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A Living
Sacrifice!
Present your bodies a
living sacrifice...which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:1.
In the dispensation of grace all believers
are priests, and the sacrifices they bring are not the bodies of
slain animals, but their own bodies, their whole selves. The Jewish
dispensation with its sacrifices was ended, when Christ, "our
Passover," was offered for us. But a new order of sacrifice
has come in, and that is of giving ourselves. As the victim on the
altar was surrendered wholly to God, so ourselves should be
consecrated to His service, not as slain, but as "living
sacrifices."
We should now bring
spiritual sacrifices, not governed by rules and regulations as in
the Levitical offerings, but out of the love of redeemed hearts.
These are to be a living sacrifice in contrast with dead animals. We
must use all our faculties in devoted service to the One who died
for us. Our hands, feet, intellect, should all be His.
This sacrifice must be holy. God does not
expect a lower standard from us than what was required of animal
sacrifices under the law. We must lead lives that meet the
requirements of God and are therefore well pleasing to Him. This
should be our reasonable logical response. The service is spiritual
rather than religious.
To-day multitudes are living for self and what the world provides.
They have room for everything and everyone, but Christ. Sadly even
some Christians have lost the burden of losing their life for
Christ. In doing so we miss out on the purpose of life here.
The appeal then to the
believers is to present their bodies a living sacrifice. It is not a
challenge to everyone to do extreme acts of heroism, as might be
done by the heathen towards heathen gods. It is rather a living
sacrifice, an on-going commitment of life to God.
Jim Elliot, one of the Ecuadoran martyrs,
wrote: "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain
that which he can never lose".
Other sacrifices are mentioned in the New
Testament:
1.
The sacrifice of praise. Heb 13:15.
It is offered to God
through the Lord Jesus. All our praise and prayer passes through
Him before it reaches God
the Father; our great High Priest removes all impurities and
imperfections and adds His own virtue to it. We approach by
Christ and through Christ, and we bring to God our appreciation
of Christ, and we give thanks. The
sacrifice of praise is the
fruit of those lips
that acknowledge His name, and give
thanks to God for His Son and for that once-for-all offering
outside the camp. The only worship that God receives is that
which flows from redeemed lips. Our conversation, the
fruit of our lips, should witness to Christ, not only in church
gatherings, but in everyday speech.
2. To do good
and to share, Heb 13:16
(ESV). Note this giving is a sacrifice; it should cost
something, but others will be blessed.
“Doing good” can cover a multitude of
ministries: sharing food with the needy; transporting people to
and from church or other places; sharing money; perhaps just
being a helpful neighbour. When we took that basket of fruit
over to that dear, lonely, and sick child of God whom everyone
had forgotten about, we were a priest offering a sacrifice to
God. It was well pleasing to Him—He took delight in our doing
that.
For with such sacrifices God is well
pleased -
He is pleased with the sacrifices of
prayer and of praise; with the offerings of a broken and a contrite
heart: but He is especially pleased when that leads us to do good to
others, because it accords with His own nature. He does good
continually, and He is pleased with all who evince the same spirit.
It shows us to be in the right state of heart.
C T Studd recognised both the majesty of
the Lord Jesus and His sufferings, when he wrote “If Jesus Christ
be the Son of God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too
great for me to make for Him".
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