MTD said:
"So you see friends God is not encouraging anyone to wait for a NEW BODY before he can be freed from sin. Rather he tells us that he expects us to offer the BODIES WE NOW HAVE to him holy, and acceptable to him. He calls this our REASONABLE SERVICE.
Not something unusual. Not something unattainable. Just our reasonable service."
TB says:
I like the NIV translation of
Romans 12:1 which reads,
"...this is your spiritual act of worship". Only that which had been sanctified and made holy could be offered as a
"spiritual act of worship" in the OT.
When the Bible speaks of perfection, I believe this refers to the STANDING of the believer in contrast to the STATE of the believer. The
standing of the believer is the result of the work of Christ whereby the repentant sinner is established as a member of God's family. Nothing that the believer can do after he is born again will add to his title, to God's favor on his behalf, or to his
perfect standing.
Faith in Christ alone confers standing in God's sight. Before God the one who is ignorant, and even spiritually immature, if he is a true child of God, has exactly the same standing as the most illustrious saint.
The
state of the believer is usually quite different from his standing.
His state involves his walk, which is generally much below the perfect standing that God, by His grace, has given him. This lower condition of his state in no way takes away from his perfect standing, but it does make him realize his unworthiness, and urges him to endeavor to raise his state to be more in conformity with his standing.
This is the divine order under grace, to give the highest possible standing and then exhort the believer to maintain a state in accordance with it.
The only basis I have for offering myself as
"a spiritual act of worship unto God" is the holy standing I have in Christ which is a standing in which I have been
perfected forever (Heb.10:14).
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