A Living SacrificeSample

"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." (Romans 12:1 ESV)

We established in day one that this mission for Christ starts with believing in Him. It’s not about cleaning up our act and making a penance for all of our sins. No one in the Bible had to clean themselves up to come to Jesus. No, they could come in their broken, sinful, shameful, wounded, sick state. And He had compassion to heal, forgive and to give new life.

So, if we confess and believe in the Lord, that’s good. That is a surrender of your intellect. It is a step of faith, because you are placing your trust in One that you cannot see and probably don’t yet fully understand. Many times this comes in a time when we have reached the end of our rope, and we are in desperation. I’ve heard people describe these moments and their prayers, which sound something like this, “Lord, I don’t know where else to turn. I’ve tried everything else. If you are real, please help me.” Or “Lord, I give up. I can’t figure it out.” To this prayer, I’ve heard the Spirit’s impression, “Good, my son, I’ve been waiting on you to say that.”

It all starts with humbly, brokenly bringing ourselves before the Lord. In the Old Testament, there was a holy practice of animal sacrifices for sins. The people would regularly bring different animals to the temple, which would be killed and laid on the altar. Perhaps God wanted to ingrain in His people that we must come to Him to turn from our sins and find new life. Then, Jesus came as the sacrificial Lamb who was sacrificed once and for all for the sins of mankind. Hebrews 10:10 (NIV) says, “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

But in the case of the sacrificial animals and Jesus, death had to occur. So, we too, come to Jesus, dead in our sins, and we give Him our life. We die to our old self, so that we may find a new life.