Living Sacrifices

Hebrews 13:1–16 ESV

1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” 7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

As we conclude our look at Hebrews, we turn to this final section that implores us to live a life that is reflective of the God who is a consuming fire. Reading through the first verses of our text, it sounds like a gentle reminder of Christian ethics: love one another, show hospitality, give to those that in prison, be faithful in marriage, be content with what you have in life. All of these are good reminders of what a Christian life looks like in the world. We live differently and our lives are to be given fully to God as a living sacrifice to him.

However, we must read this gentle reminder within the context of the entirety of Hebrews. The author gives us a stern warning. We are called to a righteous life in light of God’s holiness. We read last week from Hebrews 12:18 “For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest.” We are warned that we are not to fall away. So, when we get to chapter 13, we are shown that failing to live these Christian ethics leads to our falling away. John Wesley says in his Explanatory Notes on Hebrews 12:14, “The not following after all holiness, is the direct way to fall into sin of every kind.” There is this direct connection between what we read in 13:1-6 and what comes before it in chapter 12. We serve a God who desires holiness from us because our lives are his alone.

Today, we are going to look at what it means for us to be living sacrifices to God and seek a life of holiness in a world that can give us all things that are contrary to God freely and easily. How do we give our lives completely to him so that we can reflect the holiness and righteousness that has been obtained for us through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross?

1. As living sacrifices, we embody God’s love for others. (vs. 1-8)

Verse 1 gives us the pretext for what follows, “Let brotherly love continue.” One writer observes that “we are not to love as though we were brethren, but because we are brethren.” This gives us the lead into what will follow, namely that our love for others has a direct outgrowth in our world. It gives us real world examples of what loving our neighbor looks like. 1 John 4:8 tells us, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” In this list are behaviors that are reminiscent of the Ten Commandments. Let marriage be held in honor, or do not commit adultery. Keep your life free from love of money and be content, or do not covet. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever, or have no other gods before me. He also lists Christian ethics that are not in the Ten Commandments but are found in other places in the Mosaic law - showing hospitality to strangers and remembering those who are in prison and mistreated. This points to the fact that the moral law does provide a blueprint for us on how God requires us to live.

Just as ancient Israel was to be the example for the world for the goodness of God and to be a light among the nations. So we as the church continue that same example. Colossians 1:27 says “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Our call is to show the rest of the world what it means to live a life that is different and holy. We are to be counter to our culture. We do not reflect culture; we reflect God’s holiness in his love. We embody that love in loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. This isn’t to say that we do not love those who are not Christians. However, what the author is talking about specifically is how love is practiced among the fellowship of believers.

This begs the question, how do we embody God’s love for one another? Are we the living sacrifices that God calls us to be by placing others above ourselves? Is the church a way for us to get rather than give? To be the community of faith that we are called to be means that we are there for one another in our times of need. It means that we pray for one another and show compassion to one another. Our love is an outflow of the very nature of Christ. If Christ is in us, we show his love to our brothers and sisters in Christ as a way of offering ourselves to him because he has done so much for us. The love of Christ becomes our love. It is not something that comes from within us. It is a change in our nature because of our faith in Christ and the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. Since we know God in Christ, there is a heart change in us so that we embody him. As Paul says in Ephesians 5:1-2, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

2. As living sacrifices, God’s grace is the basis for our salvation. (vs. 9-14)

From our previous section, one might believe that the writer of Hebrews is teaching that we are saved by our works and not our faith. This is not the case at all. In fact, what the author does is solidify the argument he has been making from the beginning of the book - we are saved by faith in Christ by grace alone. Under the old cultic system of the Jews, salvation was gained only through practicing all of the law - by eating the right foods and the high priests offering sin offerings to God. In chapter 9, the author describes the tabernacle and the work of the priests. They would have to perform ritual duties on a daily basis as well as on the Day of Atonement to forgive the sins of Israel. God would accept such sacrifices as a means to bring the people into a right relationship with him. Verse 11 is a reference to Leviticus 16:27 that says, “And the bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, shall be carried outside the camp. Their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be burned up with fire.” This is about the sacrifice that was made on the Day of Atonement for all the sins of Israel. The author then compares the sacrifice of Christ on the cross to the same sacrifice.

In comparing Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to the sacrifices made by the high priest on the Day of Atonement, the author shows us that it is not through what we do that sanctifies us or brings us into relationship with God. It is only through the work of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ is superior to the sacrifices made yearly by the high priest. Jesus’ sacrifice is once and for all.

The community of faith through which the love of God is displayed to the world through their mutual sacrifice to one another is rooted and grounded in the sacrifice of Christ whereby we are given salvation and sanctification to do these works. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,” We are to take this gift that has been given to us and go “outside the camp” to where Christ has led us into the world and share his grace. This may mean suffering for the sake of Christ. When we conform to the ways of Christ and his ethic that has been outlined earlier, it means that we will live contrary to the world. It means that those who are of the world will not take kindly to the kind of love that we share. It is not a love of acceptance of all things. It is not a love that is based on personal feelings. It is not a love that finds its center in postmodern relativism. It is a love that is based solely on the grace of Christ that come from accepting him and him pouring himself into us by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is in this grace that our hope and salvation lie.

3. In response to God’s grace, we bring our praise and good works as sacrifices to God. (vs. 15-16)

As believers, we are to be a people of worship. The worship of God within the body is one of the means of grace in which we participate. When we do not regularly worship with one another, we are neglecting one of the primary ways that we grow in our faith. Our sacrifice of praise to God is not so much for God himself as it is for us to direct our praise beyond ourselves to the One who has given us salvation and brings us into his presence. We respond in worship to what God has done for us through Christ, and he alone is worthy of that praise. David says in Psalm 50:23 “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”

Our actions before God in prayer and praise is one response to grace. The other is the actions by which we live - our good works. Our lives become a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual act of worship according to Paul in Romans 12:1. The author of Hebrews reminds us that we are not to neglect to do good and be generous in all that we have. He has already said in verse 14 that we are seeking the city that is to come not one that is already here. We cannot get too caught up in the things of this world so as to lose our sights on the hope that is present now in Christ and what will be at the consummation of all things.

Through God’s grace, we show the world that our love has tangible realities to it. It is not something we say. It is something that we do. Our worship and our good works are not offered up to God as a way of showing how wonderful we are and show how worthy we are. We are not worthy. We are sinners who deserve hell because we have continually failed to live in righteousness and obedience. However, through God’s amazing and wonderful grace, we are saved. Our actions of praise and caring for others is done out of the continuous love that is being poured into us through the power of the Holy Spirit as we are sanctified and become more like Christ. It is by such sacrifices that God is pleased. These are things that bring him honor and glory because they are not just our actions but his actions through us.

God has called us as his people to be different from the rest of the world. The Christian ethic by which we are to live is grounded in the love of God. We are to continue to give him all the praise for what he has done for us in our lives. In these last days, we do not need to abandon the gospel and replace it with something that is human centered. Our focus must be on the One who has died for our sins and has been raised from the grave. He is ruler over all things. Through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, God has brought us into his presence and given us access to his fullness that we may live lives that are holy and pleasing to him. It is the call of the Church to be the example of Christ in the world and to offer a new way of life that is centered on the crucified and risen Lord who has given all on our behalf that we may have eternal life now and forever.