Dear friends, God is good

Dear friends, God is good. So I beg you to offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That’s the most sensible way to serve God. Romans 12:1

Our bodies are pure and pleasing because of redemption’s sacrifice. It may seem hard for some to believe that, but it’s true. The cross has not only paid the price for the sins committed, it has also cleansed us from sin’s contamination and defilement. As a child of God, you are now clean. Paul said to the Corinthian church, in light of that truth, and in light of the great price that was paid, our bodies are now not are own, and so we are to glorify God in our bodies. He now says to the Romans, the best way to glorify God with our bodies is to present them to Him as a living sacrifice.

Worship always involves sacrifice. There is no worship of God without sacrifice. In the Old Covenant it was animal sacrifice. To inaguarate the New it was the sacrifice of Jesus. For us now, we who are benefactors of the blessings of grace in the New, it is the natural response to that great grace.

“Offer your bodies”, Paul says. Offer them to God as those alive from the dead, as those who now no longer live for themselves but for Him. Offer them as worship, as an expression of our love, devotion, and thanks for what He has done. Offer them for His use, for whatever and however He would choose to use us. Offer the members, the individual parts to Him. Offer the eyes that once lusted, the brain that at one time was filled with vain imaginations, the mouth that cursed His name, the hands and feet that were quick to run to and participate in sin, and your heart that once worshipped all of the above false idols.

“This”, Paul says, “is the most sensible way to serve God.” It is “reasonable”, other translations say, to serve God and thus worship Him in this way.

Christianity is very practical. Its not limited to great spiritual giants; children can and do experience the depths of the Christian life. It comes down to who and what we worship. In a world where countless gods clamor for our worship, Paul reminds us very simply that “God is good.” Offer your lives, hearts, and bodies to Him as living sacrifices as worship. It just makes sense.

R. Martinez