Living Sacrifices
(week 26/03)
Olubi Johnson
The scripture says:
Romans 12:1(KJV): 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.
Romans 12:1(NIV): Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God– this is your spiritual act of worship.
We are to present our physical bodies as living sacrifices to God.
To appreciate what this means and how to do it, we need to remember that in the Old Testament what they had were sacrifices of animals which had been slaughtered and then salted and burnt on the altar to give a sweet smelling savour unto God.
Our bodies are to be living sacrifices that we present to God by His mercies (see our article on mercy to be faithful).
We make our bodies “dead to sin” or unresponsive to sinful stimuli, by releasing the life of God into them through confession of God’s Word and prayer in the spirit.
In this way we salt our bodies with the Word and life of God and offer them unto God on the altar of consecration and holiness. When the fire of temptation then hits our bodies, our use of the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit, in confession and prayer in the spirit, to overcome the temptation rises up as a sweet smelling savour unto God.
Colossians 4:6(KJV): Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
Mark 9:49(KJV): For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
