Offering Our Bodies

 

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

—Romans 12:1

In one of the intriguing mystery movies of the last decade, Inside Man, starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, and Christopher Plummer, bank robbers enter a bank, corral the customers, make them change clothes into painter’s overhauls. One of the robbers hides behind a false wall they construct in the basement. Just as the police become ready to storm the bank, the similarly dressed hostages come out. Of course, the robbers have slipped into the same costumes and escape.

I won’t ruin the story, in case you haven’t seen this movie yet. But, in a sense, the robbers offered their bodies to become like the hostages and, thus, were able to escape. They willingly became like someone else in order to achieve victory.

In the Christian life, the Apostle Paul urges believers to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice. Note his words recorded in Romans 12:1:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

In view of God’s mercy, we willingly offer our bodies to become like Christ: to speak truth, possibly suffer and even die for our beliefs, that the world will know their only means of escape from sin and spiritual death.

As we begin another day, it’s worth considering whether or not we daily lay our bodies at the feet of our Savior and pursue the pathway He opens before us of service and holiness for the advancement of the Kingdom of God here on this earth.

I’ve written before in previous blog posts about the prayer of Walter Wilson—first shared with me by my long time spiritual mentor (and now boss), Dr. David R. Mains way back in October of 1978 in a sermon—on his radio program The Chapel of the Air—he titled “The Exchanged Life.” It seems appropriate to share it once again:

My Lord, I have mistreated You all my Christian life. I have treated You as a servant. When I wanted You, I called for You; when I was about to engage in some work, I beckoned You to come and help me perform my task. I have kept You in the place of a servant. I have sought to use You only as a willing servant to help me in my self-appointed and chosen work. I shall do so no more.

Just now I give you this body of mine; from my head to my feet, I give it to You. I give You my hands, my limbs, my eyes and lips, my brain; all that I am within and without, I hand over to You for You to live in it the life that You please. You may send this body to Africa, or lay it on a bed with cancer. You may blind the eyes, or send me with Your message to Tibet. You may take this body to the Eskimos, or send it to a hospital with pneumonia. It is Your body from this moment on. Help Yourself to it.

Thank You, my Lord, I believe you have accepted it, for in Romans twelve and one You said, “acceptable unto God.” Thank You again, my Lord, for taking me. We now belong to each other.

I end with a question at the beginning of this new day: Can you honestly pray this prayer? Can I?

 

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