a living sacrifice

I recently listened to a sermon by John Piper on Romans 12:1: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a
living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite snippets from this sermon. He closely examines four words in these verses.  (To listen to or read the entire sermon click here.)

Body
In the Bible the body is not significant
because of the way it looks, but because of the way it acts. The
body is given to us to make visible the beauty of Christ. And
Christ, at the hour of his greatest beauty, was repulsive to look
at. Isaiah 53:2-3 describes him: “He had no form or majesty
that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire
him. He was despised and rejectedby men; a man of sorrows,and
acquainted withgrief.” The beauty of Christ is the beauty of
love, not the beauty of looks. His beauty was the beauty of
sacrifice, not skin.

Living
Let every act of your body in living be an act of worship. That
is, let every act of your living body be a demonstration that God
is your treasure. Let every act of your living body show that
Christ is more precious to you than anything else. Let every act of
your living body be a death to all that dishonors Christ.

Holy
“Present a living holy body to God” means give your
members—your eyes, your tongue, your hands and
feet—give your body to do righteousness, not sin. That's what
would make a body holy. A body is holy not because of what it looks
like, or what shape it's in, but because of what it does.

Acceptable to God
If the
sacrifice of our bodily life is holy, then it is acceptable to God.
So what do these words add? They add God. They make God explicit.
They remind us that the reason holiness matters is because of God.
They remind us that all of these words are describing an act of
worship—“which is your spiritual
worship”—and God is the center of worship.

Piper ends with these words:

Romans 12 is a call to live a merciful life, it is
a call to live a worshipful life. Or better: In calling us
to live a merciful life (built on the mercy of God in Christ), the
aim is that it be a worshipful life. The aim of showing
mercy is showing God. The aim of having bodies is to make the glory
of God more visible. And he does not shine through our muscles and
curves, but through our merciful behavior.

In the actual sermon (not the typed manuscript), Piper says "worship is both the fuel and the goal."  That is a neat concept: the fuel for being a living sacrifice is worship and the reason we are to be a living sacrifice is to worship. 

Worship is the center of all our human sacrifice because Christ made the greatest sacrifice of all. 

My own two cents: If I am sacrificing by living in Taiwan, but if I am not drawing others into the worship of Christ, my sacrifice is pointless; it is not really merciful.  What benefit is it for my students to speak good English in hell?  I must constantly be about my Father's business telling those who have never heard the good news of Christ's ultimate sacrifice so they can join me in worshiping Him. 

The same is true for you.  If you are making sacrifices, they are not really worth it unless the fuel and the goal is worship of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This post was submitted to the Carnival of Beauty sponsored by Sallie at A Gracious Home.  This week the theme is The Beauty of Sacrifice and is hosted by Renee at Of Nobel Character .  Join us next week for The Beauty of Autumn over at The Autumn Rain.