Living Sacrifices! Romans 12:1-8

Text: “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

Galatians 2:20.

Good morning, self-sacrificed Christian!  You have been bought with a terrible price from the slave-market of sin and Eternal death.  Therefore, you realize you are no longer your own, to do whatever your own human nature lusts to do.  You and I have been bought by God, by the Cross of God the Son, to glorify God daily in all we say and do.  This is what it means to serve God as a living sacrifice.      (1 Corinthians 6:20) (Hebrews 9:12)

Verse one of today’s selected Scripture portion exhorts us to present our bodies as living sacrifices in God’s service.  Verse two instructs us how to do this.  The Lord will never instruct us to do something without also revealing to us how we can achieve His will, and providing the power necessary to accomplish the task.  What joy it is to know this fact of our Christian faith.   (Psalm 34:8-22)

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto Me...unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

We Christians are instructed here to ‘...be not conformed to this world...’.  Think it through, beloved!  What is the Lord teaching us?  It is profitable to ask such questions during Bible study, for only by asking such questions shall we ever receive the answers we require.  (Matthew 7:7-12)  (James 1:5)

All it means is that, we are not to take the standards of acceptable practice the worldlings all around us conform to and set them up for our standards of daily behaviour.  What is totally acceptable for the worldling to do, or say, or desire, is NOT necessarily acceptable for the Christian person.  Our standard is set by the Lord Jesus Christ, and further set forth for us in God’s Holy Word.  All, therefore, that is not CHRISTLIKE, is sin.  All sin is, of course, unacceptable to Christ, and is thus unacceptable behaviour  for the Christian. 

“But as He which hath called you is Holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation (complete way of life).  Because it is written, ‘Be ye holy; for I am Holy.’”(1 Peter 1:15-16) (1 Peter 2:11-12)

How are we, therefore, to escape being slowly worn down; gradually corrupted; by the worldly standards all around us?  Listen on, dear friend, listen on.

We are to be transformed DAILY, by the renewing of our minds.  We are to be reminded DAILY, of God’s perfect standard of behaviour by a DAILY study of His Word. 

God’s will for us is found only in His revealed Word (i.e. our Bibles).  Therefore, when we study the Word, we are continually reminded of God’s will for us, and our faults and failings; our human, natural, shortcomings; are more clearly revealed to us and we are more able then to continually sort ourselves out in prayerful striving against sin.

In this manner, our Bible becomes for us a Spiritual mirror, a mirror in which we can see our sins; a mirror which we can daily use to make personal comparisons between our worldly conformities and our Christlikeness.  (1 John 1:8-9) (John 15:3) (Ephesians 5:25-27)

If we become proud, the Bible will very soon humble us again.  God gives grace to the humble and resists the proud.  The sin of self-righteousness is also checked by a reading of the Gospels. 

Humankind’s standards are quickly rebuked, when once one learns of the absolute perfection of the altogether lovely, and sinless, Lord Jesus. 

Remember, God richly blesses the Christian who tries to be a living sacrifice for Him.  Hallelujah!  What a Saviour!  Amen.

Thought:  Sacrifice self - sanctify self - serve the Saviour.