In chapters 9-11 Paul has been dealing with the role of Israel in God’s plans and warning the Gentile Christians against wrong attitudes. Now he turns to the positive attitudes and actions that we should have. Romans follows a patterns common to a number of Paul’s letters, ie there is a theological section followed by life application. We need a theological basis for our lives. Theology is not just academic knowledge, it is not just arguing about the proverbial angels on a pin head. It is about our basic understanding of what life is and what life is about, what the universe is about. Wrong understanding can lead to wrong actions, and conversely corrected understanding can lead to a corrected life.
“Therefore, .., in view of God’s mercy ..” In the previous section Paul had been warning them against pride. Instead of pride we should offer our lives in service to the Lord. “A living sacrifice”. Paul’s original hearers would have been familiar with actual blood sacrifices. They were offered in pagan religions to appease the gods, in Judaism they were part of the Levitical law offered as atonement for sin. We offer our lives to Christ to be used in His service, we are a living sacrifice. So we take the focus off ourselves, off “proving” ourselves to be better than others, instead we rejoice in God’s mercy and put the focus on serving Christ.
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