“Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship. (Rom. 12: 1)
With one word the Apostle Paul packs a powerful punch! More to the point, a powerful pivot in his Epistle. If we were to back track through Chapter 11 and unpack just some of its contents we would learn these two key lessons.
Firstly, Gods love and plan for Israel. The Apple of His eye. In the opening verses of Chapter 11, Paul stresses Gods foreknowledge of a remnant of Jews that He has “set aside” by His grace for a future time. “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace” (Rom.11:5).
And why does this happen? Gods providence. It allows for the engrafting of the gentiles…” I say then, have they (the Jews) stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy” (Rom. 11:11).
Yet Paul also warns the gentile nations, not to feel superior in attitude because of this, our glorious new gift of salvation. As if we are somehow better than, more holy than, the Jews. He reminds us it is by God’s grace that we are each alive.
That we have even been offered this unfathomable gift of a possible eternity spent with God as heirs…if we choose to accept His free gift. “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God” (Eph. 2:8). Emphasis my own.
Now on to Paul’s, Therefore…
How do we respond to a God who makes room for us? Loves us, woos us and pursues us, A God that laid down His very life out of pure love for us? I write this in the present tense because it is still on-going.
Simple. We follow the loving example of Jesus. We serve an unchanging God… “Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8) Emphasis my own.
And how exactly do we do it?
By emulating Jesus’ sincere sacrifice in our daily walk. We too must be willing to lay aside our wants, needs and desires for those of the Fathers. Just as Jesus did, a student is no greater than His Teacher.
After all, sacrifice is the crux of the Christians walk. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matt.16:24).
What does it look like to carry this out?
Firstly, we can’t do something we don’t know to do. So we must study.
Root ourselves in what is necessary for navigating the dicey waters of the world. We need the Word of God.
It’s our Life-line. Oxygen in our needy lives. The only Guide to navigating our walk with God.
By The Holy Spirit, it’s how we discern Gods will.
For instance, to solidify Paul’s instruction to us in Romans, we only need turn to Galatians for his more explicit discourse on the perils of following after the desires of the flesh.
Paul takes our teaching Scripture a step further leaving no room to question what God wants and doesn’t want from us… listen; “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and sorcery (magic and enchantment); hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, carousing, (indulging in one’s appetites excessively) and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21).
We overcome this list by our sole, tenacious reliance on the strength and guidance of the Holy Spirit. It’s the only way we are able to love God, flee sin, and, love our brother as our-self. In our own strength all of this is impossible. We prove our love and devotion through our actions, our sacrifices.
The Word tells us somewhere that faith without works is a dead faith. We must lovingly, like Jesus, sacrifice our best. We mustn’t approach God with anything less than a heart that is burning to please Him. As with Abraham, so it must be with us.
We must be willing to kill the very promises of the future God has given us, spoken over us. Also, put to death everything in us that stands in the way of our doing nothing less than our absolute best.
That is our reasonable act of worship. If we are not offering that, we’re offering God an imperfect sacrifice, our leftovers. Should a God who gave His all accept second best from a people He died to save?
How do you feel when your aware that a loved one is simply going through the motions with you?
Isn’t invested enough in you to give you their very best…(time, love, attention, thoughtfulness, restraint)?
Worship is… our acts of submission, humility, our intentional willingness to serve God, not-self. It is a paramount first step in cleansing our hearts and hands. It is being humble, teachable, sacrificial in our giving. It’s lovingly placing on Gods altar our willful, selfish desires.
Those carnal qualities that are diametrically opposed to God and His Lordship over us. Those desires that arise in us when we ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit and instead, choose to feed the insatiable beastly appetites of our carnal fleshly nature.This is but a sliver of how we can set ourselves apart as living sacrifices pleasing to God.
When we fail to make room for, to be obedient to, the Holy Spirit’s guidance. It’s then that we’re in jeopardy to falling prey to sin and death. It’s there we fail to head the Words of life laid out for us within Romans 12.
There we miss out on an awesome opportunity to shower God with our love by willingly offering Him all of our—I wants in exchange for—your will be done.
How do we do this?
By surrendering our will, our body, our actions and reactions into His Loving Hands.
By saying, have Your way in me…
This desire, fostered only through the Holy Spirit, must cause us to bring all to at the Altar of the Lord. Everything that is not pleasing to Him, every impure thing, so that God may send down a Holy fire to burn off our spots and wrinkles—our sins. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Ps.139:24).
We must not do as the Israelite’s did. That is, bring less than our best, most pure sacrifice before the Lord. That’s irreverent, it’s treating that which is Holy as common. It’s ignorant and unworthy of a flawless God. Don’t take my word for it, let’s listen to Gods heart on the subject;
“When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the LORD Almighty” (Mal.1:8).
If it’s not something we would want for ourselves, wouldn’t giveto another, how much less is it worthy of God?
As Christians, we’re called to live at a higher standard than the world around us. That can feel tricky at times. Like walking a razor-sharp line that feel’s too precarious to walk without getting cut!
And that’s wisdom, because the truth is, it is—if you’re trying to walk it alone!
We need to bind ourselves to the Holy Spirit with an eternal knot. One so obvious and unyielding that it’s visibility alone should speak to the fact that we will not allow anything to loosen our reliance on God. Period.
Regardless the attaches our flesh may attempt to wage against us. Regardless the lures and wiles of a world set on ensnaring us and robbing us of our relationship with God.
How will we know what those storms may look like? Foreseeing them is far easier than you may think…
Ready?
Here’s how…
Stay saturated in the Word of God. It’s your eyes. Use it to see clearly.
Stay anchored to it, like a ship apt to go adrift when left unmanned, it’s your life line, your harbor when the storms of life and the desires of the flesh rage. Doing their utmost to uproot and weaken your hold on what you know to be Truth…. “Take hold of instruction; [actively seek it, grip it firmly and] do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life” (Pro. 4:13).
If this all sounds daunting friend and you’re feeling like you’ll never be able to finish your race, especially in the world in which we live today. One deeply entrenched in an evil.One in which sin and temptation camp-out in waiting to entrap you.
Take heart beloved—I’ll leave you here with the very Words Jesus used to encourage a group of men who felt just as you do…
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:16-18) Emphasis my own.
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