The Weekly Perspective
by TJ Draper, Deacon
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
— Romans 12:1
Last week during Sunday School, Pastor Thacker reminded us that our worship still follows the patterns of sacrifice in Leviticus. But it is no longer a bloody sacrifice of animals, but a living sacrifice of ourselves. In the Old Covenant, the only way to draw near to God, being unclean as we are, was to do so with a substitute that pointed to the future once for all substitute, the true Lamb of God. Many now believe that sacrifices are over. Done away with. No more. But in reality, the Christian life is one that is lived as sacrifice. The difference of course is that we have been made clean by the ultimate sacrifice. But made clean unto what? Made clean that we may draw near to God.
God desires us, he desires the sacrifice of our lives. Because we were unclean and sinful, we could not offer ourselves to Him. You may recall in the old covenant that a blemished sacrifice was unacceptable (Deut. 17:1). God only accepts clean and unblemished sacrifices. Just so with us. And the good news is, we are made clean by Christ’s sacrifice. And Paul calls us to imitate Christ. Today (and every day, of course) offer up your praise, and your whole being, as an acceptable sacrifice to God, made possible by the sacrifice of the one whom we imitate!