1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
as a living sacrifice,
Paul employed sacrificial language for our walk with God. This sacrifice to God should be “living”; that is, the spiritual state of the believer. Normally we would think of a sacrifice that would die, but here the idea is that the sacrifice would live. Many people offered sacrifices that would die on the altar, but the Christian is to offer himself or herself as an ongoing sacrifice.
In the Old Testament believers made sacrifices, but in the New Testament the believer is to be a sacrifice. The Old Testament sacrifice was killed; the New Testament sacrifice is alive, a life lived for God.
Paul used “sacrifice” in a figurative sense because the church no longer brings physical sacrifices to God. The final sacrifice of Christ put an end to any other sacrifice. This sacrifice lives and is not dead. We were dead in sins but are now alive to God, available to be presented to God.
PRINCIPLE:
By presenting ourselves to God, we become the active agent for God’s will.
APPLICATION:
When Christians present themselves to God, they become a living sacrifice for Him. When an Israelite brought a sacrifice to the altar, he relinquished his right to what he offered. If Christians presents themselves to the Lord, they relinquish their rights to themselves.
2 Co 5:14-15, 14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that thoswho live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
