I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
— Romans 12:1
We know that because of the mercies of God we need to willingly present our whole entire lives to him as a living, walking, talking sacrifice. A child of God has a LIFE the lost world does not know about. The “life” this world talks about is dead. If you are a child of God, you can be thankful that you are no longer dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). You now have a spiritual life. This sacrifice needs to be living. But this sacrifice needs to be holy. If you look at the sacrifices in the Old Testament, you will find that not just anything could be sacrificed.
The sacrifice must be
- Holy and Without Blemish
- Acceptable, Conforming to God’s Design
Today we will look at how our sacrifice must be HOLY. Any sacrifice to God must be HOLY, without blemish.
You will find the words, “without blemish,” 93 times in the Old Testament. Any lamb offered to God must be without blemish. Any bullock (bull) offered to God must be without blemish. Any animal in the Old Testament sacrificed to God had to be without blemish. If there were any visible deformities, the lamb would not be eligible. If after cutting the animal open, the priest found deformities, the lamb would be ineligible. 93 TIMES the idea is enforced that sacrifices to God must be without blemish. We know the Old Testament sacrifices could not atone for sin (Hebrews 10:4). Though these sacrifices had no visible blemishes they were still under the curse of in. These sacrifices all pointed to a future Sacrifice who would be COMPLETELY WITHOUT BLEMISH – “Then said [Jesus], Lo, I come to do thy will, O God . . . By the which we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:9a,10). Jesus Christ Himself is THE Lamb without blemish (1 Peter 1:19).
Somebody else in the Bible is without blemish.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might PRESENT it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be HOLY and WITHOUT BLEMISH. – Ephesians 5:25-27
There is coming a day when the Bride of Christ will be completed. The Bride of Christ is the collection of all who have been Born-Again since the Church started. When Christ comes for His Bride, “the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). At THIS time, the Redeemed will be changed. The Redeemed will, as one body, THEN be glorious, without blemish and spot (1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 John 3:2).
So… If the Old Testament sacrifices without VISIBLE blemish point to the sacrifice Jesus paid on the cross which was COMPLETELY without blemish…
AND there is a future Bride of Christ which will be COMPLETELY without blemish…
What sacrifice in this life may point to this Bride of Christ?
Individual, Born-Again, Believers.
We are to be HOLY and WITHOUT BLEMISH RIGHT NOW. We will still battle our sin nature. We will still war with our flesh and commit sin. But when someone examines the outside of us – the way we live our lives – they should be able to see lives without blemish. When we examine the inside of us – the thoughts of our mind, the desires of our heart – we should see a life dedicated to God in holiness, without blemish. This takes work! This takes resolve! We should strive for holiness! We CANNOT accept defeat. We CAN HAVE VICTORY RIGHT NOW over sin.
“For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:7
Present your bodies a HOLY sacrifice.