<p>12:1 <i>Therefore I urge you brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your logical service</i>- See on 1 Thess. 5:3. As explained in the introduction, the practical section of Romans from 12:1 to the end is full of allusion to the earlier theological sections, demonstrating how true understanding is to be lived out in practice. The &quot;mercies&quot; in view are those just discussed in the context of God's grace in calling us, not according to our works. God will have compassion / mercy s.w. &quot;mercies&quot; on whom He will (Rom 9:15)- and He has chosen to have compassion upon us. Our response should be complete surrender to Him. The &quot;mercies&quot; could also be a technical term for the promises- &quot;the sure mercies of David&quot; of Is. 55:3.</p><p>The description of the believer as a &ldquo;living sacrifice&rdquo; alludes to the scapegoat, the only living sacrifice, which was a type of the risen Lord (Lev. 16:10 LXX = Acts 1:3). As the Lord ran free in His resurrection, bearing away the sins of men, so we who are in Him and preach that salvation can do the same. As Christ bore away our iniquities (Is. 53:11), so &ldquo;we then that are strong ought to bear the iniquities of the weak&rdquo; (Rom. 15:1).</p><p>Having spoken of the surpassing love of God in Christ, Paul urges that it is &ldquo;your logical service&rdquo; to totally dedicate ourselves to Him in response. Our reasoned response is to sacrifice all for His sake. It is not reason nor logic that we are any longer in this world to enjoy ourselves. We are here to give and not to receive.</p><p>Christ is the supreme priest; but because we are &ldquo;in Him&quot;, we too have some part in the priesthood. Note how the priests are described in language relevant to the Lord: &quot;The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity&quot; (Mal. 2:6). Thus we must &quot;present (our) bodies a living sacrifice&quot; to God (Rom. 12:1); making the believer &quot;the offering and the priest&quot;, as Christ was (and is). We are our own priests. This must have been a radical idea to those early Jewish Christians. Yet this is what Paul and Peter were driving at when they said things like: &quot;You <i>also</i> are an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices... present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable (Gk. <i>logikos</i>) service (<i>service</i> is priestly language)&quot; (1 Pet. 2:5; Rom. 12:1). They were saying: '<i>You're your own priest now'.</i> And the early believers found it hard to cope with. Have you considered that the most common form of apostasy (i.e. leaving the true Faith) in the early church was going back to the Jewish Law, with its system of priests? Natural Israel likewise totally failed to live up to God's desire that they should be a <i>Kingdom</i> of priests. They left it all to their priests. They <i>didn't </i>teach every man his neighbour and his brother, saying, Know the Lord (Heb. 8:11; even though when He re-accepts them, God will count them as if they did). Although it was God's original intention that each family leader sanctified themselves and slew the Passover lamb personally, they came to delegate this to their priests (so 2 Chron. 30:17 implies). See on Mt. 5:29.</p><p>We must be living sacrifices, devoted to the Lord (Rom. 12:1); but if we flunk out of this: &quot;His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins&quot; (Prov. 5:22). We're a sacrifice either way, tied up without the freedom of movement as we would wish. There's therefore and thereby an element of sorrow, either way in life: &quot;Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of (i.e. that gift you will really, eternally enjoy): but the sorrow of the world worketh death&quot; (2 Cor. 7:10).</p>