“Life as a Sacrifice”
Romans 12:1
It is a sad reality that many Christians today are frustrated with the level of their success, not necessarily in business, finance, recreation or entertainment, but in their Christian lives. Many feel unfulfilled, unsuccessful in their Christian walk with God, not being able, as they might say, to “get more out of the Christian life”. Many “church hop” to try and find the solution to their dilemmas. Many, in spite of having all kinds of so-called “spiritual experiences”, still feel “empty” and unsatisfied, having tried to “get all they could get” out of God.
Regular Remembrance of God’s Marvelous Mercy
After 11 chuck-full chapters of God’s Grace, “Pastor” and Apostle Paul might tell believers in God’s Gracious Salvation to take a good look at Romans 12:1 for a prescription:
”Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
Paul might say: You may well be unhappy and unfulfilled because you have it backwards. The “unfulfilled Christian’s” solution is not in receiving more, but in giving more of what you have received.
Romans 12:1 isn’t an “off the cuff” comment that is going to offer instant relief: the comment comes from a seasoned Christian who has carefully examined the scriptures and knows what they say about God, Man, and Salvation. It comes from a person whom God has saved, seasoned and examined. He’s saying that the natural result, NOT for everybody, but in a person’s life who has been redeemed is that of Living Life in Regular Remembrance of God’s Marvelous Mercy. (If you haven’t been saved, God’s Mercy hasn’t even been revealed to you.)
The message we examined several weeks ago of God’s Mercy in Christ from Romans 11:29-32 was that ALL have received the death sentence, but NOT ALL been condemned. All have been disobedient and without faith. No one can “drum up” saving faith. All try to justify their own sinfulness. All try to find their own way of salvation, AND YET God HAS NOT condemned ALL, but has saved some, not because of their goodness or mercy but because of HIS mercy and grace.
That is why Paul can say: “Therefore or consequently, my fellow believers, I urge you, (parakaleo) I call you to walk alongside of, and “on account of” or “in view of” the mercies of God.” Live with the constant remembrance that your Life is only the result of God’s Mercy and gratitude for God’s mercy should be your reason for living.
God’s Mercy, Love and Grace should be your Life’s motivation: Live (do all things) on account of God’s Mercy. You wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t received His mercy. You wouldn’t have anything if you hadn’t received mercy. Romans 11:30 tells us: “Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God (and were DEAD) have now received mercy.” If you continually remember His Great Mercy, it is impossible to complain if you are face to face with God’s compassion and comfort. “Therefore I urge you, family of God, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice.”
Living Life as a Sacrifice
1. What does Living Life as a Sacrifice actually look like? First of all, the obvious is that you are LIVING a LIFE. This week an older person said to me, “I wonder if he’s still alive a little.” We know that is “a little” impossible! You can’t be a little alive; it’s like being a little dead; either way, it doesn’t help you much. The Greek word for “present” means “to place beside”. We don’t place our bodies as dead sacrifices, but we DAILY LIVE our lives next too or in comparison to and in appreciation and gratitude for God’s Mercies.
What is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning? Try running through some of the character traits of our Great God, and praise Him for who He is and what He has given you. Gratitude to God for His Saving Mercy is a great motivator! We are marked and motivated by God’s mercies: His love, His Spirit in us, the hope of glory to be fulfilled in us, the peace of God with us and in us, new life NOW! Life to His Glory alone.
2 Corinthians 5:15 says it so clearly for us: “And He (Jesus) died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” God has taken care of your soul (pneuma) with HIS SACRIFICE, and now, in response to His Mercy in Christ, the body that you presently inhabit, is given in life service to Him in the HERE and NOW.
Your service to Him proceeds from a SAVED HEART and Spirit. The word for “Sacrifice” referred to the act of the presentation of the paschal lamb, which was the sacrifice and victim for sin. (Mark 14: “On the first day of Unleavened Bread when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed.”) That lamb was a victim, but we aren’t victims, we aren’t dead. We are victorious in Christ’s death: We once were dead, but now we are alive IN Christ. Compare your living to Christ’s sacrifice. Put your living next to the Self-sacrifice of Christ and you will be compelled to live sacrificially and you will Give MERCY to others in the form of a LIVING sacrifice BECAUSE you have received God’s Great mercy instead of becoming a victim of His Wrath against sin.
2. What kind of sacrifice was offered as a sacrifice for sin? It was to be the best sacrifice, one without spot, without blemish. It was to be offered as HOLY to the Lord. You are called to Living a Life that is Holy. Ephesians 2:21 it tells us that “In him (in Christ) the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.” Together the Church is God’s Holy Temple, individually we are living stones and present our individual lives as Holy parts of the Whole Temple. 1 Peter 2:5 the task of ALL the redeemed of the Lord Jesus: “As living stones, (you) are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood.” As Priests to the Almighty and HOLY God, our very lives are a Holy DEDICATED Offering to God.
There is no room for selfish ambition in the Kingdom of God. We have been looking closely at characteristics of God’s Kingdom this year in Matthew and it has really caused some eye opening and heart changing results! A dedicated LIFE to God means single-ness of heart, mind and purpose for His Glory. That’s an extremely perfect plan to accomplish, but the way to accomplish it is not to be me-centered but God-centered, and THAT doesn’t happen in our own strength, as a matter of fact, our OWN STRENTH will battle AGAINST the altar of service, consecration, dedication and Holiness to our God.
Here again is another paradox of the Christian Life: In order to become a living stone (and stones by nature are dead! So you need a miracle of God to make you alive), you must die to self. The word for “LIVING” stones is the same word that Paul uses in our text for a “LIVING” sacrifice. By practice, the priests would kill the sacrifice and blood was shed FIRST in order to point to the ATONING Death of Christ on the Cross.
Now we die to our old nature IN CHRIST. That old nature of self is DEAD. We have a new life that climbs, onto the altar, not of a dead corpse being consumed by fire, but we present a new life of SERVICE to the Most High God, to each other, and to a world that does not know His Love and Mercy displayed in Christ’s Death. We are DEAD to the world and the FLESH and alive to God. That’s what Paul meant in Romans 8:8: “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” You must become dead to your own self-serving nature in order to serve sacrificially, just as a royal and loyal priest did.
3. LIVING a HOLY LIFE for God is Living a Life that is Acceptable to God. What do you think it means to be “acceptable” to God? 1 John 3: 22, in speaking of God’s Children says: “Whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are PLEASING in His sight.”
Jesus said this of Himself in John 8: 29: "And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I ALWAYS do the things that are PLEASING to Him." (Paul used the same word in Romans 8:8: “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”) You must have the Holy Spirit of Jesus in you in order to please God.
John 13: 17 "If you know these things, you are blessed (HAPPY AND FULFILLED) if you DO them.” The Secret of a Happy, Blessed, Fulfilled Life IN CHRIST is to do the things that Christ tells you to do!
Ephesians 4:1: “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” Colossians 1:10: “That you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” 1 Thessalonians 2:12: “So that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.”
We looked at this word, “worthy”, during our weekly study in Matthew. See how wonderfully God is teaching and discipling us! Worthy: “TO BE OF EQUAL VALUE.” “A Workman is worthy of His Wages.” God has CALLED you into HIS KINGDOM and GLORY FOR HIS GLORY, DO WHAT HE tells you to do! Follow Him! Encourage each other! Teach each other! Teach others! Honor Him by obeying Him, because obeying and pleasing Him is the evidence of a changed heart and life.
Hebrews 13:20-21: “Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, 21 equip you in EVERY good thing to do His will, working in us that which is PLEASING in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” Amen: That’s the final WORD.
Living Life as Worship
The final WORD in your life of fulfillment to God is the living of your life as a holy, pleasing acceptable gift: THIS is your spiritual service of worship. It is Living Life as Worship. The word for “Spiritual” or “Reasonable” (logikos) is the adjective form of “Logos”, “the Word”. Is your life descriptive (that what an adjective does!) of the Word of God which lives in you? Remember John 1: 14: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Since THAT LIVING WORD now dwells in you by His Spirit, you could have no other reasonable or logical response to God’s Mercy than to Live in Service and worship for Him.
The word for “worship” can mean “to serve for hire”, but the very basic meaning of THIS word is to serve and minister. (We studied this word at a board meeting this year.) We are called to be part of a Holy Priesthood, and in Romans 9:4 the high calling of the Israelites: “to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple SERVICE (worship) and the promise.” It talks about this SPECIFIC GODLY service in Hebrews 9:6; It describes that priestly work as “continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the DIVINE WORSHIP.” (same word as in our text.)
Don’t allow your sinful Body and your personal selfish desires to dominate your redeemed Heart. Your body, your mouth, your hands and feet are the means by which you serve God and others. The Soul is redeemed and the body should be obedient to God’s Spirit who has saved you, body and soul. Your physical body is not merely doomed for decay. The body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body. SERVE HIM WITH your Body.
1 Corinthians 6:12-13: “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not (only) for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.”
It’s a matter of simple spiritual logic: If you have submitted your heart to all things God in Christ, Submit your body in all things in Godly Service. Sin is powerful, but the Spirit of Him who is in you is more powerful than he that is in the world. God’s power can bring an unredeemed body under the power of His Spirit. Whenever you use your body for God’s divine purposes you are using it as an instrument of righteousness.
I think we should move the last word of Romans 11, “AMEN”, behind Romans 12:1, so that it would read: “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever…“Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” What do you think? Are you in full agreement? Amen?
OUTLINE
Introduction: The “unfulfilled Christian’s” solution is not in receiving more, but in giving more of what you have received.
I. Living Life in Regular Remembrance of God’s Marvelous Mercy
A. Life is only the result of God’s Mercy and
gratitude should be our reason for living.
B. Live (do ALL things) on account of God’s Mercy.
C. It’s impossible to complain when faced with God’s Mercy.
II. Living Life as a Sacrifice
A. You are Living a Life: We DAILY LIVE our lives in gratitude for God’s Mercies. (2 Cor. 5:15)
B. You are Living a Life that is Holy: We are Holy parts of the Whole Holy Temple. (Eph 2:21, Romans 8:8, )
C. You are Living a Life that is Acceptable. (1 John 3: 22, Rom. 8:8, John 8: 29,
13: 17, Eph. 4:1, Col. 1:10, 1 Thess. 2:12, Heb. 13:20-21)
III. Living Life as Worship (spiritual, word, logic service of worship) (John 1:14, Rom 9:4, Heb. 9:6, 1 Cor. 6:12-13
A. Since the LIVING WORD (logos) now dwells in you by His Spirit, you could have no other Logical (logikos) response to God’s Mercy than to live for Him.
B. Don’t allow your sinful Body, your personal selfish desires,
to dominate your redeemed Heart and Life.
C. If you have submitted your heart in all things to God in Christ,
submit your body in all things in Godly Service.
