Romans 12:1-2
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. 2 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.
The earlier chapters in the book of Romans, up to chapter
11, deal primarily with what God has
done for us (the indicatives) whilst chapters 12-16 deal with people's actions
in response to God's (the imperatives).
Our conduct or what
we ought to do must stem from our knowledge of what God has done, otherwise our
imperatives are just pious morality adherence's. It is in this
context that we want to understand what living sacrifice means.
As born-again Christians, we are in Christ and Christ is in
us (Jn. 6:54-56;.Gal. 2:20). These are our main indicatives. Our response in
Christian living is as in Acts 17:28 ‘… for in Him we live, and move, and have
our being…’. Christian living is simply living an exchanged life ‘not I, but Christ liveth in me’ (Gal. 2:20).
What it basically means is that all our actions, whether the words we speak, the things we do or our very
being, be an expression of the Son of God
living through us.Paul aptly described it in this way: ‘For to me to live is
Christ, and to die is gain.’ (Phil. 1:21).
When we are born again, we are dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 6:11). Hence, our Christian living is of Him,
through Him and to Him. Period. Our
flesh count for nothing.
A living sacrifice is a body that has been sacrificed
(dead) but kept alive by the life giving Spirit. Hence, we present to Him as a living
sacrifice by a faith that expresses total dependence on the life giving
spirit,and nothing of ourselves (the flesh is dead, sacrificed!).
In summary, Christian living is a living sacrifice,
beautifully expressed by Paul in Galatians 2:20:
‘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.’
A Christian, armed with this understanding, can exude the
fragrance of Christ so needed in Christianity today... so that we can bring
Christ out to the world and the world can be attracted to the true God living in
and through us….it is evangelism at its best.
We are kindly reminded of what Ghandi said :
‘I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your
Christians are so unlike your Christ.’― Mahatma Gandhi
Rejoice.
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