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Sacrificial worship: Romans 12:9-21

Like an artist sketching in broad strokes on a huge canvas, Paul in the first 11 chapters of Romans has traced with great intensity God’s patience and persistence at making peace with humanity. The strokes get broader, the colors ever more vivid, until Paul is himself overcome at what he sees. He steps back, exhilarated at how even his attempt to trace the ways of God falls far short of the inventiveness and unpredictability of God’s grace, and he breaks into doxology (11:33-36). All he or any of us can do in response to such grace is to worship.