Sacrifice

Today we begin a new series called “Be the Church.” This, of course, follows well on the series we just completed called, “Got Church” where studied why the church is necessary for Christian nourishment, indeed, the Belgic Confession states that there is no salvation outside of it.

So, now we are going to look at how Christians are the church. The church isn’t this building. We can’t really even strictly call this building the house of God, because God’s house is in heaven, and it will one day be where God is together with all his people. Strictly speaking, the only true place we can call God’s house is in the bodies of Christians—for that is where God the Holy Spirit takes up residence.

The church building is only God’s house when God’s people are gathered in it. The building is the gathering place of God’s people; it is where we meet for fellowship, instruction, encouragement, correction, service, nourishment, and enjoyment.

Now, our instruction for the next few weeks comes from God’s servant the Apostle Paul, who wrote a letter to the Christians who were living in Rome, Italy. The Apostle Paul is an apostle because he received his call to preach from Jesus himself. Hence, Paul writes as a man of authority, and we ought to obey him as though God himself were speaking directly to us.

Paul exhorts us. He encourages, challenges, implores us, he asks us, he commands us to offer our bodies to God. Now, he purposely uses the word body. This doesn’t refer to your flesh and bones, but implies rather, your whole being, your intellect, your strength, your will, your thoughts, desires, hopes, dreams everything as a living sacrifice.

The living sacrifice is the new life you have in Christ. If you have trusted Jesus’ promise to forgive you your sins by dying on the cross in your place, then you have died, been buried with him, and have been raised to new life. This is why I personally love the practise of immersion for new adult believers in Christ. It powerfully communicates the idea of dying, burial, and rising to new life. For those who have experienced such a baptism, it is a powerful reminder of the new life in Christ.

Another great analogy is the washing away of sins. In infant baptism, the helplessness, indeed, the state of spiritual death is perfectly demonstrated in the helplessness of an infant. God, in his mercy and grace, in Christ, washes our sins away, just as water washes away dirt. I would suggest putting some mud on the baby’s head first, in order to demonstrate this, but I know moms would never go for it.

The sacrifice we offer is holy: it is a product of the Holy Spirit living within us. It is well pleasing to God. We don’t worry about what looks good in people’s eyes, but rather what God is looking for in us. We look for what delights God, what makes him happy to see in us, that he, like a proud parent, is looking at us, watching us, observing us as any parent does to their children, whether they are dancing at the Canada Day celebrations, or working hard on the farm or the office, or studying for or writing an exam to become a registered nurse, or spending time in the pool, whatever.

That’s worship. All of life is worship. It includes but is by no means limited to the time spent in a church building during a worship service. It is 24/7/365 days a year, every year, for all of life, all of eternity. Worship is nothing less than the wholehearted devotion of heart, mind will, words, deeds, everything a person has to God, nothing less. And all of this falls out of, or is a result of God’s grace.

It is easy to think of living for God as work, as duty, as an obligation. I have to go to church, I have to watch what I say, I have to do this, and I can’t do that, or that, or that. I really want to, but I can’t.

But that’s not the context of Paul’s exhortation. The context is God’s amazing grace, his amazing love! We’ve received an incredible gift! We are redeemed, made new!

To understand this gift, we need to understand where we were. We were dead in our trespasses. That means we were guilty and deserving the death penalty. There was no hope. Nothing we could ever do would be good enough. Nothing we could ever earn would pay for our wrongs. God, in his rich mercy, took our penalty from us and put it on the shoulders of his Son who willingly took our place. Because of his death, we are free! We’re forgiven! No charge will ever come against us again, though Satan keeps trying. Instead of slaves, we’re friends; instead of enemies, we’re family—the family of God!

So in light of all of this, how do we show our gratitude? We live for God.

Living in God is in contrast to living and being conformed to the world. In this there is something to avoid and something to do. We are to avoid worldliness, that is using dirty or offensive language: swearing and taking the Lord’s name in vain. Singing inappropriate songs, reading filthy books, wearing inappropriate clothes, doing questionable activities, being intimate with people we ought not to be intimate with, filling our mind and our eyes with inappropriate images, images of ideas and people who are not our spouse, or future spouse. Giving into the desires of greed, idolatry, gluttony, sensuality, adultery, fornication, etc.

But not all sin is in obviously bad places. A person can sin if he or she is consumed even by good things if they cause us to neglect family, friends, church, etc. What it comes down to is this, we all have to fight against the natural tendency to live for oneself. Instead, we must do everything for God’s glory. “God is most glorified,” says Pastor John Piper, “when we are most satisfied in him.” Living after the pattern of the world, which is summed up in living for oneself—a total self-focussed life—has only one result: bitter disappointment. Read Ecclesiastes and you’ll know. The wisest, most rich, most powerful man tried to find fulfilment in everything the world has to offer. Women, money, possessions, at the end all he’d earned was bitter disappointment, everything is meaningless if God is not in it. The word, apart from God, is a mirage.

So here’s what we do: be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Transformed, this doesn’t mean that we substitute the world, for something else. It isn’t in depriving yourself of amusement, or technology, or this or that. The problem isn’t in stuff; it’s our attitude toward stuff. That must be transformed, a change of the inner heart, the mind, the disposition of our being.

This transformation is continually happening. It doesn’t happen once and for all. In this life it is constantly, or should be constantly happening. It is primarily passive, in that we receive this transforming work from the Holy Spirit’s presence in our life. He is constantly at work in us. He is transforming us from within into Christ’s likeness, from one degree of glory to the next. This is why we can’t compare ourselves to one another, we’re not being transformed into a saint that’s better than the next guy, we’re being transformed into being like Christ, and he’s the one we compare ourselves to. Now it is primarily passive in that the Holy Spirit does this to us. But the Holy Spirit graciously invites us to participate, to take part in this transformation. We allow and cooperate with the Holy Spirit.

The result: knowing God’s will. We can’t merely depend upon our conscience. Conscience is only good as it is informed by scripture and the Holy Spirit. We obey God’s commandments. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” The more time we spend living in God’s will, the more we’ll know it and rejoice in it. We delight in God’s law, God will, for it brings joy to us and great delight. God wants us to do what is good, pleasing and perfect.

Ask yourself, “What is God’s will for my life? What does God want or expect from me?” The author of Ecclesiastes writes, “I know that there is nothing better for men that to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God” (Eccl. 3.12-13). And, “Now all has been heard; here is the heart of the matter: fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (Eccl. 12:13-14).

Examine your life. Are you a living sacrifice to God, or are you living for yourself? Are you going to church or being the church? How you live your life, not your attendance record will reveal the truth. Amen.