A living Sacrifice
~ Rev B Chinkhengoupau
Key Passage: Romans 12:1-2
The book of Romans has been the longest letter the Apostle Paul had written constituting a systematic argument on salvation. A message of salvation has been based mostly on this book. The first 11 chapters describes about salvation where Chapter 1 to 3 talks about sin and sinful nature. Chapter 4 to 7 talks about the depravity of mankind and the way to salvation where chapter 8 gives an account of the peace received through Christ’s work. Going forward to chapter 10 & 11, Apostle Paul argues that there is salvation for the Jews as well.
However, the tone of his argument changes when we enter chapter 12. From here on, Paul deals about a different topic and that is “Practical Christian Living.” He put forward the way of practical Christian living in the following chapters, and Chapter 12 verse 1&2 serves as a bridge to the previous arguments he accounted till chapter 11 and the arguments proceeding from chapter 12 onwards. Thus, he used the word “Therefore….. to bridge the two distinct nature of his argument” King James version puts it this way, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God….” Here, Paul uses a plural form for the word “mercy” saying “by the mercies of God” stressing on the abundance, and the infinite nature of God’s mercy that has been poured out over and over to humankind through His son Jesus Christ. So, He goes on to say, ‘Now that we had been transformed by His mercies, and made new through the redemptive work of Christ even when we were in deep sin, the only logical service we can render back to God is to present our bodies as living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to Him. He purports, it is the only reasonable service which means regardless of our choices, we ought to surrender to our master who bought us with a price. Not only is this service for the elders, deacons or pastors, in fact we all are accounted for this reasonable service and are left with no options.
Now then, a sacrifice is often offered as dead. But Paul wrote ‘a living sacrifice.’ How is this possible? Simply put, we understand living sacrifice as a true and proper worship. But what did Paul intend?
- First of all, he purports that our bodies must be a sacrifice. Sacrifice here implies the total surrender rendered by a sacrificial lamb. A sacrificial lamb has no authority over itself, nor can it complain why, where and how it should be sacrificed. A sacrificial lamb is under complete control to the owner. Paul applies the meaning of sacrifice to a sense of complete surrender. That our bodies are no longer our own, and we ought to offer it to God and use it for God alone.
- Secondly, Paul uses “living.’ Why would Paul use the word living with sacrifice? Yes, living means alive and well, yet Paul here implies living to ‘our daily lives.’ Because, our daily lives outwardly manifest that we are living beings. So, as we live our life daily, we must offer our body to God. Be it our moments, our breath, our whereabouts as long as we are alive, the only offering every individual can render to God is our own body, nothing else. This alone is pleasing and acceptable to God.
In general, what then is a living sacrifice? What did Paul intend to teach us from the above? The apostle Paul did not come with new ideas but was reiterating Jesus’ teachings about practical living found in the gospel of Matthew chapter 5. The sermon on the mount is about daily living. Jesus’ teaching mostly dealt with practical living. Unfortunately, it did not focus on congregation, even though congregational worship is equally important, it was not the goal. Congregation should not be mistaken as a place for cleansing. On the contrary, Congregation is the outcome or a result of grateful believers living their daily lives with proper worship who come together to share and encourage one another. Then what does God wants us to know? What does the Lord require of us as a church in Delhi? I believe God is trying to tell us the importance of offering every moment of our daily lives from morning till bedtime, including even our dreams in our sleep. It means we must give our lives back to the right owner, the one who bought us with a great price, his blood. When we understand this, truly it will be a worship pleasing and acceptable to our Lord. So, I urge each one of us to render this only reasonable service to God and make it right with God today. If we are live right, our faith will grow into fruition and that will be a pleasing aroma for our Lord.
Now then, how can we practice Christian living? By following Jesus’ commandment. But what did Jesus command? The Gospel of John 13:34-35 says: “a new command I give you. Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”
When we hear about commandments, the 10 commandments given to Moses often grabs our attention. As a church, we give importance to the Mosaic law and at most try to adhere to it. However, the book of Romans tells us about how the law was added so that the trespass might increase, so that sinners know their condition. The law gives light to one’s sinful nature. Through the law we become conscious of sin. But as believers we are no longer under Law but under grace. What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live it any longer. For example, a woman whose husband died can no longer have her husband’s company. She cannot wake her husband up again. But she can remarry.
Likewise, if we are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus, we cannot let sin reign in our mortal body. Those who are alive with Christ have new command. The God who gave Moses the 10 commandments came down on earth and gave a new law to his followers. That new law is “to love one another as He has loved us” The new law is “love” Then the next follows, “by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” This is witnessing. Witnessing in obedience to the new law which is Love. I urge you all today, to rethink and reembody the new law in our lives once again. Indeed, righteousness, holiness, honesty, and obeying the different laws can make us content in our daily deeds nonetheless, our main steerer, or the energy that fuels the righteous act or deed in our day to day lives should be LOVE. Love should be the centrifugal force that operates the action we display daily. Those who understand the mercies of God, ought to love the Lord. And when this same love for God is manifested in our lives, then will our lives be a worship acceptable and pleasing to God. It doesn’t matter what you do, whether you are a civil servant, a clerk, an LDC, security guard, private employee etc. if you commit your ways to the Lord and trust in Him to direct your steps. To top it all if your activities are driven by that same love for God and others, that will be the highest form of witnessing.
How then can we start living? The next verse in Romans 12 reads, “do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.” A talk with my high school principal makes me aware of many youths earning double salary without physically present at their workplace. I kept pondering for quite some time wondering why. No wonder our Christianity has become so polished externally that although we call ourselves Christian, we aren’t deep rooted at all. Our issue is that we enjoy the system to the extent where it doesn’t encroach our comfort zone. We want God to stand in the gap and respond to our needs. Can we call such Christian a true believer in Christ. Probably not! Matthew 5 says, “those who say Lord, Lord, will not enter the kingdom of heaven. But only those who do the will of my father will enter the kingdom” To enter the kingdom of heaven has been described with the 10 virgins who went to meet the groom. Do remember all were wise, yet the wiser five have extra oil with them.
The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:45) Its foolishness from a human point of view. However, those who really found it go beyond human comprehension. Do we really find the kingdom of God? First of all we are scared of hell. Second, we got stuck at getting complacent and comfortable with the pleasure of this world. So, we care less to be in God’s kingdom.
Dear brothers and sisters, you don’t have to be called as God’s child to be successful. Being God’s child doesn’t guarantee success in all your endeavors. Even non-believers are successful. To be successful, you just have to work harder than anyone else. Success will be yours. Let not fear of hell, or fear of failure be a reason for your commitment. Rather, we should understand and know full well the sole reason is to be reconciled to our original father as we seek and find His kingdom. That too, not of our own effort, but only through Christ who provides us the only way back by His grace alone.
We all know we are under grace and not under judgement. We weren’t given any authority to judge our fellow struggling believer, except God the father. But if the great rapture happens, it would be devastating to see anyone left behind to still worship at this church. We love riches, we build and build, yet we must know our accumulated wealth will be left behind. You have heard about “Tuailai pro” movement within the church. While it propagates anti-corruption, there are many who abuse its message for their own vendetta. We can find many people who seeks righteousness yet not a believer. Will the Lord accepts their righteousness? Well not at all. Why wouldn’t He accept? because our genealogy has been wrong, our soul had been disconnected from its source of life. No amount of good deeds or honest perseverance say at workplace, at home and anywhere can make us worthy in God’s eyes. We are not propagating dishonesty here. It means the higher form of righteousness comes only through believing in Jesus and no one else. Let us make that commitment first. Let us step up to do what’s right, be present where God puts us. First and foremost, start out to do what you were called to do in obedience to God’s word. You may not fully understand at the moment, however, if you stand in obedience to what God says, then you will be a usable vessel for the Lord. You may be mocked, shamed and disturbed, but remember when you do God’s will, God will eventually raise you up. He will give you the contentment that no amount of money can buy. Believe me, the reason why we didn’t experience such contentment is because we never muster up enough courage to stand for when we are tested. How then can God show his ability? Let us take a leap of faith to enable God open door to be fully realized.
Next, we can show an acceptable worship pleasing to God from our relationship with our spouse. What did the Bible tell us? “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ love the church and gave himself up for her,” Ephesians 5:25 (NIV) the Bible gave us a degree and to what extent we must love our wives. That standard has already been set by Jesus. No matter how fat, how slim, how charming or how filthy she may become just like Hosea’s wife, it’s not about the beauty but a commitment and command to love them as Jesus love His church and gave His life for her.
On the other hand, wives also have a degree they should pertain to. “Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything”. Ephesians 5:22 (NIV) It’s a wives’ duty to submit no matter how smarter, more influential, or with a better pay you are, the Bible commands a submission. The new liberalism at our postmodern age do advocate women’s empowerment through feministic ideals and movement. Let us not make ourselves vulnerable to these new egalitarian movement and give in, fighting for a higher power within the family. Only in mutual humble submission to one another can we have proper worship acceptable to God.
How do we fare in our mutual relationship with our spouse or in our upbringing of our children? Do we give priority to their learning about science & technology while neglecting the basic ideas and foundation essential for the salvation of their souls? How we portray ourselves on Sundays alone wouldn’t please God. Rather, it is how we spend our Mondays to Saturdays that God evaluates whether we live in obedience to his word, and offer living sacrifices through our encounter with people around us at our workplace, at home, our family, our kids and with ourselves. Do you think God will be pleased with our offerings devoid of obedience to his word?
In addition to the above, let’s discuss one more principle very crucial to how we can please God in our daily living. That principle is “love”. Luke 14: 26 -27 says, “if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife, and children his brothers and sisters- yes, even his own life- he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
Then what is the question? Lots of people believe there are categories within discipleship, one is “disciple Christian” and the other “carnal Christian.” How is that possible? Brethren, when you believe in Jesus to be your lord and savior, tags aside, you are a Disciple, period!
But do we love Jesus if we are His disciple? What Jesus meant in the verse above is that we should love his first. Before loving our spouse, our family, and everything that matters to you, it is Jesus you must love first and foremost. Why- because it is He, who enables us to give love to others; it is He, who reconciles any relationship; it is He, who gives joy at our workplace. He is the glue to all our connections. That’s why He says, you must love me first, if not, you wouldn’t be able to follow me. DO we really love Jesus? Let us introspect and realize where we stand in our love for our Lord. Take for example among us, we often condemn and point fingers at those whom we see going to other temples as apostasy, he/she is wrong, drive them out. Nonetheless, we consciously as well as unconsciously worship idols in our everyday lives. Jesus said, “no servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” Luke 16:13 (NIV) Here, Jesus warns us about the love of money. He meant if we love money, we will not be able to love Him as we should.
Let us challenge ourselves with this question, “do I really love Jesus? Is this love I have for Him real?” Think through it once again.
The second point Jesus made is “anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” We often define ‘the cross’ as suffering, but there’s more to the cross than just suffering. So, apart from suffering, what does the cross mean? Let’s see what Jesus did before carrying his cross? He went to the garden of Gethsemane. The gospel of Mark described Jesus began to be distressed and deeply troubled. He said to his disciples, watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, He said to them, stay here and keep watch.” Then, Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him, “Abba, father he said everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet now what I will, but what you will.” Mark 14: 34-36 (NIV)
What does this tell us? The son of God is distressed. He cried out to His father who alone has the authority. He couldn’t bear the separation from His Father that He must face due to the weight of sin laid on him. How heavy and depressing would it be for the Father God to see His son in that situation!
What would you and I do if we see our son crying out the same way? But this is how the Father loved us, that He did not spare His son to die. Please know that the essential character of God’s was shaken. The triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who are in perfect unity before time began experience a disconnection due to the weight of sin laid on the Son. No wonder it was hard for Jesus knowing full well what it means to be separated from God the Father, he prayed “Father if possible take this cup away from me.” The character of God shook, the earth shook, it went dark, even the earth couldn’t bear it all because of God’s love for you and for me.
Nevertheless, Jesus still went on, “yet not my will but yours be done.” That’s his cross- the perfect obedience in complete surrender to God His Father. This same obedience is what Jesus meant when he says, “anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” The cross is completed because of obedience. Our cross will be completed as a result of complete obedience to the one who have His life for us. Perfect obedience it is. It is a command not a request. Only in perfect obedience can we experience the true meaning of love. If not, you will not be able to follow me wholeheartedly. How often do we defame and disgrace Jesus’ name because of our disobedience? Much has been done in the name of Jesus by those who claim to be Christians, for which there should be collective shame. So, Obedience is our cross. And we must carry obedience faithfully. If not, what good will you show to the people around you? Of course, the cross of obedience has its suffering, shame, mockery, and disagreement. Nonetheless, there is no absence of Joy amidst all the hardships and shame. There is peace and contentment you and I can find in our cross of obedience.
A song describes this same joy amidst suffering quite well, “Nangmah a hatna nei mite nun in a nuam uh, a lungsung ua Zion naihna lamlian om mite kiang, Kahna guam tung a tot un, tuikhuk omna mun a suak sak zel……………..”
Indeed, “who shall separate us from the love of Christ? as found in Romans chapter 8. There is joy in carrying our cross that the world couldn’t see. Take Peter and friends, no suffering could shut them up and stop them from proclaiming the good news. There were rather glad that they were qualified to be persecuted in the name of Jesus their Lord. That comes from their complete obedience.
The Cross is a cross of perfect obedience. It may sound illogical and defy human understanding. There are times we need to put logic aside and experience obedience, and that is living sacrifice acceptable to God. Let us carry and practice this cross of obedience in our families, workplace, and in our daily lives. This will become a higher platform for you to witness. It is even better than a pulpit. Perhaps, you may never get an opportunity to preach from a pulpit your whole life, remember your daily life is your pulpit. Your life story speaks louder, and it is a better witnessing platform. Your obedience and your life embedded in God’s will is a better testimony to those around you. Let us not be complacent in our walk with God and loss a soul every day. Let us accept him whose faith is weak without passing judgement with Love and grace. Give more grace to those who are stubborn at heart and love them anyway. This will be the best way to carry our cross, that is in complete obedience to God’s word.
To bring to a close, read Roman 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
It seems to me we often jump this verse ignoring its deep impact. A preacher in Shillong at Shillong Baptist Church once described about pattern of this world and their influence on us. He took an example from a living fish and a dead fish placed in a river. The dead fish since they were dead has no power over the river current, thus they will be swept whichever way the current takes them. However, the living fish can stay still within the current, they can move and swim against the current or allow themselves to swim along with the water current. This exactly fits a believer’s struggle with the world current. If you are a living believer, you can either make those choices against the worldly current. There will be times to oppose, time to go along and time to be still. Your values and principle should remain the same, not affected by the current of this world. The world will purport same sex marriage and prove them right via genetic studies. The word of God says its wrong so, our principle should stand by God’s word.
Often, our struggle as a people/community regarding principle or values perhaps could be due to our young history. Think about our roots, where we all started. Our forefathers were cavemen, and they didn’t have proper scripted language as such. We were backward and unknown. We should remember our literature has no guided principle for the betterment of society. There was no literature that I heard of that teaches about respect to parents. Some were about brothers named Thanghou and Liandou and their grandma with magical powers. What I am trying to point out here is that we do not have a rigid, and firm foundation where we can be firmly grounded.
Fortunately, the gospel reach our forefathers with little understanding, yet they keep on holding to what they found and brought us this far. However, without firm foundation and deep-rooted principle, the new generation fall prey to anything and everything we hear and see. Even in theological studies, those who enter reformed theological seminaries come out a reformed theologian. Seminaries do differ comparatively. What could be the reason? Why do we easily fall prey to such teachings and different theologies? Because we lack integrity as a community. The main reason for corruption and bribery in our town is our lack of integrity. Our integrity in the word of God should be our backbone in resisting the ways of this world. You and I must decide what values are right and wrong through God’s word and stick to that with integrity. We must realize that we can no longer conform to the pattern of this world and re-evaluate ourselves in what areas you and I are found wanting. Retrospect the practice that we bring in even to our churches due to our conformity with the world. Is God pleased with this one? Ask God and decide which one should go and which one should stay. Is it unworthy of worship? Is it pleasing to our Lord? Let’s make this decision as Paul exhorts in verse 2.
“But be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
He used the word, “transformed” which means “complete change.” It was then followed with a certainty over God’s perfect and pleasing will. After this transformation will come the knowledge for our life’s purpose. God assures us that we will be able to test and approve what God will is. As a civil servant, private employee, homemaker, we struggled to live a purpose driven life and indeed we do. However, the pre-cursor for a purpose driven life is renewing of our mind and a transformation. Let us ask ourselves, why we often misunderstand God’s will from others. Why can’t you tell with certainty that you are in God’s will? Because we by-pass transformation. Without transformation and renewing of our minds, even if God shows us His will, we will not have the strength and zeal to carry it out. Shouldn’t we be transformed so that the kingdom of God will flourish and expand? Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Can we call ourselves as believers and have secret misdeeds in the dark, under the table, at our workplace and be justified? Not as all, even if you come clean on this earth, God still see our hearts. The idols that we practice every day should be replaced with Jesus. A believer without Christ have no meaning and principle in life. Your Christianity is meaningless without Christ and there is no self-centered Christianity.
So, what do we need? We need spiritual food. That spiritual food is “the word of God.” Without God’s word there is no renewal. Renewal of the mind brings transformation, and renewal can happen only if we feed on God’s word, nothing else. God gave us His revelation through His word, and we are glad.
I was given a privilege to attend Asia Pacific Youth Conference in the Philippines recently. During the conference I met an Indonesian pastor and heard about China missions from Malaysian Chinese on our way back to Manila. They told us how China under communism has now allowed churches to be build. So, Chinese so called Christians build churches, and there are churches. But in those churches rather than a pastor a government employee is the boss. The govt. sent someone to oversee the church, and this employee gave his speech before the pastor. His speech will be about the Chinese government supremacy and that the people have to fear the government than God and the Bible. After him, then only is the pastor allowed to speak about God, that too already proofread by the communist government. so, churches were there but those churches that were overground are considered fake. SO much of compromise on many things. Although the church building stands the teachings were not grounded on the Bible and without Christ. Thus, underground churches grew even larger and they move from one house to the other. In case they were caught they serve 3 years in prison.
Although being warned and kept in prison for their belief, they couldn’t stop. There’s a wave of thirst in God’s word. They were imprisoned but least bothered. Once they are out of prison, they continued their underground churches. The Malaysian Chinese said they went there to trained others, saying they were to visit their relatives. There was no apprehension, no inhibition from them as they were not scared at all.
A Hawaiian pastor narrated about being there for a training. He asked what will happened if the govt caught you. They replied, they will imprison us for 3 years and you will be deported immediately. To his surprise, all of those who attended the meeting were already imprisoned before. As the fellowship continued, the Hawaiian Pastor ask anyone to read from the bible. An old lady stood up and recite the whole bible verses from memory. When asked how she did that, she told when she went to prison quite often and they smuggled in handwritten bible verses and started memorizing them as quickly as they can before they were caught. They said, they were accumulating their spiritual food during those years in prison. They do this to prepare if there comes a day when they will be left without any bible in their hands, they will survive with the memorized scriptures. It was said that even if all Bibles in China would have been burned the Chinese will have no problem in re-writing the scriptures.
Think about it, today we have the scriptures in different versions at home. Let us not take for granted the privilege we have in accessing the word of God with ease. We don’t know what can befall our nation. We often turn a blind eye to our freedom to worship and read his word with no restraint and did not realize this can end. If we do not understand, God can allow persecution to awaken us from our slumber, so let us hear God’s word while we are under his extended grace.
Jesus cried over Jerusalem saying, “how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” Luke 13:34 NIV
I believe God has been crying over our towns and our cities. We think we do alright, yet our principles were wrong. Think about what drives you? Isn’t it money, power, pride? Where is Jesus? Believers must not pride themselves in being called patriotic. Patriotism works for Israel, but we are not Israelites. We are commanded to love Jesus, not our land. God owns the whole world, if he deems it fit to give it to us He will, but it is not our purpose to fight for land and property. We are made to witness His grace and love to the whole world. Our only response to all the graceful bounty we receive is to offer our body. Our body as living sacrifice is our mission. How can we accomplish that? Through love. Just as Christ love us, we must love our fellow human beings. We cannot be conformed any longer to this world. So, if there is any hurdle that binds you, set it free, let it go, I assure you will not regret it. There is no chain too strong that Jesus cannot break. It’s just us who didn’t want to break it. We can set ourselves free in Jesus’ name. Through renewing our minds and being transformed we can now test and approve what God’s perfect and pleasing will is.
May the Lord enable us as faithful dwellers of His word to honor and work out His pleasing will in our daily lives as a living sacrifice.
