Romans 12:1 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.
A simple bullet point view of this verse is do what God wants even though it might be uncomfortable. YAY, we're effecting the Kingdom. I am happy to say that it goes deeper than that. First we have to ask ourselves some questions.
First: Who wrote the book of Romans?
Second: What was their job?
Third: Where would they get a view of a "holy acceptable to God" sacrifice?
The answer to the first question is the Apostle Paul. A former Pharisee that was converted by Christ Himself while Paul was going to Damascus to go Christian hunting. Seems like pretty simple answer, but I'm finding more and more people are unaware of any of the just mentioned facts. The conversion of Saul can be found in Acts chapter 9.
Second Question: Saul was a Pharisee (Phillipians 3:4-6) before his conversion and therefore a rabbi. Now rabbis had to basically memorize the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) by the time they were about 12 years old. The description of an acceptable sacrifice is found in the Law book known as Leviticus.
Third question is already answered. Paul would have known very well what an acceptable sacrifice is according to the law. He memorized it before he started growing facial hair!
What the Torah says about the way a sacrifice must be is first of all perfect; then it has to have its head cut off, its legs cut off and its inner parts cleaned. For the first requirement, Colossians 1:21-22 "And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight" I think its safe to say that we can be considered perfect before God because of the shedding of the blood of Jesus. Now, dont get our your guillotines just yet. Hebrew people, like Paul, thought function not form. "What do you mean?" Glad you asked. Paul didnt want us to chop off each other's heads. What is the "head of household" responsible for. Being the authority figure, right? Ephesians 4:15 "may grow up in all things into Christ who is the head". We are no longer operating under only our own authority but Christ's. His ways are much higher than mine and a million times better. Trust me, I tried it the other way and it didn't work.
The next requirement is for the sacrifice to have it's legs cut off. What do you use your legs to do? Walk or go on your way. John 14:6, Jesus says that He is the Way. If we are to be servants of Christ we have to go His way and be people lovers the WAY that he was. He was kind to everyone. He forgave, healed, and taught anyone that had the desire to listen to what He had to say.
Lastly, we have the cleaning of the inner parts by the High Priest. The Priest had to clean the inner parts of the sacrifice to get the waste and stuff out to keep the sacrifice able to be used. At least 15 times just in the book of Hebrews, Jesus is referred to as our High Priest. We accept His price that was paid on the cross, accept His way, submit to His authority, and He cleans us up and sets us up as an example of what God looks like to the world. He is a gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love God that held back no expense to reconcile everyone back to Himself.
Lets be that sacrifice. Dont make it all about heaven and hell. Make it about bringing heaven to someone's life whether they deserve it or not. Seek God and LOVE ONE ANOTHER!!! That is the way of Christ.
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