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.Romans 12:1
Robbo shares his reflections on this verse…
I remember a preacher saying once ‘the problem with being a living sacrifice is that we keep crawling off the altar!’… It’s humorous but very true. As Christians, staying on the altar is the key to living a life of worship to God. It’s a lifestyle that incorporates obedience and humility with plenty of God’s amazing grace thrown in!
As I read this verse, my eye is drawn to the words ‘in view of God’s mercy’. That’s the key to offering our bodies as living sacrifices. If we keep ‘crawling off the altar’ it’s probably because our eyes are viewing the wrong thing. If we focus on the fact that, despite being unworthy, God makes His mercies available to us – in fact, they are new every morning! Similarly, by reflecting on the fact that Jesus laid his life down when He went to the cross to pay a debt we could never pay. Romans 5:8 tells us that it was while we were still sinners that He died for us.
There are some great reasons to live a life that’s holy and pleasing to God. Let us keep focused on that!
