A LIVING SACRIFICE (PART 2)

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

Romans 12:1

What does it means to lay our lives on GOD'S ALTAR? Imagine a scene from the movies: In some distant tribal culture, one man saves another's life. According to custom, the saved now belongs to the saviour. And why not? If not for the rescuer one would be dead. His life rightfully belongs to the one who preserved it. He might as well spend the rest of his days for the one who actually gave him the rest of his days.

So itis with Jesus and His sheep. We were lost and, for all practical purposes, dead. That's not  our preferred assessment of ourselves, but it's what the Bible says. Without Jesus, we'd be forever lost and lifeless. But He rescued us. And in His culture, we now belong to Him. We are to live out the rest of our days - the days He mercifully gave us - for Him.
That's what being a LIVING SACRIFICE is all about. It means that when Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, we don't have the right to say, "No, not this time." When Jesus tells us to give all we have - our time, our talents, our money, or even our deepest desires - to some aspect of His work, we don't have the authority to decline. We are not our own; we have no claim on our own lives. We were bought with a precious, heavy price. We were saved for the One who saved us.
Just as Jesus laid Himself on GOD'S ALTAR for our sin, we are to lay ourselves on that ALTAR for His righteousness. We don't earn His righteousness, of course. But practically, God puts it into us - He works it into our spirits - to the extent that we lay down our tainted lives in exchange for His resurrected one.
The implications of that relationship are astounding. Radical. Relentless. It was an "everything" purchase for a "forever" promise. LIVING SACRIFICES don't live for themselves. They live for ANOTHER. That's their service of WORSHIP!
(An extract from: Worship the King by Chris Tiegreen)

Precisely Because They Have Been Redeemed At Such A Cost,

Believers Must Be God's Men

-   Leon Morris  -