Abraham
built an altar…; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar… —Genesis
22:9
This event is a picture of the mistake we make in thinking that
the ultimate God wants of us is the sacrifice of death. What God wants is the
sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Jesus did, that is,
sacrifice our lives. Not— “Lord, I am ready to go with You…to death”
But he replied,
"Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death." Luke 22:33
But— “I am willing to be identified with Your death so that I
may sacrifice my life to God.”
We seem to think that God wants us to give up things! God
purified Abraham from this error, and the same process is at work in our lives.
God never tells us to give up things just for the sake of giving them up, but
He tells us to give them up for the sake of the only thing worth having,
namely, life with Himself. It is a matter of loosening the bands that hold back
our lives. Those bands are loosened immediately by identification with the
death of Jesus. Then we enter into a relationship with God whereby we may
sacrifice our lives to Him.
It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He
wants you to be a “living sacrifice”— to let Him have all your strengths
that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus. This is what is acceptable
to God.
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. Romans 12:1
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