Theology of the Body: Our Bodies as Living Sacrifices

As Dr. Jonathan Morgan has indicated, Romans 12:1-2 is a key text when it comes to the sanctification of our bodies.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform 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

To fully appreciate what Paul is saying here, we have to go back to Romans 6, where Paul was correctly those who accused him of promoting sin. In Romans 6, he emphasizes that Christians must not “let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires” (Rom. 6:12). Clearly, he is talking about how a person lives in their body.

Similarly, he points out that before they were Christians, the Romans “once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” (Rom. 6:19, ESV). The word “members” here is key because Paul is referring to our body parts.

When we are “in the flesh,” our sinful passions have no check (Rom. 7:5). Even if we want to do the right thing, we are powerless to do so (Rom. 7:15). But this is not the end of the story for Paul.

Thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”

Romans 6:17-18

This is the background for Romans 12:1. Romans 12 begins the second half of Romans. In Romans 1-11, Paul has set out a theology of salvation against the backdrop of how it is that non-Jews can be saved without first becoming Jews.

Now, with those truths firmly in mind, Paul begins the application. What does it look like for us to live out the implications of those first eleven chapters? And more to the point, what does it look like to live them out in our physical bodies, in our lives? Romans 13:8-10 sums it up. We fulfill the expectations of God not only when we love God, who is a Spirit, but when we love our neighbors as ourselves in our current bodies.

When Paul uses sacrificial language to tell us to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice,” he is telling us to “present our members as instruments of righteousness.” He is telling us to live holy lives. He is telling us to live lives that are typified by love.

Romans 12:2 then goes on to say that we need to have “transformed minds.” It would be easy to go off on a side trail relating to Christian worldviews and ideological systems. These are all important to be sure.

But if we keep reading Romans 12-15, we see that the transformed mind Paul has in mind is not about ideas but about how we live–in our bodies, no less. The transformed mind of Romans 12 does not “think of yourself more highly than you ought” (Rom. 12:3). That mind honors others more than itself (Rom. 12:10). It lives at peace with everyone as much as possible and leaves judgment to God (Rom. 12:18-19).

This transformed mind pays taxes (Rom. 13:6) and submits to authorities as long as they do not demand the immoral (Rom. 13:1). It does not insist that it have freedom when that freedom would hurt the faith of another believer (Rom. 14:15). As we mentioned above, Romans 13:8-10 sums up the essence of what a transformed mind is–it is a mind that demonstrates love toward each other.

And this love is an embodied love. Love may start in the mind, but it does not end there. Both James and 1 John puzzle at someone who has the ability to help others they know are in need and yet does not (James 2:14-18; 1 John 3:17-18)

In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus tells a parable about God separating sheep and goats at the final judgment. In this parable, the sole basis for the separation has to do with acts of mercy, which are physical actions in our spiritual journey. In this parable, Jesus doesn’t highlight faith or surrender but focuses on tangible acts: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick or imprisoned. Clearly, as essential as faith is, God considers the actions we do in the physical world to be essential too in relation to our eternal destination (2 Cor. 5:10).

A full theology of the body is clearly not just about personal holiness or refraining from sin. It extends to how we actively interact with others. The call to present our bodies as living sacrifices is not just an internal call to personal holiness. For Paul, it is at its heart a call to love one another and an external call to serve others. While personal godliness and holiness are essential, the external dimension of serving others, especially the less fortunate, should not be underestimated.