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You’ve probably heard lots of sermons on Romans 12:1-2, where we are told to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. Does that mean check into a monastery, walk on hot coals, throw ourselves to the lions? We want to get a biblical view of what it means to present your body as a living sacrifice.
This sacrifice is a living one, not dead. That’s encouraging. Presenting our bodies does not imply some physical death or bodily punishment. But what does it mean?
Well, we read in Romans 6:19b: Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
Did you ever realize that you’ve been offering your body as a sacrifice all along? It’s true; we all do it throughout life. For example, when you relinquish your feet to go where sin takes you, to the wrong places, your feet are slaves to impurity and wickedness. When your tongue speaks words that hurt and harm, your hands to do things that are not pleasing to God, your eyes and ears see and hear the trash of this world, that’s what it means to sacrifice parts of your body to impurity. And we’ve all done it.
Some people sacrifice their bodies to meaningless and trivial things. While they might not be classified as evil, their hands and feet, eyes and ears, tongues and hearts are sacrificed to time-consuming activities that are largely insignificant.
But, as a child of God, you and I have the opportunity to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to bring glory to Jesus. Instead of using your body in acts of evil and triviality, you can, if you choose to, be a part of God’s eternal plan and have his power working through your body. Then your hands and eyes and feet and tongue—and all your other body parts—will be living sacrifices to God instead of to evil. And this leads to holiness in your life. Presenting your body as a living sacrifice begins to sound more like a privilege than a drudgery, doesn’t it?
But the question remains: How do you offer your body as a living sacrifice? I’ve found some practical ways of doing that on a daily basis that have made a difference in my life.