April 23, 2026:

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

(Romans 12.1)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

As you read these words from Paul that will be dispersed across the Roman Empire to empower non-Christians and non-Jews to become followers of Christ, sacrifice is a critical word to consider. Wouldn’t it be obvious that if a sacrifice was to be purposeful, it would have to be a living one? What good would a dead sacrifice be in order to honor the hope for life and make a sincere appeal to the one who is sovereign over life and death? The answer would be none. Yet, Paul is not speaking of such things as animal sacrifice as God had announced to Israel through the prophets of old that He no longer desired them. Why did God no longer want animal sacrifices to be offered for atonement and the blessings for harvests and consecrations of new life? Because the people no longer truly believed in the power of the sacrifice to save. They had reduced themselves to going through the motions having surrendered hope that sacrifices actually worked in light of the fall of Israel to her enemies and the enslavement of her people to Egypt and Babylon. Those things happened, however, because the people lost faith in God and put more faith in themselves. They were no longer a people living for God and thus their sacrifices were dead in their function and purpose.

Ultimately, God knew that there would be only one living sacrifice that would bring about the fulfillment of saving God’s people to be the people of God. We know that sacrifice was and is Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son. He was, is and will always be the only sufficient sacrifice for our salvation. He is the once and for all. So, what is Paul speaking of when he writes asking the new believers to consider themselves to be living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. Is it not for the sake of sharing the good news in their everyday lives as living examples of “walking by faith and not by sight”? Is it not about making the sacrifices in their own lives to promote the gospel of Jesus Christ so that others can hear it and choose to accept life over death? Yes, Paul knows full well that his life will end for the sake of the gospel. Martyrdom was the evidence of believing so much in something that you are willing to die for it. Jesus gave this as the description of true and authentic love. He said, “No greater love is there than this but that a man would lay down his life for another.” The time was coming when Christians would literally put their lives on the line and become living sacrifices for the faith in Jesus Christ and the hope of the Church.

Even further, by extension of their witness, Paul is speaking to the Gentile converts to be witnesses not just to other Gentiles but to the struggling Jews who were losing faith in their own religion as defined by God and undefined by the Temple leadership. The Temple was about to fall under the power of Rome. It would be the Gentiles and Messianic Jews who would carry the torch into the succeeding generations and centuries. They would become what God had called the Jewish people to be under the covenant of the Law but now under the covenant of Grace. Let’s not be mistaken, the covenants are essentially the same but the focus of their understanding is different. Grace has always been the foundation of God’s interaction with humanity for better or worse in their good times and in their tragedies from the first encounter with sin in the Garden. The covenant of the Law pointed to the description of what the life of righteousness looked like and how it could be maintained by God’s grace (the sacrifice in the Garden replicated by those in the Temple). Sadly, that sacrifice was more in tune with the sacrifice that would be made in the future- that truly living sacrifice. It was the purest example of living the life of righteousness in love for God and one another. This is the life we are to model for the whole world to see.

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.