Today's Word

Today most of us no longer working and earning our living in agriculture. We are largely an industrialised society. To go back 4 or 5 thousand years, most people were farmers or providing services to agriculture. So when we go back into the Old Testament, God set up what we now call the Mosaic Law, using Moses as the main communication between Him and His people, the Israelites. An integral part of the Law was the use of animals in sacrifice and worship to God. In one way, this was a form of giving to God, giving of your main resources. But the sacrifice of animals was a symbol of much more than that, it acted as a covering for sin and allowed people to approach God and have a relationship with Him, although it must have been very remote for most.

Fast forward, 2000 years, and Jesus becomes the antitype, the real sacrifice for sin, and the sacrifice of animals is no longer required, “For He offered one sacrifice for sin, forever”. But the Apostle Paul, writing to the Romans takes this process to its very logical conclusion as he writes to the church, and by default, to those of us today who have accepted Jesus as our Saviour, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice to God”.

The animals sacrificed in the Old Testament had no choice in the process, their will was overridden by the person bringing the animal. And the animal would not have achieved any blessing for the bringer had it been left alive.

But God wants us to be a willing and thinking sacrifice to Him, not by entering a monastery or nunnery, but a total yielding to His will and what He wants for us. Sadly, that process will never be 100% complete on earth because we still have our old nature, fighting against the new life that God has given us, but our will has to be yielded to Him, not as a one-off, but on a daily basis because God wants to use us in His service, a living sacrifice.

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church