Daily Devotion - January 3, 2024

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Rom. 12:1)

For many years, I thought God’s acceptance hinged on my righteousness. I read passages like Romans 12:1, as a threat. This is what my heart heard: “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice and then you will be holy and acceptable to God….” 

It was as though God were wagging his finger at me saying, “Now you be a good living sacrifice, and then you will be holy and acceptable to me.” The word, “holy,” should have been a clue to my mistake. Nothing that we will do will make us acceptable to God. Our best works are only “filthy rags” to him (Isaiah 64:6).

What I missed was that the words, “holy and acceptable,” are not statements of what we will become, but declarations of what we are. How can that be possible for sinners like us? Don’t miss the opening words: “by the mercies of God.” 

God’s mercies in Christ make us holy and acceptable. That’s why we offer ourselves as holy sacrifices in lives of worship that praise our merciful God. It’s not our works that make us holy, but his. Our sacrifice doesn’t make him love us; Jesus’ did. That’s why we live for him as a sacrifice of praise.

Prayer: Father, thank you for being merciful to me! Help my heart to grasp the greatness of that mercy so that I will offer my life to you as a sacrifice of praise that you have made holy and acceptable despite my many weaknesses and flaws.