PRESENTING OUR BODIES
ROMANS 12:1
Avery Willis shared that God intends for the body to perform these essential functions:
1. Identification in the world – the way you look.
2. Participation in the world – the way you act.
3. Communication with others – the way you relate with others.
God created the physical body to be good, but when people sinned, the body was affected. It becomes susceptible to the sinful nature. We begin to use our body for sinful pleasures and purposes. But when we repent from our sins and put our faith in Christ and what He had done for us, we have the responsibility to yield our bodies to Christ for God’s glory.
As we read Romans 12:1, I want us to answer the following questions: Why should we offer our bodies to God? How should we offer our bodies to God? (READ ROMANS 12:1)
This verse says that we should offer our bodies as sacrifices to God. Why should we offer our bodies to God?
1. “In view of God’s mercy” - Mercy denotes God’s character that moves him to deliver man from sinfulness and misery. (SEE EPHESIANS 2:4; TITUS 3:5) It became the leverage for the appeal that follows. Note that the heathen offer sacrifices in order to obtain mercy but biblical faith teaches that the divine mercy provides the basis for sacrifices.
Therefore offering our sacrifices is our way of responding to God’s mercy and deliverance. It is the right response to all that God had done for us.
2. “This is your spiritual act of worship” – The purpose of sacrifices is not to achieve God’s forgiveness as in the OT but as an expression of worship and service to God. The phrase used in NKJV is “reasonable service” because the Greek word used is that of ‘logikos’ which means rational and reasonable.
Therefore offering our bodies is our rational and reasonable service and expression of worship to God. Worship is not just an offering of praise and the lifting of hands but the giving of our lives to God.
“To offer our bodies” – Greek was prone to think that the body is the receptacle containing the soul but the Hebrew concept viewed man as a unit. The body is the outward expression of man.
When the Bible says we should offer our bodies, it means that we present our whole being to God as a sacrifice. We are commanded to do it as our way of responding to God’s mercy and our reasonable service to Him.
How should we offer our bodies to God?
“As living sacrifices, holy, and pleasing to God” – Offering of sacrifices was an OT practice and normally through the use of objects (like farm products) or an animal which is killed before the altar. The animals or farm products should be of good quality: firstborn, fat, clean, and without defects.
In like manner, the sacrifices we offer to God should be of good quality: living, holy, and pleasing to God. God expects that we offer sacrifices of high quality. This was emphasized in the OT practice. (SEE MALACHI 1:8-14) God rejected and abhorred the quality of their offerings.
Therefore as we offer our bodies as sacrifices, they should of high quality.
1. It should be a living sacrifice. This sounds contradictory since the term “sacrifice” came from the root word “to kill.” In fact, the effectiveness of an OT animal sacrifice is when it is killed and its blood sprinkled on the worshiper. On the part of the believer, Christ became our sacrificial lamb that took away our sins to the cross and give us new life.
Now our responsibility is to live for God. Our way of life should be an expression of worship to God. The word "living" denotes the spiritual life we received from God in conversion experience. This new life should be lived as an offering to God. (SEE ROMANS 6:12-13)
ILLUSTRATION An organ donor driver becomes a useful instrument of our society when they die.
The Bible says that we should “offer the parts of our body to God as instrument of righteousness.” In the OT, the whole offering ascends to God and could never be reclaimed. It belongs to God forever. In like manner, because of God’s mercy and deliverance, we now belong to God.
He owns us like one of his instruments. (SEE I CORINTHIANS 6:19-20) Righteousness means right behavior, integrity, and uprightness. We lay our body for service to promote God’s righteous will and character. (SEE MATTHEW 5:29-30; JAMES 3:9-10)
The idea of cutting off or gouging out the offending part of our body is a way of saying that Jesus’ disciples must deal radically with sin. Imagination is a God-given gift; but if it is fed with dirt by the eye, it will be dirty. All sin, not least sexual sin, begins with the imagination.
Therefore what feeds the imagination is of maximum importance in the pursuit of kingdom righteousness. Not everyone reacts the same way to all objects. But if your eye is causing you to sin, gouge it out; or at very least, don’t look!
In addition, we should concentrate more on how to use your body as instrument of righteousness. Part of the reason our bodies are not useful instruments of righteousness is because we do not serve.
Hands – instead of harming (hugging, supporting, cleaning, washing, creating…)
Eyes – instead of lusting (baby sitting, learning, checking what needs to be repaired…)
Tongue – instead of gossiping (praising, praying, encouraging, teaching, singing…)
Legs & feet – instead of just displaying it (help another person, do an errand, go to places where help is needed…)
2. It should be a holy sacrifice. The term holy means to be consecrated or separated for God’s use. It is a characteristic of a person or object that can be brought near or into the presence of God. (SEE 1 PETER 1:15-16) Living a holy life is an offering to our Holy God.
In the NT times, there was this belief that what is being done with the physical body has no damaging effect on the destiny of the soul. In other words, they separate the physical and spiritual. (SEE 1 CORINTHIANS 6:12-18)
As a result, they thought that immoral behavior only affects the physical body and the spirit is not affected. The Bible said NO. Immorality damages a person’s personality and spirituality. The Bible said that our bodies are members of Christ.
When Christ died for us, He did not die just for our spirit or soul but for our being. (SEE ROMANS 6:6) Our body of sin was crucified with Christ so that we should no longer be slaves to sin. The goal is so we can be holy and blameless before God.
Therefore offering our bodies as holy sacrifices means that we do not engage in any immoral practices. Immoral means a character or behavior that conflict with the generally or traditionally held moral principles. Moral principles are ethical, virtuous, noble and righteous principles established by God’s Word.
Sexual immoralities such as prostitution, adultery, fornication, and orgies are inappropriate use of body. Addiction such as drugs, alcohol, and nicotine destroys our body or personality. Physical abuses like overworking, inappropriate eating, lack of exercise, and inappropriate fasting are also unrighteous practices that ruin our bodies. (SEE 2 CORINTHIANS 7:1; PHILIPPIANS 1:20)
3. It should be a pleasing sacrifice. When a burnt offering was selected, and prepared in a proper way, they will burn it and its aroma is pleasing to God. An aroma is a distinctive pervasive and usually pleasant or savory smell. In like manner, when we offer our bodies as living and holy sacrifice, it produces an aroma pleasing to God.
When our lives are live in sinfulness, it stinks. We may catch the attention of God but He is not pleased. Nothing beats the aroma of a life live as instrument of righteousness and a body preserves in its holy functions. These qualities of bodily sacrifice are achieved when our lives are lived by faith in Christ. (SEE GALATIANS 2:20)
When we live our lives relying on what Christ did for us at the cross, we are able to live a life pleasing to God – a life of humility, obedience, and submission to His will. (SEE ROMANS 8:13) Living by the Spirit of God would put to death the misdeed of the body and we live.
God gave us a perfect body but marred by sin. God destroyed the penalty and power of sin which are death and slavery respectively. Therefore us offer our bodies as living, holy, and pleasing to God. This happen when we offer our bodies as instrument of righteousness and service and as we aim for its holy purposes and usage.
