Dedicated Service

12 Therefore ^(A)I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to ^(B)present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, ^[a]acceptable to God, which is your ^[b]spiritual service of worship.

¹⁴ For the love of Christ ^(A)controls us, having concluded this, that ^(B)one died for all, therefore all died; ¹⁵ and He died for all, so that those who live would no longer ^(C)live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose on their behalf.

¹⁶ Therefore from now on we recognize no one ^[a](D)by the flesh; even though we have known Christ by the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore if anyone is ^(E)in Christ, this person is ^(F)a new ^[b]creation; ^(G)the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. ¹⁸ Now ^(H)all these things are from God, ^(I)who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ^(J)ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ namely, that ^(K)God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, ^(L)not counting their wrongdoings against them, and ^[c]He has ^[d]committed to us the word of reconciliation.

²⁰ Therefore, we are ^(M)ambassadors for Christ, ^(N)as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be ^(O)reconciled to God. ²¹ He made Him who ^(P)knew no sin to be ^[e](Q)sin in our behalf, so that we might become the ^(R)righteousness of God in Him.

²⁴ and He Himself ^[a](A)brought our sins in His body up on the ^[b](B)cross, so that we ^(C)might die to ^[c]sin and live for righteousness; ^(D)by His ^[d]wounds you were ^(E)healed.