A Living SacrificeSample

"For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's." (Romans 14:7-8 ESV)

Let me revisit the place where we started this reading plan. Paul is calling us to be “Living Sacrifices.” Yes, we are living because we are alive. But we also are a sacrifice because we are dead. We are dead to our sin nature, our old ways, our old perspective. We are saying, “I belong to the Lord. My life is no longer about me.”

Paul has gone to great lengths in his letter to the Romans to help them understand the importance of Christian living in this life. It is clear that our actions and behaviors matter. You’ve most likely heard the famous quote, “No man is an island.” We are all connected somehow on this planet. We have families of origin, that come with connections to family trees and histories that go back centuries. We have friends we have met, people that God has brought into our lives at some juncture, people with whom we feel a connection. We have neighbors - most of us anyway - though in today’s world we tend to pull in and out of our garages without even knowing them. We have co-workers, which can be a source of joy or consternation. We have church members, who often expose the fact that churches are full of those with sin nature. We have spouses and children and grandchildren.

I’ve often thought about how the Bible includes extensive genealogies. I’m convinced that God is a family man, so to speak. I believe He created family and places a great importance on it. Yet, all of our families are scarred by sin, going all the way back to our common ancestors, Adam and Eve. And God cannot tolerate sin because He is holy, so there must be punishment.

When God gave the 10 Commandments, he makes a big statement:

“I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.” Exodus 20:5 ESV

We see this verse lived out all the time. Things that our parents did that we hated are repeated in our lives. Sin has a way of getting passed down from generation to generation. This is why Paul impresses that we must live for the Lord.

The good news is that we can break this generational sin cycle. In Exodus 20:6, God says that he passes“steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Which do you want to pass down? Sin or Love?