Sacrifice

Sacrifice

Romans 12:1

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service.

               Sacrifice is a reoccurring theme and subject throughout the Word of God and at the core our faith.  The simple definition of sacrifice is “victim”.  Those who are familiar with the Bible see the progression of sacrifice from the first time in the Garden of Eden when animals were sacrificed to clothe Adam and Eve after they had sinned.  We see it as a means in which man approaches God through sacrifice or offering something as a means of establishing relationship and atoning for sin.  Then there is quite an elaborate structure of sacrifice that is established under the Law of Moses. 

The message here was “the wages of sin is death”, sin carries with it a death penalty.  If the person committing the sin does not pay it then a victim or sacrifice must pay it.  Hebrews 9:22 says “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”  God’s economy requires blood (representing life) to be shed for sin.  Jesus, of course, was the ultimate lamb and sacrifice for men’s sins.  Everything before Him was only a type and shadow of the only one whom could take away our sin through His precious, sinless blood.  He became the victim for us.  He took the death penalty for us so that we would not have to spiritually remain dead and separated from God, but now could be united with Him through Christ to experience divine life and relationship with our awesome God.

               This has all been a prelude to the question: “If Jesus was the sacrifice and paid the price what further meaning does sacrifice have for us?”

               Jesus is the prototype or firstfruits of all that should follow Him.  The Cross, which is the symbol and implement of Christ’s suffering and death, becomes the believer’s as well.  United with Christ by faith we identify not only with His resurrection life, but also with His suffering and death as well.  There is both bitter and sweet in this walk with Jesus.  The first thing we must recognize, which the scripture from Romans 12:1 brings home to us, is that we are not our own any longer, nor are we the servants of sin and death any longer.  We were bought with the price of the Blood of Jesus and we are now His servants.  Servants of righteousness, which means our lives are given willingly, lovingly and obediently to live for His purpose and for His glory, being conformed to the mind of Christ.  We become the living sacrifices, which is our reasonable or expected service to God.  The long-standing joke in the Church world is “the trouble with living sacrifices is they keep crawling off of the altar”, which is humorous, but sadly true.  Presenting ourselves a living sacrifice is our pledge of allegiance and commitment to our Lord.  It is saying the life you gave me both physically and spiritually I now give back to you in obedience and submission to whatever you would require of me.  The life I now live, I live as a sacrifice to Your glory and honor, no matter what the cost.  Christ sacrificed all for us, shall we offer back less to Him?

Blessings,

#kent

Advertisement

Robbed of Our Blessing

Haggai 2:10-14
On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Haggai: 11 “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Ask the priests what the law says: 12 If a person carries consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, oil or other food, does it become consecrated?’ ”
The priests answered, “No.”
13 Then Haggai said, “If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?”
“Yes,” the priests replied, “it becomes defiled.”
14 Then Haggai said, ” ‘So it is with this people and this nation in my sight,’ declares the LORD. ‘Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled.

Robbed of Our Blessing

This is a day when the Lord desires to lay the spiritual foundations of His Temple again. What the Lord speaks to Haggai here He is speaking to us. In the analogy that Haggai brings forth, if a priest carried meat that had been sanctified and consecrated to the Lord in their pocket or the fold of the garment and touched another substance of food it didn’t automatically sanctify and consecrate that food. On the other hand if someone had handled or touched a dead body that defilement was transferred to all that he touched. The Lord says this people, His people, have been like those who have touched the dead body and so what ever they offer becomes defiled.
Are we wondering why we aren’t blessed, coming up short in our finances and experiencing so many struggles that we may not need too? The Lord says it is because we are defiled in our giving and our living.
We have talked about how the body of the old man is dead and crucified with Christ and we are a new creation in Christ, but when we fail to lay hold and live out of this reality and truth we are in affect touching the dead body. We are living out of corrupted fleshly thinking and attitudes. Thus what we touch becomes defiled because it is not the mind of Christ we are operating out of, it is the mind of the flesh, the old man, that which is supposed to be dead.
If God is to bless the works of our hands they have to be the works of His Spirit through us and not our fleshly efforts any more. When we lay the foundations of the Lord’s house, it is a spiritual house not built with human efforts and thinking, but directed and ordered by the Spirit.
We all want the God’s blessing and favor to rest upon us and it is in God’s heart to want to bless and increase us, but there are things we need to get rid of and the primary one is the mentality of this old dead man. We speak often concerning our identification with Christ because His is the life and the mind that we are being renewed and brought forth in day by day as we walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Romans 8:5-10 says, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. 9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” It is easy to see from this scripture how much we may still be living out of that old man and nature mentality. The Lord says that this is a defilement and pollution of the life He wants to live through us and the works that He wants to accomplish with our hands. We must begin to truly put on the mind of Christ and view our world through God’s eyes and perspective. In doing so we will be blessed. It is imperative that we identify the thinking that is filled with doubt, fear and unbelief and turn that around to agree and line up with the Word of God. Anything less is sin. Allow Christ to be at the forefront of your motives, your intentions, your will and your purpose. Filter your world and all that you are dealing with through Him. Ask Him and trust Him for wisdom and direction in all of your ways. We are a people that are putting away that which is dead and walking in the consecrated and sanctified life that we carry within us. Walk in the Spirit, build the Lord’s house and live in His blessing. If you will come and build the Lord’s house by the Spirit, He will build yours.

Blessings,
#kent