A Pleasing Sacrifice
Devotional Reading: I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me. John 15:5 CEV
Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” When we are crucified with Christ by faith in Him, we are to completely surrender every selfish desire and ambition to the perfect will of God.
Self-promotion and self-pleasing desires are the greatest obstacles between man and God because it is the nature of man to want to please himself, and this self-recognition is a building block for sin. All sin erupts from the desire to please self, and this is what must be crucified with Christ in surrender to the will of God before salvation can bear fruit. Fruit cannot bear any fruit unless it dies in the ground and grow to be a tree that bears even more fruit. Similarly, we need to die to our flesh and allow the Holy Spirit to work within us so that we bear much fruit in Christ. This is an ongoing process because the sinful nature, which has been crucified with Christ, still resides within the flesh, which is still very much alive.
Having been crucified with Christ, we are to live each day not for ourselves but as a pleasing sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1). We are a living sacrifice for God by not being conformed to this world. How can believers NOT be conformed to the world? The only way is to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). We do this primarily through the power of God’s Word to transform us. We need to hear (Romans 10:17), read (Revelation 1:3), study (Acts 17:11), memorize (Psalm 119:9-11), and meditate on (Psalm 1:2-3) Scripture. The Word of God ministered in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, is the only power on earth that can transform us from worldliness to true spirituality.
Prayer and Confession
Thank you Jesus, help me to recognize daily that my life is for you and to live in that stead.
Further Reading: Romans 12:1-2, Colossians 3:1-10
Reading Old Testament Stories: Esther 1-3
