"I beseech you, therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service." - ROM. xii. 1.
BELIEVERS in Christ are consecrated
to God. This is the first element in their relation to him ; the second being
separation from the world. They are addressed as priests; called to execute a
priestly office, - to "present a sacrifice." And this implies consecration to
God. In one view, it is a high calling. "Ye are a royal priesthood," is the
testimony of the Apostle Peter. " Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood,"
is the new song of the saved, " and hast made us unto our God kings and
priests." In another view, it is a humble position. A priest is ordained to
minister and serve at the altar. In this passage, it is not so much the high
dignity of the priestly office as its humble ministry, that is brought out.
Still it is, in every view of it, a sacred position ; a position of
consecration to God. Paul has been touching some of those deep, dread mysteries
which shroud in impenetrable gloom the eternal throne and the eternal world;
mysteries which only thicken into darker midnight the more we try to pierce
them.
For the sovereignty of God, in its bearing on the ultimate issues
of his providence, and on the final destinies of the creatures whom he has made
intelligent and free, must ever be inscrutable. Paul, accordingly, closes the
great argument which he has been maintaining for the Divine prerogative, with a
solemn ejaculation, implying utter impotency and prostration: "0 the depth of
the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are his
judgments, and his ways past ftnding out !" (xi. 33). To silence, however,
where he cannot satisfy, he appeals abruptly to any who would still raise
questions. By what right he asks, do you presume to judge or to interrogate the
Supreme ? Have you been in his confidence from the first? Or must he advise
with you? Or have you any such claim on him as to lay him under an obligation
to give you satisfaction? "For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath
been his counsellor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be
recompensed unto him again ?" (34, 35.) Are you the Lord s confidants? Are you
the Lord's councillors? Are you the Lord's creditors? If not, how are you
entitled to pry into those "secret things" which "belong to the Lord your God
?" "The things which are revealed belong to you and to your children."
But as to the secret things which belong to him, he is not in any way
bound to you; nor with reference to them can you demand that he should discover
more of his plans to you than he sees fit; "For of him, and through him, and to
him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." (36.) Your becoming
attitude is that of the Psalmist: "Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes
lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for
me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his
mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the Lord from
henceforth and for ever" (Psalm cxxxi.) We are then in our right place, when,
instead of aspiring to master, as critics, the whole mind and will of God, we
thankfully consent to learn, as children, what it is his pleasure to teach. He
is not dependent on us: he is not indebted to us. The dependence and the debt
of obligation are all on our side. We are not competent to dictate or give
lessons to him. We are children and scholars under his training. And the
training is for service. We are to be, not advisers or judges, but ministers,
servants, priests. "I beseech you, therefore, brethren," instead of aspiring to
be the confidants, or the councillors, or the creditors of the Lord, to assume
the office and discharge the functions of the priesthood. For the priesthood is
to be considered as a ministry and service. It was so to Him with whom we are
associated in its exercise. "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but
to minister, and to give his hfe a ransom for many." So he came to do the
business of his priesthood. So we are summoned to do the business of our
priesthood. The business of his priesthood was to "give his life a ransom for
many." The business of our priesthood is to "present our bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service."
From this general account of what Christians have to do, as consecrated to
God, in the character of priests, the following particulars may be drawn out in
detail: -
I. There is to be a sacrifice: "I beseech you, brethren, that ye
present a sacrifice."
II. It must be a sacrifice that fulfils two
conditions: it must be such as may righteously find acceptance in the sight of
God, and such as may reasonably be required and expected at the hands of man:
"I beseech you that ye present a sacrifice ;" such as shall, on the one hand,
be "acceptable to God;" and such as shall, on the other hand, and on your part,
be "a reasonable service."
III. If it is to fulfil these two conditions,
the sacrifice must possess the two qualities of life and holiness: "I beseech
you that ye present a living sacrifice, holy ; " - for such a sacrifice alone
can be acceptable to God; such a sacrifice alone can be your reasonable
service.
IV. The substance or matter of the sacrifice is mdicated; it is to
consist of "your bodies," your persons, yourselves: "I beseech you that ye
present your bodies."
V. The motive also is indicated which is to prompt
the sacrifice: "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God."
Under
these heads, the sacrifice which as Christians, bearing the character of
priests, we have to present to God may be considered; and the Connection and
correspondence, as well as the difference, between it and the sacrifice of
Christ may be traced. The connection and correspondence will be found, if we
rightly apprehend the Spirit's teaching, to be very close.
1. - THE
SACRIFICE: ITS NATURE. "I beseech you that ye present a sacrifice." -
ROM. xii. 1. There is to be a sacrifice. Priests are not to approach to God
empty handed. "Bring an offering and come into his courts ;" so runs their
summons. This law applies to the High Priest as well as to ordinary priests. It
applies pre-eminently to the High Priest. "Every high priest is ordained to
offer gifts and sacrifices; wherefore it is of necessity that this one," our
great High Priest, Christ, "have somewhat also to offer" (Heb. viii. 3). So
far, Christians who are priests, and Christ who alone is the High Priest, have
this in common, that they as well as he have to present a sacrifice. But there
is a wide and essential distinction. Any sacrifice which we as priests can
present, must be of an entirely different nature from what Christ, the High
Priest, presents. His sacrifice is, in the strict and proper sense of the term,
a sacrifice of atonement. His sacrifice alone can be so. Our sacrifice is a
sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise. This is a distinction recognised in the
Levitical economy. in that economy, there were atoning sacrifices, designed to
be effectual for the expiation of guilt and the reconciliation of offenders to
God. Of this kind, in particular, were the sacrifices appointed for the great
annual day of atonement, when the high priest entered within the veil with the
blood of bulls and of goats, "which he offered for himself and for the errors
of the people."
The sacrifice of Christ is represented in the New
Testament as exactly of the same character with these sacrifices, only
infinitely more efficacious. Thus the Apostle writing to tile Hebrews reasons:
"If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the
unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the
blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to
God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (ix. 13,
14.) In the offering of a sacrifice of this kind, Christ, our High Priest,
stands alone. Into his ministry of atonement, his propitiatory work, we may
not, as priests, intrude.
But there were sacrifices of another kind
under the law; sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, offered in acknowledgment
of the sovereignty and bounty of God, and as pledges of dependence and
gratitude. These sacrifices had nothing to do with the cancelling of guilt and
the restoration of the guilty party to favour. They did not make peace. They
proceeded on the faith of peace being otherwise made, by a previous sacrifice
of atonement. They were, in fact, expressions of thankfulness on that account.
The sacrifice of Cain was a sacrifice of thanksgiving. And as a sacrifice of
thanksgiving, it would have been legitimate and right, if it had been preceded
by the ordained sacrifice of atonement. The sacrifice of Abel was a sacrifice
of atonement. And undoubtedly, if his life had been spared, it would have been
followed up by an appropriate sacrifice of praise. Having offered "of the
firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof ;" and having evidence of the
acceptance of his offering, in the "light of God s reconciled countenance
lifted up upon him," and "the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy
Ghost being given to him ;" he would gladly and gratefully have "brought of the
fruit of the ground an offering" of thanksgiving and praise "to the Lord."
And this now is our ministry as priests. This is all our ministry. The
ministry of atonement is not ours, either for others or for ourselves. That
ministry Christ alone exercises. "He treads the wine-press alone," in his work
of bloody propitiation, as well as in his work of bloody judgment, "and of the
people there is none with him." All the more may the ministry of thankoffering
be ours. For our pardon and peace, our acceptance and justification, we have
nothing to offer, we have nothing to give. The Apostle calls for no sacrifice
at our hands for the purpose of cleansing us from sin and restoring us to
favour. So far as that matter is concerned, he uniformly points our view
exclusively to the one only sacrifice of the one only High Priest: "We are
ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in
Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God In him" (2 Cor.
v. 20, 21).
But now, upon the supposition that we are reconciled,
freely, effectually, thoroughly reconciled, through faith in the great
Atonement, the Apostle calls for some suitable offering of praise. He tells us
that the atoning ministry of the High Priest, thus available on our behalf
opens the way for a graceful and grateful ministry of thanksgiving: "I beseech
you, brethren, that ye present a sacrifice."
11. - THE SACRIFICE:
ITS CONDITIONS." I beseech you, brethren, that ye present a sacrifice,
acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. " - ROM. xii. 1. The
nature of the sacrifice which, as priests, Christians are called to present,
having been ascertained, the next point is to consider the general principles
which ought to determine the character of the matter, or material, to he used
in the sacrifice, or of which the sacrifice is to consist. If there is to be a
sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise, proceeding upon the faith of a sacrifice
of atonement having been offered and accepted, let it be a suitable sacrifice.
Let it be a sacrifice that fulfils these two indispensable conditions: let it
be, as regards him to whom it is presented, "acceptable to God ;" let it also
be, as regards you who present it, "your reasonable service."
Of the
sacrifice of atonement which our great High Priest has to present, it may with
equal justice be said that it must fulfil these two conditions. To that
sacrifice also - to that sacrifice primarily - they apply, as conditions. When
a ransom was to be found for sinful man, it was necessary on the one hand, that
it should be such a ransom as it might be worthy of God to accept; and on the
other hand, that it should be such a raasom as it might be reasonable to expect
should be offered on behalf of reasonable creatures. The character and nature
of the offended party, God, the holy lawgiver and righteous judge; the
character and nature of the offending party, man, a free and intelligent being,
made in the image of God; and the relation be tween the parties, implying just
condemnation on the one side and guilty enmity on the other; all must be taken
into account. The sacrifice must bear some adequate proportion, or suitable
relation, to the majesty of violated law and the unforced responsibility of its
violators, it must have in it worth and value enough to meet the case of God's
sovereign authority having been outraged, and to meet also the case of man's
conscience having become burdened and defiled. It must be sufficient to satisfy
Divine justice; and sufficient also to assuage the anguish of genuine remorse
and shame.
Tried by this test, it is easy to see how the blood of bulls
and of goats can never take away sin. The substitution of a senseless,
unconsenting animal, as a victim or ransom, in. the room and stead of a race
which has intelligently and wilfully sinned, is felt to be, upon every
principle of common sense and reason, as well as of right religious feeling, an
utterly inadequate atonement. There is no propriety or suitableness in the idea
of the death of such a substitute being accepted as an equivalent for the
execution of the sentence upon the guilty. The law cannot in that way be
vindicated. The Lawgiver cannot on that ground be warranted in treating
offenders as if they had never sinned; or as if they had themselves suffered
the penalty, and come out from the suffering of it, pure and upright.
Nor can such a vicarious endurance of my punishment, by a bull, or
goat, or ram, or is mb, held to represent me, satisfy my own conviction of
right and my own consciousness of wrong. Whatever may come of my controversy
with my Maker, I instinctively feel that these animal sacrifices cannot avail
for its settlement ; - no; nor any formal observances I may be inclined to put
in their place. "The blood of bulls and of goats cannot take away sin." "None
can by any means redeem his brother," or ransom his own soul. The conditions
which it was necessary that the High Priest's sacrifice of atonement should
fulfil must be fulfilled also by the sacrifice of praise which believers, as
priests, are to present. This sacrifice of theirs must be in accordance with
what God is, and with what they are. In particular, it must be in accordance
with what God is to them, and with what they are to God. Let it be remembered
that we present our sacrifice of praise, as priests, on the footing of the High
Priest's sacrifice of atonement being on our behalf offered and accepted; on
the footing of our personal interest by faith in its efficacy and fruit.
Upon that footing, what is the idea which we are called to entertain of
the God to whom we have to present our thank-offering? "God is a spirit ; and
they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The Father
seeketh such to worship him." He is weary and impatient of all other worship.
"My son, give me thy heart," is his demand. That we may be in a condition, and
may be made willing, to give him our heart, - be redeems us to himself by the
blood of Christ, and renews us by the power of the Holy Ghost. He, therefore,
to whom we are to present our sacrifice is a spirit, requiring spiritual
worship. And we, who are to present the sacrifice, are spiritual men. "Now he
that is spiritual judgeth all things" (1 Cor. ii. 15). We can judge, therefore,
what may be fairly regarded as our "reasonable service;" what is the sort of
service that may be reasonably expected and required, as a sacrifice of praise,
at our hands, if God is a spirit and we are spiritual men.
And this we
may the rather do, when we consider the relation now subsisting - the relation
which ought to subsjst - between our God, who is a spirit, and ourselves who
are spiritual men. Through that one sacrifice of propitiation presented by the
High Priest on our behalf, there is peace, friendship, reconciliation. All our
guilt is expiated: all our sin is purged. We are no longer treated as guilty
criminals under a respite. We are accepted as righteous in the sight of God. We
are adopted as children in his Son: we receive "the Spirit of his Son into our
hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Gal. iv. 6).
Now it is as thus knowing
God, who is a spirit; knowing thus, also, ourselves as spiritual men; and
knowing, above all, the footing on which we stand with our God and Father ; -
that we are called, as priests, to present a sacrifice of praise. May we not
decide and determine for ourselves, according to these considerations, what
sort of sacrifice is suitable and appropriate? what is worthy of God? what is
worthy of ourselves? What sort of sacrifice may God be expected to accept? What
sort of sacrifice, in the full view of all the circumstances, may be regarded
as our "reasonable service ?" At all events, tried by such a test, how
miserably will many a sacrifice and service that we are apt to present to God
fail and be found wanting! Form, ceremony, routine; heartless prayers, however
long; ostentatious alms, however large; bodily exercise, whether in the way of
easy compliance with outward rites, or in the way of painful inward
self-mortification ; enforced obedience; reluctant abstinence from pleasure ;
the cold and cheerless performance of duty; all or any of these kinds of
worship - all similar methods of serving God - we can bring to this criterion.
Is it such a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that a reconciled God and
Father should in fairness be asked to accept? Is it such a sacrifice of praise
and thanksgiving that we, his reconciled children, may be reasonably asked to
offer? Is it such a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that should signalize
and seal so thorough a repairing of the breach caused by sin between our God
and us, as that which the High Priest's sacrifice of atonement effects? Surely,
if it is felt by the universal moral instinct of all men to be true, that the
blood of bulls and of goats cannot take away sin, - it must, be felt also by
the universal spiritual instinct, of all those whose sins are taken away, by
the blood of a better ransom, to be not less true, that formal worship, or
obedience rendered in the spirit of bondage, is not the sacrifice which a
redeeming God can worthily accept, and is not a "reasonable service" on the
part of the people whom he redeems.
111. - THE SACRIFICE: ITS
QUALITIES. "I beseech you that ye present a living sacrifice, holy." -
ROM. xii. 1. The sacrifice which Christians present, as priests, must possess
two qualities which formal worship, or obedience rendered in the spirit of
bondage, is sure to want. It must possess the qualities of life and holiness.
Without these qualities it cannot fulfil the two indispensable conditions; it
cannot be either an acceptable offering to God, or, on our part, a reasonable
service. The sacrifice must be living and holy: "I beseech you that ye present
a living sacrifice, holy."
It was necessary that the sacrifice of
atonement which our High Priest was ordained to presenb should possess these
two qualities. It must be living and holy. It must have in it life and
holiness. Life must belong to it. And what life? Not merely animal life, the
life that is common to all sentient and moving creatures; not merely, in
addition to that, intelligent life, the life that characterizes all beings
capable of thought and voluntary choice ; but spiritual life: life in the
highest sense; the very life which those on whose behalf the sacrifice of
atonement is presented lost, when they fell into that state which makes a
sacrifice of atonement necessary. If a ransom is to be found, - an adequate and
suitable substitute for those who have ceased to live, as they were originally
made and meant to live, in the favour and loving-kindness of God, and have
become dead under his sentence of righteous condemnation, - it must be a
ransom, a substitute, having the life which they once had; exempt and free from
the death which they have incurred. A living sacrifice of atonement alone can
suffice; a sacrifice of atonement having the quality of life; of that life
which consists in a right standing with God; in complete exemption from his
condemnation, and the complete enjoyment of his favour and loving- kindness.
And the sacrifice must be holy also. As it must have life forfeited by
no guilt, liable to no sentence of death; so it must have holiness tainted by
no corruption. Let either guilt or corruption - let either death or sin -
belong, by whatever tenure, hereditary or personal, to the ransom or victim
that is to be the atoning sacrifice presented by the High Priest on behalf of
guilty sinners; - it. is not such a sacrifice as God, the Lawgiver, can be
justified in accepting as a compensation for the breaking of his law; it is not
such a sacrifice as can be considered a reasonable service on behalf of the
breakers of that law, - if it is to exempt them from the penalty which they
have incurred, through the vicarious endurance of that penalty by a worthy
substitute in their stead. The dead and unholy cannot be ransomed or redeemed,
if the only sacrifice provided for that end is itself involved in their death
and unholiness. "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world,"
is a welcome call to sinners, and to me, the chief of sinners. But if that very
Lamb of God that is to take away the sin of the world, is involved in that very
sin of the world which is to be taken away, where, alas! is my hope?
Thus the sacrifice of atonement presented by the High Priest for us
must be free alike from the condemnation and from the corruption, from the
death and from the defilement, of our sin. It must be "a living sacrifice,
holy."
And so, also, must be the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving
which, as priests, we are to be always presenting; it must be "a living
sacrifice, holy." It must partake of the character of the sacrifice of
atonement, in immediate connection with which it is presented. It is by faith
in the sacrifice of atonement that we present the sacrifice of praise. This
last sacrifice is the fruit of the first; and indeed, in some sense, a
continuation of it. We enter into the spirit, while we appropriate the
efficacy, of our great High Priest's sacrifice of atonement, as a living
sacrifice and holy. We become one, as priests, with him who, as High Priest,
presents it. We become one with him in his Presenting of it. And being one with
him who is the High Priest, we go on, as priests, to present our sacrifice of
praise. We cannot, in such circumstances, think of presenting any sacrifice of
praise that is not in keeping and in harmony with the High Priest's sacrifice
of atonement. We cannot ask God to accept, we cannot offer as our reasonable
service, any tribute of gratitude, any sacrifice of thanksgiving, that does not
possess the qualities which impart worth and efficacy to the High Priest's
great propitiation. Ours, like his, must be a sacrifice, living and holy.
IV. - THE SACRIFICE: ITS MATTER. "I beseech you that ye present
your bodies a sacrifice." - ROM. xli. 1. The nature of the sacrifice as a
sacrifice of praise, as well as the indispensable conditions and qualities of
it, having been considered, the next inquiry relates to the substance or matter
of the sacrifice. What shall it be? Our bodies: "I beseech you that ye present
your bodies a sacrifice."
The same phraseology is used when it is the
High Priest's sacrifice of atonement that is in question. "We are sanctified,"
it is said, we are cleansed from the guilt of sin, "through the offering of the
body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb. x. 10). It is the entire person of
Christ that is there meant. He offered himself That was his sacrifice of
atonement. The offering of ourselves is our sacrifice of thanksgiving.
But how can there be any parallel or analogy here? How can there be any
correspondence, in respect of life and holiness, between Christ s person,
offered as a sacrifice of atonement, - and mine, offered as a sacrifice of
praise? That Christ, the High Priest, may offer his body, or present himself,
as a sacrifice of atonement, living and holy, I can understand.
As to
his life, I read what his beloved disciple records as part of his teaching in
his humiliation: "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life,
that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of
myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This
cornmandment have I received of my Father" (John x. i 7, 18). I read also what
that same beloved disciple records as a voice from his beloved Master in his
exaltation: "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, be hold, I am alive for
evermore, Amen" (Rev. i. 18). He has life; life forfeited by no guilt, liable
to no condemnation or death. When he offers, or presents, himself as a
substitute for the dead, the guilty, the condemned, he offers, or presents,
himself a living sacrifice. His life; his right to live, according to the
highest idea of life; his prerogative of life in the favour of God, in the
bosom of the Father ;cannot be challenged or impugned. He is not under any
sentence of condemnation, he is not doomed to die a penal death on his own
account. No fault, therefore, can be found with him on that score, when he
offers himself as willing to be the substitute of the guilty.
Nor can
any objection be taken on the score of his being one of our race, as if that
involved any compromise or surrender of his essential holiness, or any
participation in our sin. His holiness is still as untarnished, as his life is
unforfeited and uncondemned. It was needful that he should become one of us,
that he should become one with us, if he was to present himself as a sacrifice
of atonement in our stead. And, without a miracle, there might be difficulty in
his taking our nature, without taking also our corruption and criminality ; -
which if he had taken, his offering of himself in our stead would have been in
vain. But it is miraculously otherwise arranged. He is essentially the living
one, the holy one, in respect of his divine nature. And even when he associates
the human nature with that divine nature, so as to constitute one person,
Emmanuel, God with us, - the Word made flesh, - Jesus, saving his people from
their sins, - he is still the living one and the holy one. A sacrifice of
atonement is needed, a ransom to deliver from going down to the pit. The
sacrifice or ransom, in order to fulfil the twofold condition of its being such
as God may accept and such as may be a suitable and reasonable service of
propitiation for man's sin, must be living and holy. It must possess the
qualities of life and holiness; life in God's favour forfeited by no guilt;
holiness unstained by any taint of pollution. Such a sacrifice of atonement is
found in Christ. He is the living one. He "lays down his life of himself." He
is "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." "He offers himself
without spot to God" (John x. 1 8; Heb. vii. 26; ix. 1 4).
Now our
sacrifice of praise must partake of the qualities of his sacrifice of
atonement. It must be living and holy.
But how may that be, if it is our
bodies, our persons, ourselves, that we are to present as the sacrifice?
Woe is me! some poor soul may be heard to cry out, I am asked
to present a thank-offering and sacrifice of praise. It is a just demand; a
gracious invitation. Fain would I comply with it. - But the sacrifice, I am
told, must be living and holy. - Certainly, I answer, it is most right
and fitting that it should be so. - But I am further told that it must be
myself; myself bodily; my very self. - Alas! alas! are life and holiness in me,
that I should furnish in my own person the material of this sacrifice! - Life
and holiness in me ! - I am lost and dead in sin; I am carnal, sold under sin.
In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing ; - nothing but guilt
weighing me down to utter destruction, and corruption defiling the whole inner
man. For me, undone, unclean, to present myself a living and holy sacrifice ! -
it cannot be.
Nay but, my brother, it must be. It is thyself that thy
God will have thee to present as a thank-offering. He will accept no other
thank-offering at thy hands: it is not reasonable that he should. Say not that
there is no life in thee. Is not Christ in thee? "Thou art crucified with
Christ, nevertheless thou livest yet not thou; but Christ liveth in thee" (Gal.
ii. 20). And for thine uncleanness" what God hath cleansed, that can not thou
common or unclean" (Acts x. 1 5).
Believers in Christ, called to be
priests, present yourselves a sacrifice, as the great High Priest presents
himself a sacrice. Let your ministry and his be one. Are not you and he now
one, - intimately, inseparably one? When you present yourselves a sacrifice,
are you not presenting him? Even as when he presents himself a sacrifice, is he
not presenting you? He presents himself as crucified for you; he presents you
as crucified with him. You now present yourselves; yet not yourselves; it is
Christ in you that you present. The Spirit making you one with Christ by faith,
makes you partakers of Christ's life; the life which he laid down that he might
take it again, - the life which he has as no more bearing guilt, but justified,
accepted, raised and glorified. The same Spirit, making you one with Christ in
nature, by the renewing of your mind, makes you partakers of Christ's holiness.
The Spirit takes of what is Christ's, and shows it to you. And when, through
the Spirit, you present yourselves a sacrifice, he takes of what is Christ's in
you, and shows it to God. May not this be an acceptable thank-offering? Is not
this, ye redeemed and regenerated saints of God, - is not this your reasonable
service?
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, that ye present yourselves
a sacrifice." And let it be yourselves in Christ; let it be Christ in you. For
thus only can it be a sacrifice "living and holy." When Christ presents himself
a sacrifice of atonement, be you one with him in his doing so. When you present
yourselves a sacrifice of praise, let him be one with you in your doing so. Let
the two presentations be ever going on together, simultaneously, unitedly. The
presentation by Christ of himself as the sacrifice of atonement is always going
on in the sanctuary above. There, in the true holy place, he is always
ministering as your great High Priest, having his own blood to offer, ever
freshly flowing, and freshly efficacious to cleanse from all sin. Enter, be
always entering, within the veil, that you may associate and identify
yourselves by faith, through the Spirit, with Christ, in what is there
transacted for your peace. In a corresponding manner, let your presentation of
yourselves, as a sacrifice of thanksgiving, be always going on in the sanctuary
here below; the only sanctuary now owned on earth, - the deep and sacred shrine
of a believing heart. And oh! let Christ be always entering in there, within
the veil, and dwelling there, that he may associate and identify himself with
you, in what is there transacted for God's praise. Thus it will be always
Christ, and Christ alone; yet always you in Christ, and Christ in you. In the
sacrifice of atonement, it is Christ crucified for you, and you crucified with
him. In the sacrifice of thankfulness, it is Christ living in you, and you
become par-takers of his holiness. It is the sacrifice of propitiation, living
and holy, prolonging itself, in a manner most acceptable to God and most
reasonable on your part, into a living and holy sacrifice of praise. There is
the sin-offering of the living and holy body of Christ once for all; and there
is the thank-offering of the living and holy Church, " which is his" mystical
"body, the fulness of him who filleth all in all" (Eph. i. 23).
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