Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Twelve
A LIVING SACRIFICE
Scripture Reading: verses 1-2
The implications of the truth of Romans 12:1-2 are tremendous and the challenge which they bring to every Christian heart is not easily answered.
The thought of a living sacrifice is very interesting. It stands in contrast to the dead sacrifices of Old Testament days, which spoke of a life forfeited because of sin.
It was the substitutionary death in order that another might live. All those sacrifices pointed forward to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one offering by which He has forever perfected them that are sanctified. Perhaps the word “sacrifice” is so familiarly linked with the thought of death that we may wonder how it can be applied to a living person. Yet this very mystery intensifies its truth. The Apostle Paul spoke of “bearing about in his body the dying of Jesus.”
He said,
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Is this referring to the burnt offering aspect, rather than the sin offering – something offered up for the pleasure of God?
Perhaps we have an eloquent illustration of it in the offering up of Isaac in the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. In order to appreciate this we must consider the heart of Abraham as he was offering up his beloved son. Of course, we have the benefit of knowing that it was a type of God the Father giving His beloved Son on the Cross of Calvary, but let’s not think of it in that way right now. Rather, let’s think of Abraham, God’s friend, and all it meant to his heart to offer up Isaac on the altar. To him it meant putting to death all his personal hopes according to the promise of God regarding the inheritance in this world. God’s promise to him had been that in Isaac his seed would be blessed and every time Abraham looked upon Isaac, his son, he could say, “There is the center of all my hopes.” Everything he could possibly desire by way of legitimate blessing here on earth was wrapped up in his son Isaac. On Moriah’s mountain, God taught Abraham to realize his hopes in a mysterious way – through the trial of complete surrender. He must realize it’s in Isaac, as one who has been given up to death and raised again by the power of God, that he shall come into the fulness of God’s blessing.
This is truly a difficult lesson for us to learn. Abraham must have gone through a great struggle in his heart. But the same strife goes on in every individual Christian heart. Our blessings are realized only by surrendering self. We can easily understand giving up sin and putting to death evil things, but to put self to death, to surrender our own legitimate desires is something else altogether. In fact, it’s the deepest lesson a Christian may learn.
Everything in man’s dealings with God comes by way of death and resurrection. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
That is the reason there is so much suffering among God’s people. The mystery of suffering is one of the greatest in human experience.
Many lives have known much suffering and no doubt many of us have often searched for a reason; wondering if we have offended God or, at least, if He has a controversy of some kind with us. Perhaps we have walked so long through the shadows, that our suffering now seems totally inexplicable.
There are so many things we would like to have done. They are legitimate, good things which we see others around us enjoying, but we are for some reason incapacitated. God has laid us aside or put us in circumstances that prevent us from reaching the things we desire so much. Perhaps it’s God’s way of teaching us to become a living sacrifice – of giving Him our intelligent service. God does not want to force us to do things. “Be not as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding; whose mouth must be held in by bit and bridle.”
God wants us to render intelligent service. A good horse or mule will do the instant bidding of its master but that service is rendered because of fear, not intelligent service. The bit and bridle are instruments of force. God does not want to force us to do things, although sometimes He may have to use force to keep us from calamity. However, He wants us to come into conformity to His way of thinking.
Verse 2 speaks of “being renewed in the spirit of your minds.”1 The spirit of the carnal mind is to gratify self, to do things that appeal to and that are based on our own personal ideas. That is how the world operates. We find people in the world pursuing their own ambition, straining every nerve to gain their own ends, but we are enjoined not to be conformed to the world. The intelligent service God wants is gained by putting us through the shadows of adversity and trial, and teaching us the difficult lessons of self-abnegation and surrender that we might come into line with His thoughts and be in the channel of His will. It is a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.
Let us not think that we become living sacrifices in a kind of martyr attitude, like a recluse that retires from living life to spend endless time in long prayer and stoical meditations. God’s desire is that we might do our full part as enthusiastic units in the service of our Lord among men, vessels fitted for the Master’s use by being cleansed from sin, separated from evil, in a living, vibrant, positive Christian career. Such is our intelligent service; that is, we do it intelligently, having calculated the costs and being prepared like soldiers for the rigors of campaigning. Thus we prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, and life in all its fulness goes up as an offering for the good pleasure of God.
We have a unique, perfect parallel of this both in the life and death of our Lord Himself, for every step of His pathway was redolent with the sweet odors of a perfect offering before God and this reached a glorious consummation in His death on Calvary.
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. (Eph. 5:1-2)
He knew fully “what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” We must “prove” it by following His steps. It will not be the shadowed life of the recluse but a busy life of usefulness and abundant joy, as well as challenging self-denial. This is “our intelligent service.”
