CHRISTIANS HAVE YOU HEARD OF THE AORIST TENSE IN THE GREEK TEXT?

The reason I have a website and blog often is to be a blessing and encouragement to my fellow Christian Believers.

I seek not to write as a Bible College graduate and 50 + years in Ministry including about 30+ years in Bible College/Teaching Ministry. So I try and not write theologically but more practically, so my readers may learn and “grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ”.

I am not a Greek Scholar, but to understand the Word of God I refer to the Greek often in my own personal study and meditation in the Scriptures ,and asking the Holy Spirit TO TURN THE LIGHT ON. A very dear friend of around 60 years is a Greek scholar so I regularly bounce things off him to also keep my thinking and understanding correct. I am ever thankful to the Holy Spirit, whom the Word of God tells us is ever wanting to lead us into all truth.

The Greek text of which the New Testament was originally written in, nearly 2000 years ago like our language sure has had numerous changes of meaning since that time, and things like tenses a can be different in the Greek tense.

There are 2 verses I want to highlight today have a fuller deeper meaning when we realise the tense. My Greek scholar friend does not know why this tense has not been made clearer in all the more modern translations.

I am talking about the Aorist tense which in many cases the text is not just to be interpreted in the present tense, but many times in the PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE, I may have referred to this in previous blogs.

Rom.12:1-2 NKJV beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

A.N.T. I APPEAL to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.
² Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].

N.I.V. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. ² Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

N.L.T. And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. ² Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

PASSION Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? I encourage you to surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship.
² Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.

R.S.V. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, [which is] your reasonable service ² And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God .

As we read these verses it is so easy to interpret it as a “once off” decision. But the reality is it must be a CONTINUAL DECISION, many have heard the saying “THE PROBLEM WITH A LIVING SACRIFICE IS THAT IT IS ALWAYS WANTING TO CRAWL OF THE ALTAR”.

If you are honest with me, I am sure that is your experience as it is with me.

Jesus wants and needs to be:

The Lord,

The Boss

The Master

The King

The Ruler

The Owner

The President

Of our life CONTINUALLY, we know from painful experience that when He isn’t Lord, the potential and the reality of defeat and lack of blessing and joy in our lives.

Presenting our body is so much more than our physical body, we need to surrender our:

Minds.

Will

Emotions

Drives, hunger, sex, survival.

Senses, seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling.

And anything else that is part of our body.

So I want to encourage you that every time you spend time in prayer, I trust it is daily (and even more often) you REAFFIRM THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS OVER YOUR LIFE.

Please note living the SURRENDERED LIFE IS AN ACT OF WORSHIP.

Meditate on these 2 verses in the context that we do it continually, I am sure it will be the springboard into a deep walk with Jesus and a higher level of purity and victory in your life.

I will leave the 2nd verse to my next blog, please feel free to comment, I would appreciate that so much.