A Living Sacrifice

In matters of Christian conduct, does one appeal to the mind or to the heart? These are often pitted against one another, but Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones does not believe the Christian should approach the Christian life by making an appeal to merely the intellect or simply the emotions. Instead, he says, one begins with doctrine –– who they are in Christ –– and then the proper conduct is deduced from the doctrinal truth. True doctrine always appeals to the emotions. In this sermon on presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice from Romans 12:1–2 titled “A Living Sacrifice,” Dr. Lloyd-Jones reminds that there is no such thing as dry-as-dust theology. Humanism and legalism stand in opposition to the true teaching of Scripture. Humanism can only appeal to the intellect, whereas legalism appeals directly to the will of the person. The great motive of the gospel, which is God’s great mercy in Christ Jesus, lifts the whole problem of conduct to a spiritual level. He then works out the implications of the apostle Paul’s appeal to the mind and the heart in Christian conduct. He labors to demonstrate that Paul is presenting the entire physical body as a sacrifice to God who by His great mercy makes Christians participants in this glorious and wonderful salvation.