“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” Joshua 1:8
In January 2025, I committed to praying through Romans 12:1-2 daily. It was part of a greater commitment to offering myself to the Lord in whatever capacity He saw fit to use me. Here are the verses, so we can bring them to mind:
“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. 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.”
One phrase gave me particular difficulty for about 8 months – “that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Nothing I can do for or bring to the Lord can ever be “good and acceptable and perfect.” So why is this phrase here?
After about 8 months of praying through these verses daily, this phrase began to make sense. (I am a slow learner and hard headed.) When we (1) present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, (2) worship the Lord through our bodies in what we do and say, (3) are not conformed to this world, and (4) are transformed through the renewing of our mind, by all these things we prove what is “good and acceptable and perfect.”
This sounds much like holiness and Christian perfection to me. The more we as the body of Christ seek to embody Romans 12:1-2, the more we prove what the will of the Lord is.
One or even a few righteous people cast the light of righteousness in a community. Through righteousness, we are capable of far more influence than we estimate. Jesus highlights this principle in Matthew 5:14-16, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
On a mountain top with a view of other peaks and valleys off in the distance, a single light far off in the distance is visible once the sun goes down. This is the concept of righteousness influencing a community. The light of Christ does not go unnoticed, even though the light may be small.
What if more people committed to live out and embody Romans 12:1-2? We would have a whole town shining bright! We would together prove what is the “good and acceptable and perfect” will of the Lord.
The will of the Lord is obedience to His word and expectations, unity, humility, consecration, perfection, bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit, loving Him and our neighbors with our whole heart, committing ourselves to Him and not looking back, practicing righteousness and shunning sin, and imitating Christ and embodying Christ in the world.
So, why do more people not live out Romans 12:1-2? Chief among our restraints are selfishness and pride. They do more to prevent us from truly offering ourselves to the Lord and living out righteousness.
This one prayer, “Lord, help me to not be conformed to this world,” does more to root out sin and make us more sensitive to sin. It is one thing to be sensitive to sin. It it another thing to confess the sin that the Lord brings into our view, lay down that sin, and allow the Lord to root it out. This can truly be hard.
There is perhaps no better way to grow in Christian perfection than to be sensitive to sin, and the only pathway to this sensitivity is to continually seek the righteousness of the Lord and ask that He root out sin in our lives, with a ready heart to confess that sin. Only when we are sensitive to sin can we begin to grow in the Lord and embody Romans 12:1-2. Sin is darkness and righteousness is light, so a darkened light is unattractive to the world. Where the world represents darkness, a darkened light fits right into the world. The world is opposed to light and does not want its deeds exposed by the light.
Another major sin in our lives which we commonly excuse is self-righteousness. This is the thrust of 1 John 1:8, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” There is perhaps no worse state for the would-be Christian than self-deception, which is at the root of self-righteousness. If we were permitted to judge ourselves, we would excuse all sorts of acts that are in opposition to the will of God. Self-righteousness not only gets us in the dark but sours our relationships with others. It is a silent poison which ultimately leads us away from the Lord.
I do not believe we can truly pray through Romans 12:1-2 until we are ready to lay aside the “deeds of darkness (Romans 13:12), the “old self (Ephesians 4:22), and “every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us” (Hebrews 12:1). The fundamental reason is that the Lord will bring to mind areas, practices, and strongholds in our lives which are unbecoming a righteous person. If we refuse to allow the Lord to work, we risk quenching the Holy Spirit, and who knows when He will visit our hearts again. We also risk apostasy.
By the same token, we cannot progress through Romans 12:1-2 until we are ready to “leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity” (Hebrews 6:1), “put on the new self” (Ephesians 4:24), and “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).
What is the will of the Lord? What is “good and acceptable and perfect”? Galatians 5:22-26 summarizes the Lord’s heart well, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.”
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