As Christians, we are called to be sacrifices. Our lives are to move in the direction of imitating Christ as we value Him over the world more and more each day. This is an important aspect of our faith, but is one that most Christians don’t really understand. I won’t try to tell you that I have mastered this aspect of Christianity, but I want to learn. I want to have the mind of Christ, so that I may love the things He loves and hate the things He hates.
Much of the Christian life is mistaken for a list of rules. Do this, don’t do that. Yes, there are expectations placed upon us by God, but these never have been able to find us acceptable in the eyes of God. And as we sense this, we will often go the extra mile in an attempt to be even more stringent than the law would command. In doing so, we undermine the power of the gospel as we work to attain that which is a gift freely offered, and received through a great price that we do not pay.
Romans 12:1
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
I present this verse as an example. It is easy for us to look at this verse in light of the command to pick up our own cross and to follow Christ. Yes, we are called to suffer in a world that is not our own. Yes, we can rest assured that the world will hate us all the more as we live according to grace. But how is obeying the law of God or the rules imposed by man supposed to save us?
Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
It is quite clear that no set of rules can save, nor can they sanctify. This is wholly the work of God from beginning to end. Thus, we must resist the fleshly urge to find the favor of God in the works of our hands lest we reduce the gospel and hide its power. So what does it mean to be a living sacrifice? I believe that this verse is only understood when you look at the law that was given to Moses.
In the law, there are many occasions where a sacrifice is made. There are sacrifices of blood, signifying the blood of Christ that secured the forgiveness of sins and also pointing back to the Abrahamic covenant. God walked between animals that were cut in two, signifying the end that would come of Him if He failed to meet His covenant. It was a bloody ritual of grace that God walked alone between the halves. This covenantal promise was not broken by God, nor does man have any part in the promise of this covenant to break. But man has sinned and in the sacrificial system, the gospel is given to the people as they see a substitute die for their sin.
There are also bloodless sacrifices of gratitude. Oil and grain are both poured out as two examples. These are sacrifices that do not atone for sin and do not point to the work of Christ on the cross. Rather, they point toward the gratitude we are to have for the burden that is no longer ours to carry. I think especially to the living sacrifice of a goat. This is a sacrifice that reveals the freedom we have from the wrath of God and the guilt of our conscience, as both of these have been placed upon our perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ.
“Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.
One goat bore the sin. The other was freed. Jesus is signified in the goat that was killed for transgressions. We are signified in the goat that was freed from all forms of captivity. Either goat could have been killed in this transaction, but God chose one to live and one to die through the casting of lots. The law of God will force us to look away from ourselves and to Christ as we see that we have broken His standard and have no recourse to call our own. It will also encourage us to remain forever grateful as we see foreshadows of what has been accomplished on our behalf.
I urge you to meditate on this passage today. You are that living sacrifice. You have been released from the penalty of death and have no duty to atone for the sins of yourself or anyone else. You are free! Free to live your life in gratitude to the one who freed you. Free to resist the snares of Satan. Free to be human again. If you have not experienced the freedom of salvation, I beg you to turn to Jesus as your only acceptable substitute. If you are in Christ, I beg you to throw yourself upon His mercy each morning and live.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
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Such things need to be said often. Thanks.