A Body Made For Sacrificing
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Introduction:
Introduction:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
I. Paul’s Urging
The word beseech, or urge here is from the greek parakaleo, which has the meaning of, calling alongside in order to help or give aid.
The word urge also has the meaning of pushing, pressing, to demand earnestly or pressingly.
In His upper room discource, Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as the Parakletos, our divine Helper.
Also translated Comforter, Counselor, or Advocate.
The Holy Spirit was, and is “another Helper” taking the place of the incarnate Lord, Jesus Christ.
So connecting these two greek words, we can say that in Paul’s urging, he is acting as a human helper or counselor to his Christian brethren.
We must remember that this admonition carries the weight of Paul’s apostleship, it is not optional.
Yet, he also wanted to lovingly come beside them, as a fellow believer, and encourage them to fulfill the desire in there new heart, to give themselves without reservation unto the Lord.
He speaks with the same tender humbleness seen in his admonition to Philemon.
Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient,
Yet for love’s sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
philem
In this passage of Scripture Paul is speaking in both a command as an apostle, and a plea as a fellow believer.
This command is only given to his fellow brothers in Christ, as seen by the use of the word brethren.
For unregenerate God haters cannot, nor do they want to give anything to God.
As seen clearly in 1 Corinthians.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
So this gentle command by Paul is given only to his fellow kinsmen in Christ.
Because the unbelievers soul has not been offered to the Lord, he cannot make any sacrifices acceptable to the Lord.
So the unredeemed person cannot sacrificially give their bodies to Christ, because they have not first given of themselves to receive spiritual life.
So this urging, this soft command, is given only to believers.
So we see Paul’s urging, were as an apostle, it does carry a command, but more than that, as a fellow believer, this is more of a strong, yet soft plea.
Now, let us look at our motivation.
II. Our Motivation
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
The word therefore here refers back to the wonderful doxology found in .
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
Because all the glory for everything belongs to the Lord as seen in verse 36 of chapter 11, Paul’s urging process to His fellow brethren, is literally to bring glory to God with their lives.
The motivation for that is Gods mercy, for the only people who can, or who want to glorify the Lord, are those who have been saved by the mercies of God.
So Paul begins his urging, to his fellow brethren, to bring glory to God with their lives, and the authorship of this urging is the mercies of God.
The mercies of God, of which Paul speaks here refers back to the many gracious blessings, or grace gifts discussed in the previous 11 Chapters.
Perhaps the two most precious displays of Gods mercies are His love, and His grace.
By the mercies of God through Christ, we have been made the beloved of God.
To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
rom
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
rom
What mercy is it to make such vile haters of God, now the beloved of God.
We also see Gods mercy in His power to save.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
rom 1
What mercy of God there is to actually deploy his Divine Power in the saving of disobedient, backbiting savages such as you, and I.
His mercy is also seen not only in His saving power, but also in His kindness toward those He saves.
Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
rom 11
In Gods mercy through Christ we are brought the forgiveness, and propitiation of our sin.
Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
We have been reconciled to God, whereas we were once at enmity with God.
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
rom 5
We also have been given the righteousness of Christ.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
Dirty, rotten sinners, by the mercy of God have now been clothed in the righteousness of Christ, to where now when God looks at us He no longer sees a vile sinner, but literally the perfection of His Son.
What mercy of God we have through Christ to motivate us to full, unreserved dedication.
So we see our motivation for bringing glory to God with our lives, that is the mercies of God given us through our Lord Jesus Christ.
But just how do we bring glory to God with our lives?
That brings us to our next point.
III. Our Presentation
rom
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Because we have been given so much mercy, we are to bring glory to God with our lives, by giving of our selves wholly and without reserve unto the Lord.
We are to present, or bring our bodies to the Lord daily giving of all we have, and all we are unto Him.
We are to daily say with the prophet Isaiah,
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
In the Septuagint, paristemi, (to present) was often used as a technical term for a priest’s placing an offering on the altar.
It therefore carried with it the idea of surrendering, or yielding up.
And since now we as Christians are part of God’s “holy priesthood.”
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
We as Christians essentially are supposed to perform a priestly act of worship, by laying our bodies down as sacrifices unto the Lord.
With the soul already won by the Holy Spirit of God, the Lord already owns the inner man, now He wants the outer man, the body.
That must be noticed.
For the outer man, or our fleshy body is now the only place where our sinful, fallen nature still resides, no longer does it reside in the soul, for that has been won of God.
But now because the soul, the inner man, has been won of God, now He calls for the outer man as well.
So the thing in which sin still resides is being called to now be surrendered, sacrificed, presented to the Lord.
Paul makes it abundantly clear of the sin that still resides in the flesh.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
In other words the redeemed soul still must reside in the centre of His sin, that is his fleshly body.
It is this fleshly body that tempts and lures us to do evil.
When we, even we, as Christians succumb to this powerful force even our redeemed bodies at that time, again becomes an instrument of sin and death.
It is a scary thing that our fallen unredeemed bodies, if we allow them, can thwart the spiritual, redeemed impulses of our new souls.
The body is indeed still the center of sin desires.
The apostle Paul gives us sobering insight to this fact when he says,
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Paul had a great awareness of the fallenness still inside him.
Even the great apostle had to keep his body under Scriptural submission, lest the sinful nature still indwelling him take over, and ruin his testimony, his ministry, and ultimatley his life, as it so desires to do.
He had to extert much effort, and force to maintain his holiness.
With no thought of the dangers we are to give of our lives to the LORD, which by His mercy is more than worthy of our service.
We also read of how Paul had a thorn in the flesh, that kept him from exalting himself.
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
Even the great apostle had to be given by God a sort of pride meter to keep him from becoming proud.
Sometimes the Lord must do the same for us.
In times where we might feel obligated to glory in self, the Lord in His grace uses the already sinfulness inside of us to remind us of our dependency on Him.
We must praise God for doing this, for in doing this, He is supplying Divine help, to help us keep our flesh, and sinfulness in submission to Him.
As well it teaches us that in the battle of sacrificing ones self, we must not rely on self, but on the Lord.
This is a hard battle, for the flesh is a viciously strong force, but Paul does make it clear that victory over the flesh is possible.
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
Paul made it very clear that it was possible to not be brought under the power of this sinful body in which we are forced to reside.
Greater-still these bodies are still unredeemed, and must daily be brought under submission to the Lord, and His Word.
Paul knew well of the struggle over sin, and it is because of that reason that in he gave an admonition with both negative, and positive condontations.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Though while still in this sinful body, a believer who yields there life to the Holy Spirits power can indeed be an instrument of righteousness.
How? By sacrificing your body to the Lord.
Though while we cannot prevent sin from remaining in our members, we can prevent it from ruling our lives by submitting ourselves daily to the Lord, and His leading.
Paul had this same idea in .
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
The same power that raised Christ from His grave, is the power that indwells each of His children, and that is more than enough power to enable us to put the sins in our lives to death.
After all,
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
No one, especially yourself, and the sin in you, is greater than He that indwells you, and He that will give His Divine Power to help you overcome your sin, and enable you to present your body holy, and acceptable to God.
And just why is it so important for our living life sacrifices to be Holy?
Even at our conversion we were called to drop everything and without regard for life, or comfort follow Christ
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
luke
We are not only supposed to do this, but present, or give, our bodies as holy sacrifices unto the LORD.
We could possibly make a connection between this living sacrifice having to be holy,and the old testament sacrificial system.
Where the only sacrifice able to be made was one of a holy, spotless animal.
Why?
Notice the other part of the verse where it says, acceptable.
The holy sacrifice was the only sacrifice that was accepted by God, so are lives are to be given daily to God, as a living sacrifice, that is lived, and given in a holy manner for that is the only sacrifice accepted by God.
So here we see our presentation.
Now let us look at our last point.
IV. Our Obligation.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
The word reasonable here, in some translations is translated spiritual.
The word reasonable here in some translations
They both can be translated from the word Logikos, which is where we get the words logic, or logical.
So based on that, what is Paul saying about this sacrificing of ones self, this offering of ones self to the Lord.
That because of the “depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God” and His “unsearchable judgments and unfathomable ways”; and because “from Him and through Him and to Him are all things” , including His immeasurable “mercies” that we have received , that presenting our bodies, and all that we have, and all that we are unto the Lord is just a reasonable, logical thing to do, in light of all that you have been given.
And in doing such this is how you serve, this is how you worship.
Not by intricate buildings, and emotional experiences, and spiritual highs.
But by a heart-felt, genuine, passionate child, who’s greatest desire is just to give all to His Master.
This is the only way in which we can serve our Master in the self-sacrificing, logical way in which we are obligated, by His mercies to serve Him.