What Does It Mean To Be a Living Sacrifice?
A friend asked me this question recently. To be forced to think about the scriptures one knows so well is a huge blessing.
Romans 12:1 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. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Actually, I believe the answers are all contained within the scripture!
I beseech you therefore….. In other words, in the light of the great doctrines I have unfolded to you to this point and my telling you of Israel’s future, (Romans Chapters 1-11), in the light of all this, I beseech you to present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Two questions arise from that – how are we to do it, and what does it mean to do it?
Firstly, how do we do it? We are to do it by the mercies of God. Once again we are told how helpless we are apart from Him. But now we are equipped. By His mercies we each have (the brethren) the Holy Spirit and indeed the Godhead, indwelling each of us. We have a powerhouse within. So that’s how we do it, coupled with obedience to the instruction, or rather willing submission to the earnest beseeching.
What does it mean to be a living sacrifice? Note that it is a living sacrifice. Most sacrifices in the biblical sense involve death. We often trivialise the word but it has profound meaning. We are to be living sacrifices. We are dead to sin and alive to Christ, so we must behave like it. That is the sacrifice. We are to sacrifice our bodies, those casings of sin in which we are trapped, by subordinating them as a matter of love for God, obedience, discipline, and constant repentance against the wilful (mis)leading of the flesh. Instead we are to recognise what God says about us who are in Christ, submitting wholly to Him, and that, in some way I don’t understand, makes the action holy as well as acceptable to God.
Paul now gives further instruction on how to do it. We are to renew our minds. We must be soaked in the scriptures so the Holy Spirit is able to guide us by then from within, so that they bubble forth causing us to behave aright. This is so important because most scriptural instructions about behaviour are counterintuitive to the flesh.
Luke 6: But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. 29 To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. 31 And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.
32 “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. 36 Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
37 “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
These are not actions or reactions that come naturally to man, so they have to come supernaturally. Faced with such situations we need renewed minds, minds renewed to think like God thinks, so that we do what He says rather than what the flesh urges and the unrenewed mind reasons. Being saved is enough to get us to heaven, but it is clear the Lord expects high standards from His children, and quite right too. This is partly what James is referring to also in that scripture that troubles so many.
James 2:18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
Our behaviour must no longer be conformed to the worldly ways but we must step out under a new code. We must not just sit back in the secure knowledge of our eternal security, but we are to demonstrate the ways of the Kingdom on earth, ways which are in such contrast to the world.
In doing this we prove to ourselves (not to God!) the perfection of His ways. That in turn builds us and encourages us. It also one step more on the path of sanctification.
Amen.
The Apple of God’s Eye
I posted this a while ago on Facebook and am now copying it here.
Today I learned something about the “apple of God’s eye”. This is another fine example of coloquial Hebrew being translated into coloquial English and thereby missing the depth of meaning and beauty contained in the original language.
First read these scriptures.
Deut 32:He found him (in context – Israel) in a desert land
And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;
He encircled him, He instructed him,
He kept him as the apple of His eye.
Psalm 17:8 Keep me as the apple of Your eye;
Hide me under the shadow of Your wings,
9 From the wicked who oppress me,
From my deadly enemies who surround me.
Proverbs 7:2 Keep my commands and live,
And my law as the apple of your eye.
Zechariah 2:8 For thus says the Lord of hosts: “He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.
Now let me tell you that a better translation than “the apple of His eye” is “the reflection in His eye” . Think about that. This is idiomatic Hebrew but the meaning is deep. To be a reflection in someone’s eye you need to be up very close. Try it on a loved one! Really close! Probably at the point where it is almost too difficult to focus! That’s how close the Lord is to His people. They are the reflection in His eye. And it also implies how He wants us to be equally close to Him; so close we can each see our reflections in His eyes.
Now read the scriptures again.
The Folly of Lordship Salvation
I can’t really improve on this article. It is superb.
http://www.bibleprophecyblog.com/2011/03/what-is-wrong-with-lordship-salvation.html
Who Am I?
This teaching is powerful. If you want some light thrown on what appears to be an exponential growth in homosexuality and transgender activity in our time, then please watch this video.
It is also worth remembering as you watch it that sexual sin is the ONLY sin that is directed against our own bodies. That point is germaine to this whole understanding.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
With that in mind please watch Pastor David Measures, whom I know personally and can vouch for, as he unfolds his persuasive argument to bring understanding to the church.
The Power of The Blood of Jesus
This short article I wrote for publication in the September 2017 edition of the Revelation TV Magazine.
The Power of The Blood of Christ
The Blood of Christ is so powerful, so wonderful, and so utterly complete that nothing, absolutely nothing, can undermine its effect or its efficacy. You were bought with a price, if you belong to Christ – 1 Peter 1:18-19 ….”knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
The price of the blood cannot be outbid. The louder the devil’s shout accusing you before God, telling Him (and you) how unworthy you are, the higher the price goes. Romans 5:20 …. “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, …” there is nothing you can do, no sin you can commit, which the blood of Christ cannot and does not cover. What then? Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not …… though we will, but not without feelings of wretchedness. That’s how you know you are saved, by how you feel about your sin, not by whether or not you sin. There is nothing cheap about such Grace.
What a glorious Saviour. What an unfathomable God. What Love! This is what He meant by His cry from the cross, “It is finished!” It IS finished, once and for all, and you have been united to Him in indestructible union, if you are His.
Walking in the Power of God
Now here are some thoughts for the day! This is the record of an exchange with my dear friend and brother in Christ, David.
- Imagine if we did pray without ceasing.
- Imagine if we did give thanks in all things.
- Imagine if we did study regularly and often to show ourselves approved of God.
- Imagine if in between all this we sang psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
- Imagine if we truly rejoiced in the Lord from waking moment to waking moment.
- Imagine if we were always like the Bereans, checking and double checking everything from the scriptures that we might be sure these things are so.
- Imagine if we were properly renewed in the spirit of our minds.
- Imagine we regularly built ourselves up by praying in the Holy Spirit.
- Imagine that we banished every evil and wicked thought and thought only on those things which were pure and lovely, admirable and praiseworthy.
- Imagine we submitted to God and resisted the devil 24/7.
- Imagine that we gave ourselves to understanding to the greatest degree humanly possible what it means to have weapons of warfare that are not carnal but mighty in God for …..
- Imagine what it really means to understand and walk in newness of life.
- Imagine what it really might mean to have abundant life, not in eternity, but in the here and now.
- Imagine if we prayed and fasted more as the disciples all did in the Book of Acts.
Are the Gifts For Today?
So much controversy surrounds the practice of gifts since the days of the apostles. So many clever men argue in favour of cessation but they argue out of their intellects unsupported by the word of God anywhere.
See what the church fathers say on this subject.
Justin Martyr (100-165): “For the prophetical gifts remain with us even to the present time. Now it is possible to see among us women and men who possess gifts of the Spirit of God.”
Irenaeus (125-200): “In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the church who possess prophetic gifts and through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages. … Yes, moreover, as I have said, the dead even have been raised up, and remained among us for many years.”
Tertullian (150-240): “For seeing that we too acknowledge the spiritual charismata, or gifts, we too have merited the attainment of the prophetic gift … and heaven knows how many distinguished men, to say nothing of the common people, have been cured either of devils or of their sicknesses.”
Novation (210-280): “This is he [the Holy Spirit] who places prophets in the church, instructs teachers, directs tongues, gives powers and healings, does wonderful works … and arranges whatever gifts there are of the charismata; and thus making the Lord’s church everywhere, and in all, perfected and completed.”
Origen (185-284): “Some give evidence of their having received through this faith a marvelous power by the cures which they perform, invoking no other name over those who need their help than that of the God of all things, along with Jesus and a mention of his history.”
Augustine (354-430): In his work The City of God, Augustine tells of healings and miracles that he has observed firsthand and then says, “I am so pressed by the promise of finishing this work that I cannot record all the miracles I know.”
