The Solution To Self, Part 1

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. (Romans 12:1 NASB)

​Do you want to live a victorious Christian life?

Have you ever felt that you have given all your effort and still fall short of being victorious? Have you tried various Bible studies, prayer groups, or different churches and still feel like something is missing?

Maybe you have even tried filling various positions within the church or have even increased your involvement over time and can't quite seem to get past this feeling that you are not doing enough.

What is the solution?

The problem could lie in what your motivation is. Is it self? Is self getting in the way? Why do you serve? What are you looking to accomplish? Many who fail to live a victorious Christian life usually do so because they allow self to get in the way.

Is your motivation for serving God or in the church self-centered?

I recently wrote about how "self" is the single biggest barrier to a healthy church. It is also the single greatest barrier to you having a victorious Christian life.

The church at Corinth had several factions. They lacked unity. They had allowed self and subjective experiences to replace truth. They also allowed self to become a determining factor when deciding what their unity would be. Our unity is in Christ and a unity in Christ leaves no room for self-centered motives.

​I want to shift the focus and begin to talk about the solution to self. How do we eradicate self? How do we truly have a victorious Christian life? I can sum it all up for you in one quote by John MacArthur in his commentary on the book of Romans:

"The key to spiritual victory and true happiness is not in trying to get all we can from God but in giving all that we are and all that we have to Him." (MacArthur, p. 138)

If your focus is continually on self or self-centered motives then you will not have victory. If you have to have things your way and if you only see things through the prism of self, then you will struggle to find unity with your fellow Christians. However, if you turn your focus to God and serving Him and loving your brethren and serving their needs, then you will have victory. Also, to the degree that the majority of the brethren in a given church are serving God and promoting God over self, then that church will be growing in Christian unity and will thrive in their goal of preaching the gospel and making disciples.

​What Romans 12:1 shows us is that our supreme act of worship in a New Testament church is to offer our very selves as living sacrifices. In the Old Testament, they offered and sacrificed animals for sin but nothing can change the fact that it was only the blood of dead animals. God wants us to not sacrifice animals or anything else other than our whole selves. Now, this does not mean we literally sacrifice ourselves on an altar. The end of the verse makes it clear that this is a spiritual service of worship. Take a look again at the verse:

​Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. (Romans 12:1 NASB)

​The verse says that by presenting our bodies as living sacrifices we are performing a "spiritual service of worship." We can do this because the Bible makes it clear that as Christians who have been regenerated and are now indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we are Christ's holy ones and are priests of God.

Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 

(1 Peter 2:1-5, 9 NASB)

We are living stones. We are precious in the sight of God and because of this, we are being built up to be a holy and royal priesthood to God. Our spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ in so far as we worship in obedience to God and with unity in Christ Jesus. This means that as MacArthur states in the quote I shared earlier of his that we must take everything that we are and everything that we have and give it all to God. Everything that we do must be to the praise and glory of God.

We owe everything to Jesus! We owe everything to God!

In fact, the very righteousness we possess is not ours but Christ's. Any act of righteousness we do is not our own but is a result of the righteousness of Christ living inside us and working through us to the glory of God.

The verse in Romans says that we are to present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice which is stated as being acceptable to God. We are commanded to do this by "the mercies of God," because in light of everything God has done for us, it is perfectly reasonable for God to command us to give ourselves as living sacrifices because He gave all of Himself for us.

Christ gave us everything. He held nothing back. We are bought with a price and we belong to Christ. Jesus Christ gave us everything to save us and we should give Him everything that we are daily to worship and serve Him in light of the redemption He purchased for us with His blood on the cross of Calvary.

YOU KNOW WHAT THERE ISN'T ROOM FOR IF YOU GIVE CHRIST EVERYTHING?

SELF!

Surely, this is not something that will come easily. While our souls are saved, we remain in unredeemed, sinful bodies that are susceptible to sin and moving away from God and giving SELF room to operate. This is why it is vitally important for us to die to self daily. Crucify self every morning and present your body as a living sacrifice to serve God and walk in the righteousness of Christ. We must yield ourselves daily to the Holy Spirit's control. Otherwise, we allow room for self to operate and take ground in our lives.

​The Old Testament Law required a person to bring an animal for an offering. They would bring it to the priest, the priest would lay it on the altar for them, the animal's blood would be shed and it would be sacrificed for sin on behalf of the person presenting it. With the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, animal sacrifices are no longer acceptable to God. Consider the following from the book of Hebrews:

For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?

But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, "SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME.

Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE. Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

(Hebrews 10:1-5, 11-14, 17-18 NASB)

​The sacrifices of animals are no longer acceptable to God. Why? Because the ultimate sacrifice, the one time for all sacrifice of Christ's body has already been laid on the altar for sin. This same Jesus who died and was buried has also been raised from the dead to finish the work He set out to do. Since the very Son of God, the Lamb of God, gave His very body as a sacrifice for all those who believe, we who are now His children, need to offer ourselves as living sacrifices each and every single day.

This is what is acceptable worship and spiritual service in today's world. This is what is acceptable to our God and Savior. This type of sacrifice of our very bodies can only be done by faith for it is a spiritual service of worship as the verse says. 

As we offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God, when we place our self on the altar and live for God, there remains NO ROOM FOR SELF!

If you want to have victory in your walk with God, if you want to have victory in your Christian life, then remove self and present your body as a living sacrifice unto God.

MacArthur, John. The New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16​. Chicago, Illinois. Moody Publishers. 1994.