Read Romans 12:1-2

“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.” (Romans 12:1)

Coming off the heels of the fully preached Gospel of Jesus Christ and what it means to be an empowered Christian by the Holy Spirit, Paul now beseeches his listeners to act by faith! There is both a response and a responsibility for the Christian found in this verse.

First, we are commanded to present our bodies a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to God. I fear that many of us have become desensitized to the meaning of this statement. Too often we hear verses like these quoted to such an extreme, and without context, that we no longer feel it; our ears become dull to its unique command. Just as when someone pokes you in the same spot persistently our nerves begin to numb; and so too this verse has been used in many petty ways to poke at Christians.

But if we can reset and get back to its original meaning, we will find behind these words a truly happy command that is all about what God has already done — we must simply respond to it by faith.

“Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God…”

This concept of “sacrifice” is not new to Paul’s doctrine in Romans. Actually, throughout the whole letter Paul has been using this kind of terminology all along. While we only first see the phrase “living sacrifice” here, the teaching of it is throughout. Romans 12:1 simply summarizes it.

Since we have been born again in Christ, there is a dichotomy now found within us. On the one side, our bodies crave the passions of the sinful nature, and as such, are dead to God (see Romans 6:6; 7:24; 8:10); but on the other side, our bodies have been given new life by the Holy Spirit to do those things which are pleasing to God (see Romans 8:11). We must, therefore, put to death the deeds of our sinful bodies, and walk in the newness of life in the Spirit through our mortal bodies (see Romans 8:13-14). This is both to be dead and alive at the same time — dead to sin but alive to God — or more simply: a living sacrifice.

Keep in mind, then, to present our bodies a living sacrifice unto God is an act of faith, not of works. Paul does not say: “Become living sacrifices.” No — the whole doctrine of Romans is centered around how the Gospel has already made us alive to God and dead to sin. Why would Paul contradict himself by telling us to do something he already said we could not do ourselves? (see Romans 7).

We do not work to be a living sacrifice. We don’t become; we already are! And as such, we then by faith accept this truth by presenting ourselves as that which God has already completed in us. This, my friend, is the only holy and acceptable sacrifice to God. Only in this way is it a reasonable service. Thus, our response and our responsibility are one in the same.

How often has the Christian heard these words taught wrongly and thrown back into a works based relationship with God? — all because they were told they must rise up to the occasion of holiness and acceptability before God on their own accord? How quickly Satan slightly twists the words of God to bring down the Christian life! How cunning is the devil to advertise such noble words out of context, even from pulpits in our churches, in order to bind up God’s children. Let this remind us once and for all just how important context is.

Dear Christian, rest and find joy in this doctrinal fact that you are already alive to God in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Embrace it. Trust in it. Treat it like your most precious possession. For when you agree with God on this matter, you have indeed presented yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

“And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” (Romans 6:13)

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