WHAT DOES THE
BIBLE MEAN BY ‘A LIVING SACRIFICE’?
Our Life as a Sacrifice to God
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but
be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that
good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:1-2
The Christian life
begins with the sacrifice Christ made for our sins on Calvary.
The Christian
walk begins with our presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice unto God. This
sacrifice is explained in Romans 12:1-2.
The Liberty Bible
Commentary offers the following exposition of this passage:
· Paul
is speaking to Christians, whether Jews or Gentiles. The mercies of God are all
those good things we have because we are in Christ Jesus. Most especially he is
referring to those mercies enumerated in Romans 8:35-39.
. . . That ye
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is
your reasonable service. This request is eminently linked to his [Paul’s]
discussion of sanctification in chapters 6 and 7.
In fact, the word rendered
present here (Greek partisemi) is the same as translated “yield” in [Romans] 6:13, 19. Paul now deals in greater detail with
what it means to present ourselves to God.
God wants us to live daily for Him
The Lord God wants the sacrifice of our life, not
Consequently the
sacrifice we are to make of our bodies (representing our whole person) is a
living sacrifice. . . .
Not only is the presentation of our bodies a living
sacrifice but it is also a holy and acceptable sacrifice. . . .
When the sacrifice
of ourselves to God is holy it is inerrantly acceptable to God and well
pleasing to Him. More than this, says the apostle, the sacrifice of ourselves
to God is our reasonable service.
The word “service”
(Greek latreia) is a term used for the function of priests in the tabernacle.
The adjective (Greek logikos) which precedes it may be translated either
reasonable (i.e., rational) or spiritual.
But our worshipful
service can only be spiritual in the biblical sense when it is characterized by
our conscious, intelligent, rational service to the Lord God.
In Paul’s theology, spirituality is not some mindless fluttering of the heart but is the presentation of an entire life to the Lord.
Not only is the presentation of our bodies the
subject of Paul’s request, it is the pattern of our
The world system of
this age is an evil one (Galatians 1:4), and is dominated by “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians
4:4).
The new
creation in Christ is to live with the understanding that old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
We are therefore not
to have our lives governed by the thought patterns and dictates of this evil
world system.
Renew Your Mind
But how can we
prevent that? “Be transformed by the
renewing of your mind.” The only possible way for the believer not to be
fashioned (Greek syschematizo) after this world is to be transformed in mind.
The word transformed
(Greek metamorphoo) reaches far deeper than conformity to the world.
This implies a
fundamental change in the Christian’s inward nature and a following pattern of
character, which corresponds, to that new nature.
Thus the mind (Greek
nous, the center of logical reasoning, ethical judgement, and moral awareness)
must be completely changed if we are to live a life that is holy and acceptable
unto God.
Would you want God to
change your life?
God has made it possible
for you to know Him and experience an amazing change in
your own life through a relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ, and have
eternal life.
Say the following
prayer:
“Father
God, I confess I am a sinner and my sins have separated me from You. 
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lyrics
Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving, I'll be a living
Sanctuary for You
It is you, Lord
Who came to save
The heart and soul
Of every man
It is you Lord
Who knows my weakness
Who gives me strength,
With thine own hand.
Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary
Pure and Holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving I'll be a living
Sanctuary for you
Lead Me on Lord
From temptation
Purify me
From within
Fill my heart with
Your holy spirit
Take away all my sin
Lord prepare me to be sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving, I'll be a living
Sanctuary for You
Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving, I'll be a living
Sanctuary for You
It is you, Lord
Who came to save
The heart and soul
Of every man
It is you Lord
Who knows my weakness
Who gives me strength,
With thine own hand.
Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary
Pure and Holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving I'll be a living
Sanctuary for you
Lead Me on Lord
From temptation
Purify me
From within
Fill my heart with
Your holy spirit
Take away all my sin
Lord prepare me to be sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving, I'll be a living
Sanctuary for You
Dr. Elmer Towns is a college and
seminary professor, an author of popular and scholarly works (the editor of two
encyclopedias), a popular seminar lecturer, and dedicated worker in Sunday
school, and has developed over 20 resource packets for leadership education.His
personal education includes a B.S. from Northwestern College in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, a M.A. from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, a Th.M.
from Dallas Theological Seminary also in Dallas, a MRE from Garrett Theological
Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, and a D.Min. from Fuller Theological Seminary
in Pasadena, California.He is co-founder of Liberty University, with Jerry
Falwell, in 1971, and was the only full-time teacher in the first year of
Liberty’s existence. Today, the University has over 11,400 students on campus
with 39,000 in the Distance Learning Program (now Liberty University Online),
and he is the Dean of the School of Religion.Dr. Towns has given theological
lectures and taught intensive seminars at over 50 theological seminaries in
America and abroad. He holds visiting professorship rank in five seminaries. He
has written over 2,000 reference and/or popular articles and received six
honorary doctoral degrees. Four doctoral dissertations have analyzed his
contribution to religious education and evangelism.
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