A Living Sacrifice

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. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1,2, NASB UPDATED)

In my previous blog entitled "The Supreme Act Of Spiritual Worship," I shared to you that we, Christians, are a kingdom of priests whose goal is to offer up spiritual sacrifices - like prayer, praise, giving, and service - but there is one act that is the supreme and all encompassing and all effecting act that a believer must do in his life as a true worshiper and that is to offer himself as a living sacrifice.

Today I will be sharing what the phrase "a living sacrifice" mean, which is the central concept in Romans 12:1 and 2. As mentioned from 1 Peter 2:5, we are spiritual priests offering up spiritual sacrifices and the primary sacrifice we are called to offer , as Paul says in these verses, is ourselves.

THE OLD TESTAMENT OFFERING OF SACRIFICES

In the Old Testament an offerer would come to God bringing his lamb or his turtledove, whatever it was he was going to sacrifice, he brought that sacrifice to the holy place. It was given over to the priest and the priest took it, slew it, put it on the altar and as it were, offered it to God.

But look what the prophet Samuel said in 1 Samuel 15:22, "Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams" (NASB). This means that it was not the dead animal that was offered but instead a living soul. The dead animal was an outward symbol of the offering of the heart and the soul. This is the same idea found in Psalm 51:17 that says, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (KJV). And also in Psalm 141:2 that says, "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice" (KJV).

In other words, these Old Testament Scriptures tell us that an Old Testament Jew who offered a dead animal was not offering a dead animal instead he is offering himself; his action is only an outward symbol of the inward reality of which he was also committed and that was offering his own heart.

THE NEW TESTAMENT OFFERING OF SACRIFICES

That system of offering has come to an end for God no longer desires that dead animals be offered to Him. Now what God wants is living sacrifices, that is living men and women. The central act of a new covenant believer is the presentation of his heart, his soul, his mind, all that he is as a living sacrifice. The outward sacrifices have ceased and God calls only for the living sacrifice - that is, a call of dedication and commitment.

The elements that are included in the presentation of a believer as a living sacrifice includes the soul, body, mind, and will. I will discuss these elements in detail in my next blogs.