Chapter # 12 Paragraph # 1 Study # 2
August 25, 2019
Humble, Texas
(004)
1769 Translation:
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [
which is] your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [
is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
1901 ASV Translation:
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable to God, [
which is] your spiritual service.
2 And be not fashioned according to this
world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is
the good and
acceptable and perfect will of God.
- I. The Foundations of the Summons.
- A. The necessary "view finder".
- 1. Identity as "brothers".
- a. Paul summons them as "brethren". This makes a difference unless you are a member of the deluded set that claims we are "born again" before we "believe unto justification". For those, being a "brother" does not have, as a part of the view-finder, the reality of an already-possessed faith. But this would, then, mean that a "brother" is summoned to this presentation to God before "faith", which makes no sense at all since one must "believe" in the mercies of God in order to be motivated to respond positively to this summons.
- b. At issue is the fact that being summoned as a brother means that one has already had a sufficient experience of the grace of God unto the Joy of Life so that one has a basis in that "somewhat extensive" experience for the willingness to exist to respond properly to the "summons".
- c. The "Lordship salvation" concept as popularly understood is, by this placement of the summons at the end of chapter eleven, demolished. No one is going to "present his/her body" to a God he/she does not know for one simple fact: it is the knowledge of God in the soul that provides the motivation to abandon oneself to God in a "body-sacrificing" way. This is not contradicted by Paul's command in Romans 6:13 since, in that place, "Grace" has already been experienced at the "justification" level.
- 2. Identity as recipients of "the mercies of The God".