September 17

Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. — Rom 12:1 BSB

If the Son of God has redeemed us by His blood, then all that we are and have belongs to Him—our body, soul, and spirit. Nothing is our own; we are bought with a price. By laying down His precious life for us, He has redeemed us to Himself, that we might be His special people, and not only offer Him the calves of our lips, but give Him our body, soul, spirit, substance—our very life. Everything we are and possess is His by sovereign right. He lays claim to it all, not just as our Creator, but as our Redeemer, having purchased us with His precious blood. When we feel His mercy warming our souls, how could we hold anything back from Him?

Look at Abraham. When God called to him and said, "Abraham!" what was his response? "Here I am. Here is my body, my soul, my substance, my wife, my son; all are at Your disposal. What shall I do, Lord? Take them; they are all Yours. You have a right to them, and You must do with them, and with me, whatever seems good in Your sight."

Under these feelings, we should “present our bodies,” not leaving our souls behind. What is the casket without the jewel? What is the body without the soul? Will God accept the body if the soul is left behind? That is the error of works-based religion: to give the body but hold back the soul. Not so with the true family of God. They present their bodies, and with them, the soul that lodges within—offering both the house and its tenant, the jewel-case with the jewel inside. But what does it mean to present our bodies? They must be offered as "a living sacrifice." God does not accept dead sacrifices. Under the Jewish law, the offering had to be a living animal, spotless and without blemish. No dead lamb, but a living, perfect animal was to be offered. So too, if we are to present our bodies, they must be a living sacrifice.

What have we sacrificed for the Lord’s sake? Have we been called to sacrifice our property, idols, affections, name, or reputation? If so, have we obeyed the call? Abraham didn’t offer Isaac until God called him to do so, but when God called, he obeyed immediately. So it must be with those who walk in the steps of faithful Abraham. If we are called to make sacrifices—and we all are, sooner or later—those sacrifices we must make.

In presenting our bodies "a living sacrifice," the offering becomes "holy," because whatever is done in faith is sanctified by God’s Spirit. If we make a sacrifice without the Spirit's work in our hearts, it is a dead sacrifice. Many offer themselves through empty rituals or religious practices, but their sacrifice is not alive because there is no spiritual life in the offering. But when we sacrifice what the flesh loves—our affections, our prospects, our comforts—because the gospel claims it, and we do it through the constraining love of Christ, that is a living sacrifice. It is holy because it springs from the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

We may see nothing holy in it because sin is mingled with everything we do. But God discerns the precious from the vile. He sees the purity of His own work, and He can separate what we cannot—the acting of the Spirit from the workings of the flesh. God looks at what His own Spirit inspires and what His own grace produces, and He accepts that as holy.