Sacrificed

What is a ‘living sacrifice’? (See Romans 12). Those who first read the letter to the Romans may have been used to sacrificing animals, so the idea of a living sacrifice must have felt very strange. How can you sacrifice something that stays alive? Moreover, given that it refers to our bodies, how can you sacrifice something that you are keeping? Did it come as a completely new idea, or was it a concept that was more current among the early Christians? If you’re looking for scholarly answers, or an in depth analysis of Romans 12, you need to look elsewhere. But here are a few thoughts on what being a living sacrifice might mean for us today.

It’s probably important to start with that idea of sacrifice being something that you hand over; in the case of animals, that you bring to be slaughtered. These animals are to be the best animals of your flock. The Old Testament makes it clear that they are to be unblemished. The sacrifice should mean something, should cost you – otherwise it is not a sacrifice. But how can we make our bodies a living sacrifice?

Well, it is something that should cost us. I don’t think it means our bodies should be perfect, but that element of handing over, of costing, is still present. A sacrifice, even today, is something that costs. The element of dying is also still present. There is plenty in the New Testament about us dying – in baptism, for example (See Romans 6:4). There is a death in presenting ourselves to God as a living sacrifice: it means acknowledging that we are no longer our own but God’s; that we have handed over our lives, our bodies, our very selves, to God. We are now slaves to God (see Romans 6:22), and everything in our life is now God’s. That has massive implications for how we live our life. For a start, it is no longer our life that we live, but God’s (see Galatians 2:20).

We are offering ourselves to the God of mercy and compassion (see the end of Romans 11). It’s very easy to take those verses at the beginning of Romans 12 as distinct from what has gone before, especially as many bibles separate the passages. But the original letter was not divided up in this way, and we can only understand Romans 12 properly if we take it in the context of what has gone before. Read 11:31 – that God might have mercy on them all. The last verse of chapter 11 talks of giving the glory to God; Paul then goes directly on encourage us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice by the mercies of God. This is not about propitiating a tough God, an angry God who needs to be begged and conciliated. We have a compassionate God, who longs to have mercy on us, and is prepared to go to any length to draw us back. That is the God Paul is giving glory to, and that is the God we are asked to offer ourself to as a living sacrifice. It is a response to all that God has done for us, a response to the overwhelming love God has for us. It is the only response possible: to give our very selves to this God.

How does this cost us? It will be different for each person, but there is an element of allowing God into every part of our lives: where we go, what decisions we make – these are no longer ours, but God’s. If we like to be in control of our lives, we no longer are, although we are still responsible for them. Responsible for making those decisions, even when we can only make them after prayer and discernment. It is something that should permeate every aspect of our life. We may be used to praying before major decisions, but are we accustomed to giving over to God each aspect of our life, even the tiny, day-to-day decisions that we are not even aware of making? How do we even do that, without our lives grinding to a halt? We do not have time stop to pray before we decide what to have for breakfast or which way to go to work. It can be possible to offer brief prayers, and a tuning -in to God, but it is more about God becoming part of our everyday lives, so that these decisions are increasingly made with God. It is about making time regularly for prayer and worship, however that looks in our different lives, so that we come to know God more and more, and allow ourselves to become God’s, more and more. Those decisions will increasingly become part of that, part of our whole lives becoming God’s, rather than just elements of it here and there.

We are no longer are own but God’s. The fact is, we have always been God’s. In acknowledging it, we simply become what we always have been, and in offering ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, we bring ourselves to where we should be, and also who we were created to be. But it is important to remember that we are not offering ourselves to God in isolation, but as part of a Community, part of the body of Christ; continue reading Romans 12, which makes this point. We are no longer our own but God’s; and God’s as part of the Church. We come before God as individuals, yes; we have our own relationship with God, yes; but we also, essentially, always come before God as part of the world-wide Church, as part of the Community of individuals, with all our gifts differing, that make up the Body of Christ.

As part of that Body, we all have our own part to play, our own calling from God. For some, that may be life-changing, a Vocation with a capital V. But I believe that we all have a vocation, we are all called by God. For many, that may mean living our Christian lives as members of our local church, supporting it in a myriad of different ways according to our circumstances, alongside family and work, which are just as essential a way of serving God as more formal vocations. Let us give thanks to God for each of those who serve God alongside us, as we offer our lives as they are, here and now, to God.