Discipleship as All of Life

Bible Passage: Romans 12:1-2

In this sermon series we will be laying out a vision for what it means to live as disciples of Jesus in the everyday things of life. These verses at the beginning of Romans 12 show us the nature of such a life: where worship is shown in everything we do, as a response to what he has done for us, and where we are renewed and transformed into the image of Christ.

Discipleship begins with what God has done: One of the dangers of talking about discipleship is that it can feel like a ‘to-do list’ of items, where the tone pivots from receiving grace in salvation to continuing by our own effort. This verse shows us that the opposite is true. Our lives as disciples are lived ‘in view of God’s mercy’. This comes immediately after 11 chapters of explaining in great detail what this mercy looks like in the gospel of grace. It is important that we live as disciples in every area of life, but this is not done to earn God’s approval but from a place of already having received that approval. The grace we have received is both the motivation for our discipleship (he died for me, so I want to live for him) and also the power to actually live this life (my old self is crucified with Christ and my new self is made alive with him).

Everything is discipleship: The response that Paul asks for is not a small one. He instructs his readers to offer their bodies as living sacrifices. A sacrifice is something that is given over entirely to God, and by qualifying it as a living sacrifice he is saying that this is an attitude that should pervade everything we do in our lives. As we think about the wide range of different components of life: from friendship, to the workplace, to romantic relationships, and everything in between, it is all part of our response to Jesus, and engaging in these areas in a way that is ‘holy and pleasing to God’ is something he describes as true and proper worship. In other words, our worship is way more than just singing songs or attending Sunday services; it is shown in the choices that we make in every part of our lives.

Transformation not Conformation: In verse 2, Paul elaborates on his instruction about offering ourselves as living sacrifices. He presents two different ways we can be formed or influenced in our lives, and we will see these patterns play out again and again as we explore the different areas of discipleship over this series. The first of them is being conformed to the pattern of the world. On most issues there are worldly approaches, that are often driven by selfishness rather than godly love and the mercy we have already looked at. In order to live faithfully as disciples, we need to be able to recognise these influences and resist the temptation to go along with them. The second approach, by contrast, is being transformed by the renewing of our minds. What we think about is shaped by what we pay attention to, and as we immerse ourselves in God’s truth, we will find our minds renewed and our hearts transformed to live this life of worshipful sacrifice that characterises disciples of Jesus.

Potential Applications:

• If discipleship begins with what God has done, then this is a good week to clearly explain the gospel message and invite people to receive his mercy in their own lives.
• As you cast the vision for all of life being discipleship, invite people to bring to mind their own life and allow the Holy Spirit to bring to mind one area in which he is prompting them to make a choice to offer themselves up as a living sacrifice.