A Living Sacrifice

Romans 12:1 “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.”

Our spiritual worship involves our physical bodies, which reflects our inner being, what we call the heart. God, through the apostle Paul, is telling us that our deeds and actions must be disciplined and controlled to better reflect the new creation that the Holy Spirit has wrought in us. In a sense, the Father in heaven is saying, “I see you as holy and pure due to the righteousness of My Son which I have applied to you, now act as I see you.” God is well aware (and we should be as well) that in this life – in this fallen world – we will never achieve the holiness and righteousness that we will in heaven, but that fact should not keep us from running towards that goal. Why should we ‘present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable’? Because it is pleasing to God – it is our ‘spiritual worship’. We are told to worship God in spirit and truth, and in this verse we see a facet of what that means. Holy and godly living, according to the truths of God’s word, is spiritual worship. Physical living is spiritual worship. One cannot enter a sanctuary on a Sunday and successfully worship God if his intent, or even his status quo, is to live according to the flesh the rest of the week. Our bodies need to follow our spirits – our regenerated spirit, by the strength, power, and help of the Holy Spirit, not our strength alone. Our strength will get us nowhere, but our Holy-Spirit guided ‘wills’ with His strength will bring us closer to Him.

So many these days seem to think that spiritual worship is simply and only an emotional experience, when in fact it is ‘obedience’ that God sees as worship. “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:27). Holy ‘obedience’ to the word of God is spiritual worship. Obedience does not save us, obedience is worship. Is this not the case with our own children? When they obey us, does that obedient act not honor and please us? Christ is our loving Master, and we should be His grateful servants/slaves with a desire and passion to please Him by our obedient actions.

Peter, in his letter (1 Peter) quoted from the book of Leviticus, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY."

The apostle Paul understood this important truth, which is why he wrote, “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.”
Amen!