A Living Sacrifice
Before the time of Jesus, people who wanted to worship God did so by making the offerings and sacrifices God had commanded.
Large portions of the Old Testament Books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy spell out the detailed procedures the Israelites used to bring an offering or sacrifice to the altar found in Israel’s temple.
Jesus both upheld and radically transformed God’s ancient sacrificial system.
He visited the temple during Passover and participated in the Passover meal. But then he himself became a sacrificial lamb, dying for us and our sins on the cross.
In saying these words, Jesus indicated that he had completed the sacrifice God had demanded of him.
But as Paul pointed out in the passage from Romans, the crucifixion of Christ didn’t mean the end of sacrifices.
Instead, God now wants all of us to live in such ways that our lives are moment-to-moment “living sacrifices.”
Paul told us to offer our bodies, but this does not mean that we will be ritually killed and burned on a smoking altar. Rather, it means that we should give our lives to God for his use and service.
A person who does this offers a word of kindness and mercy to someone who needs it. He forgives those who hurt and demeaned him.
He gives to others even when he doesn’t feel like it or when he would rather have someone give to him. He makes himself available for God’s use even though his daily schedule is already full of more tasks than he can accomplish.
Today, many churches have become battlegrounds in what some writers have called the “worship wars.” Some people prefer to sing hymns and recite classic Christian statements like the Apostles’ Creed.
Others prefer singing contemporary praise choruses and keeping church services low-key and informal.
Paul had a different point of view. As he told us, offering ourselves to God as living sacrifices is an “act of worship” that pleases God. It is the most important kind of worship.
God may not require that you and I suffer and die on a cross. But he does require that we offer up our lives to him in worship so he can use them for his glory.
Father, much of the time I think only about what I want and what will make me happy. But help me develop a different attitude. I want my life to be a living sacrifice to you.