Crawling Off the Altar

Romans 12:1-2, "I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

A preacher friend once asked me, "Do you know what the problem with a living sacrifice is? A living sacrifice keeps wanting to crawl off the altar." Dieing to oneself and dieing to Christ are preeminent teachings in the bible. In order to live the type of life God wants us to live, one that brings glory to Him, we must deny ourselves and daily follow Christ. This is easier said than done.

Paul through the Holy Spirit teaches us here that for those in Christ, the only acceptable worship is to offer ourselves completely unto the Lord. When we are under God's control, only then can our yet unredeemed body, be yielded to God as an instrument of righteousness. Within ourselves their is no righteousness pleasing to God, as "our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" unto God.

To be a living sacrifice means that we are fully surrendered to the will of God in our life, walking in obedience to Him and the commands that He has given to us. We have effectively sacrificed our life and desires, to be transformed and become Christ like. Paul tells us their is absolutely nothing unreasonable about this expectation of God for us, after all, He sacrificed all He had for us, we should and are capable of doing the same for Him.

If we are to do this, we cannot be conformed to the world. A Christian who speaks, acts, lives, behaves as a worldly lost person has not died to Christ. They have not been transformed. We are transformed when we put on the "mind of Christ," and see things as He does. It is not difficult for us to see things as Christ does, as His word tells us exactly how He views things. What is difficult is to actually live in accordance to His world view as given through the bible. It's is difficult as each of us, along with the Holy Spirit, still has a sin nature inside of us.

Paul Himself faced this battle. In Romans 7:15 Paul laments, "For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do." As a Christian we have an understanding from God of what is right and what is wrong, yet many times we find ourselves living in a way we know God does not approve. So how should we react? We should renew our minds, bathe ourselves in prayer and in God's word, so that He may speak to us, and convict us so that we can turn from our sin nature to a holy life that represents Him. Their is only one answer to sin in our lives, and that is repentance.

Being a living sacrifice is not easy. It means that we have fully surrendered to God, which also is not easy. But it is not unreasonable. Within each of us God's Holy Spirit is there to convict, to teach, to comfort and to encourage. So today, may I ask, are you firmly on the altar of God offering yourself as a living sacrifice, or have you crawled off?