Romans 12:1 – The Worship Verse!

What is #worship?  Worship is not defined as raising your hands during a song service.

Sometimes the Bible gives undeniable, explicit and very precise prescriptions on practical issues we deal with every day.  In the case of Romans 12:1 that’s exactly what we find.  The Bible tells us precisely what worship is, and it is extremely clear.  Read this verse,

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Romans 12:1). 

See, worship is not a song service. In other words, worship is not singing 5 hymns then moving on to something else. Worship is something we do 100% of the day, and we do so through total sacrifice, which means a selfless lifestyle. We can sing unto the Lord, and singing can be one single form of worship in our day, but worship is not defined simply as singing – it is a lifestyle. Worship is a sacrificial lifestyle enslaved to Christ. If the only time you “worship” God is during song services, then you are not truly worshiping Him properly at all.  And for Christians, that’s a HUGE deal!  For those of us who love and follow Christ, we cannot shrug His Word away.  We crave to obey Him.

We are not called to run down a checklist and perform a certain number of good deeds per day. We are called to totally empty ourselves and become permanent slaves of the Holy Spirit of God – that’s biblical worship. We are called by the mercies of God, that special grace by which we are saved. God showed us eternal mercy, and saved us from damnation by sending His Son to be crucified so that we may live. With that life we are called to now be a continuous living sacrifice sold out to the Spirit of God as slaves. We are now living slaves of the Spirit instead of being dead slaves to sin as we were before salvation.

1. “by the mercies of God” • The mercy God has shown us when He crucified His Son to save us from sin and death.

2. “present your bodies” •• Our whole bodies, starting with our minds which includes hearing, vision, speech, and thoughts.  Then also the rest of our bodies as well, because as saved person’s our bodies are not our own, but are God’s. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:19-20).

“Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you” (Romans 6:13-14).

“Thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness…For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification” (Romans 6:17;19).

3. “living” ••• We were dead in sin, but have been made alive in Christ. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Ephesians 2:4-6).

4. “holy” •••• God’s holiness is entirely foreign to this world. We are to be holy, as He is holy. Paul Washer has asked which is more like God, an angel or a maggot? He answers, “neither.” Both are equally not like God – only He is holy. We must possess His holiness. “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:14-16).

5. “sacrifice” ••••• Total self-sacrifice that willingly offers one’s self to God as His slave.

6. “acceptable to God” •••••• “Without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Romans 12:1 – that’s worship. Are you doing it?  Have you EVER truly worshiped God?