His Ambassador Blog

For a few weeks I want to camp out in Romans 12. I think this portion of scripture is a great one to read and meditate on as we welcome in this New Year. The first two verses of Romans 12 read as follows:

‘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.’

These two verses have to do with both our minds and bodies. When Jesus does His work in our hearts it overflows into all areas of our lives. But much work has to be done to grow us in the ways that God is calling us to. There are many places in the bible that show us how we can better our hearts and that will come in the rest of this chapter. But I want to hone in on the mind and body.

What does it mean to present our bodies as living sacrifices? Paul reminds us in his letter to the Colossians that whatever we do we should do it as if we were doing so for the Lord. To present our bodies as a living sacrifice is to give ourselves completely to the Lord and His will for us. It is to lay down our own wants and needs and take on what God wills in our lives. This is an incredibly difficult thing to accomplish. Becoming a living sacrifice means putting others before ourselves, it means surrendering control of our lives to the Lord and letting Him lead us. Going out of our way to help someone, taking care of others, showing hospitality, and loving those who seem hard to love are all ways we can be a living sacrifice. But a living sacrifice is also honoring the Lord more than anything else, it is forsaking the idols that can creep into our lives, it is setting some of our wants and desires aside and seeking Him instead.

We are to present ourselves as holy and acceptable to God. We, on earth of course, will never be sinless. There will come times when we fall into the temptations of this world, for our flesh is weak. But when we are made pure by the blood of the lamb we are set free from the bondage of sin and we no longer have to live a lifestyle of sin. Instead, we can live a life of goodness, holiness, and peace with God. The Holy Spirit works in us to clean up the parts of our lives that are not in line with Him. We must allow the Holy Spirit to do this work so that we can grow as believers.

Why do we do all of this? Because of the mercies of God. The greatest gift we can ever receive is the salvation of Jesus. He bridges the gap between us and God so that we can live in peace with Him. He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. He brings us from death to life. He restores our soul. He brings blessings upon blessings to us. The Lord is so gracious in everything that He does. His ways are merciful and kind. The very least He deserves is our complete and total devotion to Him. He’s not asking us to do all these works or acts in order to gain His approval. We already have His approval if we are marked by the blood of the Lamb. We work, serve, and sacrifice because He has given us more than we deserve.

For us to be able to present ourselves as living sacrifices it is crucial that we follow the first step of verse 2. We cannot conform to this world. We cannot look like the world, talk like the world, or act like the world. The Bible says that once we have come into the light, once we have asked Jesus to save our souls we are no longer children of darkness. When we were of the world, we acted like it. But since we are no longer of the world, but of Heaven, we must live like our Savior did. To do this we have to be in the Word. We have to know what Jesus said, how he acted and reacted, where He went, and who He went with. It’s not only important to have knowledge of the Word, but we must write His words on our hearts. It must be active in our lives. The Bible is the living word, it is still changing hearts. Reading His word and yielding to the work of the Holy Spirit will lead to a renewing of our minds.

We must keep our minds sharp and there are two main reasons for this that I want to bring to light. The first reason being that the enemy is wicked good at mind games. He uses certain political powers, social movements, and manipulation tactics to get you distracted from God and the work of the Kingdom. The Word refers to Satan as a roaring lion who prowls around, seeking who he wants to devour. If we are not sharp and we are not alert, we can easily fall into his schemes and not even see it coming. The second reason we should keep our mind sharp through prayer and the Word of God is because this renewing helps to keep us aware of the growth still needed in our lives and the things the Holy Spirit is convicting us of. This will lead to a more intimate relationship with Jesus.

This seems like a lot of work, and it is. But thankfully we don’t have to do it alone. In fact, we can’t do it alone. Transformation like this cannot come from anything we do, but from the power of the Spirit. It is not human nature to sacrifice everything that we want and desire. It is not human nature to deny ourselves. It is not human nature to care for others more than we care for ourselves. We need the Spirit and it is never too late to let Him work. Let this year be a year of sacrifice to God, transforming, and renewing.