Worship is Participating in God's Mission to Reunite Heaven and Earth: A commentary on Romans 12

Romans 12:1-13

1 Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 4 For just as we have many parts in one body and all the body’s parts do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually parts of one another.

6 However, since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to use them properly: if prophecy, in proportion to one’s faith; 7 if service, in the act of serving; or the one who teaches, in the act of teaching; 8 or the one who exhorts, in the work of exhortation; the one who gives, with generosity; the one who is in leadership, with diligence; the one who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

9 Love must be free of hypocrisy. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor, 11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, 13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

65% of all Scripture is about loving others. Yes I am including the Old Testament in this calculation. Romans 12 starts the final section of Romans which is all about loving others. A book which we all know for it’s salvation doctrine ends with 4 chapters all about how to love others. That is more chapters than the Romans road of salvation which is Chapters 5-8. We can memorize scripture, have the most perfect services, pray all the time, but if we do not love, it all means nothing. You cannot worship God without loving others. Worship is a life that is in alignment with God’s purposes. Therefore, a life in which we are not loving others is not a life of worship.  (1 John 4:21; 1 Corinthians 13; 1 Samuel 15:22; Hosea 6:6)

Paul in Romans 12 starts off with comparing Christians with the animals slaughtered in Judaism or pagan religions. However, Paul gives a major distinction by using the word “living”. While the animals stay dead, the Christians is alive and rather than the christian’s death being the end, it is the beginning. The Christian lives a new life as if He were this dead animal. Meaning that once we die to our old life and are given new life by the life of Jesus we are living to be the bridge in which the dead animal of a sacrifice represents — a bridge between heaven and earth.

  With a sacrifice, the blameless animal goes up in smoke and enters into the realm of the god for which that sacrifice was offered. Therefore making a connection between the offerer of the sacrifice and the intended god. This is how it worked for the Israelite sacrificial system as well as the pagan. We live our lives dead to ourselves, and alive only in Christ. The animal on the altar has been forcefully submitted to God’s will for it to die in the place of humans, while the Christian must willingly sacrifice their life in faith that in doing so we are participating in God’s mission to restore the world. Through our sacrifice we are participating in the new reality of God which invaded earth through Jesus.

Even in the Old Testament, God told us that the highest form of worship is to love others. Hosea 6:6 tells us for “I desire loyal love over sacrifices.” When Jesus quotes this verse in Matthew 9:13 Matthew uses the Greek word for compassion or mercy. Therefore, making it “I desire compassion over sacrifice.” God never has separated the worship of Him from loving others. While you might be able to say Hosea is telling us that must have loyal love for God. Jesus’ interpretation of this scripture uses that word for compassion and mercy for others. Jesus shows us that love for God and love for others are interlocked and this one scripture gives us a clear picture of how love for God and love others cannot be separated. I will go a step further, worship without love is not worship at all.

The Christian life takes Hosea 6:6 to another level and not only are sacrifices not as important as loving others, our sacrifice to Him becomes dying to our own ego, wants, and desires and living a life to serve others, making us a living sacrifice. We live a life solely focused on brining the good news of Jesus to the world. Not through mere words, but by living our lives making the world a better place. By living our lives to make an impact on the world in Jesus name. Our full obedience to God is now the only sacrifice God requires of us.

Paul in Romans 12, is showing us how the temple system lives through Jesus. Just as the Israelites brought their sacrifices to the temple, in Jesus we bring our sacrifice, which is our lives. The temple of Jesus is not a building made by human hands, but a people who have sacrificed their lives and are living anew through the life of Jesus. The temple was the place where God’s Spirit lived on earth. The temple was where heaven and earth were united. Through Jesus, God’s Spirit and life live in us. The temple is no longer bound by four walls, but is made up of all followers of Jesus. We are the new temple, and our sacrifice is our lives (1 Peter 2:4-10).

Through Jesus, we are transformed into new creation people. Meaning, we are transformed into people who live in unity with God and others. We are living the life in which we will experience for eternity. Eternal life is not a quantity of life, but a quality of life. Eternal life is a life free from the evil powers which cause chaos and destruction, sickness, and hatred in our world. Paul in Romans 12:2 is rooting this passage and the rest of Romans into God’s mission to save the world from the powers of evil. “Be transformed” is the imperative to live by the reality of God and not just how the current world tells you to live.

Being transformed is living a life of radical generosity, confidence, and purpose. Paul is calling us to obedience not for obedience’ sake, but because through our obedience and love we are participating in and being conduits of God’s new reality. When we live a life of love we are acting as a place where heaven and earth are one. Which is what worship is all about, revealing and experiencing heaven on earth.

Paul using the system of sacrifice to establish the final section of Romans, is extremely significant because using the sacrificial system, therefore invoking the temple itself, shows that what Paul is teaching through this final section of Romans is how to worship God in this new reality.

The temple for the Israelites is a symbol of God's restorative mission. It is the place where God is restoring the world. The temple is where heaven and earth are one. This is where God's spirit lives. When Paul invokes the sacrificial system he is talking about the temple itself, he is saying "This is how we worshiped before, but now through Jesus we worship by giving the sacrifice of our lives. We are the heaven-and-earth place in which God dwells, and now we are not only the image of God through simply being human, but now we are the conduit of God's restorative mission to the world."

How? Because we are now a people of love, of kindness, of generosity. We are taking care of the world. We are not worrying about ourselves. We are not obtaining wealth, possessions and status for ourselves we are giving all we have to show the world God’s new reality among us. Which is what verse 2 is about: "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

When Paul says "transformed," he is even pushing the temple narrative further, because, the temple was the symbol of God's new creation, God's new reality invading the earth. Heaven and earth are united in the temple. When Jesus says, "I'm going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days," he was correct because the temple he rebuilt was God's temple. The temple He rebuilt was the temple system itself.

Now it’s not in a building in which God's spirit dwells—which God's spirit hasn't been dwelling there since the First Temple when God abandoned the temple and let Babylon destroy it. We never get in the Old Testament, God returning to the Second Temple after the exile. God's Spirit never returns. So the Second Temple, the true temple, was Jesus. The second physical temple in Jerusalem was simply a building. God's Spirit never dwelt there.

The only time God’s presence was in the temple after the exile to Babylon was when Jesus was in it. And what did Jesus do in that temple? Jesus challenged the leaders of the temple system and then pointed to himself as the true fulfillment of what the temple was a sign for. Jesus rebuked them, not for offering enough sacrifices, or praying enough, but for being selfish, ignoring justice and mercy, for taking advantage of the poor. Jesus gives the same rebukes of the temple which the prophets of Israel did, but Jesus then gives the answer of how God is going to solve the issues of Israel’s failures — through Jesus’ life death resurrection and ascension.

Jesus said, "I am rebuilding this in three days." He wasn't talking about the physical building, because that was already useless since God’s Spirit wasn't there. Jesus was already the heaven-and-earth place. Jesus accomplished what the temple never could, which was releasing God's presence to the world for all to experience—no longer captured and enclosed by four walls. God’s Spirit lives in me and you. We now are the temple of God. We become a part of this temple through Jesus, who is the ultimate temple.

Jesus accomplishes bringing heaven to earth for all, and our mission is bring heaven to earth. We are a place where heaven meets earth—every single person when we leave here today is a walking piece of heaven, because the new life of Jesus is inside of you. We are a walking, breathing, thinking, living temple, because God’s Spirit dwells in us. Each of us are individual stones which together make up one temple, which is the body of Christ. While we are a piece of the temple, without each other, people will never fully comprehend what we are a part of. Why? Because God’s mission is to unite all the world together and to Himself.

The purpose of a follower of Jesus, is to bring heaven to earth. And how do we do that? 65% of every instruction God gave for us in his Word is about loving others and serving others. Why? Because the mission of God is to unite not only us as individuals to him, but unite us as individuals to each other. We are making a spiritual house, a spiritual nation, a spiritual race of people who are united by the bond of the life of Jesus. That's what Paul is invoking when he says "be transformed." He's saying, "Act as you are now a part of this, because you're already transformed. You're already a part of this new people, and you believe in Jesus. Now you have to act like it by participating in this new reality through living a life of love and humility.

In every decision you make, you now must think differently about life. The next section of our passage of scripture starting in verse 3 starts telling us how to think differently. “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought," What this section is reminding us is that this isn't about you. This isn't about your enlightenment or your comfort. You do not get points when you are a disciple of Jesus if you just go to another service, bible study, or prayer meeting.

Those things while they are good are meant to prepare us for the real work of following Jesus. The real work of showing the world God’s new reality. The Christian life is about being transformed into God’s people to work in unity with God and His people for the good of all the world.

“For just as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts, you know, don't have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually parts of one another.”

Paul is reminding us here, Now you are transformed, but don't get caught up in your little world because we are all connected now to a bigger body. You are a stone in this building. You are just one stone out of the millions of stones which make up this new temple in which Jesus is the cornerstone. Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought. Don't make following Jesus all about your comfort and your preferences, and your wants, and your desires. Don't make the Christian life a theological and intellectual pursuit. Start living differently. You are a part of something so much bigger than yourself. You are a part of bring heaven to earth. We are revealing to the world God's new reality right here, right now.

The reason we have gotten confused of what worship is all about is because of the Enlightenment. We tried to fuse Jesus and Enlightenment ideals. We made Jesus a path to personal enlightenment. We made Jesus a intellectual pursuit, a way to morality rather than staying focused on the mission to bring God’s love to the world in order that all may see that God has a better life for them! Christianity is not a path to the Enlightenment. It is a path to a new reality which Enlightenment ideals could never create or comprehend.

If you want to live a life of worship, if you want to experience the life in which God has for you start with knowing this isn't about us. Following Jesus isn't so you can get saved, or go to heaven. It is bringing heaven to earth.

The Old Testament says that the Lord will stand on the earth. That's the hope. That's the goal—to bring heaven to earth. And how do we do that? That's how Paul wraps up our passage for today. It's through love. We must use our gifts, no matter how different they are, in revealing to the world God’s new reality. 

"We must be devoted to one another, give preferences to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. We must be detesting all those evil things in this community."

We must remember that the mission of bringing to heaven and earth is not about us. As those a part of the family of God we have to give way to the weaker family members to help make them strong. As a church we must have the mindset of, even though I prefer doing it this way, I'm going to give honor to the mission, give honor to my lost brothers and sisters out there, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to get them to let them see this life that I get to experience.

Not one time did the prophets ever tell Israel that they did not give enough sacrifices, that they didn't give enough bulls and rams and doves. Not one time did they say, "Oh, you didn't tithe enough. You weren't reading the Torah enough." God told Israel, "You abandoned the widow and the orphan. You took advantage of others.” The prophet’s rebuke of Israel was all about Israel not loving as God had instructed them. That is why God abandoned them and sent them to Babylon and never returned until Jesus came.

Living a life of worship and obedience means that we are participating in the mission of God to unite heaven and earth. The Holy Spirit living inside of us makes us a place where heaven and earth meet. Now we can be conduits of heaven itself and make our lives a little piece of heaven on earth. Jesus came and proclaimed the kingdom of God was near, that God’s mission to bring peace, love, and joy to the world has come to fulfillment in Him, and then the first thing Jesus started doing was calling the outcast of society to follow Him and healing people.

The gospels show us that Jesus’ life was all about loving others. If we try to cling to our own lives, we will lose them, we will miss out on the greatest things life has to offer. But if we decide we are going to be a living sacrifice, if we are going to die to the life we are currently living and allow the life of Jesus to bring us to a new life, and start participating in the mission of God to unite heaven and earth, we will find the life we are looking for.

It is more comfortable to think love and worship are separate, which is why the church has tried to do separate the two. Because it is easy to show up to Sunday School, Church Services, and Bible Studies. It is hard to live every second of your life serving and loving the world around you. Which is why we need God’s Spirit inside of us. If the Christian life was aboutabout our religiosity then we would not need God because we would have no purpose other than sitting in this building and singing hymns and songs, praying, and reading. All of that is easy! What is hard is to love a world which hates you, love a world that does not care about you, love people who will put themselves over you every single time. Love is hard, but this is how we worship God.