy that thought of us
in the counsels of eternity, that gave us a place in the purposes of God, that
wrote our names in the Lamb’s book of life, that watched over us in the days of
our unbelief, that called us by His gospel, that gave us deliverance from sin
and condemnation, that gave us the Holy Spirit, union with Christ, the hope of
His coming, communion with God the Father, and the enjoyment of all the
unspeakable blessings of His grace and love.

"That you present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service." The apostle leaves no room here for the liberty of the flesh, or
for going back to the law as a rule of life. The believer is to be formed
morally by the knowledge of God, and consecrated to Him as his reasonable
service. It is of the body, or outer man, that the apostle expressly speaks.
The body is here viewed as the sacrifice, and the believer as presenting it, so
that the whole man is to be yielded up as an offering to the Lord.

If you would understand this
character of devotedness, you must study and master chapter 6 of Romans. There
we learn that Christians are, first of all, to reckon themselves "dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (6:11).
We are brought into this position by death and resurrection ,as set forth in
baptism, in virtue of the finished work of Christ. "Therefore we are
buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life" (6:4). Baptism is the symbol of Christians having part with Christ
in death. He died for sin, and they died to sin in His death. This is the grand
fundamental truth of entire devotedness and practical holiness. "How shall
we who are dead to sin live any longer therein?" (6:2). Such is the
reasoning of the Spirit of God. All true Christians believe that Christ died for
our sins, but comparatively few believe or enter into the truth that we died
to sin in His death.

The consequences of not
apprehending this plain truth is occupation with self in all things. Whether it
be the young believer longing after peace with God, or the advanced believer
straining after holiness and perfection, they are looking for it within. The
eye is turned inward in search after feelings, or a consciousness of having
arrived at a higher state of Christian life.

Coming back again to chapter 12,
the idea of sacrifice is surely that of entire consecration—of body, soul, and
spirit. The devoted victim under the law was slain and laid on God’s altar. It
was an act of complete surrender. Christians are to present their own
"bodies" as a "living sacrifice" in contrast with
the sacrifices of the law that were put to death. It is self-sacrifice, and
"with such sacrifices God is well pleased" (Heb. 13:16). And it is
the only sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to Him now.

"And be not conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what
is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12:2). The
connection between the first and second verses is beautiful. We have the body
in the one and the mind in the other; the whole man is brought in. We are also
reminded thereby that mere bodily exercise, though consisting in the diligent
observance of rites and ceremonies, would profit nothing without the renewal of
the mind. The inner as well as the outer man must be formed morally for God and
His service. Hence the one grand end for the Christian to gain is the
discernment of the will of God; and the highest expression of Christian life in
this world is the life that is most perfectly subject to the divine will. We
have to prove—though we may be long in doing so—that this and this only is
good, acceptable, perfect, and well pleasing in His sight.

"And be not conformed to this
world." This is a difficult lesson to learn. To be personally in a place
where the habits and opinions of men rule, and yet to be outside of it morally
where the will of God rules, is our lesson. Nothing but the grace of God and a
close walk with Him could make us triumph here. The secret of our strength is
the knowledge of Christ and the heart’s occupation with Him.

"But be transformed by the
renewing of your mind." We have briefly glanced at the negative side of
the second verse—non-conformity to the world, separateness from its maxims and
ways. We now come to the positive side—the renewing of the mind. This is all
important. It is the renewal of the whole inner man, the deep springs of the
heart which only the eye of God can see. He looks for the renewal of the
understanding, affections, and will. Our old ideas which ruled the mind before
we knew God and His Christ must all be given up, and new thoughts, new motives,
new objects, new feelings, new intentions, springing from our one new
object—Christ in the glory—must have full sway over all the faculties of the
mind as well as over all the members of the body. There must be a complete
transformation within and without by the renewing of the mind. The Christian is
a new man in Christ, "which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him
who created him" (Col. 1:10).

Without the inward renewal which
the apostle here insists upon, there could be no discernment of the mind of God
and no real separation from the world. The outward difference between the
believer and the man of the world must flow from the condition of the mind as
renewed and strengthened by grace. Otherwise, it would be the merest formality.
The path of separation is too narrow for the natural eye to discern. No broad
lines are laid down in the Word of God to mark the Christian’s way through this
world; the spiritual eye alone can see the way out of it.

The calling and responsibility of
the Christian, then, is to "prove what is that good, and acceptable, and
perfect will of God." This is to be our one grand object as to the whole
path of our service in this world. How is this end to be gained? By
like-mindedness to Christ. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). If we are to walk so as to please God, we must
walk even as Christ walked (1 John 2:6).

The measure of the soul’s
obedience to the will of God is Christ; He must be the one object before the
mind. But to prove that will practically, we must be whole-hearted for
Him, and be strengthened by the power of His grace acting on the renewed mind.
Christian devotedness is thus complete when the whole man is consecrated to the
Lord and laid upon His altar. The body is yielded up, the mind is transformed,
the will of God is discerned, and the man as a whole is devoted to God.

Elsewhere the apostle prays for
the complete sanctification of the entire man:"And the very God of peace
sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess.
5:23). In this remarkable passage, it is the expressed will of God that those
who have been saved through grace, and brought into relationship with himself,
should be entirely consecrated to Him. This, surely, is devotedness without
limit. It is the will of our God that the Christian, in every part of his
being, should be wholly sanctified or consecrated to himself. What grace, what
love, what goodness! It is overwhelming! As water rises to its level, so God
would have us, in every though of our minds, in every part of our being, rise
to Himself as our proper object, resource, and rest.

Oh fellow Christians, we may well
give up the tinseled vanities of time for the glories of eternity! But even now
we know our place in the glory. Christ in His Person and in His present
position in the presence of God is the expression of our place there. Every
believer has his place before God in Christ and in the righteousness of God
which He accomplished in Christ, having glorified Himself in that obedient,
blessed One. And now God would have all who are brought into this relationship
with Himself, to have no object before our minds but Christ in the glory, so
that we may do His will, and be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ.