Part 1- We are Living Sacrifices

Two of my favorite verses in the Bible are Romans 12:1-2. 

1. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 
2. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Wow, such a wealth of spiritual guidance packed into these two verses. These two verses actually sum up the Christian life and how we are to live it. Let’s dive into these treasures from God’s word and break down verse one to start with.

First of all, in verse one Paul, the apostle,  says “I beseech you therefore, brethren”. Beseech is a powerful word in itself. It means to beg and plead!! It means to ask someone to do something with urgency!! So Paul is begging and pleading in verse one. Who is Paul pleading with? He is pleading with his brothers and sisters in Christ, hence the term “brethren”. Paul is writing to Christians, people who are members of the Lord’s church in Rome, who have repented of their sins and been baptized for the remission of their sins. (Romans 1:7) (Repentance and Baptism-Acts 2:38) 

Up until this point in Romans, Paul has been focusing more on what God has done for his people, but in Romans 12, he begins to move into discussing what God expects of his people. Most of the world believes that God doesn’t really expect anything from his people, but if we believe His word to be true, we can’t escape the fact that God has expectations of us and He sets the bar high. Honestly, the bar that God set is Jesus Christ. How He lived when He was on this earth is our bar that we are always striving to reach. And let’s always remember that Jesus knows how we feel as Hebrews 4:15 tells us, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin”.  Of course, we can never reach that bar of living a sinless life, and that is why Jesus sacrificed His life for us. Paul tells us to “present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God”. How can we read this verse and still think that we can just live however we want to live? Christ was the ultimate sacrifice as He shed His blood for us on the cross, but in this verse I am called to be a “living sacrifice”. That means I am to live my life or as it says sacrifice my life for Christ. Paul says in Philippians 1:21 that, “to live is Christ, to die is gain”. I think we can all agree that Paul’s life was a “living sacrifice” to God. Earlier in the book of Romans in chapter 6, verses 12 and 13, he uses some of this same type of language by saying, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” I have to give up some things after I become a Christian if I want to be “holy, acceptable unto God” like the verse says. 1 Peter 1:15-16 says it this way, “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy’”. I have to live a holy and sacrificial life that is pleasing to God for the world to see. When people see the word holy, they tend to shy away from it. The word holy simply means dedicated to God or sacred. We are sacred if we are in Christ. Are we supposed to act “holier than thou” because we belong to Christ? Absolutely not! Not if we want to be Christ-like. We should never look down on others or be puffed up because of who we are. We do not want to be like the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day. We will never fulfill our commission to bring others to Christ if we act in this way. We must love the lost and never forget that we were once lost. I am an imperfect sinner, no different from anyone, and I mean anyone else in this world. God is no respecter of persons (Romans 2:11) and all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) The only difference is that I belong to Christ. I am in Christ. I have given my life over to Him including all my imperfections, and there are many! We are not spiritually dead in our sins anymore after we are baptized. We are spiritually alive in Christ!! This is what sets us apart. 

On a personal note, I am so grateful that I was born into a family with parents who raised me to know the truth. So many are not this fortunate. Did I fall away? Yes I did. I have made a wealth of mistakes. More than once, I have had to come crawling back and ask God and my brothers and sisters in Christ to forgive me and pray for me. When I was younger, I know I didn’t truly appreciate my upbringing the way that I should have and I took it for granted. Everyone doesn’t have parents and grandparents who always try to put God first and who set a good example for them. We all mature spiritually in our own time, and we have such a patient and loving Father. I am so thankful for God’s patience with me. I need it daily. I am definitely a work in progress.

Why should we offer our lives as a living sacrifice that is pleasing to God? “By the mercies of God” is the reason Paul gives for exhorting us to live a sacrificial life that is pleasing to God. God has been so merciful to us and shown so much love for us by sending His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. I think Titus 3:4-6 explains God’s mercy so beautifully, “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior”. So it’s not anything we have done to deserve it. We will never deserve it. But God loves us anyway and has shown abundant mercy to us through His Son. God made the way for us to be saved through His plan, not man’s ideas. Without following God’s plan, we are dead spiritually and lost for eternity. 

So is it even a question that we should live for Him?  Absolutely, we should! As the verse says, it is our “reasonable service”. It is only logical that a creation will submit and obey its creator simply because He created us. But He did not only create us. He didn’t just leave us here to die in our sins and be lost. He created a way for us to be saved. Why would we want to listen to anything the world says is acceptable? What other way is there to really live? God created everything and everyone. He created the Bible through inspired writers so we could know His will for our lives. Contrary to what the world thinks, God only created one way to be saved. It is through Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4:4-6 is clear as it says, “There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” How many times does Paul say the word “one” in those verses? God decided how we are to be saved and live for Him, not the world. AND God dictated what behaviors and actions He considers to be sin, not the world. So….it is a reasonable request that I live this kind of life and be this “living sacrifice” that my Creator has asked me to be. Is it easy? No, it is not an easy thing to do. And I fall short on a daily basis, however, God expects me to keep trying. The Bible is clear on that. God sees every effort I put forth and He sees every time I slack. I leave you with two verses that I think will encourage all of us to stay the course in our Christian lives and be the “living sacrifices” that God wants us to be. Hebrews 12:1-2 sums it up so beautifully, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Our life is a race. 1 Corinthians 9:24 says we all need to run our race “in such a way as to get the prize”.  That prize is to be in heaven with God and His Son. What other prize is worth more than that?

When I started writing about these two verses, I realized that I needed to make this a post into two parts because there was so much I wanted to say after I got started. But that is how the Bible is, isn’t it? I love how deep I can go with one verse. This post is about Romans 12:1. I will continue with Romans 12:2 next week!! Thanks so much to everyone who is supporting my blog and please share it with your friends!!