An Acceptable Sacrifice

- I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. - Romans 12:1

Jesus gave us the ultimate example of sacrifice. The Bible says that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). In other words, when we were still against God, before we had ever made a decision to follow Him, He gave His life for us. This is an amazing example of friendship and love. Paul also points out that we, as humans, might choose to die for a righteous person but never for a wicked person. Think about it, who would you put your life on the line for? Who would you be willing to die for? Your kids? Spouse? Your brothers, sisters, parents, or friends? What about the person who bullied you in high school? Or the boss who just fired you? Let's take it a step further and consider whether you would put your life on the line for the serial killer on death row. Would you be willing to take his place? What about Osama Bin Laden when he was still alive? Christ died for each one of these people and He died for us while we were still His enemy! This is why Paul states that it is only reasonable for us to present our own lives as a sacrifice to Him. This is not even above and beyond, it's the least we can do in response to what He did for us. He gave His whole life for us and all we can offer in return is our own life.


So what does it mean to present our bodies as living sacrifices? A lot of times we discuss this verse when referring to sacrificing our carnal nature. We think that Paul is referring to our sinful desires (i.e lust, greed, dishonesty, gossip, etc.) when he talks about presenting our bodies as a sacrifice, but that is not what Paul is referring to. Our sinful desires and our carnal natures were crucified with Christ when He went to the cross. Christ’s blood has already washed us and freed us from these things. Obviously we should be stopping our sinful actions, Paul even shows us in Galatians 4:9 how foolish it is to continue sinning after being set free,

“But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?” 

Why would you want to stay bound to those sinful desires after Christ paid the price for you to be set free? When it comes down to it, giving up sin is not even a true sacrifice. Why would we call it a sacrifice to give up our bondage and accept the freedom that has been offered us? That's like saying a prisoner is sacrificing when he is set free and decides to reenter society. True there are at times difficulties at that point but it isn't a sacrifice. But even if you did consider it a sacrifice to give up our sinful desires, this could never be the sacrifice that Paul is referring to here. Paul is referring to a sacrifice that is "holy, acceptable to God", sin can never be considered holy.

So if Paul is not talking about us sacrificing our carnal nature then what is he referring to? Again, Paul states that the sacrifice should be “holy, acceptable to God” and a quick look in Leviticus makes it clear what the parameters were for an ‘acceptable’ sacrifice. There were many types of sacrifices in Old Testament times but one thing that was always common to the sacrifices is that they were to be without blemish, perfect in every way (Lev. 1:3; 22:19). Understanding that, we can understand why our sinful nature would never be a sacrifice that would be acceptable to God. In fact in Leviticus God commands that the unacceptable parts of the sacrifice should be separated and burned outside of the camp, then the rest was presented to God. Translating that into our own lives, we should be separating the sinful nature and allowing it to be consumed by God’s holy fire, then we should present the rest of us as a sacrifice to Him. We should be presenting everything that is good about us to Him. Every talent, skill, personality trait, anything that people may compliment us on should be what we present to Him as our holy sacrifice. We should be putting these things on the Lord’s altar and saying “use them as you will.”

Often we think that we need to lay our problems and our weaknesses at His feet, but really what we should presenting to His throne is our strengths. God has asked for our best parts, our areas of strength and our talents. He’s the one who gave us those things so it is only fitting that they should be used for His glory. Not only that but He will lead us into how to use those things most effectively. Since He is our creator He knows the best way to utilize our strengths and talents. He has the best plan for our lives. So present your whole self, made righteous through Christ’s sacrifice, to God. This is a sacrifice that God will see as holy and acceptable, and this is your reasonable service.

Do Not Withhold Good, No Excuses!

"Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in the power of your hand to do so." - Proverbs 3:27

This scripture stood out to me when I was reading this chapter. It made me think if there are any times that I withhold good when I have the power to give it. Sometimes we think that as long as we don't do anything to hurt someone or don't do anything bad then we are okay. Here in Proverbs it's not only about not doing something bad towards people but it's also wrong to withhold good.

I specifically started thinking about the people begging on the side of the road. How often do we drive by them and turn our heads when we have some extra change sitting in our car? I know all of the excuses:

They're going to spend it on booze, they're just cons trying to get money out of me, I don't have the time to stop. etc.

But we don't read "Do not withhold good from those it is due unless you can think of a good excuse against it". It simply tells us to not withhold good from those it is due. So the one thing that could be asked is: "who is it due?" You might be thinking, if they spend it on booze doesn't that mean it's not due to them? But let me turn the question around.

Who did Jesus decide good was due to?

Did Jesus pick anybody out and say, "Well you are not going to use my grace for what it's intended so I'm not going to give it to you"? If He didn't, then what gives us that right? Jesus actually knew exactly who would use His grace correctly and who would abuse it and He offered it to all regardless. We think we know how someone is going to use our money and we decide we have the right to withhold it. To me there is something wrong with that picture. As Christians we are to strive to be Christ-like. If Christ didn't make excuses in His generosity then I don't feel we Christians should either.

To Ban or Not to Ban

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/219767/parents-call-cops-on-teen-for-giving-away-banned-book-it-backfires-predictably/

One of my former English teachers posted the above link regarding a student in Idaho who organized the distribution of a book that parents had succeeded in getting the school to ban. Before I go on I will admit that I have not read this book and I really have no idea what the book is about. All I know is what the article states regarding the situation. However I had some thoughts that I wanted to share.

First of all this story seems to be one that repeats itself across generations. Whenever a new book is written directed towards youth the Christian community tends to decide that something is wrong with and organize a protest against it. Harry Potter was too magical, Twilight had vampires, and now this book, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie, apparently has too much sexual information in it. This type of attitude doesn't just stick to literature. Christian parents are known for protesting against sexual education classes, evolution in science classes, and several other things throughout the school system.

To be clear, I do believe that protesting has it's place and there are things that it might be better to shelter our kids from, however I would like to present an alternate idea. In this particular incident these Christian parents gathered together and protested enough to get the school to ban this book from their curriculum. Most, if not all, of the parents probably have not read this book themselves. They probably just heard from another parent, who probably hadn't read the book, about what was in it. So instead of taking the time to find out what their kids were interested in and jumping in on a perfect teaching moment, they went past their kids and got the school to ban it.

In my opinion this type of attitude is not helping raise our kids with moral judgement. While we may be able to successfully shelter our teens up until the day they move out, sooner or later they will move outside of that shelter. Sooner or later they will be confronted with those very issues. In this case, there were apparently sexual issues brought up in this book. These issues are not going to go away because you get the book banned. Our kids need us as parents to be willing to approach these difficult issues with them and discuss them.

My suggestion to the parents in Idaho: Read the book! Then discuss it with your child. If you disagree with something discuss why you disagree, ask your child their opinion, get the issue out in the open. This will provide them with an opportunity to learn how to process information with a moral compass rather then leave them defenseless when you are not around.