Prompt: Reflect on the Scripture passage below. What does it mean to you? Can you connect this passage to a recent event or circumstance in your life? How? "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- His good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
The phrase “living sacrifice” is one that makes many modern American Christians uncomfortable. They are fine with a God who is all about love, peace, and good works, but the phrase “living sacrifice” seems a bit grim, a bit extreme. The truth is, however, that we owe it to God. Yes, the gift of salvation is a free one and God does not demand anything else in return. At the same time, however, He let His beloved son die on a cross, one the most brutal and painful deaths in all of history, so that we would no longer be under the condemnation of sin. We come from a society where everything has a cost, where every debt and favor must be repaid, and a Christian who truly understands the extreme love that such a sacrifice requires will be completely blown away by their own inadequacy to ever repay such a gift. The only thing we could possibly offer, and the only thing we have that God wants, is our lives. Many ancient and/or tribal cultures had/have the concept of a life debt. If you save my life, I then spend the rest of it serving you. This is much the same concept. Jesus Christ took our place and endured the punishment meant for us: death. He gave His life for ours, and if we accept His gift we now owe Him our everything.
A sacrifice, however, must be pure. In the Old Testament there were very specific rules for what was and was not an acceptable sacrifice. For example, a lamb or goat that was to be sacrificed had to be outwardly perfect with no disabilities or physical blemishes, and was to receive special care to ensure that it stayed healthy. In Exodus 12 God gives Moses specific rules concerning the age and sex of the animals to be used for the first Passover (one-year-old male goats or sheep). There are even rules concerning on which day of the month these animals are to be chosen and on which days they are to be killed. The first seven chapters of Leviticus are dedicated to describing the proper methods for carrying out all the various types of sacrifices. God took sacrifices very seriously. There was a right way to do it, and there was a wrong way. If we as Christians are to be “living sacrifices”, we must also keep ourselves pure. Keeping ourselves pure physically means remaining sexually pure, watching the words that we use, acting in a way that reflects Christ (not cheating, stealing, lying, etc.), and also not doing drugs or drinking or doing other things that are harmful to our bodies. We must also keep our minds pure, by being carefully what we watch and what we listen to, and our hearts pure, by not hating or lusting. This means not conforming to the world. In order to be living sacrifices, we have to make the choice to be different.
God is a perfect god, and He cannot stand to look at sin. Humans are born sinful and can never be perfect, but when Jesus died for us He took our place, and now when God looks at us He sees His perfect son. This does not mean, however, that we are free to live however we want. If we want God to speak into our lives and we want to know His will, we must endeavor to keep ourselves as pure as we can, so that we may continue to be “living sacrifices.”
This verse reminds me a bit of high school, particularly the one I am in now. I go to an English-speaking international school in Krakow, Poland, and the high school typically consists of only around twenty students. In a city where nearly everyone drinks and smokes, there is a lot of pressure to simply blend in. There is also the media, encouraging teens to have premarital sex and dress immodestly. In a school so small peer pressure is a very strong force that often results in ultimatums. At lunch I can join everyone else in talking bad about a teacher, or I can change the subject. When students are talking about sex, I can nod along or I can walk away. Knowing that my friend’s father isn’t home this weekend and that there will probably be alcohol at the party, I can either go along or I can stay home and away from the temptation to drink. I can either throw around the same words everyone else is using, or I can try to keep my mouth pure. Staying pure is never a one-time decision. It is a decision that must be remade every moment of every day. Being human, there are many times when I make the wrong choice, when it’s simply easier to blend in, whether that means saying something bad or simply looking the other way. Then I have to make myself start over again. Over time I have learned that the more I am in God’s Word and with His people the easier it is to stay pure (not always, but for the most part), and the more I am able to keep myself pure the easier it is to hear God’s voice.
As Christians, we are called to step out every single day and live for Christ, to be pure, to be different from the rest of the world. This is never easy, but it is definitely worth it. There is another Christian girl at my school that I have become very good friends with this year, and we do our best to help each other live in a way that pleases God. When we as Christians choose to live pure, godly lives, the world notices. They may jeer and mock, but there are always those who see us and want what we have. I had a friend in middle school who knew I went to church, but who I had never actually told that I was a Christian. We were both headed for different high schools, and just before we parted ways she told me that she had always known I was a Christian just because of how I acted, and that my actions had encouraged her in her own walk with Christ. I had another friend a bit later who was a very strong atheist, but he told me one day that if the other people at my church were like me then maybe he wouldn’t mind going sometime. I learned later that this same friend had been seriously considering suicide, but decided against it because of the love that some other Christian friends and I had shown him. When we keep ourselves pure and offer our lives to God, the world notices. More importantly, God notices. He can work through our lives even when we aren’t willing, but it is so much easier, and so much more beautiful, when we surrender ourselves fully to Him and to His purpose.
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