18 November 2020

A Holy Sacrifice

Romans 12:1-2 (J.B. Phillips)”With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

Romans 12:1 (NIV) “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

“Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy (consecrated) and pleasing (acceptable) to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Romans 6:13 (ESV) “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.”

The Bible clearly shows us that holiness depends on God's call—God's choosing. Consecration means accepting and affirming God's call upon us.

This sense of consecration as a response to God's call is expressed in 1 Peter 2:5 (NRSV) "Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood"

Consecration is an act of giving ourselves so completely to God that we are like animal sacrifices. A sacrificial animal no longer has a life of its own. It has lost its life and has been taken out of its natural environment. As a sacrifice, it is good for one thing: a means of worshiping God. Romans 12:1 states that our consecration means that we are to live as sacrificial animals. We have lost our former lives. We have been taken from our former ways of living. We are now good for only one thing: the praise and worship of God.

“Consecration is receiving the ministry of serving God. It is to say to the Lord, "Today I will separate myself from everything to serve You, because You have loved me. We must realize that our service to God is not a favour or courtesy to God. It is not a matter of offering ourselves to God’s work, but a matter of God being gracious to us and giving us a portion of His work. It is God who has given us the glory and the beauty. Consecration is God giving us glory and beauty; it is God calling us into His service. If we boast in anything at all, we must boast in our marvellous Lord. There is nothing marvellous for the Lord to have servants like us. The marvellous thing is for us to have such a Lord! We must see that consecration is the result of being chosen. Serving God is an honour to us. We are not uplifting God, as if we were sacrificing anything for Him or as if we had any glory in ourselves. Consecration is God giving us the glory. We should prostrate ourselves before Him and say, "Thank You that I can have a part in Your service. " - Watchman Nee

Psalm 42:1-2 (NLT) “As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. 2 I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him?”