“you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
to offer up spiritual sacrifices
“Offer up” means to bring up. The Old Testament priest brought his sacrifice up to the altar. God wants us to bring up our offering directly to him. The offering here is ourselves. God wants us to bring our whole person to him.
Under the Old Testament economy, the priest offered an offering upon a brazen altar. In the New Testament, we offer ourselves to God with our spirituality.
The Christian brings “spiritual sacrifices,” not animal sacrifices. Spiritual sacrifices are activities of the believer that the Holy Spirit animates. These are the things that we do in the power of the Spirit.
Hebrews 13:15-16, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. 16But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”
PRINCIPLE:
We are priests that offer spiritual sacrifices to God directly without mediation.
APPLICATION:
The Christian makes his worship an offering to God. Worship should not be a burden but a joy and privilege. We cannot force worship. We must bring God the offering of ourselves voluntarily.
Have you made yourself an offering to God? God wants us to present ourselves as a living sacrifice to God (Rom. 12:1). The characteristic sacrifice of the New Testament believer is a spiritual sacrifice.
We can offer ourselves to God at any time under any circumstance. Our sacrifice is not limited to time. Neither is it limited to content.
