Title: Worship of Living Sacrifice/Romans 12:1~2
Content: Worship offered as a living sacrifice/Romans 12:1~2
'… Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God... ' (Romans 12:1-2)
The history of the Bible is called 'the history of redemption'. This is because the history of the Bible is also the history of sacrifice for redemption. The 'dead sacrifice', the sacrifice of animal blood that began after Adam's sin, is the mainstay of Old Testament history. A 'living sacrifice' is a sacrifice offered to God by the saints after the cross, not as animal sacrifices, but as body sacrifices.
What, then, is thanksgiving for living sacrifices?
It is an appreciation of God's mercy and giving thanks. Verse 1 says, “Therefore, brethren, I beseech you by the mercies of God.”
You must first understand the logical consequence of 'therefore'. Romans chapters 1-11 deal with the problem of "how we should believe", and chapters 12-16 deal with the problem of "how we should act."
Therefore, the text means that the saints who have been justified from sin through Christ are now saved, therefore, live as saints.
There are 4 ways to be grateful. Worship with words, worship with material, worship with the heart, and worship with the body. The fact that the body has the mouth, the body contains the soul, and that there is no one to change the body and matter shows that the level of giving the body is the highest level of worship.
Let us offer our redeemed body, our flesh, purchased with the blood of Christ as a sacrifice to God. Let's give our whole life to God. The method is to beat the body daily and submit it to Christ (1 Corinthians 9:27), to make it a spiritual body that glorifies God (1 Corinthians 6:20), and to live the body as a sacrificial treasure (Hebrews 10) ). :10). Worship that does not follow this kind of life is detestable before the Lord (Isaiah 1:11-13). Therefore, life should be worship. A life of upright faith is the worship of a living sacrifice.