Romans 12:1

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship ~ Romans 12:1

The Jewish service had four kinds of sacrifice, which might be reduced to two, writes Barnes. The first were sacrifices offered before reconciliation and to receive it, in other words, sacrifices for sins and trespasses; the other sacrifice was offered after reconciliation and served to celebrate it. Paul writes of God’s mercy, which was to receive the reconciliation from Him because of His love and mercy through the life, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was the sacred lamb put to death for our sin; He was the sacrifice necessary for us to receive God’s reconciliation. Paul then tells us we are to be a living sacrifice. Because we have received forgiveness for our sin, we are to live our life in celebration every day as we give thanks for our new life in Jesus. What this means is that every thought, every deed, should be consecrated to the service of God. We were all born into the carnal world, and some of us lived there much longer than others. If you were blessed to know the love of God and to return that love from an early age, the carnal world may have had less a pull on your senses. Granted, there are some born into a family of faith and they wander great distances, some never to return to the faith of their childhood, so it is not so for all. Others, like me, travelled far into the world of carnality, but returned to find the forgiveness that had been offered and held out to me. What matters is not from where you came, but that you left the carnal world and became a part of God’s family, filled with His mercy and grace and love. All that is required from any of us is that we love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind, and that we love others as ourselves. This is how we live, offering ourselves as a living sacrifice in worshipping God –  through LOVE!

Pastor Julia