The Spirit of the Christian Life: Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2)

“Having sufficiently discussed the dogmas, the Apostle finally turns to moral teaching” (Blessed Theophylact). “The beginning and foundation of good things is knowledge of the divine nature, faith in it, and devotion to it. What the eye is in the body, faith and knowledge of the divine is in the soul. However, faith has need also of active virtue, as the eye has need of hands, feet, and other members of the body. This is why the divine Paul joined moral teaching to dogmatic teachings, preparing in us the most perfect virtue. For by teaching the Romans, he benefited all people” (Blessed Theodoret).

In the first place the Apostle sets forth, in a brief but comprehensive outline:

1) A portrayal of the spirit of Christian life (Rom. 12:1, 2)

Rom. 12:1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your spiritual service.

“I beseech you by the compassions of God.” “After a long discussion of God’s love for mankind, in which Paul proved God’s unspeakable care, unspeakable and unsearchable goodness, by this very goodness he persuades those blessed by God to show a life worthy of the gift. And, being so great and exalted, he does not refuse to beseech them, beseech them not for something that would serve him properly, but for that which they could draw benefit for themselves. (The Apostle gives laws and hides power, and in beseeching presents teaching.)” (Blessed Theodoret). “And is it not wonderful that he does not refuse to beseech when he presents to the beseechers God’s very mercy? Since, from God’s compassions, he says, countless blessings have poured upon you, be ashamed, fear them, because these very compassions turn to you with a petition not to reveal in yourselves anything unworthy of them. And I, says the Apostle, beseech you by them, by those compassions by which you are saved. Thus one wishing to shame someone much benefited usually presents to the beseechers the benefactor himself” (Saint Chrysostom).

And experience of life confirms that the most powerful inducement to a life pleasing to God is the awareness of great blessings from God, both in general to all mankind and in particular to the person himself who strives for this. It gives birth to warm feeling of gratitude and stirs up readiness to devote all one’s powers and all one’s possessions to God. Because it sows love, which holds nothing back for itself, but offers all as a sacrifice to the One whom the soul has loved.

“That you present your bodies a living sacrifice.” He taught this before, saying: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body to obey it in its lusts; nor present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Rom. 6:12, 13). And a little later: “I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and lawlessness to lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for holiness” (Rom. 6:19).

The Apostle begins his lessons with how one should relate to the body, because sinful life, against which he arms Christians, and which they have abandoned and cut off in their decision to resist sin, strengthened by the grace of renewal in baptism, leans primarily on the flesh, and self-indulgence—the soul of sinfulness—is almost exclusively fleshly gratification. Therefore, having determined not to spare sin from the first step, he begins the new life with ruthlessness toward the body. Saint Paul confirms this necessity and sanctifies it with his word, demanding that one constantly make his body a sacrifice to God. Whoever holds his body as he should truly offers such a sacrifice to God—always “crucifying his flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24). And there is a slaying here, and a slaying for God, there is a sacrifice to God. The Apostle called this sacrifice living. Saint Chrysostom says: “Since he said ‘sacrifice,’ so that no one would think he commands to slay bodies, he immediately added: ‘living…’ In the Jewish sacrifice what was offered became dead; our sacrifice makes what is offered alive. The Apostle also uses ‘holy’. ‘Present your bodies…a sacrifice…holy.’ Saint Chrysostom says: ‘By this the Apostle also urges that in offering our members as a sacrifice, we must make them blameless; because we present them not to an earthly man but to the King of the universe Himself—God…’ A sacrifice is the first fruits of what you have. Let us offer God the first fruits of our hands, feet, lips, and everything else. Notice the precision in Paul’s words. He did not say: prepare your bodies as a sacrifice, but: ‘present.’ By this he as it were said: you no longer have authority over them; you have given them to another. See also Ps. 50:19, Dan. 3:38, 39 for parallels.”

A holy sacrifice, one might suppose, is already pleasing to God; yet the Apostle thought it necessary to add especially: “present your bodies a sacrifice pleasing to God.” By this the Apostle urges having the proper dispositions in the matter of sacrifice, as Saint Chrysostom said before—namely, one must offer this sacrifice to God, having no extraneous intention except pleasing God, for it is possible that a sacrifice clean in deed will be unclean in intention. Moreover, this sacrifice must be accomplished in the spirit of faith in Christ, because Christ Himself went by the way of the cross, and salvation, given to us by the cross, cannot be participated in otherwise than by the cross itself, taken up in willing choice—which happens precisely when one makes a sacrifice to God from his body.

You must be disposed in this way, the Apostle continues, so that in you there is constantly accomplished “your spiritual service.” “Service,” λατρεία, is service to God, divine service. This service will be spiritual, that is rational, mental, spiritual, when you present to God a sacrifice from holy bodies. That everyone must accomplish such service is accepted as requiring no special proof or explanation. The Apostle only points to the true way to accomplish it. Offer your body to God as a sacrifice, and you will constantly accomplish the spiritual service to God which you are bound to accomplish. On your altar a sacrifice will always thus be burning, and not a fleshly one, although the body is sacrificed in it. The body becomes both a sacrifice and a temple in which the priest—the mind or spirit—offers the sacrifice to God or accomplishes God’s service. Saint Chrysostom says: “What is ‘spiritual service?’ Spiritual service. As one serving and performing sacred rites in God’s house, however they are at other times, enters into themselves while serving and becomes most reverent; so we too must be in such a disposition throughout our whole life as those accomplishing service to God and performing sacred rites. And you will attain this if each day you offer sacrifices to God; you will become a priest of your body and soul’s virtue, sometimes offering chastity, sometimes alms, sometimes meekness and patience. Doing this, you will accomplish spiritual service, that is, service having nothing carnal, crude, or sensual.”

Rom. 12:2. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Having given a law for the body, he writes a law for the soul as well. “And be not conformed to this world,” that is, to the spirit of this world; do not live according to this spirit, do not form yourselves according to it, so that no one could as it were read written on your foreheads: here is a man of this world or the world’s spirit. But what does the spirit of this world consist in? In this: when all care and attention is directed only to how to best arrange one’s earthly well-being using all available means which can be given, one’s personal abilities and powers, family, property, connections, all of civil life and its orders, even the orders and deeds of faith and the Church, and the course of all events, both near and far, both dependent and independent on us—to arrange it, relying on oneself, one’s methods, on people and creatures, not on God, who rules all, although they say “I believe” and “Our Father” and even speak of God’s providence and hope in Him. They think about God, know there is another world and another life, but live in their hearts in this world and in what it gives, having no taste for anything higher than it, and experiencing no striving for what is not sensual, not fleshly, not earthly. The spirit of this world does not necessarily mean unblushing vice and unbridled passionateness. It loves sin and passion, and self-gratification in this constitutes an inseparable trait of it; but it does not tolerate obvious evil and sin, but wishes to appear respectable and honest, often hiding behind such a fair disguise sins sometimes amounting to villainy and even shameful passion. But not all its children are such. The main thing in it, as was said at the beginning, is that it hopes only in this world, pursues earthly happiness, and strives to arrange it by its own means.

In whom such a spirit is active, there is nothing Christian, even though he is a Christian. Christianity begins the moment a longing and striving toward the heavenly, spiritual, eternal, and divine is born in the heart, with a turning away from the earthly, sensual, temporal, and created. The Spirit of Christ is opposed to the spirit of this age, and whereas the latter is entirely upon the earth and in earthly things, the former is entirely in heaven and in heavenly things, in God and in divine things – it alone loves, it alone pursues, in it alone it finds its satisfaction. This does not mean that, being withdrawn from all earthly and created things, he no longer touches anything of the sort and has nothing in his activities resembling the deeds of the sons of this age. The forms of human life are the same, there as here; but the spirit and direction of all is different. The Spirit of Christ does not prohibit the satisfaction of natural human needs, nor does it necessarily drive one from family and society. It permits both civil service and military service, and commerce, and learning, and the arts, but it transforms all of this into means for advancement in the Spirit, for the acquisition of heavenly goods, for pleasing God, ruthlessly casting out only that which is contrary to such a direction. It may happen that the Spirit withdraws some from family and society entirely, but this is not its exclusive property, but rather its higher and most perfect manifestation, in its true form the possession of the few and elect.

Such a spirit of Christian life is born when God’s grace, finding entry into a human heart, awakens there the fear of God and disturbs the conscience, and through these brings a person to feel the danger of remaining in the spirit of this age and in its ways of life, then to repentance and a change of direction in one’s life in thoughts, feelings, desires, and deeds, and to a resolve to live not according to the earth, but according to heaven, the spiritual and divine. After this, whoever is not baptized is baptized; and whoever is baptized receives the Sacrament of Repentance, and being armed by God’s grace, begins in either case to live not according to the spirit of this age. It is to such as these that holy Paul addresses his word: “Be not conformed to this age.” Whoever still remains under the spell of the spirit of this age cannot accommodate this rule: he hears, but does not heed, and cannot understand it as he should. But he speaks thus to those who have already driven out the spirit of this age and begun to live according to the Spirit of Christ, for the spirit of this age is deceptive and might again draw away those for whom the murky pleasures of its deeds are known from their former life. He speaks to them as if saying: see, lest the spirit of this age again seduce you and begin again to refashion you in its way, dragging you from heaven to earth, from spirit to flesh, from God to creation. Do not listen to it and do not wish to conform to it and to its ways. For the spirit of this age, enticing through earthly well-being, has devised such deeds, diversions, and goods that it seems as if happiness flows from them like a river. Those drawn by it spin around in these its ways, hoping to be intoxicated by happiness, and though they never taste it, they hope to taste it yet. Those from whom the spirit of this age has been driven out by the Spirit of Christ are drawn from this spinning that crushes the heart. But since they still move about in the vicinity of the ways of the spirit of this age, there is danger: might not this spinning again seize them and draw them into the former whirlwind. The Apostle warns: all this must be abandoned, it is not fitting for you to move about in such ways and conform to them.

Holy Chrysostom, in expounding this passage, endeavors to turn his listeners away from this by chiefly depicting the illusory nature of the goods of this age. “The character (spirit) of this age is bound to the earth, low, fleeting, in it there is nothing exalted, enduring, or right, and all is perverted. Therefore, if you wish to go the proper way, do not imprint upon yourself the character of the present life. In it there is nothing permanent and firm; therefore it is called a character, as in another place the Apostle says: ‘The character of this world passes away’ (1 Cor. 7:31). In it there is nothing enduring and immovable, but all is temporal; therefore he said: ‘this age’ – meaning thereby the transience, but by the word ‘character’ – expressed the unreality. Do you point to wealth, glory, physical beauty, amusements and all else that people regard as great – all this is merely a character, not an actual thing, an appearance and mask, not an enduring essence. But do not conform to this, says the Apostle, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. He did not say: be transformed outwardly – but: be transformed essentially – showing thereby that the world has only an outward character, while to virtue belongs not the outward but the true, essential character, which has a natural beauty, for which no outward ointments and masks are needed, suddenly appearing and vanishing; for all this disappears before it even appears. Therefore, if you tear away the mask, you will at once see the true character. Nothing is weaker than vice, nothing grows old so quickly.”

“But be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” The spirit of this age has been driven out with all its ways and manifestations, the Spirit of Christ has been received. What now? What lies ahead is to transform oneself. Living according to the spirit of the age, by its customs and rules, we are tuned to that with our whole soul, and our way of thinking is worldly, or of this age, and our inclinations with our deeds and undertakings are the same, and our tastes with our feelings and sympathies are similar. Having received the new spirit, it lies before us to remake all this, retune it, transform it. The new spirit, restored and maintained by God’s grace, is a great power. In whom it awakens, it draws him irresistibly toward the higher, the unearthly, the spiritual. But the inner life of a person in whom this spirit awakens is not entirely rebuilt at once according to it. The power to do this has been received, but the transformation itself requires both time and labor. This is what the Apostle impresses upon us, saying: “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Your mind, or spirit, has been renewed, that is, as was said above, God’s grace has quickened in you the fear of God and disturbed your conscience, and under their action with God’s help you have come to the resolve to leave the life of this age and begin to live according to the demands of another age, a resolve strengthened by grace in the Sacraments of Baptism or Repentance. Thus the renewal of your mind or spirit has been accomplished in you. Now by the power of this renewed mind, or spirit, transform yourselves – that is, your thoughts, your dispositions and inclinations, your feelings and tastes – your whole soul. Your soul was entirely turned toward the earth and earthly things, toward this age and its deeds – and was occupied only with how to arrange earthly well-being. To this it subjected and held your mind, or spirit, in a subordinate position to itself and to this age. Now – thanks be to God! – it has been freed from these chains and has entered into its rights; now it is no longer the soul that rules it, but the soul will submit to it and be rebuilt according to its demands. Teach it to adopt the character of sound words, that it may judge all things and look upon all things with spiritual, or divine, eyes, as shown in Divine Revelation; teach it to root in itself, instead of the passions, holy dispositions, or virtues of all kinds, so that virtue may constitute your permanent character, as the passions once did; teach it to cultivate in itself tastes and sympathies for the spiritual, the invisible, the heavenly and eternal, so that your treasure may not be in the carnal, tangible, earthly and passing, but in the opposite – and after the treasure your heart also will be not here, but there. But do not imagine and do not hope to accomplish all this by yourselves, but rather commit all of this and your entire fate to God’s hands and expect success solely from His gracious help, hanging yourself as it were upon God’s right hand – the Almighty.

For all this there is no need to take up anything special; but the same ordinary human deeds done in the new spirit. Some deed lies before you: the former thoughts about it arise – drive them out and receive new ones; the former passionate impulses that used to guide it show themselves – cut them off and awaken new impulses; the old feeling of self-gratification, finding pleasure in it and being fed by it, is irritated – suppress it and stir up sympathy for whatever is unearthly in the deed. Thus in each deed – and the transformation of the soul will proceed on the right path, effectively and fruitfully. Only preserve the renewed mind, or spirit, in the renewal it has received.

But there is no man without sin. However much you guard yourself – unworthy thoughts, feelings, dispositions, deeds, and words will break through and break through again. Because of this the course of the soul’s transformation is slowed, and the very mind, or spirit, weakens in its renewal. Therefore one must ceaselessly renew oneself through repentance. Penitence is an inseparable attribute of the new spirit of Christian life, expressed by the heart’s perpetual condition of contrition and humility. Holy Chrysostom says: “Since it was natural for Paul’s listeners, as humans, to sin every day, the Apostle comforts them, advising them to renew themselves daily. Just as you maintain a house, continually repairing in it everything that has grown old, so do with yourself. Did you sin today? Has your soul grown old? Do not despair, do not be discouraged, but renew it through repentance, tears, confession, good deeds, and never abandon this work.”

“That you may test what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” It lies before you with your renewed mind to transform yourselves. By what standard? By the will of God. In the Word of God all is shown how to do this. Study it, make it your own, and apply it to your life, despite resistance within and obstacles without. There is no better and more trustworthy guide and director. And when you conduct yourselves in all things according to God’s will, then by your very deeds you will test and prove that if anyone wishes to transform himself in a new way, he will not achieve it except by acting according to God’s will. Action according to it will at once bear fruit, evident and perceptible, and will convince you by deed how good, pleasing, and perfect is God’s will. – In the Apostle the fruit of transforming oneself is placed not in knowledge of God’s will, but in its testing and experiential tasting of its qualities, its beneficial action upon us. “That you may test,” εις το δοκιμάζειν. – Δοκιμάζειν – to taste, to sample, to prove by deed. The knowledge of God’s will can be placed on the condition of the renewal of the mind, but not the transformation of oneself by the renewed mind, which already presupposes knowledge of God’s will. And indeed, as long as the mind, or spirit, is not renewed, as long as it is wholly seized and oppressed by the spirit of this age, so long cannot a human know and understand God’s will; it is unintelligible to him, incomprehensible, no matter how much it may be explained. By placing the knowledge of God’s will in dependence on the renewal of the mind, holy Chrysostom says: “You may ask: who does not know in what God’s will consists? Anyone who is attached to the present, who regards wealth as enviable and despises poverty; who desires power, is partial to worldly glory; who thinks himself a great man when he has built magnificent houses, prepared splendid tombs, has a crowd of servants, leads multitudes of eunuchs after him; such a man does not know what is beneficial for him and in what God’s will consists. For both one and the other are one and the same: what is beneficial for us God desires; and what God desires is beneficial for us. What then does God desire? That we love poverty, meekness, despise glory, live temperately, not luxuriously, in sorrow, not in pleasure, weep, not laugh and make merry – fulfill all that God has commanded us. But many turn away from this as from evil, not only do not agree to recognize it as beneficial and as God’s will; and therefore can never even approach the exploits of virtue. Such people, not knowing what virtue is, and marveling at vice, how can they withdraw from this present age?”

With this, holy Chrysostom also proposes another thought, useful in life. Placing it as possible to understand by the renewal of the mind the acquisition of sound judgments about things, he teaches that this too is good, even though there may be no life corresponding to it, even though we do not live thus; but knowledge of what ought to be will finally give wisdom and lead to proper deeds. “First and foremost, he says, we must have a right judgment about things. If we do not yet follow virtue, at least let us learn to praise it. If we do not yet flee vice, at least let us become accustomed to condemn what is bad, so that at least our judgment be right. Holding to this path, we can then take up the deeds themselves. For this reason Paul commands us to renew ourselves, ‘that you may test what is the will of God.’”

In elucidation of what is meant by God’s will being “good and acceptable and perfect,” blessed Theophylact briefly brings the exposition of these words given by Basil the Great in his concise Rules, in answer to the 276th question. We give this passage in full. “First, one must seek what is the good will of God; this is the direct commandment to do something, for example: ‘Be merciful, as your Father is merciful’ (Lk. 6:36) – or: ‘Walk in love, as Christ also loved us’ (Eph. 5:2); then, when we know the good will, we must investigate whether this good will is pleasing to God (in relation to us). For it is one thing that is God’s will, and God’s good will; but when this is done by the wrong person, or not at the time it should be done, then it is no longer well-pleasing to God. For example: it was God’s will and a good will that incense be offered to God; but it was not well-pleasing to God that Dathan and Abiram do this. And again: there is God’s will and a good will that alms be given; but that this be done for glory from men, this is not well-pleasing to God. And again: it was God’s will and a good will that the disciples, ‘what you have heard in your ear, proclaim on the rooftops,’ (Mt. 10:27); but that they speak of certain things before the time, this was not well-pleasing to God. For He says: ‘Tell no one about this vision until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.’ (Mt. 17:9). And in general every will of God that is good is then also well-pleasing when there is fulfilled in it what the Apostle said: ‘Do all to the glory of God’ (1 Cor. 10:31) – and: ‘Let all things be done properly and in order.’ (1 Cor. 14:40). But again, if there is God’s will, and a good will, and an acceptable will toward something, then in this case too one must not give oneself to carelessness, but labor and take care that it be perfect and without defects, in the measure both of the deed itself and of the power of the one performing the deed. (One may add: with all zeal, attention, and diligence; for God does not look favorably upon one who does His work carelessly.) For it is said: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,’ and with all your soul, ‘and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself,’ (Lk. 10:27), as the Lord taught in the Gospel according to John: ‘As I have loved you, so you also love one another.’ (Jn. 13:34). And love every commandment, as it is written (Deut. 6:6). For it is said: ‘Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.’ (Mt. 24:46)” (Saint Basil the Great. Rules concisely set forth in Questions and Answers. Answer 276).

Having delineated the spirit of Christian life, the Apostle now begins to depict: