"Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him." (Romans 12.1)
In the Hebrew scriptures, unblemished animals were offered up as a sin offering and sacrificed to the Lord. Are we so unblemished that we would be acceptable?
In the Hebrew scriptures, the cost of the animal was perhaps enormous for each family, and a 'waste' of an important source of nourishment. One woman showed great devotion to Christ by sacrificing a container of perfumed oil. It cost a year's wages (Mark 14.4). She may not have saved that much, but sold something of great value in order to show devotion to Christ. Would we sacrifice something so great to show how much we love Him and want to indicate how important our relationship with Him is?
"Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this too...If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ's love controls us...we also believe that we have all died to our old life." (2 Corinthians 5.11-14)
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