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WHAT IS THE STAKE OF YOUR SPIRITUAL SERVICE

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“For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Corinthians 6:20 NKJV

The Lord Jesus Christ does not expect anyone to love, obey, worship, and serve Him grudgingly, reluctantly, or half-heartedly as a religious obligation or to earn God’s love, acceptance, favor, or blessing.

Instead, your service to Christ is expected to be a loving, grateful, or thankful response to Him for His pure, selfless, and unconditional love towards you. That is what the Bible called “your spiritual or reasonable service” in Romans. 12:1 ASV and NKJV.

Romans 12:1 – ASV

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.

Romans 12:1 – NKJV

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (NKJV).

In Parts 1 and 2, we began to examine the essential nature of a spiritual or reasonable service.

First, spiritual or reasonable service to God is voluntary.

Having become saved, you legally belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, who bought you with His precious blood (1 Cor. 6:19-20, 7:23). However, Christ will not compel you to love, obey, worship, or serve Him against your wish or will. Christ expects you to love, honor, obey, and serve Him voluntarily, joyfully, and wholeheartedly.

Paul admonishes, “Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor. 9:7 RSV).

Second, spiritual or reasonable service to God is personal.

Just as salvation is a personal decision, devotion to Christ is also personal (Romans. 10:10). Nobody can love, obey, worship, or serve God on your behalf. It is something you must do personally, willingly, and deliberately.

Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23 NKJV).

Let us consider one more essential element of a reasonable or spiritual service.

Third, spiritual or reasonable service to God is presenting your body as a living sacrifice to God.

Under the Old Covenant, when a worshipper brings a sacrifice to God, he relinquishes his claim and abandons it on the altar to be consumed by the burning fire (Lev. 1:1-9).

In the same way, God expects the New Covenant believers to present, yield, or surrender their bodies unreservedly to Him.

Paul admonishes, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans. 12:1 NKJV).

“I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.” (Romans. 6:19 NKJV).

Presenting yourself to God as a living sacrifice implies renouncing or releasing your claim or right to your life and to all you possess. It also speaks of surrendering yourself and all you have willingly, voluntarily, gladly, and entirely to God to do with your life and all you have as He pleases.

Unlike the dead animals offered as sacrifices to God under the Old Covenant, the New Covenant believers are dead only to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Paul admonishes, “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans. 6:11 NKJV).

Presenting yourself as a living sacrifice is reckoning, estimating, counting, or considering yourself dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. It is you presenting your members (all your faculties) as instruments or vessels of righteousness to God.

“And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” (Romans. 6:13 NKJV).

Beloved, God is calling you today to relinquish your claim and right to your life, your time, your money, your skills, your talents, and other resources and to consecrate, devote, or surrender them willingly, cheerfully, entirely, and unreservedly to the Lord Jesus Christ who redeemed you with His precious blood from the bondage of Sin and Satan.

That is your spiritual or reasonable service!

Paul writes, “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Cor. 6:20 NKJV).

 

Prayer:

Today, I renounce my claim or right to my life, achievements, and possessions. I present myself and all I have to the Lord Jesus Christ as a living sacrifice, in Jesus’ name. Amen.


Our mandates is to Preserving the faith of the Apostolic Generation.


Eniyekpemi Fidelis Oyinpreyebi.


AWH, Blogs.


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