Romans 12:1 New King James Version (NKJV)
Living Sacrifices to God
Romans 12:1
12 I beseech[a] you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your [b]reasonable service.
Romans 12:2 New King James Version (NKJV)
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.
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WHY GOD WANTS US AS A LIVING SACRIFICE
The Bible says that God called us out of this world. He adopted us to receive his life, to replace the corruption’s in our life. But He asks us to present our bodies a living sacrifice. He wants to change our life, but we have to consciously be giving our body to Him at all times in any situation. This is a practice we must learn. But it is a practice we oftentimes fail. But God is merciful and patient. This is a reasonable service to God since He paid for us to become His children with the payment of blood from His only Son, Jesus.
God wills to work in us to do of His good pleasure.
for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
His pleasure is to affect and change the way we think [this is the definition of repentance {to change our mind}] By convincing our mind to think the way He does alters the way we feel. His peace, love, joy, kindness, patience, long-suffering permeates the soul. Then all this moves upon our will; our power of choosing. We choose to exercise self-control. We choose to please Him in what He says to us from His Word [the Bible]. God’s inner influence plants a new personality that feels whole, purposeful, and full of life. All of this is God working His enjoyment in us. It is His pleasure to make us like Himself.
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
We need transformation to become like Jesus that requires constant surrendering everything to Him in order to get His Truth on whatever matter at hand. That might be how we dress, what we watch or listen to, relationships, job performance, what we believe, even our opinions.
BE TRANSFORMED
Note in verse 2 the responsibility for transformation to take place first lies with us. God does the work, but we have to offer ourselves, by way of surrender/sacrifice, for His to transform us.
Work is required. Simply going to church or to a Bible study group is a very small part to affect transformation. It requires inward conscious, heartfelt choosing to give ourselves to God in a number of ways: a sincere transparent prayer life, a growing seeking spirit in Bible study, honest hard choices to surrender to God in difficult decisions, and the choosing to live God out of our lives in our daily life.
Transformation is inside then out. It does not begin by deciding to change our life outwardly. We can't do that by ourself. No matter how hard we try to live the Christian life, we need to understand that it is an inward spiritual relationship with God, through Jesus Christ. As we deepen that, we automatically choose how we use our body.
- It is a sacrifice to spend time with God.
- It is a sacrifice to tell God hidden secrets of our heart.
- It is a sacrifice to tell Him our sins.
- It is a sacrifice to say "not my will but thine be done." It is a sacrifice to surrender what we want or feel or think to know and do God's ways.
- It is a sacrifice to apologize to someone
- It is a sacrifice to refuse a temptation
- It is a sacrifice to say, "God I cannot ____, please help me do what I cannot do."
Transformation comes from perfecting the life of sacrificing to God. This demands our trust and builds our faith.
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