Made a Living Sacrifice

I was listening to a sermon a while ago (cannot manage to remember who it was by to listen to it again) that was talking about Romans 12:1 and the idea of "offering ourselves as a living sacrifice." He said something simple, yet it echoed deeply:

"Imagine, you and I, able to offer ourselves as living sacrifices."

Let's put aside for a moment that we are commanded to offer ourselves, and realize that we are able.

In the Old Testament, there were many sacrifices required by the people of Israel. Whether the prized calf or first of the crops, none of these offerings were made without cost. Yet they were all met with even greater reward.

Let's be realistic, the favor of the Lord far outweighs the loss of a few spotless sheep, even if they are your livelihood. "The things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18). Nothing we give up can ever outweigh what He is as our Reward. "At His right hand are pleasures forevermore" and "in His presence there is fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11).

These sacrifices were costly for a reason. God would not accept something that you do not value, because the willingness to give is relative to the value you place on Him.

He is utmost, and because He is utmost, what was given had to be of the highest quality. Without spot or blemish. Perfect.

That's not us. 

Yet this is what we're commanded to be.

And, it's so unthinkable, it's what we are made able to be.

The book of Hebrews says Christ was a sacrifice to God by God. As each sacrifice is outlined in the Old Testament, the Father foreshadowed His Own extremely burdensome sacrifice of His Son. He knew that those temporary sacrifices were not enough. They had to be offered over and over again as we continue to sin.

But one day, He sent His Son.

They have been in perfect fellowship from the beginning, but Jesus died a sinner's death. Why? For those who half-heartedly, begrudgingly gave only as much as they could before it became uncomfortable.

But God offered His Son, a perfect, enduring sacrifice. And now He commands us to act as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. But on our own, we can't. As we've already established, we are in no way holy and pleasing, and in no way a suitable offering. On our own.

Through Christ, we are able.

How? Because He was spotless. He was blameless. He was undefiled. And when He died, His blood spoke a "better word" than the blood of Abel (Hebrews 12:24). Abel's blood cried out "guilty" against his brother Cain. Christ's blood cries out "justified" and brings us in, making us brothers with Him, heirs in Him of eternal fellowship with the Father. His blood makes us able to "draw near to God" and have the promise that "He will draw near to us" (James 4:8).

This nearness is where the "holy and blameless" comes in, because Christ did not stay dead on the altar. It is through His resurrection that we are saved forever; that the justification remains efficacious eternally; that He became the High Priest, making intercession for us.

It is through His resurrection that we find the ability to not only die to ourselves, buried with Him, but to be raised to walk in new life, as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

Holy and pleasing to God.

Imagine!

Honoring Christ in Comfort

"All who desire to live a Godly life will be persecuted."

These words mark many sermons, trying to stir American Christians to action, to "radical" obedience. Yet, I fear we take these words and make them our measuring rod. Instead of desiring to live Godly, we "desire" to suffer.

I have a Voice of the Martyrs poster hanging in my room and as I was reading and praying, I looked at it. "We worship in church. Thousands of our persecuted brothers and sisters worship in prison." Ouch. What am I doing, laying here in my comfortable bed, with my stomach full of food? 

If every moment of our lives isn't riddled with discomfort and sorrow, are we disobeying God?

The Law of God is "good, pleasing, and perfect," and it calls us to live lives of respect, to "outdo one another in showing honor," and to "consider others more important than ourselves." First of all, wow. Second, if we are truly to do all of that, it's nice for the people that come into contact with us. And that leads to favor with them, believer or not.

Most Christians agree that Jesus was obedient always, and yet, for a time, He had "favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52). The same is said of the apostles in the book of Acts. Favor therefore cannot be sinful on its own.

Nothing can set itself up as my idol. My un-denied self creates it, sets something in the seat only God is worthy of taking. And that is sinful. It is only by seeking comfort that comfort becomes sin; seeking suffering should be rejected on the same grounds. Why?

Because seeking anything but Christ is idolatry.

And so it is that I do not believe people in hostile countries, fraught by constant life or death decisions, are, by that fact alone, more holy or acceptable than any true believer with relative religious freedom.

At one time, Jesus lived a life that earned Him favor with man. That same way of life later caused them to crucify Him. 

He "humbled Himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross," BUT He also "fell on his face and prayed, saying, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will but Yours be done."

Jesus didn't seek suffering. He sought God. And that led to suffering. If it had pleased God, He would have let the cup pass from Him.

And that... that is the idea I wish to convey. For many of us, the cross we "pick up" is not, at every moment, arduous, so we feel we have to create our own suffering by being rude, unsympathetic, obstinate then claiming people's (reasonable) offense as persecution. No. Please, no.

The important thing is picking up our cross, deferring to His plans for us. In all things, it's the looking to Christ and following Him that pleases God. The covenant is Christ. The glory is God's.

It is His decision whether suffering or favor best exemplifies His glory in each moment. And praise Christ, He strengthens us in both, for He is the "secret to being content in all circumstances" (Philippians 4:12). So, rather than questioning where He has you right now, "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

"Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith."

"Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them."

The Word of the Cross is Folly and Power.

The Lord has been teaching me about those who blatantly oppose Christianity, Who scoff at the very idea of God, calling Him a fairy tale for the ignorant.

Thankfully, He reminds me that I too once hated Him with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength. That even now, after I've been given a new heart, I turn so often from Him, denying Him with my actions, words, and thoughts.

He reminds me that "no one can come to [Christ] unless the Father draws him" (John 6:44).

That latter reminder is twofold.

First, that I am saved by grace, through faith, not of myself so that I cannot boast (Ephesians 2).

Second, that they can be saved by grace, through faith, not of themselves and especially not through my words, so neither I nor they can boast.

I listen, wishing I knew a hundred things to say to prove 100% that God exists. That God saves. That He is coming again to judge the earth according to His commands. But I must remember, through all my studying, my "debating," that people are not saved by eloquent arguments.

I was so burdened yesterday and spent a most of my time at work pondering the best wording for various arguments. I'm sure someone out there has wonderful logic that can explain everything in extensive detail. I am thankful those people exist. I'm not that person. I lose my train of thought a few syllables in, and I can't think of the words I want to use, and my sentences are out of order.

I'm intimidated by the opposing arguments. They have all these catchy phrases and scientific facts and things that really do seem so convincing on the surface. But wit and eloquence don't make a person right; we cannot confuse these when trying to discern truth. A lie attractively spoken is still foolish.

I'm a sucker for arguments that show understanding of the topic and not just ad hominem. That's where a lot of Christians stand when it comes to "debates." They get this cynical, scoffing tone that comes across just as clearly over text as it does in person. At the same time, they don't make any real points and rarely address the topic at hand. Or they repeat the same sentence that they heard someone say once over and over again, showing no further thought about the subject.

They turn it to a personal attack. Why? So they can "win"? To what end?

Do we forget we are saved by grace through faith given to us by the Father? It is He Who awakens us and draws us to His Son. It was His Son Who lived perfectly and died for us and raised Himself to life, and He Who gave us the Holy Spirit to work in us to will and to act according to His good pleasure. 

It's frustrating that the loudest are not often the most understanding. I don't want to be there.  I want to answer for the hope that I have in Christ, with all gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). I want to be able to speak the evidences for God that exist, because He does exist. 

Anyway, after much discouragement over my lack of eloquence, I sat down to read the next chapter of my read-through-the-Bible plan, the chapter I was supposed to read the day before but didn't.

1 Corinthians 1-2.

Guys... sovereignty.

It's exactly the answer to my thoughts and prayers of that day.

"For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.'

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, Who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away."

Please, seek knowledge; study arguments for and against Christianity. Do it in a manner worthy of the Gospel.

But do not "worry about what to say or how to say it, for in that time it will not be you speaking but the Holy Spirit speaking through you" (Matthew 10:20). His are the words that need to be heard; Christ is the message that saves; His is the wisdom irrefutable (Acts 6:10).

“Suppose a number of persons were to take it into their heads that they had to defend a lion... Well, I should suggest to them, if they would not object, and feel that it was humbling to them, that they should kindly stand back, and open the door, and let the lion out! I believe that would be the best way of defending him, for he would take care of himself; and the best 'apology' for the gospel is to let the gospel out.” - Charles Spurgeon

Thinking you need eloquent arguments to convince people to follow Him "empties the cross of its power," and betrays your subconscious belief that the Gospel is not powerful enough on Its own to save.

But It is. 

The truth is enough on its own. What an honor it is to speak it.