Can a single decision change a Christian’s life? I think it can!

There is one decision that the Book of Romans urges every Christian to make. It is a decision so significant and with such potential to transform and bless that Paul devotes eleven chapters to preparing us to consider it.

Romans 12:1-2 invites individual believers who have read this great treatise on the mercies of God to respond in a way that pleases God and maximizes their experience of their so great salvation. It is a commitment to God separate from the decision to put your faith in Christ, and it moves the Christian into a new experience of devotion and intimacy with Christ. The choice we are asked to make is to present our lives to God:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1-2)

Though this is a pivotal decision for any believer, and emotions should and will be involved, as with any commitment in life, it’s important to know the why and the what. Why should I do this? And what am I committing to?

The why we should know by now. We can logically decide to worship God by giving Him our life because of His mercy to sinners. The what is outlined in 12:3-15:13. When you give your life to God, He asks you to do the same thing He asked His Son to do—give your life to others:

When you give your life to God, He gives it away to others!

In our modern minds, chapters 9-11 may seem like a sudden history lesson, interesting to some, but irrelevant to the discussion. “Israel, who cares?” Understanding the great and glorious themes of salvation and appreciating more than ever the mercies extended to us through grace (chapters 1-8), we could quickly move straight to the practical application of those themes to our lives in chapters 12-16.

Not Paul. Guided by the Holy Spirit Himself, the apostle to the Gentiles digresses into a discussion of his people, the Jews, who had for the most part failed to accept the salvation offered in the Gospel, even though they were God’s chosen race and it was presented to the Jew first (1:16-17).

To his readers in Rome, this was a problem. The original believers in Rome were all Jews, but by this time, they were becoming outnumbered by Gentiles. There must have been tension. Perhaps a tendency by some Greeks and Romans to marginalize their Jewish brethren as somehow inferior and a prideful reaction from the Jews to defect to the synagogue. More importantly, the many references to the Hebrew Scriptures in chapters 1-8 raised questions in the back of his readers’ minds: If God is so righteous, how could He give Israel so many privileges—especially unconditional promises? And then, if God is so faithful, how could He reject His chosen people—especially in light of His unconditional promises?

These issues could surface doubts in every believer’s mind. “If God rejected Israel, will He reject me when I fail?” “I’m depending on the Gospel’s power to deliver me from this sinful life. But, if God’s people could not live righteously before Him, do I have any hope?”

When we ask these questions we need a history lesson on the mercies of God. The Greek word for mercy occurs seven times in these three chapters but only twice in the rest of the letter! To assure us that God is faithful to His promises while remaining righteous, Paul begins with the particular problem of the Jewish resistance to the Gospel and ends with an unfolding of the divine purpose in history, which, in some ways, goes beyond any comparable passage in the whole Bible. The lesson is profoundly simple:

Israel’s past, present, and future prove that God is a Faithful Promisekeeper!

Salvation then includes the free gift of justification, the process of sanctification, and the future rewards for the sanctification process included in glorification. In moving from “sanctification salvation” to “glorification salvation,” we are moving from what we are to “work out” (Philippians 2:12-13) with a view to future reward (2 Corinthians 5:10) having received “justification salvation” as a grace gift apart from any works (Romans 3:24) to the actual experience of our promised deliverance from the very presence of sin forever in heaven (Romans 13:11; 1 Peter 1:9).

In Romans, Paul transitions from sanctification to glorification in 8:16-17 by speaking of two categories of glory—unconditional and conditional. This begins his presentation of the glorifying mercies of God in salvation.

Romans 8:16 and 17 confront us with a double heirship. One of these is for all believers. The other is for believers who suffer in fellowship with Christ. Echoing the words of the Lord in the upper room (John 16:33, 17:22-24), Paul reminds us of another reality…when we will not feel the way we do now:

When life is hard, think of your forever home with Jesus.

A person in Christ is a new person. He or she is not simply the old person worked over. That’s why Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Think of the miracle God performs when a person places faith in Christ. The believer has an entirely new power source and new possibilities.

Sanctification is about discovering and appropriating this power and these possibilities. Union with Christ is an essential discovery for believers desiring a fuller spiritual life. The foundational truth of our crucifixion with Christ is the basis of a Christian’s freedom from the power of sin. Unfortunately, this concept is often misunderstood, unbalanced in its presentation, and unused in its application.

Christ’s mighty work on the Cross sets His people free from the reign of sin and death (5:12-18). His mighty life provides the power to live the life they were set free to live (5:19-21). And His Holy Spirit unites them with Him through spiritual baptism (1 Corinthians 12:13). This concept of being united with Christ is developed chiefly by Paul. In Romans 6:1-10 he links union with Christ to victory over sin, teaching that believers are identified with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection:

The Spirit unites believers to Christ—dead to sin and alive to God!

Romans 3:21-26 is the foundational passage for the doctrine of justification. All the concepts involved in justification—the righteousness of God, faith, grace, redemption, and propitiation—are skillfully and wonderfully integrated into the most powerful paragraph in the Bible. Justification by faith has been “ground zero” to every revival in church history. Humanity’s ruin through sin and God’s remedy through faith in the justifying merit of Jesus Christ is a message that cannot be restrained. The personal implication of this powerful doctrine is profoundly simple:

When I believe in Christ, God declares me Righteous. 

The full and free justification offered to all humanity, through faith alone, in Christ alone, brings ecstatic joy and the most profound comfort to every believing heart. 

In the first hundred years of Christianity there was no more strategic community of believers than those living in Rome. “All roads lead to Rome” was a reminder that the city of Rome was the cultural, commercial, and political center of the Empire.

To this young church, Paul writes his most thorough treatise on Christianity. His purpose is clear—to call them to a life of commitment by giving their all to God (Romans 12:1-2). His motivation is also clear—to encourage them to make this radical but reasonable decision because they are overwhelmed by God’s mercy. For eleven chapters, the Apostle of Grace exalts the mercies of God. “God’s righteousness is revealed in His mercies to all who believe,” writes Paul. “So I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; it has the power to deliver believers from the wrath of God and set them on a path of faith that will radically transform their lives.”

The Eternal Benefit of Spiritual Maturity:

Spiritual maturity sets us on a path to realize our destiny, which we were made new in Christ to accomplish (Ephesians 2:8-10). It’s a winding path following a continual process described by Paul in Philippians 3.

In Paul’s process of maturing, he describes an awareness of his value system changing dramatically because of who he now was in Christ:

God has a specific destiny for your life. It is always greater than your capacities and goals.

The Eternal Benefit of Spiritual Maturity:

Spiritual maturity sets us on a path to realize our destiny, which we were made new in Christ to accomplish (Ephesians 2:8-10). It’s a winding path following a continual process described by Paul in Philippians 3.

In Paul’s process of maturing, he describes an awareness of his value system changing dramatically because of who he now was in Christ:

God has a specific destiny for your life. It is always greater than your capacities and goals.

Results of Living by the Spirit: Those Christians who live by the Spirit display Christ’s selfless love, not by following the law but by having crucified the flesh.

This is the true fruit of liberty—love. We have been set free to live by the Spirit to love with the type of love characterized by the eight characteristics listed in Galatians 5.

Since the law was given to constrain the flesh, there’s no need for the law when we live by the Spirit. When we trusted in Christ, the power of the flesh in our lives was crucified.

“If you’re led by the Spirit, you’ll live by loving one another well. That’s not how you’re treating one another, according to the reports I’ve heard”

True spiritual maturity: Liberated Christians, living by the Spirit, glorify God by their Christ-like love.

It’s the most loathsome bait and switch in church history.

Relentlessly trying to become spiritually mature by listening to the moralists and religious tyrants, we stunt our growth and lose the wonder of following a Savior who said,

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Paul’s loving confrontation of the Galatians in 5:7-15 exposes the lie of legalism and invites weary Christians to find the rest for their souls Jesus promised by using their freedom to love one another.

Legalism hinders Christian growth and ruins Christian unity!