A Living Sacrifice – Week 24 / June 10th

A Living Sacrifice – Week 24 / June 10th

“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 reason-
able service”
Romans 12:1

This verse is a response to the failure of Israel as Paul outlines it in Romans nine, ten and eleven. We need a living faith and anything short of this will allow routine, ritual and habit to corrode and govern our spiritual lives. We can have a form of godliness but all the while denying the power thereof; and many do! So, Paul’s exhortation has three thoughts worth pondering:

1.    We should be ever mindful of the mercies of God.
We were sinners living under the wrath of God and without God in the world and without hope. We could do nothing to change our circumstances and were thus dependent entirely on the “mercies of God” to save us. These mercies are supremely demonstrated in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus for us. It is His saving work on the cross alone that saves us. There is no greater demonstration of the mercy of God than this and because of it we should surrender our lives completely to Christ and live for Him. Because of God’s mercy we can only but respond appropriately and this means:

2.    We should present our bodies a living sacrifice
While we have life in our mortal bodies we should lay ourselves down on the altar of God’s purpose. This is a decision of the will and it means beginning each day with a choice to serve God and love Him. It is to be noted that what we do with our bodies is important to God. We live in a world where people abuse, disfigure, misuse and destroy their bodies. We see this all around us every day but we are to honor and care for our bodies and surrender them with our minds to the will of God. The true Christian must embrace this choice with the break of every new day and then:

3.    We should thirst after holiness
God in Christ died for us so that we can, by His power, live lives that reflect His character. The Bible calls this holiness and Paul defined it as being conformed to the image of Christ. It is only this pursuit that is acceptable to God and Christians that do not make this their chief joy are in a sense fooling themselves because without holiness they shall not see the Lord! It was Israel’s neglect of these things that led to her failure and we too can fail if we are not mindful of them; hence Paul’s exhortation. Let us heed it well!

Malcolm Hedding

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