A Living Sacrifice
What does it mean to, "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice?" Why would we want to do that?
Listen to Pastor Jim’s sermon here, or read it below.
How To Live Because You Believe
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:1 functions as a hinge point in Paul’s letter. The word THEREFORE is like the pin in the hinge. It says, “Taking everything I’ve been writing about for eleven chapters into full consideration, here then is the appropriate response. Here is how you, the Christian community in Rome—you, Life Pointe Church in Thurston County—should live because you have believed and so you have been justified by God’s grace alone through personal faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, alone.”
The Stories of John, Shelia & A Man In The Field
Before we go any further this morning, I want to tell you about two people. We’ll call them John and Sheila. They don’t know each other.
John’s Story
John and his wife are young, have one child, and live on the east coast. John’s a history buff. He has furnished his home with antiques from the Civil War era, and he’s always on the hunt for more.
John heard about a home for sale in the deep South, that was built in the mid-1800s, and the asking price was $200,000. Not only that, but the house was full of Civil War-era furniture that was to be included in the sale. John and his wife had only been married for two years, and they didn’t have a lot of extra income, but he couldn’t resist the idea, so he got in his car and drove several hundred miles to see this home.
Not surprisingly, a lot of other people had the same idea, and they were milling about in the home and yard. John went in and immediately began identifying which furniture was actually antique and which were reproductions. He was satisfied and pretty excited to see that most of the furniture was authentic. The house was crowded, and the thought occurred to him to check out the basement.
Opening the door to the stairwell that reached down into the darkness, John found a switch to a single light bulb that hung at the bottom of the stairs, and walked down. The light of that bulb was insufficient to light the entire basement, so he waited for his eyes to adjust and then began looking around. He spied a roll-top desk, covered in dust and cobwebs, brushed it off and slid open the top.
He remembered that many old desks of that era had hidden drawers or compartments, so he began feeling around until he found a drawer with a false bottom. He opened it, reached inside, and far in the back he felt a leather pouch. Pulling it out, he opened it and found ten gold Confederate coins. He knew immediately that they would be worth millions. So he returned the pouch and the coins to the secret compartment, closed everything up, went back upstairs and called his wife…
Sheila’s Story
Then there’s Sheila. Sheila is a 30-something single woman who works as a free-lance artist. She’s on a road-trip vacation in the Midwest. Driving through a quaint little town she notices a sign for a community fundraiser at the local elementary school. Something tugs at her so she pulls up, parks and goes inside. There are all of the predictable items being sold: baked goods, crafts, farm produce and the like. But she also notices that at the front of the room on an easel is a Picasso reproduction that is for sale for $25,000.
Sheila’s master’s degree had focused on 20th century artists, with a special concentration on the works of Pablo Picasso. So she walked over and was informed that the reason the price was so high is that the quality of the reproduction was itself so high. But, she was told, it clearly was not an authentic Picasso because the artist had simply scribble his initials rather than signing as Picasso would have done.
Sheila stopped and thought for a moment and remembered from her studies that in the first year in which Picasso’s work was made public, he had not signed his full name, but in fact had only scribbled his initials. So she reached into her purse, pulled out a magnifying glass, and because of her training quickly realized that this was either an incredibly masterful reproduction, or an original Picasso, worth millions. She was living at the time from hand to mouth, and the $25,000 asking price was far more than she could reasonably afford. Or was it?
Sheila took out pen and paper and began calculating. She concluded that she would have to sell her entire personal collection, and her older Volkswagen Jetta which she loved, and empty her bank account to afford the purchase of the painting. What if it was in fact only a reproduction? But if it was the real thing…
What should John do? What should Sheila do? To answer the question, each one would have to weigh both the risks and the rewards. How would you advise them?
The Man In The Field’s Story
Before you answer, here’s another vignette: a parable told by Jesus. It consists of only one verse.
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Picture it. A man is walking through a field with his walking stick, and suddenly as the stick touches down he hears a hollow thud. He backs up, taps, and again he hears the thud. He gets down on his knees, digs down and pulls up a wooden box. When he opens it he finds a treasure trove. What would he do? Again, what are the risks? What are the rewards? The risk was that the field would cost him all that he had. So he had to hurry to work the transaction, but the reward would be that he would become wildly wealthy. He assessed the situation and made a decision. He sold his entire estate to purchase the field.
What did John do? John called his wife, and together they agreed that the purchase was worth the risk in view of the reward. So they bought the house and the coins turned out to be worth approximately ten million dollars.
What about Sheila? I mean, she would have to part with her beloved Jetta as well as the art work she had collected over the years. But if that so-called reproduction was in fact a priceless original, it would all be worth it. Her training and experience told her it was, so she did it, and paid the $25 grand. She later discovered that the painting was not worth the $25,000 she paid. Instead it was worth $30 million.
Why am I sharing these stories? Because in the scripture we read together earlier, Paul made an appeal to his fellow Christ-followers in Rome that runs parallel to each of these vignettes. He is asking them to give up something in exchange for something worth infinitely more.
Paul’s Appeal To Believers
The Tone of Paul’s Appeal
I appeal to you therefore, brothers…
Paul could have given a command. It’s noteworthy that he is not appealing to them in a condescending way from his position of authority as an apostle, but instead he’s appealing to them in a loving way from alongside them, as a brother in Christ.
The Basis of Paul’s Appeal
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God…
For eleven chapters Paul has been unfolding the mercies of God. The Gospel is precisely God’s mercy to undeserving sinners, in giving his Son to die for us, in justifying us freely by grace through faith, in sending us his life-giving Spirit, and in making us his children. In fact, it can be argued that the key word in chapters 9-11 is in fact “mercy.” Notice that “mercies” is plural. Paul is saying that there is no greater incentive to living holy lives than the consideration of the full array of all of God’s expressions and demonstrations of his grace and kindness toward us, and towering over all of them is the cross.
The Content (or Substance) of Paul’s Appeal
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God…
Paul is using temple language here. He’s picturing worshipers at the temple who come with an offering. Some offerings in the Old Testament were sin offerings. A worshiper would bring an animal or a bird, and the priest would offer it to God by shedding its blood for the forgiveness of their sins. But now there are no more sin offerings because Jesus IS our sin offering. So the offering Paul is calling us to is not a sin offering. The offering of our bodies cannot and must not be construed by us as a way of being made right with God.
Another kind of offering was a “whole burnt offering,” which was a valuable animal from one’s flock. It had to be without defect (holy and without blemish). Why? That animal is expensive monetarily and valuable for what it produces. When someone offered that animal to be burned, it was meant to symbolize a larger truth—that everything you have is at God’s disposal. You didn’t give God your left-overs—whatever was left over at the end of the month—or something you really didn’t want anyway. The burnt offering was always burnt totally and represented complete surrender and devotion to God.
To be “a living sacrifice” is to be fully at God’s disposal—to be available and willing to obey God in whatever he asks or commands.
The expression “living sacrifice” itself is something of an irony or a paradox, isn’t it? I mean, we all know what the word “living” means, but the word “sacrifice” means to kill something, to make it dead. So a living sacrifice describes, in a sense, a deliberate, living killing. This is clearly what Jesus had in mind when he said in Luke 9:
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
I heard someone one time say, “In Jesus’ day, no one took up a cross who was not on his way to his own execution.” To offer our bodies as a living sacrifice is to make a daily decision that my desires must die so that I can be free to do with my body what God desires. In the same way that you once used your body to serve yourself and fulfill the lusts and passions of your flesh, Paul is calling you by the Spirit, in view of all that God has done for you, to now give God full control of your body: your eyes, your nose, your mouth, your ears, your hands and feet, your voice, your sexuality, your intellect and imagination. He is worthy of it all.
Paul adds two adjectives in describing this sacrifice he is calling us to.
The first is “Holy.” To be holy means to be morally and spiritually pure. It also means to be completely set apart as God’s possession for His purposes.
That second adjective is the phrase, “Acceptable to God.” The apostle Peter said that we as Christians are, “To be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” It is not that we are acceptable to God on our own, nor can we make ourselves acceptable to Him. Instead, we are acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ, and what we offer to God is made acceptable only through Him.
It would be easy to rationalize and spiritualize this. What I want you to think about is first that your body is the vehicle by which you sin. In fact, we read, back in chapter 3, this description of sinful humanity separated from God:
“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood…”
Paul is saying, “Now in light of God’s mercies toward you, use the totality of your physical body to serve God.”
In the church I grew up in, we would frequently sing these words that express in large part what Paul is calling us to.
Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to Thee;
Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice and let me sing always, only for my King.
Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use every power as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it Thine. It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.
The Rationale for Paul’s Appeal
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
I don’t know why someone chose to use the word “spiritual” when they translated this verse, but it has served to confuse a lot of people, including me. What is “spiritual” worship? I mean, I kind of get the concept, but why such a vague term?
Well, I have good news. The word that Paul uses there is the word from which we get our word “logic” or “logical.” It’s also translated “rational” and “reasonable.” Paul is saying, “Look, offering your body to God as a living sacrifice only makes sense. It’s the logical, intellectually rational response. Clear, reasonable thinking about the outpouring of God’s mercies into your life will lead you to respond by giving all of yourself to Him. To do anything other—that is, to give yourself half-heartedly or not at all—is illogical and supremely irrational.”
The first-century Stoic philosopher Epictetus once said, “If I were a nightingale, I would do what is proper to a nightingale, and if I were a swan, what is proper to a swan. In fact, I am logikos (a rational being), so I must praise God.”
Paul Calls Us…
To Conscious Non-Conformity to the World System
Only dead fish go with the flow!
Do not be conformed to this world...
Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold…
Romans 12:2a, J.B. Phillips Paraphrase
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.
William Barclay said, “We are not to be like a chameleon which takes its colors from its surroundings.”
To Cooperate with God in his Process of Transformation
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed…
Notice that Paul doesn’t say, “Transform yourselves.” He’s not calling us to a new level of angst. He says, “Be transformed.”
Having called us to offer our bodies, Paul now turns toward our minds. Do you know that God wants your mind? Do you know that God wants you to offer your intellect and your imagination to him as well?
The Process Begins with Total Renovation of our Powers and Patterns of Reasoning
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…
I love the way J.B. Phillips rendered this phrase: “Let God re-mold your minds from within.”
Remember what Paul said back in chapter 1 is the plight of the person who refuses to acknowledge or to worship God:
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
And in chapter 8, he wrote:
For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Paul wrote to the believers in Ephesus:
Be renewed in the spirit of your minds…
He exhorted the believers in Philippi:
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Paul is talking about an inside job. God wants to change us from the inside out. He is not seeking external conformity, but inward transformation.
Why is it so essential that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds? It is precisely because we began with a debased mind because of our separation from God by sin. So the governing influence of our minds now needs to be reoriented. Our imaginations need to be captured by Christ. The operating system that controls our fundamental thought processes needs to be replaced and a new one has to be downloaded—one that is given by God’s Spirit and informed by God’s word.
He challenged the Colossian Christians:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
Oh how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers,
for your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged,
for I keep your precepts.
God’s Transformation Enables Us to Discern His Will
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me a question like, “What is God’s will for my life?” Or, “How can I discover God’s will for my life?” I’d be a wealthy man.
Those are important questions. God wants you to know His will for your life. But He will only reveal it, and you will only receive it, when your heart is set to do it. God is under no obligation to show you His will when you look at it as just one on a menu of options for your life. Your mind needs to change. Your inner being needs to be transformed. And when He’s ready, and He knows you’re ready, He will give you insight. He will give you power. And He will give you the desire to do His will.
When God renews our minds, we are enabled to discern and appreciate His will, and determine to obey it. You will know that God is doing his work in you as God’s word, the Bible, begins to make sense to you, and truths will begin to leap off of its pages that you have never comprehended before. It will confront you and comfort you; challenge you and encourage you. God by His Spirit will use it to change you from the inside out, making you the person He wants you to be, and enabling you to do what He wants you to do.
This post is based on the transcript of Pastor Jim Hays’ sermon on November 3, 2019. Due to the nature of oral sermons, it may include thoughts and ideas from outside sources beyond those explicitly cited. If you have any questions or would like to know more about what he’s shared, please contact us or visit us this coming Sunday!