“I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” – Romans 5:1
Some guys reach a point where they really believe suicide would be noble.
In the middle of severe depression or despair, they start crunching the numbers on their life insurance policies and figure they’re more valuable dead than alive. In the midst of a financial struggle, or personal failure of some sort, they think their absence (“I’m such a nuisance they’d all be relieved if I was gone”) and the insurance payoff (“That would bring in more than I’ll ever make”) would actually improve their family’s life. It’s a twisted, absurd notion, and to even consider a thing like that is a form of insanity. But to the guy drowning in a seemingly hopeless situation, it really can look like the solution.
Clearly it’s not. Suicide destroys many lives, not just one, and lays an incurable curse on the shattered loved ones left behind. A sacrificial life may be harder, but it’s of more benefit than an allegedly sacrificial death, because a living sacrifice is a gift that goes on giving. That’s the sacrifice Paul’s commending to the Romans in this verse, and it’s one required of us as well.
Yes, there’s such a thing as literal martyrdom, when someone physically dies for the faith. And heroes sometimes lay down their lives so someone else might live, but these are rarities most of us never face. The average believer is called not to physically give up his life, but to give from it. And when it comes to a believer’s relation to God, that call is considered by Paul to be reasonable, or, more literally a “logical response” to His mercies.
A logical response – that sounds about right. Because I can’t seriously and deeply consider His mercy without asking, as David did in Psalm 116:12:
“What can I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me?”
That’s a heck of a question, because what, after all, does God need from me? Nothing, but He wants something all the same. And that something, according to Paul in the verse cited above, is sound and practical: He wants me to consider my body an instrument through which I will sacrificially do His will. And His will? Among other things, it’s to serve my neighbor, preach the Word, love my wife and sons, and conform to His purposes by resisting what’s unacceptable and investing in what’s right. And that’s all just for starters.
I’ll have to be dead to myself, but very alive to Him, to do all that. The dead sacrifice does nothing but lie there on the altar. The living sacrifice sees all of life as an altar on which to give, serve, obey. So today, in the interest of keeping it clean, I sacrifice by saying “no” to appetites I might rather say “yes” to, and by saying “yes” to acts of service I’d rather (be honest Joe) avoid. There’s a sacrifice that’s of use to him, one He can consider both a son and an instrument, and of whom He can say much more joyfully than did Dr. Frankenstein of his creation, “It’s Alive!” The difference being, of course, that His new creation both lives and gives life in response to His amazing grace.
And, as Paul said, that’s not much to ask. The body you’re inhabiting right now is the gift, the acceptable sacrifice. Your offering is due. Let’s you and I pray this morning that He’ll keep us aware that we are not our own, and that He’ll keep our hearts softened towards Him, hardened towards sin, and grateful to be able to offer something, no matter how feeble and limited, and actually experience the joy of Him accepting it.
