Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
This is a verse that I remember memorizing as a child in the Awana program. But it was a verse I did not fully understand when I was young. It was not until my college years that the idea of being a living sacrifice made sense to me and became a daily prayer.
In the Old Testament, believers were required to provide sacrifices to atone for their sins. It was through the blood shed by pure, blameless animals that temporarily covered their sins. And then Jesus became the Lamb of God (John 1:29), slain for our salvation (1 Peter 1:19), and He conquered death once and for all when He rose from the dead (Revelation 1:5).
But these are not living sacrifices. So what is the difference?
A sacrifice, as outlined by the Word of God, is “anything consecrated and offered to God.” Since we are not called to kill ourselves as a literal sacrifice we need to find a way to consecrate ourselves and offer our lives, our hearts, our desires, our ministries to Him. We need to look for ways we can surrender our wills to Him and let Him work in and through us.
We do this by not conforming to the world, but living a life that is set apart, transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2). We renew our minds by feeding it the Word often and surrendering our will to His, with the Spirit helping us to discern His will from our own (Psalm 119:9-11).
How do you set yourself apart from the world and offer yourself up as a living sacrifice?
Be the first to comment