Surrender (Romans 12:1-2)

by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
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Are you stuck? Feel like you haven't grown spiritually in years? There's a pretty good chance that the issue has to do with surrender. In these classic verses -- and using the most graphic image imaginable -- Paul explains why surrender is so important and the pleasant fruits that flow from it. Take a few minutes and let us unpack these verses together.

"1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, 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. 2 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." (Romans 12:1-2)

Romans is Paul's most theological letter. He has explained salvation and grace in the first eleven chapters. The first word in our passage, "therefore," is the hinge that turns from theology to practice. The letter so far has been about God's mercy and grace to us. Now, in light of these mercies, Paul calls us to action.

"Therefore, I urge1 you, brothers and sisters, in view of2 God's mercy...."3 (Romans 12:1a)

This is not a suggestion. The apostle is pleading with us to surrender to Christ. He explains this surrender from two points of view.

Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1b)

The first has to do with sacrifice.

"Offer your bodies as living sacrifices." (Romans 12:1b)

Sacrifice

The image comes from Israel's tabernacle in the wilderness, and later, from the temple in Jerusalem. Israel is a shepherd people told to bring one of their sheep, their cattle to God's house. As we read in Leviticus 1, the worshipper confesses his sins and lays his hand on the head of his animal, figuratively transferring his sins to the animal. God has told him that He will accept this animal to take the man's place, to bear his sin, to be an atonement for him.

It is a scene both intimate and shocking. Now the worshipper slits the animal's throat and it bleeds out before him. Next, the animal is skinned and its carcass cut into pieces. The priests lift the butchered pieces onto the altar, where the sacrifice burns until ashes are all that remain.

Unless you are a farmer or hunter who has killed and butchered animals for food, you recoil at such images. Sacrifice is abhorrent! Just the way that sin itself is abhorrent! Sacrifice is a constant reminder of the deadly seriousness of sin -- and the mercy of God that accepts a substitute to die for sins instead of us. It is grace, a forgiveness not deserved. Under the New Covenant, Jesus is the Sacrifice for our sins, and the cross is the altar upon which his life is poured out on our behalf.

Previously in Romans, Paul talks about Jesus' sacrifice. Now his words take a sudden twist.4

"Offer your bodies as living sacrifices."

God doesn't want us dead, but alive. Living, breathing, obedient, loving, fully surrendered to him -- "holy and pleasing to God."5 Surrender is a sacred act that pleases God, because it is the response of a willing and trusting heart.

Spiritual Act of Worship (Romans 12:1c)

Now Paul surprises us again:

"This is your spiritual act of worship."6 (Romans 12:1c)

Worship goes way beyond singing and praying. This verse is radical: How you live out your life in your body is how you worship God! As Barclay puts it,

"Real worship is the offering of everyday life to God ... the offering of every moment and every action to God."7

We dare not compartmentalize our lives. Everything we do and say we offer before God as our worship, our surrender to him.8

Question 1. To what degree am I really surrendered to Jesus -- acting the way I do, saying the things I say, treating people the way I treat them? What kind of worship am I offering to God? What is Jesus calling me to surrender to him so he can replace it with newness and wholeness and holiness?

Renewing of the Mind (Romans 12:2)

Now Paul shifts his image from sacrifices to pictures of molds and patterns.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,9 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." (Romans 12:2)

The Pull to Conform (Romans 12:2a)

The word translated "conform" means "to form according to a pattern or mold," then, "to form or model after something."10 J.B. Phillips catches the idea with his paraphrase: "Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold."11

A manufacturer will inject hot plastic into molds to produce everyday items such as bowls and bottles. Or pour molten iron into molds where it cools and takes the shape of the mold. In the kitchen, your molds might be a Bundt cake pan, a cupcake pan, a dessert mold for colored Jello (fruit-flavored gelatin), or a popsicles mold for flavored ice on a stick.

The Power of the Culture

Our culture is a powerful force that molds us. Thus God commands the Israelites:

"You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you.... You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God." (Leviticus 18:3-4)

Without thinking, we begin to look and act like everyone else. The attitudes and morals of our society easily become the standards for our lives. These values infuse the programs we watch and our conversations with friends. The pressure to conform is subtle and pervasive. We become like chameleons that match our color to our surroundings. Unless we make a deliberate effort to remain faithful to Jesus, we find ourselves being pulled by the current of society and soon our boat has drifted far downriver.

Eugene Peterson's paraphrase in The Message, puts verse 1 this way:

"Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking."

You must admit, we live in a corrupt culture, with values that twist away from God's values, sometimes subtly, sometimes radically.12 Paul tells us that the unspiritual man,

"... Does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Question 2. How have my values subtly shifted over the years to those of my culture? What kinds of immorality do I accept now that once distressed me? Have I adjusted to the world or to God's thoughts?

Transformation and Renewal (Romans 12:2b)

Rather than conformity to the culture, Paul calls us to transformation and renewal.

"... But be transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Romans 12:2b)

"Be transformed" comes from a Greek word from which we get our word "metamorphosis," the change from caterpillars into butterflies and tadpoles into frogs. The verb metamorphoō here means "to change inwardly in fundamental character or condition, be changed, be transformed."13

The means by which this transformation takes place is the renewal14 of our minds. The ancients didn't think in terms of "brain," but the mind as the sum total of our whole mental and moral state of being.15 Douglas Moo calls the renewal process a "re-programming of the mind,"16 a whole new way of thinking.

Our whole categories of thinking and evaluating need to change, if we would really understand God's will. This transformation happens gradually by constant yielding to the Holy Spirit, by exposing ourselves to God's thoughts in his Word. We change through daily Bible reading and reflection. We change as we sit under Biblical preaching and teaching. Prayer, meditation, seeking after God wholeheartedly and diligently changes us.

Testing and Discerning (Romans 12:2c)

ssay Office, Nevada City, California.
Assay Office (1851), Nevada City, California.

With our mind renewed by the Spirit and the Word, we can begin to understand, to discern accurately what God wants.

"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then17 you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:2)

The Greek word dokimazō underlies this verse. It is variously translated: "be able to test and approve" (NIV) "by testing you may discern" (ESV), "discern" (NRSV), "prove" (KJV). Bear with me here. The verb dokimazō comes from the noun dokimē, "a testing process, a test." The verb carries two related ideas. (1) "To make a critical examination of something to determine genuineness, put to the test, examine." And then, (2) "to draw a conclusion about worth on the basis of testing, prove, approve."18

Just a few miles from my home, gold was discovered in 1848, bringing a huge wave of 49ers seeking their fortune in the California Gold Rush. Miners would pan for gold in the creeks, then scurry down to the local Assay Office in town to have their find tested to determine if it was gold, and if so, how pure it was. Then the assayer would certify his findings and set a value on the gold. That's what dozimazō refers to: testing and assaying value.

Back to our verse: Only with a renewed mind, we are able to test or assay with accuracy some thought or idea and determine whether or not it is God's will. Corrupt minds plunge ahead blindly acting on whim and desire. Renewed minds are able and eager to discern and follow God's will, his values, his thoughts, his way of living -- "his good, pleasing and perfect will."19

Question 3. Do you take the effort to read and study God's word? Do you sit regularly under Biblical teaching and preaching? Do you yield to the Holy Spirit who can renew your mind? Or have you short-circuited this process through laziness?

Surrender

One of my favorite hymns of surrender, written early in the last century, begins:

"Have Thine own way, Lord! have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will
While I am waiting, yielded and still."20

Prayer

Father, I surrender my whole body and mind to you. Let me live for You and for Your purposes. Transform and heal my corrupted mind so I can discern and approve of Your thoughts and make them my own -- and lead me in the way everlasting. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

End Notes

References and Abbreviations

[1] "Urge" (NIV), "appeal to" (ESV, NRSV), "beseech" (KJV) is the active indicative verb parakaleō, "to urge strongly, appeal to, urge, exhort, encourage" (BDAG 765, 2).

[2] "By" (ESV, NRSV, KJV), "in view of" (NIV) is the preposition dia, "through," here, a marker of instrumentality or circumstance whereby something is accomplished or effected, "by, via, through," here, of attendant or prevailing circumstance, here, of occasion, "by virtue of" or "in consequence of" or in wording of urgent requests (BDAG 225, 3 e and/or f).

[3] "Mercy/mercies" is oiktirmos, "display of concern over another's misfortune, pity, mercy, compassion" (BDAG 700).

[4] C.K. Barrett (The Epistle to the Romans (Harper's New Testament Commentaries; Harper and Row, 1957) p. 231) observes, "The language throughout this clause is sacrificial; not only the word 'sacrifice' itself, but also 'offer', 'holy,' and 'well-pleasing' are technical terms." "Offer" (NIV), "present" (ESV, NRSV, KJV) is paristēmi, here as a technical term in the language of sacrifice, "offer, bring, present" (BDAG 778, 1d). "Bodies" is the plural of sōma, "the living body" (BDAG 983, 1b). "Living" is the present active participle of the verb zaō, "to be alive physically, live," of physical life in contrast to death (BDAG 424, 1aα). "Sacrifice" is thysia, "that which is offered as a sacrifice, sacrifice, offering" (BDAG 463, 2b).

[5] "Holy" is hagios, "in the cultic sense, "dedicated to God, holy sacred," that is, reserved for God and God's service, here, shading over into the sense "holy = pure, perfect, worthy of God" (BDAG 10, 1b). "Pleasing" (NIV), "acceptable" (ESV, NRSV, KJV) is euarestos, "pleasing, acceptable." In the Greco-Roman world, commonly said of things and especially of persons noted for their civic-minded generosity and who endeavor to do things that are pleasing (BDAG 403). From eu-, "good, well" + arestos, "pertaining to being satisfying, pleasing."

[6] "Act of worship" (NIV), "worship" (ESV, NRSV), "service" (KJV) is latreia, in cultic usage, "service/worship (of God)" (BDAG 587). "Spiritual" (NIV, RSV, NRSV), "reasonable" (KJV) is logikos, "pertaining to being carefully thought through, thoughtful," here "a thoughtful service" (in a dedicated spiritual sense) (BDAG 598). Gerhard Kittel (logos, logikos, ktl., TDNT 4:100-143), observes, "Logikos means 'belonging to reason.' ... Parallels show that it may express the spiritualizing of the cultic, and this its function in Romans 12:1, where our bodies are to be offered, not in immolation, but in spiritual worship (cf. 1 Peter 2:5).... This is better described as 'spiritual worship' than as 'rational', for Paul is not thinking of what is meant in modern English by 'rational'" (Barrett, Romans, p. 231).

[7] William Barclay, The Letter to the Romans (The Daily Study Bible; Edinburgh: St Andrew Press, 1955), pp. 169, 171.

[8] Cf. Psalm 51:17.

[9] "Pattern of this world" (NIV), "world" (ESV, NRSV, KJV) is aiōn, "an extended period of time," here, "a segment of time as a particular unit of history," here "the present age" (nearing its end), "this world," ... "As well as everything non-Christian, it includes the striving after worldly wisdom" (BDAG 32, 2a). "Demas, in love with this present world (aiōn), has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica" (2 Timothy 4:10).

[10] "Conform" (NIV), "be conformed" (ESV, NRSV, KJV) is the present middle or passive imperative of suschēmatizō, "to form according to a pattern or mold, form/model after something." Passive: "be formed like, be conformed to, be guided by" (BDAG 979) From sun- "together" or perhaps "completely" + schēmatizō, "assume a certain form, figure, posture, or position."'

[11] The Message (2002).

[12] Galatians 1:4; 2 Corinthians 4:4.

[13] Metamorphoō, BDAG 639-40, 2. It comes from two words, meta-, "transfer, transmutation" and morphoō, "to form, shape." The only other occurrence of metamorphoō in the New Testament is in 2 Corinthians 3:18: "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."

[14] "Renewing/renewal" is anakainōsis, "renewal" of a person's spiritual rebirth (BDAG 64). From ana-, "repetition, renewal, anew, over again" + kainos, "new."

[15] "Mind" is nous, "the faculty of intellectual perception," here "way of thinking, mind, attitude" as the sum total of the whole mental and moral state of being (BDAG 680, 2a).

[16] Douglas J. Moo (The Letter to Romans (New International Commentary on the New Testament; Eerdmans, 2018, in loc.

[17] "Then" (NIV), "that" (ESV, KJV), "so that" (NRSV) is the preposition eis, here as a marker of goals, specifically, to denote purpose, "in order to, to" (BDAG 290, 4f).

[18] BDAG 225, 1 and/or 2b. Here the focus is on the result of a procedure or examination" and "accept as proved, approve." Our verse then could men, "approve (or "discover" under definition 1) what God's will is."

[19] "Good" is agathos, "pertaining to meeting a relatively high standard of quality" of things, "useful, beneficial" (BDAG 3, 1a). "Pleasing" (NIV), "acceptable" (ESV, NRSV, KJV) is euarestos, "pleasing, acceptable," that we saw in verse 1 (BDAG 403). "Perfect" is teleios, "pertaining to meeting the highest standard, "perfect," as the acme of goodness (BDAG 995, 1aα). "Will" is thelēma, "what one wishes to happen, objective sense, what is willed" (BDAG 447, 1cγ).

[20] "Have Thine Own Way, Lord," by Adelaide A. Pollard (1906).

Copyright © 2025, Ralph F. Wilson. <pastor@joyfulheart.com> All rights reserved. A single copy of this article is free. Do not put this on a website. See legal, copyright, and reprint information.

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