Gospel Nonconformance

Scripture: Romans 12:1-2 | 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 discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Have you ever had a time in your life where there was an obvious failure to communicate?  Something was lost in the translation and a misunderstanding occurred?  That is exactly what God is trying to avoid in these two verses we’ve been examining for past few days. God doesn’t want any miscommunication or misunderstanding to take place.  He is clearly defining what He desires and deserves from those who commit their lives to Christ.

While it’s true that understanding our commitment to Christ grows with time, it’s our daily decision to commit to Him that moves us closer to it’s reality.  I believe there have been many who have made the decision to accept Christ as Savior, but failed to make a commitment to follow Christ as Lord for lack of information and understanding.  Only later did they discover what was expected in becoming a disciple of Christ and rather than moving toward submission they settled for a life of complacency and compromise.

Our passage this morning informs us that if we want to keep our faith authentic, then we must understand and live out the right kind of commitment to the person of Jesus Christ.  How do I commit to the person of Jesus Christ?  Our passage states that I must continuously present myself on the altar of sacrifice and give myself completely to Him. Offering myself as a “living sacrifice,” is the most pleasing, reasonable, intellectual and spiritual offering I can offer to God.  It means that I die to myself each and every day and choose to live for Him alone.  It involves committing to a  life completely under His authority and perpetual life-transformation that resists the pressure to conform outwardly to the pattern of this world that is unholy and unacceptable to God.

The problem we all have is that we still live in the world.  The “world” referenced in our text is a world that is under the influence and is an instrument of Satan.  He uses his ungodly and tremendous influence upon the “world” on those who seek to live for God.  This “world” becomes extremely difficult to resist, because we are surrounded by it every day.  This depraved atmosphere that surrounds us each and every day would have us inhale and then exhale it’s poison with every breath we breath, because instead of producing life it produces death to all who fall victim to it’s influence and treachery.  It’s because of the inevitable disappointment and eventual spiritual death it brings to the believer that God warns us to resist inhaling it with all our might.  If we allow its influence to corrupt and control our lives, our commitment to Christ becomes complacent and filled with compromise.  Only by breathing in the fullness (Eph.5:18; Gal.5:16,18,25) and the sanctification of the Holy Spirit (Rom.16:15) can we hope to resist it’s poisoning and deadening impact on our commitment to a deserving Christ.

So let’s commit to become Gospel nonconformists whose behavior, beliefs, views and lives refuse to conform to the prevailing culture, ideas or practices of the world.

LIFE APP:

1. Commitment to Christ involves offering a “living sacrifice”
2. Commitment to Christ involves dying to self every day
3. Commitment to Christ involves resisting the world
4. Commitment to Christ involves yielding to His Spirit

PRAY:

1. Lord today and every day – I offer myself as a living sacrifice
2. Reveal where I am conforming to the world – I’ll repent
3. Fill me and sanctify me so that my life reflects Your Holiness
4. Keep me from the influences of a fallen world

~ by docboz on 01/09/2012.