Living Sacrifices

Living Sacrifices

We began our epistle lesson with a “therefore,” and if you’ve been in church long enough, you probably have heard the therefore lesson. It comes up a lot in Paul’s epistles. Whenever there is a Therefore, you have to find out what came before the lesson, because the Therefore is there for a reason.

Paul follows a regular pattern throughout his epistles. First, he teaches what God has done for us in Christ. Second, he teaches us, THEREFORE, how to respond, because knowing who God is should change how we live.

In Romans 1–8, Paul teaches about our sin, and God’s plan of salvation. Then in chapters 9–11 he explains God’s covenant promises through Abraham and David, fulfilled in Christ. Finally, in chapter 12-16 he says, “Therefore, since all this is true, this is how you should live.”

In our lesson, Paul lays out two major applications of how we should live based on everything that God has done. First, because of what God has done for us, we should devote ourselves to Him as living sacrifices (vv. 1–2).

Second, as living sacrifices, we should live humbly and in unity with each other, within the Body of Christ (vv. 3–5).

You can tell the shift, because Paul says, “I appeal to you.” Previously, everything he taught is just matter of fact. But the Christian life isn’t just a duty, but a love of God, who has done so much for us.

And what is He asking? That we present our bodies as living sacrifices to God. For context of that phrase: what would happen if someone brought a dead bull or bird to the temple as a sacrifice in Jesus day?

The priest would reject it immediately. A sacrifice had to be alive.

NOW, because of Christ, there is no more offering for sin. Jesus completed it all. But we still, in love, are to present ourselves before God in the same way that Jesus presented his life. However, unlike the animal sacrifices, we don’t crawl onto the altar to die there, we live there. We present ourselves, not as a sin offering, but in thanksgiving. We live daily before God, consecrated to Him, letting His Spirit guide and renew us.

That’s what Paul means by a “spiritual worship.” reasonable service

Paul is saying our whole lives should be acts of worship, not just what happens in church, but everything we do. The Holy Spirit wants our minds renewed, and our hearts devoted to God. It’s a full-life response to His mercy.

To give this full-life response, we have to change the way our hearts and minds are set. We are naturally conformed to the world, meaning, our minds are set to seek our own pleasure, happiness. No one here has to think, what can I do to please myself today! It comes naturally. Pleasing God, not as easy.

Paul’s call is not to let our personal desires and pleasures shape us, but to let God transform us daily by His Holy Spirit from within. We’re called to bring the pattern of heaven into this world, which is what we mean when we pray that God’s will is done on earth, as it is in Heaven.

And God doesn’t desire simply external conformity; He wants inward transformation that shows itself outwardly. As our minds are renewed, Paul says, we learn to prove what is good and acceptable and perfect. We come to know God’s will not just by studying it, but by living it. That’s what it means to be a living sacrifice; daily presenting ourselves before Him.

And Daily humbling ourselves so that we can encourage those around us, not thinking the way I do things is better, or I know the best way to be spiritual, but asking God, through the Holy Spirit to guide us daily.

Let me share a story from seminary that reminds me of how easily we can lose focus on that. In one of my pastoral ministry classes my professor, who was one of the gentlest shepherds I’ve ever known, began by saying, “Your job as a pastor is to tie one end of an invisible rope around the ankles of your parishioners, and the other end to the altar. That’s a great image Help your people see that everything they do should stay tied to that altar.”

It was a wonderful image — or at least it should have been. Unfortunately, the rest of the class didn’t hear a word about living sacrifices or Romans 12. Instead, we spent the next forty-five minutes arguing about whether we should refer to the Lord’s Table as an Altar or not!

That, to me, perfectly illustrates why Paul had to say “please.” The Holy Spirit is pleading with us not to get distracted, not to quarrel over side issues, but to live in unity and love. Paul goes on to say that as living sacrifices, we’re not to think more highly of ourselves than we should. Each of us has different gifts, but we belong to one body.