“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)
When we believe in Jesus Christ with God-given faith, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Romans 6:1-23; Ephesians 4:17-24). Our old self is crucified with Christ in death to sin in order that sin might be brought to nothing so that we will no longer be enslaved to sin but to God and to his righteousness.
So, because of what Jesus Christ did for us on that cross in taking upon himself the sins of the world, and in putting our sins to death with him so that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness (1 Peter 2:24), we are to present our bodies to God as living sacrifices to him, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship of God. So, sin is to no longer be what we practice, but righteousness is to be our practice.
Now, sacrificing our lives to Jesus Christ to be his possession is what should have taken place when we believed in him to be Lord and Savior of our lives. But this is an ongoing process in our lives of dying to sin and living to God and to his righteousness, in walks of obedience to our Lord (Luke 9:23-26). It is not something we do once, and now we are good to go. And this is why we are encouraged continuously in the New Testament to put sin to death.
Now, some people are teaching that if we have made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ that our Lord is now pleased with us no matter what we do. That is not biblical. Many Scriptures teach us what we must do in order to please God and in order to be acceptable to him, and they teach us that if we do not do those things, but that we do the opposite, that we are not acceptable to God, and so we are not in relationship with God/Christ.
Now, when we give our lives to the Lord as living sacrifices to him, to be his possession, and to do what he says to do, this is our spiritual worship of him. Thus, going through the motions of worship, like in singing praise and worship songs, may or may not be accompanied by true worship of God. For if we are living to please the flesh, in sinful practices, and if we are not walking in holiness and righteousness, in obedience to our Lord, in practice, then we are not truly worshiping our Lord Jesus (God).
And, as followers of Christ, we are not to be conformed to the teachings, philosophies, attitudes, thinking, speaking, and behaving of the ungodly of this world. We are not to act like, think like, and speak just like the world to where it is barely distinguishable between the church and the world. But we are to be different because we are being conformed to the likeness of Christ, because now we are discerning “what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Holy and Acceptable to God
Video Talk
February 28, 2023
https://youtu.be/SvYBngvbHbY
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Wordless Book Song
Child Evangelism Fellowship
My heart was dark with sin
until the Savior came in.
His precious blood I know
has washed me white as snow.
And in God's Word I'm told
I'll walk the street of gold.
To grow in Christ every day,
I read my Bible and pray.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FIQ8gb3iUw
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