Romans 12:1

Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.

Now we come to a big turning point in Romans. This chapter starts with the word “Therefore” which I believe tells us that everything that has been mentioned up to this point should be considered. Paul helps by summarizing some of what has been said.

We learned that all of mankind is sinful and no one can be good based on their own good works. We also learned that He has had mercy on everyone in the world. Paul tells us that because of this, we should present our physical bodies to God like a Jewish sacrifice with one major difference. Jewish sacrifices were killed or burned up. We are to be “living sacrifices.”

Remember back in chapter seven where Paul described the fight that we have a Christians with our bodies and their desires? The point is that because God has saved us by the gift
of His grace and has assured us by putting His own Holy Spirit into us; making us his children and since we can’t do the good we want to do in our hearts without the help of the Holy Spirit, we should give our bodies and this life completely to God so that He can live through us and do the good works He wants to do.

The Bible says that this “presenting of our bodies” is our “spiritual service” to God. Our service to God is to present ourselves to Him and let Him give us the power to do what He wants. We need to give ourselves to God. Only then can we truly be of service to Him.