Read Romans 12.
Romans 11 ended with a praise poem to God’s mercy. Today, Romans 12:1 began by calling us to act differently “in view of God’s mercy.”
Because God has called us and given us new life and the gift of faith, God’s word urges believers “to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.” That means serving God with your life by making moral choices that please him (v. 1b-2: “holy and pleasing to God…”) and living a life of service to others based on the gift God gave you (vv. 3-8). It means loving God’s people in real ways (vv. 9-13) and being kind and loving to our enemies (vv. 14-21).
I want to focus on that phrase, “living sacrifices” in verse 1. Up to and including Jesus, sacrifices were dead; they were living things killed to be offered to God on behalf of someone else. Christ gave himself as the ultimate (and only truly meaningful) sacrifice. He was the final dead sacrifice that God wanted as his death made atonement for us. Then, raised to life, he gives life to all who come to him in faith.
Now, God does not want your dead body or for us to bring him dead bodies in worship. Instead, he wants believers to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.” To do that, we continue to live in this world, but the things we do with our lives, our human bodies, we do in worship to him. The ways that we spend our time, the things we say and do, our service to each other and our kindness to those who are unkind to us all grow out of the fact that we are God’s and want to worship him with our lives.
Imagine that each morning when you rise from your bed, you thought about this verse and made a decision to worship God with your body, your life, that day. What would change about your daily schedule, your thinking towards other people, what is important to you, how you use your money? Would it change the way you eat or how you spend your free time? Would you find greater joy in life because you’ve surrendered control and quit worrying about things?
Try it today; maybe even write “Rom 12:1” or “living sacrifice” on your right hand to remind you.
