Paul speaks of a key issue as he begins Romans 12; being a living sacrifice. What does this really mean? It’s about surrendering and sacrificing our human-carnal ways and impulses to God’s higher ways to realize blessings of greater spiritual value. So, it takes receiving His higher love and greater truths, then submitting our heart, mind, will, and emotions to God to act in His love, grace and truth. This blesses you and glorifies God.
GOD’S HIGHER TRUTHS
Walking in sacrificial love brings God’s amazing enabling grace and strength to accomplish more than we think. But it takes trusting faith, which requires willingness and strong resolve. It is trusting in and receiving His great love and higher truths. Through such dynamics flowing in God’s love, God’s will is accomplished, bearing good fruit.
Jesus shares a way this process works. He teaches a key principle through the analogy of a grain of wheat: as the flesh willingly dies the Holy Spirit arises, bearing His new life.
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12:24).
Paul teaches that such transformation takes place by God’s grace. But it is subject to our willingness to see and receive God’s love and truth by conviction of the Holy Spirit. So, we consciously sacrifice ways of carnal living, or our fleshly life for His higher spiritual life. Death of our carnal ways then allows a new and greater kind of harvest to manifest and grow in our life. This harvest bears the fruit of new life of the Spirit and reveals the image of Christ in you. So, it’s about exchanges and transactions with God that result in producing real blessings of God.
I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily…35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” 36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies…42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body… 49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. (1 Corinthians 15:20-49)
Therefore, our willingness, obedience and sacrificial living in trusting faith activates the grace of His resurrection life and overcoming strength of the Holy Spirit. We show this by sacrificing things of lesser spiritual value, things that appeal to our carnal nature, for things of greater and higher spiritual value and significance to God. This is one of the greatest points that Paul makes.
So, just as the stench of animal sacrifices (in the Old Covenant) were to God a sweet aroma, our sacrificial living in Him converts the stench of our sin to a sweet aroma to God. God responds in delight in His Son’s life in us with supernatural grace extended to us. So, His overcoming strength allows His resurrection new life to give you fresh new perspectives. It further enables you to experience various dimensions of transformation bearing good fruit.
We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed — 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. Corinthians 4:8-11)
Think about this for a moment… the life of Jesus being manifested in your body. This is what He came for—for you to experience the joy and new life of His resurrection life. These aspects of an overcoming life bear the fruit of a new life in Christ. It brings the joy of the Lord to life; real joy. It’s what manifests as we exchange—or sacrifice—the things of the flesh for the things of the spirit. So, what does this really look like?
The Holy Spirit brings conviction to sacrifice things, whether they be physical things or attitudes and ways of lesser spiritual value—things that appeal to our carnal nature—for things of greater and higher spiritual value and significance to God. The result is a real sense of peace, joy and a clear and free conscience that is foreign to the world but familiar to God and people who have embraced His ways, purposes and priorities.
THE GREAT SHIFT
In Christ, therefore, being a living sacrifice shifts your center of being and focus off self and onto God and other people; putting God’s priorities—His values, ways and means—above your own. It shows what it means to “seek first the kingdom of God” so that “all these things”—the precious and most valuable things of real substance—will be yours (Matthew 6:33). It also brings greater balance, stability and peace into your life.
So, what kind of sacrifices does God consider being a living sacrifice? David learned that God looks at the heart. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17). The Hebrew word for broken used twice in this context is shabar. It is an interesting word with a double meaning. On the one hand it means to burst or be broken. It also means to bring to the birth. So, it reveals a key aspect of God’s loving nature and encapsulates what the new birth in Christ is essentially about.
The Holy Spirit brings a conviction of heart (John 16:8); a sense of brokenness that encompasses a deep piercing of the heart which brings one to the realization and conviction of sin and the need for God’s mercy to produce—or birth—a genuine repentance that brings forth fruit of the new creation in Christ who you are. It brings a deep soul searching and re-evaluation of one’s heart before God. It is what the disciples felt upon hearing Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost. They were “cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37).
So, such brokenness brings us to a place of true humility where we realize that our relationship with God is very precious. So, we willingly sacrifice things of lesser spiritual value, things that might appeal to our carnal nature, for things of greater and higher spiritual value and significance to God.
This can include attitudes or desires the Holy Spirit might have you reverse, a variety of decisions the Holy Spirit would have you make, or things the Holy Spirit would prompt you to give up or give away. This honors God. Receiving His amazing grace and love brings faith to yield and offer sacrifices of the heart.
Beyond sacrificing attitudes, God also looks for sacrificial actions, especially as it relates to others. God’s Word encourages us to honor one another, “giving preference to one another” (Romans 12:10). Giving preference—in love—honors God and others.
So, yielding to others in respect, valuing their thoughts, feelings and convictions, even when different than yours demonstrates sacrificial love and trusting faith. It takes being sensitive to others through our speech and actions. This strengthens them, adding value to them. It honors God, their Creator. It shows God that we value our relationship with Him and others He has created. So, we see that sacrificial love or walking in love in the spirit of sacrifice establishes a mode and rhythm to sustain His higher life, bearing fruit glorifying Him.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
Psalm 34:18; Psalm 51:17; Matthew 5:43-45; John 13:34-35; John 15:11-13
REFLECTION
Who is God putting on your heart to show sacrificial love?
What things is the Holy Spirit convicting you to sacrifice for things of greater spiritual value to God?