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
Notes
Living
When choosing to become a Christian we are often taught the risk of persecution for beliefs. Growing up there were frequent calls to be bold and not ashamed if people were to challenge us on our faith. Yet in the U.S. it has been easy to claim we would stand strong under persecution, even to the point of death, without actually being confronted by real persecution. This can lead to us living without any change in our day-to-day behavior.
One of my favorite lines from the musical Hamilton is, “Dying is easy, young man, living is harder.” It sums up how I thought of this verse when I first studied it years ago. I had always thought I would give my life if needed, as unlikely as that seemed. But the phrase “living sacrifice” indicates that even if we are willing to give up life on this earth for eternal life in heaven, we are called to consider sacrifice a daily occurrence.
Sacrifice
Jesus served as the atoning sacrifice for our sins so that we aren’t called to offer animal sacrifices. If you review the rituals involved in the animal sacrifices described in Leviticus you will see it was a dramatic event that included killing and dismembering the animal. I, for one, am thankful we don’t have to go through with that ritual anymore. Yet we are called for much more. We are called to live a sacrificial life. Our bodies, minds, and spirits are meant to live in honor of God and in contradiction to the ways of this world. This is our way of worshiping God rather than sacrificing an animal in our place. And it should be continuous throughout our day-to-day routine.
This can mean living with sacrificial generosity by giving away money or resources. As it says in James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” These verses and many more challenge us to sacrifice some potential comfort in order to help others. Donating to churches and charitable organizations, contributing to mutual aid funds like people’s GoFundMe campaigns, sharing what you have with neighbors, and even tipping generously are ways we can live sacrificially and display God’s love.
Offering our bodies is about who we are in this world rather than our physical appearance. Still, for some these verses are an encouragement to look after their physical health so they will have the strength and energy to serve God physically – such as building houses for those in need, playing with children at a VBS or orphanage, discipling others through sports relationships, and more.
Holy and Pleasing
Another part of being a living sacrifice is to be disciplined in following God’s commands for holy living, which often requires us to sacrifice the human desires that tempt us. As it says in Romans 6:12-13, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.”
This is hard to do on our own, but thankfully once we take the action to start being a living sacrifice we are “transformed” internally. This term is like a metamorphosis, so we can think of it as a major, permanent change that starts from being with God. Even so, resisting selfishness, lust, and greed takes focus and a denial of some of our natural desires. Living in kindness, respect, and humility are all parts of being holy which require battling against our human nature. But when we focus on living a life dedicated to honoring God we should see these things less as sacrifices and more as fulfilling our potential.
–Dustin Vannoy
MEMORY VERses
Edward Steichen. Nude with Cat, April 1903. The Minneapolis Institute of Art
Related Verses
More verses about being a living sacrifice:
PRAYER INVITATION
“It is our duty and our privilege to exhaust our lives for Jesus. We are not to be living specimens of men in fine preservation, but living sacrifices, whose lot is to be consumed.“
—Charles Spurgeon
MANÁ 
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