Sacrificial Living
Romans 12 talks about becoming a "living sacrifice" but do we really live that way?
First let's define terms and figure out what they mean. First off, a sacrifice meant something dying! In Judaism it meant an animal getting killed to atone for someone's sin. In Greek culture the sacrifice was often given to achieve favor. In some pagan cultures the sacrifice was a child or sex given to receive fertility. By any means, the readers of the day knew that this was a permanent idea, generically involving loss (thus the saying, "no pain, no gain" is about as close to the idea as we often get!) of something important to us. Second, the readers would know that a living sacrifice was impossible, because the animal would not sit there and be burned alive! The idea is something very alien, yet very familiar to the readers then. Today, we cannot fathom what it really meant. Especially the fact that Paul is asking US to be that living sacrifice.
At its most basic, the idea is for us to hop onto an altar and willingly stay there while we are burnt to a crisp, living. Sounds horrible doesn't it? Yet that is what God desires of us (okay, not the being burned alive part!). How do we live a life that is a "living sacrifice?"
The interesting part of this is that he elucidates the how part in the following verse:
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
The way we live as a living sacrifice is to allow God to change the way we think making us into a new person. The image of baptism is literally the case in our mental faculties: "buried with Him in death, raised to newness of life." Notice, it specifically tells us all of that. We're not to copy what everyone else is doing, we're not to be like everyone else in any way. Instead, we're supposed to be completely transformed to be like Christ. What it means to live sacrificially is simply to begin to become "less and less so that He can become more and more." Are you allowing yourself to look more like Jesus than yourself? If not, why?
My prayer is that you will allow God to dwell in you richly, transforming you from the inside out so that you may live sacrificially and everyone else will see Jesus in you...
First let's define terms and figure out what they mean. First off, a sacrifice meant something dying! In Judaism it meant an animal getting killed to atone for someone's sin. In Greek culture the sacrifice was often given to achieve favor. In some pagan cultures the sacrifice was a child or sex given to receive fertility. By any means, the readers of the day knew that this was a permanent idea, generically involving loss (thus the saying, "no pain, no gain" is about as close to the idea as we often get!) of something important to us. Second, the readers would know that a living sacrifice was impossible, because the animal would not sit there and be burned alive! The idea is something very alien, yet very familiar to the readers then. Today, we cannot fathom what it really meant. Especially the fact that Paul is asking US to be that living sacrifice.
At its most basic, the idea is for us to hop onto an altar and willingly stay there while we are burnt to a crisp, living. Sounds horrible doesn't it? Yet that is what God desires of us (okay, not the being burned alive part!). How do we live a life that is a "living sacrifice?"
The interesting part of this is that he elucidates the how part in the following verse:
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
The way we live as a living sacrifice is to allow God to change the way we think making us into a new person. The image of baptism is literally the case in our mental faculties: "buried with Him in death, raised to newness of life." Notice, it specifically tells us all of that. We're not to copy what everyone else is doing, we're not to be like everyone else in any way. Instead, we're supposed to be completely transformed to be like Christ. What it means to live sacrificially is simply to begin to become "less and less so that He can become more and more." Are you allowing yourself to look more like Jesus than yourself? If not, why?
My prayer is that you will allow God to dwell in you richly, transforming you from the inside out so that you may live sacrificially and everyone else will see Jesus in you...
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