Living Sacrifice

August 15, 2007

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. ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.^[1]

I am confused as to whether the "by" is pointing back to the appeal or forward to the act of presentation. If it is backward to the appeal then it means that Paul is adding emphasis to what is about to come. He is saying “with God and his great mercies as my witness I am (and God is) appealing to you to…” If the "by" is pointing to the act of presentation then he is saying that the act of presentation of our bodies as living sacrifices is somehow tied to the mercies of God. Either it is the power behind our ability to sacrifice or it is the motivating factor that moves us to present our bodies as sacrifice. This needs further pondering. Another thing that stands out to me is that he the plea is for us to present ourselves as living sacrifices. It does not say to sacrifice ourselves. Why?

That one is confusing. I have always thought of it that way. I have always felt like we were to sacrifice ourselves for God and to God. But Paul is saying to present ourselves to God as living sacrifices. I wonder if this is tied to some OT understanding of the sacrifice. Perhaps all the priests ever did was present the sacrifice and it was up to God to accept it. If this is true then the sacrifice was to be perfect without blemish and presented to the priest who prepared for and performed the sacrifice. Maybe that is what is in view here.

My life needs to be free of blemishes so that God is then able to prepare me and perform the actual sacrifice. This is not an act of salvation – that was already done. But, as Paul points out an act of worship.

To the Jews the sacrifice was their worship. All kinds of different fo rms of sacrifice for different things. Wave, wheat, sin, etc. The Atoning sacrifice does not appear to be in view here. We are not to present ourselves as the atoning lamb or the bull or what ever. He does not say that we are to be the wheat or wave offering. Paul does not describe what kind of sacrifice other then that we are living. None of the things that were sacrificed in the OT were living with the exception of Isaac, but I do not think that is what he is saying. He is describing a new thing. Jesus was the atoning sacrifice so there was no longer a need for an annual atoning sacrifice. When we here this great debate about circumcision are we, as my Messianic Jewish friend Hezekiah says, really seeing the debate about the sacrifices.

My friend pointed out that you would think that the Judiazers and the Christians would have argued about the need for continued temple worship that included the sacrifices. The NT is silent on the issue of whether we should sacrifice or not. Why. Hezekiah (my friend not the prophet) says that in truth the debate about circumcision was not about the need to follow the law of Moses but it was about whether Christians, Jewish and Gentile, needed to engage in the Sacrifices that came along with the law. I am not sure if he is right because it seems to me that you cannot separate following the law from the temple sacrifices. They are bound together. If we
no longer need to give a wave offering then we should no longer need to be concerned about the part of the law that was tied to the wave offering.

Yet here is Paul saying, (in one of the few places of the NT that talks about a sacrifice other than the atoning work of the cross) that we are to present ourselves as a living offering. This is a new thing.This is fresh. In Hebrews and one of the letters from Peter we learn that Jesus is our Great High priest. Does he as high priest, then take those offerings that we present to him and do the actual ritual to sacrifice them. Are we putting our very lives into his hands so that he can lay them on the altar before God. Since we are living sacrifices is it our lives that is the sweet aroma rising up into the heavens. Is a life that is not presented as a proper living sacrifice (one full of blemishes) then seen as an unpleasant aroma that God rejects?

This is deep stuff.

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^[1]The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Ro 12:1-2.

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How does one Walk in the Light?

I am currently reading through 1st John and my Struggle with the book in the past has been that I read it and then begin to question my salvation. If I am in the light then should I not be perfect? My mind has always combined the idea of walking in the light with not sinning and walking in the dark with sinning. On one level that may be a correct interpretation but if it is the only interpretation than verse 7 and 8 do not fit into the rest of chapter 1.

If we walk in the light there are two truths that go with it:
1. We have fellowship with one another
2. the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Dose that mean that if we walk in the light the result will be fellowship and cleansing or is fellowship and cleansing what indicates that we are walking in the light

If fellowship and cleansing result from walking in the light then sin is not the only indicator of where (or how) we are walking. Clearly we can walk in the light and have sin in our life, otherwise there would be no sin for the blood of Jesus to wash away and verse 8 would be totally out of place.

If, on the other hand, fellowship and cleaning are what indicates that we are walking in the light then sin is going to be a constant issue that we need to continually, through the fellowship of both believers and with God, lay before Him so that we can be receiving the cleansing as often as it is needed.

But if that is true then it feels like we are living in sin. What is the difference between a man who struggles with alcohol and doesn't receive cleansing and a man who struggles with it and is constantly asking for cleansing. Doesn't this seem like hypocrisy? One day it is down the hatch, the next it is, forgive me lord, the next it is down the hatch.

This is what Strong's says about the Greek word used for walk:

4043. peripatev, per-ee-pat-eh´-o; from 4012 and 3961; to tread all around, i.e. walk at large (espec. as proof of ability); fig. to live, deport oneself, follow (as a companion or votary):— go, be occupied with, walk (about).[1]

The word Votary stands out to me in the definition. Webster's defines votary this way:

vo•ta•ry \vō-te-rē\ 1 archaic : a sworn adherent 2 a : ENTHUSIAST, DEVOTEE b : a devoted admirer 3 a : a devout or zealous worshiper b : a staunch believer or advocate[2]

To Me then, the issue seems to be one of focus. If our life's ambition is focused on ourselves and on our pet sins then we are not focused on God. How can we truly fellowship with believers if we are focused on living like a non-believer. If we are devoted to our selfish lusts then we are not able to connect with the body and therefore connect with God. It is the connection with God that keeps us cleansed and it is our determination and focus on walking in the light the keeps us connected with believers and God. Mixed with all this is the mystery of the Holy Spirit.

Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit if we are allowing the spirit to control us then we are focused in the right way. If we continually ignore the prompting of the spirit then we are focused on our self. I think we all ignore the spirit through out our day otherwise we would never sin. The key is that if we are walking in the light, then at some point in the day we will look back and make an assessment of our walk and through confession and submission to the Spirit we reconnect with the father.

So, it is not a question of whether or not I sin everyday. It is a question of weather or not I am allowing I am allowing the Spirit to direct me back toward the light so I can keep my focus on being in fellowship with God and other believers.

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[1]James Strong, The New Strong's Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1996), H8674.

[2]Inc Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary., Includes Index., 10th ed. (Springfield, Mass., U.S.A.: Merriam-Webster, 1996, c1993).