plans for Rome and Spain, and chapter 16 concludes with a lengthy list of personal greetings. The purpose throughout is to show that grace is not an abstraction, but a gift of God which shapes and structures Christian life both corporately and personally. 12:1–2 / Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices (v. 1). So begins the most aesthetic formulation of Christian ethics in Scripture. Earlier buds of ethics (6:12–23; 8:12–13) now come to
Page 282