Total Surrender & Total Commitment

And again in 1 Cor 3:16 - Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?

We are just like temples because if we are consecrated, God will be free to dwell in us - for we are holy.

Paul also writes in Rom 12:1

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. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Paul here is talking about being consecrated and there are a few things I want us to note from this passage...

1) Consecration is for believers

Romans was written to the saints of God in Rome. Here Paul urges them to be consecrated to God. In one sense, being a Christian means we become God’s and are set apart. But here Paul is speaking about consecration as being above and beyond conversion. Note however that apart from being believers there is no other limitations. Anyone can be consecrated. - the great or small, the talented and the not so talented.

2) Consecration is voluntary

Being consecrated, or being dedicated to God is a choice we must all make. Paul makes an impassioned plea here for the people of Rome to become living sacrifices. We, like the Roimans have a choice as to whether we allow ourselves to be dedicated to God. He will not force himself on us, but wants us to freely offer ourselves.

3) Consecration involves a bodily sacrifice

Consecration involves a sacrifice. Paul says to offer your bodies as living sacrificies. This conjures up the imagery of the Old Testament sacrifices where the animals were offered. The analogy is the same. An animal was given to the priest who took it to the temple and sacrificed it. The person making the offering transferred to God all his right, title and interest in it by laying his hands on its head. Paul sees that as Christians we are the temple, the priest and the sacrifice. Our sacrifice involves our whole body, mind and spirit - all that we are, being given to God for his use. This includes

our body (physical strength, our hands and feet, our ears so we can hear the cry of the distressed),

our time (let him guide our use of time and see everything, even interruptions, as coming from him),

our talents (to use them for his glory)

our possessions (take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold)

our heart (our desires and dreams - all that we are)

There was once a Christian celebration on the west coast of Africa, when converted natives brought of their meager possessions to show their devotion to Christ, a young girl only recently saved from paganism brought a silver coin worth about eighty-five cents, and handed this to the missionary as her gift to the Saviour. The good man was astounded at the size of the offering, and hesitated to accept it, supposing it must have been obtained dishonestly; but when he delicately asked for an explanation of this lavish gift, the convert told him that she had gone to a neighboring planter and bound herself out to him as a slave for the rest of her life for this coin.