New Year Presentation

Scripture: Romans 12:1-2 | 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.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Have you ever been to one of the high priced restaurants where they serve art rather than food?  Maybe you’ve noticed what I’ve noticed about the food.  It’s not just about the taste; it’s also about the presentation. As we prepare to present ourselves to God in the New Year, I wonder what kind of presentation will we offer?  Will we take the time to prepare ourselves properly and offer to God our very best?  Our passage this morning states that we are “to present” ourselves to God.  It’s a call, exhortation or an encouragement to make oneself available or to present oneself to God.

The call God is issuing in this verse is an exhortation based completely on the merits of the Gospel and targets those who have placed their faith and trust in Christ.  This verse builds on the Old Testament metaphor used in the sacrificial system of worship.  Believers are being exhorted to make a decisive commitment of themselves as worshipers stepping forward to place their offering on the altar of sacrifice.  Rather than placing a live animal that was slaughtered for the atonement of sin, they are to present themselves alive on the altar of sacrifice.  The living sacrifice represents the giving of one’s own life without reservation, restriction or resistance.  This is an act of complete and unrestrictive resolve of surrender and self-sacrifice.  It’s the greatest act of worship a believer could offer unto God.  When offered correctly; it’s holy and pleasing unto God.

If God exhorts all believers to present themselves daily as living sacrifices, then why does He mention our body?  Because the believer’s body already belongs to God through salvation in our inner man, it’s the believer’s outer man that God wants us to continually yield to Him.  Our bodies are more than just a physical shell that houses our soul and the Spirit of Christ.  Our bodies also incorporate our unredeemed humanness, which incorporates our flesh, and our flesh incorporates our sin (Rom. 6-7).  Because our bodies incorporate the sinful cravings of our mind, emotions and will, it serves as the springboard that propels us to more sin.  It’s this force and influence within our mortal bodies tempting us toward sin that must to be placed on the altar each and every day.  The only way we can resist and reject the impulses and cravings of the flesh averting sinful thoughts, desires and acts; is to place oneself on the sacrificial altar.  Failing to accomplish this exhortation would not only result in our bodies reverting back to being instruments of sin and unrighteousness, we would have no possibility of being holy or pleasing to God.  The only way to avoid the lure and entrapment of these impulses of the flesh is to present our unredeemed bodies to God as living sacrifices submitting them to His complete control.

Our commitment to Christ involves a voluntary act of bringing ourselves to the altar as a living sacrifice and committing our totality to God.  We are laying ourselves upon the altar, dying to ourselves and laying aside all claims me might have over our lives.  When a sacrifice was presented to God in the Old Covenant it was presented alive but in the act of worship it was killed.  The Lamb of God was sacrificed in our place on the altar of Calvary nearly two thousand years ago and died in our place.  Now we offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices on the altar of worship.  We present ourselves to God as living sacrifices committing, offering, and presenting ourselves to God in every single aspect of our lives committed to live daily for Him and His glory.

LIFE APP:

1. God calls us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices
2. God’ call is to offer my unredeemed self – dying to it’s impulses
3. God’s call is to be complete, offering every part of myself to Him

PRAY:

1. I affirm your sovereign claim over my life as YOUR child
2. I willingly lay my all before you right now and forever
3. I openly confess the areas of my life that are not under YOUR control
4. I repent of my neglect, resistance, rebellion and sin
5. Strengthen my resolve to surrender my all to YOU

~ by docboz on 01/01/2012.