Are you living your life as a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1)? It is what God commands us to do, but how many of us understand what this means, much less are doing it? Jesus gave His life for us, a perfect sinless sacrifice for every sin we have ever or will ever commit. His death was the sacrifice needed to assuage God’s wrath over our sins (Isaiah 53:5-6; 1 John 2:2; Romans 5:8-9).
His sacrifice became the model for how each of us is to conduct their lives (1 Peter 2:21; Ephesians 5:1-2). We aren’t perfect and never will be. At the same time, we are called to be holy, just as He is holy (Leviticus 11:45; 1 Peter 1:15-16). There aren’t some commands of God that we can take seriously and others we can disregard. If we love Him, we will keep all His commands (John 14:15; 1 John 2:3-6).
Paul tells us by presenting our lives as a living sacrifice, we will be holy and pleasing to God (Romans 12:1). So, if we want to be holy as He is holy, we will present our lives as a living sacrifice. A sacrifice requires death, so we must forfeit our lives for the sake of Christ (Matthew 16:24-25). We must put to death all that we were before or aspire to become in this life (Colossians 3:5-10). It’s all got to go. Nothing survives the grave, so kill everything that does not bring glory to God (Galatians 5:24). We die to our desires so we might live for the glory of God (Galatians 2:19-20; Philippians 1:21).
We must consider everything about our old dreams, passions, and pursuits to be utter garbage in comparison to surrendering our lives to Jesus (Philippians 3:7-8). This is how we begin to be holy like Christ. When we live this way, it is an expression of our worship of God (Romans 12:1). The point of our lives is to worship and bring glory to our Savior, Creator, and King (1 Corinthians 10:31). When we surrender everything to the Lord, it is an act of worship toward Him (John 4:23-24; Hebrews 13:15). It is the beginning of a holy life (2 Corinthians 7:1; 1 Thessalonians 4:7).
Perhaps you are still a little fuzzy about how this looks in your day-to-day life. The very next verse makes it clear: “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (Romans 12:2). Paul writes if we do this, we will understand God’s will. God wants us to be holy. He desires us to worship Him. We do this by rejecting the call of the culture to accept, affirm, and join in its sinful ways (Ephesians 5:11; 1 John 2:15-17). Instead, we devote ourselves to obtaining the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5).
To live as a living sacrifice, we must turn away from the world and its ways, and turn toward our God and Savior (James 4:4, 8; Colossians 3:1-2). We repent of our old way of living and commit to living and walking in the Spirit of God for the rest of our lives (Galatians 5:16, 25; Romans 8:5-6). Don’t lament over the things you will have to give up. It’s all going to spoil, wear out, rot, decay, and pass away anyway (Matthew 6:19-20; 2 Peter 3:10-11).
Only what we do for Jesus will remain in the end (1 Corinthians 3:12-14; 2 Corinthians 5:10). His sacrifice made the way for us to live (Hebrews 10:19-23). Our sacrifice is to acknowledge we are dead without Him and live every moment in worship and obedience to Him (Ephesians 2:1-5; Luke 9:62; Colossians 3:17). From this moment, choose to live as a living sacrifice to the One who gave everything for you.