Romans 6:13

A LIVING SACRIFICE

‘Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead.’

Romans 6:13

As it is the living ‘self,’ ‘which after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth’ (Ephesians 4:24), not the old self forfeited through sin, and dead already to all things, that is to be presented, so it follows that the surrender will express itself in the life. ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service’ (Romans 12:1). This life will consist in—

I. Obedience.—The will of God as a higher law will constrain the spirit. It will seek to know it and to conform to its requirements. Where there is no reason manifested for these there will nevertheless be an instant and unhesitating acquiescence. It is part of the discipline of earth thus to submit cheerfully to the unknown and inexplicable, when it is recognised as the ordinance of heaven. The child of grace will attain by degrees to—

II. Communion.—The will of God will be ascertained by actual experience and analogy as the best and wisest. The affections and desires, illuminated and purified by the Divine Spirit, will follow hard after it and lose themselves in it. Henceforth the life will not be so much a living for and a striving towards this heavenly will as an identification with and resting in it. Its inspirations will impart new joy and strength; its demands will call forth ever fresh responses of gratitude and love. The first expression of sacrifice will therefore be—

III. Service.—They alone are profitable servants who are conscious of no will but their Lord’s.

Illustration

‘According as our offering is more or less an external thing do we find our place in one of three great classes that divide mankind. To give Him something that we have is Heathen; to offer Him what we do is Jewish; to surrender to Him what we are is Christian.’