Your Body - A Living Sacrifice
Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice—holy and pleasing to God—which is your appropriate worship. (Romans 12:1)
When we think of how God wants us to treat our bodies, we often look to what Paul told the Corinthians in his first letter to them. He told them that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. While that is a great picture of our bodies, as a sacred place that we want to keep sacred, I think that Paul also paints us a fantastic picture of how we should view our bodies here in Romans.
Your body is a living sacrifice to God. The Old Testament sacrifices were to be without blemish or spot. They were supposed to be the best of the flock or the herd. They were to be pure and blameless. Paul tells us that that is what our bodies are supposed to be.
I don’t know about you, but I know that I have scars on my body. My body isn’t the best of the flock or the herd. I often look at my body and see that extra weight that I should lose. I see all those blemishes that I wish would go away. And those are only the things that I see. There are also my sins, the things that make my body filthy and bring shame on me whether I know it or not.
Still, Paul tells us to offer our bodies to God as living sacrifices. Even though I still bear the scars of stupid things I’ve done, and all the things that I wish would change on my body, God has made me pure and holy. He has made me without blemish or spot in his sight. Through Jesus’ blood, he has cleansed me and taken my sins away. They no longer bring shame on me. And on the Last Day, when he raises me and takes me to be with him, I will be transformed to look that way forever. I will be perfect and holy. And so will you. Praise God for that, and live as though your body was holy and pleasing to God because it is! Amen.
Our song for today is “Living Sacrifice” by Chris Christian