Musick-al Note # 246
The very best animals for a sacrifice was required by God during the Mosaic dispensation. He forbade the Jews to offer an animal that was lame, or blind or in any way deformed. (Deuteronomy 5:21, Malachi 1:8). Since Christ became the perfect, eternal sacrifice for sin, God has found no pleasure in the sacrifice of a dead animal. In the New Testament age, He asks for the saint’s body as a living sacrifice. Being true to His nature He seeks the best; a body unspotted and unblemished by sin. Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. He teaches further on this same idea in Romans 6:12-13.
Does God have the right to require such a sacrifice? YES! By right of ownership He is justified in requiring anything that pleases Him. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “What, do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. His ownership is enhanced by the redemption from our sins. Jesus died to ransom everyone from the death penalty for sins (Ezekiel 18:4, 1 Peter 1:18-20),
The body is not for sin but for God. He teaches us in Titus 2:11-12 to, “deny ungodliness and worldly lust and live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.” The enlightened and faithful Christians will offer it without reservation to the will of heaven. He will not destroy the body which God has given him but will care and protect it against all disease and harm that he may do the work of Him who loved him and saved him from the eternal doom of hell.
Gordon Musick
Musick-al Notes 