Holy and Acceptable to God

“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. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1-2 ESV)

I was thinking through the lyrics to the song, “As the Deer,” when the Lord brought to mind this passage of Scripture in Romans 12:1-2. The two do fit nicely together and carry a similar theme to them which has to do with our worship of our God – Father, Son (Jesus Christ), and Holy Spirit. And our spiritual worship of God has to do with us surrendering our lives to him as living sacrifices to him, holy and acceptable to God.

So, what does it look like for us to present our bodies to our Lord as living sacrifices to him? Well, it definitely means denying self, and it means being crucified with Christ in death to sin and being raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. And it means us dying daily to sin and walking in obedience to our Lord (Romans 6:1-23; Luke 9:23-26).

And it means that we no longer are in charge. Jesus Christ is now our Owner-Master, and we are now his possession. And our will is now to do his will and to do what is pleasing to him, and not to please ourselves. Now we are no longer the ones charting our own course and going our own way, but now we are relying on the Lord Jesus to direct us in the path that he wants us to be on, doing what he has called us to do, which we were born to do.

And to be holy means to be separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are now being conformed to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ in heart, mind, body, and soul. And what is acceptable to God is what God prefers, which is what is holy, righteous, honest, faithful, morally pure, upright, godly, and obedient to our Lord and to his commands. And what is acceptable to him is our all on the altar, yielded fully to God for his service.

As part of our worship of our Lord we are to no longer be conformed to the ways of this sinful world. We are not to partake in what is ungodly and worldly and fleshly and in what is contrary to our Lord’s moral character and his moral laws. We are not to be liars and adulterers and sexually immoral and haters and slanderers and those who do evil to others and not good. And we are not to entertain ourselves with what is contrary to God’s will.

But we are to be transformed in heart and mind and attitude and thinking and behavior to conform to the likeness of Jesus Christ, to be like him in what we do and think and are and say. We are to be looking to Jesus to lead us in the way that we should be going rather than deciding these things for ourselves. And we should now be those who are discerning the ways and the will of God for our lives and who are walking according to his will for us.

As the Deer 

By Martin J. Nystrom

Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water

 So my soul longeth after You

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield

 To You alone may my spirit yield

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70

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