Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Paul is speaking primarily to the gentile believers in Rome when he talks about God’s mercy, referring back to chapter eleven, where he recounted how, because of the hard hearts of the Jewish people, God had made an opening for the gentiles all over the world to opt in and become part of God’s chosen people, right alongside the believing Jews. It is because of that amazing mercy and grace that Paul advocates the next three steps.

The first step is for us to offer our physical bodies to God as a sacrifice, a freewill offering that is fully devoted to Him, committed 100% to His exclusive use. In this sense, God’s people are His slaves, but not slaves won by conquest or defeat. We are bondservants, willingly serving and wholly devoted to our Master because of the salvation that He has worked on our behalf.

But such commitment must be intentionally made; it does not happen automatically. And that consecration of the body to obedience to God’s commands and compliance to His standards must be renewed at least daily. It is a well-known saying that the problem with a living sacrifice is that it has a tendency to jump off the altar. This is a key reason that Jesus demanded that His followers take up their own crosses and follow Him DAILY. (Luke 9:23)

Paul calls this daily surrender of self, physical surrender as well as spiritual surrender, “your reasonable act of worship.” In other words, it is a recognition that we are not our own but were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 7:23). When we make that daily commitment, we are re-proclaiming our salvation that was paid for by the blood of Jesus.

The next action Paul urges is that each follower allow themselves to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. This is not something that can be done by willpower or study or the Pharisees would have already achieved it. True transformation only comes through surrender to God and a complete opening of oneself to the melting, purifying, transforming power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not transform any part of a person that is not completely surrendered to Him, so this is first and foremost a call to make that complete surrender so that the work of transformation can be accomplished.

Once that is done, and only after that commitment and surrender is done, can a person truly know God’s will, His calling for their life. God does not share His will with a person so that he or she can decide whether or not to do it. He only shows it to committed people who have surrendered themselves to Him and who have allowed the Holy Spirit to purify and transform them. And when He shows us His will for our lives, it becomes for us a calling, a command. And it is only as we obey that calling that we will be able to see experientially that God’s calling, His will for us, is good, pleasing and perfect.

Father, I can attest to this myself. I wanted to know Your will for my life, but it was only when I surrendered myself completely to You, saying yes to Your will before I even knew it, that You could show me what You had in mind. And since then, I have followed that will with everything in me, even though there have been times when it was challenging, even times when it was painful and felt like death. You have been with me every step of the way, just as You promised, guiding every step, empowering me with Your Holy Spirit, and encouraging me when the way was dark and treacherous. But I can honestly say, now that I am this far into the journey, that Your will is indeed good, pleasing, and perfect, and there is nowhere else I would rather be. Amen.