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.

Our bodies are the sacrifice, but what does that mean? Reflecting back in the book, we see that “God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them” (Rom 1:24). In context, this was tied to sexual passions. We are instructed, “[D]o not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Rom 6:12–13). The struggle with the “flesh” is most easily seen in the battle involving the “members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind …” (Rom 7:23). Paul theatrically calls out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Rom 7:24). Yes, our walk through life is very earthly, related very much to our bodily, physical existence. Indeed, our bodies are simply the vehicle by which we live out our lives; our bodies express our inner self and are the means of living out the true inner person.

In hope, while we “groan within ourselves [we wait] eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Rom 8:23). Until then, our part is to sacrifice our bodies now, as a continual offering to God. That should be characteristic of our Christian walk. The dichotomy of Romans 7, the spirit versus the body, the inner man versus the outer man—that battle is to be brought under control by the inner man (the spirit) controlling the outer man (the body). Some, overly spiritualizing the matter, object that this puts too much emphasis on human effort. Cliché’s like “Let go and let God” may sound good, but that is not what the inspired apostle writes here. As Christians who know the truth about justification, it is our responsibility to offer the sacrifice.

And rigorously we must make this continual offering. It is a living sacrifice (which we understand to mean ongoing, lively)—not a life of aestheticism or withdrawal from the world. God does not want monks. Our sacrifice is holy; it is not characteristic of worldly living. Most importantly, our lifestyle of self-sacrifice is acceptable (some translations say “pleasing”) to God. In fact, this is the supreme “spiritual service of worship” that we can offer to God—a way of life not only noteworthy to Him, but fully embraced by Him. This is one thing we can do to guarantee God’s pleasure—live our lives as a sacrifice to Him.

Lord, though I often fail, my desire today is to live sacrificially for You.